A few projects of interest.
Emotional Awareness
How do individual differences in facets of emotional awareness (i.e., clarity of and attention towards emotions) relate to people’s motivation and ability to manage their emotions? To what extent are individuals aware of emotions in close others?
Interpersonal processes in emotion and well-being
How might social context and synchrony in people’s affect relate to emotion regulatory processes and interpersonal well-being? What cultural and age-related differences, if any, are there in how people experience affect together?
Contexts in Emotion and emotion regulation in Daily life
What are the conditions, both in an individual’s appraisal and features of the external environment, that give rise to perceived need and desire to regulate emotions? How does this vary across the adult lifespan?
Emotion beliefs and values
How do people’s cultural values and beliefs around emotions relate to their experiences of emotions? Furthermore, how do these values relate to the management of emotions and relate to individual and interpersonal well-being?
Google Scholar Profile
Lai, J., Springstein, T., Growney, C. M., & English, T. (2025). Comparing Emotion Regulation Success in the Lab and Daily Life Contexts in a Cognitively Diverse Sample. Affective Science, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-025-00313-0
Lai, J., Eckland, N. S., & Thompson, R. J. (2025). When and why people do NOT regulate their emotions: examining the reasons and contexts. Cognition and Emotion, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2504560
Lai, J., Otero, M. C., Chen, K. H., Wells, J. L., Levenson, R. W., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2025). Does Positivity Resonance Signify Love? Markers of Positivity Resonance in Long‐Term Married Couples Relate to Trait and State Love. Personal Relationships, 32(2), e70008. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.70008
Gross, A. M.*, Lai, J., Eckland, N. S., & Thompson, R. J. (2025). Interoceptive awareness and clarity of one’s emotions and goals: A naturalistic investigation. Emotion. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001510
Borelli, J. L., Wang, Y., Li, F. H., Russo, L. N., Tironi, M., Yamashita, K., Zhou, E., Lai, J., Nguyen, B., Azimi, I., Marcotullio, C., Labbaf, S., Jafarlou, S., Dutt, N., & Rahmani, A. (2025). Detection of Depressive Symptoms in College Students Using Multimodal Passive Sensing Data and Light Gradient Boosting Machine: Longitudinal Pilot Study. JMIR Formative Research, 9(1), e67964. doi: 10.2196/67964
Chen, Z.*, Lai, J., Wang, H.*, & Borelli, J. L. (2025). Shiyuyuanwei (Expectations vs. Reality): Chinese International Students’ Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic. In Zhang, J. & Sarrazin, N. (Eds.), Asian Perspectives on Education: Inclusivity and Diversity, (pp. 17-42). Vernon Press.
Thompson, R. J., Liu, D. Y., & Lai, J. (2024). What predicts the initiation and outcomes of interpersonal emotion regulation in everyday life?. Motivation and Emotion, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-024-10089-8
Jafarlou, S., Azimi, I., Lai, J., Wang, Y., Labbaf, S., Nguyen, B.*, Qureshi, H.*, Marcotullio, C.*, Borelli, J. L., Dutt, N., & Rahmani, A. M. (2024). Objective monitoring of loneliness levels using smart devices: A multi-device approach for mental health applications. PloS one, 19(6), e0298949. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298949
Watanabe, D. K., Pourmand, V., Lai, J., Park, G., Koenig, J., Wiley, C. R., Thayer, J. F., & Williams, D. P. (2023). Resting heart rate variability and emotion regulation difficulties: Comparing Asian Americans and European Americans. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 194, 112258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2023.112258
Jafarlou, S., Lai, J., Azimi, I., Mousavi, Z., Labbaf, S., Jain, R. C., Nutt, D., Borelli, J. L., & Rahmani, A. (2023). Objective prediction of next-day’s affect using multimodal physiological and behavioral data: Algorithm development and validation study. JMIR Formative Research, 7(1), e39425. doi: 10.2196/39425 [PDF]
Rahmani, A. M., Lai, J., Jafarlou, S., Azimi, I., Yunusova, A.*, Rivera, A. P.*, Labbaf, S., Hu, S., Anzanpour, A., Dutt, N., Jain, R., Borelli, J. L. (2022). Personal mental health navigator: harnessing the power of data, personal models, and health cybernetics to promote psychological well-being. Frontiers in Digital Health, 4, 933587. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2022.933587
Mousavi, Z. A., Lai, J., Simon, K., Rivera, A. P.*, Yunusova, A.*, Hu, S., Labbaf, S., Jafarlou, S., Dutt, N., Jain, R., Rahmani, A. M., & Borelli, J. L. (2022). Sleep Patterns and Affect Dynamics Among College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Intensive Longitudinal Study. JMIR formative research, 6(8), e33964. doi: 10.2196/33964 [PDF]
Lai, J., Pham, P. T., Bate, J., Prout, T. A., Carollo, A., Setoh, P., Esposito, G., & Borelli, J. L. (2022). Being a Parent during COVID-19: Risk for Psychological Distress in the United States and Italy. Social Sciences, 11(4), 173. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11040173 [PDF]
Wells, J. L., Haase, C. M., Rothwell, E. S., Naugle, K. G., Otero, M. C., Brown, C. L., Lai, J., Chen K-H, Connelly, D. E., Grimm, K. J., Levenson, R. W., Fredrickson, B. L. (2022). Positivity resonance in long-term married couples: Multimodal characteristics and consequences for health and longevity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000385
Lai, J., Snyder, M. E, M. Vijayakumar, K. S., Bailey, D. H., Martin, E. A. (2022). Shared and unique affective abnormalities in schizotypy dimensions. PsyCh Journal, Journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Psychology, 11, 149-162. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.506 [PDF]
Schueller, S. M., Neary, M., Lai, J., Epstein, D. A. (2021) Understanding people’s use of and perspective of mood tracking apps: An interview study. JMIR Mental Health, 8(8), e29368. doi: 10.2196/29368. [PDF]
Lai. J., Rahmani, A. M., Yunusova, A.*, Rivera, A. P.*, Labbaf, S., Hu, S., Dutt, N. D, Jain, R. C, Borelli, J. L. (2021). Using multi-modal assessments to capture personalized contexts of college student well-being in 2020: A case study. JMIR Formative Research, 5(5), e26186. doi: 10.2196/26186. [PDF]
Yunusova, A.*, Lai. J., Rivera, A. P.*, Hu, S., Labbaf, S., Rahmani, A. M., Dutt, N. D., Jain, R. C., Borelli, J. L. (2021). Assessing the mental health of emerging adults through a mental health app: Protocol for a prospective pilot study. JMIR Research Protocols, 10(3), e25775. doi: 10.2196/25775. [PDF]
Borelli, J. L., Lai, J., Smiley, P. A., Kerr, M. L., Buttitta, K., Hecht, H. K., & Rasmussen, H. F., (2021). Higher maternal reflective functioning is associated with toddlers’ adaptive emotion regulation. Infant Mental Health Journal, 42(4), 473-487. doi: 10.1002/imhj.21904. [PDF]
*denotes a mentored post-bac or undergraduate student