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Haeyeon Lee

Seoul National University · Psychology

About the Lab

Professor Haeyeon Lee's research lab focuses on the psychological and physiological mechanisms underlying stress reactivity and resilience, particularly during critical developmental transitions such as the high school transition. The lab integrates theories of implicit beliefs (e.g., mindset, personality malleability) with the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat to understand how appraisals of stress shape emotional, cognitive, and biological responses. A central theme is the development and testing of scalable, evidence-based psychological interventions—particularly those leveraging reappraisal and mindset education—to improve adolescent well-being, academic performance, and health outcomes. The lab employs mixed-methods approaches, including experimental designs, diary studies, and real-time behavioral assessments, often in naturalistic settings such as schools and social media environments.

stress appraisalsmindset interventionbiopsychosocial modeladolescent developmentemotional regulation

Research Overview

Papers
41
Total Citations
1,814
Papers (5y)
12
Primary Field
Psychology

Research Output Trend

Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.

Publications per year (5y)
12total
2020
2021
2022
2024
2025
Citations per year (5y)
271total
20202021202220242025

Selected Papers

15
1
Article|666 citations·2016
Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions: The case of the growth mindset during the transition to high school.
David S. Yeager, Carissa Romero, Dave Paunesku, Christopher Hulleman, Barbara Schneider, Cintia Hinojosa, Hae Yeon Lee, J. O’Brien, Kate Flint, Alice Roberts, Jill Trott, Daniel Greene
SJR Q1Journal of Educational Psychology

There are many promising psychological interventions on the horizon, but there is no clear methodology for preparing them to be scaled up. Drawing on design thinking, the present research formalizes a methodology for redesigning and tailoring initial interventions. We test the methodology using the case of fixed versus growth mindsets during the transition to high school. Qualitative inquiry and rapid, iterative, randomized "A/B" experiments were conducted with ~3,000 participants to inform inte

Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
2
Article|464 citations·2015
Declines in efficacy of anti-bullying programs among older adolescents: Theory and a three-level meta-analysis
David S. Yeager, Carlton J. Fong, Hae Yeon Lee, Dorothy L. Espelage
SJR Q2Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
Social PsychologyPsychology
3
Article|138 citations·2016
How to Improve Adolescent Stress Responses
David S. Yeager, Hae Yeon Lee, Jeremy P. Jamieson
SJR Q1Psychological Science

This research integrated implicit theories of personality and the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, hypothesizing that adolescents would be more likely to conclude that they can meet the demands of an evaluative social situation when they were taught that people have the potential to change their socially relevant traits. In Study 1 (N = 60), high school students were assigned to an incremental-theory-of-personality or a control condition and then given a social-stress task. Relativ

EducationSocial Sciences
4
Article|110 citations·2017
Capitalizing on Appraisal Processes to Improve Affective Responses to Social Stress
Jeremy P. Jamieson, Emily J. Hangen, Hae Yeon Lee, David S. Yeager
SJR Q1Emotion ReviewOA

Regulating affective responses to acute stress has the potential to improve health, performance, and well-being outcomes. Using the biopsychosocial (BPS) model of challenge and threat as an organizing framework, we review how appraisals inform affective responses and highlight research that demonstrates how appraisals can be used as regulatory tools. Arousal reappraisal, specifically, instructs individuals on the adaptive benefits of stress arousal so that arousal is conceptualized as a coping r

Behavioral NeuroscienceNeuroscience
5
Article|110 citations·2020
Getting Fewer “Likes” Than Others on Social Media Elicits Emotional Distress Among Victimized Adolescents
Hae Yeon Lee, Jeremy P. Jamieson, Harry T. Reis, Christopher G. Beevers, Robert Josephs, Michael C Mullarkey, J. O’Brien, David S. Yeager
SJR Q1Child DevelopmentOA

= 14.3 years) who were randomly assigned to receive few (vs. many) likes during a standardized social media interaction felt more strongly rejected, and reported more negative affect and more negative thoughts about themselves. In Study 2 (N = 145), negative responses to receiving fewer likes were associated with greater depressive symptoms reported day-to-day and at the end of the school year. Study 3 (N = 579) replicated Study 1's main effect of receiving fewer likes and showed that adolescent

EducationSocial Sciences
6
Article|62 citations·2018
Determining optimal parameters of the self-referent encoding task: A large-scale examination of self-referent cognition and depression.
Justin Dainer‐Best, Hae Yeon Lee, Jason Shumake, David S. Yeager, Christopher G. Beevers
SJR Q1Psychological AssessmentOA

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported online in <i>Psychological Assessment</i> on Aug 2 2018 (see record 2018-38659-001). In this article, there was an error in how exclusions for one of the three samples were reported, which resulted in inaccurate reporting of how many participants did not have complete data. This error did not change the primary results of the article or the conclusions. However, in the second paragraph of the Participant Attrition and Data Filtering se

Cognitive NeuroscienceNeuroscience
7
Article|54 citations·2018
An Entity Theory of Intelligence Predicts Higher Cortisol Levels When High School Grades Are Declining
Hae Yeon Lee, Jeremy P. Jamieson, Adriana S. Miu, Robert Josephs, David S. Yeager
SJR Q1Child DevelopmentOA

Grades often decline during the high school transition, creating stress. The present research integrates the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat with the implicit theories model to understand who shows maladaptive stress responses. A diary study measured declines in grades in the first few months of high school: salivary cortisol (N = 360 students, N = 3,045 observations) and daily stress appraisals (N = 499 students, N = 3,854 observations). Students who reported an entity theory of i

Behavioral NeuroscienceNeuroscience
8
Article|53 citations·2020
Stress, Sleep, and Coping Self-Efficacy in Adolescents
Maia ten Brink, Hae Yeon Lee, Rachel Manber, David S. Yeager, James J. Gross
SJR Q1Journal of Youth and AdolescenceOA
Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
9
Article|26 citations·2021
Trait attributions and threat appraisals explain why an entity theory of personality predicts greater internalizing symptoms during adolescence
Eunjin Seo, Hae Yeon Lee, Jeremy P. Jamieson, Harry T. Reis, Robert Josephs, Christopher G. Beevers, David S. Yeager
SJR Q1Development and PsychopathologyOA

Abstract Adolescents who hold an entity theory of personality – the belief that people cannot change – are more likely to report internalizing symptoms during the socially stressful transition to high school. It has been puzzling, however, why a cognitive belief about the potential for change predicts symptoms of an affective disorder. The present research integrated three models – implicit theories, hopelessness theories of depression, and the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat – to

Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
10
Article|20 citations·2020
Climbing up or falling down: Narcissism predicts physiological sensitivity to social status in children and their parents
Stathis Grapsas, Jaap J. A. Denissen, Hae Yeon Lee, Peter A. Bos, Eddie Brummelman
SJR Q1Developmental ScienceOA

Children's narcissism may be rooted in sensitivity to social status (i.e., prominence, respect, and influence in a social group), and this sensitivity might be shared with parents. Testing this idea, a randomized experiment examined how children with high narcissism levels and their parents respond to gains and losses of social status. On a simulated social media platform, children (N = 123, ages 8-13) competed with fictitious peers for status and were randomly assigned to gain or lose status. U

Clinical PsychologyPsychology
11
Article|16 citations·2022
Chemiluminescent immunoassay overestimates hormone concentrations and obscures testosterone sex differences relative to LC-MS/MS in a field study of diverse adolescents
Julia Chafkin, J. O’Brien, Fortunato N. Medrano, Hae Yeon Lee, David S. Yeager, Robert Josephs
SJR Q2Comprehensive PsychoneuroendocrinologyOA

Our findings show that CLIA introduces proportional bias in cortisol and testosterone in a manner that suppresses sex differences in testosterone. Steroid measurement method did not significantly moderate the relationship between hormones and psychopathology in our sample, though more work is needed to investigate this question in larger, clinical samples.

Behavioral NeuroscienceNeuroscience
12
Article|16 citations·2021
Changing Students’ Beliefs About Learning Can Unveil Their Potential
Paul A. O’Keefe, Hae Yeon Lee, Patricia Chen
SJR Q1Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Too often, students fall short of their potential. Although structural and cognitive factors can contribute to this underperformance, how students subjectively construe themselves and their educational contexts can also play significant roles. Social-psychological interventions can increase student motivation, resilience, and achievement by altering these construals. To provide general recommendations for their implementation, we focus on interventions that address common student concerns, which

Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
13
Article|15 citations·2021
Gonadal and adrenal hormones interact with pubertal maturation to predict depressive symptoms in a group of high-school females
Julia Chafkin, David S. Yeager, J. O’Brien, Hae Yeon Lee, Ciara McAfee, Robert Josephs
SJR Q1Development and PsychopathologyOA

Abstract Adolescent females are at elevated risk for the development of depression. In this study, we addressed two questions: Are pubertal hormones associated with adolescent mental health? Might this association depend on pubertal development? We tested the hypothesis that estradiol, which has been associated with adolescent social sensitivity, might interact with pubertal stage to predict depression risk at three time points in ninth and tenth grade. Hormones and pubertal development were mea

Behavioral NeuroscienceNeuroscience
14
Article|13 citations·2019
Adolescents with an entity theory of personality are more vigilant to social status and use relational aggression to maintain social status
Hae Yeon Lee, David S. Yeager
SJR Q1Social DevelopmentOA

Abstract The present research proposed that one social‐cognitive root of adolescents' willingness to use relational aggression to maintain social status in high school is an entity theory of personality , which is the belief that people's social status‐relevant traits are fixed and cannot change. Aggregated data from three studies ( N = 882) showed that first‐year high school adolescents in the United States who endorsed more of an entity theory were more likely to show cognitive and motivationa

Social PsychologyPsychology
15
Article|12 citations·2020
How School Contexts Shape the Relations Among Adolescents’ Beliefs, Peer Victimization, and Depressive Symptoms
Tessa M. L. Kaufman, Hae Yeon Lee, Aprile D. Benner, David S. Yeager
SJR Q1Journal of Research on AdolescenceOA

The present research examined how school contexts shape the extent to which beliefs about the potential for change (implicit theories) interact with social adversity to predict depressive symptoms. A preregistered multilevel regression analysis using data from 6,237 ninth-grade adolescents in 25 U.S. high schools showed a three-way interaction: Implicit theories moderated the associations between victimization and depressive symptoms only in schools with high levels of school-level victimization

Social PsychologyPsychology

Research Areas

Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyBehavioral NeuroscienceClinical PsychologySocial PsychologyEducationArtificial Intelligence

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