Roberta Mancuso

Dr. Roberta Mancuso holds her Doctorate in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan (1999), a Masters in Experimental Psychology from Southern Methodist University (1994), and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Ecology with an emphasis in Psychology and Social Behavior from the University of California, Irvine (1991). She has also completed postdoctoral research programs in Health Psychology and Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA.

Dr. Mancuso’s areas of expertise are Social Psychology, Health Psychology, Psychoneuroimmunology, Psychophysiology of Emotion, Health Behavior Change, Stress and Pregnancy, and Ethnic Disparities in Birth Outcomes. She has studied the effects of emotions like anger, shame and guilt on the immune system. She has also studied health behavior change and psychosocial factors influencing cybersecurity. Most recently, she is working on a project that explores the psychoneuroimmmunological impact of affective disorders in pregnancy, and she is continuing her research in cybersecurity. With regard to her work on pregnancy and birth outcomes, one of her published papers suggests that levels of corticotrophin-releasing hormone, a substance that sets the stress response in motion, may help to explain why women who are more anxious about their pregnancies tend to deliver their babies earlier compared to women who are less anxious about their pregnancies.