The primary mission of the emotion and health research lab is to address emotion regulation and well-being across the lifespan in a variety of contexts. We also have developed a strong health psychology orientation looking at physiological reactivity to appraised stress, genetic predictors of depression, and a behavioral genetic study of personality traits. Our theoretical orientation is based on Carstensen’s Socioemotional Selectivity Theory. The theory posits that, as people age, they place a higher priority on pursuing emotion-related goals (like spending quality time with loved ones) rather than knowledge-related goals or goals related to the distant future.