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Awards and Honors

• Society for the Teaching of Psychology, 2014, 2014 Wilbert J. McKeachie Teaching Excellence Award

PhD, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, 2013
Social/Personality Psychology

MS, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, 2009
Experimental Psychology

BA, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 2006
Psychology

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.

Past Courses

INT 298: On the Good Life
MHC 723: Applied Social Psychology
MHC 741: Threat Mgt:Clinical Approachs
MM 802: Maintain Matriculation-Phd
PSY 257: Sports Psychology
PSY 304: Social Psychology
PSY 327: Mentored Lab Class Semester 1
PSY 328: Mentored Lab Class Semester 2
PSY 380: Experimental Psychology I
PSY 381: Experimental Psychology II
PSY 600: Grad Psy / Indpndnt Study
PSY 623: Social Psychology

Publications

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

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

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

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

Professional Memberships

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