Professional Bio

Research Interests

Dr. Soto has been faculty in the Clinical Science Program since 2005 where he directs the Culture, Health and Emotion Lab. Our lab is housed within the Psychology Department and is a part of our top-ranked Clinical Psychology Program. Research conducted in our lab falls under the broad umbrella of studying cultural and contextual influences on emotional functioning, mental health and well-being. Historically, this has included how basic emotional processes are shaped by variation in core aspects of identity such as race/ethnicity, culture, and gender. More recently, we have focused primarily on understanding the experiences of of members of oppressed groups (racialized or minoritized individuals, sexual and gender minorities, etc.), with an eye toward more accurately assessing how these individuals perceive and cope with the challenges associated with having less privilege and power (discrimination, bias, etc.).

Recent Publications

Van Doren, N., Bray, B.C., Soto, J.A., Linden-Carmichael, A.N. (in press). Associations between day-level affect profiles and same-day substance use among young adults. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000979

Mena, J. A., Fuentes, M. F., and Soto, J. A. (2023). Cultivating collaborative synergy to promote equity, diversity, inclusion and justice in the psychology curriculum. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 9(4), 480-493.

Soto, J. A.*, Stoyer, M.*, Borge, M., and Mena, J. (2023). Accurate assessment of multicultural knowledge: The case for using reassessments. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000364 [*First authorship shared]

Venkatesan, U. M., Rabinowitz, A. R., Bernier, R. A., Soto, J. A., & Hillary, F. G. (2023). Effects of perceived discrimination on behavioral health outcomes in people aging with traumatic brain injury. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 38(2), 191-200.

Van Doren, N., Oravecz, Z., Soto, J. A., Roeser, R. W. (2022). Examining the cultural consensus on beliefs about mindfulness among us college-attending young adults. Mindfulness, 19, 2420-2433. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-022-01956-x

Aldemir, T., Borge, M., and Soto, J. A. (2022). Shared meaning making in online intergroup discussions around sensitive topics. International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, 17, 361-396. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-022-09375-9

Brandenburg, J. C., Albohn, D. N., Bernstein, M. J., Soto, J. A., Hess, U., & Adams, R. B., Jr. (2022). Facing social exclusion: A facial EMG examination of the reaffiliative function of smiling. Cognition and Emotion, 36(4), 741-749.

Soto, J. A., Mena, J., Borge, M, Stoyer, M., Witherspoon, D., and Dawson-Andoh, N. (2022). The building blocks for multicultural competence: multicultural psychology courses promote multicultural knowledge and ethnic identity. Teaching of Psychology, 49(1), 85-92.

Wang K., Goldenberg A., Dorison, C. A., … Soto, J. A. … Moshontz, H. (2021) A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Human Behavior, 5, 1089-1110. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01173-x

Bernier, R. A., Venkatesan, U. M., Soto, J. A., Rabinowitz, A. R., Hong, J., & Hillary, F. G. (2021). Perceived discrimination and blood pressure in individuals aging with traumatic brain injury. Rehabilitation Psychology, 66(2), 148–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000379

Borge, M., Soto, J. A., Aldemir, T., & Mena, J. (2020). Building multicultural competence by fostering collaborative intergroup dialogue skills. Teaching of Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628320977421

Van Doren, N., & Soto, J. A. (2020). Paying the price for anger: Do women bear greater costs? International Journal of Psychology. Advance online publication.

https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12724

Van Doren, N., Shields, S. A., Soto, J. A. (2020). Emotion regulation training in a first-year experience course: A qualitative analysis of students’ experiences. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy. Advance online publication.

https://doi.org/10.1080/87568225.2020.1740067