Faculty and Staff Profile

Jenna Van Fossen

Educational Background

Ph.D. Organizational Psychology
Michigan State University 2023

M.A. Organizational Psychology
Michigan State University 2021

B.A. Psychology
California State University, Fresno 2018

Courses Taught

Future of Work (Graduate)
Advanced Experimental Psychology (Undergraduate)

Profile

Jenna Van Fossen received her Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from Michigan State University, where she worked as a member of a large multidisciplinary team on research projects to prepare the workforce for the adoption of autonomous vehicles. As a graduate student she also spent a year as a visiting research assistant at the Münster University of Applied Sciences in Münster, Germany. Dr. Van Fossen studies worker health and well-being, with an emphasis on the career and well-being implications of new and emerging technologies (such as work-related smartphone use, AI adoption, and workforce automation). Dr. Van Fossen will be accepting a PhD student for the 2025-2026 cycle.

Research Interests

Occupational health and well-being, technology and work, work-nonwork interface, trust

Research Publications

Selected representative publications:
• Van Fossen, J. A., Watson, G. P., Schuster, A. M., Baker, N., Chang, C.-H, & Cotten, S.R.
(2024). Striving for the self: A self-regulation model of positive identity maintenance in platform-based gig drivers. Journal of Organizational Behavior.
• Hamm, J. A., Carrera, J., Van Fossen, J. A., Key, K., Calhoun, K., & Woolford, S. (2023). Conceptualizing trust and distrust as alternative stable states: Lessons from the Flint water crisis. Ecology and Society.
• Van Fossen, J. A., Schuster, A. M., Sperry, D., Cotten, S. R., & Chang, C.-H. (2023). Concerns, career decisions, and role changes: A qualitative study of perceptions of autonomous vehicles in the trucking industry. Work, Aging and Retirement, waac037.
• Van Fossen, J. A., & Chang, C.-H. (2022). Aspects of violence leading to distress and changed attitudes for physiotherapists: A qualitative investigation. Physiotherapy. doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2022.08.005
• Van Fossen, J. A., Ropp, J. W., Darcy, K., & Hamm, J. A. (2022). Comfort with and willingness to participate in COVID-19 contact tracing: The role of risk perceptions, trust, and political ideology. Social Science & Medicine, 115174. doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115174
• Van Fossen, J. A., Baker, N., Mack, E. M., Chang, C.-H., Cotten, S. R., & Catalano, I. (2022). The moderating effect of scheduling autonomy on smartphone use and stress among older workers. Work, Aging and Retirement. doi.org/10.1093/workar/waac017
• Van Fossen, J. A., Pyram, R. H., Fisher, S. L., & Wasserman, M. E. (2022). The importance of representativeness as well as timeliness in studying technology: Three additional suggestions. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice.

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