Anxiety Mechanisms and Processes Lab
We recently finished data collection on a questionnaire study examining potential mechanisms of anxiety during pregnancy (i.e., intolerance of uncertainty, distress tolerance, anxiety sensitivity, experiential avoidance, etc). We hope to also extend this to look at anxiety during the postnatal period. Jenna is using this data for her masters thesis (see below). We are also developing an acceptance-based prevention program to address perinatal anxiety. For this, we have been developing a workshop for people expecting their first child. We are currently developing content and are moving towards being ready to pilot the workshop.
Our team has a particular interest in the development, maintenance, and treatment of social anxiety. In addition to the treatment research described below, our team also has been collecting questionnaire data on structural, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and sociocultural factors that may influence the development of social anxiety. Students on my team are also often interest in experimental paradigms to examine predictors, maintaining factors, and treatment mechanism. You can see examples of this kind of work reflected in some of the student projects described on our team page.
We are currently re-launching a small treatment study comparing traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy toan acceptance-based behavioral therapy that also has an exposure component for clients diagnosed with social anxiety. Part of the purpose of the study is to provide clinical and research experience to people on the team while also providing additional treatment options to students on campus. In that way, people on the team will treat clients in the study. Because of the slow pace of this study, we wouldn’t have data that would be ready for a masters thesis. For people interested in treatment data, there is still some untapped data from a treatment study looking at cognitive-behavioral group therapy for social anxiety disorder. We also have a non-anxious control sample to compare to the treatment seeking sample and there are still some questions that could be asked with that data.
