Emorie D Beck, PhD

Dr. Beck's research focuses around the question of what personality is. Definitions have big consequences for how we measure personality, what those measures predict both short- and long-term, how personality is thought to change, and more. One way of doing this is to focus on different levels of aggregation. Thus, she studies how to understand the personality of an individual relative to only themself, relative to some others, and relative to all others. To do so, she uses a mix of methods, including experience sampling methods, passive sensing, survey data, panel data, cognitive tests, and more measured across time intervals from moments to years along with an array of statistical approaches, including time series analysis, multilevel / hierarchical modeling, machine learning, network psychometrics, structural equation modeling, and more. For example, Dr. Beck has been working to build personalized machine learning prediction of behaviors, experiences, and more, finding that we can predict behaviors and experiences better when we don't assume that people have the same antecedents of the behaviors and experiences. Instead, people have unique antecedents, which could have consequences for how to change or intervene upon behaviors and experiences. In other work, Dr. Beck uses longitudinal panel data across multiple continents to answer questions about what personality traits predict over time. For example, she recently examined personality trait and well-being predictors of later dementia diagnoses and neuropathology measures after death, finding that personality traits are strong predictors of dementia diagnosis but have a much more complex relationship with neuropathology measures.

Beck, E. D., Cheung, F., Thapa, S., and Jackson, J. J. (in press). A network approach to top down and bottom life satisfaction. Nature Human Behavior. https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3074181/v1 Nissen, A. T., & Beck, E. D. (2025). Linking person-specific network parameters to between-person trait change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/pvubn_v1