2230 Life Sciences Building
2322 Life Sciences Building
304-293-2001, ext. 31663 amy.gentzler@mail.wvu.edu
Background
Amy Gentzler earned her B.A. in Psychology from Miami University. After working for 2 years in a group home for children, she went to graduate school at Kent State University, earning a Ph.D. in Social Psychology in 2001. To further her training in developmental psychology, she completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in Developmental Psychopathology at The Center for Family Research at George Washington University from 2001 to 2004. During this time, she attained 2 years of postdoctoral funding through the NIMH to examine children's coping processes. Dr. Gentzler then worked at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to work on a multi-disciplinary study focused on risk factors of childhood depression, and remained on as faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2007, Amy joined the Psychology Department at West Virginia University as an Assistant Professor in Life-span Developmental Psychology.
Research Interests
Dr. Gentzler's main research interest is the investigation of emotional experiences and the regulation of emotions. In addition to gaining a better understanding of the process of emotion regulation itself, she has focused on studying factors that influence the development of regulatory responses, as well as the outcomes of adaptive or maladaptive emotion regulation. She is devoted to gaining a better understanding of these topics because emotions are so central to people's well-being and life satisfaction, and when people are unable to effectively cope with negative emotions, the consequences can be devastating and life-threatening.
Dr. Gentzler has investigated the role of parental socialization of children's emotion regulation by studying attachment style and parent-child communication. Also, she has been studying how individual characteristics, such as temperament or vagal tone, may affect the development of emotional responses and regulation. In terms of potential outcomes of ER, she is interested in depression, and the types of regulatory responses that may increase one's likelihood of experiencing depression or serve as protective factors against this disorder. Particular aspects of emotional experiences under investigation include variability in response to positive events; memories of earlier emotional reactions to negative and positive events; and attributions about events and the duration of negative emotional reactions.
She is especially interested in gaining a better understanding of how children in middle childhood and early adolescence regulate and understand their emotions. During this time children's use of cognitive ER strategies increases, some of which ( e.g., rumination) may be problematic for their adjustment. As well, during adolescence the rate of depression increases, particularly for girls. Thus, furthering the understanding of children's experience of emotions and why they may develop certain preferred modes of ER may elucidate general knowledge on the development of emotion regulation as well as pathways to depression in adolescence.
Publications
Contreras, J. M., Kerns, K. A., Weimer, B. L., Gentzler, A. L., & Tomich, P. L. (2000). Emotion regulation as a mediator of associations between mother-child attachment and peer relationships in middle childhood. Journal of Family Psychology, 14, 111-124.
Kerns, K. A., Aspelmeier, J. A., Gentzler, A. L., & Grabill, C. M. (2001). Parent-child attachment and monitoring in middle childhood. Journal of Family Psychology. 15, 69-81.
Gentzler, A. L. , & Kerns, K. A. (2004). Associations between insecure attachment and sexual experiences. Personal Relationships, 11, 249-265.
Gentzler, A. L. , Contreras, J. M., Kerns, K. A., & Weimer, B. L. (2005). Emotional communication between parents and children: Associations with child coping. Social Development, 14, 591-612.
Gentzler, A. L. , & Kerns, K. A. (2006). Adult attachment and memory of emotional reactions to negative and positive events. Cognition and Emotion, 20, 20-42.
Liu, X., Gentzler, A. L., Tepper, P., Kiss, E., Kothencné V., Tamás, Z., Vetró, Á., & Kovacs, M. (2006). Clinical features of depressed children and adolescents with various forms of suicidality. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 67, 1442-1450.
Liu, X., Buysse, D. J., Gentzler, A. L., Kiss, E., Meyer, L., Kapornai, K., Vetró, Á., & Kovacs, M. (2007). Insomnia and hypersomnia associated with depressive phenomenology and comorbidity in childhood depression. Sleep, 30, 83-90.
Kapornai, K., Gentzler, A. L., Tepper, P. G., Kiss, E., Tamas, Z., Meyer, L., Kovacs, M., Vetró, Á. (2007). Early developmental characteristics and features of Major Depressive Disorder among child psychiatric patients in Hungary. Journal of Affective Disorders, 100, 91-101.
Kiss, E., Gentzler, A. L., George, C., Kapornai, K., Tamas, Z., Kovacs, M., & Vetró, Á. (2007). Factors influencing mother-child reports of depressive symptoms and agreement among clinically referred depressed youngsters in Hungary. Journal of Affective Disorders, 100, 143-151.
Tamas, Z., Kovacs, M., Gentzler, A. L., Tepper, P., Kiss, E., Kapornai, K., & Vetró, Á. (2007). The relations of temperament and emotion self-regulation with suicidal behaviors in a clinical sample of depressed children in Hungary. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 640-652.
Santucci, A. K., Silk, J. S., Shaw, D. S., Gentzler, A. L., Fox, N. A., & Kovacs, M. (in press). Vagal tone and temperament as predictors of emotion regulation strategies in young children. Developmental Psychobiology.
Research Opportunities
Undergraduate Research Training
Some opportunities are currently available for qualified undergraduate students to work in Dr. Gentzler's lab. Students with an interest in developmental psychology who would like to gain valuable research experience should stop by Dr. Gentzler's office (2230) to pick up an application form.
Graduate Research Training
Interested applicants should contact Dr. Gentzler and check out the departmental web pages for further information about the department and steps in the application process.
Teaching
Fall 2007
PSYC 351 – Topics in Social Psychology Spring 2008
PSYC 351 – Topics in Social Psychology
PSYC 546 – Methodological Issues in Developmental Psychology
