Social Psychology Network

Maintained by Scott Plous, Wesleyan University

Scott H. Hemenover

Scott H. Hemenover

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Research conducted in Dr. Hemenover’s laboratory is focused in three areas: (1) stress and health, (2) affect-regulation, and (3) the nature of personality assessment.

Stress and Health

Dr. Hemenover has conducted a variety of studies examining the interaction among personality traits like neuroticism and stress appraisals, coping and health outcomes. Current work is emphasizing the role that traits and current mood states (e.g., anger) have in the stress appraisal process, and how emotional disclosure of past traumatic events impact positive and negative health outcomes.

Affect-Regulation

Dr. Hemenover’s research in this area focuses primarily on individual differences in various aspects of mood repair. Several interrelated projects are exploring individual differences in the motivation to repair aversive affective states, the strategies employed to repair aversive affective states, the ability to repair aversive affective states, decay rates of positive and negative affective states. Related issues currently under examination include: Are specific moods (e.g, anger, sadness) associated with specific repair strategies? and Are specific repair strategies more effective for some moods and/or some individuals?

The Nature of Personality Assessment

Dr. Hemenover has collaborated with Professor Richard Dienstbier and Lisa Pytlik Zillig on a project examining measurement and conceptualization issues of Big-5 personality traits. This research team is interested in how different instruments measure these traits in terms of ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. Initial results reveal convergence among instruments, but remarkable differences between traits.

Primary Interests:

  • Emotion, Mood, Affect
  • Health Psychology
  • Motivation, Goal Setting
  • Neuroscience, Psychophysiology
  • Personality, Individual Differences

Journal Articles:

  • Dienstbier, R. A., Roesch, S. C., Mizumoto, A., Hemenover, S. H., Lott, R. C., & Carlo, G. (1998). The effects of weapons on judgments of guilt and sentencing recommendations for criminals. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 20, 93-102.
  • Hemenover, S. H. (2001). Self-reported processing bias and naturally occurring mood: Mediators between personality and stress appraisals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 387-394.
  • Hemenover, S. H., Caster, J. B., & Mizumoto, A. (1999). Combining the use of progressive writing techniques and popular movies in Introductory Psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 26, 196-198.
  • Hemenover, S. H., & Dienstbier, R. A. (1998). Prediction of health patterns from general appraisal, attributions, coping, and trait anxiety. Motivation and Emotion, 22, 231-253.
  • Hemenover, S. H., & Dienstbier, R. A. (1996). Prediction of stress appraisals from mastery, extraversion, neuroticism, and general appraisal tendencies. Motivation and Emotion, 20, 299-318.
  • Hemenover, S. H., & Dienstbier, R. A. (1996). The effects of an appraisal manipulation: Affect, intrusive cognitions, and performance for two cognitive tasks. Motivation and Emotion, 20, 319-340.
  • Pytlik Zillig, L. M., Hemenover, S. H., & Dienstbier, R. A. (2002). What Do We Assess When We Assess a "Big Five" Trait?: A Content Analysis of the Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive (ABC) Processes Represented in Big Five Personality Inventories. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 847-858.

Other Publications:

  • Larsen, J. T., Hemenover, S. H., Norris, C. J., & Cacioppo, J. T. (in press). Turning adversity to advantage: On the virtues of the coactivation of positive and negative emotions. In L. Aspinwall & U. Staudinger (Eds.), A psychology of human strengths: Perspectives on an emerging field. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Courses Taught:

  • General Psychology
  • Psychology of Personality
  • Psychology of Sexuality
  • Seminar in Personality

Scott H. Hemenover
Department of Psychology
Western Illinois University
One University Circle, Waggoner Hall 100
Macomb, Illinois 61455
United States of America

  • Phone: (309) 298-1357
  • Fax: (309) 298-2179

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