University of New South Wales - School of Psychology

Research Areas: My lab studies the interplay of motivation, emotion, and cognition, employing social and affective neuroscience approaches. We investigate topics such as the effects of emotions on attention and other cognitive processes; the role of emotion and motivation in aggressive and pro-social behaviour; and the antecedents and consequences of discrepancies between cognitions (cognitive dissonance theory).

Academic Career:

BS, 1990 , University of Alabama at Birmingham
MA, 1993, University of Kansas
PhD, 1995, University of Arizona

Awards:

-- Society for Psychophysiological Research Distinguished Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychophysiology, 2002
-- Listed in the Institute for Scientific Information’s Essential Science Indicators representing the top 1% of cited scientists in Psychiatry/Psychology

Grants:

-- National Science Foundation (P. I.; Action-Based Model of Cognitive Dissonance), 06/2000 to 06/2003
-- Fetzer Institute (P. I.; Examining the mechanisms underlying self-report measures, with an emphasis on their cognitive, emotional, motivational, and biological substrates), 09/2000 to 08/2001
-- National Institute of Mental Health (Co PI; BAS and Bipolar Spectrum: Biopsychosocial Integration), 2002-2007
-- National Science Foundation (P.I.; Anger & Approach Motivation), 2003-2006
-- National Science Foundation (P.I.; Considering Approach Motivational Intensity within Positive Affect), 07/2007 – 06/2011
-- National Institute of Mental Health (Co-I; BAS and Bipolar Disorder: Prospective Biobehavioral High Risk Design), 2007-2012
-- National Science Foundation (P.I.; Approach Motivation, Anger, & Positive Affects), 09/2009 – 08/2012
-- National Science Foundation (co-P.I.; Distinguishing impulse strength from self-control strength as causes of self-control failure), 09/2009 – 08/2012

Selected Publications:

Harmon-Jones, E., Harmon-Jones, C., Amodio, D. M., & Gable, P. A. (2011). Attitudes toward emotions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 1332-1350.
Price, T. F., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2010). The effect of embodied emotive states on cognitive categorization. Emotion, 10, 934-938.
Harmon-Jones, E., Gable, P. A., & Peterson, C. K. (2010). The role of asymmetric frontal cortical activity in emotion-related phenomena: A review and update. Biological Psychology, 84, 451-462.
Gable, P. A., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2010). The motivational dimensional model of affect: Implications for breadth of attention, memory, and cognitive categorization. Cognition and Emotion, 24, 322-337.
Harmon-Jones, E., & Peterson, C. K. (2009). Supine body position reduces neural response to anger evocation. Psychological Science, 20, 1209-1210.
Harmon-Jones, E., & Gable, P. A. (2009). Neural activity underlying the effect of approach-motivated positive affect on narrowed attention. Psychological Science, 20, 406-409.
Harmon-Jones, E., Harmon-Jones, C., Abramson, L. Y., & Peterson, C. K. (2009). PANAS positive activation is associated with anger. Emotion, 9, 183-196.
Harmon-Jones, E., Amodio, D. M., & Harmon-Jones, C. (2009). Action-based model of dissonance: A review, integration, and expansion of conceptions of cognitive conflict. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 119-166. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Carver, C. S., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2009). Anger is an approach-related affect: Evidence and implications. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 183-204.
Gable, P. A., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2008). Approach-motivated positive affect reduces breadth of attention. Psychological Science, 19, 476-482.
Harmon-Jones, E., Abramson, L. Y., Nusslock, R., Sigelman, J. D., Urosevic, S., Turonie, L., Alloy, L. B., & Fearn, M. (2008). Effect of bipolar disorder on left frontal cortical responses to goals differing in valence and task difficulty. Biological Psychiatry, 63, 693-698.
Harmon-Jones, E., Harmon-Jones, C., Fearn, M., Sigelman, J. D., & Johnson, P. (2008). Action orientation, relative left frontal cortical activation, and spreading of alternatives: A test of the action-based model of dissonance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 1-15.

Contact Details:

Office: Mathews, Room 1105
Telephone: (61-2) 9385-3520
Fax: (61-2) 9385-3641
Email: e.harmon-jones@unsw.edu.au