About

Richard Contrada received his PhD in Social/Personality Psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 1985 and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, before joining the Rutgers Psychology Department in 1986. Within the department, he is involved in the Health, Social, and Clinical programs. His research focuses on psychosocial and emotional factors involved in the development and course of chronic physical diseases, with a particular emphasis on coronary disease as a major killer and a model for understanding psychological factors and pathophysiological mechanisms relevant to physical health. He has examined the role of psychological stressors and anger-related personality attributes in provoking physiologic responses that contribute to the etiology and progression of coronary disease. Additionally, his interests include the role of emotions and emotional syndromes such as anxiety and depression in adaptation to health crises, including recovery from open-heart surgery. His work considers social-contextual and other factors that influence emotional responses to health threats and stressors, such as age, gender, social support, and religious involvement. Currently, he is also interested in the role of mental representations or beliefs in explaining patients’ failure to undertake health-promoting behaviors for managing chronic conditions like coronary disease. His recent work involves the use of psychophysiological techniques, including studies of human startle, electroencephalography (EEG), and event-related potentials (ERP), to assess cognitive and affective processes involved in reactions to threatening stimuli. His broader academic interests encompass self-regulation theory, self and social identity, and social and affective neuroscience.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Psychiatry
• Medicine
• Social psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Sociology
• Environmental health
• Gender studies

Selected publications

• Healthcare Workers’ Views on Approaches to Discussing Alternative Treatment Options in Multidisciplinary Cancer Care

  Cureus · 2026-01-29

  articleOpen access

  Purpose Information about curative treatment options with comparable efficacy (e.g. surgery or radiation) is often not fully provided to patients when those options fall outside the scope of practice of the oncologist(s) who directly see a patient. This study evaluates healthcare workers’ views on the acceptability of this approach compared to others. Methods An electronic survey was sent to all physicians, trainees, nurses, therapists, researchers, and administrators at a cancer center. Respondents were asked to imagine being diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening illness that can be treated and cured in two standard ways, with similar efficacy but different side-effect profiles and impact on short- and long-term quality-of-life (Procedure A performed by Doctor A; Procedure B performed by Doctor B). Likert-type scales ranging from one (completely unacceptable) to five (completely acceptable) assessed Doctor A’s approach to discussing treatment options in each scenario. Results In this study, 266 individuals responded to the questionnaire (response rate 16%). The mean (standard deviation) Likert-type score was 1.58 (±0.93) for Approach #1 where Doctor A only presents Procedure A; 1.75 (±0.98) for Approach #2 where Doctor A presents both options but favors Procedure A; 2.54 (±1.35) for Approach #3 where Doctor A presents both options but favors Procedure A despite offering a referral to Doctor B to discuss Procedure B; and 4.75 (±0.76) for Approach #4 where Doctor A routinely refers all patients to Doctor B so each treatment option is discussed with the physician who performs each. Each of these differences were statistically significant (p<0.01). Conclusion A balanced, multidisciplinary approach to discussing treatment options is strongly favored by a variety of sampled healthcare workers. This is consistent with improving quality of healthcare delivery and patients' experience.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Stress and Cardiovascular Disease: The Role of Affective Traits and Mental Disorders

  Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · 2025-01-13 · 12 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Personality traits involving negative affect, as well as mental disorders including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder, are cardiovascular risk factors. However, which of these confer risk independently is uncertain, and the implications of their overlap, combinations, and interactions are poorly understood. Potential explanatory mechanisms are being characterized with increasing detail and sophistication. Of particular interest are psychobiological processes initiated by stress. Other mechanisms involve stress-related health behaviors, and illness behaviors that delay or reduce the effectiveness of medical treatment. With some promising exceptions, findings of intervention trials are uncertain regarding the effectiveness of psychological treatments for modifying affective traits and mental disorders to reduce their impact on cardiovascular disease. Recent developments include novel conceptualizations of mental disorders; examination of the interplay between cognitive factors and emotion; and theoretical frameworks that integrate psychological stress processes with neuroscience, health behavior, and social cognition. Also promising is increased attention to the roles of gender identity and minority group membership.

  PublisherDOI

• Multiple sclerosis and self-alienation: A study based on self and others representations

  Research Square · 2024-03-28

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multiple sclerosis and self-alienation: a study based on self and others representations

  BMC Psychology · 2024-12-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. MS causes many changes in the lives of its patients, forcing them to renegotiate their lives. Part of these changes are related to patients' self- and others- mental representations. Despite the importance of mental representations in changes caused by or adaptation to MS, limited research has been conducted to examine the mental representations of people with MS. METHODS: This study examines the mental representations that Healthy Controls (HC) and people with MS (PWMS) have of themselves and others, including childhood and current self-images, as well as those of their mothers, love partners, and close friends. In both groups (HC (n = 82) and PWMS (n = 82)), participants completed demographic variables as well as a modified version of the comfortable interpersonal distance (CID) task in both passive (when protagonists approached them) and active modes (when participants approach protagonists). Participants estimated the point at which they felt discomforted. RESULTS: The PWMS group preferred a significantly larger interpersonal distance than the HC group for both current self-image and love partner. There is no difference between the two groups in preferring interpersonal distance from their childhood self-image, mother, and friends. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the research results, it seems that PWMS experience a kind of alienation at the level of self-mental representations. This research can be helpful in modifying MS interventions and increasing the engagement of support systems.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Exposure to conflicting COVID-19 information in undergraduates: Implications for pandemic-related information-seeking and concern, attention, and cognitive workload

  Journal of American College Health · 2023-06-08 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  Objectives: To examine college students’ conflicting COVID-19 information exposure, information-seeking, concern, and cognitive functioning. Participants: 179 undergraduates were recruited in March-April 2020, and 220 in September 2020 (Samples 1 and 2, respectively). Methods: Students completed the Attention Network Test, NASA Task Load Index, and COVID-related questions. Results: In Sample 1, exposure to conflicting information predicted poorer attentional performance and greater COVID-related information-seeking and concern; concern was correlated with workload. In Sample 2, conflicting information was associated with information-seeking. In Sample 1, but not Sample 2, cognitive effects of conflicting information were mediated by information-seeking and virus-related concern. Conclusions: Conflicting COVID-19 information may undermine students’ cognitive functions, bearing implications for health, academic performance, and stress. Strategies for countering these effects include enhancing the clarity of institutional messaging, and tailoring course curricula and offering workshops to students, faculty, administrators, and counseling staff to augment students’ capacity to comprehend and utilize COVID-related communications.

  PublisherDOI

• College students’ perceptions of concussion: Illness beliefs and masculinity norms predict stigma and willingness to seek treatment

  Journal of American College Health · 2023 · 1 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Psychology
  • Clinical psychology
  • Psychiatry

  : In addition to beliefs assessed by the IPQ, traditional conceptions of masculinity warrant greater attention in the study of concussion-related stigma and willingness to seek treatment.

  PublisherDOI

• Designing an Online User Interface and Stimuli to Promote Authentic Responses: Investigating the Impact of Conflicting Health-Related Information

  2023-01-01

  bookSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Associations between the late positive potential and PTSD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms among trauma-exposed undergraduates

  Biological Psychology · 2023-01-18 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: Psychosocial Dimensions of a Surgical Procedure

  2022-01-01 · 2 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Healthy or not? The impact of conflicting health-related information on attentional resources

  Journal of Behavioral Medicine · 2021-09-18 · 16 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R03MH046900

  NIH · $133k · 1993

• NIH Grant R01AG016750

  NIH · $1.5M · 2007

• NIH Grant R03AG015160

  NIH · $78k · 2000

• NIH Grant P20AG012072

  NIH · $1.8M · 1998

Frequent coauthors

• Ellen Idler

  63 shared

• Tyrone J. Krause

  Jersey City Medical Center

  62 shared

• Tanya Goyal

  54 shared

• David S. Krantz

  36 shared

• John B. Kostis

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  19 shared

• David C. Glass

  19 shared

• John S. Gottdiener

  16 shared

• Sari D. Holmes

  Johns Hopkins University

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Social/Personality Psychology

  Graduate Center of the City University of New York

  1985

• Other

  Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences