Shopping Behaviors, Stress and New Year Resolutions - Timely Topics Addressed by UAlbany Experts

It's holiday season in the United States, which sees millions of Americans flocking to stores and making plans to visit relatives during Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. The University at Albany's faculty experts cover a wide array of seasonal issues, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping habits, holiday stress, and the struggles of maintaining New Year's resolutions.

Seasonal shopping patterns and marketing: Professor Marketing Sanjay Putrevu has published widely in the areas of consumer behavior, advertising, retailing, and international marketing. His current research explores consumer response to advertising/IMC, cross-cultural differences, effectiveness of retail and marketing strategies, gender differences in information processing, and the impact of corporate social responsibility on consumer patronage/loyalty.

It's holiday season in the U.S., as millions of Americans flock to the stores for the perfect gift or make plans to visit relatives.

Assistant Professor Suraj Commuri’s expertise includes insight into marketing trends, as well as brand counterfeiting and consumer-generated content. He previously served as a research consultant for multinational brands entering Asian markets. Prior to coming to UAlbany, he was at the University of Missouri, where he taught at their College of Business and the interdisciplinary Center for Digital Globe.

Holiday Stress: John P. Forsyth is director of the Anxiety Disorders Research Program. He is widely known for his work on acceptance and experiential avoidance, and the role of emotion regulatory processes in anxiety disorders. He is a leader in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and an active researcher in the anxiety disorders.

Dolores Cimini is a New York State licensed psychologist who has provided leadership since 1982 on a number of federal, state, and private grant-funded programs. She is currently the project director for over $2.8 million in grants addressing high-risk drinking and other prevention issues. Cimini is an expert on mental health issues, alcohol and drug abuse prevention.

New Year's resolutions: Mark Muraven studies self-control. In his research, he investigates why self-control fails, how to prevent the loss of control, and how to improve an individual's self-control. He studies the role of self-control in addictive disorders, including smoking and drinking, as well as how self-control affects dieting, coping with stress, mood regulation, and mental performance. He is a recipient of an early career award from the Society for Advancement of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy and is currently an associate editor for the journal, Motivation and Emotion.

Associate Professor Drew Anderson, who has been at the University at Albany since 1998, conducts research across the eating disorder spectrum, from anorexia to obesity. His work includes basic research on vulnerability to eating disorders and binge eating, as well as the development of assessment instruments for eating disorders. He can discuss the effectiveness of dieting and weight loss on health. Current research interests include predicting individual response to weight loss, the effects of dieting on stress hormones, and developing innovative treatments for bulimia and restrained eating.

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