Psychology Research
INSTAR's psychology program investigates the cognitive, emotional, and social mechanisms that drive human behavior — and the points where those mechanisms go awry. Research spans clinical, cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, integrating behavioral experiments, neuroimaging, AI-driven computational modeling, and longitudinal methods. Rigorous psychological science is a national-priority investment: it underpins mental health treatment, public communication strategy, and the human factors that shape technology design.
Clinical Psychology
INSTAR clinical psychology research develops and evaluates evidence-based interventions for anxiety, depression, trauma-spectrum conditions, and substance use disorders. The methodological emphasis is on treatment mechanism research — understanding not just whether an intervention works, but why and for whom — alongside the design of scalable digital therapeutics that can extend access to effective psychological care beyond traditional clinical settings. This directly addresses the American mental health crisis identified as a federal priority.
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology research at INSTAR applies behavioral experiments and computational Bayesian models to study attention, working memory, belief formation, and judgment under uncertainty. Understanding how people update beliefs in response to evidence — and where that updating goes wrong — has direct implications for science communication, misinformation resilience, and the design of AI systems that collaborate effectively with human decision-makers.
Social & Developmental Psychology
INSTAR's social and developmental psychology research investigates intergroup relations, persuasion dynamics, cooperation under resource competition, and the development of moral judgment. The developmental program tracks cognitive and emotional growth from infancy through adolescence using longitudinal cohort designs — an approach that captures the within-person trajectories invisible to cross-sectional methods. Researchers at any level are encouraged to explore the INSTAR Fellowship at /fellowship/.
Grounded in Open Psychology Data
INSTAR's psychology research prioritizes open, publicly accessible datasets that allow clinical and behavioral findings to be independently replicated and extended. The replication crisis in psychology has underscored the necessity of open data practices — INSTAR's commitment to transparent data sourcing is foundational to credible behavioral and mental health research.
Our primary open psychology sources:
- ICPSR — Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, providing curated behavioral and social science datasets for secondary analysis.
- Open Science Framework — preregistration, materials, and data repository supporting transparent, replication-ready psychological research.
- NIMH Data Archive — neuroimaging, behavioral, and clinical data from federally funded mental health and neurodevelopmental research programs.
- General Social Survey — longitudinal survey data on social attitudes, values, and behavioral trends in the U.S. population since 1972.
OUR PARTNERS
Philanthropy & Grants
Fund Independent Science
INSTAR Lab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your tax-deductible contribution directly supports public-benefit research in AI, quantum science, health, energy, and the broad sciences.