Alytia Levendosky
- Professor
- Co-Director of Clinical Training
- Clinical Science
- 517-353-6396
- Office: Psychology 107C
- levendo1@msu.edu
BIOGRAPHY
PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of Michigan, 1995
MA, Clinical Psychology, University of Michigan, 1992
BA, Biological Anthropology, Magna Cum Laude, Harvard-Radcliffe College, 1987
Curriculum Vitae: Alytia Levendosky
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
- Effects of intimate partner violence on the mother-child relationship
- Effects of prenatal stress on infant/child emotion regulation
- Psychotherapy microprocesses in relational psychodynamic psychotherapy
RESEARCH
Dr. Levendosky's has three main areas of research. One is understanding the mechanisms through which intimate partner violence is transmitted across generations, including psychological and physiological mechanisms for this transmission. She is particularly interested in the early mother-child attachment relationship, beginning during pregnancy, and how that may be a vehicle for this intergenerational transmission.
The second is a focus on prenatal stress, including intimate partner violence among other stressors, and how this may affect the development of emotion regulation in children. Currently, her Prenatal Stress Lab is involved in a longitudinal prospective study, funded by NIH, to examine how the timing of prenatal stress (using weekly assessment of stress in pregnancy) is differentially related to infant and early childhood emotion regulation and psychopathology. This study also examines putative mechanisms, including HPA axis and autonomic nervous system, for this transmission of prenatal stress effects.
The third focus is psychotherapy research on evidence-based relational psychodynamic psychotherapy. She and her collaborators have collected therapy data on therapy dyads in the MSU Psychological Clinic and has coded these for microprocesses including interpersonal warmth and dominance, and therapeutic ruptures.