Staff Profile
Dr Nadin Beckmann, Dipl-Psych., Dr. rer. nat., FHEA
Affiliate of the Durham University Evidence Centre for Education
Completed Supervisions
Biography

Dr Nadin Beckmann is Associate Professor at the School of Education, Durham University. In her research Nadin adopts a dynamic view on psychological constructs, such as ability and personality. A dynamic view builds upon the premise of change and malleability, which can be understood in terms of responses to interventions (feedback and training) as well as development and maturation.
Her current research projects focus on the dynamic, process-oriented approaches to personality in the context of adult learning and development. A related Research Topic that Nadin has edited can be found here (http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/3551). She has also co-edited a Special Issue for Personality and Individual Differences which can be found here (https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/personality-and-individual-differences/vol/136). Other research interests include learning with simulations, assessment and feedback processing.
Nadin has received her doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.) from the Institute of Experimental Psychology at Heinrich-Heine-University of Duesseldorf, Germany, and is an Alumna of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, http://www.studienstiftung.de).
Prior to her position at the School of Education Nadin has held an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Accelerated Learning Laboratory at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia. She has also worked in research positions at the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise (PACE Center), Yale University, USA, and the Institute of Differential Psychology and Psychological Assessment at Leipzig University, Germany.
Fellowships, Awards & Grants
- Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP160103335, 2016-ongoing, International Partner Investigator): Task Contingent Units of Personality and Adaptive Performance
- Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP0987584, 2009-2012): Integrating Between-Person and Within-Person Approaches to Personality in the Workplace
- Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship (2007–2011, Australian Research Council Linkage Project, LP0669552): Flexible Expertise in Senior Executives
- Best paper award at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois (2009)
- Dissertation Scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)
- Dissertation Scholarship of the Saxonian Government, Germany
Information for prospective doctoral research student supervisions
Nadin welcomes postgraduate research supervision proposals in the areas of personality and individual differences, adult learning and performance, change and malleability, simulation-based learning, psychometric assessment, learning in the early years and educational psychology.
Indicators of Esteem
- Associate Editor: Frontiers in Psychology / Personality and Social Psychology
- Fellow: Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
- Institutional responsibilities and citizenship: Deputy Director Research; Impact Officer
- Invited Assessor for Research Councils: Australian Research Council (ARC); Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); Medical Research Council (RCUK MRC); Research Foundation Flanders (FWO)
- Keynote: Dynamic Personality – How does it work at work? Keynote presented at the European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology (EAWOP) Small Group Meeting (SGM) “Personality Dynamics at Work” at the Universität zu Lübeck, Germany, in 2019.
- Member of Editorial Board: International Journal of Educational Research
- Partner Investigator on an Australian Research Council funded project administered by The University of Melbourne: (AUS$423,456)
- Reviewer for various journals: e.g., Learning and Individual Differences, Personality and Individual Differences, Learning and Instruction, British Educational Research Journal, International Journal of Educational Research, British Journal of Educational Psychology, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Supervises
Research Interests
- Personality and Individual Differences
- Educational Psychology
- Psychometric Assessment
- Simulation-based Learning
Research Groups
Research Projects
Selected Publications
Journal Article
- Beckmann, N., Birney, D.P., Beckmann, J.F., Wood, R.E., Sojo, V. & Bowman, D. (2020). Inter-individual differences in intra-individual variability in personality within and across contexts. Journal of Research in Personality 85: 103909.
- Zhang, J., Beckmann, N. & Beckmann, J.F. (2020). More than meets the ear: Individual differences in trait and state willingness to communicate as predictors of language learning performance in a Chinese EFL context. Language Teaching Research
- Zhang, J., Beckmann, N. & Beckmann, J.F. (2019). One situation doesn’t fit all: Variability and stability of state willingness to communicate in a Chinese College English classroom. Language Teaching Research
- Rauthmann, J., Beckmann, N., Noftle, E. & Sherman, E. A. (2019). Personality Dynamics: A new frontier in personality psychology, Editorial. Personality and Individual Differences 136: 1.
- Wood, R.E., Beckmann, N., Birney, D.P., Beckmann, J.F., Minbashian, A. & Chau, R. (2019). Situation contingent units of personality at work. Personality and Individual Differences 136: 113-121.
- Minbashian, A., Beckmann, N. & Wood, R.E. (2018). Emotional intelligence and individual differences in affective processes underlying task-contingent conscientiousness. Journal of Organizational Behavior 39(9): 1182-1196.
- Birney, D.P., Beckmann, J.F., Beckmann, N., Double, K.S. & Whittingham, K. (2018). Moderators of learning and performance trajectories in microworld simulations: Too soon to give up on intellect!?. Intelligence 68: 128-140.
- Zhang, J., Beckmann, N. & Beckmann, J.F. (2018). To talk or not to talk: A review of situational antecedents of willingness to communicate in the second language classroom. System. An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics 72: 226-239.
- Birney, D.P., Beckmann, J.F., Beckmann, N. & Double, K. (2017). Beyond the Intellect: Complexity and learning trajectories in Raven’s Progressive Matrices depend on self-regulatory processes and conative dispositions. Intelligence 61: 63-77.
- Beckmann, N. & Wood, R.E. (2017). Editorial: Dynamic personality science: Integrating between-person stability and within-person change. Frontiers in Psychology 8: 1486.
- Dobson, E., Beckmann, N. & Forrest, S. (2017). Educator–student communication in sex & relationship education: a comparison of teacher and peer-led interventions. Pastoral Care in Education: An International Journal of Personal, Social and Emotional Development 35(4): 267-283.
- Cooper, D., Higgins, S. & Beckmann, N. (2017). Online instructional videos as a complimentary method of teaching practical rehabilitation skills for groups and individuals. Journal of Educational Technology Systems 45(4): 546-560.
- Cripps, E., Wood, R.E., Beckmann, N., Lau, J., Beckmann, J.F. & Cripps, S.A. (2016). Bayesian Analysis of Individual Level Personality Dynamics. Frontiers in Psychology 7: 1065.
- Beckmann, N., Beckmann, J.F., Birney, D. P. & Wood, R. E. (2015). A problem shared is learning doubled: Deliberative processing in dyads improves learning in complex dynamic decision-making tasks. Computers in Human Behaviour 48: 654-662.
- Beckmann, N., Beckmann, J.F., Minbashian, A. & Birney, D. P. (2013). In the heat of the moment: On the effect of state neuroticism on task performance. Personality and Individual Differences 54(3): 447-452.
- Fisher, C. D., Minbashian, A., Beckmann, N. & Wood, R. E. (2013). Task appraisals, emotions, and performance goal orientation. Journal of Applied Psychology 98(2): 364-373.
- Beckmann, N., Wood, R.E., Minbashian, A. & Tabernero, C. (2012). Small group learning: Do group members' implicit theories of ability make a difference?. Learning and Individual Differences 22(5): 624-631.
- Wood, R.E., Beckmann, N. & Rossiter, J.R. (2011). Management humor: Asset or liability?. Organizational Psychology Review 1(4): 316-338.
- Beckmann, N., Wood, R.E. & Minbashian, A (2010). It depends how you look at it: On the relationship between neuroticism and conscientiousness at the within- and the between-person levels of analysis. Journal of Research in Personality 44(5): 593-601.
- Minbashian, A., Wood, R.E. & Beckmann, N. (2010). Task-contingent conscientiousness as a unit of personality at work. Journal of Applied Psychology 95(5): 793-806.
- Minbashian, A., Wood, R.E. & Beckmann, N. (2009). Contingent beliefs as predictors of within-person variation in conscientiousness at work. Academy of Management Proceedings 2009(1): 1-6.
- Beckmann, N., Beckmann, J.F. & Elliott, J.G. (2009). Self-confidence and performance goal orientation interactively predict performance in a reasoning test with accuracy feedback. Learning and Individual Differences 19(2): 277-282.
- Wood, R.E., Goodman, J.S., Beckmann, N. & Cook, A. (2008). Mediation testing in management research: A review and proposals. Organizational Research Methods 11(2): 270-295.
- Wood, R.E. & Beckmann, N. (2006). Personality architecture and the FFM in organisational psychology. Applied Psychology: An International Review 55(3): 454-469.
Edited book
- Beckmann, N. & Wood, R.E. (2017). Dynamic personality science: Integrating between-person stability and within-person change. Frontiers Research Topic Ebooks.
Chapter in book
- Beckmann, N. & Wood, R.E. (2020). Dynamic personality at work. In Handbook on the Temporal Dynamics of Organizational Behavior. Griep, Y. & Hansen, S.D. Edward Elgar. 197-220.
- Birney, P.B., Beckmann, J.F. & Beckmann, N. (2019). Within-individual variability of ability and learning trajectories in complex problems. In General and Specific Mental Abilities. McFarland, D.J. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. 253-283.
- Beckmann, N., Minbashian, A. & Wood, R.E. (2011). Integrating the study of within- and between-person variability in personality at work. In Personality & Individual Differences: Theory, assessment & application. Boag, S. & Tiliopoulos, N. New York: Nova.
- Wood, R.E., Beckmann, N. & Pavlakis, F. (2007). Humour in organisations: no laughing matter. In Research companion to the dysfunctional workplace: Management challenges and symptoms. Langan-Fox, J., Cooper, C. & Klimoski, R. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 216-231.
Conference Paper
- Beckmann, N., Birney, D.P., Beckmann, J.F., Wood, R.E., Sojo, V. & Bowman, D. (2019), Inter-individual differences in intra-individual variability in personality within and across contexts, Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID). Florence, Italy.
- Beckmann, N., Wood, R.E., Birney, D.P., Beckmann, J.F. & Minbashian, A. (2018), Contingent units of personality at work – A reconciliation of stability and change, 19th European Conference on Personality (ECP19). Zadar, Croatia.
- Birney, D.P. Beckmann, J.F. & Beckmann, N. (2017), Individual Differences in Success: Too soon to give up on intellect!?, 16th Australian Conference on Personality and Individual Differences (ACPID). Sydney, Australia.
- Beckmann, N., Wood, R.E. & Minbashian, A. (2015), Task-contingent units of personality at work, European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology (EAWOP) Small Group Meeting (SGM) “Studying work as it is: Capturing dynamics in workplace relationships”. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
- Minbashian, A., Beckmann, N. & Wood, R.E. (2014), Emotional knowledge moderates affective mediation of task contingent conscientiousness, Symposium: Interplay of Stable Individual Differences and Mood, 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP, APA Division 14). Hawaii, USA, Hawaii HI.
- Tymms, P., Beckmann, N., Beckmann, J.F., Elliott, J. & Merell, C. (2013), Does schooling have an impact on short-term memory?, 15th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Learning and Instruction. Munich, Germany, European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, Munich.
- Fisher, C., Minbashian, A., Wood, R.E. & Beckmann, N (2011), Appraisals, goal orientation, and emotions while working, Academy of Management Annual Meeting. San Antonio, Texas, USA, San Antonio TX.
- Bowman, D.B., Beckmann, N. & Birney, D.P. (2010), A matter of framing? Frame-of-reference effects in personality assessment, 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology (ICAP). Melbourne, Australia, Melbourne.
- Beckmann, N., Minbashian, A. & Wood, R.E. (2010), The lost individual: On the structure of personality at the within- and between-person levels of analysis, 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology (ICAP). Melbourne, Australia, Melbourne.
- Beckmann, N., Beckmann, J.F. & Elliott, J.G. (2009), Accuracy feedback in dynamic testing, European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI). Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Amsterdam.
- Bowman, D.B. & Beckmann, N (2009), Frame-of-reference effects in the measurement of personality: Evidence from self- and peer ratings in a management sample, 8th Australian Conference on Personality and Individual Differences (ACPID). Sydney, Australia, Sydney.
- Beckmann, N., Wood, R.E. & Minbashian, A. (2009), It depends how you look at it – on the relationship between conscientiousness and neuroticism, 8th Australian Conference on Personality and Individual Differences (ACPID). Sydney, Australia, Sydney.
- Beckmann, N., Beckmann, J.F. & Elliott, J.G. (2008), Accuracy feedback in cognitive ability testing, Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association (APERA). Singapore.
- Minbashian, A., Beckmann, N & Wood, R.E. (2008), The effects of work-related situational cues on intra-individual variation in the emotional and motivational states of managers, 29th International Congress of Psychology (ICP). Berlin, Germany, Berlin.
Report
- Robinson-Smith, Lyn, Menzies, Victoria, Cramman, Helen, Wang, Yuqian (Linda), Fairhurst, Caroline, Hallett, Sarah, Beckmann, Nadin, Merrell, Christine, Torgerson, Carole, Stothard, Sue & Siddiqui, Nadia (2019). EasyPeasy: Learning through play. Evaluation Report. Education Endowment Foundation.