-
I am most interested in emotional response in groups with (or at risk for) psychopathology. The groups I am most interested in researching include individuals with schizotypal symptoms, dysphoric/depressed individuals, individuals with high trait or social anxiety, and those with other specific personality styles of interest such as obsessive or histrionic styles.
-
The methods we typically use include self report and the reports of knowledgeable others, psychophysiological reactions to standard sets of evocative stimuli, and video recordings of behaviors evoked during interviews. We also have conducted a number of studies examining the accuracy of emotional predictions as a function of symptoms of anxiety and poor emotional self-awareness (alexithymia).
-
-
In one study we are examining how individuals with prominent schizotypy symptoms react to emotionally evocative pictures in terms of pupillary reactions and visual exploration. We also collected behavioral responses to emotionally intrusive interviews from these participants as well as reports regarding trait emotional reactivity.
We record visual exploration of pictures as well as measure of physiological arousal such as pupillary reactivity to auditory probes. We also use high quality recording equipment to record verbal descriptions and non-verbal behavior during emotion eliciting interactions. Video tapes are coded to measure aspects of socio-emotional behavior and verbal production is transcribed and coded for communication deviance and affective content.
Click here to see abstracts from recently completed studies (presented at the Society for Research in Psychopathology)
Current lab members:
Graduate students:
Felix Smith, M.A. (ABD, completing his dissertation)
James Bomersbach, M.A.
Shannon Martin, M.A.
Elizabeth Goss, B.S.
Kathryn Michael, B.S.
And our able undergraduate assistants:
Brittany Wood
Brenden Behling
Our current lab (Fall, 2011):
from left to right: Stuart Quirk, Elizabeth Goss, Shannon Martin, James Bomersbach, Brittany Wood, Brenden Behling, and Kathryn Michael
Sample research interests of a few of our recent graduate students
Mike Hoerger:
Mike conducted a number of studies while at CMU. Most of these studies have focused on individual differences in “affective forecasting,” such as his recent publication
Hoerger, M., Quirk, S. W., Lucas, R. E., & Carr, T. H. (2010). Cognitive determinants of affective forecasting errors. Judgment and Decision Making, 5, 365-373. |PDF|
He is working as a research fellow at University of Rochester Medical Center. Check out his web site: Michael Hoerger
Aaron Kaiser:
Aaron's dissertation represented a novel examination of mindfulness meditation upon emotional reactivity (as measured by pupil dilation responses). He was interested in determining whether a single training of meditation can alter the immediate physiological reactivity to emotionally distressing probes (negative accusatory statements). He is now a post doc at the Boston University Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders.
Some of our undergraduate lab alumni who have gone on to pursue graduate education:
Erin O'Connor--Ph.D. Clinical program at University Detroit Mercy
Joshua Scott--Ph.D. Clinical program at Long Island University
Nikki Hernandez--Ph.D. Clinical program at Northern Texas University
Nathan Smith--Ph.D. Clinical from SUNY Binghamton
Jamie Becroft--MA in counseling from Oakland University
Joe McLaughlan--Ph.D. Clinical Program at CMU
Jennifer Nerbonne--Ph.D. Clinical Program at Eastern Mich. Un.
Laura Michelle -- Studying Health Psychology at East Carolina University
Ashley Linden -- M.A. Program at Old Dominion University.
Carl Fraser -- MSW in Clinical Social Work at Michigan State
Kayla Cox -- MSW in Clinical Social Work at Michigan State
Syndey Walsh -- Ph.D. Clinical at Wichita State University
Molly(Mo) Deslandes -- Psy.D. Argosy University
Thomas Quinn -- Ph.D. Physics Michigan State University
Dearly missed lab alumni:
Graduates:
Michael Hoerger, Ph.D. (2010)
Aaron Kaiser, Ph.D. (2009)
Linda Brewer, Ph.D. (2007)
Lakshmi Subramanian, Ph.D. (2006)
Erick Roat, Ph.D. (2006)
Anna Muller, Ph.D. (2004)
Marie Van Tubbergen, Ph.D. (2002)
Undergraduates:
Christie VanOchten
Lindsay Pietruck
Lisa Kidder
Kelley Borton
some of our noble lab alumni (Spring 2007):
from left to right: Natasha Swan, Jenny Nerbonne, Joe McLaughlan, Kelley Borton, Chris Thomas, Christie VanOchten, Felix Smith, Kelly McCarthy, Jill Trumbell, and Mike Podolan.
more of our lab alumni (circa 2005):
Labmates from the past (left to right): Adrian Accetta, Lakshmi Subramanian, Missy Prusinski, Linda Brewer (back), Erin O'Connor, Joshua Scott, Nikki Hernandez, and Erick Roat.
