My current research interest is the study of explicit motivation, with a specific focus on taxonomic and measurement issues, and the relation between aspects of person's goals and their personality traits. While traits have proven useful for characterizing global individual differences, narrower goal units more closely capture the fabric of everyday life. From my initial studies, it seems that trait differences between persons are manifested in individuals' goals, but the taxonomic structure of traits (the five-factor model) does not provide an adequate classification system for describing explicit motives. As an alternative, I am currently identifying various domains of life activity to use as a basis for developing goal taxonomy. Within this kind of framework, the contextual specificity also characterizes the relation between traits and explicit motives; so that the relation between goal characteristics and personality traits varies across different life domains.

My general interests in personality assessment, structure, and development also coalesce in the study of personality consistency and change. I am especially interested in developing an alternative measurement foundation for assessing similarities and differences in personality that integrates psychometrics and psychophysical scaling. This line of research uses the "just noticeable difference" of classical psychophysics as a basic unit for describing differences in behavior and personality.

I am also interested in philosophy of science and research methods. General principles of scientific practice sometimes fail to adequately account for specificity introduced by instrumentation and techniques of data collection. Method variance in personality assessment is one such case that I have examined. My eventual goal is a larger understanding of the epistemic role of method in psychological research.

Primary Interests:

Life Satisfaction, Well-Being
Motivation, Goal Setting
Personality, Individual Differences
Research Methods, Assessment

Life Satisfaction, Well-Being
Motivation, Goal Setting

Personality, Individual Differences
Research Methods, Assessment

Books:

Funder, D. C., & Ozer, D. J. (Eds.). (2010). Pieces of the personality puzzle: Readings in theory and research (5th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

Journal Articles:

Funder, D. C., & Ozer, D. J. (1983). Behavior as a function of the situation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 107-112.
Kaiser, R. T., & Ozer, D. J. (1997). Emotional stability and goal-related stress. Personality and Individual Differences, 22, 371-379.
Mroczek, D. K., Ozer, D. J., Spiro, A., & Kaiser, R. T. (1998). Evaluating a measure of the five factor model of personality. Assessment, 5, 287-301.
Mroczek, D. K., Spiro, A., Aldwin, C. M., Ozer, D. J., & Bossé, R. (1993). Construct validation of optimism and pessimism in older men: Findings from the Normative Aging Study. Health Psychology, 12, 406-409.
Ozer, D. J. (2004 ). Personality out of proportion? Journal of Personality Assessment, 83, 131-135.
Ozer, D. J. (1993). Classical psychophysics and the assessment of agreement and accuracy in judgments of personality. Journal of Personality, 61, 739-767.
Ozer, D. J. (1985). Correlation and the coefficient of determination. Psychological Bulletin, 97, 307-315.
Ozer, D. J., & Benet-Martinez, V. (2006). Personality and the prediction of consequential outcomes. Annual Review of Psychology, 57.
Ozer, D. J., & Gjerde, P. F. (1989). Patterns of personality consistency and change from childhood through adolescence. Journal of Personality, 57, 483-507.
Ozer, D. J., & Reise, S. P. (1994). Personality assessment. Annual Review of Psychology, 45, 357- 388.
Smith, R. H., Parrott, W. G., Ozer, D. J., & Moniz, A. (1994). Subjective injustice and inferiority as predictors of hostile and depressive feelings in envy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 705-711.

Other Publications:

Ozer, D. J. (1999). Four principles for personality assessment. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Ozer, D. J. (1993). The Q-sort method and the study of personality development. In D. Funder, R. Parke, C. Tomlinson-Keasey, & K. Widaman (Eds.), Studying lives through time: Approaches to personality and development. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Ozer, D. J. (1989). Construct validity in personality assessment. In D. M. Buss & N. Cantor (Eds.), Personality Psychology: Recent Trends and Emerging Directions. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Courses Taught:

Multiple Regression and Correlation Analysis
Personality Assessment
Psychological Methods: Statistical Procedures
Research Methods in Personality

Multiple Regression and Correlation Analysis
Personality Assessment

Psychological Methods: Statistical Procedures
Research Methods in Personality

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Daniel Ozer
Department of Psychology
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521
United States

Phone: (951) 827-5211