Recent Research Projects

1. Mood Congruence Effects in Younger and Older Adults

We conducted a study to learn more about relationships between emotion and thinking in both younger and older adults. We recruited over 100 younger adults who were current USC students and older adult USC alumni.

Future work on this line of research will focus on processes leading to age differences in the effects of emotion on cognition, examining these effects in clinical populations of older adults with depression and anxiety, and exploring whether these differences suggest modifications are needed in cognitive behavior therapy (which is theoretically connected in part with these emotion-cognition relationships) when practiced with older adults.

2. Wisdom and Aging

We are currently examining the concept of wisdom among older adults. Along with his graduate students, Dr. Knight led a semester-long wisdom class at the Andrus Gerontology Center in Fall 2009 and Spring 2010; and will be leading another class in the coming months.

Future work on this line of research includes evaluation of the wisdom class, development of assessment tools of wisdom among older adults, and the relevance of wisdom to psychological interventions in later life. For more information, please read:

Knight, B.G. & Laidlaw, K. (2009). Translational theory: A wisdom-based model for psychological interventions to enhance well-being in later life. In V. Bengtson, M. Silverstein, N. Putney, & D. Gans (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging (2nd ed.) (pp. 693-706). New York: Springer.

3. Age Differences in Perception of Emotion

Age differences in perception of emotion We studied whether there were differences in the way older and younger adults perceive emotion from facial expressions. We found that older adults judged more positive emotion in the faces than did younger adults. We also found that older adults tended to see negative faces of fear and anger as expressing more of a mixture of both positive and negative emotion. Past research has suggested that these differences between older and younger adults are not due to age itself, but are due to our view of how much time we have left in life. Younger adults typically view time left in life as being expansive, and older adults typically view their time left in life as being more limited. Using and experimental manipulation of future time perspective, our results showed that expanding older adults’ time perspective to be more like that of a younger person eliminated the age differences in the judgments of the faces.

4. Caregiving and Cultural Values

This study examined the effects of specific cultural values on mental and physical health outcomes for African American and White family caregivers of people with dementia. One of the more interesting findings from this project was that feelings of familial obligations rather than solidarity are strongly associated with familism and resulted in poorer health outcomes for caregivers. In addition, a recently submitted review paper provides an update of the sociocultural stress and coping model for caregivers originally proposed about 12 years ago. The paper describes how the model can be empirically updated based on years of more recent cross-cultural caregiver research, including discarding the notions that cultural values directly affect caregivers' burden appraisals and that cultural values invariably have positive effects for caregivers. The paper also comments on several ways to improve cross-cultural caregiver research in general.

Future work on this line of research involves factor analysis with the goal of developing a better understanding of the subscales of a widely used caregiver burden scale. For more information, please contact Phil Sayegh at psayegh@usc.edu.

Recent Publications (Past 5 Years)

Peer-Reviewed Journals

Fox, L.S. & Knight, B.G. (2005). Effects of anxiety on attentional processes in older adults. Aging and Mental Health, 9, 585-593.

Heller, K., Alexander, D.B., Gatz, M., Knight, B.G., & Rose, T. (2005). Social and personal factors as predictors of earthquake preparation: The role of support provision, network discussion, negative affect, age, and education. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35, 399-422.

Knight, B.G. & Kim, J.H. (2005). Efectos de variables culturales in los procesos de estrés y afrontamiento. Revisita Españaola de Geriatria y Gerontologia, 40 (Suppl), 74-79.

Lee, H., Moon, A., & Knight, B.G. (2005). Depression among elderly Korean immigrants: Exploring sociocultural factors. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 13, 1-26.

Shurgot, G.R. & Knight, B.G. (2005). Influence of neuroticism, ethnicity, familism and social support on perceived burden in dementia caregivers: Pilot test of the transactional stress and social support model. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 60, P331-334.

Losada, A., Shurgot, G.R., Knight, B.G., Marquez, M., Montorio, I., Izal, M., & Ruiz, M.A. (2006). Cross-cultural study comparing the association of familism with burden and depressive symptoms in two samples of Hispanic dementia caregivers. Aging and Mental Health, 10, 69-76.

Losada, A., Montorio, I., Knight, B., Marquez, M., & Izal, M. (2006). Explanation of caregiver distress from the cognitive model: The role of dysfunctional thoughts. Psicologia Conductual, 14, 115-128.

Satre, D.D., Knight, B.G., & David, S. (2006). Cognitive behavioural interventions with older adults: Integrating clinical and gerontological research. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 37, 489-498.

Chun, M., Knight, B.G., & Youn, G. (2007). Differences in stress and coping models of emotional distress among Korean, Korean-American and white-American caregivers. Aging and Mental Health, 11, 20-29.

Kim, J.H., Knight, B.G., & Flynn Longmire, C.V. (2007). The role of familism in stress and coping processes among African American and White dementia caregivers: Effects on mental and physical health. Health Psychology, 26, 564-576.

Knight, B.G., Flynn Longmire, C.V., Dave, J., Kim, J.H., & David, S. (2007). Mental health and physical health of family caregivers: A comparison of African American and White caregivers. Aging and Mental Health, 11, 538-546.

McCallum, T.J., Flynn Longmire, C.V. & Knight, B.G. (2007). African American and White female caregivers and the sociocultural stress and coping model. Clinical Gerontologist, 30, 25-38.

David, S. & Knight, B.G. (2008). Stress and coping among gay men: Age and ethnic differences. Psychology and Aging, 23, 62-69.

Losada, A., Knight, B.G., Márquez-González, M., Etxeberria, I., & Peñacoba, C. (2008). Confirmatory factor analysis of the familism scale with a sample of dementia caregivers. Aging and Mental Health, 12, 504-508.

Kim, J.H. & Knight, B.G. (2008). The effects of caregiving status, coping styles and social support on the physical health of Korean American caregivers. Gerontologist, 48, 287-299.

Knight, B.G., Karel, M.J., Hinrichsen, G. A., Qualls, S.H., & Duffy, M. (2009). Pikes Peak Model for Training in Professional Geropsychology. American Psychologist, 64, 205-214.

Lee. L.O. & Knight, B.G. (2009). Attentional Bias for Threat in Older Adults: Moderation of the Positivity Effect by Trait Anxiety and Stimulus Modality. Psychology and Aging, 24, 741-747.

Poon, C.Y.M. & Knight, B.G. (2009). Influence of sad mood and old age schema on older adults’ attention to physical symptoms. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 64B, 41-44.

Losada, A., Márquez-González, M., Knight. B.G., Yanguas, J., Sayegh, P., & Romero-Moreno, R. (2010). Psychosocial factors and caregivers’ distress: Effects of familism and dysfunctional thoughts. Aging and Mental Health, 14, 193-202.

Sayegh, P. & Knight, B.G. (2011). The effects of familism and cultural justification on the mental and physical health of family caregivers. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 66B, 3-14.

Poon, C.Y.M. & Knight, B.G. (In Press). Impact of childhood parental abuse and neglect on sleep problems in old age. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

Books

Qualls, S.H. & Knight, B.G. (Eds.) (2006). Psychotherapy for depression in older adults. New York: Wiley.

Laidlaw, K. & Knight, B.G. (Eds.) (2008). Handbook of emotional disorders in late life: Assessment and treatment. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Chapters

Knight, B.G., Kaskie, B., Shurgot, G.R. & Dave, J. (2006). Improving the mental health of older adults. In J.E. Birren & K.W. Schaie (Eds.), The handbook of the psychology of aging (6th ed.), pp. 407-424. San Diego: Academic Press.

Knight, B.G. & Lee, L.O. (2008). Contextual adult life span theory for adapting psychotherapy. In Laidlaw, K. & Knight, B.G. (Eds.), Handbook of emotional disorders in late life: Assessment and treatment, pp. 59-88. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Knight, B.G. & Poon, C. (2008). The socio-cultural context in understanding older adults: Contextual adult life span theory for adapting psychotherapy. In B. Woods (Ed), The handbook of the clinical psychology of ageing. Chichester UK: Wiley.

Knight, B.G. & Shurgot, G.R. (2008). Psychological assessment and treatment with older adults: Past trends and future directions. In Laidlaw, K. & Knight, B.G. (Eds.), Handbook of emotional disorders in late life: Assessment and treatment. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Pachana, N. A, Knight B., Karel, M. J, & Beck, J. S. (2008). Training of geriatric mental health providers in CBT interventions for older adults. In D Gallagher-Thompson, L. Thompson, A. Steffen (Eds.), Handbook of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Older Adults. New York: Springer.

Knight, B.G. & Laidlaw, K. (2009). Translational theory: A wisdom-based model for psychological interventions to enhance well-being in later life. In V. Bengtson, M. Silverstein, N. Putney, & D. Gans (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging (2nd ed.) (pp. 693-706). New York: Springer.

Knight, B.G., Chun, M., Lee, L.O. (in press). Professional gerontology and caregiving. In Talley, R.C., Travis, S.S. (Eds). Multi-disciplinary Coordinated Caregiving: Professional Contributions. New York: Springer.

Knight, B.G. & McCallum, T.J. (in press). Psychotherapy patients: Older adults. In J.C. Norcross, G.R. VandenBos, & D.K. Freedheim (Eds.), History of Psychotherapy: Continuity and change. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Other (Invited)

Knight, B.G. (2008). Adapting older adults to cognitive behavior therapy and vice versa: The case of Geoffrey. Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy [Online], Vol. 4(3), Article 2. Available: http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/pcsp_journal

Knight, B.G. (DVD, 2008). Adapting psychotherapy for working with older adults. J. Carlson (Host). Clinical Geropsychology Series, American Psychological Association Psychotherapy Videos. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Knight, B.G., & Poon, C.Y.M. (2008). Contextual adult lifespan theory for adapting psychotherapy with older adults. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 26, 232-249.

Knight, B.G. (2009). The ageing brain. [book review of Cozolino's The aging brain]. Lancet: Neurology, 8, 516-517.

Knight, B. G., & Sayegh, P. (2010). Cultural values and caregiving: The updated sociocultural stress and coping model. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 65B, 5-13.