Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience

Education

Ph.D Northern Illinois University 2012

B.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison 2006

Biography

I joined the Baylor faculty in Fall 2012. Before coming to Baylor, I completed my clinical internship at the University of Illinois-Chicago, Department of Psychiatry.

Research

My research interests relate to gaining a better understanding of anxiety disorders, particularly health anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Most of my research adopts a dimensional approach to understanding anxiety disorders and seeks to investigate empirical questions related to the assessment, symptom development, and treatment of these disorders. I also have interest in examining variables that might span across the anxiety disorders domain, particularly intolerance of uncertainty.

Representative Publications:

Fergus, T. A., & Wu, K. D. (in press). The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale: Measurement invariance, population heterogeneity, and its relation with worry among self-identifying White and Black respondents. Assessment.

Fergus, T. A., & Valentiner, D. P. (2012). The affective and cognitive dimensions of health anxiety are associated with different orientations to health threat. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 26, 34-42.

Fergus, T. A., & Valentiner, D. P. (2012). Terror management theory and scrupulosity: An experimental investigation. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 1, 104-111.

Fergus, T. A., Valentiner, D. P., Gillen, M. J., Hiraoka, R., Twohig, M. P., Abramowitz, J. S., & McGrath, P. B. (2012). Assessing psychological inflexibility: The psychometric properties of the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth in two adult samples. Psychological Assessment, 24, 402-408.

Fergus, T. A., & Valentiner, D. P. (2011). Intolerance of uncertainty moderates the relationship between catastrophic health appraisals and health anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 35, 560-565.

Fergus, T. A., & Valentiner, D. P. (2011). The Short Health Anxiety Inventory and Multidimensional Inventory of Hypochondriacal Traits: A comparison of two self-report measures of health anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 35, 566-574.

Fergus, T. A., & Wu, K. D. (2011). Searching for specificity between cognitive vulnerabilities and mood and anxiety symptoms. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 33, 446-458.

Fergus, T. A., & Valentiner, D. P. (2010). Disease phobia and disease conviction are separate dimensions underlying hypochondriasis. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 41, 438-444.

Fergus, T. A., & Wu, K. D. (2010). Do symptoms of generalized anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder share cognitive processes? Cognitive Therapy and Research, 34, 168-176.

Fergus, T. A., & Wu, K. D. (2010). Is worry a thought control strategy relevant to obsessive-compulsive disorder? Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 24, 269-274.

Fergus, T. A., & Valentiner, D. P. (2009). Reexamining the domain of hypochondriasis: Comparing the Illness Attitudes Scale to other approaches. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23, 760-766.