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Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders
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Sarah Nelson, Ph.D.
Instructor of Psychiatry,
Harvard Medical School
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Sarah E. Nelson is a Research Associate and Instructor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Division on Addictions, The Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School. She received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Oregon in 2003, where she studied both social cognition and developmental psychopathology.
Since graduate school, Dr. Nelson has transitioned to the study of addiction-related behavior, collaborating on the continued theoretical development of a syndrome model of addiction, as well as regional and personal models of exposure and vulnerability to be used in the prediction of addiction. Dr. Nelson currently serves as the Editor of the Division on Addiction’s Worldwide Addiction Gambling Education Report (the WAGER, a component of the Brief Addiction Science Information Source – www.basisonline.org), and an Associate Editor for Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, an APA journal. Since joining the Division, she has co-authored papers on the epidemiology of gambling and trends in gambling studies, the role of gender in gambling problem progression, and the use of self exclusion program information in the regional measurement of gambling problems.
Currently, Dr. Nelson is coordinating a longitudinal study of mental health issues among repeat drunk drivers in Massachusetts and preparing several papers on issues of psychiatric comorbidity in this population.
Selected publications:
Nelson, S. E., LaPlante, D. A., Peller, A. J., LaBrie, R. A., Caro, G., Shaffer, H. J. (in press). Implementation of a computerized psychiatric assessment tool at a DUI treatment facility: A case example. Administration and Policy in Mental Health.
Malle, B. F., Knobe, J., & Nelson, S. E. (in press). Actor-observer asymmetries in behavior explanations: New answers to an old question. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
LaBrie, R. A., Nelson, S. E., LaPlante, D. A., Peller, A. J., Caro, G., Shaffer, H. J. (2007). Missouri casino self-excluders: Distributions across space and time. Journal of Gambling Studies, 23(2), 231-243.
Dishion, T. J., & Nelson, S. E. (2007). Male adolescent friendships: Relationship dynamics that predict adult adjustment. In R. Engels, H. Stattin, & M. Kerr (Eds.), Friends, lovers, and groups: Key relationships in adolescence. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Shaffer, H. J., Stanton, M. V., & Nelson, S. E. (2006). Trends in gambling studies research: Quantifying, categorizing, and describing citations. Journal of Gambling Studies, 22(4), 427-442.
Nelson, S. E., LaPlante, D. A., LaBrie, R. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2006). The proxy effect: Gender and gambling problem trajectories of Iowa Gambling Treatment Program participants. Journal of Gambling Studies, 22(2), 221-240.
LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., LaBrie, R. A., Shaffer, H. J. (2006). Men and women playing games: Gender and the gambling preferences of Iowa Gambling Treatment Program participants. Journal of Gambling Studies, 22(1), 65-80.
Dishion, T. J., Nelson, S. E., & Yasui, M. (2005). Predicting early adolescent gang involvement from middle school adaptation. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34(1), 62-73.
Dishion, T. J., Nelson, S. E., & Bullock, B. M. (2004). Premature adolescent autonomy: Family management and deviant peer process in the amplification of problem behavior. Journal of Adolescence, 27(5), 515-530.
Dishion, T. J., Nelson, S. E., Bullock, B. M., & Winter, C. E. (2004). Adolescent friendship as a dynamic system: Entropy and deviance in the etiology and course of male antisocial behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 32(6), 651-663.
Nelson, S. E., & Dishion, T. J. (2004). From boys to men: Predicting adult aggression from middle childhood sociometric status. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 441-459.
Shaffer, H. J., LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., & Stanton, M. V. (2004). The road less traveled: Moving from distribution to determinants in the study of gambling epidemiology. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 49(8), 504-516.
Malle, B. F., & Nelson, S. E. (2003). Judging mens rea: The tension between folk concepts and legal concepts of intentionality. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 21(5), 563-580.
Dishion, T. J., Nelson, S. E., & Kavanagh, K. (2003). The Family Check-Up for high-risk young adolescents: Motivating parent monitoring and reducing problem behavior. Behavior Therapy, 34, 553-571.
Dishion, T. J., Kavanagh, K., Schneiger, A., Nelson, S. E., & Kaufmann, N. K. (2002). Preventing early adolescent substance use: A family-centered strategy for the public middle school. Prevention Science, 3(3), 191-201.
Malle, B. F., Knobe, J., O’Laughlin, M. J., Pearce, G. E., & Nelson, S. E. (2000). Conceptual structure and social functions of behavior explanations: Beyond person-situation attributions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 309-326.
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