Dr. Matthew Nock

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults, yet there are no clear answers to what compels people to take their lives. It’s a question that drives the research of Harvard University psychologist Matthew K. Nock, PhD, who began studying the topic as a Yale clinical psychology doctoral student.

For the past two years, Nock and his research team have been using electronic diaries and portable heart rate monitors to gauge people’s emotional and physical states before, during and after self-injury episodes. So far, his findings support what many people struggling with self-injury have noted for years — that self-harming soothes them.  Data show that there is increased arousal right before self-injury, and a huge decrease right after.

Professor Nock received his Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University (2003) and completed his clinical internship at Bellevue Hospital and the New York University Child Study Center (2003). Nock has been a consultant/scientific advisor to the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Survey Initiative, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Childhood and Adolescent Disorder Work Group. At Harvard, Professor Nock teaches courses on statistics, research methods, self-destructive behaviors, developmental psychopathology, and cultural diversity.