Accomplishments: Department of Psychology
Ph.D. student Alexis Rice (Psychological and Brain Sciences program) presented her research at the American Psychological Association Convention in Washington, D.C. Representing UNLV on a national stage, Rice presented “Hypervigilance as a Social Response to Identity-Based Threat,” highlighting her research on hypervigilance and identity-based…
Ph.D. student Alexis Rice (Psychological and Brain Sciences program) has been selected as a mentor and scholarship recipient for the Grad Rebel Advantage Program for the 2026–27 academic year.
Through the program, Rice will mentor a cohort of 11 UNLV students as they navigate the graduate school application process, providing guidance on exploring…
Katie Singsank (Psychology), a clinical psychology doctoral student, was selected as one of four graduate students nationally for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s 2026 Psychology Student Mentorship Program. The program provides specialized training in the neuropsychological care of individuals with multiple sclerosis, with an emphasis on…
Doctoral student Hoor Ul Ain, alumna Melanie Garcia, and Kara Christensen Pacella (Psychology) recently published a paper in Journal of American College Health on the relationship between university belongingness and eating disorder symptomatology in Muslim university students. Using archival data from the Healthy Minds Study, Ain found that sense…
Shane W. Kraus (Psychology) recently co-authored three publications examining emerging issues in mental health, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual media use.
In a new integrative review (Ketogenic therapy as a potential novel treatment approach for PTSD: an integrative review and proposed mechanistic model) published in Frontiers in…
Shane Kraus (Psychology) recently appeared on The Gambling Files podcast episode, “Addiction 39: The Psychology of Gambling and Sex Addiction with Dr Shane Kraus.” Kraus discussed behavioral addictions, including gambling and compulsive sexual behavior, with a particular focus on psychological mechanisms, risk factors, military populations,…
Brenna Renn (Psychology) and colleagues at the University of Washington (MPIs: Oleg Zaslavsky and Annie Chen) were recently awarded an R01 from the National Institute on Aging for their project entitled, "VOCALE: A Digital Intervention to Improve Quality of Life and Reduce Frailty Among Older Adults in CCRCs--A Randomized Controlled Trial." …
Ashby Boland, Lauren Reyes, and Nicole Short (all Psychology), along with colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and SAFE Austin, have published a manuscript titled “Temporal associations between nightmares and PTSD symptoms in the acute post-sexual assault period: An ecological momentary assessment…
Grace Patrick, Lauren Reyes, and Nicole Short (all Psychology), along with colleagues from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, have published a manuscript titled “Psychometric evaluation of a momentary posttraumatic stress disorder checklist: An ecological…
Shane Kraus (Psychology) recently appeared on The Last Show with David Cooper podcast to discuss phone addiction, including how problematic smartphone use can become, factors that contribute to compulsive phone use, and strategies for reducing unhealthy patterns of use. The episode, “On Phone Addiction, and How to Break It,” explores the growing…
Ernesto Abel-Santos (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Rochelle Hines (Psychology), Brach Poston (Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences) and Manoj Sharma (Social and Behavioral Health) have been awarded a $2,189,956 National Institutes of Health (NIH) T32 grant, the Graduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (GRISE), for 2026-31. The…
Brenna Renn and Lilla Brody (both Psychology), along with colleagues from Talkspace and the University of Washington, published a manuscript entitled "Engagement and Outcomes Associated With Message-Based Psychotherapy Among Older and Younger Adults" in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. To our knowledge, this is the first paper…