David Creswell

David Creswell

William S. Dietrich II Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience. CEO, Equa Health

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Biography

Keywords: Health Psychology, Health Neuroscience, Psychoneuroimmunology, Social Psychology, Clinical Psychology

David’s research focuses broadly on understanding what makes people resilient under stress. Specifically, he conducts community intervention studies, laboratory studies of stress and coping, and neuroimaging studies to understand how various stress management strategies alter coping and stress resilience. For example, he is currently working on studies that test how mindfulness meditation training impacts the brain, peripheral stress physiological responses, and stress-related disease outcomes in at-risk community samples. David also explores how the use of simple strategies (self-affirmation, rewarding activities, cognitive reappraisal) can buffer stress and improve problem-solving under pressure.

David has made some recent research forays into other areas, such as in describing the role of unconscious processes in learning and decision making, developing new theory and research on behavioral priming, and in building a new field of health neuroscience.

Education

  • B.A. Psychology, Colorado College
  • Ph.D. in Psychology, UCLA

Research

Dr. Creswell’s current research projects can be found on the Health and Human Performance Lab website.

Publications

Google Scholar Profile

Creswell, J.D. (under review). Allostatic lift and adaptation to stress.

Albert, J., Noble, D. J., Jamieson, J., Islam, B., Khan, M.N., OConnell, P., Polowitz, M., Fallon, S., Yzquierdo, K., & Creswell, J. D. (under review). Advancing a biobehavioral science of respiration.

Creswell, J.D. & Goldberg, S.B. (2025). The meditation app revolution. American Psychologist.

Creswell, J.D., Tumminia, M.J., Price, S., Sefidgar, Y., Cohen, S., Ren, Y., Brown, J., Dey, A., Dutcher, J.M., Villalba, D.K., Mankoff, J., Xu, X., Creswell, K.G., Doryab, A., Mattingly, S., Striegel, A., Hachen, D., Martinez, G., Lovett, M.C. (2023). Nightly sleep duration predicts grade point average in the first year of college. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(8), e2209123120.

Creswell, J.D. (2017). Mindfulness Interventions. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 491-516.

Creswell, J.D., Taren, A.A., Lindsay, E.K., Greco, C.M., Gianaros, P.J., Fairgrieve, A., Marsland, A.L., Brown, K.W., Way, B.M., Rosen, R.K., & Ferris, J.L. (2016). Alterations in resting state functional connectivity link mindfulness meditation training with reduced circulating IL-6. Biological Psychiatry, 80, 53-61.

Current Course Offerings

  • Research Methods in Social Psychology
  • Hack Your Life
  • Graduate Core Class in Social and Health Psychology

Health and Human Performance Lab Website

Equa Health Website