About

Professor Jill M. Hooley is the John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James and the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard University. Her research interests focus on psychosocial, especially family, predictors of psychiatric relapse in patients with severe psychopathology such as schizophrenia, depression, and borderline personality disorder. She is also interested in self-harming behaviors, including cutting and burning, as well as pain. Currently, Professor Hooley utilizes functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how healthy individuals and those vulnerable to depression process emotionally challenging verbal comments from family members, and how patients with borderline personality disorder process a variety of affectively challenging auditory and visual stimuli. She received her B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Liverpool, conducted research at Cambridge University, and earned her D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1985. She joined the Harvard faculty in the same year.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Social Science
• Developmental psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Sociology
• Neuroscience
• Psychotherapist
• Social psychology
• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Medical emergency

Selected publications

• Perceived Coach and Teammate Weight/Shape‐Related Beliefs and Disordered Eating in <scp>NCAA</scp> Swimmers

  International Journal of Eating Disorders · 2026-01-28

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: The distinct associations of coaches' and teammates' beliefs about ideal body weight/shape with athletes' disordered eating remain unclear. This study examined how athletes' perceptions of their coaches' and teammates' weight- and shape-related beliefs were associated with eating disorder symptoms and body dissatisfaction among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) swimmers. We hypothesized that both perceived coaches' and teammates' beliefs would be significantly associated with eating disorder symptoms and body dissatisfaction. METHOD: Participants were 190 in-season NCAA swimmers (81% female) who completed a newly developed brief questionnaire designed to assess perceived coach and teammate weight/shape-related beliefs (Coach and Teammate Weight/Shape Beliefs Questionnaire; CTWSBQ), as well as scales assessing eating disorder symptoms (Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire, EDE-Q) and thinness- and muscularity-related body dissatisfaction (ATHLETE Questionnaire Your Body and Sports subscale and Drive for Muscularity Scale, respectively). Multiple linear regression was used to model disordered eating as a function of CTWSBQ Teammate and Coach scores and covariates. RESULTS: = 0.02) after adjustment for covariates. DISCUSSION: Findings from this cross-sectional study suggest distinct patterns of association for perceived teammate versus coach weight/shape-related beliefs across eating disorder symptoms, thinness-related concerns, and muscularity-related concerns in NCAA swimmers. Future work should test these patterns prospectively and determine whether they can inform prevention and education content for athletes and coaches.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Future of Women in Psychological Science

  UNC Libraries · 2025-06-27

  articleOpen access

  There has been extensive discussion about gender gaps in representation and career advancement in the sciences. However, psychological science itself has yet to be the focus of discussion or systematic review, despite our field's investment in questions of equity, status, well-being, gender bias, and gender disparities. In the present article, we consider 10 topics relevant for women's career advancement in psychological science. We focus on issues that have been the subject of empirical study, discuss relevant evidence within and outside of psychological science, and draw on established psychological theory and social-science research to begin to chart a path forward. We hope that better understanding of these issues within the field will shed light on areas of existing gender gaps in the discipline and areas where positive change has happened, and spark conversation within our field about how to create lasting change to mitigate remaining gender differences in psychological science.

  PublisherDOI

• Communal music as a tool to improve positive affect after social ostracism or negative autobiographical memory recollection

  Research Square · 2025-04-03

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Communal music as a tool to improve positive affect after social ostracism or negative autobiographical memory recollection

  Scientific Reports · 2025-09-30

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Exposure to communal music may help regulate mood and cultivate feelings of belonging. Across two studies, we tested whether exposure to communally experienced (communal) music could impact participants’ affect following social ostracism and negative mood induction. Participants were exposed to a social media ostracism paradigm (SMOP; n = 106) or an autobiographical negative memory recollection task (ANMIT; n = 116), followed by a communal or a control song. Participants exposed to the communal song showed improved positive affect in both studies (p study 1 = 0.004; p study 2 = 0.022), whereas affect worsened for those exposed to the control songs. Additionally, participants in the communal condition reported a greater sense of belonging associated with the music compared to the control (p = 0.026). These findings suggest that communal music may improve affect—improving positive affect by strengthening social connectedness—even when listened to in isolation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The gender-sex incongruence is partly a mind–body incongruence

  Scientific Reports · 2025-03-17 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Transgender individuals consider their gender (a psychological construct) as distinct from their natal gender, assigned based on their sex (i.e., their body). Does this incongruence reflect a dissonance between sex and gender, specifically, or a broader tension in the perception of minds and bodies? To address this question, here we gauged mind-body intuitions in transgender and cisgender individuals. Results showed that transgender participants considered the mind as more ethereal, as more resilient to the obliteration of one's body by death (in Experiment 1) and to its swapping with another person's body (in Experiment 2). Remarkably, these intuitions emerged even when participants were asked to consider psychological traits that are unrelated to gender (e.g., forming sentences). They also correlated with participants' own gender identity. These results reveal striking psychological differences between transgender and cisgender individuals. In the eyes of transgender people, the self is aligned more strongly with the ethereal mind, rather than with the body.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 210. Thought Suppression in Individuals at Risk for Anxiety and Depression: Links to Neural Activation and Task Performance

  Biological Psychiatry · 2025-04-09

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Parental expressed emotion, family conflict, and symptom severity in adolescent offspring of parents with mood disorders

  Journal of Affective Disorders · 2025-06-09 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Levels of expressed emotion (EE) in caregivers are associated with recurrence risk in individuals with mood disorders. In adolescent offspring of parents with mood disorders, we examined the longitudinal associations between parental EE, family conflict and youths' mood states during a trial of family-focused therapy (FFT). Participants ( N = 62; mean 15.7 yrs. ± 1.6) had current depressed mood, mood instability, and a parent with a history of depression or bipolar disorder. Families received 12 sessions of videoconference-based FFT (psychoeducation, communication, and problem-solving) over 18 weeks, with random assignment to one of two mobile apps. Levels of EE based on five-minute speech samples were obtained from parents at pretreatment and every 9 weeks over 27 weeks. At each 9-week interval, independent evaluators rated youths' mood symptoms and adolescents/parents rated family conflict and mood instability. Levels of EE were stable from baseline to post-treatment in 70.4 % of parents. Over 27 weeks, youth in low-EE families showed greater improvements in depressive symptoms and mood lability compared to those in high-EE families. Parents who were high-EE in one study interval reported higher parent/offspring conflict in the next interval. The association between parental EE and youths' mood symptoms was partially mediated by family conflict. Findings were unaffected by type of mobile app assigned to families. Despite its prognostic significance, we cannot draw conclusions about the causal role of parental EE in youths' mood fluctuations. The pathways from parental EE to family conflict and youths' mood fluctuations suggest strategies for early intervention. Technology Enhanced Family Treatment; https://clinicaltrials.gov/NCT03913013 . • Few studies have examined the prognostic utility of parental expressed emotion (EE) in adolescent offspring of parents with a history of mood disorders. • In a 27-week trial of family-focused therapy, high parental EE was associated with more family conflict and more severe depressive symptoms among youth. • The association between parental EE and youths’ depression was mediated by family conflict. • Youth in low (compared to high) EE families showed greater improvements in depressive symptoms and mood lability • Interventions that modify EE and family conflict may benefit teens in the early stages of mood disorders.

  PublisherDOI

• Narcissistic and Dependent Behaviors in an Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Game

  Medical Research Archives · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Interpersonal formulations are used to define, understand, and diagnose personality disorders. The accuracy of these formulations rests on a clear understanding of how those with personality pathology behave in interpersonal situations. To test these formulations, we conducted 4 experiments across 2 studies examining how participants with trait dependence and narcissism respond to predetermined strategies in an iterated prisoner's dilemma. These predetermined strategies were: always cooperate, cheat once then always cooperate (Study 1), always cheat, and cooperate once then always cheat (Study 2). Results indicated that trait dependency promoted cooperation, particularly against the cheat-once-then-always-cooperate strategy and in early interactions with the cooperate-once-then-always-cheat strategy. However, there was no evidence that trait narcissism reduces cooperation. Our results suggest a nuanced association between trait personality pathology and cooperation, which is influenced by others’ behavior over repeated interactions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Aiming (too) high: Narcissism and unrealistic goal setting

  Personality and Individual Differences · 2024-03-23 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Narcissistic and dependent traits and behavior in four archetypal 2-person, 2-choice games

  Frontiers in Psychiatry · 2024-01-08

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Introduction: The characteristic behaviors we use to define personality pathology arise from specific interpersonal interactions. In an effort to create a laboratory-based context in which behavior might be expected to be influenced by particular personality traits, we used four 2-person, 2-choice games (the Prisoner's Dilemma, Chicken, Leader, and Hero games) to create a simulated interaction and focused specifically on narcissism and dependency. Method: age = 13.20) participants completed brief, self-reported measures of trait narcissism and dependency and played one of the four games. Before deciding how to act or react, participants received either no message, a promise to cooperate, or a threat to defect from a (confederate) partner. Results: When receiving no message, those who cooperated in the Prisoner's Dilemma had lower trait narcissism, while those who defected in the Chicken and Leader games had higher trait narcissism. Also with no message, participants who cooperated in the Hero game had higher trait dependency. Promises only affected the relationship between trait narcissism in the Leader game while threats only affected the relationship between trait dependency in the Chicken game. Discussion: These findings add to the limited behavioral research on personality pathology and largely support established interpersonal conceptualizations and models. Future work might extend these findings using even more ecologically valid approaches to explore the behavioral correlates of personality traits that have important implications for interpersonal interactions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01MH042782

  NIH · $870k · 1993

Frequent coauthors

• Staci A. Gruber

  McLean Hospital

  16 shared

• Kathryn R. Fox

  University of Denver

  15 shared

• Matthew K. Nock

  Harvard University

  13 shared

• Ronald E. Dahl

  Berkeley Public Health Division

  12 shared

• Jennifer S. Silk

  University of Pittsburgh

  12 shared

• Kyung Hwa Lee

  Seoul National University Hospital

  11 shared

• Chelsea Boccagno

  Massachusetts General Hospital

  11 shared

• Greg J. Siegle

  University of Pittsburgh

  11 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Psychology

  Harvard University

  1985

• M.A., Psychology

  Harvard University

  1981

• B.A., Psychology

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  1978