My primary interest is in the study of health behavior from a social psychological perspective. Where possible I take a transdisciplinary approach to the study of health behavior, incorporating genetic, physiological and neurocognitive variables.

Much of my work in health psychology has concerned sexual risk reduction in populations at risk for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), with a concentration on the promotion of condom use behavior. I am also interested in the promotion of physical activity. With colleagues in clinical health psychology, exercise physiology, and molecular biology, I have developed a program of research that assesses differential psychological and physiological responses to exercise, and the possible genetic and biological substrates of those responses. All of my research in health psychology has the goal of developing models of behavior that can be used to design, implement, and evaluate theory-based and empirically targeted behavior change interventions to improve health behavior. In line with these goals, I am interested in statistical and methodological issues encountered in prevention and field research, and have specific interests in structural equation modeling and mediational analysis of intervention effects.

My secondary interests encompass evolutionary social psychological topics including the study of attraction, mating, and romantic relationships, and the possible influence of our evolutionary history on current mating behavior.