Viktor Bovbjerg, Core Director
Public Health

Researchers in the psychosocial core investigate aging individuals and families in the social context across the life span. Research in this core focuses on stress and coping, personality and self regulation, health behaviors, caregiving and support across the lifespan, and the interface among physical, psychological, and social well-being.

Carolyn Aldwin, Professor
Department of Human Development and Family Sciences
College of Health and Human Sciences
Co-Principal Investigator
IGERT in Aging Sciences

Psychosocial Core faculty and research interests

Carolyn Aldwin, Human Development and Family Sciences

• Stress and coping; stress-related growth
• Changes in mental and physical health across the lifespan

Viktor Bovbjerg, Public Health

• Prevention and control of chronic disease
• Translation of evidence-based, cost-effective, and sustainable interventions into practice

Sally Bowman, OSU Extension Family and Community Health; Human Development and Family Sciences

• Caregiving across the lifespan
• Family processes in coping with caregiving

Rebecca Donatelle, Public Health

• Health behaviors; social support
• Prevention of chronic diseases  in special populations including high risk women and older adults

Turner Goins, Human Development and Family Sciences & Health Policy and Management

• Understanding determinants of functional disability
• Conducting community-based participatory research with rural and American Indian communities

Karen Hooker, Human Development and Family Sciences

• Personality and self  processes as related to mental and physical health
• Processes of intraindividual change during transitions

Sharon Johnson, OSU Extension Family and Community Health; Human Development and Family Sciences

• Reduction in the risk of falling behaviors in aging population
• Chronic disease self-management; the healing power of laughter

Rick Levenson, Human Development and Family Sciences

• Exceptional adult development and transformational change
• Personality change and wisdom as related to mental health, physical health and behavior

Mei-Ching Lien, Department of Psychology

• Age related differences in executive control and attentional processes
• Cognitive processing limitations for multitasking

Carolyn Mendez-Luck, Human Development and Family Sciences & Health Policy and Management

• Family care of older Latinos with diabetes
• Health effects of alcohol and co-morbidity in older adults

Michelle Odden, Epidemiology

• Prevention of kidney disease, cardiovascular outcomes, and loss of physical function in older adults
• Advanced epidemiological and biostatistical methods in longitudinal studies of aging

Sarina Saturn Rodrigues, Department of Psychology

• Investigating the social and biological roots of emotions, especially the relationship between empathy and stress
• Incorporating self-report, behavioral, genetic, physiological, and neuroimaging measures to study the link between mental and physical well-being in a variety of populations

Rick Settersten, Human Development and Family Sciences

• Social meanings and uses of age; effects of historical events, social change, and demographic change on aging and the life course
• Efforts to control human aging: perspectives of scientists, providers, and consumers; social implications

Aurora Sherman, Department of Psychology

• Lifespan social development and socialization patterns
• Adjustments to chronic illness in older adulthood

Alexis Walker, Human Development and Family Sciences

• Family relationships in adulthood
• Feminist critical perspective on the life course