
personality development
to what extent is personality stable versus changing across the lifespan? how do people’s personalities change?
>> Atherton, O.E., Donnellan, M.B., & Robins, R.W. (2020). The development of personality across the lifespan. In P.J. Corr & G. Matthews (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology, 2nd ed (pp. 169-182). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

self-regulation
what is self-regulation? how does it develop? how do we cultivate more of it? when and why is it beneficial versus costly, and in what contexts?
>> Serrano, S., Atherton, O.E., Robins, R.W., & Damian, R.I. (in press). Whose self-control development suffers or benefits in the face of adversity? A longitudinal study of Mexican-origin youth followed from age 10 to 16. European Journal of Personality.

socio-structural contexts
which socio-structural factors predict personality and health across the lifespan? how, when, and why do socio-structural contexts interact with individual differences to impact health behavior and outcomes?

mental and physical health
to what extent is personality associated with mental and physical health across the life course? how, when, and why do these associations emerge? in what ways can we improve human health, wellbeing, and longevity?

quantitative methods
how can we study personality and health to build a more replicable and generalizable science? what does it mean to study psychological phenomena in the longterm – across weeks, months, years, decades, periods, and generations?
>> Atherton, O.E., Yang, Y.C., & Mroczek, D.K. (in prep). It’s time to integrate age-period-cohort analysis into psychological research.