About
I am an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Central Oklahoma, where I have the honor of working with some of the best students around. In our Social Learning and Perception (SLaP) lab we study the cognitive, emotional, social, and mental health consequences of variations in motivation and the ways people strategically calibrate to early life stressors.
Our work is informed by three major theoretical frameworks: life history theory, regulatory focus theory, and self-discrepancy theory. We focus on how the factors specified by these frameworks impact outcomes such as reasoning, emotional frequency, attraction, relationship behaviors, depressive and anxiety severity, and intrusive thought frequency.
While we explore a wide array of outcomes, our recent work focuses mainly on the social consequences of adult life history strategies and associated early life stressors. A list of current projects can be found here and on our Current Projects page.
SLaP Lab
Our lab is a learning lab. The work we do is aimed at advancing our understanding of social, motivational, and adaptive psychological mechanisms, while providing students with training in methodological and analytical skills that set them on a path to success. Graduates of our lab have had a great deal of success and are engaged in exciting activities across research, applied settings, and further graduate training.