Ongoing Research Projects
Volunteerism: This project investigates motivational foundations of volunteerism and prosocial behaviors (Snyder).
Interpersonal orientations: This project is concerned with the moderating role of self-monitoring processes in the relations between personality/attitudes and behaviors (Snyder).
Externalizing spectrum: This project focuses on modeling behaviors and traits that reflect a broad class of individual differences in impulsivity, aggression, antisocial behavior, and drug and alcohol problems (Krueger and Patrick).
Psychopathic personality: Research in the area of psychopathy focuses on biobehavioral underpinnings of psychopathy and models of psychopathic personality traits (Patrick and Krueger).
Genes, environments, personality, and their consequences: Research on behavioral genetics and personality focuses on the ways in which genetic and environmental contributions to personality are connected to consequences in the population at large (e.g., health behaviors; Krueger).
Biobehavioral bases of individual differences in emotion: Focuses on underlying brain systems involved in processing and reacting to emotional stimuli (Patrick).
Individual and group performance in extreme environments: Focuses on the identification of the optimal personality traits of individuals and of the specific group for crew selection for long-duration missions including Mars exploration. A further area of space-related research is the general area of human protection, particularly examination of the interaction of thermal physiological processes and subjective perception of comfort in the advanced design of protective clothing for astronauts engaged in extravehicular activities. Another area of interest involves the development of policy and response guidelines regarding psychosocial support in the case of large-scale disasters. Laboratory link (Leon).