Amy Marshall

Dr. Marshall’s research program is designed to determine individual and contextual factors that contribute to the occurrence of psychological and physical aggression in close relationships. A particular emphasis is placed on the ways in which trauma exposure can alter early-stage social information processing (particularly attention to, and perception of, emotionally and physically threatening social stimuli), which in turn can facilitate or inhibit aggressive behavior in intimate and parent-child relationships. This model includes the study of intrapersonal processes (e.g., emotional and neurohormonal system dysregulation) and interpersonal processes (e.g., reciprocal and multiplicative interaction patterns) that may contribute to changes in information processing that are particularly important to the maintenance of adaptive close relationships and recovery from posttraumatic sequelae.

Additional areas of study include 1) individual, dyadic, and contextual predictors of the within-incident co-occurrence of aggression in intimate and parent-child relationships, 2) the relationship context of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and how basic research can inform couples therapy approaches to treating PTSD and relationship aggression, 3) how the developmental timing of trauma exposure can dictate the nature and severity of interpersonal and psychological outcomes, 4) social and biological mechanisms that explain sex differences in aggression perpetration and sex differences in the development of PTSD following trauma, and 5) development of innovative research methodologies and assessment techniques.