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Psychological Sciences

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Alexandra Adamis

Doctoral Candidate
Research Area: Clinical Science


Attentional bias and control, perseverative thinking, ecological momentary assessment, anxiety

Allie's research aims to delineate the role of cognitive dysfunctions in the maintenance of anxiety and related disorders. Her primary line of research examines cognitive mechanisms core to anxiety-related psychopathology (e.g., attentional bias, cognitive control, repetitive negative thinking) at multiple levels of analysis and in ecologically valid settings, ultimately to inform more precise etiological models and potent treatment targets. Allie has also established supplemental lines of research examining transdiagnostic mechanisms (e.g., emotion dysregulation) and treatments (e.g., mindfulness) relevant to anxiety and related disorders.

Representative Publications

  • Adamis, A.M. & Olatunji, B.O. (In Press). RDoC-informed research on the anxiety disorders: Best practices and future directions. British Journal of Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2026.10752
  • Adamis, A.M., Gardner, J.S., & Olatunji, B. (2026). Does cognitive control help or hurt the maintenance of social anxiety? Conditional effects of response inhibition on safety behavior use and post-event processing. Cognitive Therapy and Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-026-10746-x
  • Adamis, A.M., Jessup, S.C., & Olatunji, B.O. (2026). Unique and interactive effects of intolerance of uncertainty and emotion regulation on daily negative emotionality. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 55(3), 391-404. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2025.2509178
  • Adamis, A.M., Boyne, A., Harper, C., & Olatunji, B.O. (2025). Specificity of attentional control deficits in predicting symptoms of social anxiety. Journal of Affective Disorders 365, 8-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.09.052
  • Adamis, A.M. & Olatunji, B.O. (2025). Attentional control moderates the association between combat trauma exposure and fear conditioning amongst combat-exposed Veterans. Behavior Therapy, 57(3), 577-588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2025.11.001
  • Olatunji, B.O., Adamis, A.M., Mosby, M., Liu, Q. (2025). Self-reported executive dysfunction predicts COVID-19 traumatic stress: A Prospective study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0002020
  • Adamis, A.M., Walske, S., & Olatunji, B.O. (2025). Attention mechanisms of social anxiety in daily life: Unique effects of negative self-focused attention on post-event processing. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2025.104759
  • Adamis, A.M., Jessup, S.C., & Olatunji, B.O. (2025). Effects of internal, external, and neutral attentional allocation on post-event processing in social anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 49(2), 350-361. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-024-10521-w
  • Jessup, S.C., Adamis, A.M., & Olatunji, B.O. (2025). Preliminary examination of sympathetic magic as a psychological endophenotype for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behavior Therapy, 56(1), 83-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2024.04.009
  • Olatunji, B.O. & Adamis, A.M. (2025). Disgust proneness influences the effects of political orientation on xenophobia during the COVID-19 pandemic. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 95(2), 176. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000777
  • Adamis, A.M., Jessup, S.C., Cole, D.A., & Olatunji, B.O. (2025). Ecological momentary assessment of the unique effects of trait worry on daily negative emotionality: Does arousal matter? Cognition and Emotion, 39(3), 714-721. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2024.238612 
  •  Olatunji, B.O. & Adamis, A.M. (2024). Federal funding shapes knowledge in clinical science. Nature Reviews Psychology, 3(10), 644-645. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00357-2
  • Adamis, A.M., Lebovitz, J., Oberlin, L., Chen, S., Phan, D., Burns, K.C., Gunning, F., & Burdick, K.E. (2024). Predictors of Psychosocial Impairment in a Transdiagnostic Sample: Unique Effects of Repetitive Negative Thinking. Journal of Affective Disorders, 366, 74-82, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.08.054
  • Adamis, A.M. & Olatunji, B.O. (2024). Reconciling attentional bias in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders, 42, 100895, ISSN 2211-3649, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2024.100896
  • Olatunji, B.O., Knowles, K.A., Adamis, A.M., & Cole, D.A. (2024). Linking a latent variable trait-state-occasion model of emotion regulation to cognitive control. Cognition and Emotion, 36(6), 898-912. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2024.2332594
  • Jessup, S.C., Adamis, A.M., Rast, C., Cox, R.C., Olatunji, B.O. (2024). Unique and interactive effects of emotion regulation difficulties and perceived stress on COVID-19 traumatic stress, anxiety, and safety behavior use: A Four-year prospective study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 176, 104503, ISSN 0005-7967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2024.104503
  • Adamis, A.M. & Olatunji, B.O. (2024). Specific emotion regulation difficulties and executive function explain the link between worry and subsequent stress: A prospective moderated mediation study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 348, 88-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.12.029
  • Adamis, A.M., Cole, D.A., & Olatunji, B.O. (2024). Intolerance of uncertainty and worry prospectively predict COVID-19 anxiety and distress: A 4-year longitudinal study. Behavior Therapy, 55, 320-330. https://doi.org/ 
  • Adamis, A.M., Jessup, S.C., & Olatunji, B.O. (2023). Strengths and shortcomings of a mindful approach to the treatment of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. Clinical Psychology, Science and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1037/cps0000160
  • Cox, R.C., Knowles, K.A. Jessup, S.C., Adamis, A.M., & Olatunji, B.O. (2023). Psychometric properties of a daily obsessive-compulsive symptom scale for ecological momentary assessment. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2023.100840
  • Millett, C., Corrigan, A.A., Adamis, A.M., Roquemore Bonner, C., Lebovitz, J.G., Palm, S.T., Majd, M., Gunning, F.M., & Burdick, K.E. (2023). The effect of aging on facial emotion recognition in bipolar disorder. Psychiatry Research, 327(115386). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115386
  • Adamis, A.M. & Olatunji, B.O. (2023). The promise and potential pitfalls of iCBT for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Clinical Psychology, Science and Practice, 30(2), 163-166. https://doi.org/10.1037/cps0000137
 

Honors

  • 2026 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) F31MH139139, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) 
  • 2026 Russell G. Hamilton Graduate Leadership Institute Professional Development and Training Grant, Vanderbilt äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ 
  • 2026 William F. Hodges Teaching Assistant Award, Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ 
  • 2026 National Social Anxiety Center (NSAC) Graduate Student Spotlight Award
  • 2026 Alies Muskin Career Development Leadership Program (CDLP) Award, Anxiety and Depression Association of America 
  • 2025 Graduate School Travel Grant, Vanderbilt äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ Department of Psychology
  • 2025 Vanderbilt Award for Doctoral Discovery, Vanderbilt äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ College of Arts and Sciences 
  • 2025 Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) Award VR73394 
  • 2025 Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Fellowship, the Graduate School at Vanderbilt äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ 
  • 2024 Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) Award VR72543
  • 2023 Graduate School Travel Grant, Vanderbilt äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ Department of Psychology 
  • 2023 Gayle Fambrough Fellowship Award, Vanderbilt äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ Department of Psychology 
  • 2023 Summer Research Award, Vanderbilt äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ College of Arts and Sciences 
  • 2023 Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) Award VR67441 
  • 2023 Graduate School Travel Grant, Vanderbilt äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ Department of Psychology
  • 2022 äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ Graduate Fellowship, the Graduate School at Vanderbilt äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ 
  • 2019 Highest GPA in the School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾
  • 2018 Order of Omega Honors Society, Northwestern äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾
  • 2017 Mortar Board Honors Society, Northwestern äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾
  • 2017 Win Hill Nominee for Best Research Methods Paper, Northwestern äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾