Dr. Adrienne Crowell is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Sacred Heart University. Areas of expertise include social psychology, social neuroscience and research.

Failures at self-control and defensive responding to threats can prevent us from living our best lives. Her research delves into the basic motivational and emotional systems that self-control and self-affirmation affect and identifies individuals most susceptible to reward and threat with the hopes of providing valuable insights into why self-control fails and how self-affirmation can decrease defensiveness. The research spans multiple levels of analysis including self-reports, behavior, and psychophysiological events (e.g., heart rate, skin conductance, and facial muscle movements) to address these questions. In summary, these lines of research aim to explain self-control failure beyond resource depletion and self-affirmation beyond ego defenses to ultimately reduce personal and societal problems.

If you are interested in working with her on research, please send her an email expressing your interest.