Psychosocial and cognitive processes in risk for depression; impact of physical environment including green space, air pollutants and ambient temperature on mental health
I am broadly interested in the role of psychosocial factors in the etiology, maintenance and recovery from depression, as well as how depressive conditions impact people’s lives in terms of health-related behavior (such as treatment adherence among HIV+ patients) and social rejection. A number of my past research projects have examined how labile self-esteem, insecure attachment style, and ruminative coping contribute to risk for depression. Recent studies have focused on implicit self-esteem, biases in interpersonal perception, deficits in executive control and autobiographical memory, as well as testing an online mindfulness-based intervention for depression and developing a smart phone app to disrupt rumination. Our lab is presently developing studies to investigate the role of various aspects of the physical environment such as extreme heat, air pollution and urban green space in mental health outcomes. We are particularly interested in whether psychological, behavioral and social factors mediate these environmental effects.