Stress, Aging, and Relationships Lab

Imani plans to pursue a graduate degree in social work, where she can combine her interests in mental health research, advocacy, and community project development.

As an alumnus of Texas Tech University, Imani developed a strong interest in biopsychosocial health and mental health programs during her undergraduate studies in psychology, and through working with Drs. Caroline Cummings and Jonathan Singer.

✨ Meet our Lab Manager! ✨

Imani Sims is a core team member who works with Dr. Brown, graduate students, and undergraduate students to grow the STAR Lab. She is deeply involved in science communication and establishing our foundation as a research lab with a strong orientation towards mentorship.

Not if, but when we need resilience in the workplace Workplace resilience is a necessity for organizations and employees given it assists them in overcoming adversity and ultimately succeeding. However, organizational scholars have largely overlooked t...

4. Not if, but when we need resilience in the workplace: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

What Leaders Get Wrong About Resilience Resilience is important for all employees, but they shouldn’t be left to navigate adversity on their own. Instead, organizations must create an environment for shared responsibility around resilience....

2. When Thriving Requires Effortful Surviving: Delineating manifestations and resource expenditure outcomes of microaggressions for Black employees: psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-...

3. What Leaders Get Wrong About Resilience (in the Harvard Business Review, @hbr.org): hbr.org/2022/06/what...

We also include references to papers and resources discussed in the show notes - below are some of the most important highlights from this episode:

1. A Stigma-Conscious Framework for Resilience and Posttraumatic Change: psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

For every episode, we make transcripts available to support broader accessibility and ease of use in classroom environments. You can access transcripts for all episodes here: drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Throughout this conversation, Dr. King also explained the limitations of trait-based definitions of resilience, emphasizing the importance of dynamic and context-sensitive measurement. Tune in and share widely!

The conversation especially focused on the context of employee resilience, but implications for how we think about resilience extends to research far beyond the workplace....

Drawing from Dr. King's recent paper in American Psychologist titled, "A Stigma-Conscious Framework for Resilience and Posttraumatic Change," this episode emphasizes how stigma, chronic stress, and systemic factors shape one's opportunity to be resilient.

Read Dr. King's paper now:

🧩 Available now! The latest episode of the Stress Puzzle podcast with Dr. Danielle King and host @ryanlinnbrown.bsky.social focused on the challenges of conceptualizing and measuring resilience.

Listen now: www.stressmeasurement.org/podcast/epis...

#psychscisky #resilience #socialpsych #scicomm

Thanks to Dr. Naïma Moustaïd-Moussa and the entire IOHI team for this effort to connect researchers at institutions across the Texas Tech University System to facilitate high-impact transdisciplinary research that can benefit the health of humans, animals, and our broader ecosystems.

We had a great day of cross-institution and cross-disciplinary connection at the Institute for One Health Innovation's (IOHI) Annual Meeting! We're excited to represent the College of Health and Human Sciences at TTU as we explore collaboration opportunities through these One Health initiatives.

Dr. Kraus highlights several critical points about cross-class interactions:
(1) Segregation creates distinct cultural patterns
(2) Rapid class perception from brief interactions
(3) Perception leads to stereotyping in ways that can damage opportunities & reinforce social boundaries

With rising economic inequality, cross-class interactions are relatively rare because of just how segregated we are in daily life. We discussed the consequences of rising economic inequality + class-based segregation with @mwkraus.bsky.social. #psychscisky

Listen now: tinyurl.com/econinequality

Learn more about how social class shapes every domain of our lives and, as Dr. Kraus put it, "how subtle class biases start at zero acquaintance, and can derail people from opportunities" in the most recent episode of the Stress Puzzle.

How does social class create unique cultural patterns?

@mwkraus.bsky.social highlights how experiences of socialization in distinct social class environments create class-specific cultural patterns (i.e., norms, values, & expectations) of how to be a person.

Listen now: tinyurl.com/econinequality

Happy Halloween and congratulations to @kristenstopfer.bsky.social for her award-winning pumpkin! 🎃

picture of the stress puzzle podcast for episode 16 about inequality and how class shapes our lives. It's a picture of the podcast guest (me) Michael Kraus

Listen to @ryanlinnbrown.bsky.social and I chat about inequality. We talked about:

-the ways social class impacts our psychology

-the importance of scientists speaking clear and true to the public about what is happening in the world

Listen here: www.stressmeasurement.org/podcast/epis...

Nancy Adler, ‘icon in American medicine’ and architect of health psychology and social determinants of health, dies at 77 Nancy E. Adler, PhD, the visionary who co-authored the foundational textbook of health psychology in 1979 and dedicated her life to understanding the profound link between social factors and health, d...

5. The work & legacy of Dr. Nancy Adler who served as director of the MacArthur Foundation's Research Network on SES and Health for 15 years: psychiatry.ucsf.edu/news/nancy-a...

Thanks to @ucsfpsych.bsky.social for this tribute to Dr. Adler's work and enduring impact through those she mentored.

4. The work & legacy of Dr. Jim Sidanius who advanced social dominance theory to highlight the multiple levels of influence that "conspire to create & sustain systems of group-based dominance and inequality": spsp.org/membership/a...

Thanks to @spspnews.bsky.social for honoring his life & research

Social class shapes the form and function of relationships and selves Social class shapes relational realities, which in turn situate and structure different selves and their associated psychological tendencies. We first…

3. Research from Dr. Hazel Markus:
- In This Together: Doing and Undoing Inequality and Social Class Divides: spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

- Social class shapes the form and function of relationships and selves: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Americans overestimate social class mobility In this research we examine estimates of American social class mobility—the ability to move up or down in education and income status. Across studies,…

2. Americans overestimate social class mobility: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Signs of Social Class: The Experience of Economic Inequality in Everyday Life By some accounts, global economic inequality is at its highest point on record. The pernicious effects of this broad societal trend are striking: Rising inequality is linked to poorer health and well-being across countries, continents, and cultures. ...

In every episode, we link references to papers and resources discussed in the show notes - below are some of these papers + several important influences on research in this area:

1. Signs of Social Class: The Experience of Economic Inequality in Everyday Life: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Through this conversation, listeners will learn about how class segregation creates distinct cultural patterns and norms, the psychological mechanisms that perpetuate inequality, and the profound ways economic inequality affects our social interactions and well-being on a daily basis.

EPISODE 16 Rising Economic Inequality: How social class shapes our lives

🧩 Available now! New Stress Puzzle episode w/ @mwkraus.bsky.social and host @ryanlinnbrown.bsky.social focused on the widening gap between the richest & the poorest in our society + the far-reaching implications of this global issue. #psychscisky #socialpsych

Listen now: tinyurl.com/econinequality

Managing emotions is not easy - we often get by with a little help. In the NEW Social Interaction and Emotion Lab at Rutgers-Newark, we’ll study how social interactions regulate emotion using experiments, naturalistic data, and multi-modal approaches. ✨ Now recruiting! ✨🙌 Learn more: raziasahi.com

It was such a delight to get to know @raziasahi.bsky.social & her research at Princeton! I can’t wait to follow along with her lab’s impactful work at Rutgers focused on interpersonal/social emotional regulation.

👀Best part? She’s accepting applications for PhD students for Fall 2026! Share widely!

Political Polarization and Health: Navigating the social media divide Issue 182: Why political polarization affects both individual and societal health

In a new podcast, I discuss the dangers of rising political polarization, how social media incentives contribute to polarization, and why we should consider polarization a social determinant of health with @ryanlinnbrown.bsky.social

You can listen here: www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/political-...

Out-group animosity drives engagement on social media | PNAS There has been growing concern about the role social media plays in political polarization. We investigated whether out-group animosity was particu...

"Out-group language consistently emerged as the strongest predictor of shares and retweets." Interested in learning more? Here's the specific paper and there are more resources linked in our show notes!

"Out-group animosity drives engagement on social media": www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...