Dr. Yang will present two programs of research bridging stigma theory, psychopathology, and cognitive science in global mental health contexts.
The first examines the "what matters most" framework - a theory positing that stigma exerts its psychological impacts by threatening an individual's capacity to enact the roles and identities most culturally valued within their local cultural worlds. Dr. Yang will apply this framework to a case study of pregnant women living with HIV in Botswana, examining how otherwise beneficial healthcare policies can generate unintended structural consequences that stigmatize and exclude women from valued roles. He will describe a theory-driven intervention designed to target the specific psychological and cultural mechanisms underlying HIV stigma, and discuss extensions of this intersectional stigma framework to co-occurring substance use disorder and HIV stigma in rural North Carolina - addressing broader questions about how stigma theory generalizes across cultural context.
The second topic addresses a longstanding question in psychopathology research: what is the relationship between psychosis and cognitive decline in the complete absence of antipsychotic treatment? Dr. Yang will present findings from a rare, community-dwelling cohort (n>250) of individuals with schizophrenia who have remained entirely antipsychotic-na茂ve for an average of over 20 years - a population with no equivalent in high-income settings like the U.S. New data comparing cognitive performance in this untreated cohort against a rigorously matched, treated sample will be presented, with implications for longstanding debates about whether cognitive decline in schizophrenia reflects illness progression and/or treatment effects. Dr. Yang will discuss plans to extend this paradigm to new global settings (India, Nigeria) and opportunities to potentially integrate new neuroscience and accelerated-aging methods.
- Psychology and Neuroscience