Bruce W. Smith

Director: Health Psychology Program
Head: Emotion and Health Lab
Position: Assistant Professor
Email: bwsmith@unm.edu
Office: Logan 152
Phone: 505-277-0643
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Research Interests
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.

I am interested in these factors in relation to a variety of illnesses and health problems including chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. I am 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.