Suzanne Segerstrom

Suzanne C. Segerstrom is a professor of Psychology and biostatistician at the University of Kentucky. She is known for her clinical research on optimism and pessimism in relation to health, stress, and general well-being.^[1][2][3]

Suzanne Segerstrom
Occupation	Professor of Psychology
Awards	Templeton Positive Psychology Prize (2002)
Academic background
Alma mater	Lewis and Clark College; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Kentucky
Academic work
Institutions	University of Kentucky

Segerstrom was the 2002 first prize recipient of the Templeton Positive Psychology Prize^[4] for her work "aimed at understanding the processes behind optimistic dispositions and beliefs and, in particular, how these processes relate to the functioning of the immune system".^[5] She is Editor-in-chief of Psychosomatic Medicine.^[6] She previously served as president of the American Psychosomatic Society.^[7] Segerstrom is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.^[8]

Biography

Segerstrom was born in Boston, MA and grew up in Oregon.^[9] She attended Lewis and Clark College^[10] where she received a bachelor's degree in psychology and music in 1990. Segerstrom went on to complete M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in clinical psychology at UCLA (1997), and a clinical internship in psychology at Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Center (University of British Columbia). She subsequently earned a M.P.H. degree in biostatistics from the University of Kentucky (2017).^[11]

As a graduate student at UCLA, Segerstrom worked under the supervision of Shelley E. Taylor, Margaret Kemeny, and Michelle Craske.^[4] Her dissertation titled "Optimism is associated with mood, coping, and immune change in response to stress"^[12] received the American Psychological Association Martin E. P. Seligman Award for Outstanding Dissertation Research on the Science of Optimism and Hope.^[9]

Segerstrom's research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging.^[13]

Research

Segerstrom's research examines individual differences in cognition, emotion, and personality factors (e.g., dispositional optimism) in relation to psychological well-being, health, and physiological functions (e.g., immune system).^[4] This includes studies of the effects of disappointment^[14] and emotional approach coping^[15] on health. Her collaborative research with Sandra Sephton has explored how law students' expectations for their future affect their immune response,^[16][17] and suggests that optimism yields health benefits, including protection against viral infections.^[18] Such findings align with other work indicating that people who have positive attitudes have better health outcomes.^[19]

Segerstrom is the author of Breaking Murphy's Law: How Optimists Get What They Want and Pessimists Can Too^[20] and the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Psychoneuroimmunology.^[21]

Selected works

• Nes, L. S., & Segerstrom, S. C. (2006). Dispositional optimism and coping: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(3), 235–251.
• Segerstrom, S. C. (2007). Optimism and resources: Effects on each other and on health over 10 years. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(4), 772–786.
• Segerstrom, S. C., & Miller, G. E. (2004). Psychological stress and the human immune system: A meta-analytic study of 30 years of inquiry. Psychological Bulletin, 130(4), 601–630.
• Segerstrom, S. C., & Nes, L. S. (2007). Heart rate variability reflects self-regulatory strength, effort, and fatigue. Psychological Science, 18(3), 275–281.
• Segerstrom, S. C., Taylor, S. E., Kemeny, M. E., & Fahey, J. L. (1998). Optimism is associated with mood, coping, and immune change in response to stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1646–1655.
• Segerstrom, S. C., Tsao, J. C., Alden, L. E., & Craske, M. G. (2000). Worry and rumination: Repetitive thought as a concomitant and predictor of negative mood. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 24(6), 671–688.