Verlin B. Hinsz, President Nominee

Institutional affiliation: North Dakota State University          

Area of specialization: Social-Work-Organizational Psychology

Website (if applicable):

https://www.ndsu.edu/faculty/hinsz/

Summary of professional interests:

My professional interests may be broader than typical. For the domains of MPA, I review and serve on numerous editorial boards, advise and review for federal funding agencies (e.g., NASA, AFOSR), and was elected fellow of 10 professional societies (e.g., APS, SIOP, SPSP, APA Div 1, 21). I served on the Board of Directors for two professional societies (e.g., INGRoup). In my 41 years as a faculty member at North Dakota State University, I have filled various academic, administrative, and leadership roles. Moreover, my professional interests often coalesce around my teaching responsibilities in the areas of industrial/organizational psychology, social psychology, and judgment & decision making. My professional interests also follow from my research interests in the thought processes, personal dispositions, and social influences that impact the judgments and decisions of groups and individuals which ultimately affect their task performance. These research interests have shown up in MPA presentations as group and individual judgment and decision making, the applied cognition of groups, small group processes and performance, attitudes and interpersonal influence, applied social psychology, interpersonal attraction, and work motivation. Consequently, my professional interests are well-aligned with the Midwestern Psychological Association.

Representative publications:

Hinsz, V.B., Tindale, R.S., & Vollrath, D.A.  (1997). The emerging conceptualization of groups as information processors.  Psychological Bulletin, 121, 43-64.

Park, E.S., & Hinsz, V.B. (2006).  “Strength and safety in numbers”:  A theoretical perspective of group influences on approach and avoidance motivation.  Motivation and Emotion, 30, 135-142.

Hinsz, V.B., Kalnbach, L.R., & Lorentz, N.R. (1997).  Using judgmental anchors to establish challenging self-set goals without jeopardizing commitment.  Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 71, 287-308.

Hinsz, V.B., & Bui, L. (2023). Socially shared affect: Shared affect, affect sharing, and affective processing in groups. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 27(4), 229–256. 

Hinsz, V.B., Nickell, G.S., & Park, E.S. (2007).  The role of work habits in the motivation of food safety behaviors.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 13, 105-114.

Representative honors or awards:

  • Recipient of the 54th Faculty Lectureship Award at NDSU for stellar achievements in teaching, scholarship and service (2015)
  • Dale Hogoboom Endowed Presidential Professorship at NDSU (7/2021 – 7/2023)
  • National Research Council Senior Research Associateship, Air Force Research Lab, Human Effectiveness Directorate, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas (8/01 – 8/02)
  • Senior Consortium Research Fellow, U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (2015 – 2019)
  • NDSU College of Science and Mathematics Award for Excellence in Research (2002), Award for Excellence in Mentoring (2012), and Award for Excellence in Teaching (2020)

Involvement in MPA:

I have been involved in the Midwestern Psychological Association since 1982 with a first presentation. I interviewed for my current faculty position at MPA in 1983. I authored scores of presentations at MPA, mostly with students. In the past four decades, I had the honor to give several invited talks as well as serve on and organize symposia. I was privileged to be elected to the program committee and as a fellow of MPA. Importantly, I had the opportunity to bring a host of diverse undergraduate and graduate students to MPA so that they could have the transformational experience which is the hallmark of attending our organization’s conferences. I routinely meet with colleagues, collaborators, and companions at MPA to discuss research and professional development. I thank the Midwestern Psychological Association for all of these opportunities.