The research that we do revolves around the idea that human impulses, emotions, and behaviors are inherently controllable. We refer to this process as self-regulation, and explore it using a variety of methods, populations, and outcomes of interest, depending on the question and interest of the researchers.

School Psychology & Prevention Science

The School Psychology program and Prevention Science program at UO are both research-focused, with particular emphases on prevention and early intervention. From a self-regulation perspective, this means that adaptive, healthy self-regulation can be fostered from an early age, even before formal schooling begins. Our work here investigates the precise nature of the impact parents and other primary caregivers have on the development of children’s self-regulation across several domains, with special focus on both academic and socioemotional school readiness. We are particularly interested in the caregivers themselves, who come to caregiving with their own experiences, skills, traumas, biases, and values.

Health Promotion

Dr. Giuliani was hired as part of a cluster of researchers all focusing on health promotion. Our work here investigates basic brain processes and mechanisms that link to emotional and self-regulatory aspects of food consumption to help develop interventions that improve diet and health behaviors. This work is done in collaboration with Drs. Nichole Kelly, Elizabeth Budd, and Andrew Kern. We work in memory of our colleague, Dr. Tasia Smith, who died in 2018.

Resources

We use functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in our work. UO has two research-dedicated Siemens 3T scanners (Skyra, Prisma) for MRI data collection in the Lewis Center for NeuroImaging (LCNI). Dr. Giuliani is also a member of the Prevention Science Institute and affiliated faculty at the Center for Translational Neuroscience at UO.