Jonathan M Adler
Biographic Data
| ID | 4233410 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jonathan M Adler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jonathan M |
| FAMILY NAME | Adler |
| SIGNATURE | ADLER J M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9050-2116 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 146 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 27 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Development and Validation of the Narrative Identity Self-Evaluation Scale (Nise)
In narrative identity research, variables are typically captured through detailed content-coding of personal narratives. Yet, alternative methods have been suggested, notably self-report scales, because they capture a participant’s own interpretation of their personal narratives, and because they are efficient to administer as a supplement to more labor-intensive coding methods. This study developed and validated the Narrative Identity Self-Evalu…
Just getting along, together”
This study examined the relationship between the theme of interdependence in the narratives of American adults with disabilities and psychological well-being across the shifting conditions of the first 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast to independence, interdependence has emerged as a focus of research about people with disabilities in both the interdisciplinary field of disability studies and in prior psychological research. In the p…
Trajectories of major depression and generalized anxiety symptoms among people with disabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic
GAD trajectory. The results demonstrate the persistent MD and GAD symptoms experienced by many PWD during the pandemic and the importance of interventions to address PWD's social isolation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Ableism in mental healthcare settings
People with disabilities (PWD) face elevated mental health concerns and are more likely to utilize mental health services compared to their nondisabled counterparts, yet they also report higher unmet mental health service needs due to myriad attitudinal and environmental barriers to accessing care. Despite these well-documented disparities, little research has examined the nuanced lived experiences of PWD who receive mental health services. Drawi…
Beyond “post,” “traumatic,” “growth,” and prediction in research on posttraumatic growth
Thirty years after the introduction of posttraumatic growth (PTG), research on the concept has expanded dramatically. Novel theoretical perspectives included in this special issue, however, demonstrate that nearly every element of PTG requires revision. "Post" implies a definitive before and after adversity that simply does not exist, either empirically or in the everyday navigation of adversity, especially for marginalized people. "Trauma" is ap…
It’s more than just physical
This study investigated the experiences of pain and pain management among Māori with cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand. Using a qualitative study design underpinned by kaupapa Māori research principles, focus group hui and interviews were held with Māori with cancer and their whānau (n=24). We identified themes relating to holistic experiences of pain and pain management, the importance of appropriate support and good communication, and intertwined …
Psychobiographies of social change agents
This Special Issue of Journal of Personality , focused on psychobiographies of social change agents, aims to make contributions to the field in terms of content, method, and process. The content of the issue is focused on understanding people who powerfully impact their world, from eminent global leaders to everyday change agents. The contributions to the Special Issue are unified by their adoption of psychobiographical methods, though as a set t…
Broadening our understanding of adversarial growth
After adversity, individuals sometimes report adversarial growth - positive changes in their identity, relationships, and worldviews. We examined how narrative methods enhanced understanding of adversarial growth compared to standard questionnaires. Participants (N = 411) from college and community samples reported on their well-being, wrote a narrative about a highly challenging experience, and answered questionnaires on adversarial growth. Resu…
Narrative identity among people with disabilities in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic
This study examines narrative identity among a large, diverse sample of people with disabilities (PWDs) in the United States during the "second wave" of the Covid-19 pandemic (October-December 2020). The study relied on abductive analyses, combining a purely inductive phase of inquiry followed by two rounds of investigation that filtered inductive insights through three theoretical lenses: social-ecological theory, the theory of narrative identit…
Transparency and Open Science at the Journal of Personality
Identity integration in people with acquired disabilities
OBJECTIVE: This qualitative investigation focused on identity integration in a sample of individuals who acquired physical disabilities in adulthood. It also argues for the importance and ethics of these methods in the broader field of scholarship on personality change following adversity. METHOD: Thirteen adults participated in the study. Participants engaged in an expanded Life Story Interview wherein they narrated the story of their life, incl…
A conceptual review of identity integration across adulthood
Though Erikson recognized identity development as a lifelong project, most research on identity has focused on adolescents and emerging adults. Less is known about how the identity formed in adolescence is maintained and adapted across the adult life span. The purpose of the present paper is to provide a conceptual review and elaboration of Erikson's (1968) theory focused on identity integration, a construct that is particularly relevant to adult…
The empirical structure of narrative identity
A robust empirical literature suggests that individual differences in the thematic and structural aspects of life narratives are associated with and predictive of psychological well-being. However, 1 limitation of the current field is the multitude of ways of capturing these narrative features, with little attention to overarching dimensions or latent factors of narrative that are responsible for these associations with well-being. In the present…
Stability and change in narrative identity
Incorporating narrative identity into structural approaches to personality and psychopathology
Bringing the (disabled) body to personality psychology
OBJECTIVE: Personality psychology has largely ignored the experiences of people with disabilities. This article strives to bring the thriving, interdisciplinary field of disability studies to personality psychology via a case study of Samantha (N = 1). Samantha feels that she grew up as a hearing person who could not hear and is now a deaf person who can hear. METHOD: Narrative identity provides the theoretical, methodological, and analytical fra…
The nature of narrative coherence
Research Methods for Studying Narrative Identity
This article provides a primer for researchers seeking an introduction to quantitative narrative research methods. It represents a consensus document of most common practices used by the coauthors. Key elements of conducting narrative research (e.g., asking narrative questions, designing narrative prompts, collecting narratives, coding narratives) are discussed along with limitations to this approach and future directions
The Incremental Validity of Narrative Identity in Predicting Well-Being
Grounded in four theoretical positions—structural, cognitive, phenomenological, and ethical—the present review demonstrates the empirical evidence for the incremental validity of narrative identity as a cross-sectional indicator and prospective predictor of well-being, compared with other individual difference and situational variables. In doing so, we develop an organizational framework of four categories of narrative variables: (a) motivational…
Variation in narrative identity is associated with trajectories of mental health over several years
This article presents 2 longitudinal studies designed to assess the relationship between variability in narrative identity and trajectories of mental health over several years. In Study 1, core scenes from 89 late-mid-life adults' life stories were assessed for several narrative themes. Participants' mental health and physical health were assessed concurrently with the narratives and annually for the subsequent 4 years. Concurrent analyses indica…
Clients' and Therapists' Stories about Psychotherapy
This article provides an overview of the emerging field of research on clients' stories about their experiences in psychotherapy. The theory of narrative identity suggests that individuals construct stories about their lives in order to provide the self with a sense of purpose and unity. Psychotherapy stories serve both psychological functions. Focusing on the theme of agency as a vehicle for operationalizing purpose and coherence as a way of ope…
Living into the story
Narrative identity is the internalized, evolving story of the self that each person crafts to provide his or her life with a sense of purpose and unity. A proliferation of empirical research studies focused on narrative identity have explored its relationship with psychological well-being. The present study is the first prospective, multiwave longitudinal investigation to examine short-term personality change via an emphasis on narrative identity…
The Political Is Personal
Making meaning out of negative experiences is one of the primary psychological challenges in the wake of adversity. Much of the empirical attention that psychologists have paid to meaning making has focused on personal hardships, but national tragedies similarly pose a challenge to meaning making. In the present study, which is grounded in the theoretical tradition of the narrative study of lives, a nationally representative sample of 395 adults …
The Role of Personality in Psychotherapy for Anxiety and Depression
A trait approach to personality has many implications for psychotherapy. Given that traits contribute to the expression of symptoms of common psychiatric disorders, are moderately heritable, and relatively stable (yet also dynamic to some extent), long‐term change in symptoms is possible but is likely to be limited. Analogous to the manner in which genes set the reaction range for phenotype, standing on certain traits may set the patient's “thera…
Two Modes of Thought
Living into the story
Narrative identity is the internalized, evolving story of the self that each person crafts to provide his or her life with a sense of purpose and unity. A proliferation of empirical research studies focused on narrative identity have explored its relationship with psychological well-being. The present study is the first prospective, multiwave longitudinal investigation to examine short-term personality change via an emphasis on narrative identity…
The empirical structure of narrative identity
A robust empirical literature suggests that individual differences in the thematic and structural aspects of life narratives are associated with and predictive of psychological well-being. However, 1 limitation of the current field is the multitude of ways of capturing these narrative features, with little attention to overarching dimensions or latent factors of narrative that are responsible for these associations with well-being. In the present…
Variation in narrative identity is associated with trajectories of mental health over several years
This article presents 2 longitudinal studies designed to assess the relationship between variability in narrative identity and trajectories of mental health over several years. In Study 1, core scenes from 89 late-mid-life adults' life stories were assessed for several narrative themes. Participants' mental health and physical health were assessed concurrently with the narratives and annually for the subsequent 4 years. Concurrent analyses indica…
Personality and the coherence of psychotherapy narratives
Narrative identity among people with disabilities in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic
This study examines narrative identity among a large, diverse sample of people with disabilities (PWDs) in the United States during the "second wave" of the Covid-19 pandemic (October-December 2020). The study relied on abductive analyses, combining a purely inductive phase of inquiry followed by two rounds of investigation that filtered inductive insights through three theoretical lenses: social-ecological theory, the theory of narrative identit…
The narrative reconstruction of psychotherapy
Going to psychotherapy represents an atypical, usually unanticipated, and often emotionally significant experience in the life course. As with many such events, people construct stories about therapy experiences in order to make sense out of them and to provide their lives with a sense of unity and purpose. Yet beyond these purposes, the storying of psychotherapy is also central to the maintenance of the therapeutic gains achieved during the cour…
The nature of narrative coherence
Incorporating narrative identity into structural approaches to personality and psychopathology
The narrative reconstruction of psychotherapy
Going to psychotherapy represents an atypical, usually unanticipated, and often emotionally significant experience in the life course. As with many such events, people construct stories about therapy experiences in order to make sense out of them and to provide their lives with a sense of unity and purpose. Yet beyond these purposes, the storying of psychotherapy is also central to the maintenance of the therapeutic gains achieved during the cour…
Personality and the coherence of psychotherapy narratives
The Role of Personality in Psychotherapy for Anxiety and Depression
A trait approach to personality has many implications for psychotherapy. Given that traits contribute to the expression of symptoms of common psychiatric disorders, are moderately heritable, and relatively stable (yet also dynamic to some extent), long‐term change in symptoms is possible but is likely to be limited. Analogous to the manner in which genes set the reaction range for phenotype, standing on certain traits may set the patient's “thera…
Two Modes of Thought
The Political Is Personal
Making meaning out of negative experiences is one of the primary psychological challenges in the wake of adversity. Much of the empirical attention that psychologists have paid to meaning making has focused on personal hardships, but national tragedies similarly pose a challenge to meaning making. In the present study, which is grounded in the theoretical tradition of the narrative study of lives, a nationally representative sample of 395 adults …
Living into the story
Narrative identity is the internalized, evolving story of the self that each person crafts to provide his or her life with a sense of purpose and unity. A proliferation of empirical research studies focused on narrative identity have explored its relationship with psychological well-being. The present study is the first prospective, multiwave longitudinal investigation to examine short-term personality change via an emphasis on narrative identity…
Clients' and Therapists' Stories about Psychotherapy
This article provides an overview of the emerging field of research on clients' stories about their experiences in psychotherapy. The theory of narrative identity suggests that individuals construct stories about their lives in order to provide the self with a sense of purpose and unity. Psychotherapy stories serve both psychological functions. Focusing on the theme of agency as a vehicle for operationalizing purpose and coherence as a way of ope…
Variation in narrative identity is associated with trajectories of mental health over several years
This article presents 2 longitudinal studies designed to assess the relationship between variability in narrative identity and trajectories of mental health over several years. In Study 1, core scenes from 89 late-mid-life adults' life stories were assessed for several narrative themes. Participants' mental health and physical health were assessed concurrently with the narratives and annually for the subsequent 4 years. Concurrent analyses indica…
The Incremental Validity of Narrative Identity in Predicting Well-Being
Grounded in four theoretical positions—structural, cognitive, phenomenological, and ethical—the present review demonstrates the empirical evidence for the incremental validity of narrative identity as a cross-sectional indicator and prospective predictor of well-being, compared with other individual difference and situational variables. In doing so, we develop an organizational framework of four categories of narrative variables: (a) motivational…
Research Methods for Studying Narrative Identity
This article provides a primer for researchers seeking an introduction to quantitative narrative research methods. It represents a consensus document of most common practices used by the coauthors. Key elements of conducting narrative research (e.g., asking narrative questions, designing narrative prompts, collecting narratives, coding narratives) are discussed along with limitations to this approach and future directions
Bringing the (disabled) body to personality psychology
OBJECTIVE: Personality psychology has largely ignored the experiences of people with disabilities. This article strives to bring the thriving, interdisciplinary field of disability studies to personality psychology via a case study of Samantha (N = 1). Samantha feels that she grew up as a hearing person who could not hear and is now a deaf person who can hear. METHOD: Narrative identity provides the theoretical, methodological, and analytical fra…
The nature of narrative coherence
Stability and change in narrative identity
Incorporating narrative identity into structural approaches to personality and psychopathology
The empirical structure of narrative identity
A robust empirical literature suggests that individual differences in the thematic and structural aspects of life narratives are associated with and predictive of psychological well-being. However, 1 limitation of the current field is the multitude of ways of capturing these narrative features, with little attention to overarching dimensions or latent factors of narrative that are responsible for these associations with well-being. In the present…
Transparency and Open Science at the Journal of Personality
Identity integration in people with acquired disabilities
OBJECTIVE: This qualitative investigation focused on identity integration in a sample of individuals who acquired physical disabilities in adulthood. It also argues for the importance and ethics of these methods in the broader field of scholarship on personality change following adversity. METHOD: Thirteen adults participated in the study. Participants engaged in an expanded Life Story Interview wherein they narrated the story of their life, incl…
A conceptual review of identity integration across adulthood
Though Erikson recognized identity development as a lifelong project, most research on identity has focused on adolescents and emerging adults. Less is known about how the identity formed in adolescence is maintained and adapted across the adult life span. The purpose of the present paper is to provide a conceptual review and elaboration of Erikson's (1968) theory focused on identity integration, a construct that is particularly relevant to adult…
Narrative identity among people with disabilities in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic
This study examines narrative identity among a large, diverse sample of people with disabilities (PWDs) in the United States during the "second wave" of the Covid-19 pandemic (October-December 2020). The study relied on abductive analyses, combining a purely inductive phase of inquiry followed by two rounds of investigation that filtered inductive insights through three theoretical lenses: social-ecological theory, the theory of narrative identit…
It’s more than just physical
This study investigated the experiences of pain and pain management among Māori with cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand. Using a qualitative study design underpinned by kaupapa Māori research principles, focus group hui and interviews were held with Māori with cancer and their whānau (n=24). We identified themes relating to holistic experiences of pain and pain management, the importance of appropriate support and good communication, and intertwined …
Psychobiographies of social change agents
This Special Issue of Journal of Personality , focused on psychobiographies of social change agents, aims to make contributions to the field in terms of content, method, and process. The content of the issue is focused on understanding people who powerfully impact their world, from eminent global leaders to everyday change agents. The contributions to the Special Issue are unified by their adoption of psychobiographical methods, though as a set t…
Broadening our understanding of adversarial growth
After adversity, individuals sometimes report adversarial growth - positive changes in their identity, relationships, and worldviews. We examined how narrative methods enhanced understanding of adversarial growth compared to standard questionnaires. Participants (N = 411) from college and community samples reported on their well-being, wrote a narrative about a highly challenging experience, and answered questionnaires on adversarial growth. Resu…
Ableism in mental healthcare settings
People with disabilities (PWD) face elevated mental health concerns and are more likely to utilize mental health services compared to their nondisabled counterparts, yet they also report higher unmet mental health service needs due to myriad attitudinal and environmental barriers to accessing care. Despite these well-documented disparities, little research has examined the nuanced lived experiences of PWD who receive mental health services. Drawi…
Beyond “post,” “traumatic,” “growth,” and prediction in research on posttraumatic growth
Thirty years after the introduction of posttraumatic growth (PTG), research on the concept has expanded dramatically. Novel theoretical perspectives included in this special issue, however, demonstrate that nearly every element of PTG requires revision. "Post" implies a definitive before and after adversity that simply does not exist, either empirically or in the everyday navigation of adversity, especially for marginalized people. "Trauma" is ap…
Development and Validation of the Narrative Identity Self-Evaluation Scale (Nise)
In narrative identity research, variables are typically captured through detailed content-coding of personal narratives. Yet, alternative methods have been suggested, notably self-report scales, because they capture a participant’s own interpretation of their personal narratives, and because they are efficient to administer as a supplement to more labor-intensive coding methods. This study developed and validated the Narrative Identity Self-Evalu…
Psychology (27 works) · Identity, Memory, and Therapy (19 works) · Narrative (19 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Developmental psychology (11 works) · Aesthetics (10 works) · Identity (music) (10 works) · Personality (10 works) · Family Support in Illness (9 works)