Ryan Robertson, B.S.

Graduate Student in experimental Psychology

Research Goals

I am currently a second year student in Towson University's Experimental Psychology Masters' program.

Broadly, I am interested in assessing severe features of psychopathology (e.g., non-suicidal self-injury, suicide, and trauma). I accomplish this goal by incorporating methodologies from different disciplines within psychology (e.g., biological, clinical, developmental, etc). I use these results to decrease the gap between research, policy change, and practice. Below are four aims of my current and future research endeavors.

(1) Examine how exposure to different forms of childhood interpersonal trauma (e.g., physical, emotional, and sexual abuse) influence the method (e.g., skin-carving, burning, swallowing dangerous chemicals), function (e.g., anti-suicide, anti-dissociation), and frequency of NSSI.

(2) Provide a biopsychosocial approach to understanding and preventing NSSI using methods from biological (e.g., diffusion tensor imaging), social (e.g., implicit association task), cognitive (e.g., overgeneral memory), developmental (e.g., age of onset), and clinical (e.g., childhood abuse) psychology.

(3) Explore the biological mechanisms underlying non-suicidal and suicidal behavior through an ideation to action framework.

(4) Create evidence-based, novel therapeutic interventions to reduce NSSI and suicidal thoughts.

Contact

Have an interesting research idea we could collaborate on? Great!
Do you have questions about applying to Master's and Ph.D. programs? Confused on what to look for in programs and what "fit" means?
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Contact me at [email protected]