Psychopathology
The research group is interested in investigating the cognitive, behavioural and emotional mechanisms underlining obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, and eating disorders. Recently, research has focused on specific disorders such as Obsessive-compulsive Disorder, Trichotillomania, Body Dismorphic Disorder, Hoarding Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Orthorexia Nervosa. Studies on underlying mechanisms mainly investigate phenomena such as Intolerance of Uncertainty, Not Just Right Experiences, and Emotional Regulation. Research in this field is carried on by means of several tools, i.e. self-report measures, semi-structured interviews and experimental inductions.
The final goal of our research activity is developing, implementing, and testing innovative and evidence-based psychological interventions, taking into account both current international literature and evidence emerging form the Italian context. Usually, in the first phases our studies mainly involve non-clinical individuals. Indeed, one of the main objectives of our research activity is studying the vulnerability/risk factors for the development of psychopathologies and testing new models on non-clinical populations allows proving evidence on a dimensional perspective. In the more advanced phases, our research is carried out on clinical samples in order to expand the knowledge already gained on non-clinical individuals.
The research activity focusing on clinical individuals is usually carried out in the University psychological services or in collaboration with private and public clinics.

Development of self-report measures
The research group is interested in developing and validating self-report measures assessing the phenomenological and psychological features characterizing different mental disorders. This is pursued in two main ways: 1) by adapting self-report measures considered as international gold standards and already validated in foreign countries; 2) by developing ad hoc instruments integrating evidence belonging to the international literature and the peculiarities of the Italian context. Indeed, the cross-cultural validity is a relevant issue in Clinical psychology since individuals from different cultures may be characterized by different ways of experiencing and manifesting emotional symptoms. The main aim of this research activity is therefore producing valid and reliable instruments in order both to conduct more rigorous research in the Clinical psychology field and provide Italian clinicians with accurate symptom measures, capable of detecting important information that will help them in both the assessment and the treatment phases.

Sport Psychology
The research group has recently begun to show interest towards the Sport psychology field. Psychological assessment is an essential phase also when dealing with athletes: to be adequate, it has to provide information pertaining personal abilities, psychological distress, vulnerability factors, and special needs of each athlete.
The main aim of the research activity conducted by the research group is validating a new version of the Cognitive Behavioral Assessment for Sport (CBA Sport; Vidotto, Turchi, Salvini, Appoloia, & Iacopozzi, 2002), a battery of questionnaires intended to assess several areas such as: 1) constructs demonstrated to play a crucial role in the management of the performance (for example, anxiety, anger, motivation); 2) interactions between the team members and coach-athletes relationships; c) personality features potentially influencing performance, dropout and recovery after injuries (for example, hardiness, resilience, coping).
Notably, availing of a valid and reliable assessment battery, also in this field, will help the professional in Sport psychology while planning and implementing targeted interventions mainly aiming to enhance the performance and increasing sport adherence and motivation. Moreover, the efficacy of specific psychological interventions intending to improve emotions regulations strategies, the management of group dynamics, and preventing the possible manifestation of clinical symptoms could be tested by means of the administration of the CBA Sport before and after the interventions.