Lab Members
Lab Director
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
Graduate Students
Tyler Sassenberg
Tyler is interested in understanding the neurobiological, affective, and behavioral mechanisms that influence different personality traits. His particular research interests include exploring the nature of traits Extraversion and Openness/Intellect through different psychometric and neuroimaging methods.
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).
Matthew Rogers
Matt is interested in studying the neurobiological mechanisms underlying different personality traits. In particular, he is interested in traits normally associated with autism spectrum disorder and how they might be incorporated into a cybernetic theory of personality. His other interests include modeling the neural circuitry of the hippocampus and simulating agents as generative models within a Markov decision process (MDP) framework.
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.
Postdoctoral Fellows
(None currently)
Lab Alumni/ae
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 a Research Project Specialist in the Medical School Research Office 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.
Rachael is an Associate Research Scientist in Psychiatry at Yale University.
Claudia is Research Director at Kantar Public.
Rachel is an Adjunct Professor 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.