STUDENT RESEARCH OPPORTUNTIES
I have a number of ongoing studies with potential opportunities for active engagement in research through collaborations with colleagues around the world and close to home. I am also open to your ideas!
Identity Content and Clarity in Individuals with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. One of the fundamental impairments for individuals with autism is a deficit regarding the self. This has served as the fulcrum for one of my primary areas of new data collection, examining the identity content and clarity of individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. In collaboration with my colleagues at the Canisius’ Institute for Autism Research, new findings demonstrate that within a sample of neurotypical individuals and individuals with autism and autism characteristics, within a matched subsample, and compared to norms on target measures, individuals with high-functioning autism show challenges in all five Big Five traits, and self-concept clarity as well as psychological well-being. We are currently coding individual differences in narrative identity in this sample and, with my colleagues at the IAR, I am pursing funding for intervention and longitudinal studies of identity content and clarity alongside optimal aging in individuals with high-functioning autism. As both groups are part of a growing demographic, there is a clear need in the field for research on autism and aging. Longitudinal research in this population will help reveal how individuals with high-functioning autism age and the way in which individual differences impact this aging process.
Writing to Promote Identity Maturation. In collaboration with my colleague Jonathan Rodgers, I am conducting pilot research to test how writing interventions that capitalize on the purpose and unity of self afforded by healthy narrative identity construction facilitate maturation in identity content and clarity. Should these preliminary studies show promise, our aim is to test these interventions in individuals with high functioning autism and pair this work with volitional personality trait change paradigms.
Health and Aging Study of Central Illinois. The Health and Aging Study of Central Illinois, an NIA-funded longitudinal study of the personality trait development of three cohorts of adults, has been at the heart of much of my longitudinal research through my collaboration with its principle investigator, Brent Roberts. The third wave of this study is nearing completion. Three waves of longitudinal data on personality traits, narrative identity, self-concept clarity, and physical health outcomes will allow for a direct examination of how the content of identity develops alongside self-concept clarity and this co-development in turn affects the physical health of the aging individual. This rich data set will continue to be an important part of my program of work as we analyze the third wave of data, evaluations of personality traits and self-concept clarity from close associates and strangers, and test the longitudinal development of narrative identity and its impact on physical health.
Synapse: Actively Engaging the Aging Mind. Synapse: Actively Engaging the Aging Mind, is an NIA-funded intervention study designed to enhance the cognitive performance of over 500 seniors by immersing them in cognitively and socially engaging activities over a three month period within an experimental intervention context (Lodi-Smith & Park, 2011). Led by my collaborator Denise Park, Synapse provides a unique opportunity to test whether seniors can directly manipulate their circumstances in order to promote their cognitive health (Park, Lodi-Smith, et al., 2014). My ongoing work with this project tests whether the lifestyle changes brought about in this intervention also impact personality traits, narratives of personal change, and self-concept clarity as well as how identity content and clarity influence the efficacy of the different arms of the intervention for different individuals.
Dallas Lifespan Brain Study. Designed to examine healthy neurocognitive aging, the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study, directed by my colleague Denise Park, is an NIA-funded longitudinal sample of over 350 individuals age 20 – 89 that assesses personality traits and self-concept clarity alongside a host of psychosocial, behavioral, cognitive, genetic, and neuroimaging variables. With the second wave of data from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study now available, I am currently testing whether my work from the Health and Aging Study of Central Illinois replicates in other samples as well as and the incremental impact of traits and clarity on optimal aging above and beyond demographic and lifestyle factors.
Identity Content and Clarity in Individuals with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. One of the fundamental impairments for individuals with autism is a deficit regarding the self. This has served as the fulcrum for one of my primary areas of new data collection, examining the identity content and clarity of individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. In collaboration with my colleagues at the Canisius’ Institute for Autism Research, new findings demonstrate that within a sample of neurotypical individuals and individuals with autism and autism characteristics, within a matched subsample, and compared to norms on target measures, individuals with high-functioning autism show challenges in all five Big Five traits, and self-concept clarity as well as psychological well-being. We are currently coding individual differences in narrative identity in this sample and, with my colleagues at the IAR, I am pursing funding for intervention and longitudinal studies of identity content and clarity alongside optimal aging in individuals with high-functioning autism. As both groups are part of a growing demographic, there is a clear need in the field for research on autism and aging. Longitudinal research in this population will help reveal how individuals with high-functioning autism age and the way in which individual differences impact this aging process.
Writing to Promote Identity Maturation. In collaboration with my colleague Jonathan Rodgers, I am conducting pilot research to test how writing interventions that capitalize on the purpose and unity of self afforded by healthy narrative identity construction facilitate maturation in identity content and clarity. Should these preliminary studies show promise, our aim is to test these interventions in individuals with high functioning autism and pair this work with volitional personality trait change paradigms.
Health and Aging Study of Central Illinois. The Health and Aging Study of Central Illinois, an NIA-funded longitudinal study of the personality trait development of three cohorts of adults, has been at the heart of much of my longitudinal research through my collaboration with its principle investigator, Brent Roberts. The third wave of this study is nearing completion. Three waves of longitudinal data on personality traits, narrative identity, self-concept clarity, and physical health outcomes will allow for a direct examination of how the content of identity develops alongside self-concept clarity and this co-development in turn affects the physical health of the aging individual. This rich data set will continue to be an important part of my program of work as we analyze the third wave of data, evaluations of personality traits and self-concept clarity from close associates and strangers, and test the longitudinal development of narrative identity and its impact on physical health.
Synapse: Actively Engaging the Aging Mind. Synapse: Actively Engaging the Aging Mind, is an NIA-funded intervention study designed to enhance the cognitive performance of over 500 seniors by immersing them in cognitively and socially engaging activities over a three month period within an experimental intervention context (Lodi-Smith & Park, 2011). Led by my collaborator Denise Park, Synapse provides a unique opportunity to test whether seniors can directly manipulate their circumstances in order to promote their cognitive health (Park, Lodi-Smith, et al., 2014). My ongoing work with this project tests whether the lifestyle changes brought about in this intervention also impact personality traits, narratives of personal change, and self-concept clarity as well as how identity content and clarity influence the efficacy of the different arms of the intervention for different individuals.
Dallas Lifespan Brain Study. Designed to examine healthy neurocognitive aging, the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study, directed by my colleague Denise Park, is an NIA-funded longitudinal sample of over 350 individuals age 20 – 89 that assesses personality traits and self-concept clarity alongside a host of psychosocial, behavioral, cognitive, genetic, and neuroimaging variables. With the second wave of data from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study now available, I am currently testing whether my work from the Health and Aging Study of Central Illinois replicates in other samples as well as and the incremental impact of traits and clarity on optimal aging above and beyond demographic and lifestyle factors.