Clinical Psych Programs with Personality Research

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

mickeymouse93

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2014
Messages
37
Reaction score
2
Does anyone know which clinical psychology PhD/PsyD programs have faculty and/or opportunities to research personality disorders? Also, it would be a plus if the program had research and/or solid training in psychodynamics. Thank you!

Members don't see this ad.
 
Personality Disorders-- Duke, University of Washington, and Stanford. However, I believe these schools have multi-theoretical or integrative orientations rather than psychodynamic emphasis.

I believe Louisiana Tech has ongoing personality disorder research with grad students working in research teams. It is a counseling psychology program.
 
Personality Disorders-- Duke, University of Washington, and Stanford. However, I believe these schools have multi-theoretical or integrative orientations rather than psychodynamic emphasis.

I believe Louisiana Tech has ongoing personality disorder research with grad students working in research teams. It is a counseling psychology program.
Thank you! I am willing to do counseling as long as I get to do the research I desire. However, those programs are probably extremely competitive. I hope I have more options.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Thank you! I am willing to do counseling as long as I get to do the research I desire. However, those programs are probably extremely competitive. I hope I have more options.

Some of the program focusing on personality assessment are also involved with personality disorder research. Texas A&M, University of Minnesota, University of Tulsa, University of South Carolina, University of Georgia, and others. I believe SMU is involved with Grant funded research in personality assessment. I think some of these Grants have multiple programs collaborating with each other for data collection. I think UNC at Greensboro has Grant funding for personality disorder research. Purdue has a Personality lab with multiple federally funded grants.

Actually, I believe most of these programs are competitive and the faculty member doing the research sort of Cherry Picks the top students from other major Universities during the application/admissions process to be their research assistant. Personality researchers faculty normally accept one student from each cohort to mentor.

Personality disorders are broadly based so some programs do research on specific personality disorders. UW focuses mostly on BPD and UNT, SMU, SHS focus on ASPD and sociopathy. I believe LT looks at Schizoid and Paranoid.

Theodore Million was at Harvard Medical School and I believe he was considered the Father of Personality Theories and Disorder research. Harvard has a personality lab with a large number of undergrads and graduate students in research assistant positions.

As a general rule, most of these personality researchers are at major universities with competitive admissions.
 
Last edited:
Eastern Michigan University has Huprich, a personality disorder assessment researcher.
 
If I get into a program that doesn't have a faculty member researching personality, would I be allowed to research it independently for my dissertation?
 
thats going to depend on the program and your mentor. some faculty are more open to their students straying from their own exact line of research, some may not be very open to that idea. They may also be less likely to supervise something they do not have experience with. Consider the purpose of the mentor model of training; your mentor has a specialized training and expertise in a field that you are to learn from, so if you want to study something completely different than any faculty can supervise, the quality of your training will be much lower.

that being said, there are also some faculty members who might not be explicitly personality theory or disorder researchers, but some of their work may have a personality spin, or they may have some experience. I would suggest trying to find someone in your area of interest who has some experience with personality research; i would be weary of trying to gain completely independent experience.

What exactly are you interested in studying?
 
There is someone at Harvard you could work with on personality disorders research. The program there is not psychodynamic, but you choose your training opportunities, so could focus on psychodynamic placements.
 
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to my list. I have another question, though. Do PhD programs care what subject of research you were involved in during undergrad? For example, my honor's thesis is on cognitive psych, since there are no clinical psych professors who do research (they are adjuncts).
 
In my case the programs didn't care - we don't have a clinical program at my undergraduate, and it was never an issue for me when applying/interviewing this year. Not sure if this is the same everywhere, but it definitely did not adversely affect my application. The professor that I will be working with next year actually told me straight up that he did not consider this a weakness.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Then how do I show a professor I'm devoted to their research? They may pick another student with higher stats but miss out on someone who is highly devoted to personality research...
 
That piece should come through in your personal statement/statement of goals piece. Research experience is necessary to show you have the skills necessary to thrive in a research-focused environment and are capable of learning to conduct high quality independent work.

I think a lot of faculty understand, however, that you will not always have exact experience as an undergraduate in the field you wish to pursue in graduate school. It is in your personal statement where you can share not just what you learned and your exact experiences, but how you can further apply the broad theoretical and technical ability to your desired field of research. So the fact you have not had personality experience might not be a problem, but you should be able to write about what you learned form your cognitive psychology experience, and describe your current goals and interests in personality research specifically.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Researchers, with a psychodynamic orientation, interested in PD:
Penn State: Kenneth Levy (Attachment; BPD; treatment)
Emory: Drew Westen (BPD; treatment)
University of Houston: Carla Sharp (BPD in children)
Eastern Michigan: Steven Huprich (Depressive PD; Narcissistc PD; Borderline PD)
University of Tennessee-Knoxsville: Jenny Macfie (from a developmental perspective - BPD; Attachment)

*If you're interested in personality and psychodynamic orientation, check out Nancy McWilliams' Psychoanalytic Psychodiagnosis.

Other Researchers interested in PD:
Michigan State: Chris Hopwood (structure/classification of PD)
University of Missouri-Columbus: Tim Trull (BPD, emotion regulation)
Penn State: Aaron Pincus (assessment/classification)
Texas A & M: Les Morey (assessment/classification); John Edens (psychopathy)
Notre Dame: Lee Anna Clark (assessment), David Watson (assessment, dimensional models of psychopathology)
University of Washington: Marsha Linehan (BPD & DBT)
Georgia State: Joshua Miller (narcissism)
Oklahoma State University: Stephanie Mullins-Sweate (personality & psychopathology)
University of Minnesota: Robert Krueger (classification)
Purdue: Douglas Samual
Emory: Scott O. Lillienfeld
University of British Columbia: David Klonsky (non-suicidal self-injury, BPD)
University of Kentucky: Thomas Widiger (classification, FFM)
University of Tulsa: John McNalty (assessment)
University of Pittsburg: Aiden Wright
Binghamton University: Mark F. Lenzenweger
Rutgers: Edward Selby
University of Utah: Sheila Crowell
Northern Illinios: Kevin Wu (comorbidity?)
University of South Florida: Marina Bornovalova
Washington St. Louis: Thomas Oltmanns
Adelphi: Robert Bornstein (assessment)
Simon Fraser: Alexander Chapman
Ohio State: Jennifer Cleavens
Florida State: Christopher Patrick


...and many more...
 
Last edited:
Maybe it's just me, but "personality disorders" seems like an overly broad topic to to look for POIs, The research agenda of someone researching anti-social PD is going to look very different from that of someone researching borderline PD, which will look very different from that of someone researching OCPD, etc. If you have an interest in researching a specific PD/type of PD, then you can find not only faculty who research that PD but also people who research related topics (e.g., NSSI and BPD).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
And also if you are more specific about other things you're looking to research - e.g. Basic vs. Applied research?Assessment, Treatment? Interested in personality as it relates to PD or psychopathology more broadly? What about PD (e.g. Emotion, interpersonal dysfunction) interests you? What about PD classification?
 
Maybe it's just me, but "personality disorders" seems like an overly broad topic to to look for POIs, The research agenda of someone researching anti-social PD is going to look very different from that of someone researching borderline PD, which will look very different from that of someone researching OCPD, etc. If you have an interest in researching a specific PD/type of PD, then you can find not only faculty who research that PD but also people who research related topics (e.g., NSSI and BPD).
I'm mostly interested in BPD and NPD.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
And also if you are more specific about other things you're looking to research - e.g. Basic vs. Applied research?Assessment, Treatment? Interested in personality as it relates to PD or psychopathology more broadly? What about PD (e.g. Emotion, interpersonal dysfunction) interests you? What about PD classification?
Honestly, all of it. For NPD I want to research treatment, and for BPD I want to research emotion and interpersonal dysfunction. I also want to look at the family system that contains these personalities.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Just to warn you, BPD is a pretty competitive research area. You may need some post-bacc research experience related to it if you don't have anything in UG.
 
Just to warn you, BPD is a pretty competitive research area. You may need some post-bacc research experience related to it if you don't have anything in UG.
Oh man, I thought no one wanted to touch BPD. Maybe that's just on the clinician side, though. My school doesn't have any and I can't move just for an RA position.
 
However, I am e-mailing a developmental psych at my school and asking her if I could do an independent study on attachment and Personality B Cluster. I don't know if she will be too keen to say yes, though, since she focuses on infants and adolescents... Should I go ahead and ask anyway? I thought the developmental approach might draw her in.
 
Oh man, I thought no one wanted to touch BPD. Maybe that's just on the clinician side, though. My school doesn't have any and I can't move just for an RA position.

That was the case until Linehan and DBT--since then, it's exploded as a pretty huge area in terms of both research and clinical interest. Not everyone wants to work with patients who have BPD, but there are still plenty that do.

As for emailing that prof, I'd say go for it. Worst they can say is no, right?
 
Top