Lab Director
Christopher Soto
I took a personality test for the first time as a junior in high school, and have been hooked on personality psychology ever since. I received my A.B. in Psychology from Harvard University in 2000 and my Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. I arrived at Colby in the Spring of 2009. I’m excited to teach courses about personality psychology, research methods, and statistics, to work with motivated young researchers, and to explore Maine.
My research currently focuses on two key issues. The first is personality structure: How people’s specific thoughts, feelings, and behaviors cohere into broader personality characteristics that persist over time and across relevant situations. I am especially interested in questions about whether, how, and why people’s personalities might be organized differently at different times of life, or in different social contexts. For example, are personality characteristics organized in similar or different ways during childhood versus during adulthood?
The second issue is lifespan personality development: How people’s personalities change as they age, and how these changes relate with social (e.g., relationships, careers) and biological (e.g., health) factors. I am curious both about how people’s personalities typically change across the life course (normative change), and about why different people’s personalities change in different ways (individual differences in change).
I am also interested in a variety of methodological and quantitative issues. These include best practices for psychological measurement, using the Internet to collect psychological data, methods for modeling multidimensional structures, and methods for analyzing change.
Research Assistants
 Lindsay HylekI'm a senior from Lexington, Massachusetts majoring in Psychology and minoring in Anthropology. I am interested in the dynamic aspect of personality—how much room do we have to change and grow as individuals? How much are we constricted by heredity? I am also fascinated by addiction and enjoy learning about different aspects of cultural psychology. |
 Shelley KindI'm a junior from California majoring in English and Psychology. I'm interested in how past experiences and personality interact to influence future decision-making and thought processes. I'm also intrigued by the social dynamics of groups and interpersonal relationships. |
 Kayleigh MonahanI am a junior from Westport, Connecticut majoring in Psychology. My interest in psychology focuses on the development of people's worldviews across the lifespan. I am curious as to how everyday events and significant experiences interact and change how we perceive and understand the world around us. |
Lab Alumni
Adam Thompson '12
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Publications
Soto, C. J. & Luhmann, M. (in press). Who can buy happiness? Personality traits moderate the effects of stable income differences and income fluctuations on life satisfaction. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (in press). Development of Big-Five domains and facets in adulthood: Mean-level age trends and broadly versus narrowly acting mechanisms. Journal of Personality.
Malka, A., & Soto, C. J. (2011). The conflicting influences of religiosity on attitude toward torture. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1091-1103. 
Malka, A., Soto, C. J., Cohen, A. B., & Miller, D. T. (2011). Religiosity and social welfare: Competing influences of cultural conservatism and prosocial value orientation. Journal of Personality, 79, 763-792.
Soto, C. J., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2011). Age differences in personality traits from 10 to 65: Big-Five domains and facets in a large cross-sectional sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 330-348.
Orth, U., Robins, R. W., & Soto, C. J. (2010). Tracking the trajectory of shame, guilt, and pride across the life span. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 1061-1071.
Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2009). Ten facet scales for the Big Five Inventory: Convergence with NEO PI-R facets, self-peer agreement, and discriminant validity. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 84-90.
Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2009). Using the California Psychological Inventory to assess the Big Five personality domains: A hierarchical approach. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 25-38.
Soto, C. J., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2008). The developmental psychometrics of Big Five self-reports: Acquiescence, factor structure, coherence, and differentiation from ages 10 to 20. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 718-737.
John, O. P., Naumann, L., & Soto, C. J. (2008). Paradigm shift to the integrative Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and conceptual issues. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (3rd ed., pp. 114-158). New York, NY: Guilford.
John, O. P., & Soto, C. J. (2007). The importance of being valid: Reliability and the process of construct validation. In R. W. Robins, R. C. Fraley, & R. F. Krueger (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in personality psychology (pp. 461-494). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Helson, R., Soto, C. J., & Cate, R. A. (2006). From young adulthood through the middle ages. In D. K. Mroczek & T. D. Little (Eds.), Handbook of personality development (pp. 337-352). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Helson, R., & Soto, C. J. (2005). Up and down in middle age: Monotonic and nonmonotonic changes in roles, status, and personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 194-204.