Professor of Psychology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Research Professor, Survey Research Center and Research Professor, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research

Biography
Dr. Smith is a lifespan developmental and experimental psychologist. Her research focuses on age- and health-related changes in subjective well-being, self-related beliefs, and cognition in midlife and old age and the effects of early-life experiences on late-life outcomes. She combines experimental laboratory studies with survey research to investigate questions about profiles of healthy aging and life quality in midlife, the young old, and the oldest-old. She is a Co-PI of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and PI of a project on experienced well-being in midlife and old age. She teaches courses on the psychology of aging, lifespan cognition, and theories of development across the lifespan.
Projects
Funded Research
- A Census-Enhanced Health and Retirement Study: A Proposal to Create and Analyze an HRS Dataset Enhanced with Characteristics of Employers
- Enhancing Retrospective Life History Data in the Health and Retirement Study
- Health and Retirement Study: Yrs 29-34
- Michigan Center for Contextual Factors in Alzheimer’s Disease (MCCFAD)
- Monitoring the Future: A Cohort-Sequential Panel Study of Drug Use, Ages 19-60
Publications
- Kraal, A Zarina, Dotterer, Hailey L, Sharifian, Neika, Morris, Emily P, Sol,Ketlyne, Zaheed, Afara B, Jacqui Smith, Zahodne,Laura Beth. 2021. Physical Activity in Early- and Mid-Adulthood Are Independently Associated With Longitudinal Memory Trajectories in Later Life. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A 76(8):1495-1503.