Elizabeth "Birdie" Shirtcliff, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
(2003, Pennsylvania State University)
Click here for Dr. Shirtcliff's lab and clinic info
Research Interests
A west coast native, Dr. Elizabeth (Birdie) Shirtcliff graduated with honors in psychology from the University of Oregon in 1998, already destined to work with saliva. After moving across the country, she received her PhD in Biobehavioral Health from Penn State in 2003, concurrently working in the Behavioral Endocrinology Laboratory and Salimetrics. Dr. Shirtcliff travelled north to Wisconsin, where she completed extensive post-doctoral training in Affective Neuroscience and biological and behavioral approaches to typical and atypical development.
Dr. Shirtcliff uses a variety of noninvasive tools to investigate psychobiological development. In addition to cortisol, other biological measures that are responsive to the social environment are regularly examined, including testosterone, estradiol and dihydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) as well as measures of immune competence. Dr. Shirtcliff conducts interdisciplinary research that examines both short term responses to stressors such as laboratory challenges, as well as changes that are not necessarily temporary but can consistently or even permanently change an individual’s biology.
Dr. Shirtcliff’s focus is on hormones because the endocrine system is stress responsive, often mirroring an individual’s social environment. The developmental focus is on adolescence because it represents a period of intensification, where many maturational processes that took place earlier in development coalesce.
In 2008, Dr. Shirtcliff joined the UNO psychology department faculty and moved south to New Orleans with her husband, father, two sons, four dogs, cat, and two turtles. Dr. Shirtcliff maintains the Stress Physiology In Teens (SPIT) laboratory. To learn more about the SPIT lab or to discover why she’s called Birdie, visit her laboratory page.Selected Publications
Shirtcliff, E.A., Vitacco, M.J., Graf, A., Gostisha, A., Merz, J.L., Zahn-Waxler, C. (2009). Neurobiology of Empathy and Callousness: Implications for the Development of Antisocial Behavior. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 27, 1-35.
Shirtcliff, E.A., Coe, C.L., Pollak, S.D. (2009). Early Childhood Stress is Associated with Elevated Antibody Levels to Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Shirtcliff, E. A., Essex, M. J. (2008). Concurrent and Longitudinal Associations of Basal and Diurnal Cortisol with Mental Health Symptoms in Early Adolescence. Developmental Psychobiology, 50, 691-703.
Wismer-Fries, A., Shirtcliff, E. A., Pollak, S. D., (2008). Neuroendocrine dysregulation following early social deprivation in children, Developmental Psychobiology, 50, 588-599.
Shirtcliff, E. A., Dahl, R. E., Pollak, S. D., (2009). Pubertal Development: Correspondence between hormonal and physical development. Child Development, 80, 327–337.
Shirtcliff, E. A., Zahn-Waxler, C., Klimes-Dougan, B, & Slattery, M. J. (2007). Salivary dehydroepiandrosterone responsiveness to social challenge in adolescents with internalizing problems, The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48 (6), 580-591.
Shirtcliff, E. A., Granger, D. A., Booth, A., & Johnson, D. (2005). Low salivary cortisol levels and externalizing behavior problems in youth. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 167-184.
Granger, D. A., Shirtcliff, E. A., Zahn-Waxler, C., Usher, B., Klimes-Dougan, B., & Hastings, P. (2003). Salivary testosterone diurnal variation and psychopathology in adolescent males and females: individual differences and developmental effects. Development and Psychopathology, 15(2), 431-449.
Revised 9/8/09