Our Faculty

Lawrence H. Yang, PhD, focuses on research in several key areas of psychiatric epidemiology. This includes defining theoretical work on how culture is conceptualized in relation to stigma and implementing interventions to lessen the prevalence and distribution of this disease. Dr. Yang has applied this concept specifically to stigmatized illnesses in China, using empirical data to examine how stigma towards schizophrenia in this setting impedes symptomatic and social recovery. His work has advanced the study of psychiatric stigma among Asian Americans, and Chinese Americans specifically, contributing to epidemiology?s focus on treatment and illuminating the mechanisms that lead to mental health disparities. Dr. Yang will be collaborating with the Center for Asian American Health Disparities Research to develop interventions with psychoses among Asian Americans and provide a national platform for this work. He is also examining the neurocognitive and social cognitive underpinnings of the new designation of a "high risk for psychosis", a potentially transformative new syndrome to detect psychotic signs before symptoms develop into a full psychotic disorder. The findings from his work will help guide the implementation of this syndrome globally. In addition to his research in China, Dr. Yang is applying his work to new contexts and is involved in mental health research in Latin America.

Mailman School Affiliations:

• Center for the Study of Social Inequalities and Health 
• Global Mental Health Program 

Additional Affiliations:

• Research Associate, Asian American Center on Health Disparities, University of California at Davis
• Board of Directors, Asian-American Psychological Association, 2003-2005

• Young Investigator Award- National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression- 2010
• Emerging Leader Award for Significant Contributions to the Advancement of Ethnic Minority Psychology- 2010
• Four Separate Early Career Research Awards- 2008-2012; from American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association; Asian American Psychological Association
• Two Outstanding Student Dissertation Awards (Clinical Psychology and International Psychology) American Psychological Association
• High Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, Wesleyan University

Expressed Emotion and Stigma among Chinese-Americans with Schizophrenia
This project seeks to examine how cultural, familial, and societal factors affect course of schizophrenia among Chinese-Americans immigrants.

Anti-Stigma Intervention for Chinese American Relatives of People with Psychotic-Spectrum Disorders in New York City
This project seeks to empower a small cadre of Chinese American caregivers of people with severe mental illness to co-lead a culturally-adapted anti-stigma intervention.

Stigma Associated with a High-Risk State for Psychosis
This project examines stigma experiences among a High Risk for Psychosis (HRP) group at initial HRP identification and then at 6 month follow-up. We also examine the neurocognitive and social cognitive underpinnings of stigma perceptions in the HRP group. We examine how stigma and its social cognitive bases in the HRP group may adversely impact psychological, social, and developmental outcomes among HRP individuals.

Deficit Syndrome Subtype of Schizophrenia in China
This project examines the Deficit Syndrome 'subtype'-characterized by persistent and primary negative symptoms-for the first time in an 'untreated/minimally treated', non-acute group to facilitate the causes and identification of salient biological markers of schizophrenia.

Countries: China

Regional Network for Mental Health Research in Latin America
This Collaborative Hub for International Research in Mental Health (RFA-MH-11-070) establishes a research hub in Latin and South America (Chile, Brazil and Argentina). We plan a multi-site Randomized Clinical Trial creating a task-shifting intervention involving peer mentors in which primary care is linked to MH specialty care for individuals with severe mental illness. Dr. Yang leads the Shared Research Component-the development of a culture-specific measure of internalized stigma-across Hub sites.

Countries: Chile

Promising Practices Programs to Reduce Stigma
This project, in conjunction with the California Center for Dignity, Social Inclusion and Stigma Elimination, seeks to examine strengths, resources and culturally specific attitudes among California's culturally and ethnically diverse communities to reduce mental illness stigma.

Countries: United States