Wellness and Health Through Written Expression with Joshua Smyth, PhD

Whole Body Mental Health Radio

Dr. Joshua Smyth is a Professor of Biobehavioral Health and of Medicine at Penn State and Hershey Medical Center. He also serves as Associate Director of Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) and as the Academic Director of the Dynamic Real-time Ecological Ambulatory Methodologies [DREAM] Initiative within the Survey Research Center at Penn State. He is a researcher, teacher, writer and mentor.Most broadly, Dr. Smyth’s research reflects the application of the biopsychosocial model to meaningful health-related processes, contexts, and outcomes. Three more narrowly defined areas – and the integration between them – comprise the bulk of his research program:1. What are the effects of experiencing stress or trauma on psychological and physical well-being and how can such effects be observed?2. Can stress, affect, and health be assessed in a manner that permits the understanding of biopsychosocial processes in real time and in context?3. Can psychological interventions improve health and well-being, both in healthy individuals and individuals with existing physical or psychiatric illness?Having published about 200 articles and chapters in both medical and psychological journals and books, Dr. Smyth has made important contributions to the understanding of stress and coping, psychological interventions (most notably expressive writing), pain, immune disorders, chronic illness, eating behaviors, and ambulatory naturalistic monitoring (e.g., ecological momentary assessment, or EMA). He has served as an editorial referee for more than four dozen journals, and is an active member of the American Psychosomatic Society, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Society for Ambulatory Assessment.Dr. Smyth has widely shared his research in interviews with ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, PBS, Newsweek, Time and the New York Times, among many others. Finally, he is an active and engaged teacher, and has received numerous accolades and awards for teaching and mentoring of students and trainees.Dr. Smyth received his Ph.D. in Health and Social Psychology from Stony Brook University and his B.A. in Cognitive Science from Vassar College.