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James C. Hamilton
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James C. Hamilton
Associate Professor

James Hamilton

Primary Concentration:

Clinical Health Psychology
​(Coordinator)


James C. Hamilton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
The University of Alabama
387 Gordon Palmer Hall
Box 870348
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Phone 205-660-0840
E-Mail: jchamilt@ua.edu

Secondary Concentration:

Social Psychology

Courses:

Introductory Psychology
Senior Seminar
Beginning Psychotherapy Practicum
​Principles of Psychotherapy

Graduate Social Seminar on the Self

I will not be recruiting a graduate student in clinical health psychology for the Fall of 2020.

​I will  be accepting first-year and sophomore undergraduate students who wish to acquire research experience.

If you are interested, please email about your research interest related to excessive illness behavior, the victim role, or the social psychology of death attitudes and death acceptance.

Research Affiliations

Illness Behavior Research Group

Research Interests

  • Interests center on motivational explanations for excessive medical illness behavior. This includes the entire spectrum of subclinical excessive illness behavior to disorders such as somatoform and factitious disorders. This work is strongly influenced by social psychological theories of self and identity, particularly those involving social inclusion. 
  • Our team is also more broadly interested in the dynamics of the victim role, how victims are perceived, how observers evaluate the authenticity of victim role enactments, and how inauthentic victims persuade others to accept their claims to victimhood.
  • We are beginning research of the social psychology of death attitudes and death acceptance. The premise of the work is that low levels of death acceptance lead to irrational choices in which ironically undermine the value and quality of life.

Recent Publications

Hilton, D. C., & Hamilton, J. C. (2017). The behavioral treatment of suspected conversion disorder in children: providing an exit strategy. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 1-6.
​
Mulla, M. M., Lewis, J. A., Hamilton, J. C., Tutek, J., Emert, S. E., Witte, T. H., & Lichstein, K. L. (2017). The role of perceived sleep norms in subjective sleep appraisals and sleep-related illness behavior. J Behav Med, 40(6), 927-941. doi:10.1007/s10865-017-9867-6
 
Sherwood, I. M., Hamilton, J. C., Elmore, J. D., & Allon, S. A. (2017). A comparison of self-report and location-based measures of disaster exposure. Traumatology, 23(3), 265.
 
Hamilton, J., Feldman, M., & Sherwood, I. (2016). Factitious Disorder, Munchausen Syndrome, Munchausen by Proxy, and Malingering.
 
Conners, F. A., Phillips, B. A., Rhodes, J. D., & Hamilton, J. C. (2014). Family experience in a regional participant contact registry for research on intellectual disability. Intellect Dev Disabil, 52(2), 112-123. doi:10.1352/1934-9556-52.2.112

Hamilton, J. C., Eger, M., Razzak, S., Feldman, M. D., Hallmark, N., & Cheek, S. (2013). Somatoform, Factitious, and Related Diagnoses in the National Hospital Discharge Survey: Addressing the Proposed DSM-5 Revision. Psychosomatics, 54(2), 142-148. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psym.2012.08.013

Hart, W., Adams, J. M., Burton, K., Shreves, W., & Hamilton, J. C. (2012). Shaping reality vs. hiding from reality: Reconsidering the effects of trait need for closure on information search. Journal of Research in Personality, 46(5), 489-496. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.05.004

Swanson, L.M., Hamilton, J.C., & Feldman, M.D. (2010). Physician-based estimates of medically unexplained symptoms: A comparison of four case definitions. Family Practice, 27(5), 487-93.

Feldman, M.D., Hamilton, J.C.(2009). The Challenge of Illness Deception: Factitious Disorder versus Malingering . Paradigm , 15(1/2) 12-13.

Worley, C., Feldman, M.D., & Hamilton J.C. (2009). The Case of Factitious Disorder Versus Malingering. Psychiatric Times, (Nov.) 26-34.

Hamilton, J.C., Feldman, M.D., & Janata J.W. (2009) The A, B, Cs of Factitious Disorder: A Response to Turner. Medscape Journal of  Medicine. 11(1): 27. Published online 2009 January 27.

Feldman, M.D. & Hamilton, J.C. (2007). Mastectomy resulting from factitious disorder. Psychosomatics, 
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