Evaluating Individual Differences in Psychological Processes

Better understanding individual differences in social, cognitive, and behavioral processes is a core goal of much psychological theory and research. Although great progress has been made toward this goal, I argue here that the classical design and analysis approach that dominates individual difference research, namely, the collection of single-time-point data and application of standard linear regression models, potentially limits further advances. In particular, the opportunity to evaluate individual differences in psychological processes is restricted by the estimation of a single effect to represent the relationship between variables. I discuss alternative analysis and design options that offer the opportunity to more fully examine individual differences in psychological processes.