Shannon E Sauer-Zavala
University of Kentucky, KY·Psychology
Most psychological treatments help only about 30–40% of people who receive them, and mental disorders remain common. Recent research has identified a few broad personality dimensions that underlie many different disorders.
- Fields
Psychology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
clinical psychology
psychotherapy
personality
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Oct 2026
What they work on
- Test whether brief therapy modules each change their intended personality dimension (neuroticism, agreeableness or conscientiousness), using single-case experiments with baseline, 6-session treatment and follow-up phases.
- Measure target engagement with multiple kinds of evidence, combining clinician ratings, self-report questionnaires and behavioral indicators of personality change.
- Determine in a randomized trial of 204 adults with borderline personality disorder whether personality-matched modules, compared with a waitlist, reduce DSM-5 disorder symptoms.
More about the research
These are neuroticism (a tendency toward negative emotion), low agreeableness and low conscientiousness, and they can be targeted directly in therapy. This project aims to show that treating these few shared dimensions, rather than each diagnosis separately, could make mental healthcare more effective, simpler and more personalized.
Why it matters
If targeting a few broad personality dimensions improves symptoms across many disorders, therapists could have a simpler, more personalized way to treat people with complex mental health conditions. This includes people with borderline personality disorder and the conditions that often accompany it. The approach could help raise the modest 30–40% response rates of current psychological treatments.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Piper Ranallo
University of Minnesota, MN·Computer Science·Early-career
Build machine-readable ontology models that define mental, behavioral and social processes, findings, assessment instruments and interventions, using borderline personality disorder and psychosis as test cases.
John Weisz
Harvard University, MA·Psychology
Test in a randomized effectiveness trial whether FIRST, a five-principle treatment that works across disorders, improves mental health more than usual care for youths aged 8–15 in four community clinics.
Sasha Gorrell
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Psychology
Engage youth, caregivers and clinician stakeholders during a preparatory phase to adapt a single-session consultation protocol for families waiting for specialty eating disorder treatment.
The school
University of Kentucky: 34 labs on PI Pages, $528M a year on research, 319 research doctorates a year.
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