He is a member of the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon and adjunct professor of Psychiatry and of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Cohen's work focuses on the roles of stress, emotions, social support systems and personality[5] in health and well-being.
[14][15][16][17] With colleagues he has developed a number of scales assessing psychological and social variables including the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Interpersonal Support Evaluation Scale (ISEL), the Social Network Index (SNI), the Partner Interaction Questionnaire (PIQ) and the Cohen-Hoberman Inventory of Physical Symptoms (CHIPS).
[26][27][28] This work attempts to identify the neuroendocrine, immune,[29] and behavioral[30][31][32][33] pathways that link stress, personality,[34][35][36] and social networks to disease susceptibility.
[37][38][39] He is also involved in studies of the effects of psychosocial factors on the onset and progression of asthma, and on the effectiveness of social support interventions in facilitating psychological adjustment and disease progression in women with breast cancer.