Dr. N.C. Higgins
Associate Professor
B.A.
(St. Francis Xavier), M.A., Ph.D. (Simon Fraser)
Department
of Psychology, St. Thomas
University
Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 5G3 Canada
Office
and Lab information:
Edmund Casey Hall, Room 227 (Office)
Edmund Casey Hall, Room G15 (Social
Cognition Lab)
Phone: (506) 452-0415 Fax: (506) 450-9615
E-mail: (put
this) nhiggins (and this) @stu.ca (together) - cuts
down on spam
Research
Interests
Social
Psychology, Social Cognition (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. Current research is focusing on
spontaneous causal inferences.
Member, Association for Psychological
Science (formerly American Psychological Society)
Member, Skeptics Society
Founding
Member, B.C. Society for
Skeptical Inquiry
Winter, 2012
Courses
PSYC 2023-C:
Introduction to Research Methods
PSYC 3413-A:
Advanced Social Psychology
PSYC 4423-A: Seminar in Social
Psychology
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Recent
Conference Papers
Bennell, J., Higgins,
N.C., Daponte, D., & Vipond,
D. (2012). Examining spontaneous trait inferences using retroactive interference.
To be presented
at the 73rd Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological
Association, Halifax, NS.
Daponte, D., Vipond, D., Bennell, J., & Higgins,
N.C. (2012). Investigating spontaneous trait inferences using
proactive interference. To be presented at the 73rd Annual Convention of the
Canadian Psychological Association, Halifax, NS.
MacArthur, H., LaChapelle,
D. L., Higgins, N.C., Harman, K.,
& Hadjistavropoulos, T. (2012). Does sex matter? Health
professionals’ perceptions of patients with chronic pain. To
be presented at the 73rd
Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association, Halifax, NS.
Lavoie, S. P., LaChapelle, D. L., & Higgins, N.C. (2012). Impact of patient
and observer characteristics on perceptions of women with fibromyalgia and
rheumatoid arthritis. To be presented
at the Canadian Pain Society Annual Conference, Whistler, BC.
Higgins, N.C. & Zumbo,
B.D. (2010). Factorial construct validity
of the Reasons for Misfortune Questionnaire. Presented at the 22nd Annual Convention of the
Association for Psychological Science, Boston, MA.
LaChapelle, D.L., Higgins, N.C, Harman, K. & Hadjistavropoulos, T. (2010). Impact of patient coping style and
physical evidence of injury on nurses’ perceptions of rehabilitation
patients with low back pain. Presented at the International Association
for the Study of Pain 13th World Congress on Pain. Montreal, PQ.
Higgins, N.C., LaChapelle, D., Harman, K., & Hadjistavropoulos, T. (2009). Implicit
theories of pain predict coping styles and pain expressiveness. Presented at the 21st Annual Convention of the
Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA.
Higgins, N.C. & LaPointe,
M. (2009). Attributional feedback alters short-term persistence after
failure. Presented at the 21st Annual Convention
of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA.
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
Lavoie, S. P., LaChapelle,
D. L., Higgins, N.C., & Hadjistavropoulos, T. (in progress). Perceptions of women in pain: The impact of physical
attractiveness, diagnostic ambiguity, and overt disability cues.
Higgins,
N.C.
& Zumbo, B.D. (in progress). An individual differences measure of attributions that
affect helping behavior: Factor structure and
predictive validity of the Reasons for Misfortune Questionnaire.
Higgins,
N.C.
& LaPointe, M. R. P. (in progress). Academic attributional style predicts behavioral persistence under
failure: Factor structure, reliability, and predictive validity
of the Academic Attributional Style Questionnaire.
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