Jeremy Frimer, M.A., Ph.D.

 

I am a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, studying personality development with Larry Walker. 

My program of research explores the psychological functioning of moral heroes (such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.). I believe that most of what makes these heroes special is developmental in nature. In other words,  heroes are not just different kinds of people when compared to ordinary folks; rather, these differences are a result of normal developmental processes that either stagnate or go awry for most people. My research aims to pinpoint those specific aspects of personality and to explore, using the methods of science, how they develop. This would, in turn, give parents, educators, and societal leaders a toolkit for helping foster moral development in the next generation, and thereby make heroism more common.

My current research explores the question of moral motivation. Does doing right by others require that we overcome our self-interest? Or, at a deeper level, is it even more personally gratifying to be kind and generous? In a recent paper, I find evidence that suggests that people who devoted decades of their lives to helping others have integrated their self-interested motives with their compassionate motives. In this state of enlightened self-interest, the best way for these people to promote their own interests is by promoting the interests of others. So, with development, we can have our cake and eat it too.


research instrument

Values Embedded in Narrative (VEiN) coding manual. download. When people tell stories, implicit motives emerge.    Sometimes, people speak in terms of achievements.  Other times, people express concern for the welfare of others.  Or people might show a desire to fit in to social group.  The more often a person voices a motive, the more important that motive is to the individual.  That is, frequency of articulation is a proxy for the strength of a motive.  Moreover, the way people organize their motives provides additional insights into their psychological functioning.  The VEiN coding manual outlines a reliable methodology for coding values out of any narrative text.

publications

*Frimer, J. A., Biesanz, J. C., Walker, L. J., & MacKinlay, C. W. (under review). Righteous Among the Partisans:  Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Common Moral Foundations When Judging the Character of Famous People. pdf

*Frimer, J. A., Walker, L. J., Riches, A., Lee, B., & Dunlop, W. L. (in press). Hierarchical integration of agency and communion: A study of influential moral figures. Journal of Personality. pdf

*Frimer, J. A., Walker, L. J., Dunlop, W. L., Lee, B., & Riches, A.  (2011).  The integration of agency and communion in moral personality: Evidence of enlightened self-interest.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 149-163. pdf

Walker, L. J., Frimer, J. A., & Dunlop, W. L.  (2011).  Paradigm assumptions about moral behavior: An empirical battle royal.  In M. Mikulincer & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), The social psychology of morality: Exploring the causes of good and evil (pp. 275-292).  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Walker, L. J., & Frimer, J. A.  (2011).  The science of moral development.  In M. K. Underwood & L. H. Rosen (Eds.), Social development: Relationships in infancy, childhood, and adolescence (pp. 235-262).  New York: Guilford Press.

*Walker, L. J., Frimer, J. A., & Dunlop, W. L. (2010). Varieties of moral personality: Beyond the banality of heroism. Journal of Personality, 78, 907-942. pdf popular press on this article

*Frimer, J. A. & Walker, L. J. (2009). Reconciling the self and morality: An empirical model of moral centrality development. Developmental Psychology, 45, 1669-1681. pdf

Walker, L. J., & Frimer, J. A. (2009). “The song remains the same”: Rebuttal to Sherblom’s re-envisioning of the legacy of the care challenge. Journal of Moral Education, 38, 53-68. pdf

Walker, L. J., & Frimer, J. A. (2009). Moral personality exemplified. In D. Narvaez & D. K. Lapsley (Eds.), Personality, identity and character: Explorations in moral psychology (pp. 232-255). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Frimer, J. A., & Walker, L. J. (2008). Towards a new paradigm of moral personhood. Journal of Moral Education, 37, 333-356. pdf

Walker, L. J., & Frimer, J. A. (2008). Being good for goodness’ sake: Transcendence in the lives of moral heroes. In F. K. Oser & W. M. M. H. Veugelers (Eds.), Getting involved: Global citizenship development and sources of moral values (pp. 309-326). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Frimer, J. A. (2008). Self-understanding (stages of). In F. C. Power, R. J. Nuzzi, D. Narvaez, D. K. Lapsley, & T. C. Hunt (Eds.), Moral education: A handbook (Vol. 2, pp. 402-404). Westport, CT: Praeger.

*Walker, L. J., & Frimer, J. A.  (2007).  Moral personality of brave and caring exemplars. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 845-860. pdf

Walker, L. J., Gustafson, P., & Frimer, J. A. (2007).  The application of Bayesian analysis to issues in developmental research.  International Journal of Behavioral Development, 31, 366-373. pdf

Walker, L. J., & Frimer, J. A. (2006). [Review of the book Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Vol. 51. Moral motivation through the life span]. Journal of Moral Education, 35, 271-274.

teaching

PSYC 315. Childhood and Adolescence. Fall 2010. syllabus. University of British Columbia.

PSYC 305A. Personality. Winter 2012. syllabus. University of British Columbia.

education

PhD. 2011. University of British Columbia. Developmental Psychology

MA. 2006. University of British Columbia. Developmental Psychology

BASc. 2002. University of British Columbia. Engineering Physics