Behavioral Medicine Research Group
The Behavioral Medicine Research Group is a unique opportunity to engage with a dynamic interdisciplinary collection of researchers, including core Health Psychology faculty in the Psychology Department, affiliated faculty in the U of U Medical Center, and health-focused graduate students across all areas of the department. The meetings are an opportunity to get feedback on research and professional issues in a warm way that sharpens one’s thinking, brings new ideas to any project, and fills in the tacit knowledge that is so frequently missing in professional training. The work of this group has spurred numerous successful grant applications and been an important part of student and early career faculty training that has led to highly successful careers. The group meets 3-4 times each semester with activities that include:
- Research presentations from faculty and graduate students (e.g., practice conference talks; proposal/defense talks)
- Outside speakers
- Grant development brainstorming sessions
- Professional development topics, including panel discussions from alumni
- Journal Club-type meetings to discuss current articles/topics in behavioral medicine
Examples from 2021-2022:
- Professional development topic: Making the transition from graduate school to academic medical center postdoctoral and faculty positions (Alumni panel: Chris Fagundes, Kelly Baron, Tammy Stump, Kelsey Sewell)
- Journal Club topic: Behavioral Medicine and Covid-19: Discussion of research opportunities and methodological challenges
- Practice job talk: Jenna Alley: Adversity, sexuality and health
- Practice conference talks: Mirinda Whitaker: Increased pain variability in chronic pain patients: A role for pain catastrophizing [presented at the Society for Affective Science meeting]. Steven Carlson: The impact of actor and partner overnight movement on sleep quality metrics in military couples [presented at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting].
- Guest speaker: Dr. Yelena Wu, Associate Professor of Dermatology: Skin cancer prevention: Interventions for children and their families