Web Bio

Kerstin Schroder is a health psychologist with a broad range of research interests. Currently, her research and planned projects focus on dieting interventions for overweight and obese individuals. In a recent experimental study, she investigated the effects of a computer-assisted dieting intervention on diet quality and weight loss in a sample of overweight and obese adults. Dr. Schroder is further engaged in research on psychological factors affecting health risk behaviors such as unhealthy eating habits, HIV/AIDS risk behavior, and substance use. Psychological factors of interest in her research include social-cognitive predictors of health behavior (such as attitudes, perceived norms, and self-efficacy beliefs), as well as emotional variables (anger, depression), and traits (such as habitual self-control). Dr. Schroder has a specific interest in the effects of self-control, self-management skills, and action control strategies on health behavior. These factors are also the primary targets in her current and future intervention research.

Apart from her interests in health behavior research, Dr. Schroder is engaged in methodological research on the accuracy of behavioral self-reports. Almost all research on health risk behaviors relies on self-report; however, self-reports are not always accurate, and different self-reporting methods often lead to different results. Thus, investigating the factors that enhance accurate responding to health behavior questions is an important part of her work.

Dr. Schroder teaches primarily courses in statistics and research methodology.