Department of Psychology

Biography:

Keywords: Borderline personality disorder, emotion regulation, dialectical behavior therapy, treatment mechanisms

I received my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Washington where I studied borderline personality disorder (BPD) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) under the mentorship of Marsha Linehan.  I completed an APA-approved clinical internship at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPHCS), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and National Center for PTSD at the VAPAHCS.  I joined the Department of Psychology at Ryerson University in August, 2010. 

My research interests embody a translational approach directed at examining basic emotion processes in severely disordered individuals and applying such knowledge to the development and refinement of psychosocial treatments.  I have a specific interest in examining emotional reactivity and regulation in BPD using multi-method (experiential, behavioral, physiological) experimental designs. More recently, I have begun to investigate these processes in other disorders characterized by emotion dysregulation such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Finally, I also have an interest in evaluating mechanisms of change underpinning cognitive behavioral treatments, particularly DBT. 

Some of my current areas of interest include:

• Comparing different emotion regulation strategies (e.g., acceptance, distraction, reappraisal) using multi-method laboratory paradigms
• Identifying typical emotion regulation strategies (adaptive and maladaptive) in BPD and PTSD
• Examining physiological correlates of different therapeutic strategies used in DBT
• Examining emotion regulation as a mechanism of change in DBT and other cognitive-behavioral treatments

Selected Publications: 

Kuo, J.R., Kaloupek, D.G., & Woodward, S.H (in press).  Amygdala volume in combat-exposed veterans with and without posttraumatic stress disorder:  A cross-sectional study, Archives of General Psychiatry.

Kuo, J.R., Edge, I.G., Ramel, W., Edge, M.D., Drabant, E.M., Dayton, W.M., & Gross, J.J. (in press).  Trait rumination is associated with enhanced recollection of negative words, Cognitive Therapy and Research.

Kuo, J.R., Goldin, P.R., Werner, K., Gross, J.J., Heimberg, R. (2011). Childhood Trauma and Current Psychological Functioning in Adults with Social Anxiety Disorder, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25, 467-473.

Drabant, E.M., Kuo, J.R., Ramel, W., Blechert, J., Edge, M.D., Goldin, P.R., Hariri, A.R., & Gross, J.J. (2011).  Experiential, Autonomic, and Neural Responses During Threat Anticipation Vary as a Function of Threat Intensity and Neuroticism, Neuroimage, 55, 401-410.