My research focuses on how social contexts impact college students’ motivation, emotions, and performance. My work is grounded in achievement goal theory and the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. Specifically, I examine how approach and avoidance motivation is affected by 1) competing against others, 2) the stress of being evaluated by others, and 3) when facing racial and gender stereotypes and expectations from others. The aim of my research is to provide empirically-validated interventions that facilitate optimal student motivation.
Fellowships
2013-2019 Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull University Fellow
2015-2019 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow
2022: Science Institute Grant, Fairfield University, Role: PI (sub-PI: Michael Andreychik)
2020: Postdoctoral Award for Professional Development, Harvard University
2019: 3-Minute Thesis winner, University of Rochester
2018: Emory Cowan award for best first-authored publication, University of Rochester’s Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology department
2015: Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Student Poster Award
2014, 2015: Dean’s Travel Award, University of Rochester
Teaching Awards
Fall 2020: Certificate of Teaching Excellence, The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University
Spring 2020: Commendation for Extraordinary Teaching, Office of Undergraduate Education, Harvard University
Fall 2019: Certificate of Teaching Excellence, The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University
2018: Advanced Teaching Award, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, University of Rochester
2016-2017 Teaching-as-Research Fellow, Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), University of Rochester
Journault, A. A., Marotta, M. E., Hangen, E. J., Gravelding, H., Elliot, A. J., & Jamieson, J. P. (2025). Fueled and Focused: A Brief Intervention Integrating Stress Reappraisal and Achievement Goals Improves Exam Performance and Reduces Cortisol. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 180, 107544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107544
Hangen, E. J., Loya, A. K., & Drazan, J. F. (2025). Basketball Interest as a Gateway to STEM: Testing a Large-Scale Intervention to Enhance STEM Interest in Sports-Engaged Populations. Education Sciences, 15(5), 622. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci15050622
Drazan, J. F.* & Hangen, E.J.* (2024). Development of an Interdisciplinary Engineering Education Research Approach: The perspectives and lessons learned by two early career faculty. ASEE North East Section. https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2–45760 *Joint first-authorship
Hangen, E. J., Elliot, A. J., & Jamieson, J. P. (2024). A HEAP of perceived parental expectations: College students’ experience of high academic expectations. The Journal of Experimental Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2024.2310686
Lurie, L. A., Hangen, E.J., Rosen, M.L., Crosnoe, R., & McLaughlin K.A. (2023). Reduced growth mindset as a mechanism linking childhood trauma with academic performance and internalizing psychopathology. Child Abuse & Neglect, 142, 105672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105672
Elliot, A. J., Weissman, D. L., Hangen, E. J., & Thorstenson, C. A. (2021). Social comparison information, performance expectancy, and performance goal adoption. Motivation Science, 7(1), 56-67. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000207
Oveis, C., Gu, Y., Ocampo, J. M., Hangen, E. J., & Jamieson, J. P. (2020). Emotion regulation contagion: Stress reappraisal promotes challenge responses in teammates. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149(11), 2187-2205. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000757
Hangen, E. J., Elliot, A. J., & Jamieson, J. P. (2019). Highlighting the difference between approach and avoidance motivation enhances the predictive validity of performance-avoidance goal reports. Motivation and Emotion, 43(3), 387-399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9744-9
Hangen, E. J., Elliot, A. J., & Jamieson, J. P. (2019). Stress reappraisal during a mathematics competition: Testing effects on cardiovascular approach-oriented states and exploring the moderating role of gender. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 32(1), 95-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2018.1530049
Hangen, E. J., Elliot, A. J., & Jamieson, J. P. (2019). Lay conceptions of norm-based approach and avoidance motivation: Implications for the performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal relation. Journal of Personality, 87(4), 737-749. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12429
