Christopher T. Burke, Assistant Professor  

334 Chandler Hall, 610.758.4967
chris.burke@lehigh.edu

Academic History
P.h.D., New York University, 2008
B.S., Carnegie Mellon University, 2003


Research Interests

My research spans both social psychology and quantitative psychology. My social psychological interests focus on coping with stressful life events in the context of close personal relationships. I study situations as diverse as how partners help each other through difficult professional stressors to how individuals cope with the death of a close relationship partner. The goal of this work is to understand the ways that social interactions and social cognitions impact the psychological framing of a stressful event and the coping processes it engages.

My quantitative interests center on developing and assessing nonlinear statistical models of psychological processes. I am particularly interested in longitudinal nonlinear models that can provide a unique insight into the internal dynamics of psychological processes over time. I have used these methods to examine the time course of grief reactions, identify weekly cycles in social support processes, and pinpoint the contributions of distinct mental processes involved in social judgments. In addition to developing these models, I am interested in assessing and quantifying the payoff of advanced statistical methods over more traditional alternatives.

Teaching Interests
Advanced Statistical Methods
Research Methods
Close Personal Relationships
Stress, Coping, and Social Support

 

Selected Publications
Burke, C. T., Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2008). Bereavement as a potential turning point: Modeling
    between-person variability in adjustment to conjugal loss. In P. Cohen (Ed.), Applied data analytic
    techniques for turning point research pp. 129-148). New York: Routledge.

Burke, C.T., Bolger, N., & Shrout, P.E. (2007). Individual differences in adjustment to spousal loss:
    A nonlinear mixed model analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 31, 405-415.    

Carnelley, K.B., Wortman, C.B., Bolger, N., & Burke, C.T. (2006). The time course of grief reactions to
    spousal loss: Evidence from a national probability sample. Journal of Personality and Social
    Psychology, 91, 476-492.