Darby Saxbe | |
---|---|
Occupation | Professor |
Academic background | |
Education | Yale University |
Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Clinical psychology |
Sub-discipline | Stress in close relationships |
Institutions | University of Southern California |
Darby Saxbe is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Southern California,who researches stress within the context of relationships.
She researches stress within a close relationship context,with a focus on the transition to parenthood as a nexus of neural,hormonal,behavioral and psychological change. [1] She has also studied hormonal linkage within couples and families,finding that partners with more strongly correlated cortisol levels report more relationship distress [2] [3] and that expectant couples may show linked levels of testosterone which in turn predict paternal relationship investment. [4] She has also found that testosterone levels in new fathers are associated with both their own and their partners' postpartum depressive symptoms, [5] and has examined sleep as another mechanism for within-couple transmission of postpartum depression risk. [6]
Saxbe received her BA in English Literature and Psychology from Yale University and her Ph.D. from the University of California,Los Angeles. In 2018,she was awarded an American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology in the field of health psychology. She has also been named an Association for Psychological Science Rising Star,received the Society for Research in Child Development Early Career Award in 2015,the Caryl Rusbult Early Career Award for Relationship Research from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in 2017,and a Fulbright Program Fellowship to Barcelona,Spain in fall 2019 to study cross-cultural perspectives on the parenting brain.
Saxbe directs the USC Center for the Changing Family,a group of affiliated faculty from across the University of Southern California,including faculty from Psychology,Sociology,Economics,Pediatrics,Social Work,Law,and Preventive Medicine who study families from different methodological lenses.
Her work and writing have been featured in The Conversation, [7] Slate, [8] Fast Company, [9] NPR, [10] the New York Times, [11] [12] and elsewhere. She has consulted on books including Jancee Dunn's How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids and Eve Rodsky's Fair Play.
In psychology,libido is psychic drive or energy,usually conceived of as sexual in nature,but sometimes conceived of as including other forms of desire. The term libido was originally developed by Sigmund Freud,the pioneering originator of psychoanalysis. With direct reference to Plato's Eros,the term initially referred only to specific sexual desire,later expanded to the concept of a universal psychic energy that drives all instincts and whose great reservoir is the id. The libido - in its abstract core differentiated partly according to its synthesising,partly to its analytical aspect called life- and death-drive - thus becomes the source of all natural forms of expression:the behaviour of sexuality as well as striving for social commitment,skin pleasure,food,knowledge and victory in the areas of species- and self-preservation.
Testosterone is the primary male sex hormone and androgen in males. In humans,testosterone plays a key role in the development of male reproductive tissues such as testicles and prostate,as well as promoting secondary sexual characteristics such as increased muscle and bone mass,and the growth of body hair. It is associated with increased aggression,sex drive,dominance,courtship display,and a wide range of behavioral characteristics. In addition,testosterone in both sexes is involved in health and well-being,where it has a significant effect on overall mood,cognition,social and sexual behavior,metabolism and energy output,the cardiovascular system,and in the prevention of osteoporosis. Insufficient levels of testosterone in men may lead to abnormalities including frailty,accumulation of adipose fat tissue within the body,anxiety and depression,sexual performance issues,and bone loss.
A mood disorder,also known as an affective disorder,is any of a group of conditions of mental and behavioral disorder where the main underlying characteristic is a disturbance in the person's mood. The classification is in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
Postpartum depression (PPD),also called perinataldepression,is a mood disorder which may be experienced by pregnant or postpartum individuals. Symptoms include extreme sadness,low energy,anxiety,crying episodes,irritability,and changes in sleeping or eating patterns. PPD can also negatively affect the newborn child.
The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis is a complex set of direct influences and feedback interactions among three components:the hypothalamus,the pituitary gland,and the adrenal glands. These organs and their interactions constitute the HPS axis.
Couvade syndrome,also called sympathetic pregnancy,is a proposed condition in which an expectant father experiences some of the same symptoms and behavior as his pregnant partner. These most often include major weight gain,altered hormone levels,morning nausea,and disturbed sleep patterns. In more extreme cases,symptoms can include labor pains,fatigue,postpartum depression,and nosebleeds. The labor pain symptom is commonly known as sympathy pain.
Sex is correlated with the prevalence of certain mental disorders,including depression,anxiety and somatic complaints. For example,women are more likely to be diagnosed with major depression,while men are more likely to be diagnosed with substance abuse and antisocial personality disorder. There are no marked gender differences in the diagnosis rates of disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Men are at risk to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to past violent experiences such as accidents,wars and witnessing death,and women are diagnosed with PTSD at higher rates due to experiences with sexual assault,rape and child sexual abuse. Nonbinary or genderqueer identification describes people who do not identify as either male or female. People who identify as nonbinary or gender queer show increased risk for depression,anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. People who identify as transgender demonstrate increased risk for depression,anxiety,and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Shelley Elizabeth Taylor is an American psychologist. She serves as a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California,Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University,and was formerly on the faculty at Harvard University. A prolific author of books and scholarly journal articles,Taylor has long been a leading figure in two subfields related to her primary discipline of social psychology:social cognition and health psychology. Her books include The Tending Instinct and Social Cognition,the latter by Susan Fiske and Shelley Taylor.
The challenge hypothesis outlines the dynamic relationship between testosterone and aggression in mating contexts. It proposes that testosterone promotes aggression when it would be beneficial for reproduction,such as mate guarding,or strategies designed to prevent the encroachment of intrasexual rivals. The positive correlation between reproductive aggression and testosterone levels is seen to be strongest during times of social instability. The challenge hypothesis predicts that seasonal patterns in testosterone levels are a function of mating system,paternal care,and male-male aggression in seasonal breeders.
Parental experience,as well as changing hormone levels during pregnancy and postpartum,cause changes in the parental brain. Displaying maternal sensitivity towards infant cues,processing those cues and being motivated to engage socially with her infant and attend to the infant's needs in any context could be described as mothering behavior and is regulated by many systems in the maternal brain. Research has shown that hormones such as oxytocin,prolactin,estradiol and progesterone are essential for the onset and the maintenance of maternal behavior in rats,and other mammals as well. Mothering behavior has also been classified within the basic drives.
Marriage and health are closely related. Married people experience lower morbidity and mortality across such diverse health threats as cancer,heart attacks,and surgery. There are gender differences in these effects which may be partially due to men's and women's relative status. Most research on marriage and health has focused on heterosexual couples,and more work is needed to clarify the health effects on same-sex marriage. Simply being married,as well as the quality of one's marriage,has been linked to diverse measures of health. Research has examined the social-cognitive,emotional,behavioral and biological processes involved in these links.
Behavioral endocrinology is a branch of endocrinology that studies the Neuroendocrine system and its effects on behavior. Behavioral endocrinology studies the biological mechanisms that produce behaviors,this gives insight into the evolutionary past. The field has roots in ethology,endocrinology and psychology.
Endocrinology of parenting has been the subject of considerable study with focus both on human females and males and on females and males of other mammalian species. Parenting as an adaptive problem in mammals involves specific endocrine signals that were naturally selected to respond to infant cues and environmental inputs. Infants across species produce a number of cues to inform caregivers of their needs. These include visual cues,like facial characteristics,or in some species smiling,auditory cues,such as vocalizations,olfactory cues,and tactile stimulation. A commonly mentioned hormone in parenting is oxytocin,however many other hormones relay key information that results in variations in behavior. These include estrogen,progesterone,prolactin,cortisol,and testosterone. While hormones are not necessary for the expression of maternal behavior,they may influence it.
Changing hormone levels during pregnancy and postpartum as well as parental experience cause changes in the parental brain. Both the father and mother undergo distinct biological changes as they transition to parents,but the changes that occur in the paternal brain are not as well studied. Similar to the changes that occur in the maternal brain,the same areas of the brain are activated in the father,and hormonal changes occur in the paternal brain to ensure display of parenting behavior. In only 5% of mammalian species,including humans,the father plays a significant role in caring for his young. Paternal caregiving has independently evolved multiple times in mammals,and can appear in some species under captivity.
The ovulatory shift hypothesis holds that women experience evolutionarily adaptive changes in subconscious thoughts and behaviors related to mating during different parts of the ovulatory cycle. It suggests that what women want,in terms of men,changes throughout the menstrual cycle. Two meta-analyses published in 2014 reached opposing conclusions on whether the existing evidence was robust enough to support the prediction that women's mate preferences change across the cycle. A newer 2018 review does not show women changing the type of men they desire at different times in their fertility cycle.
Evolutionary approaches to postpartum depression examine the syndrome from the framework of evolutionary theory.
Gestational weight gain is defined as the amount of weight gain a woman experiences between conception and birth of an infant.
Breastfeeding and mental health is the relationship between postpartum breastfeeding and the mother's and child's mental health. Research indicates breastfeeding may have positive effects on the mother's and child's mental health,though there have been conflicting studies that question the correlation and causation of breastfeeding and maternal mental health. Possible benefits include improved mood and stress levels in the mother,lower risk of postpartum depression,enhanced social emotional development in the child,stronger mother-child bonding and more. Given the benefits of breastfeeding,the World Health Organization (WHO),the European Commission for Public Health (ECPH) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggest exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. Despite these suggestions,estimates indicate 70% of mothers breastfeed their child after birth and 13.5% of infants in the United States are exclusively breastfed. Breastfeeding promotion and support for mothers who are experiencing difficulties or early cessation in breastfeeding is considered a health priority.
Pregnancy-related anxiety is a distinct anxiety contextualized by pregnancy specific fears,worries,and concerns. Pregnancy-related anxiety is characterized by increased concerns or excessive fears and worries about their unborn baby,childbirth,body image,and impending motherhood. This anxiety is also known as pregnancy-specific anxiety,pregnancy anxiety,pregnancy distress,or pregnancy concerns and was first identified in 1956 when women were observed to be anxious about different aspects of their pregnancy. However,it was not until conventional measures of anxiety and depression were shown to not adequately capture this anxiety that the first empirical evidence was provided. Subsequent studies have provided further support for the distinctiveness of pregnancy-related anxiety from state and trait anxiety,depression and anxiety disorder symptomology.
Marci Lobel is a health psychologist known for her research on women's reproductive health,effects of prenatal stress on pregnancy and newborn health,and how mothers learn to cope with stress.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Faculty profile at the University of Southern California