Dr. Neff received her PhD from the University of Florida and is currently a Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She is an expert on marriage and family relationships and has conducted extensive research on how couples’ relationships develop and change over time. These studies aimed to: 1) identify the factors that promote stable, happier marriages (e.g., understanding conflict resolution and social support within relationships) and 2) identify how and when stressors external to the relationship (e.g., work stress, financial difficulties, in-laws, etc.) may hinder couples' efforts to engage in relationship-promoting behaviors. Most recently, she has begun examining relationships and dating in later life in order to identify potential age-related changes in how couples approach relationship challenges as well as the implications of different coping strategies for emotional and physical health. Dr. Neff has served as an Associate Editor for prominent journals in her field (e.g., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personal Relationships) and has been the recipient of awards for her contributions to relationship science, including the Caryl E. Rusbult Early Career Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology.
Rachel Blickman
Rachel is currently a graduate student in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She is co-mentored by Drs. Lisa Neff and Marci Gleason. Her research focuses on interpersonal processes that foster individual and relational well-being among adult romantic couples. Rachel is particularly interested in the ways that personal insecurities function within relationships, and the support strategies that can promote or prohibit those insecurities. To explore these complex areas of relationships, Rachel leverages the naturalistic dynamics captured in observational data, as well as intensive longitudinal data to examine behavioral patterns as they occur and change over time.
Alyssa Sucrese
Alyssa is currently a graduate student in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She is co-mentored by Drs. Lisa Neff and Marci Gleason. Her research focuses on understanding how adult romantic relationships develop and change over time. Specifically, Alyssa is interested in better understanding the benefits that sexual intimacy can have on relationship processes as well as factors that can potentially hinder couples' ability to physically connect with one another. Her most recent work explored whether daily stressors external to the relationship may hinder different forms of physical intimacy. To address these issues, Alyssa leverages longitudinal daily diary data to examine how couples' day-to-day dynamics may change over time.
Collaborators
Dr. Jennifer Beer
Dr. Beer received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and is an expert in understanding the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying human decision-making. She is an professor in the Department of Psychology and an affiliate of the Imaging Research Center and the Institute for Neuroscience, as well as an affiliate of the Dell Medical School of Psychiatry. Her interests inlcude understanding how our motivations to see ourselves and other people in particular ways impact our decisions in social interactions. Visit her lab page here.
Dr. Marci Gleason
Dr. Gleason received her PhD from the New York University. She is an Associate Professor in Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin and leads the Daily Living Project. She is an expert on social support within couples' relationships, partiuclarly in the context of important relational transitions, such as the transition to parenthood. Her work also focuses on how personality disorders present across the lifespan and how life transitions, such as retirement, may interact with individuals' personality to impact well-being. Her recently published work has been published in Patient Education and Counseling, Personal Relationships, Journal of Family Theory & Review, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Dr. Hannah Williamson
Dr. Hannah Williamson received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA and is currently an Associate Professor in Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on strengthening families, particularly among under-served groups, including low-income and ethnic minority couples. She conducts basic and applied studies that examine relationship processes and test various theoretically-derived intervention strategies for disadvantaged couples. This work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Administration for Children and Families, and the Russell Sage Foundation, and recognized by research awards from various organizations, including the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, Psi Chi, APA Division 1 (General Psychology), APA Division 12 (Society of Clinical Psychology), and the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology. Visit her lab here.