headshot Hi!

My name is Jaime Lane Derringer (pronouns: she/they). I’m an associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

I’m also the psych department’s Assistant Head of Information & Communication (complain to me about our website).

I am an interdisciplinary scientist, working at the intersection of personality psychology and molecular genetics. My dual expertise in genetic methods and psychological assessment has led to the development of a research program organized around understanding how people, for all the fundamental similarities across members of our species, display such remarkable diversity and flexibility of behavior. I co-run the Etiology of Personality and Individual Characteristics (EPIC) lab with Dr. D. A. Briley.

I am not accepting new graduate students for Fall 2027.

My current research, teaching, and service focus is on two topics: improving integration of gender & sexuality concepts in psychological science, and exploring how we (scientists, the public) understand human behavior genetics.

Expanding Gender and Sexuality in Psychological Science

“Queer not as being about who you’re having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but queer as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.”

bell hooks

Our lab’s research on gender and sexuality attempts to substantially broaden the inclusion of sexual and gender minority perspectives in the psychological sciences. We are developing and validating quantitative methods for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting diverse samples that will provide a framework for other scientists to diversify their own samples and questions.

Recent Papers

Below are some recent papers that are particularly relevant to my current work. You can view a full list of my publications on Google Scholar.

  • Briana L. Kunstman, Allison M. Woosley, & Jaime Derringer (2026). Public perception of genetic research on sexual orientation and gender identity. Behavior Genetics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-026-10257-1 (open access)

  • Eleanor J. Junkins & Jaime Derringer (2025). Gather demographic data about gender, sexuality, and relational identities: Asking the right questions. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/25152459251391186 (open access)

  • Eleanor J. Junkins, Brooke E. Kadel, & Jaime Derringer (2025). Parental and partner attachment working models in romantic relationships of nonbinary adults. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075251316318. Open access version: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/82dru_v1

  • Brooke E. Kadel, Eleanor J. Junkins, D. A. Briley, & Jaime Derringer (2025). Gender expression varies within diverse gender identities in adolescents and adults. PsyArXiv, https://osf.io/preprints/osf/3j7h6 (open access)

  • Briana Kunstman & Jaime Derringer (2025). “To know thyself”: A qualitative exploration of motivating factors for BDSM and kink participants who hold dominant identities. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-025-01216-2 (open access)

  • Eleanor J. Junkins, Brian G. Ogolsky, & Jaime Derringer (2024). Not like everybody else but we’re the same: Psychosocial variables across diverse sexual and gender identities. Journal of Personality, https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12989 (open access)

  • Eleanor J. Junkins, Keely A. Dugan, Samar Chehab, Y. Sarah Han, Tingyan Liu, Jiepeng Yuan, & Jaime Derringer (2024) Systematic review of queer and minority identities in romantic relationships research. Psychology & Sexuality, https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2024.2307045. Open access version: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/8c9ju

  • Eleanor J. Junkins, Kenzhane Pantin, & Jaime Derringer (2024). Personality across diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in an online convenience sample. Journal of Research in Personality, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2024.104466 (open access)

  • Kenzhane Pantin & Jaime Derringer (2020). A short measure of sexual self-concept. PsyArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2bqf8 (open access)

Understanding Human Behavior Genetics

Once we succeed in discovering and replicating specific genetic variants that are correlated with human behavior, we are still left with many fundamental questions unanswered - what comes next? For all the genes correlated with human behavior that have been identified in the last decade, our understanding of how these genes come to be correlated with behavior remains incredibly limited.

Much of the public perception of behavior genetics presumes the field as a whole landed on the genetic determinism side of the “Nature versus Nurture” debate, and is now working toward a goal of designer babies. One reason for this misunderstanding may be the tendency of the field to focus on high-stakes outcomes (like cognitive ability and mental health) and methods that prioritize genetic information over rich measures of environments and experiences.

Reckoning with the role behavior genetics has played in racism, white supremacy, and eugenics is a substantial challenge. I am committed to actively promoting anti-racist principles throughout the field of behavior genetics.

I teach Psyc 408 Human Behavior Genetics (open to undergrads and grad students) in the Fall semester of odd numbered years.

I’m posting my course materials as open educational resources for teaching behavior genetics at Human Behavior Genetics: A Workbook

Other Projects

In the Spring, I teach Psyc 567 Personality Assessment. Click here to view course materials.

Need to correct for non-independent tests? I’ve got a simple solution for that! (open access) I never bothered to move it past a pre-print, but the method is good. It’s an application of the Nyholt correction from genetics, but the concept applies equally well across fields/situations where you want to correct for multiple testing, but the tests/variables are correlated/not independent (so Bonferroni correction would be overly conservative).

“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”

not really Margaret Mead

Memes I Made

After All, Why Not? Why Shouldn't I Keep It? meme with the word 'keep' replaced with 'factor analyze'

Is This A Pigeon? meme with the person labeled 'Quantitative researchers' referring to the butterfly labeled 'A statistical interaction' asking 'Is this intersectionality?'

You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means meme with the word HERITABLE at the top

I may have committed some light treason meme with the word 'treason' replaced with 'eugenics'

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