Rate My Professor Cindy Berg

Cynthia Berg, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah, specializing in developmental psychology and health psychology. She earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Washington in 1981, magna cum laude with distinction, followed by an M.S., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Yale University in 1984, 1985, and 1987, respectively. Berg joined the University of Utah in 1986 as an instructor, advancing to assistant professor from 1987 to 1992, associate professor from 1992, full professor in 2001, and distinguished professor in 2018. She chaired the Department of Psychology from 2008 to 2011 and served as interim dean from 2013 to 2014 and dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Science from 2014 to 2022. Her research examines life-span developmental health psychology, focusing on how parents, spouses, friends, and romantic partners facilitate or hinder chronic illness management, particularly type 1 and type 2 diabetes and cancer, across adolescence, emerging adulthood, and adulthood. She has developed models of parent-child coordination and collaborative coping, utilizing dyadic and dynamical systems approaches to study self- and social-regulation processes.

Berg has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications, including the influential 'A developmental-contextual model of couples coping with chronic illness across the adult life span' (Psychological Bulletin, 2007) and 'Children’s appraisals of maternal involvement in coping with diabetes' (2005). As principal investigator, she has obtained more than $14 million in funding, primarily from the National Institutes of Health. Her contributions have earned the University of Utah's Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence in 2024, its highest faculty award; the Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award in 2016; the Lifetime Achievement Award and Innovations Award from the Society of Behavioral Medicine in 2022; fellowships from the Society of Behavioral Medicine, Gerontological Society of America, and American Psychological Association Division 20; and the Irwin Altman Award for research, teaching, mentoring, and service in 2012. Berg has served on editorial boards for journals such as Health Psychology, Psychology and Aging, and Journal of Pediatric Psychology, and held roles including Director of Graduate Studies in 2024-2025.