A major focus of Professor Hooley’s research interests concerns psychosocial (especially family) predictors of psychiatric relapse in patients with severe psychopathology such as schizophrenia, depression, and borderline personality disorder. She is also interested in self-harming behavior (cutting, burning) and pain. Currently, Professor Hooley is using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore (1) how healthy people and individuals who are vulnerable to depression process emotionally challenging verbal comments from family members and (2) how patients with borderline personality disorder process a variety of affectively challenging auditory and visual stimuli.

Professor Hooley received her B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Liverpool. This was followed by research work at Cambridge University.  She subsequently attended Magdalen College and received her D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1985. She joined the faculty at Harvard the same year.