Jump to prior years:

2020s: 2021 | 2020

2010s: 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 

2000s: 2009 | 2008  | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 

1990s: 1998 | 1996

2021

Alyssa Morris
"Pregnancy in the Time of COVID-19: Effects on Perinatal Mental Health and Early Infant Development"
Mentor: Darby Saxbe

Stefanie Sequeira
"Testing a neurobiological susceptibility to social context model linking neural reward processing and social stress to social anxiety in adolescent girls"
Mentor: Jennifer Silk

Maria Aparcero Suero - winner of the Diversity in Clinical Science Award
"Development and Initial Validation of a Standardized Instrument to Assess Competency in Immigration Court
Mentor: Barry Rosenfeld

2020

Paula Floyd: “Personality and Psychopathology Correlates of Institutional Misconduct among Juvenile Offenders” (MENTOR: Nora Charles)

Jolin Yamin: “Experiential Training in Disclosure Elicitation and Emotional Awareness and Activation: A Randomized Test” (MENTOR: Mark Lumley)

Katherine Musacchio Schafer: Reducing Suicidal Ideation: A Pilot Randomized Control Trial of a Brief Web-Based App to Target Perceived Burdensomeness” (MENTOR: Thomas Joiner)

Diversity in Clinical Science Dissertation Grant Award

Laura Curren: “Testing the Perinatal Health Promotion Model in Underrepresented Mothers Postpartum” (MENTOR: Martha Tompson)

2019

Zabin Patel: "Individual, Family, and Neighborhood Effects on Anxiety and Depression in Youth" (Mentor: Mandy Jensen-Doss) 

Corinne Bart: "Neural Reward Functioning in Bipolar Spectrum and Substance Use Disorders: Identifying Common Mechanisms" (Mentor: Lauren Alloy)

Jennifer Gamarra: "How Powerful is Knowledge? A Mixed-Methods Approach to Evaluating Mental Health Literacy" (Mentor: Bruce Chorpita) 

2018

Kiera James -  Binghamton University - Physiological and Neural Responses to Interpersonal Stimuli in Adolescents Who Engage in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury

Sierra Kuzava - Stony Brook University - Maternal Neural Response to Child Cues: Examining Longitudinal Associations with Maternal Sensitivity and Child Behavior

Caitlin Stamatis - University of Miami - Using a Multimodal Data Science Approach to Understand Risk and Vulnerability for OCD

2017

Alexandra Peterson: "Identifying What Works: Improving Measurement Feedback Systems for Measurement-Based Care" (Mentor: Corey Fagen, University of Washington)

Amy Rapp: "Cultural Neuroscience of Latino Mental Health: Collectivism and the Psychophysiology of Self-Regulation in Adolescents" (Mentor: Denise Chavira, UCLA)

Craig Rodriguez-Seijas: "Does Mood Reactivity to Daily Stressors Predict Changes in Internalizing Across Time?" (Mentor: Nicolas Eaton, SUNY-Stony Brook)

Michael Sun: "The Effects and Neural Correlats of Combined Conscious Fear Control and Extinction Learning on Fear Reduction and Relapse" (Mentor: Michelle Craske, UCLA)

Aliona Tsypes: "A Fine-Grained Examination of Reward Processing in Suicide Attempters" (Mentor: Brandon Gibb, SUNY-Binghamton)

2016

Shannon Blakey

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Mentor:  Dr. Jonathan Abramowitz

 

Matthew Carper

Temple University

Mentor:  Dr. Philip Kendall

 

Tony Cunningham

University of Notre Dame

Mentor:  Dr. Jessica Payne

 

Anastacia Kudinova

Binghamton University

Mentor:  Dr. Brandon Gibb

2015

Anne Malaktaris, Binghamton University (Advisor Dr. Steven Jay Lynn) - "Attentional capture and difficulty disengaging from threatening and pain-related stimuli in chronic pain and clinical anxiety populations"

Andrew Peckham, University of California, Berkeley (Advisor Dr. Sheri Johnson) - "Transdiagnostic cognitive control training for emotion-relevant impulsivity"

Katharine Reynolds, University of Houston (Advisor Dr. Candice Alfano) - "Impact of experimental sleep extension on adolescent social emotion regulation"

Marianne Rizk, University of Iowa (Advisor Dr. Teresa Treat) - "The effects of caloric education, trial-by-trial feedback and their interaction on college-aged women's abilities to estimate caloric content”

2014

2013

2012

Dylan G. Gee, University of California, Los Angeles

2011

Thomas Armstrong, Vanderbilt University

The Effects of Fear Conditioning on Attentional Bias in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: An Eye Tracking Study

Joanna Chango, University of Virginia

The Neural Mechanisms Underlying Associations between a Lack of Adolescent Social Competencies and Psychological Adjustment in Early Adulthoo

Debra Glick, Suffolk University

A Comparison of the Effects of Two Interventions for Reducing Academic Procrastination: Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapy vs. Time Management

Amanda Morrison, Temple University

Attention Bias and Attentional Control in the Development of Social Anxiety Disorder

Stephanie Rabin, Drexel University

The Interaction of Therapist Experiential Avoidance and Extraneous Clinical Information in Predicting Therapist Preference for Exposure Treatment for OCD

Matthew Rouse, Emory University

Physiological Mediators of Parenting Behaviors in Depressed Mothers

Erin Ward-Ciesielski, University of Washington

Brief Skills Training for Suicidal Individuals

2010

Faith Brozovich, Temple University

Examining mental imagery and post-event processing among socially anxious individuals

Advisor: Richard Heimberg, Ph.D.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by an intense fear of negative evaluation from others in social and/or performance situations according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Research has demonstrated that socially anxious individuals’ post-event processing, or post-mortem review of a social situation, often affects their levels of anxiety, negative emotions, interpretations, and memories of events (for a review see Brozovich & Heimberg, 2008). Furthermore, research has shown that processing negative descriptions using imagery is more emotion-evoking than semantic processing of the same material (Holmes & Mathews, 2005). The present study aims to investigate post-event processing involving mental imagery and its effects on mood, anxiety, and interpretations of social and nonsocial events. Socially anxious and control participants will be told they will give a 5 min impromptu speech at the end of the experimental session. After they are told about the upcoming speech, they will be randomly assigned to one of three manipulation conditions: post-event processing imagery (PEP-Imagery), post-event processing semantic (PEP-Semantic), or control. In the post-event processing conditions they will be recalling a past anxiety-provoking speech as well as thinking about the anticipated speech either using imagery (PEP-Imagery), or focusing on the meaning (PEP-Semantic). Following this the participants will complete a variety of affect, anxiety and interpretation measures. We predict socially anxious individuals in the PEP-Imagery condition will show the greatest increases in anxiety and negative affect as well as heightened interpretation biases.

 

Kristen Gainey, University of Iowa

A lower order structural examination of the neuroticism/negative emotionality domain: Relations with internalizing symptoms and selected clinical traits

Advisor: David Watson, Ph.D.

The study of how personality traits relate to psychopathology has flourished in the past three decades, with strong evidence for systematic links between personality and psychological disorders. Great progress has been made in our understanding of the associations between broad traits and the mood and anxiety disorders (or internalizing disorders). In particular, it is clear that the broad trait neuroticism/negative emotionality (N/NE; stress reactivity and a tendency to experience negative emotions) is moderately to strongly associated with all of the internalizing disorders, both concurrently and longitudinally. However, researchers have noted the importance and relative dearth of studies that examine associations with more narrow facet-level traits. The current study examines the relations of N/NE facets with six of the internalizing disorders. In addition, associations with four clinical traits related to N/NE (i.e., anxiety sensitivity, experiential avoidance, perfectionism, and intolerance of uncertainty) will be examined. Self-report and clinical interview data will be collected from a college student sample (N = 350) and a psychiatric outpatient sample (N = 250), with multiple measures of each internalizing disorder and personality trait described above. Structural equation modeling will be used to remove shared variance among the six disorders and among the traits, allowing for the examination of relations among the unique variances of each construct. These results may lead to a better understanding of which clinical traits and which specific components of N/NE are associated with the internalizing disorders, potentially improving differential assessment, foci of treatment, and knowledge of etiological sources.

 

Ashley Johnson, Binghamton University

Attention biases in children with depression

Advisor: Brandon Gibb, Ph.D.

According to cognitive theories of depression, information processing biases are theorized to contribute to the development and maintenance of depression in both adults and children (for reviews see, Jacobs et al., 2008; Mathews & MacLeod, 2005). Although there is growing evidence to support the presence of attentional biases in depression, there are several key limitations of existing research. In seeking to address these limitations, the current study aims to extend previous findings of attentional biases in depressed adults by assessing similar biases in depressed children. In addition, the proposed project will focus on the direct assessment of attentional allocation using eye tracking technology as well as the more traditional response time data to allow for a more precise quantification of attention and for a comparison of the two methodologies. Additionally, the study will combine eye tracking with a task designed to specifically assess the hypothesized difficulty disengaging attention, and a more naturalistic passive viewing task to investigate the generalizability of past attention biases findings.

Lisa Talbot, University of California-Berkeley

The relationship between sleep and affect in bipolar disorder and insomnia

Advisor: Allison Harvey, Ph.D.

Accruing evidence in healthy individuals suggests that disturbed sleep has adverse consequences on daytime affective functioning (e.g., Yoo et al., 2007). Moreover, sleep and affect are important across psychiatric disorders (e.g., Benca et al., 1997). A bidirectional relationship has been proposed whereby disruptions in nighttime sleep and daytime affect may be mutually reinforcing (e.g., Harvey, 2008, Wehr et al., 1987). The present study examines this potential bidirectional sleep-affect relationship in individuals with interepisode bipolar disorder (n = 49), individuals with insomnia (n = 34), and individuals with no psychiatric history (n = 52) using experience sampling methodology. Eligible participants completed seven days of time-locked sleep diaries upon waking and affect measures upon waking and at bedtime. Three hypotheses will be tested. First, I predict that the bipolar and insomnia groups will exhibit more sleep disturbance and greater sleep variability than the control group. Second, I hypothesize that there will be differences in daytime affect parameters and variability across the groups. Specifically, I predict: (a) the bipolar group will exhibit higher levels of positive affect compared to the insomnia and control groups (b) the insomnia group will demonstrate higher levels of negative affect compared to the bipolar and control groups; and (c) the bipolar affect variability will be greater than the insomnia affect variability, which in turn will be greater than the control variability. Finally, I predict that there will be a bidirectional sleep-affect association in all groups, but that the relationship will be stronger in the psychiatric disorder groups and that the strength of the effects will depend on valence. Specifically, I hypothesize: (a) previous evening positive affect will predict greater subsequent sleep disturbance in the bipolar group, relative to the insomnia and control groups, while previous evening negative affect will predict greater subsequent sleep disturbance in the insomnia group, relative to the bipolar and control groups; and (b) sleep disturbance will predict greater next morning positive affect in the bipolar group, relative to the insomnia and control groups, while sleep disturbance will predict greater next morning negative affect in the insomnia group, relative to the bipolar and control groups. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) will be employed to illustrate the temporal relationships between sleep and affect across the three groups (e.g., Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992). Advances in the understanding of the specific relationships between sleep and affect could yield important information for the development of sleep disturbance interventions for individuals with disorders characterized by affect impairment.

 

Jennifer Veilleux, University of Illinois- Chicago

Affective chronometry of cue-induced cigarette craving
Advisor: Jon Kassel, Ph.D.

A recent model of craving, the elaborated intrusion model of desire (Kavanaugh, Andrade & May, 2005), suggests that an initial experience of positive affect will give way to negative affect when the individual notes an internal sense of deficit.  However, cigarette craving studies that measure affect only at a single time point following introduction of a smoking cue likely obscure the dynamic temporal shifts in emotion during craving.  Moreover, because craving is a component of most models of addiction, development of craving is inherent in the transition from increased use to dependence.  Thus, regular users experience higher levels of craving compared to light users (e.g. tobacco “chippers”), and should also experience a different pattern of dynamic emotional responses to cigarette cues due to a stronger sense of deficit.  The proposed study will utilize multilevel modeling to compare a sample of dependent smokers with tobacco chippers on emotional responses to smoking and emotionally laden cues.  Participants will provide continuous ratings of positivity and negativity (Larsen et al., 2009) as they view positive, negative, neutral and smoking-related pictures.  It is predicted that regular smokers will exhibit a higher initial level of positivity that will decrease steeply during smoking cue exposure, whereas negativity will increase throughout cue viewing.  Chippers are predicted to maintain relatively stable levels of positivity and negativity throughout cue exposure.  Importantly, dynamic emotional responses (e.g. strength of positive affect decline) will be investigated as predictors of smoking behavior (smoking topography, impulsivity when a cigarette is available).

2009

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 2009.

	Katherina Hauner Northwestern University Advisor: Susan Mineka Title: Functional neuroanatomical substrates of fear extinction during exposure therapy..
	David Johnson University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Advisor: David Penn Title: A preliminary investigation into the feasibility and clinical benefits of loving-kindness meditation to enhance the psychological recovery of individuals with persistent negative symptoms .
	Eunyoe Ro University of Iowa Advisor: Lee Anna Clark Title: Examining Relations Between Psychosocial Functioning and Personality Pathology.
	Keiran M. Rump University of Pittsburgh Advisor: Mark S. Strauss Title: Affective Experiences in Adolescents with Autism: An EMA Study.
	Amanda Steiner University of Virginia Advisor: James Coan Title: The Self- and Social- Regulation of Emotion in Older Adults.

2008

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 2008.

	Courtney Beard University of Georgia Advisor: Nader Amir Title: Information Processing Modification in Social Anxiety: Combining Attention and Interpretation Training.
	Frank Farach Yale Advisor: Teresa Treat Title: Effects of trait anxiety and induced mood on the temporal allocation of attention to emotional information.
	Ashley Peitrefesa Binghamton University Advisor: Meredith Coles Title: Temporal Relations Between Daily Negative Life Events and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms.
	Sarah Tarbox University of Pittsburgh Advisor: Michael Pogue-Geile Title: Social Functioning and Familial Liability to Schizophrenia.
	Ursula Whiteside University of Washington Advisor: Mary Larimer Title: Beyond BASICS: Enhancing Interventions for College Students Drinking to Cope.

2006

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 2006.

	Marcel Bonn-Miller University of Vermont Advisor: Michael Zvolensky, Ph.D. Title: Frequency of Marijuana Use and Anxious and Fearful Responding to Bodily Sensations: A Laboratory Test.
	Jill M. Holm-Denoma Florida State University Advisor: Thomas Joiner, Ph.D. Title: The Latent Structure of Restrictive Eating Behaviors: Taxometric Investigation and Construct Validation Using Genetic and Personality Indicators.
	Brant P. Hasler University of Arizona Advisor: Richard Bootzin, Ph.D. Title: Diurnal rhythms in co-sleeping couples.
	Valerie Grant Dalhousie University Advisor: Sherry Stewart, Ph.D. Title: Emotional Antecedents of Alcohol Cognitions & Consumption in Drinkers with Coping-Anxiety, Coping-Depression, &/or Enhancement Motives.
	Peter D. Yeomans Drexel University Advisor: James Herbert, Ph.D. Title: The effect of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder psychoeducation on the nature and severity of traumatic stress symptoms in a Burundian sample.

2005

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 2005.

	Lea R. Doughtery Stony Brook University Advisor: Daniel Klein, Ph.D. Title: Temperamental Low Positive Emotionality and HPA Reactivity in Preschoolers.
	Eva M. Epstein Temple University Advisor: Denise Sloan, Ph.D. Title: Emotional Reactivity in Eating Pathology.
	Coreen A. Farris Indiana University Advisor: Richard Viken, Ph.D. Title: Feature Integrality Between Diagnostic and Non-Diagnostic Cues of Women's Sexual Interest: Influence of Alcohol Intoxication and Sexual Coercion History.
	Kelly O'Brien University of Florida Advisor: Sheila Eyberg, Ph.D. Title: A Preliminary Examination of Coaching in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and Parenting Skill Acquisition.
	Brian Wymbs University at Buffalo, SUNY Advisor: William Pelham, Ph.D. Title: Does Disruptive Child Behavior Cause Interparental Discord? An Experimental Manipulation.

2004

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 2004.

	Stephanie Cassin University of Calgary Advisor: Kirstin von Ranson, Ph.D. Title: The Effect of Brief Motivational Enhancement Intervention on Binge Eating.
	Lindsay M. Collins University of Maryland Advisor: Jack J. Blanchard, Ph.D. Title: Behavioral Indicators of Schizotypy in the Biological Parents of Social Anhedonics..
	Susan C. South University of Virginia Advisor: Eric Turkheimer, Ph.D. Title: Personality Disorders and Marital Adjustment.

2003

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 2003. Anil Chacko University at Buffalo, State University of New Yor Advisor: William E. Pelham, Ph.D. Title: The Treatment for Single-Mothers of Children Diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Comparison Between a Traditional and an Enhanced Behavioral Parenting Program. Gail H. Chang Temple University Advisor: Lauren B. Alloy, Ph.D. Title: Lifestyle Regularity and Affective Symptomatology in Individuals Exhibiting Cyclothymic Symptoms. Rebecca E. Ford DePaul University Advisor: Kathryn Grant, Ph.D. Title: Acculturation and Problem Behaviors of Latino Youth: A Development Perspective. Amy Przeworski Penn State University Advisor: Michelle Newman, Ph.D. Title: The Efficay of Internet-based Treatment for Children with Anxiety Disorders. Jennifer A. Steinberg Temple University Advisor: Lauren B. Alloy, Ph.D. Title: Implicit and Explicit Self-Esteem Level and Rectivity as Predictors of Depression.

2002

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 2002.

	Todd Kashdan University at Buffalo, State University of New York Advisor: John E. Roberts, Ph.D. Title: Excessive Social Anxiety Among Persons with Depressive Disorders: Perceived Therapeutic Relationships and Slf-Focused Attention as Determinants of Change in Group Treatment.
	Shireen L. Rizvi University of Washington Advisor: Masha Linehan, Ph.D. Title: Treatment of Shame in Borderline Personality Disorder.
	Jasper Smits University of Texas - Austin Advisor: Michael J. Telch, Ph.D. Title: Facilitating Public Speaking Fear Feduction by Increasing the Salience of Disconfirmation Evidence .
	Jelena Spasojevic Temple University Advisor: Lauren B. Alloy, Ph.D. Title: Interpersonal Context of Depression: A Study of Individuals Involved in Newly Formed Romantic Relationships..
	Mariann R. Weierich Yale University Advisor: Teresa A. Treat, Ph.D. Title: Attentional Processing in Specific Phobia.

2001

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 2001.

	Winnie Eng Temple University Advisor: Richard G. Heimberg, Ph.D. Title: An Examination of the Interpersonal Problems Associated with Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
	Elizabeth H. Flanagan Auburn University Advisor: Roger K. Blashfield, Ph.D. Title: An Investigation of Clinician Taxonomies.
	Lori Brotto Fontana The University of British Columbia Advisor: Boris Gorzalka, Ph.D. Title: Examining the Clinical Untility of Laboratory-Based Measure of Sexual Arousal in Women with and without Arousal.
	Erin L. Scott Temple University Advisor: Richard G. Heimberg, Ph.D. Title: Misimterpretation of Bodily Symptoms: Specificity of Responses in Individuals with Panic Attacks and Hypochondriacal Concerns.

2000

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 2000.

	Meredith E. Coles Temple University Advisor: Richard G. Heimberg, Ph.D. Title: "Implicit and Explicit Memory for Critical Faces in Individuals with Social Phobia".
	Katrina Keil University of Arizona Advisor: Alfred W. Kaszniak, Ph.D. Title: "Examining Executive Function in Those With Brain Injury".
	Michael F. Lorber State University of New York at Stony Brook Advisor: Susan G. O'Leary, Ph.D. Title: "Cognitive and Emotional Mechanism of Harsh Parenting and Toddler".
	Katy L. Lynch University of Montana Advisor: Christine Fiore, Ph.D. Title: "Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Resiliency and the Mother-Child Relationship".
	Jeneva L. Ohan University of British Columbia Advisor: Charlotte Johnston, Ph.D. Title: "Aggression in Girls with and without ADHD".

1998

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 1998.

	Gretchen Clum University of Georgia Advisor: Title: .
	Carrie Bearden University of Pennsylvania Advisor: Title: .
	Amy Gorin SUNY Stony Brook Advisor: Title: .
	Cassandra L. Lehman Boston University Advisor: Title: .
	Amy Wenzel University of Iowa Advisor: Title: .
	Kelly Bickel Ohio State University Advisor: Title: .

1997

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 1997.

	Maureen H. Carrigan Medical University of South Carolina Advisor: Stephen A. Lisman, Ph.D. Title: "Reactivity to Alcohol Cues: The Effect of Perceived Availability on Responding".
	Travis Paul McNeal University of Mississippi Advisor: Nathan C. Weed, Ph.D. Title: "The Longitudinal Impact of Personality Assessment on Undestanding Clients During the Course of Psychotherapy".
	Teresa Ann Treat Indiana University Advisor: Richard M. McFall, Ph.D. Title: "The Structure adn Plasticity of Bulimics' Perceptual Organization of Body Size and Affect Information.
	Kari A. Merrill Indiana University Advisor: Richard J. Rose, Ph.D. Title: "Effects of Anxiety and Anxiety Sensitivity on Alcohol Consumption in Females".
	Catherine Chaffee Pears University of Oregon Advisor: Beverly Fagot, Ph.D. Title: "Perspective-Taking and Adjustment in Preschoolers".
	Scott N. Compton University of Nevada Advisor: William C. Follette, Ph.D. Title: "Interpersonal skills in depression: A topographical and funtional analysis".

1996

Dissertation grant awards were made to the following individuals in the fall of 1996.

	Mary Jo Coiro University of Virginia Advisor: Title: "Maternal Depressive Symptoms as a Risk Factor for the Development of Children in Poverty".
	Denise M. Sloan Case Western Reserve University Advisor: Title: "Emotional Experience and Expression in Depression".
	Jan Mohlman University of Oregon Advisor: Title: "What kind of Attention is Necessary for Fear Reduction".
	Gregory L. Stuart Indiana University Advisor: Title: "Impulsive as a Predictor of Marital Violence: Testing a Mediational Model".
	David J. Moser University of Florida Advisor: Title: "Biobehavioral Sources of Variance in Presurgical Neuropsychological Performance Among Patients With Temporal Lobe Epilepsy".
	Mark W. Miller The Florida State University Advisor: Title: "Anxiety and Emotional Stroop Interference: A Startle-Probe Investigation of Affective and Attentional Mechanisms".