JRP Editor’s Report
Ozlem Ayduk and Jessica Tracy
The third biennial stand-alone meeting of ARP was held June 20-22, 2013, in Charlotte, NC. Here we describe some of the highlights of the meeting as seen through the eyes of the program co-chairs. We want to begin by acknowledging and extending our thanks to the local organizing team, including Michael Furr (chair), Will Fleeson, Kathleen McKee, Jana Spain and Dustin Wood. We also want to thank the program committee members, Brent Donnellan, Chris Fraley, Iris Mauss and Vivian Zayas whose valuable input helped us shape the final program.
The meeting was attended by about 200 participants. The conference kicked off with a methods workshop (Thanks Sally Dickerson & Iris Mauss!) on Thursday morning followed by a Welcome Reception that evening. Friday’s program started with Will Fleeson’s Presidential Address, “A theory on whole traits” and the presentation of awards.
There was a great deal of interest in the conference this year, and the number of submissions exceeded our expectations. The committee received over two-dozen symposia and over 100 poster submissions. While we were able to accommodate most of the posters, due to space limitations and concerns about content overlap we had to turn down some excellent symposia submissions. The good news is that the final program was particularly strong covering a breadth of topics representing both traditional personality, such as personality structure, development, and pathology, and more interdisciplinary topics focusing on individual differences in emotions, close relationships, social status, and morality. There was also a very timely and well-attended symposium, chaired by Simine Vazire, in which speakers raised (and answered) questions about replicability in personality research, and made recommendations for how to practice a Safer Science. In addition to 16 symposia, over 100 posters were presented across two well-attended poster sessions on Friday and Saturday evenings.
The program also included two invited talks, by prominent scholars in personality science-- Laura King and Jeffrey Simpson, two of the Head Editors of JPSP. Both talks were well attended, and while Jeff provided a fascinating look at attachment dynamics and relationships--demonstrating the importance of individual differences for relationship functioning—Laura talked broadly about the current and future state of personality science, offering a number of suggestions for how the field should continue to move forward from where we are.
One session was devoted to honoring the newest generation of personality scholars: The Tanaka Dissertation Award symposium featured Joshua Jackson and Sara DePauw, the winners of 2011 and 2010 awards, respectively. Whereas Joshua Jackson discussed his work on how personality development is influenced by educational experiences, Sara DePauw’s work focused on the links between temperament, personality, and problem behavior in youth.
Finally, the conference was capped off with a Gala dinner at the beautiful Mint Museum. It was a fantastic final evening, beginning with a cocktail hour on the Museum’s enormous balcony, leading to a delicious dinner, and ending with dancing.
The informal feedback we received from the attendees suggests that the program was very well-received. People also indicated that they found with the ample opportunities offered for socializing, including the welcome reception, shared breakfasts and lunches, poster sessions, and coffee and snack breaks.
In short, we feel that this year’s conference was a big success. We look forward to seeing you all again in the summer of 2015!