My research primarily addresses the influence of individual differences in personality, cognition, and emotion on psychological health and physiological functions.

I am particularly interested in understanding how aspects of self-regulation including personality, behavior, and executive cognitive function affect well-being and health.  For example, my students and I have worked on the questions of how personality factors (e.g., optimism) affect the way that people approach and pursue their goals, what the costs and benefits of goal pursuit are, and especially how acts of self-regulation affect cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, metabolic, and immune function.

My students and I are also actively pursuing a line of research on cognitive self-regulation as it is manifested in repetitive thought (e.g., worry, rumination, cognitive processing, and related concepts). This research is currently focused on understanding the structure of repetitive thought, the best ways to measure repetitive thought, its neuropsychological correlates, and its psychological and physiological consequences. I currently have an NIH-funded longitudinal study of the effects of repetitive thought on psychological and physical health and physiology in older adults.