Biography
Kevin Bennett, Ph.D., is a teaching professor of psychology and the program coordinator for the Penn State Beaver psychology degree. He is a contributor to Psychology Today and a fellow at the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health.
Dr. Bennett’s research explores the relationships between people and their environments — both built and natural — with a special focus on personality dimensions, evolutionary adaptations, and social factors.
Courses:
- Psychology 100 Introductory Psychology
- Psychology 221 Social Psychology
- Psychology 238 and 438 Personality Theories
- Psychology 244 and 444 Human Factors and Design Psychology
- Psychology 269 Evolutionary Psychology
- Psychology 424 Applied Social Psychology
- PSU 008 First Year Seminar
Research Interests
- Personality Psychology
- Evolutionary Science
- Urban Design and Mental Health
- Immersive Experiences
- Geographical Psychology
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Publications
Bennett, K. (2019). Psychological science on the eve of the Fourth Transformation: Will spatial computing make us better citizens? London: Conscious Cities Anthology 2019: Science-Informed Architecture and Urbanism. ISSN 2514-6815
Bennett, K. (2018). Teaching the Monty Hall dilemma to explore decision-making, probability, and regret in behavioral science classrooms. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 12 (2), 1-7.
Bennett, K., Gualtieri, T., & Kazmierczyk, B. (2018). Undoing solitary urban design: A review of risk factors and mental health outcomes associated with living in social isolation. Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health, 4:7.
Bennett, K. (2018). Environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA). In Zeigler-Hill, V., & Shackelford, T.K. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer International Publishing AG.
Education
- Ph.D., Psychology. City University of London, London, UK
- M.S., Experimental Psychology, Minor: Quantitative Psychology. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
- B.A., Psychology, Psi Chi, University Honors. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Papers and Presentations
Bennett, K. (2019, August). Making decisions about locations inside built environments: Is conscientiousness a front-row trait? Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Chicago.
Bennett, K. (2019, March). Why is conscientiousness a front-row trait? Personality assessment, location preferences, and making a map of big five tendencies inside built environments. Paper presented at the Society for Personality Assessment Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA.
Bennett, K. (2018, November). Teaching with touchable psychology in a digital age: Effective application of props in the behavioral science classroom. Poster presented at the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) International Twitter Poster Conference (ITPC) #stp18poster.
Bennett, K. (2017, March). Geographical decision making as a function of birth order and gender. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, Massachusetts.