Courses Taught
Undergraduate:
Research Methods
Social Psychology
Advanced Social Psychology
Health Psychology
Graduate:
Advanced Social Psychology
Research Interests
I am interested in the impact of individuals’ social psychological perceptions on their health, well-being, and achievement motivation within the aging and academic domains.
Health and Aging:
My research focuses on older adults’ health risk estimates and how perceived control relates to those risk estimates. Because overestimation of personal risk can be associated with poorer health, reducing such pessimistic estimations (via enhanced control perceptions) is beneficial. This research is aimed at understanding older adults’ estimates of their health risks and the effects on their subsequent health and well-being.
I am also exploring how older adults’ self-rated health relates to severity of their existing chronic disease conditions. Health optimists rate their health positively, despite having several severe disease conditions. I’ve found that health optimism benefits subsequent physical, functional, and psychological health. Conversely, health pessimists rate their health negatively despite having few or no disease conditions, which compromises the benefits of objectively good health. I am now conducting a study of older adults over a 5-year period to examine consistency in health optimism/pessimism and subsequent survival. I also examine health perceptions among Native American elders in collaboration with the National Resource Center on Native American Aging at UND.
Current Projects:
Native American Elders’ Health Congruence: exploring whether elders who have multiple chronic diseases benefit from optimistic health appraisals
Predicting Native Elders’ Self-rated Health: focusing on perceived barriers to health care access and health behaviors as predictors of self-rated health
Older Adults’ Personal Health Risk Estimates: examining perceptions of control and manipulated risk characteristics as predictors of perceived risk of a hip fracture
Consistency in Later Life Health Congruence: a longitudinal examination of older adults’ health optimism/pessimism, functional and psychological well-being changes, and survival
Social Cognition and Motivation:
I am also interested in the links between perceived control, optimism, and freshman students’ academic experiences and psychological health. Over-optimism can be a risk factor during this transition year because such positive expectations are based on little experience. Fortunately, providing highly optimistic students with an attribution-based cognitive intervention can increase their perceived control, motivation, and achievement while decreasing their anxiety and course attrition. I have also found that enhanced control perceptions predict better physical health and well-being among freshmen. I am expanding this research by incorporating additional outcome measures of depression and health behaviors, as well as examining the consistency in academic optimism and control over time. This research is aimed at understanding and facilitating achievement and psychological adjustment of college students facing the demands of the freshman year.
Current Projects:
Academic Control, Emotions, and Achievement: examining freshman students’ academic-related perceived control and emotions as joint predictors of GPA and course attrition
Optimism, Social Support and Student Well-being: a study of psychosocial determinants of depression and stress among students during the freshman year of college
Academic Optimistic Bias and Control: a 3-phase study of college students’ comparative academic expectations and sense of control
I am available to supervise undergraduate thesis projects as well as graduate student theses/dissertations relating to the above research areas. As well, both undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in becoming research assistants in my lab are welcome to contact me: joelle_ruthig@und.nodak.edu
Recent Publications
Ruthig, J. C., & Chipperfield, J. G. (in press). Health incongruence in later life: A longitudinal analysis of well-being and health care. Health Psychology.
Ruthig, J. C., Chipperfield, J. G., Perry, R. P., Newall, N. E., & Swift, A. (in press). Comparative risk and perceived control: Implications for psychological and physical well-being among older adults. Journal of Social Psychology.
Stupnisky, R., Renaud, R., Perry, R. P., Ruthig, J. C., Haynes, T., & Clifton, R. (in press). Comparing self-esteem and perceived control as predictors of first-year college students’ academic achievement. Social Psychology of Education.
Chipperfield, J. G., Perry, R. P., Bailis, D., Ruthig, J. C., & Chuchmach, L. (2007). Gender differences in use of primary and secondary control strategies in older adults with major health problems. Psychology and Health, 22, 83-105.
Ruthig, J. C., Chipperfield, J. G., Newall, N. E., Perry, R. P., & Hall, N. C. (2007). Detrimental effects of falling on health and well-being in later life: The mediating roles of perceived control and optimism. Journal of Health Psychology, 12, 231-248.
Ruthig, J. C., Haynes, T. L., Perry, R. P., & Chipperfield, J. G. (2007). Academic optimistic bias: Implications for college student performance and well-being. Social Psychology of Education, 10, 115-137.
Hall, N. C., Chipperfield, J. G., Perry, R. P., Ruthig, J. C., & Goetz, T. (2006). Primary and secondary control in academic development: Gender-specific implications for stress and health in college students. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 19, 189-210.
Hall, N. C., Perry, R. P., Ruthig, J. C., Hladkyj, S., & Chipperfield, J. G. (2006). Primary and secondary control in achievement settings: A longitudinal field study of academic motivation, emotions, and performance. Journal of Applied Social Psychology,36, 1430-1470.
Haynes, T. L., Ruthig, J. C., Perry, R. P., Stupnisky, R. H., & Hall, N. C. (2006). Reducing the risk of over-optimism: The longitudinal effects of attributional retraining on cognition and achievement. Research in Higher Education, 47, 755-779.
Perry, R. P., Hall, N. C., & Ruthig, J. C. (2005). Perceived (academic) control and scholastic attainment in higher education. In J. Smart (Ed.), Higher education: Handbook of theory and research (Vol. 20, pp. 363-436). The Netherlands: Springer.
Hall, N. C., Hladkyj, S., Perry, R. P., & Ruthig, J. C. (2004). The role of attributional retraining and elaborative learning in college students’ academic development. Journal of Social Psychology, 144, 591-612.
Ruthig, J. C., Perry, R. P., Hall, N. C., & Hladkyj, S. (2004). Optimism and attributional retraining: Longitudinal effects on academic achievement, test anxiety, and voluntary course withdrawal. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34(4), 709-730.
