Joe S Weaver
Associate Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Arts & Behavioral Sciences
Academic and Student Affairs
SVSU Main Campus
Curtiss Hall 347
989-964-2481
jweaver@svsu.edu
Faculty PageBiography
Joe Weaver grew up in north central Ohio. He attended Bowling Green State University in nowrthwest Ohio, earning a Bachelors of Science degree in psychology in 2009. He then earned a Masters of Art (2011) and Philosophy Doctorate (2013) in experimental psychology from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Weaver sought to become a professor at a teaching institution, working at Hillsdale College and DePauw University before joining the Psychology Deparment at SVSU in 2016. He has a passion for helping students find their passions and seeing the value in all their educational endeavors. Dr. Weaver enjoys helping students get started in psychological research, which is why he has an open lab where any student can join. In his lab, students research how cognition and affect/emotions impact decision making and motivation.
Education
Case Western Reserve Univ
Master of Arts
Case Western Reserve Univ
Teaching Interests
Dr. Weaver teaches the following courses at SVSU:
- General Psychology (PSYC 100)
- Statistics (PSYC 299)
- Computer Applications in Data Analysis (PSYC 302)
- Experimental Psychology (PSYC 305)
- Motivation (PSYC 330)
- Motivation Lab (PSYC 330L)
- Sensation & Perception (PSYC 345)
- Sensation & Perception Lab (PSYC 345L)
Research
Dr. Weaver's research focuses on how cognition and affect/emotion influence our decisions and motivation for certain behaviors. Traditionally viewed as opposing systems, cognition and affect are both information processing systems that direct our attention and behavior inline with various goals. Some of Dr. Weaver's research has investigated how dispositional optimism and pessimism influence emotion regulation, how working memory capacity influences our ability to attend to emotional and non-emotional information, how psychosocial factors influence student success and retention, how our emotional reactions to outcomes influence our subsequent decisions, and how different teaching approaches influence student success in a course. Dr. Weaver believes that science is best accomplished through collaboration, which is why Dr. Weaver works with colleagues and students across various projects.
Dr. Weaver works with groups of students at all levels to develop novel research projects. In 2023-2024, the research team investigated the role of self-esteem, social comparison and social media use in the experience of the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO).
Works of Creativity
Dr. Weaver has written two open education resources (OER). These OER are free textbooks available to his PSYC 299 Statistics and PSYC 302 Computer Applications in Data Analysis students. These OER are available through his Canvas sites for each course. He likes to use the OER because they are tailored to his courses so students can learn more easily at no cost.
Community Engagement
Dr. Weaver volunteers with his church and local elementary school.
Leadership
For the 2024-2025, Dr. Weaver is serving as the director of the Cardinal Digital Learning Readiness program.
Honors and Awards
Dr. Weaver has received grants to fund his OER development and his research. He is also one of two inagural Teaching Fellows at the Center for Academic Innovation at SVSU. In 2022, Dr. Weaver won the Excellence in Online Teaching award from the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
Affiliations
Dr, Weaver is a member of the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for the Teaching of Psychology.