Katherine (Kailey) Lawson

Biography

Broadly, my research program focuses on the nature, development, and assessment of personality traits such as self-control and negative emotionality, and the influence of these traits on mental health, academic achievement, occupational success, and other life outcomes. I incorporate insights and methods from developmental psychology and much of my work examines the developmental period of adolescence through young adulthood. My recent research has identified individual variability in adolescent personality trajectories and documented the ways in which this variability confers risk for or protection against adverse mental health experiences during young adulthood.

Beyond my substantive research interests, I am also excited about longitudinal modeling, psychometrics, and construct validity. I have written about how constructs can be conceptually/empirically overlapping, but distinct (i.e., sibling constructs) and how to use causal justification to determine whether it is appropriate to statistically control for a given variable.

I teach Personality Psychology, Developmental Psychology, and a seminar on Psychometrics.