Social Threat & Adaptation Lab

Social Threat & Adaptation Lab

Fields of Interest

In the lab I study how interpersonal social threats, namely humiliation, exclusion, and status loss, shape social anxiety, narcissism, and post-traumatic symptoms, with a focus on adolescence and educational settings. Six complementary lines of work: defining and measuring social trauma, social anxiety as status regulation, grandiose narcissism as rank sensitivity, an evolutionary approach to psychopathology, methods for detecting and modeling processes in real time, and process-based intervention in schools and on campus.

Paper-cut illustration: one dark circle apart from a cluster of circles

Social Trauma

Humiliation, exclusion, and status loss as traumatic events, and who is harmed by them

Paper-cut illustration: a crowd of green circles on the top step of a podium, a few on the middle step, and one dark circle alone on the bottom step

Social Anxiety as Low-Status Regulation

Social anxiety as a system for navigating dominance hierarchies

Paper-cut illustration: a circle balanced on top of a four-step pyramid

Grandiose Narcissism and Rank Sensitivity

Status-ascent motivation, rank-contingent self-worth, and their costs

Paper-cut illustration: a network of circles joined by strips above a small time-series axis

Methods: Experience Sampling, Symptom Networks, and Large-Scale Data

Experience sampling, symptom networks, and large-scale data

Paper-cut illustration: three strips converging on a single circle

Process-Based Intervention in Schools and on Campus

Brief process-based interventions for counselors and schools

Paper-cut illustration: a branching lineage whose tips are small groups, with one branch ending alone

An Evolutionary Approach to Psychopathology

Symptoms as organized responses to recurring social problems, and when they stop serving us