Generate a tailored SOP for Dr. Erik Nook. Improve your application with a focused, well-structured draft.
Emotions are a cornerstone of the human experience. Feelings of joy, fear, sadness, excitement, and pride are woven into our everyday experiences. Emotions guide our actions, shape our relationships, and bring meaning to our lives. However, emotions can overwhelm, reaching disturbing levels of distress that characterize psychological disorders like anxiety and depression. I study how emotions ‘work,’ specifically focusing on how language and emotion interact. I integrate three primary lenses to advance the understanding of how language shapes emotion: (i) a developmental approach to understand how children and adolescents learn to identify feelings, (ii) a neuroscientific approach to understand the brain systems that allow us to represent and regulate our emotions, and (iii) a translational approach to understand how emotions and emotional language relate to psychopathology and treatment. As a fully trained clinical psychologist, I am ultimately interested in producing knowledge about human emotion to improve psychological health and well-being.
GRE scores are not accepted. Ph.D. is the primary degree; students are not required to hold an M.S.E. prior to admission.