Jason T. Siegel, PhD

Lab Director

Jason T. Siegel is a professor of psychology in Claremont Graduate University’s Division of Behavioral & Organizational Sciences. In addition to being the director of the Depression and Persuasion Research Lab, he is also the director of the Survey Design Lab and the Institute for Health Psychology & Prevention Science co-director.

Siegel’s research focuses on the social psychology of health behavior change. He utilizes persuasion, motivation, and emotion theories to develop approaches for maximizing the success of health campaigns and interventions. Accordingly, he has designed, implemented, and evaluated numerous efforts to increase various populations' health and well-being. Siegel’s most common areas of investigation include depression, organ donation, and substance abuse.

He was the 2014 recipient of the Western Psychological Association Early Career Research Award, was nominated for and accepted into the Society of Experimental Social Psychology in 2015, and was named the inaugural winner of the Claremont Graduate University Presidential Research Award for outstanding contributions to new knowledge in 2018. Most recently, Siegel received the 2019 Western Psychological Association Social Responsibility Award.

Siegel's research has been published in journals including Social Science and Medicine, Health Psychology, Clinical Psychological Science, and Journal of Applied Social Psychology. He has received funding from organizations such as the US Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Department of Labor. Moreover, he has accepted invitations to give seminars on research methodology for organizations such as NBC/Universal, the Centers for Disease Control, and the American Evaluation Association.

Sara Hollar, MA

Sara Hollar, MA. Sara’s research interests lie in using new and classic Social Psychological theories of persuasion to impact health behavior. Her current research focuses on using Self-distancing as a tactic to improve help-seeking attitudes, expectations, and intentions among people with depression. Sara has presented her work and participated in symposia at local (Western Psychological Association) and national conferences (Association for Psychological Science). She is also passionate about teaching and hopes to remain in academia and continue research in health persuasion.  

Danielle Blazek, MA

Danielle is interested in using many different theories and persuasion techniques from Social Psychology to encourage more people to register as organ donors. Some of these approaches have included using discrete positive emotions, message framing, and benefits to organ donor families to promote positive attitudes, reduce negative attitudes, and increase both intentions to register and actual registration behavior. Danielle has presented her research nationally and internationally. Currently, her research is investigating survey satisficing and different methods to promote attentive responding from survey participants. Danielle is an enthusiastic teacher and wishes to pursue a career in academia. 

Tara (Parnitvithikul) Muschetto, MA

Tara’s research interests include reducing stigma associated with depression and increasing the provision of support to individuals with the illness. She has studied how controllable and stable attributions of depression influence willingness to provide help. Her current research examines how different attributions of depression affect the psychological contracts between relational partners.      

Gina Santisaranyu

Gina is a master student in the applied social psychology program. Her research interests include familism beliefs/values and perceived social support in predicting depression among students. She is also interested to see if parents are still relevant to an adolescent’s wellbeing. She hopes to examine parental control, warmth, and age and explore to see how it affects adolescents’ well-being from their perspective. She plans to work with adolescents in hopes of understanding their perspective on mental health.

Sabrina Menezes, MA

Sabrina is a PhD student in the applied social psychology program. Her research interests primarily lie in finding novel ways to persuade people to engage in healthier behaviors. Currently, she is working on a study examining the impact of accepting inner experiences on help-seeking behaviors in those currently experiencing depression.

Lina Nguyen

Lina is currently a Positive Developmental Psychology graduate student and does research primarily on well-being. She is interested in working with emerging adults, particularly to understand how mental well-being can be improved in this population. She is currently interested in better understanding how ADHD stigma can affect helping outcomes and how the experiences of emerging adults with ADHD is related to their well-being. Her goal is to become more involved in applied research projects while working towards becoming a professor.

Xitao Liu, MA

Xitao is interested in increasing social support towards loved ones with depression using moral elevation. Her current research investigates whether increasing one’s level of moral elevation could also increase that person’s willingness to provide social support for their depressed loved ones. She is also interested in how people’s cultural backgrounds shape their moral reasoning and whether people from different cultures react differently to different moral elevation stimuli. Her goal is to do applied research in the mental health field.

Alex Marshburn, MA

Alex’s research interests focus on applying theories of persuasion to increase positive health behaviors. His current research explores using vested interest theory to align attitudes with actions, encouraging those who hold positive attitudes towards supporting others with depression to engage in supportive behaviors. He has presented on this topic as part of a symposium on depression stigma reduction and support provision (Western Psychological Association). He has also been involved in the research and development of a forthcoming anti-stigma campaign to be launched on campus at CGU. Alex is interested in pursuing a career in applied research.

Kylene Hayes

Kylene is a MA/MPH dual degree student with concentrations in positive health psychology and health promotion, education, and evaluation. Her research interests primarily lie in adolescent mental health and well-being, both from psychological and neurobiological perspectives. She is currently working on projects at the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies (CNS) and interning at Parents Anonymous®. 

Stephanie Ramirez, MA/MPH

Stephanie (she/her/hers) has a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from Pomona College. She is currently a second-year dual Masters in Positive Health Psychology and Public Health. As a first-generation Latina, her research interests intersect cross-cultural differences and mental health. She is currently working on our current HCA Resident well-being study that is looking at the effect of COVID-19 on resident wellness. She hopes to carry on her research skills as she applies to medical school in the coming year.

Gabrielle Riazi

Gabrielle (Gabby) Riazi is a PhD student in the applied social psychology program and an MPH student with a concentration in health promotion, education, and evaluation. Her research interests lie primarily in applying social psychological theory to increase positive health behaviors. Her current research investigates the impact of emotion on the attributions made about those with depression and the influence it has on one’s willingness to provide help. She is also currently working on the HCA resident well-being project that is examining the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on resident wellness. Gabby is interested in pursuing a career in academia.

Cara Tan

Cara is a Ph.D. student in the Basic and Applied Social Psychology program. Her research centers on increasing positive health behaviors through the application of social psychological theory, with a focus on attitude strength and increasing help-seeking for depression. She is also passionate about sharing the joys of psychological research with the next generation of scholars, and is currently teaching at Mt. San Antonio College as a full-time tenure-track professor.

Rachelle (Shelly) Webb

Shelly is a Ph.D. student in the Basic and Applied Social Psychology program. Her research focuses on the use of social psychological theory to promote positive health behaviors. Her current research examines the use of narrative persuasion to promote positive attitudes and intentions to seek help for depression. She has also taught as adjunct faculty at California State University, Los Angeles. 

Amanda Keeler, MA

Amanda is a doctoral candidate whose research focuses on exploring novel avenues to increase help-seeking for depression including the use of implementation intentions as well focusing on factors that impact help-seeking within the familial unit. Additionally, Amanda works for the Mood Disorder Division in the Department of Psychiatry at Penn State. At her current appointment, she supports research focused on biological determinants of mood disorders and their relation to circadian rhythm. She also assists in testing methods to see if genetics testing can be more accurate and cost-effective when prescribing antidepressants for individuals with depression

Kelsey Carpenter, MPH

Kelsey is a student.

Elidé “Eli” Flores-Medel, MA 

Eli is a CGU alumna currently working with Dr. Jason Siegel. Her research focuses on help-seeking for individuals with a variety of mental health disorders. Currently, she is working on several studies with Dr. Siegel that entails exploring the unintended effects of public service announcements (PSAs) on individuals with depression. Additionally, she is working on research aimed to help decrease the duration of untreated psychosis for individuals who are experiencing a first episode of psychosis.

Amelia Gonzalez, MA

Amelia pursues interests in research and evaluation to support public and private organizations in better responding to client needs. Her specialty is in social psychological processes as they pertain to decisions making and behavior change. Her career experience demonstrates expertise in the application of theory and evidence-based practices to creatively address real-world challenges. Her training and experience have provided her with the research, evaluation, and statistical tools necessary to provide the information needed to develop progressive strategies and programs.

Sonal Khosla, MA 

Sonal holds a master’s degree in Positive Developmental Psychology and Clinical Psychology. Having theoretical knowledge in both the fields of Clinical Psychology and Positive Developmental Psychology, she aims to research about how development takes place in the patients of clinical disorders such as depression and PTSD.  Her research interests also involve how positive experiences like creativity and flow can help people recover from clinical disorders.

Michelle Li, MA

Michelle holds a master’s degree in Health Behavior Research and Evaluation. Michelle focuses her research on adolescents affected by mental health disorders and program development and interventions that may increase their help-seeking behaviors.

Brianna A. Lienemann, PhD

Brianna’s research interests focus on improving outcome expectancies, attitudes, intentions, and behavior related to depression, suicide, anxiety, and substance use. This is primarily achieved through the application of persuasion and psychological theories to the creation and evaluation of public service announcements. Future research will also focus on social media and messages related to cancer prevention.

Deborah Martinez, MA

Debbie is a graduate from Claremont Graduate University with a Masters of Arts in psychology, concentration in health and evaluation. Her research endeavors focused on increasing help-seeking behaviors among college students for eating disorders and depression.  She is currently working for the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention as part of the Stronger Hearts Helpline engagement team.

Andrea L. Ruybal, PhD

Andi holds a Ph.D. in social psychology and health behavior research. She is interested in conducting applied research related to health psychology, communication, and persuasion, which is theory and data-driven. Her research interests also include the reduction of stigma surrounding mental health, depression in minority populations, women’s mental health, postpartum depression, social influence, and depression comorbidities.

Charles Sommerville, MA

Charles is a doctoral student of social psychology. His primary research interests lie in internet addiction, social media, prosocial behavior in online contexts, and human-computer interactions.