Current Directions in Personality Science and the Potential for Advances through Computing

The past 20 years have seen dramatic advances in personality science, both in theory and methodology. Some of these advances reflect a natural but incremental conceptual evolution in a maturing science, but others can be attributed in part to the ever cheaper, more ubiquitous, powerful, and mobile computing. As a result, personality science in the 21st century is a fast-moving field poised to answer important questions across diverse areas, but it is also facing increasingly complex challenges related to assessing and summarizing the important features of human behavior. Computer science and engineering may hold the key to the next advances in personality science. In what is intended to serve as a complement to Vinciarelli and Mohammadi's Survey on Personality Computing , contemporary thinking and research in personality are summarized, the mounting importance of computing in personality research is highlighted, and an outline for future directions in personality computing is offered.