Transdiagnostic Approaches to Personality and Psychopathology Lab

Department of Psychology

Welcome! Our lab focuses on improving mental health conceptualizations, assessment, and diagnosis. Recent research projects and publications have focused on mood and emotion regulation, mania and bipolar spectrum disorders, substance use, and interpersonal issues, and our studies cover personality, symptoms, and a wide range of related topics towards seeking to understand individuals and their experiences as comprehensively as possible. Related lab research areas focus on measure development, psychometrics, lived experience and identity, and tracking change in mood, symptoms, and interpersonal behavior. This includes recently funded research focused on improving diagnosis and understanding of how individual and contextual factors are related to mood, mental health, and interpersonal experiences funded by the University of Wyoming College of Arts & Sciences, Pearson Assessments, and the American Psychological Foundation.

Examples of recent lab research are as follows (** = current lab student as author):

Stanton, K., Balzen, K., Brock, P., DeFluri, C., Levin-Aspenson, H. F., & Zimmerman, M. (2024). Negative mood dysregulation loads strongly onto common factors with many forms of psychopathology: Considerations for assessing nonspecific symptoms. Assessment, 31, 637-650. doi: 10.1177/10731911231174471

Stanton, K., Gillikin, L., Willis, L., Woods-Gonzalez, R., Myntti, W., Paige, C., Levin-Aspenson, H. F., McDonnell, C. G., & Emery, N. N. (2025). Understanding broader community perspectives on the scientific accuracy and stigma of personality trait labels. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 16, 91–102. doi: 10.1037/per0000656

Stanton, K., **Towne, H., **Burke, J. D., & Levin-Aspenson, H. F. (2026). Advancing understanding of mania/hypomania symptoms’ transdiagnostic, multimethod associations. Assessment. Advance online publication. https://osf.io/preprints/osf/dahfn_v4

**Towne, H., **Burke, J. D., & Stanton, K. (2026). Personality functioning’s associations with psychopathology: A transdiagnostic examination. PsyArXiv. https://osf.io/user/4b79e

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Transdiagnostic Approaches to Personality and Psychopathology Lab (TRAPP Lab) Members

Kasey Stanton, PhD, Associate Professor

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I am originally from Miles City, Montana, and I completed an associates degree at Miles Community College, a bachelors of science at Montana State University Billings, and my masters and PhD at the University of Notre Dame. My interests focus on clinical assessment and diagnosis from a transdiagnostic and dimensional perspective, with related interests in psychometrics and personality/mood assessment. Outside of work, I enjoy farming, reading, watching football and basketball and soccer, RPG video games, history and anthropology, being active and being outdoors, and emailing the rest of the TRAPP lab at least 6-7 times per day. Thank you for checking out our lab research!


Open Science Framework profile with open-source versions of select lab articles: https://osf.io/user/bczyx

 

Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fRYN0usAAAAJ&hl=en

 

Helena Towne, MS, 2nd Year Graduate Student

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I am a second-year graduate student from Minneapolis, MN. I received my B.A. in Psychology from St. Olaf College. Following my graduation, I moved to Laramie to join the TRAPP Lab at UW! My current research interests include personality functioning and transdiagnostic, dimensional approaches to assessment of personality pathology. In my free time, I love reading fiction books, running, hiking, and getting coffee with friends! 

 

Open Science Framework profile: https://osf.io/user/4b79e

 

Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=E2bhep4AAAAJ

 

 

 

Jack Burke, BS, 1st Year Graduate Student

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I am a first-year graduate student from Dublin, Ireland who completed my B.S. in Psychology from the University of Scranton in 2025. I am currently working on a project focused on the differentiation and overlap across bipolar spectrum disorder and ADHD screening measures. During my free time, I love to travel, engage in outdoor activities, watch sport, and hang out with friends.

 

 

 

Current Undergraduate Team Members

 Dylan Chatterly (Rock Springs, Wyoming)

Constance Hall (Lovell, Wyoming)

Meadow Winslow (Douglas, Wyoming)

Mackenzie Miller (Chesapeake, Virginia)

 

Lab Alumni and Information for Prospective Undergraduate and Graduate Students

 Dr. Stanton is currently reviewing applications for our Clinical Psychology PhD program for Fall 2026 admission, although the application deadline has already passed for this year. Please check back in the summer or early fall for updates on whether our lab is reviewing applications for Fall 2027 admission (deadline of December 1, 2026).


We also are fortunate to have a great team of undergraduate researchers involved in our lab. Assisting with research as an undergraduate research assistant is a great way to gain experience for graduate school, and former lab alumni are now in PhD programs at Ohio State University, Ohio University, and Georgetown University in psychology or closely related fields. Lab undergraduates assist with coordinating studies, will learn more about topics in personality and mental health, and sometimes help coordinate and observe structured clinical interviews conducted with participants, among other experiences.