Dr. Mark Seery

MARK SEERY, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2005. He received his A.B. in 1998 from Dartmouth College, where he majored in Psychology, and his Ph.D. in Social Psychology in 2004 from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Seery studies stress and coping, with emphases on resilience, the self, and psychophysiology. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (Student authors are noted with *)

Resilience and Adversity:

  • Quinton, W. J., & Seery, M. D. (2022). Language matters: Understanding international students’ introductory psychology performance. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 8, 353-367.
  • Seery, M. D., & Quinton, W. J. (2016). Understanding resilience: From negative life events to everyday stressors. In J. M. Olson & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 54, pp. 181-245). Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.
  • Seery, M. D. & *Kondrak, C. L. (2014). Does trauma lead to “special” growth? European Journal of Personality, 28, 348-350.
  • Seery, M. D., Leo, R. J., *Lupien, S. P., *Kondrak, C. L., & *Almonte, J. L. (2013). An upside to adversity? Moderate cumulative lifetime adversity is associated with resilient responses in the face of controlled stressors. Psychological Science, 24, 1181-1189.
  • Seery, M. D. (2011). Resilience: A silver lining to experiencing adverse life events? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 390-394.
  • Seery, M. D., Holman, E. A., & Silver, R. C. (2010). Whatever does not kill us: Cumulative lifetime adversity, vulnerability, and resilience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 1025-1041.
  • Seery, M. D., Leo, R. J., Holman, E. A., & Silver, R. C. (2010). Lifetime exposure to adversity predicts functional impairment and healthcare utilization among individuals with chronic back pain. Pain, 150, 507-515.

Self-Esteem:

  • *Lamarche, V. M., & Seery, M. D. (2019). Come on, give it to me baby: Self-esteem, narcissism, and endorsing sexual coercion following social rejection. Personality and Individual Differences, 149, 315-325.
  • *Smallets, S. A. M., Streamer, L., Kondrak, C. L., & Seery, M. D. (2016). Bringing you down versus bringing me up: Discrepant versus congruent high explicit self-esteem differentially predict malicious and benign envy. Personality and Individual Differences, 94, 173-179.
  • Seery, M. D., & Quinton, W. J. (2015). Targeting prejudice: Personal self-esteem as a resource for Asians’ attributions to racial discrimination. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6, 677-684.
  • *Streamer, L., & Seery, M. D. (2015). Who am I? The interactive effect of early family experiences and self-esteem in predicting self-clarity. Personality and Individual Differences, 77, 18-21.
  • *Lupien, S. P., Seery, M. D., & *Almonte, J. L. (2012). Unstable high self-esteem and the eliciting conditions of self-doubt. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 762-765.
  • *Lupien, S. P., Seery, M. D., & *Almonte, J. L. (2010). Discrepant and congruent high self-esteem: Behavioral self-handicapping as a preemptive defensive strategy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 1105-1108.

Relationships With Other People and Entities:

  • Murray, S. L., McNulty, J. K., *Xia, J., Lamarche, V. M., Seery, M. D., *Ward, D. E., Griffin, D. W., *Hicks, L. L., & *Jung, H. Y. (2023). Pursuing safety in social connection regulates the risk-regulation, social-safety, and behavioral-immune systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 125, 519-547.
  • Murray, S. L., *Xia, J., Lamarche, V. M., Seery, M. D., McNulty, J. K., Griffin, D. W., *Ward, D. E., *Jung, H. Y., *Hicks, L. L., & Dubois, D. (2023). A moth to a flame? Fulfilling connectedness needs through romantic relationships protects conspiracy theorists against COVID-19 misinformation. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 4, 100111.
  • Murray, S. L., *Xia, J., Lamarche, V. M., Seery, M. D., McNulty, J. K., *Ward, D. E., Griffin, D. W., & *Hicks, L. L. (2023). Sensitizing the behavioral-immune system: The power of social pain. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 14, 371-380.
  • Lamarche, V. M., Seery, M. D., Murray, S. L., *Kondrak, C. L., *Saltsman, T. L., & *Streamer, L. (2022). Lovers in a dangerous time: Ecologically motivated relationship safety regulation. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 3, 100061.
  • Murray, S. L., *Xia, J., Lamarche, V. M., Seery, M. D., McNulty, J. K., Griffin, D. W., *Ward, D. E., & *Hicks, L. L. (2022). Trust as a daily defense against collective disease threats. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 3, 100071.
  • Murray, S. L., *Lamarche, V. M., Seery, M. D., *Jung, H. Y., Griffin, D. W., & *Brinkman, C. (2021). The social-safety system: Fortifying relationships in the face of the unforeseeable. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120, 99-130.
  • Murray, S. L., Seery, M. D., *Lamarche, V. M., *Jung, H. Y., *Saltsman, T. L., Griffin, D. W., Dubois, D., *Xia, Ji, *Ward, D. E., & McNulty, J. (2021). Looking for safety in all the right places: When threatening political reality strengthens family relationship bonds. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12, 1193-1202.
  • *Lamarche, V. M., Seery, M. D., *Kondrak, C. L., *Saltsman, T. L., & *Streamer, L. (2020). Clever girl: Benevolent sexism and cardiovascular threat. Biological Psychology, 149, 107781.
  • *Le, P. Q., *Saltsman, T. L., Seery, M. D., *Ward, D. E., *Kondrak, C. L., & *Lamarche, V. M. (2019). When a small self means manageable obstacles: Spontaneous self-distancing predicts divergent effects of awe during a subsequent performance stressor. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 80, 59-66.
  • Murray, S. L., Seery, M. D., *Lamarche, V. M., *Kondrak, C., & *Gomillion, S. (2019). Implicitly imprinting the past on the present: Automatic partner attitudes and the transition to parenthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 116, 69-100.
  • Murray, S. L., Lamarche, V., & Seery, M. D. (2018). Romantic relationships as shared reality defense. Current Opinion in Psychology, 23, 34-37.
  • Murray, S. L., *Lamarche, V. M., *Gomillion, S., Seery, M. D., & *Kondrak, C. (2017). In defense of commitment: The curative power of violated expectations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113, 697-729.
  • *Kondrak, C. L., Seery, M. D., Gabriel, S., & Lupien, S. P. (2017). What’s good for me depends on what I see in you: Intimacy avoidance and resources derived from close others. Self and Identity, 16, 557-579.
  • Seery, M. D., Gabriel, S., *Lupien, S. P., & *Shimizu, M. (2016). Alone against the group: A unanimously disagreeing group leads to conformity, but cardiovascular threat depends on one’s goals. Psychophysiology, 53, 1263-1271. 
  • Murray, S. L., *Lupien, S. P., & Seery, M. D. (2012). Resilience in the face of romantic rejection: The automatic impulse to trust. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 845-854.
  • *Shimizu, M., Seery, M. D., Weisbuch, M., & *Lupien, S. P. (2011). Trait social anxiety and physiological activation: Cardiovascular threat during social interaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 94-106.

Using Bodily Responses to Measure Psychological States (Challenge/Threat): 

  • *Saltsman, T. L., Seery, M. D., *Ward, D. E., *Lamarche, V. M., & *Kondrak, C. L. (2021). Is satisficing really satisfying? Satisficers exhibit greater threat than maximizers during choice overload. Psychophysiology, 58, e13705.
  • *Saltsman, T. L., Seery, M. D., *Ward, D. E., *Radsvick, T. M., *Panlilio (Reyes), Z. A., *Lamarche, V. M., & *Kondrak, C. L. (2021). Facing the facets: No association between dispositional mindfulness facets and positive momentary stress responses during active stressors. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47, 1057-1070.
  • *Saltsman, T. L., Seery, M. D., *Kondrak, C. L., *Lamarche, V. M., & *Streamer, L. (2019). Too many fish in the sea: A motivational examination of the choice overload experience. Biological Psychology, 145, 17-30.
  • *Streamer, L., Seery, M. D., *Kondrak, C. L., *Lamarche, V. M., & *Saltsman, T. (2017). Not I, but she: The beneficial effects of self-distancing on challenge/threat cardiovascular responses. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 70, 235-241.
  • Seery, M. D., *Kondrak, C. L., *Streamer, L., *Saltsman, T., & *Lamarche, V. M. (2016). Preejection period can be calculated using R peak instead of Q. Psychophysiology, 53, 1232-1240. 
  • Seery, M. D. (2013). The biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat: Using the heart to measure the mind. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7, 637-653.
  • Seery, M. D. (2011). Challenge or threat? Cardiovascular indexes of resilience and vulnerability to potential stress in humans. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35, 1603-1610.
  • Seery, M. D., Weisbuch, M., *Hetenyi, M. A., & Blascovich, J. (2010). Cardiovascular measures independently predict performance in a university course. Psychophysiology, 47, 535-539.
  • Seery, M. D., Weisbuch, M., & Blascovich, J. (2009). Something to gain, something to lose: The cardiovascular consequences of outcome framing. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 73, 308-312.