Melinda Furer

Melinda Furer
Assistant Professor, Psychology
Smith Building, C123

Dr. Furer joined the Altoona faculty in 2021. Her research focuses on self-control in emerging adulthood, with an emphasis on health behaviors such as eating and substance use. She employs an interdisciplinary approach that integrates theory and methods from cognitive-behavioral models of addiction, behavioral economics, and social psychology. In particular, Dr. Furer is interested in examining how the way we think about our goals (in the “big picture” –why we want something, or in the ”short-term”—specific steps we need to take) influences whether we’re successful at changing our behaviors. A second line of research aims to develop brief tools which could be delivered on smartphone devices to A) assess and B) intervene in health behavior change attempts. Methods like this allow us to take a close look at an individual’s experience (e.g., to better understand when they may be most tempted to break their diet), which can lead to a more precise view of their difficulties and personalized interventions. Finally, Dr. Furer is interested in exploring how self-control influences the effectiveness of counseling among college students. She enjoys working with and mentoring students in research and encourages interested students to contact her. Dr. Furer also teaches Introductory Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Introduction to Clinical Psychology, and Health Psychology.