Peter Chenery

After high-school, Peter spent five years working with the volunteer organisation Youth With A Mission in Newcastle, Australia. He helped train and send over 200 young people into cross-cultural settings to deliver humanitarian aid and spiritual support to these communities. Working as a mentor and facilitator of these outreach programs, Peter developed an interest in helping people become their best self. He decided to pursue and complete an undergraduate degree in psychology, specialising in personality dynamics during his Honours year. Applying for PhD candidature in the domain of personality psychology, Peter’s research interests include how people differ from moment to moment, how these differences influence their relationships with others, and how we can best support those experiencing dramatic shifts in who they are.

For his honours thesis, Peter used ecological momentary assessment to study momentary personality states of Conscientiousness and Neuroticism — how well trait measures predict the average and stability of everyday states, and whether personality impairment predicts people’s accuracy in forecasting their own state fluctuations. That idiographic focus now anchors his PhD.

Research interests: Personality Dynamics, Personality Disorders, Interpersonal Disorders