Psychology Department Welcomes Four New Faculty

The Psychology Department is pleased to announce the addition of four faculty members for the 2017-2018 academic year.

Greg Hajcak (Clinical) received his PhD from the University of Delaware in 2006.  Greg’s research uses psychophysiological and neurobiological measures (i.e., event-related brain potentials or ERPs, functional magnetic resonance imagining or fMRI, startle reflex) to understand cognition, emotion, and psychopathology—especially in relation to anxiety, depression, and psychosis. The long-term goal of this work is to evaluate and validate measures that could be used to identify higher-risk individuals in the real world—work that would inform both pathophysiological models of development, and prevention efforts.

Jon Maner (Social) received his PhD from Arizona State University in 2003.  Jon was previously a faculty member at FSU from 2003-2014.  Jon’s research focuses on the interplay between motivation, emotion, and social cognition. His work draws on a blend of theories and methods from evolutionary and social psychology. Specific research areas include: close relationships (e.g., romantic attraction and the maintenance of long-term relationships), social hierarchy (e.g., power and leadership, dominance and prestige), social affiliation and rejection, and self-protective processes (e.g., disgust, anxiety, and fear).

Jessica Ribeiro (Clinical) received her PhD from Florida State University in 2014 and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University and Vanderbilt University.  The mission of Jessica's research program is to accurately detect risk, especially for suicidal behavior, for all people at all points in time. There are four major elements of her research: (1) discovery and assessment of novel constructs; (2) prediction in the short-term; (3) prediction on a large scale; and (4) the conceptualization of suicide as a complex classification problem. Her approach represents a radical shift from the status quo, with the aim of substantially advancing risk identification, especially for suicidal behavior.

Linda Rinaman (Neuroscience) received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989.  Her long-term research objective is to characterize the development and functional organization of neural circuits that control motivated behavior, and circuits that provide physiological support for that behavior under normal and stressful conditions.  The Rinaman lab uses a variety of anatomical and behavioral techniques to probe circuit structure and function in rodents that are tested under experimental conditions that alter physiological and behavioral responses to stress.