Phone:(480) 965-5404
Fax: (480) 965-8544

E-mail:paul.karoly@asu.edu

Paul Karoly, PhD, 1971, University of Rochester

Clinical

Research Interests: Our research focuses on the development and use of a cognitive-motivational perspective applied to normal and abnormal adjustment and to physical health and physical illness. The model, called the goal, self-regulatory, automatized social systems perspective (GRASSP), seeks to understand humans as self-regulating systems organized around explicit and implicit goals. The model focuses not only on the functional capacities of human self-regulating systems (such as attention, memory, monitoring of self and environment, etc.) but on the content, structure, and operational dynamics of goals themselves. The conceptual model is currently being applied across a variety of domains including:

Health psychology---exploring the role of self-regulatory systems in physical exercise and in adjustment to chronic pain;

Clinical psychology---exploring the goal/self-regulatory underpinnings of depression, anxiety, social phobia, college student drinking, ADHD, schizotypy, hypochondriasis, and others.

Experimental psychology---exploring the role of goal/regulatory systems in mental control, affect regulation, complex motor performance, decision-making and the like.

Clinical assessment--- exploring new methods for measuring self-regulatory processes and outcomes.

Personality---exploring a GRASSP version of “personality/identity/self” and morality

Educational psychology---exploring the role of goal systems in academic achievement and retention.

Vocational psychology---exploring a goal systems perspective on work behavior.

Teaching:
Undergraduate level: Abnormal psychology and Health psychology
Graduate level: Psychopathology, Psychotherapy, and Human Motivation

Research projects
At present we are engaged in a series of studies assessing the relationship of social goals and their cognitive representation to outcomes such as: clinical depression, alcohol consumption, exercise behavior, social anxiety, and coping styles. These projects are carried out by undergraduates (senior thesis projects), graduate students, and cooperating faculty (particularly Dr. Linda Ruehlman and Dr. Morris Okun).

Selected Publications:

Karoly, P., Ruehlman, L. S., Okun, M. A., Lutz, R. S., Newton, C., & Fairholme, C. (2005). Perceived self-regulation o exercise goals and interfering goals among regular and irregular exercisers: A life space analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 6, 427-442.

Karoly, P., Ruehlman, L. S., & Lanyon, R. I. (2005). The assessment of adult health care orientations: Development and preliminary validation of the multidimensional health profile---health functioning index (MHP-H) in a national sample. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 12, 79-91.

Ruehlman, L. S., Karoly, P., Newton, C., & Aiken, L. S. (2005). The development and preliminary validation of a brief measure of chronic pain impact for use in the general population. Pain, 113, 82-90.

Hamilton, N., Karoly, P., & Kitzman, H. (2004). Self regulation and chronic pain: The role of emotion. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 559-576.

Karoly, P., & Anderson, C. W. (2000). The long and short of psychological change: Toward a goal-centered understanding of treatment durability and adaptive success. In C. R. Snyder & R. E. Ingram (Eds.), Handbook of psychological change. Pp. 154-176. New York: Wiley.

Karoly, P. (1999). A Goal systems-self-regulatory perspective on personality, psychopathology, and change. Review of General Psychology, 3, 264-291.

Karoly, P., & Ruehlman, L. S. (1996). Motivational implications of pain: Chronicity, psychological distress, and work goal construal in a national sample of adults. Health Psychology, 15, 383-390.

Karoly, P. (1993). Mechanisms of self-regulation: A systems view. Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 23-52.