Alyssa C. Jones

• Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology
• Clinical Psychologist at Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are commonly comorbid and share prominent features (e.g., intrusions, safety behaviors, and avoidance). Excellent self-report and clinician-administered assessments exist for OCD and PTSD individually, but few assess both disorders, and even fewer provide instruction on di...

Mental contamination refers to feelings of dirtiness in response to thoughts, images, or memories. Mental contamination is frequently reported after sexual trauma and is associated with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Differences in individuals' views about morality and purity may influence the severity of mental contamination, th...

Shame is a predominant emotion for many interpersonal trauma (IPT) survivors and is associated with more severe posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Measurement challenges have led to difficulties in understanding the impact of trauma-related shame. The Trauma-Related Shame Inventory (TRSI) was developed to address this limitation, yet ad...

Although cross-sectional research highlights similarities between symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among individuals exposed to sexual trauma, little is known about how these disorders relate over time. The goal of the present study was to examine whether 1) OCD symptoms prospectively predicte...

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and nonmedical prescription opioid use (NMPOU) are linked. Much of the research documenting this association uses cross-sectional or longitudinal designs that describe patterns of use over extended intervals. The present study used a daily monitoring design to examine how daily fluctuations in PTSD s...

Objective: PTSD and substance use disorders (SUD) frequently co-occur among veterans. Integrated exposure-based treatments, such as Concurrent Treatment of PTSD and SUD Using Prolonged Exposure (COPE), are efficacious in reducing PTSD and SUD symptoms and posttraumatic emotions. This study examines whether guilt and anger (a) decreased in a randomi...

Research has demonstrated that individuals experiencing trauma-related shame exhibit greater posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, little research has investigated additional factors relevant to the shame–PTSD relationship. The current study examined the role of avoidance and approach coping in accounting for the trauma-related sh...

Urgency and affective lability are two vulnerabilities that have been linked to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Urgency refers to rash action when experiencing intense positive or negative affect, whereas affective lability is the tendency to shift rapidly between emotion states. Although individuals high in urgency and affective lability may...

The intensity of peritraumatic emotions occurring at the time of, and in the hours or days immediately following, a traumatic event prospectively predicts posttraumatic stress symptom severity. However, less is known about how the perception of one’s ability to tolerate distressing emotions affects the relation between peritraumatic emotions and po...

While fear and anger have been extensively studied as emotions involved in posttraumatic stress disorder, shame is an important emotion to examine in those who have experienced a traumatic event, as it is often associated with treatment avoidance and treatment resistance. Compared to guilt, which is associated with having participated in something...

Objective: Millions of children experience injuries annually, and avoidance coping increases risk of negative emotional and physical outcomes after injury. Little is known about how children select avoidance coping strategies. Parents may help their children cope with an injury by encouraging or discouraging the use of specific strategies, such as...

Research suggests important associations between emotion regulation difficulties and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomology, with prospective studies indicating that emotion regulation difficulties may lead to increased PTSD symptoms. Peritraumatic dissociation is considered an important and consistent predictor of PTSD symptoms. The pre...

Emotion differentiation is the ability to identify and label emotional experiences into discrete categories. The present study examined the influence of emotion regulation difficulties, emotion differentiation, and emotional state-specifically sad versus positive mood-on caloric intake in a laboratory setting. Undergraduate participants completed a...

Research has linked mental contamination to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, less research has examined how mental contamination relates to other factors observed among individuals with these symptoms. This study examined relationships among mental contamination, posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, mood-dependent risky be...

Pain can limit resources for goal pursuit and increase resource competition between goals. Pursuing goals with high value and low resource conflict should provide benefit, particularly for women who experience physical pain. Women (aged 50–75; N = 200) reported on goals and well-being in daily diaries (n = 1,380). Higher goal value associated with...

Affective lability, or the instability of emotional states, is associated with heightened levels of trauma-related emotional responding and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, the impact of affective lability, specifically on habituation to idiographic trauma cues, has yet to be examined among trauma-exposed individuals. The cur...

For individuals with difficulty regulating their emotions, aggression has been found to be a particularly problematic interpersonal behavior. Invalidation (i.e., rejection of one's emotional experience) is thought to play a role in the etiology of disorders of emotion regulation, and it may be a trigger for aggressive behaviors. The present study e...

Introduction Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a condition with core features involving emotional instability, impulsivity, interpersonal difficulties, and identity disturbance. More specifically, those with BPD have problems controlling anger and may exhibit verbal and/or physical acts of aggression, leading to more interpersonal problems....