Aaron Fisher

Contact

Job title: 
Associate Professor
Department: 
Psychology
Bio: 
Education: Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University
Research interests: 

Idiographic science and person-specific methodologies, Group-to-individual generalizability, Psychopathology

Role: 
Faculty
Full CV: 
PDF icon aaron_fisher_cv_4.5.25_0.pdf

Primary Research Area: Clinical Science

Research Description

I received my degree in Clinical Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University, and completed my clinical internship at the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System. Prior to joining the faculty at Berkeley, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University.
To date, work in my lab has covered a broad area.
Most saliently, we have worked on issues of treatment personalization, particularly related to the application of self-reported data to treatment selection and optimization. Consistent with this, the lab has established a strong track record related to personalized machine learning models and person-specific prediction models.
Various research projects have extended these paradigms to substance use, psychopathological manifestations of various categorizations (i.e. dimensional, DSM-defined), and psychophysiology.
My work has long had a metascientific leaning, as evaluations of group-to-individual generalizability tap into the epistemology of psychological phenomena. Current work in the lab is exploring the use of set theory and probability for identifying sufficient conditions for outcomes such as emotional distress. A current project in the lab examines varying sets of sequential conditions for distress in individuals with emotion dysregulation, in order to identify those sequences that are sufficient for distress and those sequences that are sufficient for obviating distress on a person-by-person basis.

Selected Publications

Fisher, A.J., Bosley, H.G., Fernandez, K.C., Reeves, JW., Diamond, A.E., Soyster, P.D., & Barkin, J. (2019). Open trial of a personalized modular treatment for mood and anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 116, 69-79.

Fisher, A.J.,Medaglia, J.D., & Jeronimus, B.F. (2018). Lack of Group-to-Individual Generalizability is a Threat to Human Subjects Research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Fisher, A.J., Reeves, J.W., Lawyer, G., Medaglia, J.D., & Rubel, J.A. (2017). Exploring the Idiographic Dynamics of Mood and Anxiety with Network Analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Fisher, A.J. (2015). Toward a dynamic model of psychological assessment: Implications for personalized care.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83, 825-836

Teaching

Structural Equation Modeling
Specialty Clinic: Personalized Modular CBT
Health Psychology