The Personality & Dysregulation Lab conducts research on why people engage in risky, impulsive, and self-destructive behavior, with a special emphasis on elucidating how personality factors and sensitivity/ resiliency to life stress contributes to these harmful behaviors. We study mental disorders in adulthood that are marked by severe self-regulation deficits (e.g., psychopathy, antisocial personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders) and related public health problems (e.g., suicidal behavior, violence, substance use, criminal behavior). Research in the lab spans biological (neurobiology, genes), psychological (personality traits, emotion-cognition interactions, psychopathology), and environmental (traumatic life events, stress exposure) units of analysis. Ultimately, we hope to use the knowledge gained about the origins of impulsivity and deficits in self-regulation to improve prevention and treatment efforts for individuals at high risk for these clinical outcomes, including psychiatric patients, traumatized individuals, and system-impacted individuals.​