His research clarifies the structure and mechanisms of psychopathology, and he is working to incorporate a better understanding of disrupted mechanisms into the diagnosis of mental disorders. He studies personality disorders longitudinally, how clinicians conceptualize and diagnose mental disorders, and he is helping to develop a framework to guide psychopathology research. Professor Sanislow's teaching includes psychopathology and the ways that stress and trauma affect psychological and brain function. In his lab, students learn research methods to study alterations in cognitive and neural mechanisms, and how those alterations relate to symptom patterns.