I've been working at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada since 2002 with a sabbatical break that included teaching with Semester at Sea (affiliated with UVA) in 2008. Before Carleton, I studied with Bill Revelle at Northwestern University (BA), and Randy Larsen at both the University of Michigan (MA) and Washington University in Saint Louis (PhD).
My research focuses on emotions, especially individual differences in emotional experience, and the role emotions play in modulating cognition. The topic of happiness unifies my primary research questions. At a descriptive level, I ask the question, who is happy? That is, what are the personality characteristics that predict the experience of many positive emotions and few negative emotions? At a process level, I ask, how do happy people think and behave differently than unhappy people? In other words, how do transient mood states and stable individual differences combine to influence cognitive processes and behaviour? At the level of personality theory, I seek to understand what 'causes' the traits associated with happiness, and explore how individual differences play out ‘in the moment’ (i.e., in conjunction with situational influences).
Much of this work focuses on extraversion, positive emotions, and social behaviour. Another line of research investigates differences in people’s sense of connection to nature (‘nature relatedness’) and links this to happiness and environmentally responsible behaviours.
Whelan, D. C., & Zelenski, J. M. (2011). Experimental evidence that positive moods cause sociability. Social Psychological and Personality Science. doi: 10.1177/1948550611425194
Zelenski, J. M., Santoro, M. S., & Whelan, D. C. (2011). Would introverts be better off if they acted more like extraverts? Exploring emotional and cognitive consequences of counter-dispositional behavior. Emotion. doi: 10.1037/a0025169
Nisbet, E. K., & Zelenski, J. M. (2011). Underestimating nearby nature: Affective forecasting errors obscure the happy path to sustainability. Psychological Science, 22(9), 1101-1106.
Nisbet, E. K., Zelenski, J. M., & Murphy, S. A. (2011). Happiness is in our nature: Exploring nature relatedness as a contributor to subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12, 303-322.
Nisbet, E. K. L., Zelenski, J. M., & Murphy, S. A. (2009). The Nature Relatedness Scale: Linking individuals’ connection with nature to environmental concern and behavior. Environment and Behavior, 41, 715-740.
Zelenski, J. M., Murphy, S. A., & Jenkins, D. A. (2008). The happy-productive worker thesis revisited. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9, 521-537.
Zelenski, J. M. (2008). The role of personality in emotion, judgment, and decision making. In Vohs, K. D., Baumeister, R. F., & Loewenstein, G. Do Emotions Help or Hurt Decision Making? A Hedgefoxian Perspective. (pp. 117-132). New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press.
Zelenski, J. M. (2007). Experimental approaches to individual differences and change: Exploring the causes and consequences of extraversion. In A. D. Ong and M. Van Dulman (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Methods in Positive Psychology (pp. 205-219). New York: Oxford University Press.
Zelenski, J. M., Rusting, C. L., & Larsen, R. J. (2003). Consistency in the time of experiment participation and personality correlates: A methodological note. Personality and Individual Differences, 34(4), 547-558.
Zelenski, J. M., & Larsen, R. J. (2002). Predicting the future: How affect-related personality traits influence likelihood judgments of future events. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(7), 1000-1010.
Zelenski, J. M. & Larsen, R. J. (2000). The distribution of basic emotions in everyday life: A state and trait perspective from experience sampling data. Journal of Research in Personality, 34(2), 178-197.
Zelenski, J. M. & Larsen, R. J. (1999). Susceptibility to affect: A comparison of three personality taxonomies. Journal of Personality, 67, 761-791.
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