The Rodebaugh Lab seeks ways to help individuals who suffer from anxiety disorders and distressing health-related conditions such as tinnitus and chronic pain. Most findings in psychology tell us something about a group of people being studied, rather than focusing on the individual. A primary focus for us is whether and how those findings apply to individuals. For example, when trying to help individuals we often know what works in general, but we don’t yet know how to tell whether that intervention will work for the specific person we are trying to help. We need to do better in determining what works for individuals so we can better understand how to help those individuals.
These goals lead us to work with a wide variety of people across a variety of areas, including researchers in psychology and medicine, as well as individual treatment providers. Currently the lab is studying speech anxiety, trying to decipher how one’s anxiety levels change over the course of treatment.
Our laboratory is also a teaching laboratory. Dr. Rodebaugh is committed to training his students individually according to their particular needs and goals. He has had the privilege of working with students and colleagues from a wide variety of backgrounds and believes science only progresses when teams with a wide variety of skills and experiences work toward the same goal.