Positive Psychology Center
Jeremy (Jer) D. W. Clifton received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania studying with Dr. Martin Seligman (advisor), Dr. Angela Duckworth (committee chair), and Dr. Robert DeRubeis. His primary research area concerns primal world beliefs, with a secondary focus on measurement. Publications include the 2019 Psychological Assessment article introducing primal world beliefs that was recently featured in the Washington Post and a 2019 Psychological Methods article on tradeoffs between validity and reliability.
He is currently Senior Research Scientist at the UPenn Positive Psychology Center, Director of the UPenn Primals Initiative, chair of the Primals Research Awards Steering Committee, and teaches research methods in the UPenn Master of Applied Positive Psychology program.
Dr. Clifton received the 2024 APS Rising Star award. This award “recognizes researchers whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions”.
APS Rising Star Award
Primals World Beliefs Website
Discover Your Primals: Take the Primals Inventory
Jer’s CV
Foundational Scientific Article on Primal World Beliefs
Washington Post Article on Primal World Beliefs