Rene Mottus

Professor

  • Psychology
  • School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Contact details

Address

Street

Room S5, Psychology Building

City
7 George Square, Edinburgh
Post code
EH8 9JZ

Availability

  • During the term time, I am available at most times. Just pop into my room (S5) or drop me an email to arrange a meeting. Beyond term times, please email to arrange a meeting.

Background

I completed my BSc (2003), MSc (2005) and PhD (2009) in the University of Tartu, Estonia.

Having also worked as a clinical psychologist in a psychiatry clinic, I decided to fully  embark on an academic career.

Between 2010 and 2013, I was a post-doctoral researcher (and senior researcher) with the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology.

In 2013, I started as a lecturer in the Department of Psychology, becoming a reader in 2019 and professor in  2024.

Undergraduate teaching

I am usually teaching a course on human personality.

Consultation hours

I am around most of the time. Just pop in or email me to arrange a meeting.

Postgraduate teaching

I am teaching the Psychology of Individual Differences MSc core courses on personality and intelligence.

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

For both undergraduate and postgraduate students, I offer supervision topics related to personality and well-being.

Currently, I supervise PhD projects on personality traits and well-being based on the uniquely large and rich Estonian Biobank study.

Current PhD students supervised

  • Roxana Hofmann
  • Ling Xu
  • Ye Zhang
  • Ye Zeng
  • Xiaohui Deng

Past PhD students supervised

Research summary

I am interested in various topics related to human personality.

For example, I study how to most efficiently represent human personality. When should we employ broader and when narrower traits? We have worked on personality nuances as the most fundamental units of personality variance.

Also, I study the practical utility of personality traits by pushing the limits of accurately predicting life outcomes from traits.

I am also interested in personality development and behaviour genetics.

Besides personality traits, much of my work addresses well-being.

Occasionally, I also err on the other major side of individual differences, intelligence.

My empirical work is mostly based on the Estonian Biobank, a uniquely rich and large personality and well-being study that covers about 7% of the countries adult population

In the press

I host the Personality Psychology Podcast (find it on any major podcast platform) and have blogged for Psychology Today.

My research has been covered in various media outlets including The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and the BBC.