​My research focuses on understanding why people engage in risky, impulsive, and self-destructive behavior, with a special emphasis on elucidating how sensitivity and resiliency to life stress contributes to these harmful behaviors. As a clinical psychologist, I am particularly interested in disorders marked by severe self-regulation deficits (e.g., psychopathy, antisocial personality disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders) and related public health problems (e.g., suicidal behavior, violence, substance use, criminal behavior). I use a multilevel framework in my research that spans biological (neurobiology, genes), psychological (personality traits, emotion-cognition interactions, psychopathology), and environmental (traumatic life events, stress exposure) units of analysis. Consequently, I use a range of methodological approaches, including functional and structural neuroimaging, molecular genetics, laboratory tasks, and clinical surveys in my work. The ultimate goal of my program of research is 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 criminal offenders.​