A central theme in my research is that our social relationships impact the individual psychologically and physiologically. My program of research is focused on how we can better understand the pathways by which our social relationships - external, non-physiological phenomena - get under the skin and come to influence our internal, physiological processes. Thus far, I have primarily focused upon the social support we get from important social ties, such as friends, family, or spouses, as well as negative or stressful social interactions, and relationship quality and how they influence cardiovascular, psychological, and immune processes. My research includes experimental work in the laboratory as well as repeated measures in the real world over time to examine how relationships lead to one outcome versus the other.
