Meet the Faculty, Students, and Alumni

Heather Claypool

Dr. Claypool's research focuses on social belonging and how its fulfillment and deprivation shape emotion, cognition, and behavior.

She also explores how experiences of cognitive ease (or fluency) impact social behavior and perception.

Learn more about Dr. Claypool.

Allison Farrell

Dr. Farrell's research examines the interplay between stress, close relationships, and health across the lifespan. In particular, her work identifies the psychological and biological mechanisms explaining how parent-child and romantic relationships affect physical health.

She also studies how high quality relationships promote better outcomes for individuals at risk for poor health outcomes (e.g., individuals with low socioeconomic status, people of color).

Learn more about Dr. Farrell's MARSH Lab for current research, publications, and news.

Darwin Guevarra

Dr. Guevarra’s research aims to understand affective processes (e.g., emotions, stress, pain, mood, impulses), ways to regulate them, and their impact on psychological and physical health.

He is presently interested in identifying, developing, testing, and understanding low-effort and easy-to-use affect regulation strategies.

Read more details about Dr. Guevarra's research on the Affective Science and Psychophysiology Lab website.

Allen McConnell

Dr. McConnell's research focuses on how relationships with entities such as family and pets affect health and well-being, how people decode others’ nonverbal displays, environmental sustainability, and how self-knowledge influences emotions, goals, and actions.

Read more details about Dr. McConnell's lab, research, and publications.

Kathryn Aldstadt 

Advisor: Dr. Allen McConnell

My research broadly focuses on pro-environmentalism and how human behavior towards the planet can be altered by important ideologies, emotions, stereotypes, and aspects of the self.

Tiange Dai 

Advisor: Dr. Heather Claypool

My research involves the bidirectional relationship between belonging and pluralistic ignorance. I am also interested in the predictors and behavioral and cognitive outcomes of belonging threats.

Jason Folmsbee

Advisor: Dr. Heather Claypool

My work focuses on the role of social identities in experiences of social exclusion. Specifically, I am interested in how structural power shapes the perceptions of and responses to threats to belonging.

Cole Alexander Holt 

Advisor: Dr. Allison Farrell

My primary research interests involve the unique professional relationship between instructors and students within academia. Additionally, I am interested in how first-generation and continuing generation college students differ within this relationship. 

Meara Polanski 

Advisor: Dr. Allison Farrell

My research interests involve relationship research on coping mechanisms and stress through a psychophysiological lens, with a focus on long-term health and wellness outcomes.

Erika Rosenberger 

Advisor: Dr. Heather Claypool

My research examines how the content and structure of language can elicit feelings of exclusion based on an individual's social identity. I am also interested in how social identity and individual differences may affect people's experiences with ghosting (ending a relationship by cutting off all communications). 

Jordan Rubin-McGregor

Advisor: Dr. Allen McConnell

My research focuses on understanding the psychological experiences of individuals with disabilities, with a particular interest in disability identity and disability discrimination. I also investigate the ways in which social identities promote resilience against stigma more broadly.

Sevi VanDevender 

Advisor: Dr. Darwin Guevarra

My research interests include emotional regulation, distanced self-talk, and low-effort regulation strategies. Currently, I am examining the role of expectations in emotion regulation.

• Andrea I. Bakker (Ph.D., 2007), Director of Instruction Research, Air Force Institute of Technology Graduate School of Engineering and Management, Wright-Patterson AFB
• Michael J. Bernstein (Ph.D., 2010), Professor of Psychology, Penn State Univ. Abington
• Christina M. Brown (Ph.D., 2009), Research Manager, Facebook, Seattle, WA
• Elizabeth Brown (Ph.D., 2011), Associate Prof of Psychology, Univ. of North Florida
• Tonya M. (Shoda) Buchanan (Ph.D., 2015), Associate Prof of Psychology, Central Washington Univ.
• Chris Chartier (Ph.D., 2013), Associate Prof of Psychology, Ashland Univ.
• Emily Clark (Ph.D., 2013), Center for Social Organization of Schools, School of Education, Johns Hopkins University
• Jason Deska (Ph.D., 2018), Associate Professor of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan Univ.
• Cliff Evans (Ph.D., 2008), Lecturer in Psychology, SUNY New Paltz
• Carrie Hall (Ph.D., 2007), Associate Teaching Professor, Miami Univ.
• Amanda Johnston (Ph.D., 2011), Associate Prof of Psychology and Women's Studies, Univ. of Houston Clear Lake
• Isaiah Jones (Ph.D., 2013), Senior Marking Analyst, Electronic Arts
• Jason Lanter (Ph.D., 2008), Prof of Psychology, Kuntztown Univ.
• E. Paige Lloyd (Ph.D., 2018), Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Denver
• Ryan Moreno (Ph.D., 2019), Senior User Experience Researcher, HelloFresh
• Robert "BJ" Rydell (Ph.D., 2005), Associate Prof of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Indiana Univ.
• Donald F. Sacco (Ph.D., 2010), Associate Professor of Psychology, Univ. of Southern Mississippi
• Kurt Schuepfer (Ph.D., 2017), Global Data Scientist at McDonald's
• Pirita See (Ph.D., 2014), Senior Lecturer in Psychology, South Dakota State Univ.
• Edwin Shriver (Ph.D., 2011), Instructor in Human Development, Wheelock College
• Hayley Skulborstad (Ph.D.., 2016), Human Resources Analytics, CVS, Boston, MA
• Mia Steinberg (Ph.D., 2015), Research Director, A/B Partners, New York, NY
• Alejandro Trujillo (Ph.D., 2021), Research Consultant, Numerator
• Taylor Tuscherer (Ph.D., 2015), Analyst at 84.51 and Lecturer at Lake Forest College
• John Paul Wilson (Ph.D., 2013), Associate Prof of Psychology, Montclair State Univ.
• Steven G. Young (Ph.D., 2009), Senior Quantitative UX Researcher, Ring