Mary S. Cerney Student Paper Award
The Mary S. Cerney Student Paper Award is given annually to the best student paper dealing with some aspect of personality assessment. Eligible papers are those first-authored by a student (at the time the work was completed) and published in the past year.
Meet the Mary S. Cerney Award Winner, Dr. Taylor Rodriguez!
Dr. Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Mississippi. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers University under the mentorship of Dr. Joye Anestis, and joined the Ole Miss faculty in the fall of 2025. Dr. Rodriguez's research examines how individual differences, including personality traits assessed via tools like the MMPI-3, relate to perceptions of and engagement with mental healthcare. She is particularly interested in using these insights to understand and improve treatment utilization and engagement among high-risk populations.
Mary S. Cerney Award Winners
View All Previous Award Winners Below.
The MARY S. CERNEY AWARD is given annually to the best personality assessment research paper submitted by a student. This award carries a stipend to defray the cost of attending the Annual meeting. See the SPA Graduate Student page (SPAGS) for more information.
| Year | Recipient(s) | Outstanding Student Paper |
| 2023 | Cole Morris | |
| 2022 | Elizabeth A. Edershile | |
| 2021 | Whitney Ringwald | |
| 2020 | Benjamin N. Johnson | Identifying Unstable and Empty Phenotypes of Borderline Personality Through Factor Mixture Modeling in a Large Non-Clinical Sample |
| 2019 | Abby Mulay | Personality Constructs and Paradigms in the Alternative DSM-5 Model of Personality Disorder |
| 2018 | Trevor Williams | The Construct Validity of General and Specific Dimensions of Personality Pathology |
| 2017 | Zara Wright | Genetic and Environmental Influences on DSM-5 Maladaptive Personality Traits and their Connections with Normative Personality Traits |
| 2016 | Jaime Anderson | Measurement of DSM-5 Section II Personality Disorder Constructs Using the MMPI-2-RF in Clinical and Forensic Samples |
| 2015 | Ryan J. Marek | Predicting One and Three Month Postoperative Somatic Concerns, Psychological Distress, and Maladaptive Eating Behaviors in Bariatric Surgery Candidates with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) |
| 2014 | Mark R. Lukowitsky | Interpersonal Perception of Pathological Narcissism: A Social Analysis |
| 2013 | Carlo O.C. Veltri | Does the Disorder Matter? Investigating a Moderating Effect on Coached Non-Credible Over-Reporting Using the MMPI-2 and PAI |
| 2012 | Luciano Giromini | The Feeling of Movement: EEG Evidence for Mirroring Activity during the Observation of Static, Ambiguous Stimuli in the Rorschach Cards |
| 2011 | Justin D. Smith | Therapeutic Assessment for Preadolescent Boys with Oppositional Defiant Disorder: A Replicated Single-Case Time-Series Design |
| 2010 | Aidan G. C. Wright | Integrating Methods to Optimize Circumplex Description and Comparison of Groups |
| 2009 | James B. Hoelzle | The invariant component structure of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) full scales |
| 2008 | Gudrun Opitz, Ph.D. | Cross-Method discrepancy of the Rorschach and MMPI-2: Associations with ego development inan inpatient setting. |
| 2007 | Jarrod S. Steffan | Effect of Symptom Information and Intelligence in Dissimulation: An Examination of Faking Response Styles by Inmates on the Basic Personality Inventory |
| 2006 | Samuel J. Liebman | Reliability and Validity of Rorschach Aggression Variables with a Sample of Adjudicated Adolescents |
| 2005 | Martin Sellbom | Assessing Psychopathic Personality Traits with the MMPI-2 |
| 2004 | No Award Given | |
| 2003 | Peter D. Heinze | The Relation Between Psychopathy and Ethics Among MBA Students |
| 2002 | John V. Petrocelli | Personality Characteristics of Depressed Adults: Evidence of Four Distinct Subtypes of Affect |
| 2001 | Sara M. Gerard | A Rorschach Study of Interpersonal Disturbance in Priest Child Molesters |
| 2000 | Carol Groves Overton | A relational interpretation of the Rorschach color determinants. JPA, 75 |
| 2000 | Erik Sprohge | A Rorschach Study of Oral Dependence in Alcoholics and Depressives |
| 2000 | Irving B. Weiner | Making Rorschach interpretation as good as it can be. JPA, 74 |
| 1999 | Robert K. Welsh | Psychopathy and Psychological Risk Markers of Violent Recidivism |
| 1998 | James Loving, Jr. | Selected Rorschach Variables of Psychopathic Male Juvenile Offenders |
| 1997 | Anne McKee | The Manifestation of Post-Traumatic Distress on the MMPI-2 |