MEET THE LAB
Prof. Richard J. Contrada
I received my PhD in Social/Personality Psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 1985, and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, before joining the Rutgers Psychology Department in 1986. Within the Department I am involved in the Health, Social, and Clinical programs.
​
My research is concerned with psychosocial and emotional factors involved in the development and course of chronic physical diseases. I have focused on coronary disease because it is a major killer and offers a useful model for understanding psychological factors and pathophysiological mechanisms that are broadly relevant to physical health. For example, I have examined the role of psychological stressors and anger-related personality attributes in provoking physiologic responses that appear to contribute to the etiology and progression of coronary disease. I am also interested in the role of emotions and emotional syndromes, such as anxiety and depression, in adaptation to health crises, such as confronting and recovering from open-heart surgery. This work includes a focus on social-contextual and other factors that shape emotional responses to health threats and other stressors, such as age, gender, social support, and religious involvement.
​
A focus of some of my current work concerns the role of mental representations (beliefs) in accounting for patients’ failure to undertake health-promoting behaviors for managing chronic medical conditions such as coronary disease.
​
One of my newest interests is in the use of psychophysiological techniques to assess cognitive and affective processes and attributes involved in reactions to threatening stimuli. These include studies of human startle, assessment of emotional style via electroencephalography (EEG), and measurement of event-related potentials (ERP).
​
My broader interests include self-regulation theory, self and social identity, and social and affective neuroscience.
Prof. Margaret Ingate
I received my Ph.D. in Human Experimental Psychology from Rutgers. During graduate school my research focused on the psychophysics of taste and texture and memory for faces and other complex stimuli. I did post-doctoral research in sensory psychophysics of taste and oral texture perception at Monell Chemical Senses Center. For nearly two decades, I pursued applied research in Organizational Psychology at AT&T and Merrill Lynch. Ultimately I moved into Human Resources management positions at Merrill Lynch, before returning to Rutgers in 2005. My current research interests include memory, cultural and individual differences in response to public safety messages, and personality factors outside of the Five Factor Model.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Caitlin Bronson, MS
I am a PhD student in Social and Health Psychology at Rutgers. Broadly, my research interests focus on how group identity can influence health and health behaviors. A current line of my research examines how identification with and threats to masculinity can elicit anxiety and lead to poorer cardiovascular functioning. Much of my research uses physiological measures such as impedance cardiography, blood pressure, and EKG. I received a National Science Foundation Honorable Mention for my research on cardiovascular health and gender. Prior to attending Rutgers, I earned my BA with honors in psychology at the University of South Florida. During my time there, I was involved in research on perceptions of gender-nonconforming targets, discrimination toward gay men, and domestic violence.
Erick Fedorenko
​My research interests involve understanding the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie dysregulated cognitive and affective processes in internalizing psychopathology. Specifically, I am interested in the psychophysiology of maladaptive stress states and how the interactive effects of neural, autonomic and hormonal activity might contribute to the etiology and maintenance of PTSD, anxiety and depression. I am also interested in the roles that stress and threat sensitivity play in physical health and how psychosocial interventions can improve disease outcomes.
Patrick Barnwell
I am a student in the Social Psychology PhD program at Rutgers University. My research interests are broadly concerned with exploring the utility of psychophysiological techniques (e.g., EEG/ERP) and performance measures (e.g., executive functioning assessments) as methods of evaluating cognitive processes and emotional responses to stressful stimuli. Furthermore, I am interested in how genetic polymorphisms, hormones, and personality attributes affect an individual’s mental and behavioral well-being, especially when faced with situations that require greater levels of emotional self-regulation.
Willy Coleman
I am a PhD student in the Social Psychology/Intradisciplinary Health Psychology program at Rutgers. I am interested in lifestyle and behavior change, with a primary focus on facilitating healthy eating decisions through research on self-regulation, motivation, stress, and coping. Currently I am researching the social and psychological mechanisms of dietary self-monitoring in part to address questions such as (1) What are the psychological obstacles to effective monitoring of eating behaviors? (2) How can we improve adherence to self-monitoring among populations for whom diet is particularly salient or important? and (3) What are the psychological pathways that link dietary self-monitoring to long-term maintenance of healthy eating decisions?
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Jake Rattigan
.jpeg)
I am a senior undergraduate student pursuing a B.A. in Psychology and Economics, and I intend to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Neuropsychology. Under the mentorship of Dr. Richard Contrada and Patrick Barnwell, I am currently undertaking an Honors Thesis focused on the relationship between personality and individuals’ affective and cognitive responses to conflicting information pertaining to
COVID-19. My present work is an extension of the research I conducted as a Cooper Fellow during the Summer of 2021. Prior to joining the SHIP Lab, I served as a Grossman Interdisciplinary Research Team Fellow and studied the gender wage gap, competitive preferences, and risk aversion in an economic decision-making lab.
LAB ALUMNI
Sarah Mann
Dr. Sarah L. Mann earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers University in 2018. She completed clinical internship at the VA Hudson Valley and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship with the VA New Jersey’s War-Related Injury and Illness Study Center, a regional specialty center addressing veterans’ complex post-deployment medical and mental health needs. At Rutgers, her research modeled psychological correlates of heart rate variability and investigated associations linking depression stigma to beliefs about the illness. She also contributed to Rutgers-RWJ research on post-stroke depression, anxiety in individuals with implantable cardioverter defibrillators, and CBT for depression in Parkinson’s disease. Her clinical training has focused on evidence-based practice at the interface of medical and mental health, including primary care/mental health integration, behavioral neurology, psycho-oncology, substance abuse and trauma-focused treatments, and telehealth delivery to expand access to quality care.
INTERESTED IN JOINING?
Motivated undergraduates interested in joining our lab as research assistants are asked to complete an application online. We review applications at the end of each Fall and Spring semester. Students who show a strong academic record, applicable skills, and the availability to commit 10 hours to lab for at least two semesters will be contacted to arrange in-person interviews. Click below to complete the online application. We look forward to hearing from you!
The Social, Health, and Interdisciplinary Psychophysiology Lab is committed to ensuring an inclusive, diverse, and supportive environment for all people irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, immigration status, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, political affiliation, socioeconomic status, disability or medical history/conditions, veteran status, first-generational/non-traditional student status, or any other characteristic protected by law. All are welcome and encouraged to apply to our lab. Rutgers University supports this commitment.