Colin DeYoung
Lab Director and Principal Investigator (PI)
I am interested in the development of explanatory models of personality traits as reflections of psychological and biological parameters within an evolved adaptive system. Personality is conceived broadly as encompassing all reasonably stable individual differences in emotion, motivation, cognition, and behavior. My Cybernetic Big Five Theory attempts to provide a unifying theory for personality psychology and personality neuroscience, as well as psychopathology and well-being.
Graduate Students
Beatrice Grund
Beatrice is passionate about incorporating digital health and digital wellness into clinical psychology, and her research centers around forms of technology addiction, like problematic use of the Internet, video games, social media, and other platforms accessed through screen devices. Beatrice investigates predictors of problematic technology use and similarities between technology addiction and other forms of addiction. Through researching potentially addictive features of novel technologies, Beatrice hopes to increase conversation surrounding the impact of personal technology on mental health.
Edward Chou
Edward is a generalist who has found refuge in the field of personality psychology. His research interests include applied psychometrics, the structure and processes of traits beyond the Big Five (e.g., Aspects, Metatraits), as well as idiographic approaches to personality (e.g., psychotherapy, life stories).
Andrew Buonaccorsi
Andrew is interested in studying genetic influences on personality, intelligence, and political/religious views using both quantitative and molecular methods. His current research interests focus especially on biological and genetic factors that are shared by general intelligence and the Big Five.
Allison Dai
Allison's research interests focus on 1) examining the neurobehavioral systems underlying normal and maladaptive personality traits, 2) understanding the interplay between personality traits and psychopathology as well as environmental factors that influence personality-psychopathology dynamics. Additionally, she is interested in developing instruments for assessing psychopathology within a dimensional and cybernetic framework.
Hannah Asis
Hannah is devoted to investigating the link between personality and psychopathology. Her experiences as a public health educator and enrichment director enhanced her curiosity about individual differences' neurobiological, cognitive, and affective manifestations and their roles in shaping mental and physical health. Research on these issues may explicate the mechanisms of psychopathology. For this reason, Hannah is invested in supporting the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology. In addition, Hannah is deeply interested in mental illness conceptualizations, Big 5 trait interactions, and the public dissemination of personality and clinical science.
Magdalena March
Magdalena is interested in all things human well-being. Her goal is to design a therapy program which addresses personality traits and characteristic adaptations to maximize the balance between responsibility, acceptance, action, and compassion for the self (currently called Moicism; she is open to recommendations for a better name). She is also pursuing a Master's in human sexuality, as she believes sexual health is an integral facet of well-being. When she is not busy reading "Value fulfillment from a cybernetic perspective: A new psychological theory of well-being," she is most likely doing neuroscientific research to analyze the neural underpinnings of personality.
Tyler Sassenberg
Tyler is a NIDA T32 postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology. Tyler's research interests are in the structure of personality, including the links between normative and pathological trait variation, as well as the underlying neural mechanisms of personality and psychopathology. Specifically, Tyler's research explores associations of traits related to higher-order cognition, including intelligence and psychosis-proneness, with brain connectivity using fMRI. Tyler is also interested in understanding associations between personality, psychopathology, development, and brain organization through cybernetic and predictive processing frameworks.
Matt is a software engineer at Mearas Technologies Inc.
Aisha is an Academic Writing Advisor for Shemmassian Academic Consulting
Scott is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at Ohio State University
Frank is a Research Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University in the Department of Family, Population, and Preventative Medicine.
Amanda is the Program Manager of the ALS Clinical and Research Program at the University of Minnesota.
Alex Rautu
Alex is interested broadly in the cognitive, motivational and neural processes underlying personality traits, with a particular focus on traits related to Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience.
Tim is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.
Sooyeon is an Assistant Professor at Kyung Hee University.
Rachael is an Associate Research Scientist in Psychiatry at Yale University.
Claudia is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at City St. George's University of London.
Rachel is a Faculty Associate at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
Steven is an Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Southern Denmark.
Yanna is a Professor in Psychology at Linfield College in Oregon.