Senior Investigator, Lady Davis Institute
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, McGill University
Associate Member of Psychology, McGill University
David Dunkley, Ph.D., is a Senior Investigator with the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Member of Psychology at McGill. He was trained in clinical psychology at McGill University, receiving his Ph.D. in 2001. He then pursued postdoctoral training in longitudinal diagnostic assessment of psychiatric disorders at Yale University from 2001-2003, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in psychotherapy studies in depression at the Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry at the Jewish General Hospital (ICFP-JGH) from 2003-2004. The primary goal of Dr. Dunkley’s research has been to examine the mechanisms through which perfectionism is a personality vulnerability factor to depression. He has received numerous fellowships and investigator awards, obtained grants from federal and provincial agencies, and has published several articles in respected journals using structural equation modeling/path analysis and multilevel modeling as the primary data analytic techniques. In 2005, he received the Canadian Psychological Association President’s New Researcher Award.
Major Research Activities
The primary goal of Dr. Dunkley’s research has been to examine the mechanisms through which perfectionism is a cognitive-personality vulnerability factor to depression. His research examines stress and coping processes that might explain why perfectionism instigates and/or maintains depressive symptoms in nonclinical community adults and depressed patients. His recent research also incorporates hyperactivity of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis (i.e., cortisol secretion) as an additional explanatory stress variable. The findings of his research have highlighted influential instigating and maintaining processes and contribute to identifying specific targets for prevention efforts and improvement of existing clinical interventions for depressed patients. Given the debilitating effects of depression, this research is an important step toward improved quality of life and mental health services of affected individuals.
Recent Publication
Dunkley, D. M., Berg, J., & Zuroff, D. C. (2012). The role of self-critical perfectionism in daily self-esteem, attachment, and affect. Journal of Personality, 80, 633-663.
Dunkley, D. M., Blankstein, K. R., & Berg, J. (2012). Perfectionism dimensions and the five-factor model of personality. European Journal of Personality, 26, 233-244.
Dunkley, D. M., Schwartzman, D. E., Looper, K. J., Pierre, A., Sigal, J. J. & Kotowycz, M. A. (2012). Perfectionism dimensions and dependency in relation to personality vulnerability and psychosocial adjustment in patients with coronary artery disease. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 19, 211-223.