Research & Publications

I have both domain-specific and general interests in adult health and well-being. I have published two manuscripts pertaining to how sexual attitudes and sexual knowledge can influence sexual well-being (Graf & Patrick, 2014; 2015). In Winter 2016, I began working with EC students on a project to create a more inclusive measure of sexual attitudes, a need I had recognized in my earlier projects. We completed a community focus group and corresponded with industry experts to finalize our measure items. We are currently collecting data to psychometrically validate our measure. The project is being funded through the Kenneth and Janice Whitehead Freeman Endowment Prize. Once this project is completed, I expect to extend my findings on sexual attitudes and knowledge by examining the quality, content, and duration of formal sexual education in relation to lifelong sexual well-being.

Much of my other work focuses on health more generally with a specific interest in subjective appraisals of health. In addition to presenting work on objective and subjective disparities in health understanding and literacy (Graf & Patrick, 2013), self-assessed health (SAH) was the main outcome variable in my dissertation. I collected data using experience sampling methods (ESM), in order to obtain rich, in-the-moment reports. The aims of this study were twofold: 1) to challenge the conception of SAH as a stable component of health identity and 2) to illustrate the extent to which both individual and contextual factors influence health perceptions. In addition to the publication of the main findings of the dissertation (Graf, Long, & Patrick, 2017), we are investigating whether self-references in health definitions are predictive of health outcomes. In the coming years, I intend to work with community health professionals and interventionists to implement relevant findings in applied settings. I joined the Chemung County Age-Friendly Community Coalition in Fall 2015 in order to foster such community relations.

The second vein of my research program is pedagogic. I use both secondary data and small-scale independent studies to offer additional research opportunities for my students. Although I have plenty of my own projects to keep interested students busy, I also welcome students with partially developed research ideas. Completed projects include a student co-authored publication on best practices in the application of mobile technologies in ESM (Youngs & Graf, 2017) and student research on consumer purchase decisions presented locally at the Elmira College Research Conference and regionally at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association (Miklinski, Shelton, Depew, & Graf, 2017). We are also collecting data during our Summer Orientation on predictors of college adjustment and the influence of fidget devices on attention.