Amanda Guyer

Education

• Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, Yale University, 2003
• M.Phil., Developmental Psychology, Yale University, 2001
• M.S., Developmental Psychology, Yale University, 2000
• B.A., Psychology, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, 1995 (Honors)

About

Developmental psychologist Amanda Guyer is a professor in the Human Development and Family Studies Unit of the Department of Human Ecology. She has expertise in the biological, cognitive and social-emotional aspects of human development during adolescence — notably, the behavioral and neural mechanisms that may underlie the way that adolescents think and feel. She is affiliated with the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research, on the training faculty of the Bay Area Affective Science Training Program, an associate editor for Child Development, and a standing member of the NIH's Psychosocial Development, Risk, and Prevention Study Section.

Research Focus

Dr. Guyer investigates neural and behavioral underpinnings of adolescent psychopathology (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance use) via social, emotional and cognitive processes. She studies how adolescents process facial emotions, social threats, and peer evaluation, and how adolescents regulate their behavior in response to incentives or when making decisions in risk-taking contexts. She examines age-, temperament- and gender-related differences in these processes as well as variability in adolescent development as a function of stressful life events, poverty, and peer and family factors. Dr. Guyer is conducting longitudinal studies of neurobiological, psychophysiological and environmental influences on the course of depression and substance use in adolescence.

Lab

Publications

Vilgis, V.*, Gelardi, K. L.*, Helm, J. L.*, Forbes, E. E., Hipwell, A. E., Keenan, K. & Guyer, A. E. (2018). Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activity predicts later emotion suppression and depression in adolescent girls. Child Development. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13023

Weissman, D. G.*, Conger, R. D., Robins, R. W., Hastings, P.D., & Guyer, A. E. (2018). Income change alters default mode network connectivity for adolescents in poverty. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.01.008

Schriber, R. A.*, Anbari, Z.*, Robins, R. W., Conger, R. D., Hastings, P. D., & Guyer, A. E. (2017). Hippocampal volume as an amplifier of the effect of social context on adolescent depression. Clinical Psychological Science, 5, 632–649. doi: 10.1177/2167702617699277

Guyer, A. E., Nelson, E. E., & Silk, J. S. (2016). The neurobiology of the emotional adolescent: From the inside out. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 70, 74-85. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.07.037

Schriber, R. A.* & Guyer, A. E. (2016). Adolescent neurobiological susceptibility to social context. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 1-18. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2015.12.009

Weissman, D. G., Schriber, R. A., Fassbender, C., Atherton, O., Krafft, C., Robins, R. W., Hastings, P. D., & Guyer, A. E. (2015). Earlier adolescent substance use onset predicts stronger connectivity between reward and cognitive control brain networks. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2015.07.002

Caouette, J. D.* & Guyer, A. E. (2015). Cognitive distortions mediate depression and affective response to social acceptance and rejection. Journal of Affective Disorders, 190, 792-799. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.11.015

Guyer, A. E., Jarcho, J., Pérez-Edgar, K., Degnan, K., Pine, D. S., Fox, N. A., & Nelson, E. E. (2015). Temperament and parenting styles in early childhood differentially influence neural response to peer evaluation in adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. doi:10.1007/s10802-015-9973-2

Teaching

Amanda Guyer teaches courses in Middle Childhood and Adolescent Development, and Developmental Neuroscience and Adolescent Psychopathology.

Awards

UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow, 2014–2015

Faculty of the Year Award, Human Development, Department of Human Ecology, UC Davis, 2013

Social Sciences Dean's Innovation Award, Division of Social Sciences, College of Letters and Science, UC, Davis, 2011

William T. Grant Scholars Award, William T. Grant Foundation, 2011-2016

Postdoctoral Training Fellowship, Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, Mood and Anxiety Program, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 2003–07