Current Professional Activities

Most of my research focuses on problems in couples and families, and on how people change. I work closely with Professor Varda Shoham, and our Family Research Laboratory is now investigating a variety of questions related to couple interaction: In a longitudinal study of chronic illness, for example, we are finding that couple-relationship factors predict adaptation and survival among men and women with congestive heart failure; in another study, we focus on couple processes that contribute to continued cigarette smoking by people at risk for heart disease; and in a study of couples in which one partner abuses alcohol, we have tested theories about who benefits from what type of therapeutic intervention. In trying to understand human problems, I give more weight to the current social context of the problem than to early experiences, enduring personality traits, or biological predispositions. My interest is not only "what's in the head" -- but more importantly "what the head is in."

I do most of my clinical work in the Psychology Department Clinic (520-621-9683).