People in the CAIR Lab
Current Graduate Students
Current Post-Doc
Lab Alumni
Levi Baker, Ph.D. Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Michelle Russell, Ph.D. Lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
My research focuses on implicit attitudes in romantic relationships. I am broadly interested in how couples can maintain relationship satisfaction over time. Specifically, I am interested in whether people are aware of their implicit attitudes and how a lack of awareness may lead to dissatisfaction in relationships. I am focusing my research into these questions on the domains of attraction, attachment theory, and self-esteem.
My research primarily utilizes dual-process models of social cognition to investigate peoples’ evaluations of their romantic relationships. Specifically, I am interested in factors that contribute to automatic and deliberative relationship evaluations, peoples’ insight into their automatic evaluations, and how automatic and deliberative processes interact to influence relationship behaviors and outcomes. I am also interested in romantic partners’ evaluations of and beliefs about their sexual relationships.
My research investigates the influences of biological processes on perceptions of one's partner and relationship. For example, I am interested in the ways that communication behavior of one's spouse may influence their partner's physiological state, particularly testosterone levels. I have also examined the association between attachment anxiety and progesterone (assessed cross-sectionally in some studies and longitudinally over women's menstrual cycles in others). More recently I have begun to examine whether genetic factors influence relationship dynamics in newlyweds.
My main research focuses on the sexual aspect of romantic relationships. I look to broader social psychology theories (e.g., attachment, implicit theories) to help identify the factors that help couples maintain satisfying sexual and romantic relationships.