
Byrd-Craven
Psychobiology Lab
What We Do
The Byrd-Craven Psychobiology Lab studies the neuroendocrine underpinnings of human social behavior. We examine a variety of relationships, including female friendships, family, and mating relationships. We employ interdisciplinary methods to uncover the interplay between social context and neuroendocrine responses.
Dr. Byrd-Craven is not accepting graduate students for the Fall of 2025. Next application deadline Dec. 1, 2025. See Join the Lab for more details.
Chronic Adversity
Bio-Social Mechanisms and Protective Factors underlying Chronic Adversity and Emerging Adult Health
PIs: Jennifer Byrd-Craven and Mike Criss
Project Manager: Tori Short
This longitudinal project examines the bio-social mechanisms underlying links between chronic social adversity and health. It seeks to understand protective factors that can buffer the physiological and behavioral impacts of chronic adversity. The project includes measures of both chronic and acute stress as well as allostatic load and immune function in a sample of emerging adult ethnic minorities.
Who We Are
Psychobiology Lab Staff
Dr. Jennifer Byrd-Craven
Lab Director
jennifer.byrd.craven@okstate.edu
Dr. Byrd-Craven received her Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of Missouri. She joined the OSU Psychology Department in the fall of 2007. Her primary research interest is the impact of social dynamics on the activity of the stress response and associated systems. Current research projects focus on: 1) mechanisms underlying developmental adversity, stress, and health; 2) the influence of female friendship interactions on stress and immune system reactivity; and 3) sex differences in response to stress and early adversity. Evolutionary theory is used as a framework for understanding the interaction between biology and social dynamics, with a particular focus on female sociality. See her full CV here.
Ying-Syun "Jenna" Huang
Graduate Student
ying-syun.huang@okstate.edu
Jenna is interested in investigating the biopsychosocial mechanisms by which early life experiences and social experiences influence emotional well-being as well as stress and immune system reactivity. She is also interested in examining the associations between interoception, stress reactivity, emotion regulation and eating behaviors.
Julia Hurwitz
Graduate Student
julia.hurwitz@okstate.edu
Julia is interested in the psychobiology of romantic relationships as well as examining same-sex relationships through an evolutionary lens. She is also broadly interested in hormonal contraceptives and how these affect health outcomes along with mating behavior.
Tori Short
Graduate Student
tori.short@okstate.edu
Tori Short is a fifth-year graduate student working with Dr. Byrd-Craven and Dr. Krems. Tori is primarily interested in using evolutionary theory to study environmental influences on health-related schemas and behaviors pertaining to diet, exercise, stress, and inflammation. Tori’s research interests also include female friendship dynamics as well as sex differences in mate retention and satisfaction.
Krystal Duarte
Graduate Student
krystal.duarte@okstate.edu
Krystal Duarte is a forth-year graduate student working with Dr. Byrd-Craven and Dr. Krems. She is a McNair scholar and previously worked on projects that investigated romantic infatuation and flirting behavior. Her current research interests are in female status and female aggression from an evolutionary perspective.
The Oklahoma Center for Evolutionary ANalysis (OCEAN)
The Byrd-Craven Psychobiology lab is one of several labs in Psychology and Integrative Biology holding joint graduate lab meetings and furthering the OCEAN mission: 1) engage in interdisciplinary research; 2) train future research faculty and graduate students, including those from groups underrepresented in the sciences; and 3) undertaking educational outreach via the FOSSIL conference.
Lab News
Who is a mating rival? Womentrack other women’s intent and capacity to compete for mates (2025)
Links between racial discrimination and college student mental and physicalhealth: Examination of parent-youth relationships as protective factors (2024)
Link between parent-emerging adult relationship quality and emerging adult physical health: An examination of mediators and moderators (2024)
Additive and moderating
effect of parents and peers on youth mental and physical health outcomes duringemerging adulthood (2024)
Decreased salivary alpha-amylase reactivity for excluded young women after a speech task (2024)
Pilot study of the acute inflammatory effects ofweight stigma in women (2024)
Women’s mating strategies and mate valueare associated with viewing time to facial masculinity (2023)
The family biorhythm: Contributions of the HPA and HPG axes to neuroendocrine attunement (2023)
An eye trackingstudy examining the role of mating strategies, perceived vulnerability to disease, and disgust in attention to pathogenic cues (2023)
The role of hormones in attraction andvisual attention to masculinity (2023)
Ecological Influences and VisualAttention to Infant Phenotypes (2023)
The modification of offspring stress-relatedbehavior and gene expression by diet (2022)
Parents of higher-weight children are viewed as responsible for child weight and thus stigmatized (2022)
Male physical strength and female physical attractiveness cue high status. (2022)
Grandmothers and Hormonal Underpinnings:
Unexplored Aspects of Women’s Same-Sex Relationships (2021)
Stress response
asymmetries in African American emerging adults exposed to chronic social
adversity (2021)
Women’s Mating Strategies
And Preferences for Strong Men Under Perceived Harsh vs. Safe Ecological Conditions (2021)
The role of breast
morphology on intrasexual competition in women: Women’s perceptions of
breast size ptosis, and intermammary distance (2021)
The endocrinology of female
friendships: Cortisol and progesterone attunement after separation (2021)
Parenting,
cortisol and risky behaviors in emerging adulthood: Diverging patterns for males and females.
(2021)
Do BMI and sex hormones influence visual attention to food stimuli in women? Tracking eye movements across the menstrual cycle (2020)
Together is better during acute threat under stress: Men and women desire affiliation following laboratory stress induction (2020)
Does ecological harshness influence
men’s perceptions of women’s breast size, ptosis, and intermammary distance? (2021)
The role of fathers on HPA axis development and activity across the lifespan: A brief review (2021)
Effects of Women’s Short-Term Mating
Orientation and Self-Perceived Attractiveness in Rating and Viewing Men’s
Waist to Chest Ratios (2020)
Contextual and genetic correlates of adrenocortical attunement and reactivity among parent-daughter dyads from low-income families (2020)
The nuanced psychology of The Handmaid’s Tale: Commentary on power, feminism, and the
patriarchy from four feminist evolutionary psychologists (2020)
Exposure to a sex-specific stressor mitigates sex differences in stress-induced eating (2019)
Fertility status in visual processing of men's attractiveness (2019)
The role of co-rumination and adrenocrotical attunement in young women's close friendships (2018)
Effects of Women's Short-Term Mating Orientation and Self-Perceived Attractiveness in Rating and Viewing Men's Waist to Chest Ratios (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-020-01846-0?fbclid=IwAR1IYp7sgQGITWmILtZ7Zl2SqgG73LumRAKf9iw2LlzRv7w_TEG5F33fuso)
A sentence or two describing this item.WANT TO JOIN US?
Dr. Byrd-Craven is not accepting a graduate student for the Fall of 2025. Next application deadline is December 1, 2025. Research Assistants: Undergraduate research assistants who work in my lab get experience with entering data, developing protocols, running experiments, and coding video data. Students also get experience preparing saliva assays. Students typically enroll in Psychology 4990: Special Problems. Advanced students will get experience presenting our research at conferences. We hold bi-weekly lab meetings to discuss ongoing projects, applying to graduate school, and presenting research. If you are interested in joining the lab team, please contact me via email (jennifer.byrd.craven@okstate.edu) to determine if there are any current openings.
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Email
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okstate.edu The OCEAN
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