Scott’s Google Scholar 📚
🧠 Contributions to Science
Dr. Donaldson’s research advances the science and practice of evaluation, measurement, and health & well-being. His work integrates rigorous methods, such as scale development and meta-analysis, and leverages digital data sources, to inform public & organizational policy, programs, and improve human well-being.
🧪 Evaluation
Dr. Donaldson is a Co-Investigator on a multi-year grant funded by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), focused on monitoring and evaluating digital tobacco marketing to inform enforcement and public health messaging. He is also a co-investigator at the Center for Rapid Surveillance of Tobacco (CRST), a national initiative tracking marketplace trends across digital channels. These efforts provide actionable evidence for policy, prevention, and regulatory response at both state and national levels.
Representative Publications:
Donaldson, S. I., Beard, T. A., Colonna, R., et al. (2023).
Online purchase attempts of flavored e-cigarettes to minors in California before and after Senate Bill 793.
JAMA Network Open
Donaldson, S. I., Beard, T., Dormanesh, A., et al. (2024).
Monitoring website marketing among leading e-cigarette brands and vendors in California: Content analysis.
Tobacco Control
Donaldson, S. I., Dormanesh, A., Majmunder, A., et al. (2024).
Examining the peer-reviewed literature on tobacco-related social media data: Scoping review.
Nicotine & Tobacco Research
🧬 Measurement
A specialist in psychometrics, Dr. Donaldson designs and validates tools to assess behavioral and public health constructs. He is the top-cited author in the International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, where his meta-analysis is the journal’s most cited article. His dissertation research on the Positive Functioning at Work Scale received the Top Dissertation Award [Honorable Mention] from the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA).
Representative Publications:
Donaldson, S. I., Lee, J. Y., Donaldson, S. I. (2020).
Evaluating positive psychology interventions at work: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology
Donaldson, S. I., Dormanesh, A., Perez, C., et al. (2022).
Association between exposure to tobacco content on social media and tobacco use: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
JAMA Pediatrics
Donaldson, S. I., Donaldson, S. I. (2020).
The Positive Functioning at Work Scale: Psychometric assessment, validation, and measurement invariance.
Journal of Well-Being Assessment
🌱 Health & Well-Being
Dr. Donaldson is the co-creator of the PERMA+4 framework, a comprehensive model of workplace well-being that integrates positive psychology with occupational health. His research uses advanced quantitative methods to examine how PERMA+4 predicts employee positive functioning and performance.
Representative Publications:
Donaldson, S. I., Van Zyl, L. E., Donaldson, S. I. (2021).
PERMA+4: A framework for work-related wellbeing, performance and positive organizational psychology 2.0.
Frontiers in Psychology
Donaldson, S. I., Suchta, M., Donaldson, S. I. (2024).
PERMA+4 well-being predicts the future: Longitudinal evidence for employee positive functioning and performance.
The Journal of Positive Psychology- Donaldson, S. I., Donaldson, S. I., McQuaid, M., Kern, M. L. (2024).
The PERMA+4 short scale: A cross-cultural empirical validation using item response theory.
International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology