James B. Hittner

Professor of Psychology

Education 

Ph.D. in Clinical and School Psychology, Hofstra University

B.S. in Psychology, Ohio State University

Research Interests

After earning his Ph.D. in 1993, Dr. Hittner completed a two-year fellowship in alcohol treatment and early intervention research at Brown University's Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. Dr. Hittner's research interests include substance abuse and high-risk sexual behavior, cognitive and personality correlates of substance abuse, the interface of Positive and Health Psychology, personality, stress, social support and coping, applied statistical methodology and Monte Carlo simulation, and predictors and correlates of childhood obesity.

Courses Taught

  • PSYC 211: Psychological Statistics
  • PSYC 222: Psychology of Personality
  • PSYC 333: Health Psychology
  • PSYC 390: Advanced Psychological Statistics

Selected Publications

Hittner, J.B., & Widholm, C.D. (2024). Meta-analysis of the association between gratitude and loneliness. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 1-16. DOI:10.1111/aphw.12549.

Mirnics, Z., Hittner, J.B., Swickert, R., & Kövi, Z. (2022). Gratitude and social support mediate the association between mindfulness and mood: A cross-cultural replication study. Journal of Health Psychology, 27(1), 246-252.

Fasina, F.O., Salami, M.A., Fasina, M.M., Otekunrin, O.A., Hoogesteijn, A.L., & Hittner, J.B. (2021). Test positivity – Evaluation of a new metric to assess epidemic dispersal mediated by non-symptomatic cases. Methods, 195, 15-22.

Hittner, J.B., Penmetsa, N., Bianculli, V., & Swickert, R. (2020). Personality and substance use correlates of e-cigarette use in college students. Personality and Individual Differences, 152, Article 109605.

Hittner, J.B. (2020). Ezekiel’s classic estimator of the population squared multiple correlation coefficient: Monte Carlo-based extensions and refinements. The Journal of General Psychology, 147(3), 213-227.

Faith, M.S., Hittner, J.B., Hurston, S.R., Yin, J., Greenspan, L.C., Quesenberry, C.P., & Gunderson, E.P. (2019). Association of infant temperament with subsequent obesity in young children of mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus. JAMA Pediatrics, 173(5), 424- 433.

Swickert, R., Bailey, E., Hittner, J., Spector, A., Benson-Townsend, B., & Silver, N.C. (2019). The mediational roles of gratitude and perceived support in explaining the relationship between mindfulness and mood. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20, 815-828.

Hittner, J.B., Swickert, R., Silver, N.C., Hevesi, K., & Kövi, Z. (2018). Examining the cross-national measurement invariance of the Extended Satisfaction with Life Scale in the United States and Hungary. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 13, 527-544.

Bishara, A.J., & Hittner, J.B. (2017). Confidence intervals for correlations when data are not normal. Behavior Research Methods, 49, 294-309.