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Degree Received
Research Interests
Teaching Interests
Personal Interests
Emotion and Health Lab
Research Sites
Graduate Student Openings
Undergraduate Student Openings
Selected Publications

Degree Received

Ph.D., Arizona State University,
Tempe, Arizona, 2002

My research program focuses on the factors that promote resilience and positive adaptation and improve health. These factors include emotion regulation, emotional disclosure, gratitude, meaning and purpose, mindfulness meditation, spirituality and religion, and finding benefits or posttraumatic growth. I am also especially interested in the role of positive emotions in resilience and promoting health and in interventions that can increase positive emotions.

Our lab is studying how these factors may affect health and well-being in people with chronic pain and cardiovascular disease. We are also more generally interested in how all people maintain a sense of health well-being across the lifespan despite adversity and the kinds of stressors that we all face.

My long-term goals are (1) to contribute to the development of a theoretical model of resilience and how it affects health, (2) to contribute to the integration of findings from both psychology and affective neuroscience, and (3) to use the results of my research to build interventions that increase resilience and enhance health.

New Mexico Rainbow

Albuquerque Balloon Festival

Teaching Interests

Health Psychology
Emotion, Stress, and Health
Health Psychology Interventions
Positive Psychology
Psychology of Spirituality and Health

Personal Interests

I am originally from Rockville, Maryland. My father was a minister, which sparked my interest in a helping profession. My experience working in a medical center before graduate school began my fascination with research and the relationship between psychology and health. Although I am from the East Coast, I have always loved the southwest. I received my Ph.D. at Arizona State University in Phoenix and feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to come the University of New Mexico. I greatly appreciate the sunshine, mountains, and beauty of New Mexico. My hobbies include hiking,bicycling, photography, and playing guitar, piano, and saxophone.

Emotion and Health Lab Location: Logan Hall B82 Phone: (505) 277-3915 "To promote the life well-lived..."

The purpose of the Emotion and Health Lab is “to promote the life well-lived” in the midst of a variety of life’s challenges and stressors and across the diversity of human culture and experience. Our overall goal is to develop interventions that enable people to live life to the fullest through a more complete and integrated scientific understanding of both emotion and health. We seek to achieve this purpose and accomplish this goal by creating and working together on a rich array of research studies and clinical opportunities.

The lab seeks to develop models of resilience, emotion, and health through basic studies with undergraduates and healthy individuals and the application of these models to people with health problems such as chronic pain and cardiovascular disease.

The lab is currently involved in studies examining:

(1) The effects of emotion and stress on resilience and coping in healthy women and women with chronic pain (e.g., fibromyalgia and arthritis patients).
(2) The effects of mindfulness meditation and cognitive-behavioral stress management on health and well-being in healthy people and people with chronic pain.
(3) The effects of writing interventions on the health and well-being of women with chronic pain (e.g., fibromyalgia).
(4) The role of resilience resources (e.g., optimism, purpose in life, spirituality) in promoting recovery for people in cardiac rehabilitation.
(5). The role of emotion in resilience and decision making in first responders (e.g., firemen, police, and emergency medical technicians) facing traumatic situations.
(6) The role of emotion and resilience in response to a potential avian flu epidemic.

The clinical opportunities for graduate students in the lab include:

(1) Leading stress management, meditation, and well-being groups for healthy individuals and people with chronic illnesses (e.g., chronic pain, heart disease, cancer)..
(2) Leading support groups for people with chronic illnesses and caregivers.
(3) Doing motivational interviewing and health coaching to prevent chronic illness in those with health risks (e.g., obesity, lack of exercise, smoking).
(4) Working with New Heart, Inc. to gain experience working with heart patients in cardiac rehabilitation.
(5) Working with the UNM Cancer Center to gain experience working with cancer patients.
(6) Working with the VA Behavioral Medicine department to gain experience with a variety of people with both psychological and medical problems.

Research Sites

Current Lab Members:

Emotion and Health Lab

Lab Alumni:

Graduate Student Openings

I may be taking a graduate student to begin the Fall of 2008. Although I will consider strong students with a variety of backgrounds and interests, I am particularly looking for students who are interested in studying the role of resilience and positive psychological factors in coping with chronic illnesses such as chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Some of the positive factors that I am interested in include emotion regulation, emotional disclosure, gratitude, meaning and purpose, mindfulness meditation, and finding benefits or posttraumatic growth, and spirituality and religion.

There will be opportunities for students who are interested in studying the role of these factors in chronic illnesses. Currently, our lab is engaged in studies of the role of positive psychosocial factors in the health and well-being of healthy people and those with chronic pain, the effects of mindfulness, stress management, and writing interventions, the role of resilience and positive change in heart disease patients, the effects of emotion and resilience on decision making, and motivational interviewing to prevent health problems and chronic illnesses.

Undergraduate Student Openings

I am also looking for dedicated and responsible undergraduate students to be involved in our lab. There are opportunities for gaining the research experience, a letter of recommendation, and learning about applying to graduate or medical school. It is possible to sign up for Psychology 499 which would enable you to get credit for research experience and be a part of our lab. A wide variety of research experience is available as well as the opportunity to work with other undergraduate and graduate students.

Selected Recent Publications

Blair, K.S., Shaywitz, J., Morton, J., Smith, B.W., Rhodes, R., Geraci, M., Jones, M., McCaffrey, D., Vythilingam, M., Finger, E., Mondillo, K., Charney, D.S., Blair, R.J.R., Drevets, W.C., & Pine, D.S. (in press). Response to emotional expressions in Generalized Social Phobia (GSP) and
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Evidence for separate disorders. The American Journal of Psychiatry.

Feder, A., Southwick, S.M., Goetz, R.R., Wang, Y., Alonso, A., Smith, B.W., Buchholz, K.R., Waldeck, T., Ameli, R., Moore, J., Hain, R., & Charney, D.S. (in press). Posttraumatic growth in former Vietnam prisoners of war. Psychiatry.

Smith, B.W., Dalen, J., Wiggins, K., Christopher, P., Bernard, J., & Shelley, B.M. (in press). Who is willing to use complementary and alternative medicine? Explore.

Smith, B.W., Dalen, J., Wiggins, K., Tooley, E., Christopher, P., & Bernard, J. (in press). The Brief Resilience Scale: Assessing the ability to bounce back. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

Smith, B.W., & Zautra, A.J. (in press). The effects of anxiety and depression on weekly pain in women with arthritis. Pain.

Smith, B.W., & Zautra, A.J. (in press). Vulnerability and resilience in women with arthritis: Test of a two factor model. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Smith, B.W., Shelley, B.M., Dalen, J., Wiggins, K., Tooley, E., & Bernard, J. (2008). A pilot study comparing the effects of Mindfulness-Based and Cognitive-Behavioral Stress Reduction. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 14, 251-258.

Blair, K.S., Smith, B.W., Mitchell, D.G.V., Morton, J., Vythilingam, M., Pessoa, L., Fridberg, D., Zametkin, A., Sturman, D., Nelson, E.E., Drevets, W.C., Pine, D.S., Martin, A., & Blair, R.J.R. (2007). Modulation of emotion by cognition and cognition by emotion. Neuroimage, 35, 430-440.

Smith, B.W., & Dalen, L.J. (2007). Coping with arthritis: From vulnerability to resilience. In E. Martz & H. Livneh (Eds.), Stress reactions to and coping with chronic illness and disability: Theoretical, empirical, and clinical aspects (pp. 153-172). New York: Springer.

Nakic, M., Smith, B.W., Busis, S., Vythilingham, M., & Blair, R.J.R. (2006). The impact of affect and frequency on lexical decision: The role of the amygdala and inferior frontal cortex. Neuroimage, 31, 1752-61.

Smith, B.W., Shelley, B.M., Leahigh, L., & Vanleit, B. (2006). A preliminary study of the effects of a modified mindfulness intervention on binge eating. Complementary Health Practice Review, 11, 133-143.

Zautra, A.J., & Smith, B.W. (2005). Impact of controlled-release oxycodone on efficacy beliefs and coping efforts among osteoarthritis patients with moderate to severe pain. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 21, 471-477.

Davis, M.C., Zautra, A.J. & Smith, B.W. (2004). Chronic pain, stress, and the dynamics of affect
differentiation. Journal of Personality, 72, 1133-1160.

Zautra, A.J., Yocum, D.C., Villanueva, I., Smith, B.W., Davis, M.C., Attrep, J., & Irwin, M. (2004). Immune activation and depression in female rheumatoid arthritis patients. Journal of Rheumatology, 31, 457-63.

Smith, B.W. & Zautra, A.J. (2004). The role of purpose in life in recovery from knee surgery. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 11, 197-202.

Potter, P. T., Smith, B. W., Strobel, K. R., & Zautra, A. J. (2002). Interpersonal workplace stressors and well-being: A multi-wave study of employees with and without arthritis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 789-796.

Smith, B. W., & Zautra, A. J. (2002). The role of personality in exposure and reactivity to interpersonal stress in relation to arthritis disease activity and negative affect in women. Health Psychology, 21, 81-88.

Smith, B. W., & Zautra, A. J. (2001). Interpersonal sensitivity and reactivity to spousal conflict in healthy older women. Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 915-923.

Zautra, A. J., & Smith, B. W. (2001). Depression and reactivity to stress in older women with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Psychosomatic Medicine, 63, 687-696.

Zautra, A. J., Smith, B. W., Affleck, G., & Tennen, H. (2001). Examination of chronic pain and affect relationships from two contrasting approaches: Stress and coping and a dynamic model of affect. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 69, 786-795.

Smith, B. W. & Freedy, J. R. (2000). Psychosocial resource loss as a mediator of the effects of flood exposure on psychological distress and physical symptoms. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 13, 349-358.

Smith, B. W., Pargament, K. I., Brant, C., & Oliver, J. M. (2000). Noah revisited: Religious coping and the impact of a flood. Journal of Community Psychology, 28, 169-186.

Pargament, K. I., Smith, B. W., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. (1999). Patterns of positive and negative religious coping with major life stressors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37, 710- 724.

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