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

D. A. Briley, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Psychology

Department profile

Jaime Derringer, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Psychology

Department profile

Eleanor Junkins, M.S.

Graduate student, Social-Personality Psychology

Department profile

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