Personality Psychology Podcast

#62 Happiness with Shige Oishi and Felix Cheung

Wed, 20 May 2026 17:38:20 +0200

In this episode, Shige Oishi and Felix Cheung discuss with Lisanne de Moor the topic of happiness and related well-being constructs. They delve into predictors at the individual, social, and societal level of what makes people happy. The conversation highlights the (limited) agency people have in improving their own happiness and what are important research questions and practical implementations of research for the future.

#61 Paper Spotlight with Michael Krämer

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 17:58:35 +0200

In this paper spotlight episode, Rebekka Weidmann speaks with Michael Krämer about his recent publication in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, titled “What explains personality change intervention effects?”. Co-authored by Chris Hopwood, Travis Miller, and Wiebke Bleidorn, the paper summarized three studies that tested personality trait change interventions and compared them to acceptance interventions and examined whether they were driven by expectancy effects. Michael provides the theoretical background of the study, summarizes the findings, and provides ideas how these findings can be used for future research.

#60 Personality and trauma with Stephen Asatsa

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 18:38:43 +0100

In this episode, Dr. Stephen Asatsa discusses his work on trauma and personality with Lisanne de Moor. He shares recent insights from his work on mourning rituals and a broader perspective on integrating experience and expertise held by local communities into mainstream psychology.

#59 Open Science with Simine Vazire

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:57:36 +0100

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor talks with Simine Vazire about the history, development, and future of Open Science in the field of personalty psychology.

#58 Regulating Behaviour and Affect

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 22:43:26 +0100

Elliot Berkman, Kaitlyn Werner and Andero Uusberg are all experts in the fields of self-regulation and affect regulation. In this episode, they define their respective fields and discuss how they intersect with personality research. There are many parallels, including the distinction between variability among and within people, issues with measurement and construct fuzziness, and a focus on interventions. Hosted by René Mõttus.

#57 Paper Spotlight: A Mathematical Model of Person Judgment with Daniel Leising

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 11:31:13 +0200

In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann speaks with Daniel Leising about his recent publication in Personality Science, titled “A Mathematical Model of Person Judgment Part I: Cue Emergence.” Co-authored with mathematician René L. Schilling, the paper introduces the first part of a formalized model of person judgment. It integrates components from existing narrative theories and presents them in a testable, mathematical framework. Daniel shares how the collaboration came about, what the model entails, and how it can be applied in both research and teaching.

#56 Leaving academia with Kate Rogers, Amy Summerville, and Tal Yarkoni

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 18:49:44 +0200

In this episode that was recorded with a live audience, Lisanne de Moor speaks with Kate Rogers, Amy Summerville, and Tal Yarkoni about their decision to leave academia. The three guests openly share their own story of leaving academia behind and how they navigated this choice. In addition, they answer questions from the live audience.

#55 Personality in the forensic system and for forensic outcomes with Estelle Moore and Martin Sellbom

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 17:57:24 +0200

In this episode, Estelle Moore and Martin Sellbom discuss with Lisanne de Moor the role of personality in forensic research and practice. They describe important personality traits as well as personality disorders and current developments in the view in the field on personality pathology. The episode concludes with an eye on crucial next steps.

#54 Values with Anat Bardi and Laura Parks-Leduc

Wed, 14 May 2025 18:48:55 +0200

In this episode, Anat Bardi and Laura Parks-Leduc join Rebekka Weidmann to discuss their research on values. They delve into their unique and shared definitions and research approaches to the topic of values, explaining how values can change and their associations with personality traits. The conversation also highlights well-established evidence about values and identifies areas that remain unexplored.

#53 Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Personality with incoming editor Matthias Ziegler and outgoing editor René Mõttus

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 16:26:30 +0100

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor talks with Matthias Ziegler and René Mõttus about the change in editorship at the European Journal of Personality and how they reflect on and look ahead at their time in the role of Editor-in-Chief.

#52 Personality and education with Jennifer Meyer and Jennifer Symonds

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:13:37 +0100

During this episode, Lisanne de Moor talked with Jennifer Meyer and Jennifer Symonds about the links between personality and education – and the different levels at which to address this topic. They also discuss important real-world implications of the role that personality can play in education.

#51 AI and digital personality footprints, with Sandra Matz and Michal Kosinski

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:58:20 +0100

René Mõttus talks to Sandra Matz and Michal Kosinski about the use of our digital footprints and AI in personality research and how this can be put to practical use. There is a lot going on in this field, with potentially profound theoretical and practical implications. Both Sandra and Michal are pioneers in this field, and Sandra has just published a book on the subject called Mindmasters.

#50 A 4th year review with Lisanne de Moor, René Mõttus, and Rebekka Weidmann

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 10:09:21 +0100

In this episode, the three hosts reminisce about the past four years of the podcast—their favorite episodes, honorable mentions, and important lessons learned. They also talk about plans for the future of the podcast. The team’s newest addition, Celine Strohbehn, the podcast’s social media manager, is also introduced and her involvement with the podcast is described.

#49 Personality development in early life with Filip de Fruyt

Sun, 15 Dec 2024 05:44:55 +0100

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor spoke with Filip De Fruyt about his career-long commitment to studying personality development in early life and the development of maladaptive personality traits in children. He also discusses historical shifts in the field that have allowed for new questions regarding development to emerge and to be studied.

#48 The jingle jangle jungle of psychological measures, with Ruben Arslan and Farid Anvari

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 17:54:55 +0100

Much of psychological science is about measurement. But are we any good at it? How could we do (even) better? Ruben Arslan and Farid Anvari argue that researchers often act like there was no past, inventing ever new tests without re-using, improving or even referring to what already exists. This unchecked proliferation of tests has left many subfields of psychology fragmented, as research findings are often not comparable to others. But Ruben and Farid also offer a path forward and argue that there is much to be happy about in psychological measurements—it often works surprisingly well. Listen to find out why 0.42 is (not really) a magic number and how scientific debate can inspire a rap battle. Hosted by René Mõttus.

#47 The relaunch of the journal Personality Science with Jaap Denissen

Sun, 04 Aug 2024 18:00:29 +0200

In this episode, Jaap Denissen, the new editor-in-chief of Personality Science, discusses the journal's recent relaunch with Rebekka Weidmann. Jaap shares insights into what the relaunch involved, the current initiatives and goals of the journal, and highlights a recently accepted special issue. Learn more about the exciting changes and future directions of this open-access journal.

#46 Community-engaged research with LGBTQ+ communities with Nic Weststrate

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 21:34:38 +0200

In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann spoke with Nic Weststrate about how he incorporates different, but less represented methods in his research with LGBTQ+ communities, such as narratives, psychobiographies, and community-engaged work. He also talks about how the field can embrace a “Yes, and” mindset in better valuing different theoretical and empirical approaches.

#45 Counterdispositional behavior with Evy Kuijpers

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 22:14:12 +0200

In our daily lives, we may come across many situations in which we act in ways that are different from our typical personality. In this episode, Lisanne de Moor speaks with Evy Kuijpers about what counterdispositional behavior is and what the consequences of behaving in ways that are “out of character” are.

#44 Loneliness with Marlies Maes, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Marcus Mund, and Susanne Bücker

Thu, 16 May 2024 20:14:33 +0200

Loneliness has received a lot of attention—especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann speaks with loneliness experts Marlies Maes, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Marcus Mund, and Susanne Bücker about the definition of loneliness and related but distinct constructs, the rising interest in loneliness, measurement issues, interventions, and more.

#43 Paper Spotlight with Theo Klimstra and Kate McLean

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 15:42:23 +0200

In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann spoke with Theo Klimstra and Kate McLean, the two authors of a recently accepted Target Article in the European Journal of Personality titled "Reconsidering Normative Interpretations in Personality Research". The authors summarize their article and speak about how the field can move forward.

#42 What makes personality science useful, with Bill Revelle and Bob Hogan

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 03:24:10 +0100

René Mõttus talks to Bill Revelle and Bob Hogan who are well respected personality researchers in the field. They argue that the main use of personality research is to predict what real people do in the real world. Yet, much of academic psychology has not taken this seriously, focusing on abstract ideas and models with little real-world relevance. They discuss why useful personality assessment is not about complex statistics or even measuring traits, but simply adding up questions that best predict important outcomes. They also discuss why we should stop believing in Easter Bunnies, how to reassess your work after forty years, and how to build a successful global company. And many other things.

#41 Creativity with Rodica Damian and Andreea Sutu

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 19:43:36 +0100

Creative products—paintings, poems, but also innovative ideas like the invention of the wheel—help societies move forward. As such, it is no surprise that formal interest in creativity from psychologists dates back at least 100 years, and the informal interest arguably much longer. In this episode, Rodica Damian and Andreea Sutu, two experts in the study of creativity, discuss with Lisanne de Moor what creativity is, what the personality traits of a creative person are, and if creativity is linked to psychopathology.

#40 Paper Spotlight with David Hughes and Paul Irwing

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 20:36:16 +0100

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor spoke with David Hughes and Paul Irwing, two of the authors of a recent publication in the European Journal of Personality titled "Toward a taxonomy of personality facets". The authors summarize their article and its studies and outline how they developed the facet map.

#39 Life events and personality change with Wiebke Bleidorn and Chris Hopwood

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 16:20:36 +0100

Many lay people and scientists think that life events can change personality traits. But proving or disproving this has been surprisingly challenging. Wiebke Bleidorn and Chris Hopwood are among the leading researchers on this topic, and they were involved in a recent large study that summarized the evidence so far. They will talk to René Mõttus about the latest research on life events and personality trait change, and discuss possible ways forward.

#38 How to do the most good? Effective altruism, animals, and future risks with Lucius Caviola

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:57:36 +0100

In this episode, Lucius Caviola discusses his psychological research on effective altruism and how people can be encouraged to give more effectively. You can try out effective giving yourself using his research-based donation platform https://givingmultiplier.org/personality. The episode also explores Lucius' research on how we perceive the value of animals and think about future risks.

#37 Sense of purpose with Gabrielle Pfund

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 15:49:48 +0200

Have you ever pondered about your purpose? In this episode, we talked with Gabrielle Pfund about sense of purpose. What does it mean to have a sense of purpose, how can we measure it, and how is it related to important life outcomes? Gabrielle also describes the characteristics of people who are more likely to have a sense of purpose and in what direction her research is headed.

#36 Personality change interventions with Mathias Allemand, Gabriel Olaru, and Christoph Flückiger

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 04:50:27 +0200

There is a lot of interest in the idea that people can voluntarily change their personality traits. René Mõttus talks to Mathias Allemand, Gabriel Olaru, and Christoph Flückiger about personality change interventions. Why people want to change their personality traits, how can they do it, and how long could the effects last? They also discuss ethical issues related to trait change, and whether most people have already been subjected to a personality change intervention – at school.

#35 Personality and aging with Flavia Chereches, Denis Gerstorf, Eileen Graham, and Dan Mroczek

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 22:45:13 +0200

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor talks with four researchers in the field of personality and aging about common trends in personality change into old age, antecedents and consequences thereof and, most importantly, individual differences.

#34 Goals and motivations with Marie Hennecke and Jana Nikitin

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 21:23:18 +0200

In this episode, Marie Hennecke and Jana Nikitin talk about their research on goals and motivations. Specifically, they discuss why goals and motivations are important, how they change across the lifespan, and how we can achieve our goals—and even change our personality traits.

#33 Paper Spotlight with Emily Willroth

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 16:46:51 +0200

What is a good life? And can people have it? A recent European Journal of Personality paper authored by Emily Willroth and colleagues explored this question among U.S. Americans and Japanese, and also asked whether most people have the lives that they want.

#32 Narrative identity with Jonathan Adler, Kate McLean, and Monisha Pasupathi

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 15:58:41 +0200

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor talks with three experts on what narrative identity is, what important contributions it makes to the field of personality psychology, and what is needed to further advance research on narrative identity.

#31 Attachment, optimism, and honesty with Bill Chopik

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 20:31:31 +0200

Personality research occupies itself with not only the Big Five traits but a myriad of other important constructs. Bill Chopik talks in this episode about his research on attachment, optimism, and honesty, and also close relationships (including pets). He shares his experience with cross-cultural and lifespan studies, and important lessons from grad school.

#30 Personality states with Gabriella Harari, Kai Horstmann, and Whitney Ringwald

Sun, 28 May 2023 06:06:09 +0200

Many researchers like to think of personalities as patterns of dynamic states. Thanks to technological advances, they can now measure the states and build statistical models from these measurements. Other researchers may have remained more sceptical: after all, isn’t personality something relatively stable, by definition? Can state models really help us better understand how people differ from one another in their personality traits? Trying to make sense of this topic, René Mõttus speaks to three experts on the topic: Gabriela Harari, Kai Horstmann and Whitney Ringwald. They discuss what personality states are and how these relate to personality traits, the primary focus of personality research.

#29 Causal inference with Michael Grosz

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 21:48:54 +0200

In this episode, Michael Grosz talks about what causal inference is, how difficult it is to test in personality psychology, and why he doesn't give up on our field.

#28 Big Five vs. HEXACO with Colin DeYoung, Isabel Thielmann, Luke Smillie, and Reinout de Vries

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 18:44:21 +0100

In this episode moderated by Lisanne de Moor, Colin DeYoung, Isabel Thielmann, Luke Smillie, and Reinout de Vries discuss personality traits and trait models, and debate the evidence for and against two of the most dominant trait models: the Big Five and the HEXACO model.

#27 Geography and personality with Fritz Götz, Elisa Militaru, and Markus Jokela

Sun, 15 Jan 2023 02:34:43 +0100

What does geography have to do with personality? In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann speaks with Fritz Götz, Elisa Militaru, and Markus Jokela about studying personality from a geographical psychology approach—what that research field is, how things are measured (and how tricky it is to measure), past interesting findings and future directions.

#26 Spirituality and religiosity with Julie Exline

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 15:10:45 +0100

Julie Exline is an expert in studying spirituality and religiosity. For this episode, Julie talked with Rebekka Weidmann how she came to study spirituality and religiosity, the nature of spiritual struggles, and supernatural operating rules—how people envision or experience God or other supernatural powers.

#25 Behaviour genetics with Michel Nivard

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 22:01:14 +0100

Michel Nivard and René Mõttus discuss classical and modern behaviour genetics, and why much of personality genetics is no longer focused on finding personality genes (there are none) but using genes to learn about environment. Perhaps paradoxically, then, genetics is as likely to help with building psychological and sociological theories of personality as biological theories.

#24 Personality, doomsday prepping, science denial, and being wrong with Adam Fetterman

Sat, 05 Nov 2022 17:23:04 +0100

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor chats with Adam Fetterman about his work on the role of personality and beliefs in shaping people’s behavior in contemporary phenomena such as doomsday prepping, science denial, and people’s willingness to admit to being wrong.

#23 Personality: universalism and cultural context with Moin Syed

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 15:00:55 +0200

Personality psychology is an exciting field of research. However, as we learn in Moin Syed’s presentation, this excitement has been dampened by a hyper focus on methodological and definitional issues based on the history of our field. However, personality can be more. Moin Syed talks in his presentation about how our field can earn back its excitement.

#22 Interviews at the 20th European Conference on Personality in Madrid

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 22:49:22 +0200

For this episode, we talked to ten researchers at the 20th European Conference on Personality (#ECP20) in Madrid, including Anna Hakobjanyan, Jérome Rossier, Matej Bjurković, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Laura Buchinger, Markus Jokela, Barbara De Clercq, Verònica Benet-Martínez, Arij Yehya, and Kendall Mather.

#21 Personality and health with Nick Turiano, Damaris Aschwanden, and Yannick Stephan

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 03:55:13 +0200

This episode's guests were Nick Turiano, Damaris Aschwanden, and Yannick Stephan, three experts in personality and health psychology, who talked with Rebekka Weidmann about the importance of considering personality when predicting important health outcomes across the life span.

#20 Post-traumatic growth with Laura Blackie and Eranda Jayawickreme

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 14:50:37 +0200

Many people believe that traumatic experiences are often followed by psychological growth. What does not kill us, makes us stronger, right? Laura Blackie and Eranda Jayawickreme are among the leading researchers on this topic, and they just guest-edited a special issue on post-traumatic personality growth in the European Journal of Personality. They talked with René Mõttus what they have learned about how trauma can change us—or if it even changes us, after all.

#19 Paper Spotlight with Emily Willroth and Brett Ford

Tue, 17 May 2022 00:23:12 +0200

René Mõttus talks with Emily Willroth and Brett Ford about their recently published paper in the European Journal of Personality entitled: "Emotional responses to a global stressor: Average patterns and individual differences"

#18 Personality and psychopathology with Bob Krueger, Odilia Laceulle, and Johannes Zimmerman

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 16:13:49 +0200

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor talked with three experts about a dimensional approach to conceptualizing and measuring psychopathology, and the HiTOP model as an example of one of the advancements of this approach.

#17 Paper Spotlight with Paul Eastwick

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 03:27:33 +0200

Rebekka Weidmann talks with Paul Eastwick about his recently accepted paper in the European Journal of Personality entitled: "Predicting Romantic Interest during Early Relationship Development: A Preregistered Investigation using Machine Learning"

#16 Self-esteem with Ulrich Orth, Ketaki Diwan, and Lorenzo Filosa

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 19:20:33 +0100

Lisanne de Moor speaks with Ulrich Orth, Ketaki Diwan, and Lorenzo Filosa, three self-esteem researchers, about what self-esteem is, why it has attracted so much scientific attention, some interesting new discoveries, and some outstanding research questions.

#15 Intelligence with Ian Deary

Sat, 26 Feb 2022 16:08:27 +0100

René Mõttus speaks with Ian Deary, who has published many hundreds of articles on intelligence and personality traits, alongside several books. They discuss the value of robust empirical findings over grand theories and key findings about human intelligence. They also compare personality and intelligence research and discuss their future. And finally, this is the first episode of the podcast where a guest also sings.

#14 Psychopathology, authenticity, sustainability, and veganism with Chris Hopwood

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 18:40:21 +0100

In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann speaks with Chris Hopwood about his research on personality and psychopathology, and also his work on authenticity and realness, sustainable behavior, and veganism.

#13 Personality science and helping people to change, with Patrick Hill

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 15:56:21 +0100

Patrick Hill has studied many topics, including purpose in life, gratitude, health, and personality change. In this episode, Patrick spoke with René Mõttus about the influence of personality on life outcomes, interventions to change personality traits, and several other topics.

#12 Diversity and inclusiveness with Alexandria West, Hrag Vosgerichian, and Khatuna Martskvishvili

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 23:08:30 +0100

At the 2021 EAPP Day, we conducted a live panel discussion with Alexandria West, Hrag Vosgerichian, and Khatuna Martskvishvili and discussed how we can bring more diversity and inclusiveness into the field of personality research. Thank you all for attending!

#11 Adolescent personality with Jenny Wagner, Eva Bleckmann, Larissa Wieczorek, and Naemi Brandt

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 16:27:15 +0100

Lisanne de Moor spoke with Jenny Wagner, Eva Bleckmann, Larissa Wieczorek, and Naemi Brandt about their research on adolescent personality. They discussed personality development, and school and relationships as influencing factors. In addition, they discussed major recent accomplishments in the fields as well as the next steps forward.

#10 The past, present, and controversies of personality trait psychology with Jeff McCrae

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 16:55:01 +0200

René Mõttus spoke with one of the most influential personality psychologists in recent decades, Robert "Jeff" McCrae. They discussed the history and achievements of personality trait psychology and some of the key questions still awaiting an answer. They also spoke about an early "conspiracy" among the Big Five enthusiasts to promote the trait model and the most controversial aspect of the Five-Factor Theory – lack of direct influences of life experiences on personality traits.

#9 Narcissism with Mitja Back, Carolyn Morf, and Joshua Miller

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 04:29:37 +0200

In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann talked with Mitja Back, Carolyn Morf, and Joshua Miller about narcissism—what it is, how it manifests in people’s lives, whether it changes, and common misconceptions about narcissism.

#8 Morality and moral development with Jessie Sun

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 14:25:39 +0200

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor talked with Jessie Sun about morality and moral development, and how to conceptualize and measure it in research. In addition, they discussed some of Jessie’s past, ongoing, and upcoming research, and the major challenges she sees in moving forward.

#7 Personality development with Ted Schwaba, Eva Asselmann, and Chris Soto

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 04:05:51 +0200

In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann talked with Ted Schwaba, Eva Asselmann, and Chris Soto about their research on personality development across the lifespan, the importance of personality for life outcomes, and the emerging study of social, emotional, and behavioral skills.

#6 A chat with Joanne Chung

Sat, 26 Jun 2021 15:54:18 +0200

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor talks with Joanne Chung about how she became interested in personality psychology, her past, present, and future work, and creating spaces and recognizing different voices in our work as personality scientists.

#5 Subjective well-being with Susanne Bücker, Rich Lucas, and Samantha Heintzelman

Thu, 27 May 2021 03:41:50 +0200

In this episode, Rebekka Weidmann talked to Susanne Bücker, Richard Lucas, and Samantha Heintzelman about subjective well-being across the life span, factors that can change the well-being of people including the pandemic, and typical misconceptions that people might hold.

#4 Personality in the work context with Joanna Sosnowska

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 16:46:57 +0200

In this episode, Joanna Sosnowska and René Mõttus discuss dynamic models of personality and their usefulness for describing and understanding the psychology of workplace. The discussion is partly based on a recent paper Joanna and her colleagues published in the European Journal of Personality, as well as an upcoming special issue co-edited by Joanna (to be published in July in the European Journal of Personality).

#3 Personality structure and change with Emorie Beck

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 03:30:22 +0100

In this episode, we hear a presentation by Emorie Beck on her research on nomothetic and idiographic approaches to personality structure and change, couched in a historical perspective.

#2 Personalized approaches to personality with Aidan Wright

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 19:01:28 +0100

In this episode, Lisanne de Moor talked to Aidan Wright about how personality can be measured from a more personalized angle, what such an approach can contribute to personality science, and what are some of the challenges that he sees for moving this research forward.

#1 Introducing personality psychology with Julia Rohrer & Jaap Denissen

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 15:31:00 +0100

Welcome to our podcast! For this episode, René Mõttus talked to Julia Rohrer and Jaap Denissen about what personality is, how personality psychology is unique as a field, and what its most significant achievements have been so far—but also about what is still puzzling and what can be improved for the future.