University of North Texas 
Adriel Boals
Psychology
Behavioral Science
Professor
Office: Terrill Hall-363
Education
North Carolina State University - Raleigh, North Carolina (2002)
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Duke University - Durham, North Carolina (2002-2006)
Background & Research Interests
Dr. Boals is a Professor who has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals
and is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. He completed a BS in
Psychology from the University of Florida in 1995, a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from
North Carolina State University in 2002, and completed a Post-Doc in Cognitive Psychology
at Duke University. His primary research interest is coping with trauma, with an emphasis
on autobiographical memory. In his earlier years, he focused predictors of PTSD, with
an emphasis on autobiographical memory. More recently he has focused more on posttraumatic
growth (the idea that some trauma survivors grow in important ways as a result of
going through adversarial events), and specifically attempting to distinguish genuine
posttraumatic growth from illusory posttraumatic growth. Throughout his career, Dr.
Boals has a continuous research thread of an emphasis on various coping strategies
trauma survivors engage in and its subsequent impact on mental and physical well-being.
Dr. Boals served as Program Director of the Behavioral Science PhD Program for 14 years and has chaired 16 students to a PhD, 4 students to a MS, 15 undergraduate theses, and 8 McNair Scholars.