Education:

B.A., Psychology, 1998, St. John's University
    Advisor: Dr. Linda Mealey

M.A., General / Experimental Psychology, 2005, College of William and Mary
    Advisor: Dr. Lee Kirkpatrick
    Thesis: Misperception of Romantic and Sexual Interests

Ph.D., Social Psychology, Expected 2009, New Mexico State University
    Advisor: Dr. Timothy Ketelaar
    Research Lab: Emotion & Social Decision-Making Lab

Koenig, B. L., Kirkpatrick, L. A., & Ketelaar, T. (2007). Misperception of sexual and romantic interests in opposite-sex friendships: Four hypotheses. Personal Relationships, 14, 411 - 429. pdf

Ketelaar, T., & Koenig, B. L. (in press). Emotions, justice, and moral value systems. Invited chapter to appear in D. de Cremer (Ed.), Justice and Emotions: Current Developments. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pdf

Jensen, C. J., Finifter, D. H., Wilson, C. E., & Koenig, B. L. (2007). Community assessment of senior health using a telephone survey and supplementary methods. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 26, 1-17. pdf

Finifter, D. H, Jensen, C. J., Wilson, C. E., & Koenig, B. L. (2005). A comprehensive, multi-tiered targeted community needs assessment: Methodology, dissemination, and implementation. Family and Community Health, 28, 293-306. pdf

• Research Methods - Primary Instructor, Fall 2007
• Individual and Group Differences - Primary Instructor, Spring 2007
• Community Psychology - TA, Fall 2006
• Introduction to Psychology - Primary Instructor, Summer 2006
• Individual and Group Differences - Primary Instructor, Spring 2006
• Evolutionary Psychology - TA, Fall 2005
• Experimental Methods in Social Psychology - TA, Fall 2004 and Spring 2005
• Psychology Statistics - TA, Fall 2003 and Spring 2004

Research Interests:

Punishment Psychology versus Schadenfreude. In a series of studies and experiments, I am exploring how punishment psychology, the desire that another is punished for wrongdoing, is a distinct psychological phenomenon from schadenfreude, the enjoyment of another's misfortune. Results suggest that punishment psychology and schadenfreude are distinct psychological processes. Specifically, punishment psychology results in pleasure at a wrong-doer's suffering, per se, whereas schadenfreude does not include enjoyment of the suffering itself.

A Model of Emotions.I believe emotions are evolved, fundamental organizing systems for behavior and thought. Emotions are differentially activated through domain-specific inputs from the environment and the body. Concurrently activated emotions compete for "control" of the body and mind. The dominant emotion at any time produces as its output a cascade of consequences, including changes in physiological activity, cognition, and behavioral motivation. These outputs produce behaviors which have been adaptive (for the relevant genes, not necessarily the individual) in evolutionary history.

Emotions and Morality. I suspect that emotions provide the evaluative mechanism for morality and motivate behaviors which, over evolutionary history, were functional in response to morally relevant events. Thus, when you evaluate something as immoral an aversive emotion has been activated towards the target of moral consideration. For example, if you heard that someone has had sex with their sibling, you would probably experience disgust and condemn the behavior. Disgust leads to avoidance, and therefore a disgust response to incest has been selected in humans because those with it avoided incest, and therefore having offspring with genetic abnormalities. Conversely, behaviors are evaluated as morally desirable when they are accompanied by positive emotions.

Emotions and Cognitive Bias. I am interested in how emotions produce changes in perception and thought. My master's thesis presents evidence that being sexually attracted to or romantically interested in another person can lead to the overperception that the person reciprocates. Perceiving that another reciprocates your interest facilitates pursuit and realization of a relationship with that person. I suspect that the misperception of sexual and romantic interests is just the tip of the ice burg. Numerous emotional states may be accompanied by specific, functional overperceptions and underperceptions. For example, after hearing an angry sounding roar of a bear, you probably would overinterpret normal forest sounds as bear sounds. This "oversensitivity" helps protect you if there actually were a bear.

Additional Interests. Evolution of Morality, Group-related Cognitive Biases, Human Evolution, Brain Imaging, Game Theory, Ethical Hedonism, Utility.