Richard J. Contrada, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He obtained a Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 1985, and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, before joining the faculty at Rutgers in 1986. Dr. Contrada’s work addresses psychosocial, behavioral, and psychophysiological aspects of physical disease, with a focus on cardiovascular disorders. He has a longstanding interest in the role of personality in physical health, and his research on psychophysiologic mechanisms linking personality to cardiovascular disease has been supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health. He has also examined psychosocial factors in adaptation to physical illness. His investigation of religion in recovery and quality of life following cardiac surgery has been funded by the Fetzer Institute and the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Contrada’s latest project, supported by the Charles A. Dana Foundation, examines pro-inflammatory cytokines as a basis for associations between depressive symptoms and coronary disease. Among his other interests are theories of self-regulation, and the health effects of ethnicity and ethnicity-related stress. His work has been published in Health Psychology, Psychosomatic Medicine , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychophysiology , American Journal of Cardiology, and Journal of Psychosomatic Research. He has also edited a book, Self, Social Identity, and Physical Health: Interdisciplinary Explorations (Oxford University Press, 1999). Dr. Contrada has served as a member of the Health Behavior and Prevention Study Section of the NIMH, and as Associate Editor of Health Psychology. He also served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, and the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Contrada is a Fellow of APA, APS, and SBM, and has received the Rutgers University Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching.
Faculty/Research Positions