Jeffry Simpson
University of Minnesota · Psychology
Active 1962–2024
About
Jeffry Simpson is a professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, with a focus on the study of close relationships and interpersonal processes. His research investigates attachment processes, mating, social influence, relationships and physical health, and the role of social development on relationships, health, and parenting. His longstanding program of research on adult attachment, funded by NIMH, examines how attachment orientations are associated with relationship functioning and well-being, especially when partners are distressed. Additionally, his work on human mating, funded by NSF, explores decision-making in mating, gratification delay, and trade-offs on life history-relevant dimensions. Simpson's research also includes social influence tactics in relationships, health-related influence, and how early social experiences relate to mid-life health and well-being. His recent projects investigate how early life experiences and interpersonal factors influence parenting and co-parenting in adulthood. Simpson holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. in Political Science/Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has contributed extensively to the field through publications, editorial roles, and leadership positions, including serving as president of the International Association for Relationship Research and editor of prominent journals. His work has earned numerous awards, including the Distinguished Mentoring Award from the University of Minnesota and the Diener Award for Mid-Career Achievement from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
Research topics
- Psychology
- Computer Science
- Social psychology
- Clinical psychology
- Developmental psychology
- Demography
- Sociology
- Artificial Intelligence
- Social Science
- Computer Security
- Medicine
- Psychiatry
- Medical emergency
- Psychoanalysis
- Statistics
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Internal medicine
Selected publications
Associations between sexual assault and romantic relationship functioning: A mixed-methods analysis
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships · 2024 · 3 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Psychology
- Developmental psychology
- Social psychology
Background: Research on the relation between sexual assault (SA) and romantic functioning has yielded inconsistent results. The goals of the current studies were to examine this association while addressing limitations of past research; assessing revictimization, multiple victimization, and assault timing; and examining whether this association was moderated by neuroticism, attachment orientations, or perceived partner responsiveness. Design and Methods: College students (Study 1; N = 437) and community members (Study 2; N = 566) completed measures assessing SA, romantic functioning, attachment, neuroticism, and partner responsiveness. Study 2 used a mixed-methods approach. Data were collected via online surveys in psychology courses (Study 1) and on Prolific (Study 2). Results: In Study 1, SA was not associated with romantic functioning and this association was not moderated by attachment or neuroticism. In Study 2, SA survivors reported significantly poorer relationship quality and less partner trust, but not less sexual satisfaction. However, significant effects were small. Partner responsiveness did not moderate these associations, and revictimization, multiple victimizations, and assault recency were not related to poorer functioning. In qualitative data, the most common response was that the SA had not affected participants’ relationships. Conclusions: Relationships may be one area in which SA survivors demonstrate resilience.
The Lancet Psychiatry · 2023 · 12 citations
- Medicine
- Demography
- Psychology
BACKGROUND: The youngest children in a school class are more likely than the oldest to be diagnosed with ADHD, but this relative age effect is less frequent in older than in younger school-grade children. However, no study has explored the association between relative age and the persistence of ADHD diagnosis at older ages. We aimed to quantify the association between relative age and persistence of ADHD at older ages. METHODS: For this meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and PubPsych up to April 1, 2022, with terms related to "cohort" and "ADHD" with no date, publication type, or language restrictions. We gathered individual participant data from prospective cohorts that included at least ten children identified with ADHD before age 10 years. ADHD was defined by either a clinical diagnosis or symptoms exceeding clinical cutoffs. Relative age was recorded as the month of birth in relation to the school-entry cutoff date. Study authors were invited to share raw data or to apply a script to analyse data locally and generate anonymised results. Our outcome was ADHD status at a diagnostic reassessment, conducted at least 4 years after the initial assessment and after age 10 years. No information on sex, gender, or ethnicity was collected. We did a two-stage random-effects individual participant data meta-analysis to assess the association of relative age with persistence of ADHD at follow-up. This study was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42020212650. FINDINGS: =45%). Participant-level sensitivity analyses showed similar results in cohorts with a robust relative age effect at baseline and when restricting to cohorts involving children with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD or with a follow-up duration of more than 10 years. INTERPRETATION: The diagnosis of ADHD in younger children in a class is no more likely to be disconfirmed over time than that of older children in the class. One interpretation is that the relative age effect decreases the likelihood of children of older relative age receiving a diagnosis of ADHD, and another is that assigning a diagnostic label of ADHD leads to unexplored carryover effects of the initial diagnosis that persist over time. Future studies should be conducted to explore these interpretations further. FUNDING: None.
Current Opinion in Psychology · 2021 · 29 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Psychology
- Sociology
- Social psychology
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 293 citations
- Artificial Intelligence
- Computer Science
- Psychology
Given the powerful implications of relationship quality for health and well-being, a central mission of relationship science is explaining why some romantic relationships thrive more than others. This large-scale project used machine learning (i.e., Random Forests) to 1) quantify the extent to which relationship quality is predictable and 2) identify which constructs reliably predict relationship quality. Across 43 dyadic longitudinal datasets from 29 laboratories, the top relationship-specific predictors of relationship quality were perceived-partner commitment, appreciation, sexual satisfaction, perceived-partner satisfaction, and conflict. The top individual-difference predictors were life satisfaction, negative affect, depression, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiety. Overall, relationship-specific variables predicted up to 45% of variance at baseline, and up to 18% of variance at the end of each study. Individual differences also performed well (21% and 12%, respectively). Actor-reported variables (i.e., own relationship-specific and individual-difference variables) predicted two to four times more variance than partner-reported variables (i.e., the partner's ratings on those variables). Importantly, individual differences and partner reports had no predictive effects beyond actor-reported relationship-specific variables alone. These findings imply that the sum of all individual differences and partner experiences exert their influence on relationship quality via a person's own relationship-specific experiences, and effects due to moderation by individual differences and moderation by partner-reports may be quite small. Finally, relationship-quality change (i.e., increases or decreases in relationship quality over the course of a study) was largely unpredictable from any combination of self-report variables. This collective effort should guide future models of relationships.
Self-Efficacy and Declines Over Time in Attachment Anxiety During the Transition to Parenthood
Social Psychological and Personality Science · 2020 · 23 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Psychology
- Developmental psychology
- Social psychology
Attachment anxiety can decline in relationships but little is known about how or why. A new framework—the Attachment Security Enhancement Model (ASEM)—suggests that what allays current (momentary) insecurity may not necessarily reduce attachment anxiety across time. This article differentiates momentary versus extended attachment processes by examining concurrent versus longitudinal associations. Cohabitating partners ( N = 137 couples) were examined over a 2-year period as they became first-time parents, a transition that could change attachment tendencies. Consistent with ASEM predictions: (1) Anxiously attached spouses who perceived more proximal and sensitive reassurance from their partners felt less concurrent attachment anxiety but not less anxiety across time, and (2) attachment anxiety declined across time when spouses derived personal competence and self-efficacy from their new parenting role. These results document an important distinction between mitigating insecure thoughts and feelings that might reinforce attachment anxiety, versus encountering new experiences that may actually revise chronic insecurity.
Support Processes Predict Declines in Attachment Avoidance Across the Transition to Parenthood
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · 2020 · 23 citations
- Psychology
- Developmental psychology
- Social psychology
Attachment orientations in adulthood can change over time, but the specific circumstances that directly affect change are not well understood. Bowlby proposed that those circumstances involve the assimilation of information that is incongruent with an individual's existing attachment orientation and underlying working models. In this study, 137 couples transitioning to parenthood were followed across the first 2 years of their firstborn child's life, with both partners providing data at five time-points. Only changes in attachment avoidance were examined in this study. Consistent with predictions, downward changes in avoidance were associated with relationship events that introduced information inconsistent with avoidant working models. For example, people who provided more support to their partners declined in avoidance across the transition period. We discuss these findings and new directions needed to better understand when and how attachment orientations change during major life transitions.
Recent grants
NIH · $1.2M · 2008
Early Life Stress, Developmental Processes, and Adult Health
NIH · $2.6M · 2011–2018
NIH · $35k · 1992
NSF · $400k · 2011–2015
Frequent coauthors
- 126 shared
W. Steven Rholes
Texas A&M University
- 44 shared
Steven W. Gangestad
University of New Mexico
- 39 shared
Alexander J. Rothman
University of Minnesota
- 36 shared
Lorne Campbell
- 36 shared
ROLONDO DIAZ-LOVING
UCLouvain
- 34 shared
Mike Friedman
- 32 shared
Michael Harris Bond
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- 31 shared
Nickola C. Overall
University of Auckland
Education
- 1986
PhD, Psychology
University of Minnesota System
- 1981
BA, Political Science/Psychology
University of Illinois System
Awards & honors
- Honorary Professor of Psychology, Deakin University, Austral…
- Graduate Student Mentoring Award, Council of Graduate Studen…
- Distinguished Mentoring Award, International Association for…
- Distinguished University Teaching Professor, 2017
- Honorary Fellow, Royal Society of New Zealand, 2015
Similar researchers at University of Minnesota
- Resume-aware match score
- Save to shortlist
- AI-drafted outreach
See your match with Jeffry Simpson
PhdFit ranks faculty by your research interests, methods, and publications — grounded in their actual work, not templates.
- Free to start
- No credit card
- 30-second signup