Rate My Professor Chris Burgin

Dr. Chris Burgin is a Professor in the Department of Counseling & Psychology at Tennessee Technological University's College of Education & Human Sciences. He earned a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Georgia (2005-2010) and held a postdoctoral position in Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2011-2012). Burgin joined Tennessee Technological University in August 2012 as Assistant Professor and has since advanced to full Professor. He teaches courses in Experimental Psychology, Personality Psychology, and Positive Psychology. Additionally, he serves as a certified departmental reviewer for the university's Institutional Review Board, aiding in the ethical review of human subjects research.

Burgin's research centers on positive human functioning, including subjective well-being, personality measures, and optimal goal pursuits, with specific focus on situational determinants of intrinsically motivated behavior, gratitude, positive affect, self-determination, and experience sampling methodology. His scholarship extends to multidimensional schizotypy, exploring its positive, negative, and disorganized dimensions alongside emotion expression and regulation, trauma and discrimination, openness to experience, depressive anhedonia and creativity, reward-seeking in major depression, and pathological personality traits. With 31 publications and over 640 citations, key works include 'The gargle effect: Rinsing the mouth with glucose enhances self-control' (Psychological Science, 2012), 'Music to the inner ears: Exploring individual differences in musical imagery' (Consciousness and Cognition, 2013), 'Listening between the notes: Aesthetic chills in everyday music listening' (Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2014), 'Validity of the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale: Associations with schizotypal traits and normal personality' (Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 2018), 'Psychological factors in community college student retention' (Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 2015), and 'Validation of the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale-Brief in two large samples' (Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 2018). His contributions have advanced assessment tools and understanding in personality and social psychology.