Stress, Emotion & Physical Health Lab
Current Graduate Students
Jazlyn Luu
I received my B.A. in Psychological Science from UC Irvine in 2022. I then served as the STEP lab manager, as well as worked as a behavior interventionist for children with Autism. Through these two experiences, I grew passionate about mental health and well-being and developed an appreciation for how research and clinical practice interact and inform one another. I hope to continue exploring the interconnections between emotions, stress, and well-being in my graduate work with Dr. Sarah Pressman and Dr. Dewayne Williams.
coping, emotion-regulation, African-American women, physical health, well-being, cultural influences
I received my B.A. in Psychology with honors from California State University, Long Beach. As an undergraduate, I was a Fellow in the National Institutes of Health funded BUILD (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) research training program. As a BUILD Fellow, I studied patterns of abuse in adolescence using animal models. Additionally, I studied coping and well-being in African-American women from a longitudinal intervention program, Destined for Greatness. As a graduate student, I examine the role of stereotype on coping in African-American women, and how this relates to physical health.
Kennedy Blevins
(Ford Fellow)
Veronica Ramirez
Research Interests:
Psychophysiology of emotions, impulsivity, and decision-making. The effect of emotions on impulsivity, physical/mental health, and wellbeing.
About:
I received my B.A. in Psychology from the University of San Diego. As an NIH-UGSP Scholar and Research Fellow, I worked at Dr. Nora Volkow’s Laboratory of Neuroimaging. I explored the association between physical activity and psychological traits using actigraphy methods. I also studied the role of negative emotions and dopaminergic brain systems in addiction and obesity. For my future works, I aim to study the effect of emotions on impulsivity at the physiological, brain, and behavioral level. I would like to further understand these processes and assess their ecological validity (inside/outside lab settings) through the use of wearable devices and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods.
Cameron Wiley
My research is in the area of psychophysiology, or the study of the connection between psychological phenomena and physiological responses. More specifically, I focus on the association between self-regulation (i.e., of emotion and stress) and cardiovascular health, how these associations differ by race/ethnicity, and what positive psychological factors and underlying physiological mechanisms underlie observed racial/ethnic health disparities.
I received my B.S. in Psychology (with a Neuroscience minor) from The Ohio State University in May 2017, received my M.A. in General Psychology from North Carolina Central University in May 2019, and received my M.A. in Social Ecology from UCI in May 2021. My undergraduate research investigated sex differences in the connection between autonomic nervous system functioning and emotion regulation difficulties, while my Master's research examined sex differences in the relationship between subjective stress appraisal and salivary cortisol levels among African Americans. My current and future research goals at UCI involve exploring how various physiological pathways (i.e., autonomic nervous system, inflammation, endocrine) link self-regulation with cardiovascular health outcomes, and I am especially interested in elucidating how differences in the influence of emotion regulation and protective psychological factors (e.g., positive affect, social support) may explain racial/ethnic differences in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
About:
(Ford Fellow)
(Ford Fellow)
Logan Martin
My current research focuses on three broad areas: 1) Meta-emotional beliefs such as emotion preferences, the usefulness of emotions, how controllable they are, the development of these processes, individual differences, and how they affect cognitions, behaviors, and well-being. 2) Measurement, research methods, and statistics. 3) Various collaborations involving emotions and physical health.
I received my M.A. in Psychology from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I received my B.A. in Psychology from Indiana University Northwest in Gary, Indiana.
About:
Vida Pourmand
My research interests broadly include how stress gets under the skin to influence physiological system functioning (e.g., cardiovascular, neuroendocrine), and the downstream effects on health/health disparities. I am also interested in the influence of interpersonal factors such as social support, as well as culture/ethnicity, and positive emotions, in the link between stress and health.
I received my B.S. in Biological Sciences and a minor in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine in June 2018. After a gap year, I went on to receive my M.S. in Experimental Psychology from Western Washington University in 2021. My master’s thesis used a cultural lens to examine whether emotion regulation strategies explained why some may be less likely to seek out support during stress in daily life. My current and future research, I strive to examine how the link of stress with health among ethnically diverse populations functions, and how interpersonal (I.e., social support, culture) and positive factors (positive emotions) may relate. I hope to use a safety perspective to explore how feelings of safety in one’s social environment can underlie the link of stress with health, and relevant psychological processes.
About:
Elaine Tannouz
Research Interests:
My research interest lies in two broad areas. The first one is coping with traumatic life events, survivor’s guilt and post traumatic growth. I’m interested in the physical aftermath of trauma and how different emotion regulation processes manifest different health outcomes. Recently I’ve been interested in using life narrative stories to probe into subjective perspectives of lived experiences. The second area stems from my background in Architecture and Urban planning, I’m interested in looking at the effects of city planning and different architectural elements in the built environment on humans’ psychology and consequently their general wellbeing and health.
About:
My path was not the most orthodox one. I have a BS in Architecture from University of Aleppo, Syria. I volunteered to deliver psychosocial support to Syrian children and women refugees for three years during war and this got me interested in pursuing a degree in psychology. I completed the post-baccalaureate program in psychological science at UCI where I worked as a research assistant in REACH and MESH labs. Currently I work with both Dr. Sarah Pressman and Dr. Roxan Cohen Silver in her stress and coping lab.
Baldwin Ma
My research interests broadly focus on college students' well-being and learning outcomes. My primary research focus is on educational pedagogy, specifically designing effective curricula and teaching methods that boost students' academic achievement, sense of belonging, and general well-being. In particular, I focus on first-generation/low-income students, examining how this specific group of students navigate their education and how effective teaching practices can better assist in their experience in higher education. I am also interested in how college students set, pursue, and adjust their goals; specifically, I want to focus on how these goals change over the 4 years that students are in college.
About:
I received my B.S. in Psychology with a Minor in Education from Duke University in 2024. My undergraduate honors thesis paper investigated the concept of goal synergy, or the idea that perceiving the pursuit of one goal will enhance the pursuit of another goal, and how this concept impacted college students' time management, academic outcomes, and subjective well-being. My current research goals at UCI are to focus on how to design a better classroom environment through innovative course design and effective teaching methods to not only promote the academic and personal outcomes of students but also make learning fun and interesting.
