Benjamin Rosenberg
I am an applied social-health psychologist with expertise in health behavior, research methods and statistics, and survey design. My teaching focuses on two things that research suggests facilitate student success: holding high expectations and being extremely accessible to all students. I have created the syllabus, reading list, and all assignments for many of the courses that I have taught, including Statistics, Research Methods, Social Psychology, Health Psychology, Introductory Psychology, and Critical Thinking. I am also involved in research, which heavily informs my teaching and allows me to stay current in the field. Broadly, my research involves the application of social psychological theories to the domain of health andwell-being. For example, one stream of studies examines the way in which emotional and motivational states influence people’s reactions to health-related messages. As an applied researcher, I have experience in designing, implementing, analyzing, and writing up data from an array of topic areas, including childhood obesity, education, organ donation, and team sports.
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lives, may create psychological disequilibrium. However, experimental assessment of the distinct influence of inconsistency-arousing information in this domain is rare. Guided by goal disruption theory—a framework that outlines people’s reactions to goal expectation
violations—we created direct-to-consumer advertisements designed to make people’s life inconsistencies salient. The influence of these ads on people’s perceptions of, and intentions to use, prescription drugs was then assessed. Results from a structural equation modeling analysis supported the proposed model, indicating that compared to a control ad, an ad containing a goal expectation violation manipulation resulted in higher levels of psychological disequilibrium; in turn, psychological disequilibrium led to positive
evaluations of the ad and the drug, positive outcome expectations of the drug, increased purposive harm endurance, and increased usage intentions. The current results suggest a psychological pathway that begins with a negative goal expectation violation and ends
with increased usage intentions and a greater willingness to endure harm to make use possible.
threatens or eliminates people’s freedom of behavior, they experience psychological
reactance, a motivational state that drives freedom restoration. Complementing recent,
discipline-specific reviews (e.g., Quick, Shen, & Dillard, 2013; Steindl, Jonas, Sittenthaler,
Traut-Mattausch, & Greenberg, 2015), the current analysis integrates PRT
research across fields in which it has flourished: social psychology and clinical
psychology, as well as communication research. Moreover, the current review offers a
rare synthesis of existing reactance measures. We outline five overlapping waves in the
PRT literature: Wave 1: Theory proposal and testing; Wave 2: Contributions from
clinical psychology; Wave 3: Contributions from communication research; Wave 4:
Measurement of reactance; and Wave 5: Return to motivation. As part of our description
of Wave 5, we detail scholars’ renewed focus on motivational aspects of the
framework, and the ways in which this return to PRT’s motivational roots is allowing
researchers to push its accuracy and applicability forward. We use this research that is
already occurring in Wave 5 to outline three specific ways in which scholars can direct
the continued application of motivation science to the advancement of PRT. Finally, as
we outline in a future directions sections for each Wave, the assimilation of this
research illustrates the ways in which an emphasis on motivation can expand and
explain PRT research in communication, clinical psychology, and measurement.