Sarah Knapp-Oliver

Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology

Education

• B.S., State University of New York, College at Brockport
• M.A., Stony Brook University
• Ph.D., Stony Brook University

Courses Taught

• Social Psychology
• Lab: Research Methods in Social Psychology
• Introduction to Psychology
• Health Psychology
• Seminar: Social Psychology of Stigma

Interests

My research involves the intersection of social and health psychology, focusing on cancer as a stigma, or a “mark” that has the potential to deeply discredit someone in the eyes of other members of society. I have asked research questions such as: Does having a type of cancer that is visible affect others’ willingness to help an individual with the disease? Does having a type of cancer that is perceived as having a controllable onset (i.e., lung cancer’s association with smoking) affect the amount of funding allocated to the disease? My future directions include exploring other factors that may affect the stigmatization of cancer, and expanding this line of research to look at, for instance, the attitudes and perceptions of individuals with other diseases or health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

Recent Publications

Knapp-Oliver, S., & Moyer, A. (In Press). Visibility and the stigmatization of cancer: Context matters. Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

Moyer, A., Sohl, S.J., Knapp-Oliver, S., & Schneider, S. (In Press). Characteristics and methodological quality of 25 years of research investigating psychosocial interventions for cancer patients. Cancer Treatment Reviews.

Moyer, A., Schneider, S., Knapp-Oliver, S., & Sohl, S.J. (In Press). Published versus unpublished dissertations in psychooncology intervention research. Psycho-Oncology.