The Personality Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire
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Present Activities

The laboratory activities at present are focused on several areas:

• Continued conceptual development of the systems framework for personality -- a new approach for organizing much of the work in the disicipline of personlaity psychology in a logical and integrated fashion. The systems framework divides the study of personality into four basic areas:
  1. How is personality defined?
  2. What are its parts?
  3. How is personality organized?
  4. How does personality develop?
  Our current conceptual work involves applying the systems framework and its offshoots into such areas as psychodiagnosis and clinical work. More detail on the systems framework can be found at this website.

• Research in hot intelligences, particularly emotional intelligence. These intelligences are useful for understanding how well personality functions. Personality is an individual's master psychological system -- his or her guidance system. Hot intelligences concern a person's capacity to understand personally-relevant information (e.g., emotions, self-esteem, social identity) and how it impacts one's life. An individual acts on his or her self-conception. People with high levels of hot intelligence are better able to use relevant information about themselves and others to guide themselves through life. For the latest research on emotional intelligence, for example, see this website.

• New, exploratory, and one-time studies. The third area of research consists of off-shoots of people's specific interests, or attempts to begin new areas of research. Recently, it has included such work as a review of motivation and interests in archetypes, and general works on personality psychology. See recent publications for examples.

Our directions change as new members join the laboratory and bring their own talents and interests to it.