The SAMPL Lab is working on developing a battery of theoretically and empirically grounded measures of temperament/personality across the lifespan to increase understanding of how temperament/personality traits contribute to the development of psychopathology, internalizing spectrum in particular. Existing parent-report measures of child temperament may not be providing the information they were intended to provide as indicated in Dr. Kotelnikova’s past publications (see Kotelnikova et al., 2016, 2017). Further, additional statistically rigorous research is needed to understand the nature and structure of observed child temperament (e.g., Kotelnikova et al., 2013). As a result, our team is working on filling this gap in the extant literature. In particular, we are using a rigorous, evidence-based approach to develop an informant-report measure of temperament in preschoolers and carefully selecting corresponding cognitive/behavioral tasks for validation of this measure. Given the large scope of this project, all graduate trainees in the SAMPL lab contribute to this project. Multiple studies comprise this project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant, American Psychological Foundation John and Polly Sparks Early Career Grant for Psychologists Investigating Serious Emotional Disturbance, and Faculty of Education Support for the Advancement of Scholarship (SAS) Operating Grant to Dr. Kotelnikova. This project was approved by the U of A Human REB#2 Pro00134961. Data collection is currently ongoing. 

Middle childhood or early adolescence (10-13 age range) is a time when youth experience many biological and physical changes (e.g., brain development, puberty), discover their identity, place greater importance on peer relationships, and explore risky behaviors (e.g., substance use). Self-regulation refers to one’s ability to modulate their behavior and emotions (e.g., expression of anger). It is a skill set that rapidly develops at this stage. Delays in developing self-regulation can result in negative short-and long-term outcomes for youth (e.g., school difficulties, troubles with friends, substance use disorders). In the current study, youth completed cognitive-behavioural tasks (i.e., ‘brain games') and their caregivers completed a novel questionnaire and other existing informant-report measures of self-regulation. 220 families participated in our study (220 primary caregivers and 220 10-13-year-olds, N=120). By conducting advanced statistical analyses with these data, we will be able to develop a better understanding of the nature and structure of self-regulation in 10-13-year-olds. We will be able to gain further insight into how self-regulation develops in late middle childhood/early adolescence. In this study, we have also piloted a new caregiver-report measure that can help identify youth at risk for delays in developing self-regulation skills. Improved identification of at-risk youth will help with securing timely educational and social-emotional supports before self-regulation concerns become more challenging. We also hope that our findings will advance the training of mental health professionals and educators. This project was funded by the Killam Research Fund - Killam Cornerstone Grant to Dr. Kotelnikova. This project was approved by the U of A Human REB#2 Pro00146675. We have now completed data collection for this study. We would like to thank all families in Alberta who helped us with this study! Stay tuned for upcoming presentations and publications!

Workplace satisfaction is an important factor in understanding the stress levels, productivity, and job performance of staff in different settings, including libraries. Libraries, both public and academic, have been noted as particularly dysfunctional workplaces with multiple publications recently produced on this subject; therefore, gaining a better understanding of library staff workplace needs may facilitate the overall improvement of the work culture. There are numerous benefits to understanding what components foster a positive workplace, such as mitigating poor outcomes that are associated with workplace dissatisfaction, including high turnover and absenteeism. This study involves the development and validation of a multi-domain measure with the goal of accurately measuring the factors of job satisfaction that are important to library workers across Canada. In the current study, participants completed a novel questionnaire and other existing self-report measures of job satisfaction, personality, and wellness. We have now completed data collection with 617 participants from across Canada. Data analysis is currently underway. This project is a personal interest of one of our graduate trainees, Kiranpreet Ghag, who has spent many years working in the Canadian public library system. This project was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Explore Grant and the Faculty of Education Support for the Advancement of Scholarship (SAS) Operating Grant to Dr. Kotelnikova. This project was approved by the U of A Human REB#2 Pro00145639. We would like to thank all library workers across Canada who helped us with this study! In April-May, 2025, Kiranpreet presented preliminary results of this study at the 39th Annual Royce Conference in Psychology and the Annual University of Alberta Graduate Conference in Education. Stay tuned for upcoming presentations and publications!

How do we make judgements about someone’s personality? The goal of this study was to develop a better understanding of judgements of personality, including both adaptive and maladaptive traits, based on appearance, as well as to create a high-quality set of photographic measures to fill the gap that currently exists in the literature. This research aims to show the broader implications personality judgements can have in higher education, employment decisions, medical scenarios, and interpersonal relationships, as well as the theoretical implications in the fields of personality, industrial/occupational, and social psychology. This project was undertaken by the SAMPL lab during the time when Dr. Kotelnikova held a position of an Assistant Professor in the Applied Developmental Psychology, University of New Orleans. Data collection for this project was completed June, 2021; we collected data from approximately 900 participants, and publications from this project are currently underway. We would like to thank everyone who participated in this study! This project was funded by the University of New Orleans Office of Research Start-up Grant to Dr. Kotelnikova. This study was approved by the University of New Orleans Institutional Review Board (IRB).