Areas of Study and Research - Social/Personality

For centuries social scientists have known that a full understanding of human social behavior can be attained only when psychological processes are examined at three levels: (1) the individual level; (2) the contextual level (or social level); and (3) the interaction of the individual and contextual levels. In line with this classic recognition, our graduate program is uniquely positioned with the combined expertise and motivation to substantially address all three levels of analysis vital to fully understanding human psychology. The Social/Personality Program at MU is distinctive because it embraces - in its research approaches and interests, as well as its graduate training - this multifaceted view of social behavior, and therefore has distinguished itself nationally.

Particular research foci in the area include the sources of motivation, both individual and social; the nature of meaning-making, both existential and interpersonal; the determinants of optimal group functioning, both within and between groups; the causes of psychological well-being, as well as its effects; and understanding the interplay of automatic and controlled modes of cognition in determining evaluation, behavior, and neurological activity.

The area is further integrated into the Department of Psychological Sciences by informing broader traditions of research in psychology, including cognition, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, developmental trajectories, addictive behaviors, and health psychology. The Social/Personality Program has situated itself at the rich nexus of research integrating the psychology of the person and the situation, with the goal of understanding the psychological processes that underlie people's emotions, motivations, beliefs, and actions.

This page provides information about opportunities unique to the Social/Personality area. To learn about other issues, such as financial aid, general program of study, or graduate-student life, please visit the section for prospective graduate students.

Social/Personality Area Faculty

Faculty	Lab	Research Interests
Jamie Arndt	Social Lab	existential dynamics; self-esteem processes; psychological defense; health; creativity; nostalgia; more information on Terror Management Theory
Bruce Bartholow	Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab	person perception (e.g., expectancies, stereotyping); aggression; correlates and consequences of alcohol use and abuse
Ann Bettencourt	Social Identity Lab	intergroup processes; social identity and well-being; stigma
Lynne Cooper	Adolescent and Young Adult Health Risk Lab	personality and personality processes; motivation; dyadic influences on mental health adjustment and risk-taking (e.g., heavy drinking, risky sexual behaviors)
Laura King	Personality Dynamics Lab	personality psychology; well-being; motivation; meaning in life; narrative approaches to personality and identity; positive psychology and the good life
B.J. Rydell	Social Cognition Lab	attitude formation and change; impression formation; self-concept organization; stereotype threat
Ken Sheldon	Sheldon Motivation Lab	motivation; goals; well-being; positive psychology

Research Opportunities

The Social/Personality training area at the University of Missouri represents a unique and vibrant collection of active scholars. This energetic community provides the basis for collaborative endeavors among faculty and students, with the goal of making groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of human behavior. An important strength of the area is the broad range of questions and topics that our research addresses. Importantly, students interested in these topics are exposed to a broad range of sophisticated empirical and quantitative methods ranging from laboratory experimentation to narrative analysis to everyday experience (or diary) methods to longitudinal designs. Further, the area is uniquely positioned to bring rigorous research to bear on a variety of applied questions in the areas of health and risk-taking, well-being, and intergroup relations.

The program subscribes to an "apprenticeship" model of training in which students work closely with a primary advisor or mentor on research of mutual interest. From the first year, students are actively involved in their advisors ongoing research program. The exact nature of this involvement is determined by the interests and needs of both parties, and may entail attending research meetings, designing research studies, running subjects, analyzing data, and/or writing research reports. All students and faculty attend a weekly social seminar in which students present their research, and students and faculty discuss a variety of topics of interest to social and personality psychologists. The hands-on research experience coupled with coursework and other program requirements (see the Graduate Student Handbook and the Supplement to the Graduate Student Handbook for Social/Personality Students for more information) provides students with a firm grounding in the theory and methods of social/personality psychology, as well as the skills to conduct and publish their own research. Armed with such skills, a number of our recent PhD's have gone on to become established research scholars in their own right. Other students have launched successful careers in more applied settings such as personnel and marketing research, consulting, administration, post-secondary education, and government.

Facilities and Resources

In addition to state-of-the-art facilities and resources offered by the department and the university, the Social/Personality Psychology program maintains its own library within McAlester Hall, which contains many classic works as well as current and previous issues of the most prominent social/personality psychology journals. The Social/Personality program also maintains diverse laboratory facilities amenable to a wide variety of experimental and nonexperimental research paradigms, including psychophysiological work, reaction time and other cognitive paradigms, and group experiments.

Financial Support

In addition to graduate teaching assistantships and fellowships, financial support is available in the form of research assistantships on specific research projects conducted by faculty members of the Social/Personality Psychology Training Program. Social/Personality faculty have multimillion dollar state and federal grants.

All students in good standing are guaranteed four years of financial support. Because of the large number of grant-funded projects our faculty has, students routinely receive support beyond the 4th year and during the summers as well. See the Graduate Program for more information.

Affiliated Faculty

Social/Personality Area Updates

Bruce Bartholow received the 2007 Award for Distinguished Early Career Contribution to Psychophysiology from the Society for Psychophysiological Research for his work examining the neural mechanisms of social cognition

Ken Sheldon's work, appearing in the “Journal of Happiness Studies” (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006), was named the best paper of 2006 by the International Society for Quality of Life Studies

Social/Personality Area Meeting Fall 2008

Coming in August

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Department of Psychological Sciences 210 McAlester Hall Columbia, MO 65211-2500 phone: 573-882-6860 fax: 573-882-7710 email: SkylesB@missouri.edu Graduate Program: 573-882-0838 or gradpsych@missouri.edu