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Johnnie Christensen

Status: Pre_Qual

Contact Information


E-mail: jlchrist@email.usc.edu

LINKS

 Curriculum Vitae
Personal Website

Biography

John L. Christensen received Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Southern California, where he is currently pursuing a doctorate in Social Psychology. He has held a fellowship with the American Psychological Association's Minority Fellowship Program as well as research traineeships from the National Institutes of Health, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the RAND Corporation. His research focuses on the processes that underlie the impact of emotion on decision-making and persuasion in risky social situations. He is interested in how technology such as artificially intelligent autonomous agents, video games, and interactive film might facilitate, attenuate, or otherwise influence these processes. Other research interests include socially optimized learning in virtual environments (SOLVE), the development of realistic personality in intelligent virtual agents, the production and personalization of media-based interactive behavioral interventions, and the use of loss/gain frame messages in persuasive health communications designed for ethnic and sexual minority populations.

Education

  • B.A. Psychology, University of Southern California, 05/2003
  • M.A. Psychology, University of Southern California, 08/2007

Employment History

  • Graduate Research Assistant, SOLVE-IT: An Internet-based HIV-Prevention Video Game Intervention, Annenberg School for Communication, USC, 2008 - Present
  • Summer Associate, The RAND Corporation, 2008 - 2008
  • Research Consultant, Chi Systems, Inc. & United States Air Force Research Laboratory, 2005 - 2008
  • Graduate Research Assistant, SOLVE: An Interactive Video HIV-Prevention Intervention, Annenberg School for Communication, USC, 2004 - 2008
  • Project Specialist, SOLVE: An Interactive Video HIV-Prevention Intervention, Annenberg School for Communication, USC, 2003 - 2004
  • Research Assistant, Dr. Paul Robert Appleby, Department of Psychology, USC, 2003 - 2003
  • Research Assistant, Dr. Brian Lickel & Dr. Thomas Denson, Department of Psychology, USC, 2003 - 2003
  • Research Fellow, National Institutes of Health, US Dept. of Health and Human Services, 1999 - 1999
  • Research Fellow, Howard Hughes Medical Institute & National Institutes of Health, 1997 - 1998

Honors and Awards

  • American Psychological Association - Minority Fellowship Program , 06/2007
  • American Psychological Association - Minority Fellowship Program , 06/2006
  • Society for Personality and Social Psychology Diversity Award , 2008
  • Travel Award: International Conf. on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction. Lisbon, Portugal , 2007
  • Travel Award: American Psychological Association Annual Meeting: New Orleans, LA , 2006
  • Dean’s List, University of Southern California , 2003
  • Dean’s List, University of Southern California , 2002
  • Dean’s List, University of Southern California , 2001
  • Dean’s List, University of Southern California , 2000
  • Invited to meet Vice President Al Gore, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Symposium , 1998
  • HIV/AIDS Research Achievement Award, Howard Hughes Medical Institute , 1998
  • Governor’s Academic Citation, State of Maryland , 1998