Crystal Park

Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor

Psychological Sciences

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Education

Ph.D., 1993 University of Delaware

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Webpages

• Spirituality, Meaning and Health
• InCHIP
• Research Gate Profile

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Research Interests

Stress, Coping, and Health; Meaning Making; Psychology of Religion and Spirituality; Trauma; Cancer Survivorship; Yoga

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Research Synopsis

Dr. Park’s research focuses on multiple aspects of coping with stressful events, including the roles of religious beliefs and religious coping, the phenomenon of stress-related growth, and the making of meaning in the context of traumatic events and life-threatening illnesses, particularly with cancer survivors, congestive heart failure patients, and military veterans. In recent years, Dr. Park has also been investigating mind-body relationships, particularly the science of yoga.

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Teaching

Undergraduate

• PSYC 3105 Health Psychology
• PSYC 3889/3899 Independent Study

Graduate

• PSYC 5120 Health Psychology

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Students in Research

Dr. Park maintains an active research lab of graduate and undergraduate students. Of primary interest are applicants with interests and experience relevant to studying health psychology, meaning, complementary/integrative medicine, and/or the psychology of religion and spirituality.

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Publications

Recent

All publications can be found on Google Scholar

Representative

Park, C. L., Smith, P. H., Lee, S. Y., Mazure, C. M., McKee, S. A., & Hoff, R. (in press). Positive and negative religious/spiritual coping and combat exposure as predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic growth in US Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.

Park, C. L., & Cho, D. (in press). Spiritual well-being and spiritual distress predict adjustment in adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. Psycho-Oncology.

Park, C. L., Aldwin, C. M., Choun, S., & George, L. (2016). Spirituality predicts five-year mortality risk in heart failure patients. Health Psychology, 35, 203-210.

Park, C. L., Braun, T., & Siegel, T. (2015). Who practices yoga? A systematic review of demographic, health-related, and psychosocial factors associated with yoga use. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 38, 460-471.

Park, C. L., & Iacocca, M. O. (2014). A stress and coping perspective on health behaviors: Theoretical and methodological considerations. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 27, 123-137.

Park, C. L. (2013). Religion and meaning. In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality, 2nd Edition (pp. 357-379). New York: Guilford.

Park, C. L., Mills, M., & Edmondson, D. (2012). PTSD as meaning violation: A test of a cognitive worldview perspective. Psychological Trauma Theory, Research Practice, and Policy, 4, 66-73.

Park, C. L. (2010). Making sense of the meaning literature: An integrative review of meaning making and its effects on adjustment to stressful life events. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 257-301.

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Research Funding

Dr. Park is currently co-principal investigator (PI) (with Michelle Williams) of an NIH-funded study of self-regulation and academic success in UConn students. She is also currently PI or Co-PI of NIH-funded studies of yoga for stress-management and the development of a tool to measure essential properties of yoga.