Department Research Labs

We are an interdisciplinary research group based within the Department of Psychology at the University of Kansas. We develop, validate, and apply computational methods to advance the study of emotion, interpersonal communication, and mental health.

We seek to better understand substance misuse and other health-compromising behaviors, and to develop novel approaches to address negative health outcomes.

Our current research projects focus on cognitive function during the menopause transition and sex differences in Alzheimer’s Disease risk.

Our mission is to improve the way eating disorders are assessed, diagnosed, and treated through cutting edge methods and research.

We develop computational and dynamical-systems approaches to understand, predict, and modulate brain network function in health and neurological disease.

The Cultural Psychology Research Group is a community of scholars and researchers who are broadly interested in the idea of “mind in context” (CPRG)

The EMIC Lab studies how context shapes the feelings, understandings, and behaviors through which we relate to ourselves, each other, and the world.

The lab focuses on research related to sleep, chronic pain, and other health behaviors in college students and adults.

Our lab conducts research on topics at the intersection of addiction, obesity, and eating disorders. Specifically, our work is focused on reinforcement processes that drive reward-seeking behaviors, which may present risks to long term health.

Inspired by perspectives in experimental existential psychology, we study how deep-seated existential concerns fuel people's efforts to make meaningful sense of the social world and their own lives.

The PATH Lab is focused on understanding the connection between pain and substance use – especially in the context of chronic illness and cancer survivorship.

This lab focuses on sexuality. Research topics include sexual consent, sexual coercion, ambivalence about sex, the meanings that people assign to sexual activity, etc. We welcome undergraduates who want to help with these studies.

This lab's research points to the complex ways that stereotypes affect social judgment, and suggests that individual targets of judgments may sometimes receive contradictory feedback.

We conduct research on how cognitive and developmental science can enhance teaching and learning in higher education.

The TARP Lab studies intersections between traumatic stress and women’s health across the reproductive lifecycle, with a focus on trauma-related psychopathology during the perinatal period.