NCID-2070
Richard Lopez
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Education/Degree:
1 Cognitive Neuroscience (Dartmouth College)
About
Richard Lopez is an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Dr. Lopez earned his BA in psychology from Princeton University and PhD in cognitive neuroscience at Dartmouth College. Prior to WPI, he served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Translational Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab at Rice University. Dr. Lopez's research examines individual differences in self-regulation and goal pursuit in the appetitive and affective domains.
Current Work
Some of Dr. Lopez's current and forthcoming research projects tackle questions such as: How can we identify problematic aspects of social media use in young adults and break links between problematic use and poor mental health? And: which kinds of interventions can be developed to alter a person’s self-worth, so it is less affected by the praise and esteem of others (especially in online contexts), and which brain regions and networks help support these changes?