home
Kent State University homepage

John A. Updegraff , Ph.D.

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles (2002)

Research Interests

I am a social and health psychologist interested in understanding

  • Health communication - in particular, the role of message framing and message tailoring in promoting health behavior change,
  • How self-concept and motivations influence people's interpretations and reactions to everyday experiences,
  • The role of positive psychological states - such as posttraumatic growth and finding meaning - in coping with stress.

Lab Site: Self, Health & Emotion Lab

Courses Taught

  • Health Psychology (undergraduate)
  • Honors General Psychology (undergraduate)
  • Social Psychology (graduate)
  • Social Psychological Perspectives on Well-Being (graduate)

Recent Publications

Sherman, D. K., Updegraff, J. A., & Mann, T. L. (in press). Improving oral health behavior: A social psychological approach. Journal of the American Dental Association.

Updegraff, J. A., Silver, R. C., & Holman, E. A. (in press). Searching for and finding meaning in a collective trauma: Results from a national longitudinal study of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Suh, E. M., Diener, E., & Updegraff, J. A. (2008). From culture to priming conditions: Self-construal influences on life satisfaction judgments. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 39, 3-15.

Updegraff, J. A., & Suh, E. M. (2007). Happiness is a warm abstract thought: Self-construal abstractness and subjective well-being. Journal of Positive Psychology, 2, 18-28.

Updegraff, J. A., Sherman, D. K., *Luyster, F. S., & Mann, T. L. (2007). The effects of message quality and congruency on perceptions of tailored health communications. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 248-256.

Sherman, D. K., Mann, T. L., & Updegraff, J. A. (2006). Approach/avoidance orientation, message framing, and health behavior: Understanding the congruency effect. Motivation and Emotion, 30, 164-168.

Updegraff, J. A. & Marshall, G. N. (2005). Predictors of perceived growth following direct exposure to community violence. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24, 538-560.

Mann, T. L., Sherman, D. S., & Updegraff, J. A. (2004). Dispositional motivations and message framing: A test of the congruency hypothesis. Health Psychology, 23, 330-334.

Updegraff, J. A., Gable, S. L., & Taylor, S. E. (2004). What makes experiences satisfying? The interaction of approach-avoidance motivations and emotions in well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 496-504.

Updegraff, J. A., Taylor, S. E., Kemeny, M. E., & Wyatt, G. E. (2002). Positive and negative effects of HIV-infection in women with low socioeconomic resources. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 382-394.

Updegraff, J. A., & Taylor, S. E. (2000). From vulnerability to growth: Positive and negative effects of stressful life events. In J. H. Harvey & E. Miller (Eds.), Loss and Trauma: General and Close Relationship Perspectives (pp. 3-28). Philadelphia: Brunner-Routledge.

Taylor, S. E., Klein, L. C., Lewis, B. L., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., & Updegraff, J. A. (2000). Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight. Psychological Review, 107, 411-429.

* Indicates KSU student author