Austin Baldwin
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 2006

TEL 214.768.1027
EMAIL baldwin (add @smu.edu to all email addresses)
OFFICE 311A Hyer Hall
CURRICULUM VITAE click to view

The broad goal of my research is to better understand the decisions that people make about their health-related behaviors. I approach this endeavor by investigating how the social cognitive factors that guide those decisions are influenced by relevant contextual and individual difference factors. The questions that guide my research sit at the interface of social, clinical, and health psychology and include such topics as behavior change maintenance (e.g., Why are most people unsuccessful at maintaining behavior changes?), chronic illness management and treatment (e.g., Do patients’ preferences in health care influence the treatment and management of health conditions?), and health communications (e.g., Why are people’s own persuasive arguments effective in changing behavior?).

This research has important clinical and public health implications, as it seeks to identify important factors on which interventions and care can more effectively be tailored, as well as important theoretical contributions to behavioral decision-making.

Baldwin, A.S., Rothman, A.J., Hertel, A.W., Keenan, N.K., & Jeffery, R.W. (in press). Longitudinal associations between people’s cessation-related experiences and their satisfaction with cessation.  Psychology & Health.

Baldwin, A.S., Cvengros, J.A., Christensen, A.J., Ishani, A., & Kaboli, P.K. (2008). Preferences for a patient-centered role orientation: Association with patient-information-seeking behavior and clinical markers of health.  Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 35, 80-86.

Rothman, A.J., Hertel, A.W., Baldwin, A.S., & Bartels, R. (2007). Understanding the determinants of health behavior change: Integrating theory and practice. In J. Shah & W. Gardner (Eds.), Handbook of motivation science (pp. 494-507). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Baldwin, A.S., Rothman, A.J., Hertel, A.W., Linde, J.A., Jeffery, R.W., Finch, E., & Lando, H. (2006). Specifying the determinants of the initiation and maintenance of behavior change: An examination of self-efficacy, satisfaction, and smoking cessation. Health Psychology, 25, 626-634.

Linde, J.A., Rothman, A.J., Baldwin, A.S., & Jeffery, R.W. (2006). The impact of self-efficacy on behavior change and weight change among overweight participants in a weight loss trial. Health Psychology, 25, 282-291.

Rothman, A.J., Baldwin, A.S., & Hertel, A.W. (2004). Self-regulation and behavior change: Disentangling behavioral initiation and behavioral maintenance. In R. Baumeister & K. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 130-148). New York, NY: Guilford Press.