Dr. N.C. Higgins

Associate Professor

Department of Psychology,

St. Thomas University

Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 5G3 Canada

Office information:

Edmund Casey Hall, Room 227

Phone: (506) 452-0415

Fax: (506) 450-9615

E-mail: (put this) nhiggins (and this) @stu.ca (together) - cuts down on spam

B.A. (St. Francis Xavier), M.A., Ph.D. (Simon Fraser)

Research Interests

Social Psychology (attribution theory, attributional styles, risk perceptions, helping behaviour, optimism).

Professor Higgins' research focuses on attribution theory and person perception, examining attributional styles and the role of those styles in social, health, and achievement behavior. Measurement issues in attributional style research are an ongoing focus.

Member, Association for Psychological Science (formerly American Psychological Society)

Member, Skeptics Society

Founding Member, B.C. Society for Skeptical Inquiry

Fall, 2009 Courses

PSYC 2023-A: Introduction to Research Methods

PSYC 2413-B: Social Psychology

Click here if you need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Recent Conference Papers

Higgins, N.C. & Zumbo, B.D. (in progress). Factorial construct validity of the Reasons for Misfortune Questionnaire. To be presented in May, 2010.

Higgins, N.C., LaChapelle, D., Harman, K., & Hadjistavropoulos, T. (2009). Implicit theories of pain predict coping styles and pain expressiveness. Presented at the 21^st Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA, May, 2009.

Higgins, N.C. & LaPointe, M. (2009). Attributional feedback alters short-term persistence after failure. Presented at the 21^st Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA, May, 2009.

LaChapelle, D.L., Higgins, N.C, Harman, K. & Hadjistavropoulos, T. (2009). Examining the contributions of coping style, pain appraisals, and emotional reactions to pain expressiveness. The Journal of Pain, 10(4), Suppl 1, s71. Presented at the 2009 Annual Convention of the American Pain Society, San Diego, CA.

Selected Publications

Rascle, O., Le Foll, D., & Higgins, N.C. (2008). Attributional retraining alters novice golfers’ free practice behavior. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 20(2), 157-164.

Le Foll, D., Rascle, O., & Higgins, N.C. (2008). Attributional feedback-induced changes in functional and dysfunctional attributions, expectancies for success, hopefulness, and persistence in a novel sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 9, 77-101.

Le Foll, D., Rascle, O., & Higgins, N.C. (2006). Persistence in a putting task during perceived failure: Influence of state-attributions and attributional style. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 55, 586-605.

Higgins, N.C., & Hay, J. (2003). Attributional style predicts causes of negative life events on the Attributional Style Questionnaire. Journal of Social Psychology, 143(2), 253-271.

Lundquist, L.M., Higgins, N.C., & Prkachin, K.M. (2002). Accurate pain detection is not enough: Contextual and attributional style biasing factors in patient evaluations and treatment choice. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 7(2), 114-132.

Higgins, N.C., & Bhatt, G. (2001). Culture moderates the self-serving bias: Etic and emic features of causal attributions in India and in Canada. Social Behavior and Personality, 29(1), 49-61.

Higgins, N.C., Zumbo, B.D., & Hay, J. (1999). Construct validity of attributional style: Modeling context-dependent item sets in the Attributional Style Questionnaire. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 59, 804-820.

Higgins, N.C., & Shaw, J.K. (1999). Attributional style moderates the impact of causal controllability information on helping behaviour. Social Behavior and Personality, 27(3), 221-236.

Higgins, N.C., & Morrison, M. (1998). Construct validity of unsupportive attributional style: The impact of life outcome controllability. Social Indicators Research, 45, 319-342

Higgins, N.C., St Amand, M.D., & Poole, G. A. (1997). The controllability of negative life experiences mediates unrealistic optimism. Social Indicators Research, 42, 299-323.

Other links:

Psychology Department News and Announcements

Social Psychology Network / Directory of Social Psychologists

Social Cognition Paper Archive home page

Skeptics stuff here, and here