Grand Rounds: Aidan G. C. Wright, Ph.D.

Aidan Wright, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Phil F. Jenkins Research Professor of Depression in the Eisenberg Family Depression Center at the University of Michigan. His work is motivated by the observation that who we are (our personality) is related to the problems we have (psychopathology, physical health problems, relationship difficulties). In his research he uses a number of approaches, but most often he conducts studies using ambulatory assessment (e.g., smartphone surveys, passive sensing) to study participants naturalistically and intensively in their daily lives. This is where the action is—where individuals brush up against important contexts and work to overcome the natural friction of life—and where the processes that drive our personalities and our problems are revealed. He interrogates the long strings of data that emerge from these studies using a variety of advanced quantitative approaches, including methods designed to develop personalized predictive models of psychopathology.