The First World Conference on Personality

Boele de Raad

Boele de Raad With great pleasure, we announce the first World Conference on Personality, to be held in Stellenbosch (near Cape Town) South Africa, March 19-23, 2013. Discussions over a long period of years between the ARP, the ISSID, and the EAPP have finally resulted in the organization of this exciting event that none of you should miss attending. It is the first big meeting to combine not only research input from these three organizations, but also viewpoints, research-interests, and schools of thought from various other districts of the world. The Stellenbosch event will be a showcase for the field of personality, intelligence, and individual differences as it is approached in a variety of regions across the world and at different levels of specialization. It should be a great opportunity for everyone in the field to look beyond one’s own borders and to find new forms of cooperation around the world.

ARP members, both regular and irregular attendants to the ARP conferences, and others are invited to this new and exciting event. Further information is provided at www.perpsy.org. This website contains, among other things, a list of topics to be addressed at the world conference. However, this list should not be considered exhaustive. Although specific instructions about submission of presentations are not yet available on the website, one should feel free, at this point, to contact the organizers about symposium proposals.

The conference has a stellar list of keynote speakers, including Oliver John (Opening Address), Lewis Goldberg (The Next Big Challenge for Lexical Personality Research), Rex Jung (The Importance of Personality Variables in the Manifestation of Creativity: Neuroimaging Findings), Fons Van de Vijver (Personality and Culture: Recent Advances), Deniz Ones (Utility of Personality Variables in Work Settings), Robert Krueger (Personality and Personality Disorders in DSM-5), Randy Larsen (Personality and Affect Regulation), and David Buss (The Evolution of Personality).

Besides keynote speakers, a large number of invited symposia are being organized to cover the field of personality, intelligence, and individual differences in its various respects. These include dissemination of personality psychology, biological aspects of personality, developmental aspects of personality, social psychological aspects of personality, personality and health psychology, forensics and personality, personality disorders, organizational aspects of personality, positive psychology and personality, cross-cultural aspects of personality, personality and morality, intelligence, methodological aspects, projective techniques, personality structure, and personality and situations.

ARP members and others should feel free to make further suggestions for symposia and/or directly submit symposia to the organizers, in order to complete coverage of the field and put forward certain topics that need more attention, particularly in regards to personality issues with a global, cross-culturally recurrent, or even specific cultural emphasis.

Take out your agenda, and mark the event! Don’t miss this first occasion dedicated to universal personality research!