Jeffrey Wood
Professor Wood received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the UCLA Psychology Department, specializing in clinical trials of cognitive behavioral therapy for childhood anxiety disorders and OCD. As a doctoral student of Dr. Marian Sigman’s and a psychology intern at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, he acquired expertise in the assessment and behavioral treatment of school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders.
Dr. Wood has also been the recipient of awards from NIMH, WPA, AERA, and UCLA, and has attained multiple grants from NIMH, NICHD, the Cure Autism Now foundation, Autism Speaks, and the Organization for Autism Research to study cognitive behavioral interventions for school-aged children with autism. His work has been published in scholarly journals such as Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Developmental Psychology, and Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Drawing upon contemporary cognitive neuroscience models of information processing in autism and the memory retrieval competition perspective on behavioral change, Dr. Wood has been developing novel intervention techniques and adapting techniques from other areas of childhood psychopathology (e.g., emotional disorders, disruptive behavior disorders, and habit disorders) in the formation of a comprehensive cognitive behavioral therapy program for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Wood’s research seeks to identify effective treatment methods that improve self-regulation, increase adaptive behaviors in social and academic contexts, and address the varying patterns of personality (e.g., extraversion), symptom expression (e.g., repetitive behaviors) and psychiatric comorbidity (e.g., anxiety, disruptive behavior) seen in many children with ASD.
Dr. Wood is currently Principal Investigator on three grant studies funded by NIH: the Treatment of Anxiety in Autism Spectrum Disorder project (a 3-site study with University of South Florida and Temple University), the Treatment of Autism Symptoms in Children (TASC): Initial RCT with Active Control project, and the Developing a Robust Evidence-Based Implementation Package for Youth Autism study (a three-site study with Virginia Commonwealth University and West Virginia University).
Education
- Ph.D., Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003
- B.A., Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 1995
Teaching & Research Interests
I typically teach graduate courses on developmental psychopathology and education, school-based interventions, and personality development and education. I also teach a course in the undergraduate minor program on the role of student protest movements during the Cold War, with an emphasis on the anti-nuclear movement. I have a number of ongoing research projects, with some of the following foci:
- We are studying a cognitive behavioral intervention program addressing core autism symptoms and emotional problems among children (ages 6-13) with autism spectrum disorders (this is a randomized controlled trial sponsored by NIMH).
- We are also studying a cognitive behavioral intervention program addressing anxiety in children (ages 7-13) with autism spectrum disorders (a multisite randomized controlled trial sponsored by NICHD).
- We have recently begun a training study using an internet-based platform to promote the development of evidence-based practice skills for practitioners working with students with autism spectrum disorders (this is an intervention development study sponsored by NIMH).
- My lab is analyzing data from a longitudinal, school-based study of friendship quality, parent-child relationships, and academic outcomes in typically developing elementary school children.
Select Publications
- Wood, J. J., McLeod, B. D., Klebanoff, S., & Brookman-Frazee, L. (2015). Toward the implementation of evidence-based interventions for youth with autism spectrum disorders in schools and community agencies. Behavior Therapy, 46(1), 83-95. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2014.07.003
- Langer, D. A., Wood, J. J., Wood, P. A., Garland, A. F., Landsverk, J., & Hough, R. L. (2015). Mental health service use in schools and non-school-based outpatient settings: Comparing predictors of service use. School Mental Health, 7(3), 161-173.
- Wood, J. J., Ehrenreich-May, J., Alessandri, M., Fujii, C., Renno, P., Laugeson, E., . . . Storch, E. A. (2015). Cognitive behavioral therapy for early adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and clinical anxiety: A randomized, controlled trial. Behavior Therapy, 46(1), 7-19. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2014.01.002
- Wood, J. J., Fujii, C., Renno, P., & van Dyke, M. (2014). Impact of cognitive behavioral therapy on observed autism symptom severity during school recess: A preliminary randomized, controlled trial. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44(9), 2264-2276. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2097-7
