Adult Division
| Director: | Charles S. Carver, Ph.D. |
| Associate Director and Clinical Track Coordinator: | Sheri L. Johnson, Ph.D. |
| Faculty: | Michael McCullough, Ph.D., Amy Weisman de Mamani, Ph.D., Jutta Joormann, Ph.D., Debra Lieberman, Ph.D., Matthias Siemer, Ph.D., and A. Rodney Wellens, Ph.D. (Department Chair) |
The Adult Division offers training leading to the Ph.D. degree with a track specific focus in Adult Clinical Psychology. This track is built on a scientist-practitioner model, with a greater emphasis on the clinical science component. Students typically receive financial support and full tuition remission through the Ph.D.
This track of the clinical program aims to train psychologists who are academically and clinically prepared to work as researchers, teachers, mentors, and clinicians in either academic settings or applied settings such as psychiatric hospitals. The track philosophy is based on the premise that research training and clinical training should be interwoven, such that development of each facilitates the further development of the other. The philosophy also is based on the premise that a sound conceptualization of normal behavior fosters better understanding of problem behavior. Thus, we place a stronger emphasis than do some clinical programs on the continuity between personality-social psychology on the one hand and psychopathology and clinical science on the other (more information on the training program).
Adult Division Research
Adult Division students have a variety of research opportunities. Below is a listing of Adult Division faculty along with an overview of their research interests. Much of this research revolves around five themes:
- Cognitive vulnerabilities in affective disorders: Drs. Johnson, Joormann, Siemer, & Carver
- Psychosocial predictors of the course of serious psychological disorders: Drs. Weisman de Mamani & Johnson
- Basic processes of personality, affect, mood, and self-regulation: Drs. Carver, McCullough, Johnson, Siemer, & Wellens
- Interpersonal processes: Drs. McCullough & Weisman de Mamani
- Biological bases of affect, personality, and social behavior: Drs. Johnson, Joormann, Carver, & McCullough.
Adult Division faculty and their research interests:
Charles S. Carver, Ph.D., Professor, Director of the Adult Division Dr. Carver's research has several focuses. He studies several aspects of personality (including the dimension of optimism-pessimism), often in the context of stressful life experiences such as major illness. Not surprisingly, he also studies the nature of coping. He has collaborated for many years in research on how cancer patients adjust to their diagnosis and treatment. Another view of personality that has drawn Dr. Carver's interest is one that emphasizes approach and avoidance processes as influences on personality. Yet another topic of interest is the bases and consequences of affective experience. The broad in terest that underlies all of this research concerns the structure of the self-regulation of behavior. See Dr. Carver's research interests for greater detail.
Sheri L. Johnson, Ph.D., Professor, Associate Director Dr. Johnson has conducted longitudinal studies to demonstrate that negative life events trigger depression, and goal-attainment life events trigger mania within bipolar disorder. Her work is currently focused on understanding the cognitive and emotional processes that gui de reactivity to failure and success in bipolar disorder. Some of these studies involve understanding more about normative reactions to success and happiness, in collaboration with Dr. Carver. Other studies involve examining how people with bipolar disorder and depression respond to laboratory manipulations of success and failure. After editing a volume called Psychological Treatm ents of Bipolar Disorder, she has begun developing a psychological treatment of mania to supplement medication approaches. See Dr. Johnson's research interests for greater detail.
Jutta Joormann, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Dr. Joormann's research is guided by the idea that understanding emotional disorders requires integrating clinical research with basic research on cognition, biology, and affect regulation. She is seeking a better understanding of how cognitive processes and aspects of emotion and mood regulation increase the risk for depression and hinder recovery from depression. Her viewpoint links working memory to ruminative responses to negative mood states. She examines how the ruminative responses interfere with emotion regulation in depression. Another important goal of her work is to use her understanding of the cognitive processes that maintain psychological disorders to develop more effective treatment and prevention programs. See Dr. Joormann's web page for greater detail.
Michael McCullough, Ph.D., Professor Dr. McCullough's research focuses on religion and human social virtues. He is interested in the proximal and ultimate causes for of such behaviors, and therefore moves between evolutionary theory and mid-range theories. Currently, Dr. McC ullough is studying the personality and environmental factors that influence religious development over the life course, is examining the effects of religious development on health and well-being as people age, and is working on a theory to explain how religions foster the development of self-control. He is also studying the effects of forgiveness on physiological functioning and is developing a theory to explain the evolution of revenge and forgiveness in humans. See Dr. McCullough's web page for additional information.
Matthias Siemer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Dr. Siemer's research has two major focuses. The first concerns the causes and characteristics of moods and emotions. Dr. Siemer is interested in the effects moods and emotions have on evaluations and appraisal judgments, and he has explored ways in which the regulation of emotions and moods influence affective dis orders. The second area of Dr. Siemer's work concerns quantitative psychology, in particular the methodological foundations of psychological research. He is especially interested in how these foundations translate into appropriate applications of research and statistical methods in basic and applied research.
Amy Weisman de Mamani, Ph.D., Associate Professor Dr. Weisman de Mamani's research focuses on cultural and family factors that predict the course of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and medical illness. She is particularly interested in applying models developed in social psychology (e.g., attribution theory) to better understand family 's member's reactions to these disorders and how such reactions relate to patient functioning. She has also developed a culturally sensitive family-focused psychosocial intervention for Spanish-speaking families with a schizophrenic member.
A. Rodney Wellens, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department Dr. Wellens has conducted research on telemediated communication; nonverbal communication, stress and decision making.
Current graduate students (and Advisor)
Yael Avivi (Carver/Laurenceau) I am interested in the role of goals in close relationship processes. Specifically, I hope to examine the utility of relationship goal progress for predicting relationship quality. I am currently investigating this idea cross-sectionally, with samples of dating partners, and longitudinally with a sample of newlywed couples.
Eugenio Duarte (Weisman de Mamani) My interest is in psychosocial factors affecting the course of schizophrenia, with an emphasis on causal attributions and expressed emotion in patients and relatives. Currently, I am investigating the role of religion and spirituality in treatment for schizophrenia. I am also involved in the development and evaluation of Culturally Informed Therapy for Schizophrenia, a family-focused treatment with newly designed interventions especially relevant for Hispanics.
Radha Dunham (Weisman de Mamani) I am interested in the treatment of schizophrenia, in particular, what elements predict positive outcomes. I am currently studying how patient and family characteristics influence therapists' ability to conduct a Culturally Informed Therapy for Schizophrenia, and also how therapist performance influences treatment outcome.
Lori Eisner (Johnson/Liddle) My current research focuses on therapeutic processes in Multidimensional Family Therapy, an evidence-based treatment for substance abusing adolescents. I am specifically interested in the family therapy technique of enactment and how successful enactment facilitates change within a family. I am currently involved in the Detention To Community study which to help adolescents make the transition from the juvenile justice system back into society. I also am involved in developing and refining a therapist training curriculum and in examining therapist adherence to the MDFT model.
Daniel Fulford (Carver) I am interested in understanding the impact of various psychosocial factors in the course of bipolar disorder. Currently, our team is examining the roles of goal-striving, ambition, and emotion regulation in the expression of mania and depression. In addition, I am looking at the effects of positively-induced moods on goal performance. In an effort to integrate these two broad areas of interest, I have designed a study to examine the periodic effects of goal progress on mood in those with bipolar disorder. Ultimately, I hope to apply findings from these projects to the development of a CBT-based psychosocial treatment of mania.
Jessica Jacobson (Siemer) My research interests focus on the cognitive mechanisms underlying resilience. I am currently conducting a study that investigates the relationships between positive affect, cognitive flexibility, emotion regulation, and resilience. I am also working on a project that examines the types of emotion regulation strategies that individuals use in everyday life.
Vamsi Koneru (Weisman de Mamani) My research interests include family-oriented psychosocial interventions for serious mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia) and how cultural factors (e.g., acculturation) interact with mental illness presentation. I am currently working on a project involving the delivery of a newly designed family therapy called Culturally Informed Therapy fo r Schizophrenia.
Joelle Lemoult (Joormann) My research focuses on examining the cognitive processes of individuals with depression, social anxiety disorder, and comorbid social anxiety and depression. I am currently conducting a study that looks at differences in the attention, memory, and interpretation biases across these three groups. In addition, I plan to examine whether differences exist in their neuroendocrine stress responses, in order to better understand biological mechanisms that may underlie mood and anxiety disorders.
Stephanie McMurrich (Johnson) My research interests focus on cognitive predictors of depression and rumination. I have also been involved in a pilot study exploring psychosocial treatments for mania. In addition, I have been conducting ratings for a study of persons with basal cell carcinoma (a project that represents a collaboration with people at Ohio State Uni versity). Our goal is to provide valid and reliable ratings of the life stressors encountered by patients, which will be used as predictors of the progression of their cancer, as well as their immune functioning.
Christopher Miller (Johnson/Carver) I am interested in bipolar disorder, including cognitive correlates, treatment, and detection. My current research is focusing on the ability of brief self-report questionnaires to detect bipolar spectrum disorders. In addition, our lab is investigating the relationship between goal-related processes and the onset and course of manic episodes.
Emily Polak (McCullough/Johnson) My research interests involve character strengths such as authenticity, empathy, and acceptance and their link to mental and physical well-being. I am particularly interested in the practice of mindfulness as a tool to reduce stress, improve attention, boost the immune system, reduce emotional reactivity, and promote a general sense of health and well-being. Other interests include constructs such as self-esteem, self-control, and the quest for meaning and their implications for education reform.
Lindsey Root (McCullough) My research interests involve the effects of positive emotions or virtues on individuals psychophysiology. I am currently investigating the effects of forgiving (or not forgiving) a real-life transgressor on the cardiovascular system. I am particularly interested in the neural origins of cardiovascular reactivity and the possibility th at some individuals have difficulty forgiving because they cannot inhibit their negative response, which may be indexed using heart rate variability.
Ben Tabak (McCullough) My research interests revolve around the study of positive psychological characteristics and their impact on psychophysiological health, resilience, and well-being. I am currently conducting a study examining the relationship between forgiveness and the neuropeptide oxytocin. I am also interested in creativity and am beginning to study the association between mania and creativity.
Tanya Tran (Joormann) My research focuses on examining the cognitive and interpersonal processes in individuals with depression. I am currently conducting a study that examines the effect of rumination on the recall of autobiographical memories, and their effects on one's motivation to engage in interpersonal events. I am also interested in examining the cognitive factors that contribute to the onset and maintenance of depression in order to develop more effective treatment and prevention programs. Thus, I plan to study the effectiveness of implicit positive interpretation training on emotional vulnerability in people with depression.
Stephanie Wasserman (Weisman de Mamani) I am involved in the Culturally Informed Therapy for Schizophrenia project. My research interests include family processes across the spectrum of psychopathology. Specifically, I am interested in expressed emotion and attributions, and I am currently examining the differences in those variables between the family members of adults wit h schizophrenia and family members of adults with autism.
Adult Division Facilities
Most student research and clinical training takes place on the Coral Gables campus. Other aspects of training occur at the university's Medical campus in downtown Miami. The Department of Psychology recently moved into a new building, which incorporates faculty and graduate student offices, classrooms, laboratories and research rooms, and the department's Psychological Services Center. This new facility incorporates clinical research laboratories (with one-way viewing panels and recording equipment) as well as comfortable rooms for therapy. The department has an extensive computer laboratory that is available to graduate students, with both Macintosh and PC platforms, suitable peripherals, and access to mainframe and Internet resources.