01 · Begin
A clear starting point
Whether the user is a research participant or exploring on their own, the app sets up the right session from the very first screen.
Part of the Self-Complexity Reboot Project
Rebuilding the Science of Identity
A new platform for measuring, visualizing, and analyzing self-complexity across time.
From individual identity mapping to publishable research outputs.
Tool-powered
Open science aligned
Cross-disciplinary by design
📐 Standardized Measurement Specification for formulas, guidance, and citation.
Identity Space
Network visualization of self-aspects across individuals
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public hub built to reconnect and reboot a fragmented field
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aligned layers: reboot project, research network, and Illinois initiative
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applications across psychology, health, education, business, leadership, performing arts, and more
What this is
A Field That Stalled. A System That Didn’t Exist.
Self-complexity has been influential for decades, but difficult to measure, compare, and scale. This platform changes that. It brings together structured identity mapping tools, reproducible measurement systems, interactive network visualizations, and publication-ready outputs in one unified, open framework.
Visual proof
From Self-Mapping to Scientific Insight
The fastest way to understand this ecosystem is to see the workflow. These screens show how identity is mapped, structured, visualized, and translated into research-ready analytics.
02 · Build
Define and rate self-aspects
Users specify roles and attributes across past, present, and future, rating each on importance, certainty, descriptiveness, visibility, and emotional valence.
03 · Visualize
See identity restructure across time
Three panels — past, present, future — show how self-aspects shift in centrality, emerge, fade, and reorganize. The visual fingerprint of self-complexity.
Why this matters
This is not just a site. It is an organizing layer for the field.
Most research hubs explain ideas. This one runs the tools alongside them. The app and dashboard are one click away, not buried behind a roadmap.
- The live tools are the centerpiece — not screenshots, not abstractions
- A connected workflow from individual mapping through publishable outputs
- Deeper context in the manifesto, tools, and network pages when you want it
Distinctive pairing
Visualize identity as a network. Quantify structure and change.
Identity Space shows self-aspects as a connected network across a cohort. Alongside it, the profile metrics and structured tables provide the quantitative scaffolding — distribution, change, and structure rendered in numbers as well as nodes.
Unified structure
A Unified Effort to Rebuild the Field
This ecosystem works because each layer has a distinct job. Together they create a public-facing network, a larger research movement, and an Illinois-based engine for execution.
Vision
Reboot Project
Revisiting theory, standardizing measurement, and advancing new metrics for the next generation of self-complexity research.
Community
Research Network
A growing collaboration of researchers, students, and developers contributing across disciplines and domains.
Infrastructure
Illinois Initiative
A research engine at the University of Illinois driving tools, studies, training, and future center-building.
Collaboration
Built for a Cross-Disciplinary Future
Self-complexity research extends far beyond psychology. This hub is designed to welcome collaborators wherever identity structure, role organization, development, performance, adaptation, or self-concept matter.
Behavioral and health sciences
Psychology, kinesiology, public health, cognitive science, and related areas examining adaptation, functioning, resilience, and identity.
Education, leadership, and organizations
Researchers exploring professional identity, learning, belonging, leadership development, transition, and self-concept in institutions and teams.
Arts, performance, and applied domains
Performing arts, business, coaching, design, and other applied spaces where identity dynamics shape behavior, creativity, decision-making, and growth.
Explore the platform
Launch the tools directly
This is a launchpad, not a brochure. The app and dashboard are live below — open either one and you're inside the working platform.
Platform access
- Launch the Self-Mapping App at /app/
- Open the Research Dashboard at /dashboard/
- Review the tools page for screenshots, use cases, and the broader workflow
No installation. No accounts. Fully browser-based.
Citable
Citable measurement framework
A dedicated specification page now provides download, citation, and versioned methods framing for psych-oriented scholarship.
Research-ready
Publication-ready outputs
The dashboard is more than a visualization layer. It produces interpretable tables, profiles, and analytic outputs ready for reporting and reuse.
Transparent
Open science aligned
Documentation, inspectable browser-based tools, and OSF-ready resources are part of the platform from day one.
Credibility layer
Grounded in literature. Built for open science.
The science is accessible without being thin. A few clicks surface the theory roots, the measurement agenda, and the open-science direction of the work.
Foundations
Classic theory + modern methods
Literature anchors on one side, working tools on the other. The app and dashboard extend classical self-complexity theory into measurable, inspectable structure.
Open pathway
Specs, preprints, workflows, and OSF-ready materials
Documentation and resources aren't an appendix — they're built into the platform alongside the tools they describe.
Led by Sean P. Mullen, PhD
Led by Sean P. Mullen, PhD
Associate Professor, Health and Kinesiology; Director, Exercise, Technology, and Cognition Laboratory; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
This project integrates research on identity, behavior, and digital health to advance the science and measurement of self-complexity.