Joshua Hart   (Hartj@union.edu)

    Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology

     PhD, University of California, Davis

        Hartj@union.edu

Detailed research description

My research interests are broad, although I have tended to focus on psychological processes related to close relationships (e.g., romantic relationships), self-esteem, worldviews (i.e., belief systems, such as religion and political ideology) and emotional defensiveness. I specialize in attachment theory, which views adult relationships as a product of similar mechanisms that underlie infant/caregiver relationships, and terror management theory (TMT), which views much of human behavior and psychology as driven by the innate fear of death juxtaposed with self-awareness (which causes awareness of one’s vulnerability and mortality). Both theories share a view of humans as largely motivated by the need to feel secure; the idea is that many of our goals, both large and small, individual and social, are motivated by an underlying need to feel loved, worthwhile, and to imbue life with meaning. Some of my current projects include applying insights from attachment theory and TMT to the study of political preferences (e.g., willingness to vote for a woman for President).

Publications and manuscripts:

Gillath, O., Hart, J., Noftle, E. E., & Stockdale, G. Development and validation of a state measure of attachment anxiety and avoidance.

Moya, M., Glick, P., Exposito, F., de Lemus, S., & Hart, J. (under review). It’s for your own good: Benevolent sexism and women’s tolerance of paternalistic discrimination by intimate partners.

Hart, J., Shaver, P.R., & Goldenberg, J. L. (in preparation). Further evidence for a security system model of attachment, self-esteem, and worldviews: The effects of security boosts on defensiveness.

Goldenberg, J. L., Arndt, J., Hart, J., & Routledge, C. (under review). Uncovering an existential barrier to breast screening behavior.

Hart, J., & Goldenberg, J. L. (in press). A terror management perspective on spirituality and the problem of the body. In Adrian Tomer (Ed.), Existential and spiritual issues in death attitudes. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Goldenberg, J. L., Hart, J., Pyszczynski, T., Warnica, G. M., Landau, M., & Thomas, L. (2006). Ambivalence toward the body: Death, neuroticism, and the flight from physical sensation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1264-1277.

Goldenberg, J. L., Arndt, J., Hart, J., & Brown, M. (2005). Dying to be thin: The effects of mortality salience and body-mass index on restricted eating among women. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 

Hart, J., Shaver, P. R., & Goldenberg, J. L. (2005). Attachment, self-esteem, worldviews, and terror management: Evidence for a tripartite security system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 999-1013.