Department of Educational Psychology

My research focuses on three distinct lines of inquiry in stress and coping: (a) wellness and health psychology, (b) identification of psychological resources that can help prevent stress, and (c) extending basic research on stress and coping to educational settings, particularly in understanding the stress that educators and counselors experience.

Ph. D.         August 1995      Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia

M.A.           May 1990           Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 

B.A.            May 1988           University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia

McCarthy, C.J., Lambert, R.G.,  & Ullrich, A. (Eds.) (in progress). International perspectives on teacher stress. Greenwich, Connecticut: Information Age Publishing, Inc. 

McCarthy, C.J., Lambert, R.G., Crowe, R. W., & McCarthy, C.J. (2010) Coping, Stress, and Job Satisfaction as Predictors of Advanced Placement Statistics Teachers’ Intention to Leave the Field.  NASSP Bulletin, 94, 306-326.

McCarthy, C. J., Kerne, Valerie, V. H., Calfa, N., Lambert, R. G., & Guzmán, M. (2010).  An exploration of school counselors’ demands and resources: Relationship to stress, biographic, and caseload characteristics.  Professional School Counselor, 13, 146-158.  

Westheimer, J., Capello, J., McCarthy, C. J., & Denny, N.  (2009). Employing a group medical intervention for hypertensive male veterans: An exploratory analysis.  The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 151-174.  

McCarthy, C., Lambert, R., O’Donnell, M. & Melendres, L. (2009). The relation of elementary teachers’ experience, stress, and coping resources to burnout symptoms. The Elementary School Journal, 109, 1-19.

Archer, J., Jr., & McCarthy, C. J.  (2006).  Counseling theories: Contemporary applications and approaches.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.   

Lambert, R. G., & McCarthy, C. J. (Eds.).  (2006).  Understanding teacher stress in an era of accountability.  (Vol. III).  Greenwich, Connecticut: Information Age Publishing, Inc. 

• President’s Award, 2007-2008, Association for Specialists in Group Work
• Dean’s Fellow, Spring, 2007, College of Education, University of Texas at Austin

My research group includes graduate students in the counseling program at the University of Texas at Austin. Most are doctoral students in the Counseling Psychology program, but graduate students in other areas of study are welcome to contact me if interested. We are also very open to including undergraduate students who might be interested in our research.

We have a number of current projects which are ongoing. My primary interest at this point is better understanding the stress that educators and counselors face in their daily work. Along with colleagues at UT and other institutions, I have completed several international data collections of school teachers ranging from preschool to high school as well as counselors in the state of Texas. Our primary goal is to better understand teacher and counselor perceptions of daily demands and the resources they have to meet challenges in their environment.

Graduate students working with me have developed research projects in a number of different areas that fall within the scope of reserch on stress and coping. These projects includes better understanding parental attachment as a coping resource, assessing the role of religion and spirituality in wellness, identification of wellness factors in counselor trainees, factors which make athletes vulnerable to stress, and understanding risk factors for children and adolescents.

(a) wellness and health psychology, (b) identification of psychological resources that can help prevent stress, and (c) extending basic research on stress and coping to educational settings, particularly in understanding the stress that educators and counselors experience.

• Editor-in-Chief, Journal for Specialists in Group Work. 
• Editorial Board Member, International Journal of Stress Management. 
• Editorial Board Member, Journal of Counseling and Development,
• Contributing Editor, The Journal of Individual Psychology.