Current Research Areas

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Human Flourishing & Psychological Well-Being

How self-awareness, emotional regulation, relationships, meaning, agency, and adaptive functioning contribute to sustained well-being across the lifespan

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Trauma, Stress & Adaptation
How acute and chronic stress, trauma, relational adversity, and repeated patterns of threat affect emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and relational functioning and what supports recovery and resilience

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Prevention & Early Intervention
How strengthening emotional awareness, regulation, attunement, reflective functioning, and relational skills early in development may reduce later psychological distress and improve long-term functioning

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Parenting & Development
How caregiver emotional processes, interpretations of child behavior, reflective functioning, and parent-child relationships shape developmental outcomes

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Empathy, Compassion & Human Connection
How empathy, compassion, perspective-taking, and relational safety influence communication, accountability, learning, repair, and connection

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Emotion, Regulation & Social Cognition
How emotional and physiological states influence attention, interpretation, perspective-taking, judgment, and interpersonal behavior

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Resilience, Agency & Adaptive Functioning
How people regain flexibility, self-trust, decision-making capacity, and purposeful action following stress, adversity, or disruption

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Relationships, Attachment & Relational Health
How relational experience contributes to expectations, emotional regulation, interpersonal perception, trust, differentiation, and the capacity for repair

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Mind-Body Health & Whole-Person Functioning
How emotional, behavioral, relational, physiological, sleep, nutritional, inflammatory, and lifestyle factors interact in human functioning and health

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Lifespan Development & Aging
How regulation, identity, resilience, relationships, cognition, adaptation, and meaning evolve from childhood through later life

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Research Mission

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INP studies the psychological, relational, developmental, and physiological processes that support human adaptation and flourishing across the lifespan. Our research spans prevention, trauma and recovery, emotional regulation, empathy and compassion, parenting and development, relational health, resilience, and whole-person functioning.

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​Across these areas, we are particularly interested in how emotional and relational conditions influence access to reflection, self-awareness, perspective-taking, learning, and adaptive behavior. Our work integrates established research across disciplines while developing testable frameworks intended to support prevention, intervention, and long-term human flourishing.

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Research Approach

INP distinguishes among:

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Established evidence : findings supported by prior research
Integrative frameworks:  relationships proposed across established literatures
Working constructs: concepts being operationalized for study
Testable hypotheses: proposed mechanisms requiring direct empirical testing

Our aim is to develop models that are conceptually precise, empirically testable, and clinically meaningful.

 

Current Scholarly Work

INP is currently developing work in the areas of:

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• emotional state and reflective functioning

• empathy and social cognition

• caregiver reflective processes

• shame, attribution, and parent-child relationships

• compassion, accountability, and behavioral change

• state-sensitive approaches to psychological assessment and intervention

 

Research Development

INP’s research development spans both conceptual and empirical work and the creation of developmentally informed prevention and education programs designed for real-world settings.

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Current areas of development include:

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• Early childhood prevention: programs focused on emotional awareness, regulation, attunement, co-regulation, and the foundations of relational safety.

• Elementary school programming: age-appropriate education in emotional literacy, interoception, regulation, relationships, and adaptive coping.

• Middle school programming: prevention-oriented work addressing emotional development, stress, peer relationships, identity, self-regulation, and emerging autonomy.

• High school programming: programs focused on resilience, stress regulation, executive functioning, relationships, decision-making, self-knowledge, and transition to adulthood.

• Parent education and prevention: programs examining caregiver regulation, reflective functioning, interpretation of child behavior, empathy, boundaries, accountability, repair, and developmentally responsive parenting.

• Family and relational health — educational models designed to strengthen communication, emotional understanding, relational safety, and repair across family systems.

• Trauma-informed prevention and recovery — development of approaches that support adaptation following adversity while also identifying opportunities for earlier prevention.

• Human flourishing across the lifespan — research and program development addressing agency, resilience, relational health, meaning, self-knowledge, and sustained well-being.

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​These programs are intended not only as educational offerings, but as platforms for iterative research, evaluation, and refinement. INP is interested in studying feasibility, acceptability, developmental fit, implementation, and outcomes as programs move from conceptual development into school, parent, community, and clinical settings.

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Social, Legal, & Forensic Applications

 

INP explores how regulation, stress, emotion, and relational context shape decision-making in high-stakes social systems, including courts, forensic settings, law enforcement, and other public institutions.

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Current areas of interest include:

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• Research on state-related factors that may influence attention, comprehension, memory, deliberation, and judgment in jurors and legal decision-makers

• Forensic assessment: examination of how regulation, arousal, trauma history, and situational stress may affect functioning relevant to legal evaluation

• Legal professionals: education for attorneys, judges, mediators, and court personnel on the effects of stress, emotional activation, and regulation on communication, judgment, conflict, and decision-making

• Law enforcement and public safety: research and training related to stress physiology, regulation, situational awareness, de-escalation, decision-making under pressure, and recovery after critical incidents

• Witnesses and testimony:  how stress and emotional state may affect attention, recall, interpretation, confidence, and communication

• Organizational and systems-level prevention: application of regulation and state-awareness principles to reduce avoidable error, improve communication, and support more effective decision-making in high-stakes environments.

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