Research

The Neuroticism and Cognition study examines the connection between the way we feel and how our mind works. Using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) design, we are testing things like processing speed, memory, and attention in brief web-based tests completed daily for about two weeks. This is open to any IU student in introductory psychology classes. Sign up now though the SONA website!

We are interested in how people process emotional faces throughout the lifespan. We have shown impairments in detection of fear, anger, and sadness with increased levels of depression, generalized anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. We have also demonstrated differences in visual attention between depressed and anxious groups while viewing emotional faces.

We are interested in the interaction of social media use and psychiatric symptoms across the lifespan, from adolescence through late adulthood. We have previously examined social media use, exercise, and internalizing symptoms in adolescents. We are also using social media data to study population health at scale. We have recently established that depressed individuals use more cognitive distortions and show more online activity and rumination at late hours than a random sample of individuals on Twitter. We have also used data from Twitter to study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and are currently investigating affect variability in depressed and anxious Twitter users.

Classification is at the heart of any science. We continue to be motivated to explore what differentiates anxiety disorders from each other and from mood disorders. Moving beyond the limitations of the rigid categorical model of our current diagnostic system, our work is based on the idea that disorders share underlying characteristics that can be conceptualized and treated in similar ways. To this end, we are interested in both (1) building new frameworks of psychopathology and (2) transdiagnostic treatments.