معرفی
John A. Updegraff is a Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State University. He directs the Self, Health & Emotion Lab and is actively involved in research, teaching, and mentoring graduate students. Dr. Updegraff is accepting new PhD students for the 2025-2026 incoming class and considers GRE scores in the application evaluation process.
Dr. Updegraff earned his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2002. His academic journey includes an NIMH-funded postdoctoral position at University of California, Irvine before joining Kent State University.
As a social psychologist and health psychologist, Dr. Updegraff's research focuses on understanding how social psychological principles can explain and improve health behaviors. His work examines why some people succeed at improving their health behaviors while others fail, with particular attention to motivation, goal-setting, and self-regulation. He also investigates health communication, especially the role of message framing and tailoring in promoting health behavior change, and how self-concept and motivations influence people's interpretations of everyday experiences.
Dr. Updegraff's recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on health behavior change, particularly examining message framing effects, social influences on health behaviors, and psychological factors affecting health decisions. His work spans diverse health contexts including physical activity, dietary behaviors, cancer screening, hand hygiene during pandemics, and vaccination behavior. The research employs various methodologies including experiments, longitudinal studies, field tests, and meta-analyses, often with a focus on how individual differences moderate responses to health communications.
- Klein and Rothman Career Service Award for Contributions to Social Personality and Health Psychology
- Past president of the Social Personality and Health Network
Dr. Updegraff has mentored numerous graduate students who have gone on to successful careers in academia and research. His lab, the Self, Health & Emotion Lab, conducts both basic and applied research using experimentation, intervention, survey, and experience sampling methods. The lab's research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and focuses on cognitive and emotional processes underlying health behavior change, well-being, and adaptation to stress. The lab is currently recruiting graduate students for Fall 2025 with interests in health communication, health behavior, motivation, self-concept, and emotions.
The Self, Health & Emotion Lab is located in Kent Hall at Kent State University. The lab conducts research in three main areas: 1) Health behavior and how social psychological theories can explain and improve health behaviors; 2) How expectations, motivations, and self-concept influence reactions to everyday experiences; and 3) The role of positive psychological states in well-being and coping with stress. The lab also maintains an active undergraduate research program that provides valuable research experience for students considering graduate school in psychology or medicine.
