CURRENT LABORATORY RESEARCH
RESILIENCE AND ADAPTATION TO INJURY STUDY
When faced with challenging experiences, most people can adjust well. This research aims to understand how individuals adjust to difficult life events. Our goal is to be able to model emotional and situational factors that contribute to resilience, as well as, those factors that contribute to difficulty and the onset of common psychological disorders like depression and anxiety.
PREVIOUS RESEARCH PROJECTS
Below are examples of studies we have previously engaged in:
THE AKRON FIRE DEPARTMENT RESILIENCE PROJECT
2017-2018
Our goal was to try to better understand the psychological and biological factors that promote resilience and stress management in Akron Fire Department (AFD) firefighters. This includes better understanding emotional responses, patterns of attention, ways of thinking, different coping behaviors like exercise or substance use, and biological factors like differences in your genomic DNA. We are also interested in understanding activities that are part of the AFD critical stress protocols.
TRANSITION TO COLLEGE STUDY
2016-2018
This research is aimed at better modelling biological and environmental influences on risk for psychiatric disease in young adults, specifically college freshman. Most young adults do not develop disorders but adjust well to both situational and developmental changes that occur in college. However, differentiating between normative levels of distress and risk-related responses is complex and not yet well-understood. This research project is focused on identifying genetic, hormonal, cognitive, and behavioral indicators of risk for emotion-related psychiatric illness in young adults who are entering their freshman year at Kent State University.