Kristen Jennings Black is a Guerry associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She received her PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Clemson University. Her current research focuses on employee health and well-being, with specific interests in high-risk work environments, workplace stress, social support, and meaningful work. At the undergraduate level, she teaches courses in introductory statistics and health psychology. At the graduate level she teaches research methods and statistics, organizational psychology, and groups and teams. Beyond teaching and research, she is an associate editor for Occupational Health Science and an active member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology, for which she currently serves as Secretary-Treasurer.
For my past and ongoing research, see my CV.
For students interested in getting involved with research, here are descriptions of a few ongoing projects happening now in my lab.
- Stress as a Badge of Honor: One major line of my research is understanding the nature and impact of viewing stress as a badge of honor. My past research has investigated this as an individual experience. Current research is expanding this line of work to understand how this idea of high amounts of stress as laudable comes, at least to some degree, from our social environment.
- Nuances of social support: In recent semesters, students in my lab have explored how optimal forms of social support can benefit those encountering stress. Undergraduate researchers are examining how support from professors affects students. Graduate student projects have focused on how unhelpful support (that is help that is intended to be helpful, but is actually not) can impact workers.
- Financial stress: Because money is the primary reason people work, it is important to understand how one’s financial situation affects their experience in and outside of work. In some recent collaborations, I have examined how factors like the adequacy of one’s income and their debt can relate to work attitudes and worker well-being.
- Vulnerable worker populations: I am broadly interested in high-stress and unique work environments. In the past, I have collaborated with students on research featuring a number of unique and/or disadvantaged groups including immigrant workers, workers with chronic health conditions, first responders, and others.
Recent lab highlights
Masters student Jacob Lamprecht presented his research at the 2026 SIOP Conference in New Orleans, LA. In this symposium, Jacob shared how unhelpful support can contribute to feelings of loneliness in the workplace.
At the 2026 UTC Spring Research and Arts Conference undergraduate researchers Allaysia Watkins and Gracyn Billings presented their research. They found that unhelpful social support can correlate with mental health symptoms at similar magnitudes as helpful support. In other words, unhelpful support can be as harmful as helpful support can be good.
