Faculty Feature: Dr. David de Jong

Assistant Professor of Psychology

After a 12-year career as a bicycle messenger and then owner of a courier company in Toronto, I started college at the age of 31. In my 2nd year of undergraduate studies at University of Toronto, I got hooked on research, and then completed my PhD in social-personality psychology at University of Rochester. The general trajectory of my research has been, starting with that fateful 2nd year of college: the role of male sexual inadequacy in the appeal of muscle cars, the positive illusions that people typically have about their sex lives, romantic partners’ knowledge (or lack thereof) about each other’s sexual preferences, measurement of sexual desire for one’s romantic partner in a way that responses can’t be faked, how perceptions of one’s own genitals impact sexual function and pleasure, and the role of religiosity and shame in the self-diagnosis of being a pornography addict.

At WCU, I teach research methods and statistics and PSY331 Human Sexuality. My human sexuality course revolves around what psychological science tells us about sexual health, risks and pleasure, with eye towards sexual and relationship well-being. By far, highlights of my time at WCU have been my research collaborations with dedicated students and teaching topics related to sexual well-being.

After many years of living in cities and apartments, I love mountain life and my closest visible neighbors being on a distant ridge. For fun, I work outside and am learning chainsaw operation and tree felling.