The Penn State Social Cognition Research Lab is interested in understanding both the predictors and outcomes of individual differences in social information processing (SIP). Social information processing includes a series of cognitive mechanisms that underlie people’s interpretation and behavioral responses to social situations. Our lab’s approach to researching SIP considers how development, gender, and contextual factors influence both adaptive and maladaptive responding in a variety of domains and populations.

Recent research topics:

· SIP in parents and young adults and the prediction of child abuse and neglect

· Intergenerational transmission of SIP between parents and children

· SIP in clinical and legal decision-making

· SIP influences on aggression (e.g., physical, relational, dating violence)