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University of Wyoming

Personality and Psychopathology Lab


    My research activities have centered on basic affective and cognitive processes in personality functioning and in psychopathology (primarily depression).  Within these broader interests, I have the following more specific areas of interest:

Cognitive Self-Regulation

        Cognitive self-regulation refers to basic cognitive skills that enable people to direct and sustain action in order to achieve desired goals.  A large literature, both experimental and correlational, has supported the importance of cognitive self-regulatory processes (e.g., goal representations, self-efficacy judgments) in motivation, affect, and behavioral performance (See Bandura, 1997; Caprara & Cervone, 2000; Mischel, 2007).  I am interested in how cognitive self-regulation can impact depression (see Scott et al., 2008, Lindsey & Scott, 2005) as well as in how affective states can impact these cognitive self-regulatory processes (see Cervone, Kopp, Schaumann, & Scott, 1994; Scott & Cervone, 2002; Tillema, Cervone, & Scott 2001).

Affective and Cognitive Processes in Depression

    I am also interested in the role basic affective and cognitive processes play in depression.  On the affective side, I am interested in whether individual differences in affective styles and genotypes contribute to depression (see Beevers, Scott, McGeary, & McGeary, in press; Hamill, Scott, Dearing, & Pepper, under review; Scott, Winter, & Beevers, 2000).  In several book chapters (Scott, Winters, & Beever, 2000; Winters, Scott, & Beevers, 2000), I have argued that affective processes are fundamental in depression, and that specific types of negative affect (i.e., sadness and irritability) in depression will possess distinctive correlates.  Several studies have provided initial support for these hypotheses (Scott, Ingram, & Shadel, 2003; Scott & Steidtmann, 2006).

    I have also been interested in how depressed or depression vulnerable individuals process information and whether the nature of this processing confers some vulnerability to depression (Beevers, Scott, McGeary, & McGeary, in press; Ingram, Partridge, Scott, & Bernet, 1994; Ingram, R., Slater, M.A., Atkinson, J.H., & Scott, W.D., 1990; Scott, Beevers, & Mermelstein, 2008).


Resiliency and Depression in Native American Youth

    Since 2001, I have been involved in working with Northern Arapahoe youth on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.  We have investigated basic cognitive and affective processes that appear to be associated with resiliency and depression in these Native youth.  We have also been involved in developing an intervention that attempts to promote optimal cognitive self-regulation in these youth (see Scott, Reynolds, Dearing, Lindsay, Hamill, & Baird, 2008; Hamill, Scott, Dearing, & Pepper, under review).

Social Cognitive Personality Science and Personality Assessment

    I am presently working on a manuscript that applies contemporary personality science to developing new approaches to personality assessment.  Many of the personality assessment tools typically employed by clinicians have failed to demonstrate acceptable levels of reliability and validity (Wood, Nezworski, & Stejskal, 1996).  Moreover, these assessment techniques are often based on outdated personality theories.  However, in the past 30 years or so, there have been tremendous developments in personality science (Caprara & Cervone, 2000) that have yet to be applied to personality assessment (see Cervone, Jensius, & Shadel, 2001; Shadel, 2004).