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Christopher G. Beevers, Assistant Professor
Associate Director of Clinical Training
SEA 3.212
Ph: (512) 232-3706
Email: beevers@psy.utexas.edu

Mood Disorders Laboratory

Dr. Beevers does not plan to accept a graduate student into his laboratory in the Fall of 2010.

I received my doctorate in adult clinical psychology from the University of Miami and completed my internship in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University in 2002. I then stayed on at Brown to complete a postdoctoral research fellowship in the area of mood disorders. In January 2005, I joined the clinical area of the department of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin as an assistant professor.

My research examines the cognitive etiology, maintenance, and treatment of major unipolar depression in adults. Although my background is in clinical psychology, theories from social and personality psychology also influence my research. I believe that understanding processes of normal behavior (e.g., paradoxical effects of thought suppression; dual process models of social cognition) fosters an understanding of how they can go awry in clinical disorders .

My past research has examined whether depression vulnerability is associated with negatively biased attention, thought suppression, and poor cognitive change during treatment. I have also examined the interplay between reactivity to transient mood states and cognitive risk factors for depression. Current research examines whether: a) implicit negative self-beliefs predict depression severity and response to treatment, b) depression treatment modifies cognitive vulnerability to depression, and c) genetic factors contribute to cognitive biases often observed among depressed and depression vulnerable people.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my wonderful wife and son, playing tennis and squash, listening to music, cheering for my hometown Toronto Raptors and Blue Jays (it's been a tough decade for sports watching in the Beevers' household), extolling the virtues of Tivo, and spontaneously quizzing people (usually friends) about Canada.

Selected representative publications include:

Kellough, J., Beevers, C. G., Ellis, A., & Wells, T. T. (in press). Time course of selective attention in depressed young adults: An eye tracking study. Behavior Research and Therapy. PDF

Beevers, C. G., Gibb, B. E., McGeary, J. E., & Miller, I. W. (in press). Serotonin transporter genetic variation and biased attention for emotional word stimuli among psychiatric inpatients. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. PDF

Beevers, C. G. (2005). Cognitive vulnerability to depression: A dual process model. Clinical Psychology Review, 25, 975-1002. PDF

Beevers, C. G., & Miller, I. W. (2005). Unlinking negative cognition and symptoms of depression: Evidence for the specific effect of cognitive therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 68-77. PDF

Gibb, B. E., Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., Beevers, C. G., & Miller, I. W. (2004). Cognitive vulnerability to depression: A taxometric analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 81-89. PDF

Beevers, C. G., Keitner, G. I., Ryan, C. E. & Miller, I. W. (2003). Cognitive predictors of symptom return following depression treatment. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 488-496. PDF