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.

Selected Publications

Rosenfeld, E. A., Lyman, C., Wojcik, C. M., Macia, K. S., & Roberts, J. E. (2023). Reassessing rumination: Validity of the Day Reconstruction Method for Rumination (DRM-R) to assess episodes of rumination in daily life. Psychological Assessment, 10. 10.1037/pas0001282. Advance online publication.
Yoo, E. H., Roberts, J. E., Eum, Y., Li, X., & Konty, K. (2022). Exposure to urban green space may both promote and harm mental health in socially vulnerable neighborhoods: A neighborhood-scale analysis in New York City. Environmental Research, 204(Pt C), 112292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.112292
Yoo, E. H., Eum, Y., Roberts, J. E., Gao, Q., & Chen, K. (2021). Association between extreme temperatures and emergency room visits related to mental disorders: A multi-region time-series study in New York, USA. The Science of the Total Environment, 792,148246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148246
Roberts, J.E., Kyung, Y., Koscinski, B., Rosenfeld, E.A., & Lee, H. (2021). Autobiographical memory specificity and detail: Does self-esteem moderate associations between response style to sad mood and memory? Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110142
Moritz, D. & Roberts, J.E. (2020). Depressive symptomatology and self-esteem as moderators of metaperceptions of social rejection versus acceptance: A truth and bias analysis. Clinical Psychological Science, 8, 252-265.
Rosenfeld, E.A., Kennedy, K., Farchione, T.J., & Roberts, J.E. (2019). Cleansing the attentional palate: A preliminary test of a novel approach to facilitate disengagement from rumination. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 33, 128-139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/0889-8391.33.2.128
Roberts, J.E., Yanes-Lukin, P. & Kyung, Y. (2018). Distinctions between autobiographical memory specificity and detail: Trajectories across cue presentations. Consciousness and Cognition, 65, 342-351.
Sova, C.C. & Roberts, J.E. (2018). Testing the cognitive catalyst model of rumination with explicit and implicit cognitive content. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 59, 115-120.
Moritz, D. & Roberts, J.E. (2018). Self-other agreement and metaperception accuracy across the big five: Examining the roles of depression and self-esteem. Journal of Personality, 86, 296-307.
Roberts, J.E., Porter, A.J., & Vergara-Lopez, C. (2016). Implicit and explicit self-esteem in previously and never depressed individuals: Baseline differences and reactivity to rumination. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 40(2), 164-172.
Vergara-Lopez, C. Lopez-Vergara, H., & Roberts, J.E. (2016). Testing a “content meets process” model of depression vulnerability and rumination: Exploring the moderating role of set-shifting deficits. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 50, 202-208.
Kyung, Y., Yanes-Lukin, P.K., & Roberts, J.E. (2016). Specificity and detail in autobiographical memory: Same or different constructs? Memory, 24, 272-284.
Hoorens, V., Takano, K., Franck, E., Roberts, J. E., & Raes, F. (2015). Initial and noninitial name-letter preferences as obtained through repeated letter rating tasks continue to reflect (different aspects of) self-esteem. Psychological Assessment, 27, 905-914.
Vergara-Lopez, C., Kyung, Y., Detschmer, A., & Roberts, J.E. (2014). Testing the Cognitive Catalyst Model with idiographic content: Rumination moderates the association between self-discrepancies and depressive symptoms. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, 5, 351-362.
Prisciandaro, J.J. & Roberts, J.E. (2011). Evidence for the continuous latent structure of mania in the Epidemiologic Catchment Area from multiple latent structure and construct validation methodologies. Psychological Medicine, 41, 575-588.