Our Faculty

Publications

Morse, P. J., Sweeny, K. & Legg, A. A Situational Construal Approach to Healthcare Experiences. Social Science & Medicine.

Legg, A. & Sweeny, K. Blended news delivery in healthcare: A framework for injecting good news into bad news conversations. Health Psychology Review.

Legg, A., Andrews, S. E., Huynh, H., Ghane, A., Tabuenca, A. & Sweeny, K. Patients' anxiety and hope: Predictors and adherence intentions in an acute care context.. Health Expectations.

Andrews, S. E., Ghane, A., Legg, A., Tabuenca, A. & Sweeny, K. Expectations in the context of gallbladder and hernia surgery: A descriptive report.. Health Expectations.

RESEARCH INTEREST

Bad news delivery; Genetic testing; Threat management; Doctor-patient communication; Professor-student rapport; Bad news delivery within the counselor-client relationship ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Broadly, my research focuses on improving dyadic relations marked by potential threat. To this end, I examine relationships marked by power differentials in high stakes situations such healthcare and education. I am specifically interested in how people develop rapport in these potentially threatening dyads (doctor-patient, professor-student, and manager-employee, for example) and how people communicate threatening information such as bad news and negative evaluative feedback. My research also maps social/health psychology theories of communication and bad news delivery onto the counselor-client relationship. I am also interested in how individuals decide to pursue potentially threatening information such as their genetic risk factors.

MEDIA CONTRIBUTIONS

• Psychology Today [Magazine], March 11 2014
  Give It to Me Straight - April 2014 Issue
• National Geographic [Internet], November 18 2013
  Good News or Bad: Which Do You Want First? http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131115-good-news-bad-news-diagnosis-doctors-psychology-science/
• Huffington Post [Internet], November 11 2013
  Good News or Bad News First? Study Shows When We Prefer One Over the Other http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/11/good-news-bad-news_n_4219756.html

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

• Council for Undergraduate Research 2014
  
• Society of Personality and Social Psychology 2009
  
• Society for the Teaching of Psychology [Co-chair of the Early Career Psychologist Committee] 2007