Dwight A. Hennessy, Ph.D.

Dr. Hennessy received his Ph.D. from York University in Personality and Social Psychology and has been a faculty member at Buffalo State since 2000 and Chair since 2018.  He specializes in Social, Environmental, Consumer, and Traffic psychology.  Before joining the faculty at Buffalo State, Dr. Hennessy worked as a market research analyst and consultant.

Recent Students Mentored

Nick Gray: Nick graduated with a BA from Buffalo State in May 2019 and subsequently with an MA from UB in 2021.  Nick was a very active researcher, having completed an Honors Thesis, Undergraduate Student Research Fellowship, and Early Undergraduate Research Opportunity.  He received a small grant for his research and presented his findings at EPA and SRCC.  Nick was also awarded a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for outstanding undergraduate students in 2019.  He is currently accepted into the PhD program at the University of Rochester.

Summer Oliver: Summer graduated in December 2019 and was a very active researcher.  She conducted an Honors Thesis as well as an individualized research project.  She received a small grant for both projects from the Office of Undergraduate Research and presented her findings at EPA and SRCC. She has since worked as a research specialist in a professional research lab. 

Sarah Holenstein: Sarah graduated in December 2017 and conducted several research studies.  She received an Undergraduate Research Small Grant for one study and was awarded an Undergraduate Student Research Fellowship for the other. She presented her findings at EPA and SRCC.

Selected Peer-reviewed Publications

Zhang, J., Liu, Y., Zhao, S., Haoyi, J., & Hennessy, D.A. (2025). Temporal sense as a measure of well-being and life satisfaction. Psychological Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-025-00821-w.

Zhang, J., Hennessy, D.A., Yin, Y., & Wang, J. (2024).   Chinese students’ willingness to study abroad: The personal and familial influencing factors.  Applied Psychology Research, 3(2), 1618. https://doi.org/10.59400/apr1618

Liu, B.P., Qin, P., Zhang, J., Hennessy, D.A., Chu, J., Wang, X.T., Wei, Y.X., Jia, C.X. (2022). Suicide and non-suicide mortality and associated risk factors among suicide attempters: A 10-year follow-up of a large cohort in rural China, Journal of Psychiatric Research, 150.

Wang, W., Zhang, J., Hennessy, D. A., & Yin, W. (2020). Do only-children communicate better than non-only children? A study of medical students in China. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 51, 84-109.

Zhang, Q., Ge, Y., Qu, W., Hennessy, D.A., & Zhang, K. (2019) Effects of anger and collision history on driver space preference. Transportation Research Part F, 63, 108-117.

Hennessy, D. A. (2017). The impact of brand logo prompts on selection during blind taste tests.  In N. Columbus (Ed.), Advances in Psychology Research, Vol. 123, (pp 25-36). New York: Nova Science. 

Hennessy, D. A. (2016). Are narcissists really angrier drivers?  An examination of state driving anger among narcissistic subtypes.  Special Issue “Advances in Driving Anger”, Transportation Research Part F, 42, 267-275.

Fabiano, G. A., Schatz, N. K., Hulme, K. F., Morris, K. L., Vujnovic, R. K., Willoughby, M. T., Hennessy, D., Lewis, K. E., Owens, J., & Pelham, W. E. (2015). Positive bias in teenage drivers with ADHD within a simulated driving task. Journal of Attention Disorders, 22, 1150-1157.

Courses Taught

• Introduction to Psychology (PSY 101)
• Social Behavior (PSY 325)
• Psychology of the Consumer (PSY 382)
• Psychology of Aggression and Violence (PSY 384)
• Environmental Psychology (PSY 370)
• Experimental Psychology (PSY 450)
• Senior Seminar (PSY 472)

Research Interests

Aggression, Violence, and Vengeance (including female aggression, driver aggression, workplace aggression, spectator aggression), Daily Hassles, Stress & Coping (work stress, driver stress), Traffic Psychology, Scientific Racism, Gender Roles, Culture, Consumer Psychology, Suicide Risk

Awards

2013    Buffalo State College President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching

2010    Buffalo State College President’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Research

2008    Center for Development of Human Services Outstanding Faculty Partner

2007    Buffalo State College President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Advisement

2006    McNair Scholars Program Mentor of the Year

Research Support

SUNY Research Seed Grant Program: RFP #20-03-COVID.  Social Risk Factors for Catching and Dying of the COVID-19 (CO-PI – Hennessy, D.A., Zhang, J., & Mu, L). 

NIHCD Grant:  Improving Parenting Capacity to Promote Safe Driving For Adolescents With ADHD (Dr. Greg Fabiano, UB).  This was a project looking at factors that might impact safe driving among teens with ADHD.

CDHS Minigrant (2014).  Loneliness: The Psychological and Emotional Impact of a Powerful Emotion.  This was a grant to help understand the basic psychological issues associated with loneliness and the types of referral that are most appropriate can assist the child welfare worker in developing an effective service plan with treatment family.

CDHS Minigrant (2011). Short Term Evaluation of Coaching Effectiveness in HRA.  This grant investigated ways to evaluate effectiveness of coaching outcomes in the HRA system.