The Clinical Psychology and Psychophysiology Lab is led by Dr. Georgia Panagiotou and studies emotion processes and emotion regulation and coping in psychopathology. Its aims are compatible with trans-diagnostic conceptualizations of psychopathology, focusing on the multi-method examination of basic brain systems involved in the etiology of disorders, including valence, arousal and executive function.

A main focus is anxiety and fear and how different levels of these emotions predict different behavioral outcomes and symptoms. In this context lab personnel studies how children who display diverse aggressive profiles differ in defensive motivation, and how different anxiety disorders vary in the degree to which they are characterized by fear versus general negative affect. Interactions between emotion and cognition (attention, inhibition) and personality are also addressed. We also examine how dysfunctional emotion regulation, e.g. avoidance and attention deployment, perpetuate psychopathology. We use psychophysiology to assess emotion, especially the startle reflex, autonomic physiology and facial EMG, and various paradigms to induce emotion, such as imagery, VR, pictures and films and aim to verify our findings regarding individual difference in emotion and motivation using neuroimaging techniques.

For more information please visit Clinical Psychology and Psychophysiology Lab’s website.