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FACULTY
Dr. Jeremy Jamieson
Dr. Jeremy Jamieson serves as the Principal Investigator of the Social Stress Lab. His research focuses on social stress and decision making, emotion regulation, and risk and uncertainty.
The primary focus of Dr. Jamieson's work seeks to understand how stress impacts decisions, emotions, and performance. He is particularly interested in using physiological indices of bodily and mental states to delve into the mechanisms underlying the effects of stress on downstream outcomes. Dr. Jamieson is also interested in studying emotion regulation. His research in this area demonstrates that altering appraisals of stress and anxiety can go a long ways towards improving physiological and cognitive outcomes.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Karishma Singh
Karishma’s research examines the intersection of social identity, stress, and physiological responses. She is particularly interested in how individuals perceive their social identities as resources that support success or as demands that create obstacles, and how these perceptions shape emotional, behavioral, and physiological outcomes. Drawing on the social identity framework and the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, Karishma has developed a scale to assess these identity appraisals and uses a multi-method approach to study their impact, including autonomic responses.
Outside of research, Karishma enjoys mentoring students, teaching, reading psychological thrillers , and discovering new food spots.
Katie Firestone
Katie studies how stress impacts performance, particularly in athletes, and develops methods to improve acute stress responses and well-being. Her goal is to leverage psychological research methods and sports analytics to advance both theory and real-world application.
POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS
Audrey-Ann Journault, Ph.D.
Audrey-Ann Journault has been a postdoctoral fellow in our lab since completing her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Montreal (Canada). Her research uses a biopsychosocial approach to understand how environmental influences—like parents, teachers, schools, and broader societal messages—shape the way youth navigate stress, emotions, and mental health. She’s particularly interested in how these influences shape young people’s beliefs about stress and emotion, and how those beliefs play out in their physiological and psychological responses.
Audrey-Ann combines experimental methods, psychophysiological measures (like cardiac output, cortisol), and observational coding of real-life interactions to capture how stress is experienced in the body and in everyday life. She’s passionate about research that bridges science and real-world application, especially when it can help families and youth build healthier, more adaptive responses to stress.
She’s passionate about research that bridges science and everyday life—work that can directly inform how we support youth and families through stressful experiences. A strong believer in collaboration, Audrey-Ann thrives in team settings and enjoys the creative, problem-solving side of research. Outside the lab, you’ll likely find her on a volleyball court or chasing the perfect sunset.
LAB STAFF
Lab Manager
Alex van Schoor
Head Research Assistants
TBD
Research Assistants
TBD
© Elaina Beittel 2022
ALUMNI
Dr. Jonathan Gordils
Jon Gordils is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hartford. His research examines the consequences and underlying processes of social group disparities (e.g., economic inequality), as well as the consequences and antecedents of intergroup competition. He takes a multi-method approach, leveraging self-report, census data, and physiological measurement (ECG, IMP) to understand how experiencing inequalities and competition influences downstream perceptions, performance, and health outcomes more deeply.
Dr. Emily Hangen
Emily Hangen serves as a College Fellow at Harvard University and is a postdoctoral member of the Stress & Development Lab. The overarching focus of Dr. Hangen’s research is understanding how social influences affect students’ approach and avoidance motivation, mental health, and academic achievement. The aim of her work is to elucidate motivational processes in order to inform instructional practices and to develop interventions that optimize student outcomes. Dr. Hangen’s research is grounded in achievement goal theory and the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. Areas of interest include stress reappraisal, shifts in performance goal adoption, motivation during competition, and the adverse effects of positive stereotypes and high expectations.
Dr. Brett Peters
Brett Peters is an Assistant Professor at Ohio University. His research focuses on stress and psychophysiology in social relationships. He is particularly interested in using the biopsychosocial model of challenge to help elucidate the underlying mechanisms of stress and affective processes on physiological outcomes in romantic relationships.
Research Assistant "Next Steps"
Andrew Goldman (NYU, M.S. in Biostatistics)
Jess Alexandra (UCLA, Lab Manager)
Tracy Zhou (Northwestern University, M.S. in Reproductive Science)
Kenneth Martin (Warner School of Education, M.S. in School Counseling)
Pratyusha Tadepalli (Tufts, M.S. in Biomedical Sciences)
COLLABORATORS
Dr. Modupe Akinola
Dr. Akinola examines how organizational environments- characterized by deadlines, multi-tasking, and other attributes such as having low status- can engender stress, and how this stress can have spill-over effects on performance.
Columbia University
Dr. Alia Crum
Dr. Crum's research focuses broadly on how changes in subjective mindsets—the lenses through which information is perceived, organized, and interpreted—can alter objective reality through behavioral, psychological, and physiological mechanisms.
Stanford University
Dr. Andrew Elliot
Dr. Elliot's research focuses on approach and avoidance motivation, achievement motivation, social motivation, and well being.
University of Rochester
Brett Ford
Brett Ford’s research examines the basic science and health implications of how individuals think about and manage their emotions. Her research uses multi-method and interdisciplinary approaches — including experiential, behavioural, and physiological assessments — to examine the structure of emotion beliefs and emotion regulation strategies, the cultural, biological, and psychological factors that shape these beliefs and strategies, and their implications for health and well-being.
University of Toronto- Scarborough
Dr. Wendy Mendes
Dr. Mendes' research questions sit at the intersection of social, personality, and biological psychology and primarily concern questions regarding embodiment - how emotions, thoughts, and intentions are experienced in the body and how bodily responses shape and influence thoughts, behavior and emotions.
University of California- San Francisco
Dr. Matt Nock
Dr. Nock's research is focused on advancing the understanding why people behave in ways that are harmful to themselves, with an emphasis on suicide and other forms of self-harm.
Harvard University
Dr. Christopher Oveis
Dr. Oveis's research is focused on the role of emotion, power, and nonverbal behavior in social interactions. He examines such questions as: 1) How do nonverbal behaviors convey a positive and powerful first impression?, and 2) How does the way that we control or express our emotions influence the ability to connect with others and make decisions?
University of California- San Diego
Dr. Harry Reis
Dr. Reis studies the factors that influence the quantity and closeness of social interaction, and the consequences of different patterns of socializing for health and psychological well-being. In his research, subjects keep detailed records on their on-going social interaction.
University of Rochester
Dr. Katherine Thorson
Dr. Thorson studies interpersonal interactions, with a focus on how people from different social groups influence one another’s psychological experiences and physiological responses.
Barnard College
Dr. David Yeager
Dr. Yeager is interested in understanding the processes shaping adolescent development, especially how social cognitive factors interact with structural and physiological factors to create positive or negative trajectories for youth. He is also interested in learning how to influence these psychological processes, so as to improve developmental and educational outcomes for youth.
University of Texas - Austin