Bob Krueger Hathaway Distinguished Professor N414 Elliott, 612-626-8541 krueg038@umn.edu Education Education: PhD, University of Wisconsin, 1996

Statement of Interests

Psychopathology and related behavioral problems such as substance use disorders have enormous social costs.  The goal of our work is to reduce the burden these problems place on society by working to understand why some people experience psychopathology, while others remain resilient.  A key thread running throughout this work relates to the development of empirically-based models of the individual difference domains that underlie tendencies to develop psychopathology. 

Historically, psychopathological syndromes and rubrics for grouping them have been delineated based primarily on expert opinion.  In contrast, our aim is to model psychopathology empirically, based on data.  In the process of pursuing this goal, we work to develop and implement quantitative models that can help adjudicate among different accounts of psychopathology.  For example, psychopathological variation has typically been assumed to be categorical in nature.  In our approach, we treat this assumption as a hypothesis to be tested by modeling relevant data, as opposed to something we can simply assume by fiat.  We also work to try to bring this perspective to bear on official classification systems (e.g., Krueger is involved in the development of DSM 5.0).

In working to understand and model individual differences in psychopathological tendencies and where they come from, we pursue connections with a variety of areas, most notably personality psychology, personality disorders research, and human quantitative and molecular genetics. We welcome inquiries from prospective undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-docs interested in joining us in our research.

Selected Publications (* denotes a current graduate student in our lab)

Krueger, R. F. (1999). The structure of common mental disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, 921-926.

Krueger, R. F., Hicks, B. M., Patrick, C. J., Carlson, S. R., Iacono, W. G., & McGue, M. (2002). Etiologic connections among substance dependence, antisocial behavior, and personality: Modeling the externalizing spectrum. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 411-424.

Krueger, R. F., & Markon, K. E. (2006). Reinterpreting comorbidity: A model-based approach to understanding and classifying psychopathology. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2, 111-133.

Krueger, R. F., Markon, K. E., Patrick, C. J., Benning, S. D., & Kramer, M. (2007). Linking antisocial behavior, substance use, and personality: An integrative quantitative model of the adult externalizing spectrum. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 645-666.

Krueger, R. F., & *Eaton, N. (2010). Personality traits and the classification of mental disorders: Toward a more complete integration in DSM 5 and an empirical model of psychopathology.  Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 1, 97-118.

Krueger, R. F., Eaton, N. R., Clark, L. A., Watson, D., Markon, K. E., Derringer, J., Skodol, A., & Livesley, W. J. (2011). Deriving an empirical structure of personality pathology for DSM-5. Journal of Personality Disorders, 25, 170-191.

*Derringer, J., Krueger, R. F., Irons, D. E., & Iacono, W. G. (2010). Harsh discipline, childhood sexual assault, and MAOA genotype: An investigation of main and interactive effects on diverse clinical externalizing outcomes. Behavior Genetics, 40, 639-648.

*Eaton, N. R., Keyes, K. M., Krueger, R. F., Balsis, S., Skodol, A. E., Markon, K. W., Grant, B. F., & Hasin, D. S. (in press). An invariant dimensional liability model of gender differences in mental disorder prevalence: Evidence from a national sample. Journal of Abnormal Psychology.