Dr. Shih's research focuses on testing models that explain why adolescent girls, as well as women, are two times more likely to develop depression. Her research adds to our understanding that women tend to experience more stress and to react more negatively to stress. Her work has also shown that depression vulnerability factors not only make women more vulnerable to develop depression when faced with significant stressful life events, but these same vulnerability factors may also contribute to the very stressful life events that can trigger a depressive episode. As such, she has a growing interest in examining how people cope with stress and in finding ways to help individuals decrease maladaptive coping and increase their use of adaptive coping strategies.
Dr. Shih is a clinical psychologist trained in the scientist-practitioner tradition in which scientific research informs her clinical work and her clinical experiences and observations inform her research questions. To that end, she has a small clinical practice in Ardmore and specializes in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.
