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Emorie D Beck

Education

  • PhD, Washington University in St. Louis, 2020
  • MA, Washington University in St. Louis, 2019
  • BA, Brown University, 2016

About

Dr. Beck is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department specializing in personality psychology. She received her PhD in Social and Personality Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis in 2020 and her BA (with honors) from Brown University in 2016. 

Dr. Beck is not currently recruiting undergraduate students or graduate students to join the lab at this time. 

Research Focus

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. 

Selected Publications
Beck, E. D. and Jackson, J. J. (2022a). Idiographic prediction of loneliness and procrastination. In press at Psychological Science. https://psyarxiv.com/syhw5/download

Beck, E. D. and Jackson, J. J. (2022b). A mega-analysis of personality prediction: Robustness and boundary conditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122(3):523–553. https://psyarxiv.com/7pg9b/download

Beck, E. D. and Jackson, J. J. (2021c). Within-person variability. In Rauthmann, J. F., editor, The Handbook of Personality Dynamics and Processes, pages 75–100. Academic Press. https://psyarxiv.com/kavbp/download

Beck, E. D. and Jackson, J. J. (2020a). Idiographic traits: A return to Allportian approaches to personality. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(3):301–308. https://psyarxiv.com/r8xfh/download

Beck, E. D. and Jackson, J. J. (2020b). Consistency and change in idiographic personality: A longitudinal ESM network study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 118(5):1080–1100. https://psyarxiv.com/pb92q/download

Teaching

During the 2023/24 academic year, Dr. Beck is teaching Data Cleaning and Management in R (graduate-level) and Personality (undergraduate Level). During the 2022/3 academic year, Dr. Beck taught Data Visualization in R (graduate-level) and Personality (undergraduate-level). 

Awards

Tanaka Dissertation Award (Finalist), Association for Research in Personality, 2022

Dissertation Award (Finalist), European Association of Personality Psychology, 2021

Emerging Scholar Award, Association for Research in Personality, 2021