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Department of Psychology

Biography

Professor Brian R. Little received his early education in British Columbia and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.  His research lies at the intersection of personality, developmental and applied psychology.  He has taught at Oxford, Carleton and Harvard Universities and received numerous awards for his teaching and research. Since 2000 he has been Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at Carleton and since 2010 has been directing the Social Ecology Research Group (SERG) at Cambridge.

Research

Four areas of current research interest:

Personal Projects Analysis.

Little created Personal Projects Analysis (PPA) as a general methodology for examining the daily pursuits of individuals and groups.  PPA was influential in stimulating research on goal pursuit in the fields of personality, social, clinical, organizational and developmental psychology.  A comprehensive treatment of this research is found in the book Personal Project Pursuit: Goals, Action and Human Flourishing.  Research with PPA continues to expand and includes psychometric explorations of the methodology, cross-cultural explorations of the content and appraisal of personal projects and studies of the links between personal project features and well-being.

Social Ecology of Human Development.

Little’s social ecological framework for studying human development was one of the first to focus explicitly upon the measurement of human-environment transactions and the importance of such transactions for public policy. He continues to do research within this framework and is particularly interested in the link between personality, contexts and personal projects in transitions across the life-span.

Person-Thing Orientation.

In the early seventies Little published articles on the developmental significance of differential orientation toward persons and things.  The Thing-Person Scale (T-P Scale) was used to assess individual differences in orientation toward person and things. Although little came of that early work, there is currently considerable interest in such differential orientation, particularly in studies of sex differences and of psychopathology.  A new series of studies on differential orientation is currently under way.

Well being.

The study of personal projects, human development and differential orientation all converge in Little’s research program on the factors that drive and sustain human well-being.  With the benefit of collegial links to The Well-being Institute at Cambridge, Little is developing a comprehensive theory and set of assessment tools for the exploration of the quality of lives, well-being and flourishing.  He is particularly interested in the incorporation of perspectives from philosophy, economics and anthropology into a comprehensive theory of well-being.

Publications

Key publications: 

Little, B. R. (2017). Who are you really? The surprising puzzle of personality. New York: Simon & Schuster (TED Books).

Little B.R. (2016) Well-doing: Personal projects and the social ecology of flourishing. In: Vittersø J. (ed.) Handbook of eudaimonic well-being. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham.

Little, B. R., & Coulombe, S. (2015). Personal projects analysis. In International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2nd edition). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.

 Little, B. R. (2014a). Well-doing: Personal projects and the quality of lives. Theory and Research in Education. 12(3), 329–346.

Little, B. R. (2014b). Me, myself and us: The science of personality and the art of well-being. New York: Public Affairs Press.

Little, B. R. (2011). Personality science and the northern tilt: As positive as possible under the circumstances. In K. M. Sheldon, T. B. Kashdan & M. F. Steger (Eds.), Designing positive psychology: Taking stock and moving forward (pp. 228-247). New York: Oxford.

Little, B. R. (2008). Personal projects and free traits: personality and motivation reconsidered. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(3), 1235-1254.

 Little, B. R., & Chambers, N. C. (2008). Personal project pursuit: On human doings and well beings. In W H. Cox & E. Klinger (Eds.) Handbook of Motivational Counseling: Concepts, Approaches and Assessment. New York: Wiley.

Little, B. R. (2007). Prompt and circumstance: The generative contexts of personal projects analysis. In B. R. Little, K. Salmela-Aro & S. D. Phillips (Eds.), Personal project pursuit: Goals, action, and human flourishing (pp. 3-49). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Little, B. R., & Gee, T. L. (2007). The methodology of personal projects analysis: Four modules and a funnel. In B. R. Little, K. Salmela-Aro & S. D. Phillips (Eds.), Personal Project Pursuit: Goals, Action and Human Flourishing (pp. 51-93). Mahwah, NJ. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Little, B. R., & Grant, A. (2007). The sustainable pursuit of core projects. In B. R. Little, K. Salmela-Aro, & S. D. Phillips (Eds.), Personal Project Pursuit: Goals, Action and Human Flourishing (pp. 403-444). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Little, B. R., & Joseph, M. F. (2007). Personal projects and free traits: Mutable selves and well beings. In B. R. Little, K. Salmela-Aro & S. D. Phillips (Eds.), Personal Project Pursuit: Goals, Action and Human Flourishing (pp. 51-93). Mahwah, NJ. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Little, B. R., Salmela-Aro, K., & Phillips, S. D. (2007). Personal Project Pursuit: Goals, Action and Human Flourishing. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 

McGregor, I., McAdams, D., & Little, B. R. (2006). Personal projects, life stories, and happiness: On being true to traits. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(5), 551-572.

Little, B. R. (2006). Personality science and self-regulation: Personal projects as integrative units. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 55(3), 419-427.

Little, B. R. (2005). Personality science and personal projects: Six impossible things before breakfast. Journal of Research in Personality, 39, 4-21.

Little, B. R. (2000). Free traits and personal contexts: Expanding a social ecological model of well-being. In. W. B. Walsh, K. H. Craik & R, Price (Eds.), Person environment psychology (2nd edition) (pp. 87-116). New York: Guilford.

Little, B. R. (1999a). Personal projects and social ecology: Themes and variation across the life span. In J. Brandtstadter & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Action & self-development: Theory and research through the life span (pp. 197-221). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Little, B. R. (1999b). Personality and motivation: Personal action and the conative evolution. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of Personality Theory and Research. (2nd edition). New York: Guilford.

McGregor, I., & Little, B. R. (1998). Personal projects, happiness and meaning: On doing well and being yourself. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(2), 494-212. 

Little, B. R. (1996). Free traits, personal projects and idio-tapes: Three tiers for personality research. Psychological Inquiry, 8, 340-344.

Little, B. R., Lecci, L., & Watkinson, B. (1992). Personality and personal projects: Linking Big Five and PAC units of analysis. Journal of Personality, 60(2), 501-525. 

Little, B. R. (1989). Personal projects analysis: Trivial pursuits, magnificent obsessions, and the search for coherence. In D. Buss & N. Cantor (Eds.), Personality psychology: Recent trends and emerging directions (pp. 15-31). New York: Springer-Verlag. 

Little, B. R. (1987). Personality and the environment. In D. Stokols & I. Altman (Eds.), Handbook of environmental psychology (pp. 205-244). New York: Wiley.

Palys, T. S., & Little, B. R. (1983). Perceived life satisfaction and the organization of personal project systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 1221-1230.

Little, B. R. (1983). Personal projects: A rationale and method for investigation. Environment and Behavior, 15, 273-309.

Little, B. R., & Ryan, T. J. (1979). A social ecological model of development. In K. Ishwaran (Ed.), Childhood and Adolescence in Canada (pp. 273–301). Toronto, Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Little, B. R. (1972). Psychological man as scientist, humanist and specialist. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 6, 95-118.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distinguished Scholar
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