James C. Coyne
James C. Coyne is an American psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the director of the Behavioral Oncology program at the Abramson Cancer Center there.[1]
Education
Coyne received his B.A. from Carnegie-Mellon University and his Ph.D. from Indiana University.[1]
Research
A 2007 study led by Coyne found that positive emotional well-being was not associated with increased life expectancy among head and neck cancer patients.[2][3][4]
Views
Coyne has criticized the field of positive psychology and the research claiming that a positive attitude can impact one's health.[5][6] He has also criticized studies which have concluded that personality traits are linked to an increased risk of cancer death.[7]
Coyne has stated that a 1970s study by Ellen Langer, which found that elderly people given plants to take care of lived longer than those who were not, would not have "much credibility today, nor would it meet the tightened standards of rigor."[8]
In 2015, Coyne attacked Gabriele Oettingen's book Rethinking Positive Thinking and accused Oettingen of aggressively promoting pseudoscience while ignoring other research in clinical psychology.[9][10] Coyne pointed out that as part of Oettingen's aggressive promotional campaign for her book, her own son created Wikipedia articles about her work.[10]
References
- 1 2 "James C. Coyne, PhD". University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
- ↑ Coyne, James C.; Pajak, Thomas F.; Harris, Jonathan; Konski, Andre; Movsas, Benjamin; Ang, Kian; Watkins Bruner, Deborah (1 December 2007). "Emotional well-being does not predict survival in head and neck cancer patients". Cancer. 110 (11): 2568–2575. doi:10.1002/cncr.23080.
- ↑ Gellene, Denise (5 November 2007). "Mood doesn't help in cancer survival". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
- ↑ Barone, Jennifer (February 2008). "Hope May Be Useless Against Cancer". Discover. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
- ↑ Azar, Beth (April 2011). "Positive psychology advances, with growing pains". Monitor on Psycholgy. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
- ↑ Marchant, Jo (10 July 2014). "Can meditation really slow aging?". CNN. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
- ↑ Norton, Amy (13 August 2010). "Personality not linked to cancer risk or prognosis". Reuters. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
- ↑ Grierson, Bruce (26 October 2014). "What if Age Is Nothing but a Mind-Set?". New York Times. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
- ↑ Coyne, James C (16 September 2015). "Do positive fantasies prevent dieters from losing weight?". plos.org. PLOS. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
- 1 2 Coyne, James C (23 September 2015). "Promoting a positive psychology self-help book with a Wikipedia entry". plos.org. PLOS. Archived from the original on 8 October 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2015.