Karin Coifman

Graduate Areas:

• Clinical - Adult Psychopathology

Does Dr. Coifman plan to recruit a doctoral student for the next incoming class?

Research Interests:

Our research is focused on basic emotion processing and emotion regulation in relation to adjustment during acute and chronic stress.  This includes emotion processes associated with resilience or, alternatively, the development of significant mental illness.  Our research is conducted on community populations in the context of major stressors (e.g., bereavement, chronic illness) as well as specific clinical populations with disorders characterized by emotion regulatory problems (e.g., Mood and Anxiety Disorders).  Our research methodology includes clinical interviews, experience sampling diaries and experimental/cognitive tasks and we rely primarily on psychophysiological and behavioral indices of emotion and emotion regulation.
 

Lab Site:

Kent Clinical Affective Science Lab

Courses Frequently Taught:

• Psychological Interventions
• Introduction to Psychotherapy

Publications:

• Coifman, K.G., Disabato, D., Aurora, P. Seah, T.H.S., Mitchell, B. Simonovic, N., Foust, J., Sidney, P., Thompson, C., & Taber, J. (in press). What drives preventive health behaviors during a global pandemic? Emotion and Worry. Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
• Coifman, K.G., Disabato, D.D., Seah, T.H.S., Ostrowski-Delahanty, S., Palmieri, P.A., Delahanty, D., & Gunstad, J. (in press). Boosting positive mood in medical and emergency personnel during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preliminary evidence of efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability for a novel online ambulatory intervention. Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Coifman, K.G., Seah, T.H., Nylocks, K.M., Wise, A., Almahmoud, S., Summers, C., Aurora, P. Garcia, M. & Delahanty, D.L. (in press). Micro versus Macro Level Processes on the Path to Disease: How stress impacts sleep, affect, risk-related behavior and symptom development in high risk adults. Anxiety, Stress & Coping.
• Seah, T.S. & Coifman, K.G. (in press). Emotion Differentiation and Behavioral Dysregulation in Clinical and Non-Clinical Samples: A Meta-Analysis. Emotion
• Aurora, P. & Coifman, K.G. (in press). Unpacking Social Avoidance and Substance Use in Social Anxiety: Does Extraversion Predict Behavioral Choices in College Students? Psychopathology & Behavioral Assessment
• Seah, T.S., Matt, L.M. & Coifman, K.G. (2020). “You” versus “I”: Spontaneous decentering mediates the association between working memory capacity and emotion regulation success. Clinical Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702620953636.
• Seah, T.S., Aurora, P. & Coifman, K. G. (2020). Emotion Differentiation as a Protective Factor against the Behavioral Consequences of Rumination: A Conceptual Replication and
• Extension in the Context of Social Anxiety. Behavior Therapy, 51(1) 135-148.
• Coifman, K.G. &  Summers, C. (2019). Understanding Emotion Inflexibility in Risk for Affective Disease: Integrating current research and finding a path forward. Frontiers: Clinical and Health Psychology, 10:392; doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00392
• Coifman, K.G., Kane, M.R., Bishop, M., Matt, L.M., Nylocks, K.M. & Aurora, P. (2019). Predicting negative affect variability and spontaneous emotion regulation: Can working memory tasks estimate emotion regulatory capacity. Emotiondoi.org/10.1037/emo0000585
• Nylocks, K.M., Bar-Kalifa, E., Rafaeli, E. & Coifman, K.G. (2018). Testing the influence of negative and positive emotion on future health-promoting behaviors in a community sample. Motivation & Emotion,  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9729-8 
• Coifman, K.G., Nylocks, K.M. & Halachoff, D. (2018). Mitigating risk? Set-shifting ability in high threat sensitive individuals predicts approach behavior during simulated peer-rejection. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37(7), 481-513.
• Nylocks, K.M., Gilman, T.L., Latsko, M., Jasnow, A.M. & Coifman, K.G. (2018). Increased parasympathetic activity and ability to generate positive emotion: The influence of the BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism on Emotion Flexibility. Motivation & Emotion, 42(4), 586-601.
• Gilman, T.L., Shaheen, R., Nylocks, K.M., Halachoff, D., Chapman, J., Flynn, J.J., Matt, L.M. & Coifman, K.G. (2017). A film set for the elicitation of emotion in research: A comprehensive catalog derived from four decades of investigation. Behavior Research Methods, 1-22.
• Latsko, M.*, Gilman, T.L., Matt. L.M., Nylocks, K.M., Coifman, K.G. & Jasnow, A.M. (2016). A Novel Interaction Between Tryptophan Hydroxylase 2 (TPH2) Gene Polymorphism (rs4570625) and BDNF Val66Met predicts a high-risk emotional phenotype in healthy subjects, PLoS One 11 (10) e0162585.
• Matt. L.M., Fresco, D.M. & Coifman, K.G. (2016). Trait Anxiety and Negative Affect Differentiation: A vulnerability factor to consider? Anxiety Stress & Coping. DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2016.1163544
• Coifman, K.G., Flynn, J.J. & Pinto, L.A. (2016). When Context Matters: Negative emotions predict psychological health and adjustment. Motivation & Emotion, 40(4), 602-624.
• Gilman, T.L., Latsko, M., Matt, L.M., Flynn, J.J., de la Cruz Cabrera, O., Douglas, D., Jasnow, A.M., & Coifman, K.G. (2015) Variation of 5-HTTLPR and deficits in emotion regulation: A pathway to risk? Psychology & Neuroscience, 8(3) 397-413.
• Shields, M.C., Matt, L.M., Coifman, K.G. (2015). Physical activity and adaptive negative emotion during peer-rejection: Evidence for emotion context sensitivity. Journal of Health Psychology. DOI: 10.1177/1359105315587139
• Harvey, M.M. Coifman, K.G. , Ross, G.S., Kleinert, D. & Giardina, P.(2014). Flexibility in emotional word use predicts adaptive health behavior: Emotion context sensitivity and treatment adherence. Journal of Health Psychology doi: 10.1177/1359105314532152 
• Zaki, L.F, Coifman, K.G., Berenson, K., Rafaeli, E. & Downey, G. (2013) Emotion Differentiation as a Protective Factor to Non-Suicidal Self Injury in Borderline Personality Disorder. Behavior Therapy, 44, 529-540.
• Coifman, K.G., Ross, G.S., Kleinert, D. & Giardina, P. (2012).  Negative Affect Differentiation and Adherence during Treatment for Thalassemia. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, DOI 10.1007/s12529-012-9277-7.
• Coifman, K.G., Berenson, K., Rafaeli, E. & Downey, G. (2012). From negative to positive and back again: Polarity of affective and relational experience in Borderline Personality Disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 121 (3), 668-678.