David Watson

Brief Biography

David Watson was born around 1953.

Watson obtained his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in psychology in 1975 from Santa Clara University, a Jesuit liberal arts college located in Santa Clara, California, adjacent to San Jose in Silicon Valley.

Founded in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest institution of higher learning in California. It traces its roots to the Spanish Mission Santa Clara de Asís, founded in 1777.

Watson received his PhD in personality psychology in 1982 from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

After graduation, Watson held a postdoc for two years in the Department of Psychiatry in Washington University’s School of Medicine, in St. Louis, Missouri.

After one one-year stint as a researcher at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, and another year at SMU as a Visiting Professor, Watson was appointed Assistant Professor at that institution. In 1989, he was promoted by SMU to the rank of Associate Professor.

In 1993, Watson moved to the University of Iowa in Iowa City, with the title of full Professor. 

In 2010, Watson was recruited by the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, with the title of Andrew J. McKenna Family Professor of Psychology. As of 2024, he continues to hold that title with Emeritus status.

Watson has worked in a wide variety of subfields of personality psychology, including, notably, the structure and measurement of personality, affect, and psychopathology. Under the latter heading, he has investigated such maladies as anxiety, mania, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, the personality disorders, and dissociation.

Watson has also headed up research into how personality traits relate to clinical disorders. 

Other areas of personality research that Watson has investigated include accuracy in person perception, mate preference, and stability vs. change across the lifespan.

Watson has stated that the ultimate goal of his work is to develop comprehensive taxonomies that synthesize normal and pathological psychological processes into a single, overarching theoretical model.

From 2006 until 2011, Watson served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Watson has authored or co-authored more than 460 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and is the author of the highly regarded textbook, Mood and Temperament (2000).

Notable Quotes

Note: The original sources of the following quotations attributed here to David Watson are provided where known. If no specific source is mentioned, then the attributed quotation may be assumed to derive from or (perhaps via paraphrase) be inspired by Watson’s many academic and popular writings.

Individual Differences

Personality is not a fixed trait but rather a dynamic system of individual differences.

Recognizing and appreciating individual differences is essential for understanding human diversity and promoting personal growth.

Variability in personality traits contributes to the richness and complexity of human interaction and experience.

Life Outcomes

Personality traits exert a pervasive influence on various life domains, including relationships, career success, and mental health.

Understanding one’s own personality can empower individuals to make informed decisions and navigate life challenges more effectively.

Personality Assessment

Psychological assessment is crucial for understanding the complexities of human nature.

Assessment tools provide valuable insights into personality structure and functioning.

Effective personality assessment requires the integration of multiple methods and perspectives.

Psychological assessment tools provide valuable insights into the structure and dynamics of personality, facilitating both research and clinical practice.

Effective personality assessment requires the use of multiple methods, including self-report measures, informant reports, and behavioral observations.

Personality assessment tools serve as valuable instruments for both research and applied settings, facilitating our understanding of individual differences.

Personality Dynamics

Personality is a complex interplay of traits, states, and situational factors, shaping our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Understanding personality requires a nuanced approach that considers both stable traits and dynamic processes.

Personality Psychology

Understanding the nuances of personality can shed light on a wide range of human behaviors and experiences.

Understanding the structure and dynamics of personality is essential for comprehending human behavior.

Empirical evidence forms the foundation of psychological science.

Rigorous research methodology is essential for advancing psychological knowledge.

Empirical research forms the bedrock of personality psychology, allowing us to uncover the underlying structure and mechanisms of personality.

Rigorous scientific inquiry is essential for advancing our understanding of human nature and individual differences.

Personality Traits

Personality traits are the building blocks of individual differences.

The Big Five traits—Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism—provide a comprehensive framework for understanding personality.

Each of the Big Five traits captures important dimensions of human personality, influencing various aspects of behavior and cognition.

The Big Five model provides a comprehensive framework for organizing and understanding the multitude of personality traits.

Each of the Big Five traits captures fundamental dimensions of personality, offering insights into human behavior across diverse contexts.

Watson on Watson

I actually entered the field [of personality psychology] not knowing much about it. As an undergrad I didn’t take a course in personality, but I had some exposure to it. It seemed to be the kind of field where theory met data, where you could address some of the big questions in a way that wasn’t just philosophical. It seemed like an exciting combination. Although I think if I initially understood the field, I wouldn’t have gotten into it.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

I started at Minnesota in 1975, during the great person-situation debate, which was a pretty dark time. A lot of people from grad school thought I was crazy for entering a dying and soon-to-be-dead field.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

I was torn between applying to graduate school and applying to law school, but I burned out on the application process before I got to the law schools. Every once in a while I wonder what would have happened had I gone to law school. I asked a friend of mine who became a lawyer and he said, “You’d probably become a law professor.”

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

I would say my career path was initially pretty uncertain. My first forays onto the job market were met with only a few nibbles. Luckily, I married well and Lee Anna [Clark] got a job at SMU, where something eventually opened up for me. Still, there were times when I was not convinced that I would ever get a full-time faculty position. But after I started at SMU, things started happening pretty fast, so I didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on that.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

I started as project coordinator on a grant [James W.] Jamie Pennebaker had, and shared an office with him for a year. His approach to science was really interesting and different than any I had ever seen, and one of the things I really respected about him was that he was not afraid of failure. He would develop an idea about something and pursue it, and during the time I was there he seemed to have a number of what initially appeared to be dead ends. But he was absolutely fearless—and creative. I’m not sure I’ve ever had that level of riskiness, but I have always respected that and tried to emulate it to some extent.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

I’m not sure my approach works for everyone, but it works for me because I’m interested in a lot of stuff and have never pursued a path where I’m only doing one thing. So, I’ve really enjoyed having a number of different students at the same time and allowing them to develop their own interests. That has really pushed me in different directions and kept my viewpoint fresh and creative.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

At Notre Dame, the lab is very much personality and psychopathology, but there are no boundaries. This creates a framework wherein people can carve out their own territory.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

At Iowa, I was working with both clinical and personality students, and there was a lot of overlap and integration between them. That was a very exciting and intellectually stimulating time. I’ve found I’m the kind of person who gets bored doing the same thing, so being able to go off in different directions is really neat.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

I’ve done a lot of different things, but probably the only wish I have now is that I would be young enough to embark on another 15–20-year longitudinal project, which no longer seems very feasible. Other things that people are doing now, like neuroscience, I’m fairly comfortable that I’m not working in those areas.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

There’s a lot we don’t know. I think we think we know a lot.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

One of the things that’s changed the most since I’ve been in the field is that we tend to talk the same language more now, which is really good.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

It’s important not to get jaded and think we’ve really got a firm handle on the specifics because I don’t think we do. But we’re getting there.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.

As the years go by, what really motivates me most and keeps me most interested are things that violate my expectations. I think like most people, I have pretty good defense mechanisms. When I’m looking through results, I probably filter them through a strong confirmatory bias where I see what I expect to see. But every once in a while I break through that and say, “Why the heck is this?” . . . [Y]ou begin to look at this, and it doesn’t make any sense. So, the things I’m most interested in now are the things that I look at that don’t make any sense to me.

Interview with Andrew Beer, “An Interview with 2015 Block Award Winner David Watson,” P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, November 2015, Issue 10.