Research Interests

Human experience in various settings; figurative language; college teaching and learning; nature of laughter; human meaning of the non-human environment.

• Editor, Metaphor and Symbolic Activity
• UTK Lamar Alexander Prize
• UTK Chancellor’s Faculty Research Scholar

Pollio, H.R., Ursiak, M.J. (2006).  Thematic analysis of written accounts: Thinking about thought.  In C.T. Fischer (Ed.), Qualitative research methods for psychologists: Introduction through empirical studies.  San Diego: Elsevier.

Pollio, H.R., Fagan, L.B., Graves, T.R., & Levasseur, P. (2005) The semantics of space: Experiential and linguistic aspects of selected English spatial terms. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 34, 133-152.

Davis, M., Greenberg, K., Klukken, G., Pollio, H.R., Thomas, S., & Thompson, C.L. (2004). A Fly in the Buttermilk: Descriptions of University Life by Successful African American Undergraduate Students at a Large Southeastern University. Journal of Higher Education, 71, 420-445.

Pollio, H.R. & Pollio, M. R. (2004). Nice Monsters, Sandcastles and Soccer: A Thematic Analysis of Play. In R. L. Clements and L. Fiorentino (Eds.), The Child’s Right to Play, A Global Perspective (pp 375-392). New York: Greenwood Press.

Pollio, H.R. & Heaps, C. (2004). The Psychological meanings of the natural environment. Psychological Reports, 94, 35-47.

Pollio, H.R., Anderson, J., Levasseur, P., Threatt, M. (2003). Cultural meanings of nature: An analysis of contemporary motion pictures. Journal of Psychology 131, 11-24.

Pollio, H.R. (2002) Implicit double function terms in Shakespeare’s use of settings. Metaphor and Symbol 17, 141-145.

Thomas, S., Pollio, H.R. (2001) Listening to Patients: A phenomenological approach to nursing research and practice. New York: Springer.

Pollio, H.R. (2001) Implicit double function terms in Shakespeare’s use of setting. Metaphor and Symbol 17, 141-145.

Pollio, H.R. (2001) Humor and college teaching. In S. Davis and W. Buskist (Eds), The Teaching of Psychology. New York: Erlbaum (pp 69-80).

Pollio, H.R., & Beck, H.L. (2000). When the tail wags the dog: Perceptions of learning and grade orientation in, and by, contemporary college students and faculty. Journal of Higher Education, 71, 84-102.

Williamson, P.W., Pollio, H.R., & Hood, R.W. (2000). An empirical study of the anointing ritual among religious serpent handlers in the southeastern United States. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 10, 221-240.