PROJECTS
Current Lab Projects
Exploring Relations Between Self-Concept Complexity and Emotion Regulation Strategy Choice
Primary Investigator: Dr. Bev Fredborg
Project Description: Emotions are the data of the human experience. Experiences of sadness, joy, guilt, and fear alter our thoughts, physiology, and behaviour. However, emotional responses are not always adaptive, such as experiencing paralyzing fear when writing an exam or severe road rage. As such, we must manage our emotions to thrive. But how do we do that? What strategies do we choose, consciously or nonconsciously, to regulate our emotions? Maybe we engage in cognitive reappraisal – for example, imagining a better future outcome or diminishing the personal relevance of an emotional event. Or maybe we disengage entirely, using distraction. We might also try an autonomic strategy, such as holding our breath. Perhaps we use a combination of strategies – but how did we choose them, and why? Research on emotion regulation (ER) strategy choice endeavors to understand how individuals choose the conscious or nonconscious strategies they use to regulate their emotions. Although some research has examined specific strategies and when they tend to be used, there is much we do not know on how and why people choose the strategies they do. In particular, there is a major gap in our understanding of how one’s beliefs about oneself influence ER strategy choice. For example, if one believed they were a good employee, and this was their main source of life satisfaction, it might be much more difficult to regulate sadness associated with being fired as compared to someone who had many more positive and important aspects of their identity. Given that identity and emotion are tightly linked, this dearth of research is glaring when trying to understand how humans choose effective strategies to regulate their emotions.
This research program has two objectives. Objective A is to improve the assessment of ER strategy choice by developing a new way to assess this construct. Most researchers examining ER strategy use train people on how to regulate their emotions, and force them to choose specific strategies in experimental tasks. Although this clarifies how specific strategies affect individuals’ emotional experience, these tasks tend to poorly relate to real-world strategy use. I propose a new way to examine ER strategy use that can enhance our understanding of individual differences in emotion processing by encouraging individuals to choose strategies they would use in real life. Objective B is to use this new way of measuring ER strategy choice to explore the relationship between ER strategy choice and self-concept clarity, which is a measure of beliefs about one’s identity. Given that self-related beliefs become activated in emotional scenarios, I expect that this influences ER strategy choice by constraining individuals’ available cognitive resources such that they are less able to choose strategies that involve cognitive flexibility.
Validating Student-Related Images for Psychological Studies
Primary Investigator: Dr. Bev Fredborg
Project Description: Psychological research commonly uses undergraduate students as participants; however, the existing image databases used as stimuli in these studies are not student-specific. If visual stimuli are not relatable or relevant to the study population, the experimental responses elicited may not accurately reflect how students would react in real life. Integrated with our emotion regulation strategy choice research project, we aimed to establish a new image database for psychology studies consisting of student-related images. This study first consists of collecting free-use, coloured images that depict different themes within a student's university experience. These images are then viewed and validated by undergraduate students who answer questions either about their valence (i.e., how happy or sad the image is) or their arousal (i.e., how emotionally intense the image was). This research will establish normative student-related emotional stimuli that can be used in a broad array of future psychological research.
Psychological predictors of antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence among people living with HIV (PLWH) in high-income countries: A systematic review
Principal Investigator: Dr. Bev Fredborg
Collaboration between the HEART lab and Dr. Zulma Rueda, University of Manitoba
Project Description: Addressing psychological barriers is critical for optimizing treatment adherence and improving health outcomes among people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Despite the availability of resources in high-income countries, significant barriers to antiretroviral treatment remain, including stigma, fragmented healthcare systems, and disparities in access to psychological support. This review synthesizes findings from studies examining how mental health factors including depression, anxiety, stress, substance use, and trauma affect adherence outcomes. This review will highlight the need for integrated mental health and HIV care, and for future research to adopt methods to better inform interventions, both for psychological symptoms and for ART adherence.
Exploring Self-Compassion and Occupational Stress Symptoms in RCMP officers.
Student Investigator: Claire Robinson
Student Supervisor: Dr. Bev Fredborg
Project Description: Workplace stressors are a significant concern for Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) members and can have serious implications for officer health and well-being. Although research on RCMP officer’s mental health has grown, minimal research has explored the role of self-compassion in RCMP operational stress. The relationship between workplace stress and self-compassion has remained largely unexamined within this population, representing an important gap in the existing literature.
This study is open to current and former RCMP members and will maintain anonymity within survey responses. By gathering survery responses, this study will address gaps in previous research on RCMP officer’s mental health by examining self-compassion. If you’re interested in completing the study, please contact the researchers by clicking here.
Grant Collaborations
2021-2026
(Note: Dr. Fredborg is not listed as a collaborator on the funding decisions website as she was added to the grant after its acceptance).
Primary Investigator: Dr. Skye Fitzpatrick, Assistant Professor, York University
Co-investigators: Dixon-Gordon, Katherine; Fergus, Karen D; Liebman, Rachel; Monson, Candice; Fredborg, Bev
Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant
Project Description: Suicidal behavior and self-injury (SSI) in borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often prompted by relationship problems, but it is unclear how intimate partners of those with BPD influence SSI. Such information is key to understand whether and how incorporating partners into BPD treatments may help reduce SSI. We aim to study the ways that intimate partners talk to those with BPD in general and about SSI, and immediately respond to SSI, that predict a higher or lower likelihood of it happening again. First, we will examine if individuals with BPD and their intimate partner's communication in general and about SSI specifically interplays with their emotion to predict SSI. Next, we will identify how intimate partners immediately respond to SSI in those with BPD, and whether specific types of responses make it more or less likely to recur. Finally, we will develop a new method of measuring how intimate partners immediately respond to SSI in those with BPD. 250 people with BPD who engage in SSI and their intimate partners will complete measures negative emotion, general and SSI-specific communication, and SSI once every three months for a year (four times total), and on their smartphones ~5 times per day for 30 days. On their smart phones, intimate partners will also describe how they immediately respond to SSI, and the first 20 intimate partners will further describe this in an interview. These responses will be used to categorize types of immediate responses to SSI so that we can examine which types predict a higher or lower likelihood of SSI happening again. A questionnaire measuring types of immediate responses will also be developed based on smart phone and interview data, which will be evaluated in our sample. Findings will provide critical information about what partners should do or not do to reduce SSI in those with BPD. They will also guide future research on BPD and SSI by providing a new measure of immediate responses to SSI in intimate partners.
2024-2029
A randomized controlled trial testing Sage: A couple intervention for borderline personality disorder
Nominated Principal Investigator: Dr. Skye Fitzpatrick, Assistant Professor, York University
Other Principal Investigators: Daros, Alexander R; Fredborg, Beverley K; Liebman, Rachel; McMain, Shelley F
Co-Investigators: Courey, Lynn; Crenshaw, Alexander O; Monson, Candice; Traynor, Jenna M
Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant - $952,425 CAD
Project Description: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a life-threatening, costly public health crisis affecting 1-3% of North Americans, with 10% dying by suicide and annual healthcare costs of $63k (Canadian Dollars)/patient. Further, people with BPD's intimate relationships are highly disrupted, and their partners report elevated mental health problems but little access to treatment. Existing BPD treatments are resource-heavy, inaccessible, and 47% of people with BPD do not respond to them. These treatments also neglect relationship problems and intimate partner's mental health concerns, even though they are thought to play a key role in BPD maintenance. BPD interventions may produce stronger, quicker, and more durable outcomes if they incorporated partners to target both the emotional and relationship core of BPD. Moreover, incorporating partners into interventions may improve relationship outcomes and partner mental health without added resource investments. Accordingly, members of our team developed Sage. Named after a plant that thrives in relationship with its ecosystem, Sage is a brief, 12-session conjoint intervention for people with BPD and their intimate partners that targets BPD, relationship conflict, and partner mental health. Our recent uncontrolled trial provides preliminary support for its efficacy. As a next step in testing Sage, it is critical to utilize a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) design to identify if Sage is more efficacious than standard care that these couples typically receive; supportive individual psychotherapy (SIP) for people with BPD and their partners. The investigators propose to conduct the first RCT of Sage for couples wherein one member has BPD. The study will examine if Sage is more efficacious than SIP in improving BPD symptoms (primary outcome), as well as relationship conflict and partner mental health (secondary outcomes), as well as a range of other outcomes, from pre- to post-intervention, and post-intervention to follow-up. It will also investigate factors that influence treatment response, BPD severity, and related problems. Up to 152 couples wherein one member has BPD will be randomized to receive Sage or SIP. Gold-standard measures of primary, secondary, and exploratory outcomes will be administered at baseline, mid-intervention, post-intervention, and a one-month, three- month, and six-month follow-up.
2025-2026
Planning the research project MIND HIV and STBBI Mental Health Interventions Needed and Driven by HIV and STBBI Affected Communities.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Bev Fredborg
Co-Investigators: Bernardin, Sara; Gaborieau, McKenzie; Ibrahimaj, Ardita; Keynan, Adi; Keynan, Yoav; Pimentel, Jordan; Robinson, Claire; Rueda, Zulma; Spence, Cara; Ukwuani; Ahuna
Canadian Institutes of Health Research Planning and Dissemination Grant
Project Description: This project focuses on HIV transmission and treatment within the CIHR HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections (STBBI) Research Initiative. We aim to identify key mental health research and treatment priorities for people diagnosed with HIV in Manitoba and Saskatchewan (MB/SK). Many individuals living with HIV in these provinces are Indigenous, people who inject drugs, and people experiencing houselessness, and over half report mental health challenges that impede engagement and adherence to HIV care. Because MB/SK have had the highest HIV rates in Canada for the past decade, it is essential to understand the unique needs of this population to address the intersecting inequities driving poor HIV treatment outcomes. To meet this goal, we will co-develop these priorities with the MB/SK HIV community, researchers, and trainees. Our multidisciplinary team includes people with lived experience (PWLE); Indigenous PWLE with experience conducting research with Indigenous individuals living with HIV; and early-, mid-, and senior-career researchers and trainees from MB/SK across medicine, clinical psychology, epidemiology, and other health disciplines. By engaging this diverse inter- and transdisciplinary team, we aim to strengthen research capacity, community engagement, and skill development across all partners.