The Association for Research in Personality is making its move to become one of the core professional associations for psychological researchers. From an informal group with no larger purpose than organizing an annual one-day preconference attached to SPSP, ARP now is associated with two major journals and is beginning a tradition of biannual conferences that will, I predict, soon be seen as the definitive don’t-miss event for personality psychologists. The first stand-alone meeting, last July in Evanston, Illinois, was exhilarating. The next one, in Riverside, California in June of 2011, promises to be even better.

The original idea for ARP came about at a small, one-time meeting of personality researchers held some years ago next to a beautiful New Hampshire lake. Late at night, after a few beverages, participants began to wonder why they didn’t see more of each other and why there were so few opportunities for personality psychologists to get together. APA had faded as a serious venue some years earlier (as the geniuses in charge of the convention succeeded in destroying the previously crucial Division 8 social hour), and SESP, while an excellent meeting, was, to put it mildly, unwelcoming to those of the personality persuasion. SPSP was much better but almost immediately became a victim of its own success, as it grew to a large meeting with literally thousands of participants overwhelmingly dominated by social psychologists.

To make matters worse, many personality psychologists had developed more than a touch of semi-justified paranoia. They had endured the “person-situation debate” which created an existential crisis for personality psychology that few if any other fields of research have ever had to face. They had seen the widespread acceptance of the “fundamental attribution error” and its message that personality, if it does exist, is less important than we think. They had seen major personality programs dismantled at Berkeley, UCLA, and Harvard, among other places, and wondered where their students could ever get a job – even if they had managed to find one themselves. They had stood up in symposia at SPSP, or APA, or SESP (if they managed to sneak in) to present their latest research only to face questions like, “how does any of this matter, since personality only explains 9% of the variance?” Not that this is an illegitimate question – it’s just that one gets tired of answering it for the umpty-umpth time when one has some exciting new data or theory to talk about.

This is why personality psychology needs a home and to provide that home is the most important mission of ARP. ARP provides a place for personality psychologists to be among intellectual friends – the best kind, friends who will challenge your evidence and your conclusions and force you to make your sharpest argument, but who also appreciate what you are doing because they understand that personality is important. That atmosphere was what made the Evanston meeting so exciting, and why I, for one, can’t wait for our next one.

The meetings are not all ARP does. In between, ARP helps us stay in touch with one another through this newsletter, which was founded (and brilliantly named) by Brian Little. Brian is one of the early heroes of ARP, and the Association will always owe him a debt for his efforts to get it going during its early days. Simine Vazire and Chris Soto have graciously agreed to follow in Brian’s footsteps as the new Editors. The Journal of Research in Personality, published by Elsevier (formerly by Academic Press), has long been the official journal of ARP, and it has been encouraging to watch it grow in influence, citations, and even physical size (for those of us who still look at paper journals) over the years. ARP is also a partner and part-owner in Social Psychological and Personality Science, a promising new journal published by a consortium of scientific societies. Notice the second “P” in SPPS. It didn’t get there by accident.

I am glad ARP is thriving, excited by its future prospects, and honored to be the President for 2010-2011. Be sure to renew your membership and help us to recruit new members – especially students! – who would benefit from ARP. See you at the next meeting.