Walker-Ames Lecture Series: Karen Matthews April 1, 2008

Karen A. Matthews, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychiatry, Epidemiology, and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is Program Director of the Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Research Training Program and Director of Pittsburgh Mind Body Research Center. Several assumptions have guided her research. First, epidemiological constructs linked to cardiovascular disease provide clues to constructs that are important to study from a psychological perspective in order to understand the mechanisms underlying the associations. Matthews' interests in such constructs as Type A, gender, race, and socioeconomic status arose from this assumption. Second, it is most informative to investigate these epidemiological constructs at times of transition, because change often can provide a unique window on underlying psychobiological processes. Under these assumptions she has pursued several lines of research primarily targeting the adolescent and menopausal transitions in relation to the development of negative affect, sympathetic nervous system activation, hormonal factors, and subclinical cardiovascular disease.