Charles S. Carver

Charles S. Carver, distinguished professor of psychology in the University of Miami’s College of Arts and Sciences, has received the Jack Block award given by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), the largest organization of social and personality psychologists in the world. The honor is in recognition of his research accomplishments over the past 30 years, which have shaped modern personality psychology.

The award was presented to Carver at the 13th annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology on January 26 in San Diego, California.“This is a wonderful honor both for me and for my many collaborators,” Carver said. “Although the award is given to only one person, it really belongs to all of us.”

With the honor, Carver becomes the first person to receive awards for career contributions in the three disciplines of social, health, and personality psychology.

Carver received his doctoral degree in personality psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. His work spans the areas of personality psychology, social psychology, health psychology, and more recently experimental psychopathology. Specific topics he has worked on include stress and coping among cancer patients, the personality trait of optimism versus pessimism, and genetic and cognitive contributors to depression vulnerability. The National Science Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and the National Cancer Institute have supported his research.

He served six years as editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology’s section on Personality Processes and Individual Differences and is currently an associate editor of Psychological Review. Carver, who has spent his entire professional career at UM, has authored nine books and written more than 310 articles and chapters.

The late Jack Block, one of the leading personality psychologists of the 20th century, was known for his analytic sophistication, theoretical depth, and wide scholarship. Block’s trail-blazing academic pursuits led to an award that annually honors a scholar whose characteristics are associated with his work.

Carver received the award as recognition of his research that has helped shaped modern personality psychology on self-regulation over the past 30 years. His work also has examined individual differences in stress and coping and, more recently, the role of certain genes in self-regulation.