Ryan Carpenter, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Clinical Psychology
Dr. Ryan Carpenter received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a Minor in Psychological Methods and Statistics from the University of Missouri—Columbia in 2018. He completed his clinical internship at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies (CAAS) at Brown University.
Dr. Carpenter is broadly interested in better understanding behavior in everyday life using technology (e.g., smartphones), momentary sampling methods (e.g., ecological momentary assessment), and advanced statistical techniques.
He is especially interested in substance use and, specifically, how substance use disorder manifests in individual acts of use in the natural environment. Much of his work has focused on alcohol, opioid, and cannabis use and co-use, but he is also interested in the use of other substances. His work also examines the effectiveness and feasibility of mobile health (mHealth) interventions to address and prevent substance use in daily life.
A second and related focus of Dr. Carpenter’s research is applying models of negative reinforcement to shed light on the momentary processes through which aversive internal experiences (e.g., negative affect, physical pain) lead some individuals to use substances or engage in self-destructive behaviors, such as nonsuicidal self-injury.
At UMSL, Dr. Carpenter heads the SPIEL (Studying Processes in Everyday Life) Lab. Among other projects, the SPIEL Lab recently launched Project BEST (Better Experiences in Substance Treatment). Project BEST is an NIAAA-funded project to develop a modified brief alcohol intervention tailored to best help patients who drink alcohol during treatment for opioid use (e.g., buprenorphine). Read more about Project BEST and Dr. Carpenter's research here.
Dr. Carpenter will be interviewing new graduate students for Fall 2023.
The SPIEL Lab is always looking for undergraduates interested in gaining research experience! You can let us know you're interested by filling out this form.
Selected publications:
Carpenter, R. W., & Merrill, J. E. (2020). How much and how fast: Alcohol consumption patterns, drinking-episode affect, and next-day consequences in the daily life of underage heavy drinkers. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Access here.
Hepp, J., Carpenter, R. W., Störkel, L. M., Schmitz, S. E., Schmahl, C., Niedtfelt, I. (2020) A systematic review of daily life studies based on the Four Functions Model. Clinical Psychology Review. Access here.
Wycoff, A. W., Carpenter, R. W., Hepp, J., Lane, S. P., & Trull, T. J. (2020). Daily-life drinking in borderline personality disorder: Drinking motives moderate associations between mood and alcohol use. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Access here.
Carpenter, R. W., Squeglia, L. M., Emery, N. N., McClure, E. A., Gray, K. M., Miranda, R. Jr., & Tomko, R. L. (2020). Letter to the editor: Making pharmacotherapy trials more efficient: Leveraging real-world data capture to maximize power and expedite the medication development pipeline. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Access here.
Carpenter, R. W., Treloar Padovano, H., Emery, N. N., & Miranda, R. Jr. (2019). Rate of alcohol consumption in the daily life of adolescents and emerging adults. Psychopharmacology, 236, 3111-3124. Access here.
Carpenter, R. W., Lane, S. P., Bruehl, S., & Trull, T. J. (2019). Concurrent and lagged associations of prescription opioid use with pain and negative affect in the daily lives of chronic pain patients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 87, 872-886. Access here.
Carpenter, R. W., Tragesser, S. L., Lane, S. P., & Trull, T. J. (2018). Momentary assessment of everyday physical pain in outpatients with borderline personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 10, 143-153. Access here.
Carpenter, R. W., Trela, C. J., Lane, S. P., Wood, P. K., Piasecki, T. M., & Trull, T. J. (2017). Elevated rate of alcohol consumption in borderline personality disorder patients in daily life. Psychopharmacology, 22, 3395-3406. Access here.
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