Suzanne C. Segerstrom is a professor of Psychology and biostatistician at the University of Kentucky. She is known for her clinical research on optimism and pessimism in relation to health, stress, and general well-being.[1][2][3]
Suzanne Segerstrom
| |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Professor of Psychology |
| Awards | Templeton Positive Psychology Prize (2002) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Lewis and Clark College; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Kentucky |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Kentucky |
Segerstrom was the 2002 first prize recipient of the Templeton Positive Psychology Prize[4] for her work "aimed at understanding the processes behind optimistic dispositions and beliefs and, in particular, how these processes relate to the functioning of the immune system".[5] She is Editor-in-chiefofPsychosomatic Medicine.[6] She previously served as president of the American Psychosomatic Society.[7] Segerstrom is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.[8]
Segerstrom was born in Boston, MA and grew up in Oregon.[9] She attended Lewis and Clark College[10] where she received a bachelor's degree in psychology and music in 1990. Segerstrom went on to complete M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in clinical psychology at UCLA (1997), and a clinical internship in psychology at Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Center (University of British Columbia). She subsequently earned a M.P.H. degree in biostatistics from the University of Kentucky (2017).[11]
As a graduate student at UCLA, Segerstrom worked under the supervision of Shelley E. Taylor, Margaret Kemeny, and Michelle Craske.[4] Her dissertation titled "Optimism is associated with mood, coping, and immune change in response to stress"[12] received the American Psychological Association Martin E. P. Seligman Award for Outstanding Dissertation Research on the Science of Optimism and Hope.[9]
Segerstrom's research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging.[13]
Segerstrom's research examines individual differences in cognition, emotion, and personality factors (e.g., dispositional optimism) in relation to psychological well-being, health, and physiological functions (e.g., immune system).[4] This includes studies of the effects of disappointment[14] and emotional approach coping[15] on health. Her collaborative research with Sandra Sephton has explored how law students' expectations for their future affect their immune response,[16][17] and suggests that optimism yields health benefits, including protection against viral infections.[18] Such findings align with other work indicating that people who have positive attitudes have better health outcomes.[19]
Segerstrom is the author of Breaking Murphy's Law: How Optimists Get What They Want and Pessimists Can Too[20] and the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Psychoneuroimmunology.[21]
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