Research Description

Dr. Verona applies affective science approaches to understanding psychopathic personality, externalizing, and aggression/violence. The main goal is in identifying the combined influences of genes, affective responding, and stress/adversity that represent risk for the development of a constellation of syndromes, including antisocial behavior, psychopathy, aggression, and impulsive suicide. This interest has guided Dr. Verona's pursuit of two distinct but related areas of research. The first has involved experimental laboratory research that examines stress-induced emotional, psychophysiological, and motor-behavioral correlates of aggression and criminality. Some of this work has revealed gender and temperamental differences in aggressive responses to stress that relate to how negative emotion and physiology differentially activate approach and withdrawal behaviors across individuals. In other work, Dr. Verona has focused on using models of temperament and emotion to advance understanding of antisocial behavior and aggression and to identify subgroups of offenders. An especially novel feature of this work involves investigating the spectrum of emotional experience and expression at its two extremes in this population: 1) the classic psychopath, in whom emotional reactivity is believed to be blunted or deficient; and 2) highly antisocial individuals who may be at particular risk for affective violence and impulsive suicide, and are more likely to have a history of abuse or adversity. It is the investigation of this latter subgroup of offenders that represents the link between this work and the laboratory aggression research described above. Recent work has dealt with gender differences in the development and manifestations of these syndromes.

Education

• Ph.D. from Florida State University, 2001

Webpages

• Emotion & Behavior Lab Website

Courses

• Graduate: Affective Factors in Behavior/Clinical Intervention & Ethics, Personality and Psychotherapy Practicum Course
• Undergraduate: Abnormal Psychology

Recent Publications

*Javdani, S., *Sadeh, N., & Verona, E. (in press). Suicidality as a Function of Impulsivity, Callous/Unemotional Traits, and Depressive Symptoms in Youth. Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

*Sadeh, N., *Javdani, S., *Finy, S.M., & Verona, E. (in press). Hurt Me or Hurt You? Gender and Negative Emotional Links to Self- versus Other-Directed Violence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

*Sadeh, N., *Javdani, S., *Jackson, J., Reynolds, E.K., Potenza, M.N., Gelernter, J., Lejuez, C.W., & Verona. E. (2010). Serotonin Transporter Gene Associations with Psychopathic Traits in Youth Vary as a Function of Socioeconomic Resources. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119, 604-609.

*Sprague, J., & Verona, E. (2010). Emotional Conditions Disrupt Behavioral Control among Individuals with Dysregulated Personality Traits. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119, 409-419.

Verona, E., *Sadeh, N., & Curtin, J.J. (2009). Stress-induced asymmetric frontal brain activity and aggression risk. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 131-145.