
Sheri Johnson on Emotion and Bipolar Disorder
Sheri Johnson of U.C. Berkeley discusses her research on emotion and bipolar disorder with June Gruber of Yale University, in an installment of the Experts in Emotion interview series. Johnson traces what drew her to the topic before spending the bulk of the conversation, roughly thirteen minutes, on the core findings of her work, including how heightened reward sensitivity and emotional reactivity shape manic and depressive episodes. She closes by naming the questions she considers most promising for future research and offering practical advice to students who want to enter the field. The format is a straightforward sit-down interview with chapter markers, produced by Yale's Broadcasting and Media Center, with no slides or supplementary footage beyond the two speakers talking. It works less as a formal course lecture than as a researcher's first-person account of her own findings and career, aimed at students curious about clinical psychology.