James C. Coyne

Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, Coyne attended New London High School in New London, Connecticut.{{Cite web |url=https://www.coyneoftherealm.com/pages/biography |title=Biography |website=Coyne of the Realm |language=en |access-date=2018-10-24}} He received his B.A. (1968) from Carnegie-Mellon University and his Ph.D. in psychology (1975) from Indiana University Bloomington (dissertation title Depression and the Response of Others).{{cite journal |last=Coyne |first=James C. |date=April 1976 |title=Depression and the response of others |journal=Journal of Abnormal Psychology |volume=85 |issue=2 |pages=186–193 |pmid=1254779 |doi=10.1037/0021-843x.85.2.186}} After being a Clinical Psychology Intern at the University of Florida in 1972–3, he was an instructor at Miami University from 1973 to 1975, where he became an assistant professor in 1975. He became professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, and became an emeritus professor there upon his retirement in 2013.{{cite web | url=http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v60/n33/hot.html#retired | title=The 2014 Newly-Retired Faculty | work=University of Pennsylvania Almanac | date=6 May 2014}}

Coyne was named an ISI Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics in 2001, and was ranked #200 in a 2014 list of the most eminent psychologists of the post-World War II era.{{Cite journal |last1=Diener |first1=Ed |last2=Oishi |first2=Shigehiro |last3=Park |first3=JungYeun |date=2014-08-25 |title=An incomplete list of eminent psychologists of the modern era. |journal=Archives of Scientific Psychology |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=20–31 |doi=10.1037/arc0000006 |issn=2169-3269|doi-access=free }}

Coyne's research from the 1980s{{cite journal |last1=Strack |first1=Stephen |last2=Coyne |first2=James C. |date=April 1983 |title=Social confirmation of dysphoria: shared and private reactions to depression |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=798–806 |pmid=6842366 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.44.4.798}} suggested that negative responses by others to depressive behavior can increase the social isolation of depressed individuals, potentially leading to a "depressive spiral".{{cite journal |last1=Lara |first1=Maria Elena |last2=Klein |first2=Daniel N. |date=August 1999 |title=Psychosocial processes underlying the maintenance and persistence of depression: implications for understanding chronic depression |journal=Clinical Psychology Review |volume=19 |issue=5 |pages=553–570 |pmid=10467491 |doi=10.1016/s0272-7358(98)00066-x}}{{cite book |last=Daly |first=John A. |date=2011 |chapter=Personality and interpersonal communication |editor1-last=Knapp |editor1-first=Mark L. |editor2-last=Daly |editor2-first=John A. |title=The Sage Handbook of Interpersonal Communication |edition=4th |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |publisher=SAGE Publications |pages=131–168 (141) |isbn=9781412974745 |oclc=731536397}}

A 2007 study led by Coyne found that positive emotional well-being was not associated with increased life expectancy among head and neck cancer patients.{{cite journal|last1=Coyne|first1=James C.|last2=Pajak|first2=Thomas F.|last3=Harris|first3=Jonathan|last4=Konski|first4=Andre|last5=Movsas|first5=Benjamin|last6=Ang|first6=Kian|authorlink7=Deborah Watkins Bruner|last7=Watkins Bruner|first7=Deborah|title=Emotional well-being does not predict survival in head and neck cancer patients|journal=Cancer|date=1 December 2007|volume=110|issue=11|pages=2568–2575|doi=10.1002/cncr.23080|pmid=17955501|doi-access=free}}{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-nov-05-he-cancer5-story.html | title=Mood doesn't help in cancer survival | work=Los Angeles Times | date=5 November 2007 | access-date=13 February 2015 | author=Gellene, Denise}}{{cite web | url=http://discovermagazine.com/2008/feb/hope-may-be-useless-against-cancer | title=Hope May Be Useless Against Cancer | work=Discover | date=February 2008 | accessdate=13 February 2015 | author=Barone, Jennifer}}

Coyne has criticized the field of positive psychology and the research claiming that a positive attitude can impact one's health.{{cite web | url=http://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/04/positive-psychology.aspx | title=Positive psychology advances, with growing pains | work=Monitor on Psychology | date=April 2011 | accessdate=13 February 2015 | author=Azar, Beth}}{{cite web | url=http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/10/health/can-meditation-really-slow-aging/ | title=Can meditation really slow aging? | work=CNN | date=10 July 2014 | accessdate=20 April 2015 | author=Marchant, Jo}} He has also criticized studies which have concluded that personality traits are linked to an increased risk of cancer death.{{cite web | url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-personality-cancer-idUSTRE67C2O920100813 | title=Personality not linked to cancer risk or prognosis | work=Reuters | date=13 August 2010 | accessdate=13 February 2015 | author=Norton, Amy}}

Coyne has stated that a 1970s study by Ellen Langer, which found that elderly people given plants to take care of lived longer than those who were not, would not have "much credibility today, nor would it meet the tightened standards of rigor."{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/magazine/what-if-age-is-nothing-but-a-mind-set.html | title=What if Age Is Nothing but a Mind-Set? | work=The New York Times | date=26 October 2014 | accessdate=13 February 2015 | author=Grierson, Bruce}}

Coyne has also criticized studies that claimed to have shown that acceptance and commitment therapy was effective in reducing rehospitalization in cases of psychosis. In his article "Troubles in the Branding of Psychotherapies as "Evidence Supported'",{{cite web |last=Coyne |first=James C. |author-link=James C. Coyne |title=Troubles in the branding of psychotherapies as 'evidence supported' |url=http://blogs.plos.org/mindthebrain/2012/10/22/troubles-in-the-branding-of-psychotherapies-as-evidence-supported/ |date=22 October 2012 |website=plos.org |publisher=PLOS |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304014203/http://blogs.plos.org/mindthebrain/2012/10/22/troubles-in-the-branding-of-psychotherapies-as-evidence-supported/ |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=4 May 2016}} Coyne stated:

{{Blockquote|On September 3, 2012 the APA Division 12 website announced a rating of "strong evidence" for the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy for psychosis. I was quite skeptical. I posted links on Facebook and Twitter to a series of blog posts (1, 2, 3) in which I had previously debunked the study claiming to demonstrate that a few sessions of ACT significantly reduced rehospitalization of psychotic patients.

David Klonsky, a friend on FB who maintains the Division 12 treatment website quickly contacted me and indicated that he would reevaluate the listing after reading my blog posts and that he had already contacted the section editor to get her evaluation. Within a day, the labeling was changed to "designation under re-review as of 9/3/12" and it is now (10/16/12) "modest research support."

|James C. Coyne}}

In 2015, Coyne attacked Gabriele Oettingen's book Rethinking Positive Thinking and accused Oettingen of aggressively promoting pseudoscience while ignoring other research in clinical psychology.{{cite web |last=Coyne |first=James C |title=Do positive fantasies prevent dieters from losing weight? |url=http://blogs.plos.org/mindthebrain/2015/09/16/do-positive-fantasies-prevent-dieters-from-losing-weight/ |date=16 September 2015 |website=plos.org |publisher=PLOS |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002095242/http://blogs.plos.org/mindthebrain/2015/09/16/do-positive-fantasies-prevent-dieters-from-losing-weight/ |archivedate=2 October 2015 |accessdate=7 November 2015}}{{cite web |last=Coyne |first=James C |title=Promoting a positive psychology self-help book with a Wikipedia entry |url=http://blogs.plos.org/mindthebrain/2015/09/23/promoting-a-positive-psychology-self-help-book-with-a-wikipedia-entry/ |date=23 September 2015 |website=plos.org |publisher=PLOS |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008102125/http://blogs.plos.org/mindthebrain/2015/09/23/promoting-a-positive-psychology-self-help-book-with-a-wikipedia-entry/ |archivedate=8 October 2015 |accessdate=7 November 2015}} Coyne pointed out that as part of Oettingen's aggressive promotional campaign for her book, her own son created Wikipedia articles about her work.

In 2017, Coyne attacked his co-editors at the Journal of Health Psychology, including George Davey Smith. The disagreements were over the special issue on the PACE trial for chronic fatigue syndrome, which three of his co-editors considered to be too one-sided.{{cite web |title=The Times: Scientists trade insults over myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) study |date=1 August 2017 |url=http://www.meassociation.org.uk/2017/08/the-times-scientists-trade-insults-over-myalgic-encephalomyelitis-me-study-01-august-2017/ |website=meassociation.org.uk |publisher=ME Association |accessdate=27 October 2017}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mSeSJVwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao Profile] at Google Scholar

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Category:1947 births

Category:Living people

Category:Carnegie Mellon University alumni

Category:Indiana University Bloomington alumni

Category:21st-century American psychologists

Category:American cancer researchers

Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty

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Category:Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania faculty

Category:20th-century American psychologists