Dr. Kristina Post
Professor, Psychology
Program Chair
Associate Professor of Psychology; received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Notre Dame in 2011 with a minor in Quantitative Psychology. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Denver Center for Marital and Family Studies and served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Miami University. Her areas of specialization and research include mental, physical, and relationship health in diverse populations. In each, she seeks to understand how partners can best communicate with and support one another to promote health and resilience in the face of stress. She has conducted couples studies in the areas of major depressive disorder and chronic pain. Dr. Post also has collaborated on longitudinal studies of the effects of relationship education and relationship development on individual, couple and family outcomes. Dr. Post is a licensed psychologist and designated as core doctoral faculty.
Interests
Teaching
I enjoy teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and mentoring students in independent research. My goal is to help students develop tools to gather and analyze information so that they can come to their own conclusions and think critically. I challenge students to make connections between research and practice or between topics in a course. Finally, I hope to motivate students to continue learning after courses end by making topics relevant to their lives. To achieve these goals, I collaborate with students and seek their feedback so that they are actively engaged and so I can meet them where they are at and modify my approach. I structure an open and safe environment with clear criteria and multiple methods of evaluation so that students can succeed. I use different learning strategies and examples so students can explore different perspectives and synthesize material. I give detailed and constructive feedback so that students can grow in their thinking, writing, and clinical skills.
Research
I strive to identify factors that can help partners work together to live healthy lifestyles, including having healthy relationships, and physical and mental well-being. The ultimate goal of my research is to use such knowledge to develop and test couple and family interventions. I am particularly interested in unique and specific factors contributing to healthy lifestyles for different groups including, aging couples, ethnic minority couples, couples with mental health concerns, and couples with chronic health conditions. Finally, I have a special interest in methodology and statistics including ecological momentary assessment, observational studies, and multilevel modeling.
Clinical
My clinical interests overlap with my research interests. I strive to have research inform practice and vice versa. Thus, my focus is on relationship education and intervention programs designed to simultaneously foster healthy relationship development and mental and physical health.
Dr. Post’s scholarly work can be found at Google Scholar and ResearchGate.
Educational Background
- Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Publications
Publications
Scott, S. B., Parsons, A., Post, K. M., Stanley, S. M., Markman, H. J., & Rhoades, G. K. (2016). Changes in the sexual relationship and relationship adjustment precede extradyadic sexual involvement. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s10508-016-0797-0
Burns, J. W., Gerhart, J. I., Bruehl, S., Post, K. M., Smith, D. A., Porter, L. S…Keefe, F. J. (2016). Anger arousal and behavioral anger regulation in everyday life among people with chronic low back pain: Relationships with spouse responses and negative affect. Health Psychology, 35, 29-40. doi:10.1037/hea0000221
Burns, J. W., Gerhart, J. I., Post, K. M., Smith, D. A., Porter, L. S., Schuster, E…Keefe, F. J. (2015). The communal coping model of pain catastrophizing in daily life: A within-couples daily diary study. The Journal of Pain, 16, 1163-1175. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2015.08.005
Burns, J. W., Gerhart, J. I., Bruehl, S., Peterson, K. M., Smith, D. A., Porter, L. S.….& Keefe, F. J. (2015). Anger arousal and behavioral anger regulation in everyday life among patients with chronic low back pain: Relationships to patient pain and function. Health Psychology, 34, 547-555. doi:10.1037/hea0000091
Peterson-Post, K. M., Rhoades, G. K., Stanley, S. M., & Markman, H. J. (2014). Perceived criticism and marital adjustment predict depressive symptoms in a community sample. Behavior Therapy, 45, 564-575. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2014.03.002
Burns, J. W., Peterson, K. M., Smith, D. A., Keefe, F. J., Porter, L., Schuster, E., & Kinner, E. (2013). Temporal associations between spouse criticism/hostility and pain among patients with chronic pain: A within-couple daily diary study. Pain, 154, 2715-2721. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2013.07.053
Markman, H. J., Rhoades, G. K., Stanley, S. M., & Peterson, K. M. (2013). A randomized clinical trial of the effectiveness of premarital intervention: Moderators of divorce outcomes. Journal of Family Psychology, 27, 165-172. doi: 10.1037/a0031134
Peterson, K. M., & Smith, D. A. (2011). Attributions for spousal behavior in relation to criticism and perceived criticism. Behavior Therapy, 42, 655-666. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2011.02.005
Peterson, K. M., & Smith, D. A. (2010). An actor-partner interdependence model of spousal criticism and depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119, 555-562. doi:10.1037/a0020115
Peterson, K. M., & Smith, D. A. (2010). To what does perceived criticism refer?: Constructive, destructive, and general criticism. Journal of Family Psychology, 24, 97-100. doi:10.1037/a0017950
Peterson, K. M., Smith, D. A., & Windle, C. R. (2009). Explication of interspousal criticality bias. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 478-486. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2009.02.012
Keller, P. S., Cummings, E. M., Peterson, K. M., & Davies, P. T. (2009). Marital conflict in the context of parental depressive symptoms: Implications for the development of children’s adjustment problems. Social Development, 18, 536-555. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2008.00509.x
Smith, D. A., & Peterson, K. M. (2008). Over-perception of spousal criticism in dysphoria and marital discord. Behavior Therapy, 39, 300-312. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2007.09.002
Select Recent Presentations
* Student author
Allen, E. S., Post, K., Markman, H. J., Rhoades, G. K., & Stanley, S. M. (2016, August). Participant ratings of PREP for Strong Bonds and marital outcomes one year post intervention. In Doss, B. D. (Chair), Research on couple therapy and relationship education: Current status and recent innovations. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Denver, CO.
Scott. S., Parsons, A. M., Post, K., Rhoades, G. K., & Stanley, S. M. (2016, August). Changes in sexual relationship functioning precede extradyadic sexual involvement. In C. Balderrama-Durbin (Chair), Behind closed doors- Sexual functioning and extradyadic involvement in intimate relationships. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Denver, CO.
*Geiss, C., *Ratcliff, M., *Seraji, S., & Post, K. M. (2015, May). Rumination as a moderator of perceived criticism and depressive symptoms. Poster session presented at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV
*Ratcliff, M., *Seraji, S., *Geiss, C., & Post, K. M. (2015, May). Perceived and intended criticism as predictors of depression and negative affect in a college sample. Poster session presented at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV
*Seraji, S., *Ratcliff, M., *Geiss, C., & Post, K. M. (2015, May). Perceived criticism, intended criticism, and relationship attributions as predictors of depressive symptoms. Poster session presented at the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV
Burns, J., Gerhart, J., Bruehl, S., Smith, D., Post, K., & Keefe, F. (2015, April). Sleep quality, pain, and function in people with chronic low back pain: A daily diary study. In F. J. Keefe and W. J. Sieber (Chairs), Pain in chronic conditions. Paper session conducted at the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s 36th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions, San Antonio, TX.
Trombello, J. M., Peterson, K. M., & Smith, D. A. (2014, July). Criticism and counter-criticism in the marital interactions of depressed and non-depressed couples. Paper session presented at the 2014 International Association for Relationship Research Conference, Melbourne, AU.
Peterson-Post, K. M., Allen, E., Markman, H., Rhoades, G., & Stanley, S. M. (2014, November). What makes marriage education successful?: Findings from an effectiveness study of PREP in the U.S. Army. Poster session presented at the annual convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Philadelphia, PA
Parsons, A., Peterson-Post, K. M., Rhoades, G., Wadsworth, M., Rienks, S. & Markman, H. (2014, November).Exploring the importance of match in ethnic identity for African American couples. Poster session presented at the annual convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Philadelphia, PA
Rhoades, G. K., Peterson, K. M., Stanley S. M, & Markman, H. J. (2013, November). The long-term effectiveness of the Prevention and Relationship Education Enhancement Program for marital quality and communication. In G. K. Rhoades (Chair), Recent research on the effectiveness of the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program. Symposium conducted at the annual convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Nashville, TN.
Peterson, K. M., Rhoades, G. K., Scott, S. B., Stanley, S. M., & Markman, H. J. (2013, November). Comparing perceived criticism to self-reported and observed global communication in the prediction of depressive symptoms: A longitudinal perspective. Poster session presented at the annual convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Nashville, TN
Peterson, K. M., Rhoades, G. K., Stanley, S. M., & Markman, H. J. (2013, November). Perceived criticism and marital adjustment are long-term predictors of depressive symptoms. Poster session presented at the annual convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Nashville, TN
Scott, S. B., Parsons, A., Peterson, K., Rhoades, G. K., Stanley, S. M., & Markman, H. J. (2013, November). Changes in different components of sexuality over time as predictors of extradyadic sexual involvement among unmarried heterosexual couples. Poster session presented at the annual convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Nashville, TN
To explore the scholarship and creative works of University of La Verne faculty, please visit the Research Works profiles hosted by Wilson Library.
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