Individual differences
Differential Psychology explores the ways in which people differ from one another, alongside their measurement, causes and consequences.
World leading work in Edinburgh focuses on a broad range of topics, including lifelong personality development, measurement and links with important life outcomes; cognitive abilities (intelligence) alongside their change (including ageing) and links with life outcomes; psychopathology; primate psychology; and positive psychology.
Research is published in prestigious journals, often in collaboration with graduate students.
The work involves a wide range of techniques, including reanalysing data from existing large databases, large-scale data collections, multinational collaborations and advanced statistical modelling. Graduate students can take part in vibrant journal clubs and join a large research community with links across many countries.
People
Staff working in this area include:
Research interests | ||
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Programme Director |
Personality development in childhood and later life, computational modelling of person-environment transactions, within-individual variability of personality and its associations with situational circumstances and specific behaviours, and psychometrics. |
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Genetics, Cognitive epidemiology, Cognitive potential, Personality, Group behavior, Dyslexia, Language impairment. | |
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Dr Tom Booth | Individual Differences, Health & Quantitative Methods. |
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Professor Wendy Johnson | Individual differences: the structure of intelligence and personality, life-span development of intelligence and personality, health and ageing, genetic and environmental transactions and their influence on behaviour, intelligence, and personality. |
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Dr Michelle Luciano | Environmental and genetic factors contributing to cognition, personality and mood. |
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Dr Aja Murray | Developmental aspects of mental health phenotypes and their comorbidity: in particular, ADHD, autism, and conduct problems; quantitative methodology. |
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Professor Caroline Watt | Replication and methodological issues in parapsychology. |
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Dr Alexander Weiss | Personality and subjective well-being in humans, nonhuman primates, and other animals; the evolution of personality and subjective well-being; ageing and development; behaviour genetics; differential epidemiology; quantitative methods. |
Recent/current PhD topics in this area
- Cognitive ageing
- The Biology of Coalition Affiliation
- Depression and personality
- Early effects on final Social Status
- Primate personality
- Symmetry, cognition, and health
- The genetics of human language
- PositivePsychology: The Good life (Eudaimonia) and Hedonic Wellbeing
- Modelling the effects of education
Contact
Administrative questions should be directed to the Programme Secretary, Katie Keltie.
To discuss academic matters, contact the Programme Director, Rene Mottus.