About PRDD
The Personality and Relationship Development/Dynamics Research Group studies how personality shapes the way relationships begin, grow, and end. Undergraduates take part in every step of the work.
OUR STORY
Our history
Dr. Grace White founded PRDD at the University of Central Florida in 2011. Her goal was to introduce undergraduates to the research process while continuing scholarly work in her own areas of interest. Since then, student research assistants have presented at conferences and co-authored peer-reviewed articles with the lab.
FACULTY MENTOR
Meet the director
Grace White, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in the UCF Department of Psychology. She holds a B.S. in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Psychology with an emphasis in Personality and Social Psychology. Her graduate research examined personality assessment, the dyadic processes of relationship and marital functioning, and the social psychological constructs that shape how people see their world.
How students work with PRDD
Every student researcher works under Dr. White's supervision and mentoring.
Research assistants
Help with hypotheses, literature searches, data collection, analysis, presentations, and publication.
Independent projects
Lead your own study, from hypotheses and IRB submission through data analysis, with faculty guidance.
Honors in the Major
Build a thesis around your own interests within personality or social psychology.
What we study
PRDD research connects personality assessment with how romantic relationships develop and how partners keep them going over time.
Getting started
Friendship, sexual attraction, and the other factors that lead people into a relationship.
Staying together
The everyday behaviors that keep a relationship going.
How it turns out
Outcomes such as relationship satisfaction and dissolution.
Students shape the questions too. Dr. White welcomes project ideas from student researchers that fit personality or social psychology.