![Whitney Ringwald](/sites/cla.umn.edu/files/styles/profile_photo/public/pictures/2024-08/RingwaldWhitney_4768_500x500.jpg?h=2a479378&itok=GaWgCNYv)
Whitney Ringwald
75 East River Parkway
Minneapolis,
MN
55455
My research bridges clinical and personality science to understand what people do from day-to-day that allows them to thrive and what causes and maintains their problems. Importantly, people differ in what makes them feel fulfilled and in the types of problems they have. Personality and psychopathology describe these ways that people differ––personality reflects normal range differences in how people manage in daily life and psychopathology reflects differences in how people struggle to meet their needs. I conceptualize these individual differences as characteristic transactions between a person and their environment, including the types of situations people typically chose to be in and how they typically perceive and respond to situations. To study these processes, I use ambulatory assessment methods (e.g., self-report surveys, smartphone sensor data) that involve intensive, repeated sampling of real-life behavior and contexts, and then apply various quantitative methods to capture key dynamics. By defining individual differences based directly on what people actually do in their everyday lives, my research aims to provide actionable targets for personalized clinical interventions.
Educational Background
- Ph.D.: Psychology, University of Pittsburgh
- M.S.W.: Social Work, University of Pittsburgh
Specialties
- Psychopathology
- Personality
- Ambulatory assessment
- Measurement