Dr. Jeffrey A. Ciesla - Physical health correlates and consequences of depression, such as sleep and sexual difficulties.

Dr. Karin Coifman studies emotion processing and the development of psychopathology in the context of acute stress and chronic illness.

Dr. John Gunstad - The neuropsychology of chronic disease, with a particular interest in cardiovascular disease and obesity.

Dr. Mary Himmelstein - Weight stigma; masculinity; impacts of intersectional identities on stress and coping in response to social stigma (weight stigma) and gender norms (masculinity).

• Psychosocial Aspects of Health
• Psychobiological Aspects of Health
• Health Behavior and Health Behavior Change
• Pediatric Psychology
• Psychology of Risk Communication
• Functional Neuroanatomy
• Psychopharmacology

Students can gain experience related to health psychology in either the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. or the Psychological Ph.D. training programs. Students interested in conducting basic and applied research in health psychology, but do not desire clinical training, enroll in our Psychological Sciences Ph.D. program in the Social-Health track. Students interested in gaining clinical training in health psychology enroll in our Clinical Ph.D. Program.  

Our social-health program has been particularly successful in placing our graduates in postdoctoral training programs and professorships.

Here’s what some of our recent grads are doing now.

Dr. Sarah Black - Developmental psychopathology, with particular interest in risk for mood disorders during childhood and adolescence. Currently, investigating how parenting behaviors and parental psychopathology may influence the development of emotional regulation abilities during middle childhood and adolescence.  Research also considers how the normative hormonal, social, and environmental events of childhood and adolescence can be disrupted and lead to increased risk for emotional dysregulation.

Dr. Kathleen Casto - Hormone, brain, behavior mechanisms underlying social competition and motivation with implications for mental health conditions associated with hormonal transitions (e.g., premenstrual dysphoria).

• Social Psychology
• Psychology of Risk Communication
• Health Behavior and Health Behavior Change
• Psychological Perspectives on Well-Being
• Psychosocial Aspects of Health Psychology
• Psychobiological Aspects of Health Psychology

The social-health psychology program is designed to train students in conducting and communicating high-quality psychological research.  As a graduate student in the social-health psychology program, you will have the opportunity to collaborate closely with one or more faculty members in ongoing research projects, from conception to publication. Our program uses a mentorship model in which a graduate student works closely with one of the faculty members.