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Board of Honors Tutors
Dr. Robert J. Waldinger
Director, The Study of Adult Development, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
http://adultdev.bwh.harvard.edu/
rwaldinger@partners.org
Would consider serving as:
Thesis Adviser
Research Placement
Research Interests:
The Laboratory of Adult Development houses two primary studies: the Study of Adult Development, a 67-year longitudinal study of male psychological and physical health, and the Close Relationships Project, a study of the effects of family violence in intimate adult relationships. Students may use data from either of these projects to explore questions of interest to them.
The Study of Adult Development involves prospective studies of 268 Harvard College sophomores and 456 inner‑city Boston school boys. Each has lasted for more than 65 years with minimal attrition. Data for each subject consists of four‑generation social histories, biennial questionnaires, face to face interviews every 15 years, and complete physical examinations every five years. Research has focused upon 1) adaptation to stress, mental health, and defense mechanisms; 2) the effects of habits (especially alcoholism) and affective disorders upon physical health and mortality; 3) the effect of childhood risk factors upon adult adaptation; 4) the unfolding of adult development; and 5) the natural history of alcohol and substance abuse. Other ongoing projects that have evolved from these longitudinal archives include long‑term outcome studies of World War II PTSD, effects of attributional style on physical health, and successful adult careers by the mildly retarded. We are currently involved in a 5-year study of the intimate relationships of these men, examining links between the quality of late life relationships and physical and emotional well-being, along with longitudinal predictors of late-life relationship functioning. We are also adding genetic, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging assessments to examine social and biological determinants of successful aging.
The Close Relationships Project is a study of emotion regulation and intimacy in 109 couples. Many participants have histories of sexual and physical abuse in childhood, and more than half the couples have histories of recent intimate partner violence. Marital interactions, video recall techniques, and psychophysiology are among the measures used to compare relationship functioning in couples with and without histories of family violence. Variables of interest include emotion experience and expression, empathy, attachment, and autonomic regulation of arousal. |
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