Hello! Steve here – thanks for visiting my website. I am from a small town in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania called West Pittston, where I graduated from Wyoming Area High School in 2001. I am the youngest of my parents’ – Greg and Edie Buzinski – three children. My two older sisters, Krista and Amy, are a family practice D.O. in the UNC Medical System and an MHMR services manager in Wilkes-Barre, PA, respectively.

I attended Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA because of its reputation for excellent academics and the opportunity to play college basketball. During my time at “The Valley” I developed a passion for Psychology, in addition to basketball. I would become a member of Psi Chi and Phi Alpha Epsilon, as well as a captain of our men’s basketball team. After graduating magna cum laude with a B.S. in Psychology in May 2005 I knew that I wanted to pursue a career as an academic psychologist in the Teacher-Scholar model, but I took a brief detour first…

That detour took the form of playing semi-professional basketball with the Washington Generals/New York Nationals. We are the scrappy, lovable underdogs that tirelessly battle the onslaught of confetti, trick shots, fake basketballs, dancing, dribbling, and bad puns of the overwhelming Harlem Globetrotters. Our record was 0-176 during my tenure.

Despite my failure to beat the ‘Trotters, I was accepted into the Social Psychology Ph.D. program at the University of Maryland, College Park. I completed my M.S. in Psychology under Judson Mills in 2008 (“Effects on communal relationships of the presence of need, responsibility for the need, and the ability to satisfy the need”), and received my Ph.D. under the direction of Harold Sigall in 2011 when I defended my dissertation (“When guidelines become demands: Highly restrictive standards promote self-regulatory failure”).

After a post-doctoral teaching fellowship at my alma mater, I was hired as a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am currently a Teaching Associate Professor, Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies, and the Karen M. Gil Internship Director in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience. I teach courses in social and cognitive psychology, and I direct a research laboratory that investigates self-regulatory processes. I am married to a beautiful scholar, Dr. Kym Weed; we love the Tar Heels, dining outdoors, everything beach, and our two cats: Dragon & Cullen.