Director
jms1187@psu.edu
Dr. Joshua Smyth is a Distinguished Professor of Biobehavioral Health and Medicine at Penn State and Hershey Medical Center. He also serves as Associate Director of Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute (SSRI).
Most broadly, Dr. Smyth’s research reflects the application of the biopsychosocial model to meaningful health-related processes, contexts, and outcomes. Three more narrowly defined areas – and the integration between them – comprise the bulk of his research program:
1. What are the effects of experiencing stress or trauma on psychological and physical
well-being and how can such effects be observed?
2. Can stress, affect, and health be assessed in a manner that permits the understanding
of biopsychosocial processes in real time and in context?
3. Can psychological interventions improve health and well-being, both in healthy
individuals and individuals with existing physical or psychiatric illness?
Having published over 200 articles and chapters in both medical and psychological journals and books, Dr. Smyth has made important contributions to the understanding of stress and coping, psychological interventions, pain, immune disorders, chronic illness, eating behaviors, and ambulatory naturalistic monitoring. He has served as an editorial referee for more than three dozen journals and is an active member of the American Psychosomatic Society and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Smyth has shared his research in interviews with ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, PBS, Newsweek, Time and the New York Times.
Dr. Smyth received his Ph.D. in Health and Social Psychology from Stony Brook University and his B.A. in Cognitive Science from Vassar College.
orcid.org/0000-0002-0904-5390