What you can help shape
Measurement & methods
Refine legacy and new metrics, compare competing approaches, and pressure-test the measurement framework.
Get involved
Join the Self-Complexity Research Network
A simple way to connect with a growing effort to rebuild the science, measurement, and application of self-complexity.
Researchers, students, developers, and applied collaborators are all welcome. Quarterly updates, early access to specifications and tools, and a clear path to collaborate.
What you can help build
Studies & tools
Collaborate on multi-site studies, analytics, visualization, workflow design, and open-science infrastructure.
What you can help expand
Applications
Bring self-complexity into education, leadership, business, performing arts, health, HCI, and other domains.
Who this is for
This is intentionally broad. The network is built to welcome both foundational theory work and practical translation across disciplines.
Psychology
Behavioral science
Education
Business & leadership
Performing arts
Health & kinesiology
Human-computer interaction
Data science
Graduate and undergraduate trainees
Designers and developers
Applied practitioners
New collaborators with adjacent ideas
Identity domains we welcome
Self-complexity is identity-agnostic by design
The structural framework applies regardless of which identity content participants bring. We're actively supporting investigation across the domains below — and welcome researchers studying any of them. If your work focuses on an identity domain not yet listed, we want to hear from you.
Physical activity & athletic identity
Health, illness, disability, or recovery
Food, nutrition, & body-related
Aging-related
Educational & academic
STEM or professional
Artistic, creative, & performance
Language, communication, & cultural
Family, parenting, & caregiving
Gender-related
Sexual orientation-related
Racial or ethnic
Religious or spiritual
Geographic, place-based, & environmental
Political or civic
Occupational & career-related
Online, virtual, & gaming
Social media & influencer-related
Future or hoped-for selves
Feared or avoided selves
Possible selves in children & adolescents
Research interests across the network
Where shared methodology meets parallel programs
Self-complexity intersects with many programs of research. The network welcomes collaborators across these areas — for parallel work in your own domain, methodological alignment, or shared infrastructure. Open team science, not a competition. We learn from each other and grow together using shared measurements and metrics.
Self-complexity & identity architecture
Self-schema research
Possible selves & future selves
Identity development across the lifespan
Digital health & mHealth
Behavior change & self-regulation
Physical activity, exercise, & health behavior
Aging & gerontology
Education & learning sciences
Public health
AI & computational modeling
Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Longitudinal methods & measurement
Psychometrics & scale development
Open science & reproducibility
Intervention development
Social cognition
Personality & individual differences
Motivation & self-determination
Cognitive science & cognitive architecture
Clinical or rehabilitation applications
What you get right away
Early access to the platform
See how the self-mapping app and research dashboard fit together as a full research pipeline.
A clear way to plug in
Whether you care about theory, methods, applications, or tool-building, there is an obvious entry point.
A lighter-weight first step
You do not need a polished proposal. A simple note about your interests is enough to start the conversation.
What happens next
Simple now. Structured later.
1
Sign up
Complete the brief intake form, or send a short note by email.
2
Get oriented
Receive a confirmation and a short orientation note pointing to the tools, manuals, and specifications most relevant to your interest area.
3
Quarterly updates begin
You'll start receiving the network update at the next cycle. Working groups and collaborations follow as interest aligns.
Ways to participate
Many ways to engage with the network
Beyond signing up as a collaborator on a specific study, there's a range of ways researchers and trainees engage with the network. Mark any that fit on the intake form — none are required, and you can change your interests anytime.
General research updates
Collaboration opportunities
Advisory or feedback opportunities
Beta testing of the app & dashboard
Methods & measurement discussions
Intervention development
Longitudinal study collaboration
Open-source software development
Accessibility & usability feedback
Student or trainee collaboration
Manuscript or conceptual paper collaboration
Workshop or presentation opportunities
Data visualization & dashboard feedback
Community & network building
Sign up
Join the research network
About two minutes. Tell us your interests; we'll route you toward the closest tools, specifications, or collaborators.
The intake form is hosted on the secure University of Illinois forms service.
- Quarterly updates. Roughly four times a year: software releases, methodological notes, new specifications, publications, study opportunities, and open collaboration calls. Unsubscribe anytime.
- Early access to specifications and tools. New versions of the manuals, metric guides, app, and dashboard are shared with the network first.
- A pathway to collaborate. If you'd like to partner on a pilot, multi-site study, secondary analysis, or methodological paper, the network is the first stop.
Where the platform team's research currently focuses
Active research directions
The broader pills above describe the full range of identity domains and research interests the network welcomes. The areas below are where the platform team is currently most active and where parallel collaborations are particularly easy to align. None of these are exclusive — work in any other listed (or unlisted) domain is welcome.
Physical activity and exercise identity
How identity structure shapes engagement, persistence, and behavior change.
Illness and disability-related selves
How identity reorganizes around chronic illness, recovery, and disability.
Food and nutrition-related identities
How dietary identity influences and is influenced by broader self-structure.
Pro-environmental identities
How environmental concern integrates with self-organization and behavior.
Older-adult self-complexity and healthy aging
How identity structure evolves with age, retirement, and life transitions.
Parent–child possible selves
Hoped-for and feared future identities across generations.
Longitudinal and intervention work
How identity structure changes — and how it can be intentionally shaped through programs and interventions.
Domain-specific refinement
Optimization of the measurement framework within specific identity domains, including racial identity, gender identity, and health identity.
Methodological co-authorship
We're planning a pedagogical and methodological paper introducing the platform and dashboard to social and personality psychology — potentially for Social and Personality Psychology Compass. Indicate interest in the intake form.
Want to see the platform before reaching out?
Explore the self-mapping app and dashboard, then come back when you’re ready to connect.