Psychologist Jennifer Tackett’s research honored with an early career award

Dr. Jennifer Tackett’s research on self-dysregulation in children has earned her national recognition among her professional peers. She was recently named as the recipient of the 2013 Samuel J. and Anne G. Beck Award from the Society for Personality Assessment. The award is presented annually to recognize outstanding early career research in the field of personality assessment.

“The Society for Personality Assessment is a unique organization, filled with many psychologists who share my two primary backgrounds (identifying as both clinical and personality psychologists),” said Dr. Tackett. “In addition, their focus on assessment and measurement is in line with my own areas of clinical interest and expertise. It is an enormous honor to be recognized by the leading researchers integrating the disciplines of personality and clinical psychology and I look forward to close ties with the organization in the years to come.”

The award will be presented to Dr. Tackett during the SPA’s annual meeting in San Diego, CA in March 2013.

Dr. Tackett’s research examines how a subject’s personality can affect the development of psychopathology, as well as the clinical effectiveness of factoring personality into assessments and interventions in applied settings.

“For example, if you are developing a treatment plan for a child with inattention problems, your recommendations for an extremely shy, inattentive child might be different than your recommendations for an incredibly outgoing, inattentive child,” said Dr. Tackett. “In this way, attending to the child's personality may result in more effective targeted approaches in our clinical work. Many clinicians probably already incorporate information about personality implicitly, but my work supports the integration of explicit personality assessment and systematic integration into clinical assessment and treatment, even in work with younger populations.”

Dr. Tackett is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Science and Psychopathology Research at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Prior to coming to UH, she completed her clinical internship at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center and was a tenured member of the faculty at the University of Toronto.

“The Department of Psychology is extremely excited to have added Jennifer Tackett to the faculty this past year,” said Dr. David Francis, UH Psychology Department Chairman and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor. “Jennifer is a rising star in developmental psychopathology, and this award simply underscores what her colleagues in psychology already knew. This award from the Society for Personality Assessment signals that Jennifer is a first-rate scholar with significant international impact that will continue to grow.  We could not be more excited to have her among the faculty in the Department of Psychology.”

- Monica Byars