Research Interests
- Individual differences
- Measurement
- Gender and sexuality
- Behavior genetics
I am an interdisciplinary scientist, working at the intersection of personality psychology and molecular genetics. My dual expertise in genetic methods and psychological assessment has led to the development of a research program organized around understanding how people, for all the fundamental similarities across members of our species, display such remarkable diversity and flexibility of behavior.
I am not accepting new graduate students to begin in Fall 2025.
Education
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado
Psychology, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Psychology, B.S., Carnegie Mellon University
Courses Taught
- PSYC 408: Human Behavior Genetics (Fall)
- PSYC 567: Personality Assessment (Spring)
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, Psychology
Affiliate, Center for Social & Behavioral Science
Recent Publications
Junkins, E. J., Kadel, B. E., & Derringer, J. (2025). Parental and partner attachment working models in romantic relationships of nonbinary adults. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 42(5), 1178-1198. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075251316318
Junkins, E. J., Briley, D. A., & Derringer, J. (Accepted/In press). The Assessment and Heritability of a Brief Measure of Agency. Behavior genetics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-025-10220-6
Junkins, EJ., Ogolsky, BG., & Derringer, J. (2024). Not Like Everybody Else but We're the Same: Psychosocial Variables Compared Across Diverse Sexual and Gender Identities. Journal of Personality. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12989
Junkins, E. J., Pantin, K., & Derringer, J. (2024). Personality across diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in an online convenience sample. Journal of Research in Personality, 109, Article 104466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2024.104466
Junkins, E. J., Dugan, K. A., Chehab, S., Han, Y. S., Liu, T., Yuan, J., & Derringer, J. (2024). Systematic review of queer and minority identities in romantic relationships research. Psychology and Sexuality, 15(4), 517-538. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2024.2307045