The Rochester IDEA Lab

Depression and anxiety disorders (described collectively as internalizing disorders) are widespread conditions that contribute titanically to global suffering and burden. Despite their prevalence, much is unknown about their etiology, although it is clear that a wide variety of factors—psychological, biological, and environmental—play important roles.

One thing we do know is that internalizing disorders operate as a function in the complex social environments in which they emerge. Life stress is both a cause and outcome of psychopathology, and many risk factors become more etiologically relevant after stressful experiences have occurred. Consequently, it is difficult to understand depression without also assessing contextual factors (and measuring them with precision).

Another thing that we know about internalizing disorders is that they are characterized by disruptions in how people experience, understand, and regulate emotions. Emotions are also critical to navigating the social environment, so understanding these disruptions goes hand-in-hand with piecing together how depression and anxiety interface with the contextual environment.

The Internalizing Disorder, Environment & Affective science (IDEA) Lab conducts research that we hope will help elucidate how diverse systems interactively contribute to risk for internalizing disorders, and how internalizing disorders in turn impact psychological functioning and the social environment. We use a clinical affective science perspective that uses the science of emotion to better understand and alleviate psychopathology, while also drawing from research on psychopathology to enrich understanding of basic emotion processes. We are interested in these questions as they apply across the lifespan, but a prominent component of our research specifically focuses on adolescence, a period when depression risk increases precipitously (corresponding with rapid changes in both biology and the interpersonal environment).

Prospective graduate students, please see here.

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Email Lisa Starr |  Email the IDEA Lab |  Lab Phone: (585) 276-6982 |  Lab News |  @UR_IDEA_Lab