Health Psychology
Health psychology in the department focuses on how biological, psychological, environmental, and cultural factors affect health. Research in health psychology examines the causes and development of illness, methods to help individuals develop lifestyles to promote health and prevent illness, interventions to help people cope with and reduce stress and pain, biopsychosocial effects on immune function, and factors in the recovery, rehabilitation, and psychosocial adjustment of individuals with serious health problems, including mental health problems. Note that the Health Psychology interest area within the Experimental PhD program does not prepare students to be clinical psychologists.
Associated faculty: Cuttler, Fales, Ladd, Magnan, Meidenbauer, Probst
Research Interests within this area
- Addictions (Cuttler, Ladd, Magnan)
- Cannabis (Cuttler, Fales, Ladd, Magnan)
- Environmental influences (Meidenbauer)
- Health behavior (Magnan)
- Occupational health and safety (Probst)
- Pediatric and adolescent pain (Fales)
- Substance use/abuse and mental health (Cuttler)
Carrie Cuttler
The Health & Cognition (THC) Lab (*See disclaimer) focuses on elucidating the potentially beneficial and detrimental effects of chronic cannabis use and acute cannabis intoxication. Our current and recent work focuses on examining links between cannabis use and mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety, OCD), physical health (e.g., pain, sleep), stress, and cognition (e.g., memory, decision-making, executive functioning, creativity, attention). Further, we are interested in examining effects of cannabis with different concentrations of THC and CBD as well as effects of cannabis concentrates to better understand their influence on mental health, physical health, and cognition.
Jessica Fales
The Adolescent Health & Wellness Lab (*See disclaimer) conducts high quality research in the areas of pediatric pain, social development, and positive psychology. Our current research efforts are primarily focused on the identification of social risk and protective factors associated with the chronic pain experience in adolescence. The ultimate goal of our research is to prevent the development of chronic pain problems in otherwise healthy youth and to help develop more effective treatments for adolescents with pain and their families.
Benjamn Ladd
Benjamin Ladd’s various research interests focus on improving prevention and early intervention techniques for promoting and motivating health behavior change. Specifically, I am interested in process research with the goal of better understanding and identifying effective elements of therapeutic interventions, particularly Motivational Interviewing, in order to reduce the impact of substance use and problems. Additionally, I am interested in understanding the risks and/or benefits of cannabis use across various populations. This includes refining the measurement of cannabis consumption and problems and investigating the role of cannabis in specific populations (e.g., chronic pain).
Renee Magnan
I apply social psychological theory to address issues in preventive health behaviors and health behavior promotion. Specifically, much of the research in my lab focuses on understanding the role that affect (e.g., worry) plays on health decisions and behavior (e.g., smoking cessation, exercise, cannabis). I am interested in both how one’s feelings about health behaviors may influence their decisions to engage in health behavior and also how health behaviors may influence one’s feelings. Both perspectives can provide important insight to identify targets for interventions to prevent negative health consequences and promote wellness.
Kim Meidenbauer
Research in the Social, Cognitive, & Environmental Neuroscience (SCENe) Lab (*See disclaimer) examines how features of the physical and social environment affect individuals’ brains and their behavior. Currently, the lab’s work focuses on how heat exposure can lead to deleterious psychological outcomes and antisocial behaviors, and how greenspace interventions can be used to buffer against the effects of heat stress. Our research employs an environmental justice lens, working with community organizations to examine how place-based interventions may address the compounding effects of economic marginalization and environmental racism. The SCENe lab is also interested in the creation and validation of research methods that allow us to “take the lab outside”, via browser-based tasks, mobile neuroimaging (fNIRS), and experience sampling techniques. We advocate for and prioritize the use of open science practices, including the ethical sharing of data and study materials, providing open and reproducible code, and pre-registering data collection and analysis plans.
Tahira M. Probst
While I am fascinated by many different areas of industrial/organizational psychology, my research over the past 15 years has largely focused on issues related to employee health, well-being and safety. In particular, I am interested in the topics of economic stress and job insecurity; accident under-reporting; and organizational safety climate and safety leadership behaviors. In addition, many of my research studies attempt to delineate the extent to which our findings generalize to other cultural contexts and to identify sociocultural variables that may explain any observed differences. Visit Coalition for Healthy and Equitable Workplaces (*See disclaimer).
*Disclaimer: This link leads to an external website that is not hosted by the university. The views and content expressed are those of the faculty member and do not represent the official positions of the university.