Miami Depression and Anxiety Disorders Lab
The lab's primary research goal is to gain a better understanding of how basic cognitive processes and individual differences in emotion and mood regulation increase the risk for the onset of depression and anxiety disorders, and hinder recovery from these disorders. We are currently working on a number of projects that integrate psychological and biological risk factors and investigate the role of attention, memory, and emotion regulation in the onset and maintenance of depressive disorders and anxiety disorders. We also started projects that investigate factors that might explain the high rates of co-occurrence of depression and social anxiety and that investigate genetic and neural aspects of risk.
People
Director, Jutta Joormann- Jutta Joormann is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology. She received her doctoral degree from the Free University of Berlin and was an Assistant Professor at the Ruhr-University in Bochum in Germany. In 2002 she was awarded a fellowship from the German Research Foundation to work at Stanford University. Her main areas of interest include the identification of cognitive risk factors for depression, research on the comorbidity of anxiety and depression, and research on social anxiety disorder. Her current work examines attention and memory processes in depression and how these are linked to rumination and emotion dysregulation. In her work, she integrates a multitude of measures, including cognitive tasks, psychophysiological measures of stress reactivity and regulation, neuroendocrine assessments, genotying, and brain imaging. She is currently an Associate Editor of Cognition and Emotion.
Graduate Students
Catherine D'Avanzato- Catherine D'Avanzato is a third year graduate student in the lab. She received her Bachelors degree from Northwestern University, where she was part of a research team investigating risk factors for anxiety and mood disorders during the transition to college. Her current research interests focus on understanding how individuals with anxiety disorders and depression differ from non-disordered individuals in the types of strategies for emotion regulation that they tend to use, as well as in how effectively they are able to use these strategies. Her current study examines how depressed and non-depressed individuals differ in their affective forecasts, or predictions about emotional responses to future events, as well as how different emotion regulation strategies impact affective forecasts. In addition, she is planning a study to investigate the association among cognitive factors, such as attention, memory, and cognitive flexibility, and the use and effectiveness of different emotion regulation strategies among depressed individuals.
Joelle LeMoult- Joelle LeMoult graduated from UC Berkeley in 2001 and obtained her Masters from San Francisco State University in 2006. Her research focuses on examining the cognitive processes of individuals with depression, social anxiety disorder, and comorbid depression and social anxiety. She is currently conducting a study that looks at differences in attention, memory, and interpretation biases across these three groups. In addition, she is interested in the biological mechanisms that underlie mood and anxiety disorders and is examining whether groups differ in their neuroendocrine stress response. Joelle recently received an NRSA to extend her investigation of stress reactivity by incorporating emotion regulation strategies, indicators of cognitive control, and genetic markers of psychopathology.
Tanya Tran- Tanya Tran graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004. Her research focuses on examining the cognitive and interpersonal processes in individuals with depression. She is 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. She is 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, she plans to study the effectiveness of implicit positive interpretation training on emotional vulnerability in people with depression. Tanya also enjoys eating sushi, traveling, and arts and crafts.
Research Assistants
Connie Covarrubias- Connie Covarrubias is a senior at the University of Miami. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in psychology with minor concentrations in business administration and French. She is a member of Psi Chi and Vice President of Counseling Outreach Peer Education (C.O.P.E.). She also works as a research assistant in 'El Centro' at the School of Nursing and Health Studies. After graduation, Connie plans to get a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a concentration in forensic psychology. On the side, Connie enjoys watching movies, never missing an episode of Lie to Me, dancing, and eating chocolate chip cookies!
Marisa Bloom- Marisa Bloom is a Master's student in Mental Health Counseling at the University of Miami. She is originally from Washington, DC and also attended the University of Miami for her undergraduate education. After completing her Master's, Marisa plans to earn her Doctorate in Counseling Psychology. She enjoys reading in her free time and spending time with her dog, Petunia.
Mary Woody- Mary Woody is a double major in Psychology and Women and Gender Studies. She is interested in abnormal psychology research and hopes to be accepted into a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program. Also, she is a member of Psi Chi and C.O.P.E. and is an Academic Fellow in Hecht Residential College. In her spare time she enjoys reading, hiking, and exploring the Miami Area.
Ashley Ramos- Ashley Ramos is a junior at the University of Miami, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Biology. She began working in the Depression and Anxiety Disorders Lab in January of 2009, and has since then participated in PRIME (Psychology Research Initiative Mentorship Experience) and jumpstarted her honors thesis, which focuses on the relationship between depressive symptoms and positive mental imagery. She is a newly inducted member of Psi Chi and hopes to eventually be accepted into a Clinical Ph.D. program. In her spare time, she loves reading, dancing salsa, and enjoying nature.
Anna Petracca- Anna Petracca is from Massachusetts and has lived around the country. She is a jr. Majoring in psychology. Minoring in Modern language: Spanish and Portuguese. Anna plans to go to graduate school to become a psychologist, focusing on therapy and hopes to be able to do therapy in multiple languages.
Jennifer LeMay- Jennifer LeMay is a junior psychology major on the premed track. She works as a peer advisor for the office of the Undergraduate Academic Services in Psychology and is a new member of C.O.P.E. She enjoys gymnastics, listening to music, and photography. Jennifer plans to go to medical school and pursue a career in pediatrics or child psychiatry.
Jenesis Ramirez- Jenesis Ramirez is an undergraduate senior at the University of Miami. She is a double major in Psychology and English Literature with a concentration in Women Writers. She is a member of Psi Chi and works at the office of President Donna Shalala as an office assistance. After graduation, Jenesis plans to attend graduate school and get a Masters in Higher Education with a concentration in Enrollment Management. After this, she hopes to attain her PhD in Higher Education Leadership. She has special interests the psychology of gender and education. Jenesis enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family.
Kathryn Michael- Kathryn Michael is a Psychology major with minors in Business Administration and English. She is originally from Antigua and Barbuda and is now in her final semester as a University of Miami undergraduate. This semester she will also be finishing up her honour's thesis on rumination and working memory in depression. Kathryn enjoys playing tennis, spending time with friends and family, going to the beach and tutoring underprivileged youth in the South Miami area. After graduation, Kathryn hopes to get her PhD in Clinical Psychology and split her time between being a practicing therapist and university professor.
Nicole Padua- Nicole Padua is originally from Indiana and is a senior at UM. She is majoring in Psychology with minors in Spanish and Chemistry. Upon graduation, she hopes to attend medical school and is most interested in pediatrics. In her spare time, she enjoys tennis, golf, and participating in the UM chapter of Best Buddies.
Kate Cross- Kate Cross is a senior at the University of Miami. She is currently earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in English. She loves animals, reading, and art. She enjoys traveling and after graduation plans to move around the country (and the world, if possible!) to work towards environmental conservation. While Kate has always been fascinated with psychology and plans to incorporate it into her career as much as possible, she is planning on eventually attaining a degree in environmental law.
Collaborating Faculty and Visiting Researchers
Stefanie Goergen- Stefanie Goergen is a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Psychology and an undergraduate at the University of Mainz, Germany. She will receive her masters degree in the Spring of 2010 and will continue to pursue her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Stefanie is interested in emotion regulation strategies and psychopathology. Her past research experience has focused on analyzing the presence of emotion regulation strategies in the context of health anxiety, particularly maladaptive strategies such as suppression, rumination and catastrophizing. She is also interested in implicit tests, research methods and statistics.
Alvaro Sanchez- Alvaro Sanchez is a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Clinical Psychology and a PhD student at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. His research focuses on individual differences in cognitive processes, like selective attention and implicit memory, and how they are related to the onset and maintenance of depression. On the other side, he is also interested in the study of adaptive patterns in these processes, like attentional biases to positive information, and how they can be protective factors to emotional disorders and explicative factors of positive functioning. Alvaro's research is directed to analyze the relationship between automatic and controlled cognitive processes with different phases of mood regulation, and how these cognitive patterns can help to understand in what way depression is developed and maintained.
K. Lira Yoon- K. Lira Yoon is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maine. She worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the Miami Depression and Anxiety Disorders Lab from 2006-2009 and continues collaboration with Miami. She received her doctoral degree from Northwestern University. Her main research interest is experimental psychopathology with an emphasis on anxiety and depression, particularly information processing in social anxiety and depression. Her other research interest includes emotion regulation, stress reactivity, and comorbidity of anxiety and depression. She employs multiple measures such as cognitive tasks, psychophysiological and neuroendocrine measures of stress reactivity and regulation.
Ulrike Zetsche- Ulrike Zetsche is a PhD student at the University of Marburg, Germany. She received her Masters in Clinical Psychology from the University of Basel (Switzerland) in 2005 and worked as a visiting researcher at the Miami Depression and Anxiety Disorders Lab from 2006-2007. Her research focuses on individual differences in cognitive processes and how they are related to the onset and maintenance of depression and anxiety disorders. At the Miami Depression and Anxiety Lab, she investigated how deficits in inhibitory processes are linked to rumination and the maintenance of depression. In her current study, she is examining deficits in inhibitory processes and implicit learning in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder and social phobia.
Research Projects
- Autobiographical memory in depressed and/or socially anxious individuals - Dr. K. Lira Yoon
- There is mounting evidence that individuals with depression have a tendency to retrieve generic autobiographical memories. In contrast, there are only a few studies on overgeneral memory in socially anxious individuals. Despite high comorbidity rates between depression and social anxiety, individuals with comorbid depression and social anxiety have been neglected in this literature. More recently, executive functioning has been linked to depressed individuals' tendency to retrieve overgeneral memories. In this study, we are investigating whether socially anxious individuals and comorbid participants exhibit overgeneral memory. We are also investigating the relationship between inhibition and the specificity of autobiographical memory in depressed and/or socially anxious individuals. In addition, by collecting biological markers of stress reactivity (i.e., cortisol), we will be able to examine the link between stress reactivity, autobiographical memory, and psychopathology (i.e., depression and social anxiety disorder).
- Research Assistants: Ashley Ramos
- Mental imagery in depression and social anxiety - Dr. K. Lira Yoon
- It has been argued that individuals with social anxiety disorder have vivid imagery whereas individuals with major depressive disorder engage in verbal processes more than in mental imagery. Empirical evidence, however, is scarce at best. We are, thus, examining the nature of mental imagery in individuals with high levels of social anxiety and/or depressive symptoms, and investigate how mental imagery is related to goal engagement/disengagement.
- Research Assistants: Kate Cross, Kat Michael, Ashley Ramos
- Cross-cultural study on emotion regulation and its consequences - Dr. K. Lira Yoon
- There is a growing body of literature addressing different ways of regulating mood and their consequences. Studies have also shown that the consequences of emotion regulation could be culture-specific (e.g., Butler, Lee, & Gross, 2007). Investigating the influence of culture on the consequences of emotion regulation is still at its early stage, and studies thus far focused on different cultural groups within the United States. In this study, we are investigating the influence of culture on emotion regulation and its consequences. More specifically, we are comparing Western-European culture and Asian culture to examine (a) the prevalence of different types of emotion regulation (e.g., rumination, suppression, reappraisal) in two cultures, and (b) whether consequences (i.e., psychological and general well-being) of emotion regulation differ depending on the culture.
- Attention, memory, and interpretation biases in comorbid depression and social anxiety - Joelle LeMoult
- The biased processing of emotional material plays an important role in the onset and maintenance of social anxiety and depression (e.g., Teasdale, 1988). Understanding these biases has thus been an integral component to successfully developing intervention programs (e.g., Clark, 2001). Cognitive models of anxiety and depression (e.g., Beck, 1967) suggest that individuals with mood disorders attend to and remember negative information, and interpret ambiguous information in a negative manner. The nature of information processing biases in comorbid depression and social anxiety, however, is not clear. In carefully diagnosed comorbid and non-comorbid participants, we are investigating the roles of: (a) orienting towards and disengaging from negative stimuli; (b) memory of negative stimuli; and (c) interpreting ambiguous information.
- Emotion Regulation and the Cortisol Stress Response in Depressed Individuals - Joelle LeMoult
- Stressful life events have been strongly associated with the onset and severity of depression (Brown, Harris, & Hepworth, 1994). This link, however, is not consistent across individuals. Rather, stressful life events are suggested to interact with individual vulnerability factors to predict the onset of depression (Caspi et al., 2003). One vulnerability factor, rumination, is an emotion regulation style that has been shown to be both a risk factor for depression and a mechanism that exacerbates the distress (Nolen-Hoeksema & Davis, 1999). Rumination involves passively and repetitively concentrating on ones negative feelings and the consequences of these feelings. This indicates that different emotion regulation styles may differentially impact the human stress response. Cortisol is one of the most important hormones released in response to stress, and thus can be used as a marker of the human stress response (Stansbury & Gunnar, 1994). We are currently investigating the impact that different emotion regulation styles (rumination, distraction, and reappraisal) have on individuals' cortisol stress response and recovery. This research may explain individual differences in the propensity to develop depression after a negative life event.
- Research Assistants: Constanza Covarrubias, Nicole Padula, and Mary Woody
- Stress reactivity: The role of genetic and cognitive factors - Joelle LeMoult
- Diathesis-stress models of depression suggest that increased risk for depressive episodes stems not from abnormality in the initial response to a stressor, such as a negative life event, but rather from difficulties in regulating the ensuing affective state (e.g., Flynn & Rudolph, 2007). This NIMH-funded study combines psychological and biological methods in order to examine factors that hinder recovery from stress among persons who are vulnerable to MDD but who have never experienced a depressive episode. One way that vulnerability has been defined is through a genetic predisposition; the short allele of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) has been linked to a variety of psychopathology, including depression. We are currently examining three possible mechanisms that may underlie the association between 5-HTTLPR and prolonged negative affect following stress: biological hyperreactivity to stress, deficits in cognitive control, and the use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies.
- Research Assistants: Constanza Covarrubias, Nicole Padula, and Mary Woody
- The Effects of Induced Interpretation Biases on Emotional Vulnerability in Depression - Tanya Tran
- This study proposes to examine whether positive and negative interpretation biases can be experimentally induced, and if so, whether these training programs can be applied to treatments for depression. Past studies have found that interpretive biases can be induced in individuals with anxiety disorders, which affect state anxiety and reactivity to an acute stressor (e.g. Grey & Mathews, 2000; Mathews & MacLeod, 2000, etc.). However, to date, no studies have been conducted to examine the effects of interpretive training in depression. This study also aims to examine the effect that manipulating interpretations may have on an individual's ability to cope with stress. Lastly, we would like to examine the link between memory and interpretation biases in depression. It seems that negatively distorted memories of ambiguous events may distort initial interpretations. We therefore examine whether our interpretation training affects memory biases in depression. By applying knowledge of the cognitive factors involved in the maintenance of depression to training techniques, this study aims to bridge the gap between the basic research and treatments for depression.
- Rumination and Interpersonal Interactions in Depression - Tanya Tran
- Numerous studies suggest that the tendency to respond to negative mood states and negative life events with ruminative thinking increases the risk for the onset of depressive episodes (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991; 2000). Though much research has been done investigating the cognitive consequences of rumination, fewer studies have focused on examining the subsequent effects of these cognitive changes on interpersonal interactions. Lyubomirksy and Nolen-Hoeksema found that while dysphoric participants who ruminated predicted that future interpersonal activities would be just as enjoyable as nondysphoric participants and as dysphoric participants who did not ruminate, they were less likely to engage in these social activities (1993). This study proposes to investigate the mediating factor between maladaptive rumination and one's motivation to engage in future interactions. Specifically, this study aims to examine if rumination increases the salience and recall of negative autobiographical memories in people with major depressive disorder (MDD), and if increased recall of negative memories, in turn, affects one's motivation to engage in future interpersonal interactions. Investigating the cognitive and interpersonal consequences of maladaptive ruminative responses may provide new insight into the factors that increase vulnerability for the onset of depression and impair recovery from depression.
- The Effects of Rumination on Facebook Following a Relationship Break-up - Tanya Tran
- A tendency to respond to negative mood states with perseverative thinking, such as worry or rumination, has been shown to increase the risk for emotional disorders. Social networking sites, such as Facebook, may provide new means of triggering and prolonging perseverative thinking, exacerbating one's negative mood, and negatively affecting one's adjustment following a negative life event. This experience sampling study strives to examine the effect of using maladaptive emotion regulation strategies on Facebook in individuals who have recently experienced a break-up. These findings may have significant implications for adjustment (e.g., severity and duration of depressive and anxiety symptoms) following a negative event.
- Affective Forecasting in Depression: The Effects of Rumination and Reappraisal - Catherine D'Avanzato
- There is much evidence that people are inaccurate in predicting the impact of future situations on their emotions. At the same time, affective forecasts have important implications for behavior, decision-making, and current mood and may play an important role in the maintenance of emotional disorders. This study investigates two such factors. We examine (1) whether affective forecasting differs as a function of depressive symptoms and (2) whether strategies people use to regulate their current affect influence their predictions of future emotional responses. Results of this study will have important implications for theories of emotion regulation in depression and for treatment of depression.
- Research Assistants: Marisa Bloom, Jenesis Ramirez
- Deficits inhibiting negative information and its relation to rumination and depression - Ulrike Zetsche
- Rumination has been identified as an important risk factor for the development and recurrence of depressive episodes. However, very little is known about cognitive mechanisms that may underlie ruminative thought processes. Recent findings have suggested that individual differences in the ability to inhibit negative information might explain differences in the tendency to ruminate. Individuals with deficits in inhibitory processes are easily distracted by irrelevant information and have problems discarding no longer relevant thoughts, possibly leading to the kind of rumination observed in depressed people. Inhibitory processes, however, operate at different stages of information processing and it is not yet clear which of these processes are linked to rumination or depression. Thus, the goal of the present project is to assess different inhibitory processes and to determine which of these processes are linked to rumination and depression. In this study, inhibitory processes are assessed by several computer based reaction time tasks that assess the ability to inhibit external cues before entering working memory (WM) as well as the ability to inhibit no longer relevant information that has already been in WM. In a second part of this research project, we are looking at how these different inhibitory processes are related to each other.
Participate
Do you want to participate in our studies? Call us at 305- 284-4917 or email the Miami Depression and Anxiety Disorders Lab at mood@psy.miami.edu.
We thank you for your help!
Contact
Miami Depression and Anxiety Disorders Lab
Psychology Department, University of Miami
5665 Ponce de Leon Blvd.
Coral Gables, FL
Phone: 305- 284-4917
Email: mood@psy.miami.edu