The Etiology of Personality and Individual Characteristics (EPIC) Lab is a personality and behavior genetics research group in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Briley and Dr. Derringer are accepting graduate students to begin Fall 2023. Click here for details on applying to the Social-Personality Psychology graduate program at UIUC.

Team Members

Recent Papers

Junkins, E. J., Dugan, K., Chehab, S., Han, Y. S., Liu, T., Yuan, J., & Derringer, J. (under review). Systematic review of the exclusion of LGBTQIA+ and nonbinary people in romantic relationships research. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8c9ju

Junkins, E. J., Pantin, K., & Derringer, J. (in revision). Personality Differences across Broader Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/3gqye

Pantin, K., & Derringer, J. (in revision). A Short Measure of Sexual Self Concept. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2bqf8

Zheng, A., Briley, D. A., Jacobucci, R., Harden, K. P., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. (under review). Incremental Validity of Character Measures Over the Big Five and Fluid intelligence in Predicting Academic Achievement. PsyArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/652qz

Zheng, A., Hudson, N., Chopik, W., Derringer, J., & Briley, D.A. (in revision). Time-Ordered Associations Among Personality States: Evidence from 28 Intensive Longitudinal Samples.

Vogt, R. L., Zheng, A., Briley, D. A., Malanchini, M., Harden, K. P., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. (2022). Genetic and environmental influences of non-ability-based confidence. Social and Personality Psychological Science, 13, 734-746. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211036610

Bucknor, B., & Derringer, J. (2021). Exploring the Utility of Current Polygenic Scores in Capturing Resilience. Psychiatric Genetics, 32, 15-24. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/tx952

Junkins, E. J., Potter, J. E., Rentfrow, P., J., Gosling, S. D., Potter, J., Harden, K. P., Tucker-Drob, E. M., Derringer, J., & Briley, D. A. (2021). Geographic Variation in Personality is Associated with Fertility across the United States. Personality Science, 2, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.5964/ps.7275

Vogt, R. L., Cheng, J. T., & Briley, D. A. (2020). Childhood growth in math and reading differentially predicts adolescent non-ability-based confidence: An examination in the SECCYD. Learning and Individual Differences, 83-84, 101933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2020.101933

Briley, D. A., Livengood, J., Derringer, J., Tucker-Drob, E. M., Fraley, R. C., & Roberts, B. W. (2019). Interpreting behavior genetic models: Seven developmental processes to understand. Behavior Genetics, 49(2), 196-210. http://publish.illinois.edu/dabriley/files/2018/11/Briley-2018-Interpreting-behavior-genetic-models.pdf

Zheng, A., Briley, D. A., Malanchini, M., Tackett, J. L., Harden, K. P., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. (2019). Genetic and environmental influences on achievement goal orientations shift with age. European Journal of Personality, 33, 317-336. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2202

Zheng, A., Tucker-Drob, E. M., & Briley, D. A. (2019). National gross domestic product, science interest, and science achievement: A direct replication and extension of the Tucker-Drob, Cheung, and Briley (2014) Study. Psychological Science, 30, 776-788. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619835768

Briley, D. A., Livengood, J., & Derringer, J. (2018). Behaviour genetic frameworks of causal reasoning for personality psychology. European Journal of Personality, 32(3), 202-220. http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/14550

Lab Alumni

Brianna Bucknor, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Institute for Genomic Medicine

Kenzhane Pantin, Ph.D., Client Research Analyst, The National Research Center for College & University Admissions

Randi Vogt, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Geisinger Health System

Anqing Zheng, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California – Riverside