picture of Dr. Phillips

Dr. Alison Phillips

  • Professor

Contact

alisonp@iastate.edu

515-294-3393

0020 Office And Lab
2401 Osborn Dr.
Ames IA  50011-2401

Bio

Research Interests

I study the processes by which individuals develop and maintain health-related habits, particularly medication adherence and regular physical activity. These processes include belief/attitude formation, experience that a behavior has expected results, intrinsic motivation and self-identitification with the behavior, and stable context cues for the behavior.

I study mainly populations with chronic illness but also young adults, for whom prevention of chronic illness is key. I also study provider communication strategies for promoting optimal adherence to medical advice, primarily focusing on eliciting and addressing patients’ beliefs about their treatment(s) and their treatment-related habits.

In the future, I will develop “mobile health” technology applications to promote effective patient-provider communication and habit development.

Topics of interest

Social and health psychology

Education

PhD, Social/Health Psychology, Rutgers University, New Jersey, 2011

MA, Social Psychology, Rutgers University, New Jersey, 2008

BA, Psychology & Mathematics, Grinnell College, Iowa, 2003