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
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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.