Who are the people behind the lectern? Did they appear one day to discuss t-tests and theories, and then disappear into the ether? It turns out that faculty are people too! The Department of Psychology strives to create a culture replete with high quality research and teaching. To foster that culture, the “meet the faculty” series is designed to give students an idea of what leads one to pursue a career aligned with this culture.
Let’s meet our current Undergraduate Program Director, Dr. Suzanne Vrshek-Schallhorn. Dr. Vrshek-Schallhorn joined the Department of Psychology in the Fall 2013 semester, just a few months after welcoming her first child. She is aligned with the clinical psychology area. She doubled majored biology and psychology at Florida State University – also completing minors in chemistry and math. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. You can learn more about Dr. Vrshek-Schallhorn’s research at her lab website.
Research Background and Interests
What inspired you to become a psychology professor?
I was and remain obsessed with understanding how systems work, so that we can develop interventions that alleviate suffering and improve people’s lives. One of my earliest obsessions was the brain serotonin system, and I was able to apply some of my genetic training in my undergraduate biology lab to research going on in FSU’s psychology department. It was then that I caught the professor bug, and decided that a career full of curiosity, inquiry, and problem solving would be really stimulating.
Can you describe your research area and interests?
I’m interested in pathways from life stress to depression, and everything that encompasses. We have a few distinct “lines” of work that weave in and out, and create a tapestry over time. Right now, my lab has a stress measurement focus because the field is positively terrible at measuring life stress exposure, and we want to create a real shift to strong tool use that improves a wide array of research, so we are developing new measures and demonstrating the flaws in poor ones. We are also interested in describing and measuring discrimination as a form of interpersonal life stress, because we know that social rejection stress can be especially potent. Finally, we’ve done quite a bit of work in the past in how cortisol operates, and how certain genetic differences operate in depression, even though that’s not our immediate focus.
Are there any publications or work of which you’re particularly proud?
I’m really proud of my lab’s Cortisol Reactivity Threshold model paper (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.11.002), which was the first publication I led as an independent investigator and collected completely at UNCG. This work has been a cornerstone for our later work in showing that, contrary to what you’ll hear on TikTok, cortisol elevations are not always bad for you. It really depends on context, and we believe that the ability to manifest a cortisol response when you need one, and then dial it back down, is very healthy. In the case of this paper, whether a depression risk factor called “trait rumination” was associated with too much or not enough cortisol reactivity to a stressor in our lab depended on how tough we made the stressor.
Working and Teaching at UNCG
What drew you to joining the Psychology Department at UNCG?
I was really taken with this Department where so many people had been very successful getting grants and building strong scientific reputations like you’d see at a flagship state institution, but at a midsize institution; they seemed to have the secret sauce figured out, and I was not wrong. I’ve learned and grown so much here.
Do you have a favorite course that you teach?
I really, really enjoyed teaching PSY 419 as “Advanced Psychopathology” for undergraduates because I developed it as a capstone, or almost a bridge between undergrad level work and graduate level work. I challenged my students with the absolute cutting edge papers in our field (which honestly can be painful to read due to their complexity) and students totally rose to the occasion.
What advice would you give to students aspiring to a career in your area?
Get as much research experience as you can, as early as you can. Immerse yourself and be a tiny bit obsessive. Also allow enough time—students expect to go directly to graduate school after their senior year of undergrad, and it usually doesn’t work that way. You can supercharge yourself for graduate school by working in your field for 1-3 years, ideally getting more research experience.
Fun Facts!
What do you like to do outside of work?
Being a professor and a parent leaves little free time for hobbies, but I love weight lifting, jogging, cooking, and the few pages I can get of a good novel.
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
I’m not sure!
Could you share a favorite movie, book, or band that you would recommend to others?
Well, I love the banjo, and that’s true whether it’s played by Rhiannon Giddens, Mumford & Sons, or Trampled by Turtles.
