UCLA
UCLA, M.A.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.S.
1285 Franz Hall
Box 951563
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563
Research Interest:
My research uses social neuroscience approaches (functional neuroimaging, behavioral methods, and machine learning) to explore two separate, but interrelated, sets of questions:
1) How do we cope with adversity? How do we effectively manage our responses to negative social experiences, like the pain of heartbreak, which threaten our sense of self? Despite life's constant challenges, how do we endure to accomplish our goals? How are people so different when it comes to coping with adversity and how it influences their mental/physical health? How are different coping strategies most effective and how are they embedded in our brain's basic regulatory mechanisms? How do different socioemotional resources (e.g., self-compassion, self-esteem, self-efficacy, perceptions of social support, control and mastery) contribute to resilience and how are they embedded in the brain's circuitry?
2) How do we think and feel about ourselves? How we do we regulate these thoughts and feelings? What is the fundamental basis of processes like self-knowledge, self-evaluation, and self-regulation? How do these self-processes relate to personality factors and individual differences, especially those linked to mental/physical health?.