Jen Guo
Northwestern University, Psychology, Graduate Student
- Washington University in St. Louis, Psychology, Undergraduateadd
Life narratives are the internalized stories that people construct to provide meaning, purpose, and coherence in their lives. Prior research suggests that psychologically healthy and socially engaged adults generally narrate their lives... more
Life narratives are the internalized stories that people construct to provide meaning, purpose, and coherence in their lives. Prior research suggests that psychologically healthy and socially engaged adults generally narrate their lives in a prototypical fashion labeled the redemptive self, consisting of five themes: (a) a sense of childhood advantage, (b) empathy for others' sufferings, (c) moral steadfastness, (d) turning of negative events into positive outcomes (redemption sequences), and (e) prosocial goals. The current study examines trait correlates of the redemptive self in 157 late-midlife adults. Summing thematic scores across 12 life story interview scenes, the redemptive self was positively associated with four of the Big Five traits: extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability, but unrelated to cognitive features of personality, as assessed on openness and ego development. The findings suggest those with positive socio-emotional personali...
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Personality Psychology, Self and Identity, The big five, and 12 moreNarrative, Personality Assessment, Theories Of Personality, Narrative and Identity, Narrative Analysis, Identity, Personality Development, Personality and Individual Differences, Big Five Personality Traits, Personality Traits, Personal Narratives, and Ego Development
The current study explored parental processes associated with children's global self-esteem development. Eighty 5-to 13-year-olds and one of their parents provided qualitative and quantitative data through questionnaires , open-ended... more
The current study explored parental processes associated with children's global self-esteem development. Eighty 5-to 13-year-olds and one of their parents provided qualitative and quantitative data through questionnaires , open-ended questions, and a laboratory-based reminiscing task. Parents who included more explanations of emotions when writing about the lowest points in their lives were more likely to discuss explanations of emotions experienced in negative past events with their child, which was associated with child attachment security. Attachment was associated with concurrent self-esteem, which predicted relative increases in self-esteem 16 months later, on average. Finally, parent support also predicted residual increases in self-esteem. Findings extend prior research by including younger ages and uncovering a process by which two theoretically relevant parenting behaviors impact self-esteem development.
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Life narratives are the internalized stories that people construct to provide meaning, purpose, and coherence in their lives. Prior research suggests that psychologically healthy and socially engaged adults generally narrate their lives... more
Life narratives are the internalized stories that people construct to provide meaning, purpose, and coherence in their lives. Prior research suggests that psychologically healthy and socially engaged adults generally narrate their lives in a prototypical fashion labeled the redemptive self, consisting of five themes: (a) a sense of childhood advantage, (b) empathy for others’ sufferings, (c) moral steadfastness, (d) turning of negative events into positive outcomes (redemption sequences), and (e) prosocial goals. The current study examines trait correlates of the redemptive self in 157 late-midlife adults. Summing thematic scores across 12 life story interview scenes, the redemptive self was positively associated with four of the Big Five traits: extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability, but unrelated to cognitive features of personality, as assessed on openness and ego development. The findings suggest those with positive socio-emotional personality traits, but not necessarily a proclivity for sophisticated thoughts, tend to have redemptive life stories.
Research Interests: Psychology, Personality Psychology, Self and Identity, The big five, Narrative, and 11 morePersonality Assessment, Theories Of Personality, Narrative and Identity, Narrative Analysis, Identity, Personality Development, Personality and Individual Differences, Big Five Personality Traits, Personality Traits, Personal Narratives, and Ego Development
We examined continuity and change in the tendencies to construct a life story (i.e., narrative identity) that was redemptive or contaminated in nature. In Study 1, college freshmen and seniors wrote accounts of several autobiographical... more
We examined continuity and change in the tendencies to construct a life story (i.e., narrative identity) that was redemptive or contaminated in nature. In Study 1, college freshmen and seniors wrote accounts of several autobiographical key scenes pertinent to narrative identity twice over a 3-year period. In Study 2, midlife adults provided, via a semistructured interview, key scenes twice over a 5-year period and also indicated whether their employment status had changed between assessments. Across studies, the rank-order consistency of redemptive and contaminated stories was moderate and low to moderate, respectively. In Study 1, the frequency of redemptive and contaminated stories increased throughout college. Furthermore, the frequency of contaminated stories decreased following graduation. In Study 2, changes in employment status corresponded with reduced redemptive imagery. These results suggest a possible narrative acculturation of young adults as well as a correspondence between changes in life circumstances and narrative identity.
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Four studies were conducted on young adults’ goals and plans to change personality traits. In Study 1, a new trait change goal assessment tool, the BF-TGI, found Neuroticism to be the most frequently cited trait for a change goal. In... more
Four studies were conducted on young adults’ goals and plans to change personality traits. In Study 1, a new trait change goal assessment tool, the BF-TGI, found Neuroticism to be the most frequently cited trait for a change goal. In Study 2, data was gathered from the UK, Iran and China. Iran showed a higher prevalence of normative change goals than the UK and China. Study 3 investigated plans to change traits. Extraversion and Conscientiousness plans were more specific than for the other traits. Study 4 investigated whether goals and plans to change predict change over 12 months, and found that goals and plans
to change Conscientiousness and Neuroticism predicted change in the opposite direction to the goal.
to change Conscientiousness and Neuroticism predicted change in the opposite direction to the goal.
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Generativity is an adult’s concern for and commitment to promoting the well-being of future generations. Analyzing lengthy life-narrative interviews of late-midlife adults, the study examined the extent to which a particular kind of life... more
Generativity is an adult’s concern for and commitment to promoting the well-being of future generations. Analyzing lengthy life-narrative interviews of late-midlife adults, the study examined the extent to which a particular kind of life story is empirically linked to self-report measures of generativity and other indices of psychosocial adaptation in midlife. The results showed that highly generative adults are significantly more likely than their less generative counterparts to construe their lives as variations on a prototypical redemption narrative, wherein the story’s protagonist (1) enjoys an early advantage in life, (2) exhibits sensitivity to the suffering of others, (3) develops a clear moral framework, (4) repeatedly transforms negative scenes into positive outcomes, and (5) pursues prosocial goals for the future. The psychological and cultural features of redemptive life stories are considered, as are the problems and potentialities of life-narrative research in psychological science.
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McAdams, D.P., & Guo, J. (2017). Personality Across Cultures. In A. T. Church (Ed.), The Cultural Shaping of Life Stories. Praeger.
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This chapter applies the concept of narrative identity to college student development. The authors describe a narrative interview method that can be used to promote the development of a purposeful life story in the college years.
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Autobiographical narratives have historically been studied via face-to-face verbal interviews. However, recent technological advancements have allowed the possibility for telemetric (i.e., online) collection methods. The present research... more
Autobiographical narratives have historically been studied via face-to-face verbal interviews. However, recent technological advancements have allowed the possibility for telemetric (i.e., online) collection methods. The present research explores these two different approaches – in-person interviews vs. online prompts – to answer the question of whether these methods generate comparable results.
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Guo, J., & McAdams, D.P. (2015, May). The personality behind the redemptive self. Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychology Association, Chicago, IL.
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Guo, J. (2017, August). Longitudinal assessments of active and volitional pursuits toward personality change: Goals and plans for Big Five personality trait change in young adults. 125th Annual Convention for the American Psychological... more
Guo, J. (2017, August). Longitudinal assessments of active and volitional pursuits toward personality change: Goals and plans for Big Five personality trait change in young adults. 125th Annual Convention for the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.
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Guo, J. (2017, June). Narratives in interpersonal contexts: Generativity and the narrative themes associated with social well-being in late midlife adulthood. Association for Research in Personality, Sacramento, CA.
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Guo, J. (2016, May). Generativity and redemptive life stories in late midlife. Annual Meeting of the Association of Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.
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This study integrates qualitative measurement and multi-level modeling to analyze the growth trajectories of psychological and social well-being in 157 late-midlife adults. Findings indicate that higher levels of generativity (but not the... more
This study integrates qualitative measurement and multi-level modeling to analyze the growth trajectories of psychological and social well-being in 157 late-midlife adults. Findings indicate that higher levels of generativity (but not the redemptive self narrative) predicted significant increases in social well-being within a 5-year period.
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Poster presentation for SSEA 2015
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Life narratives are the internalized stories that people construct to produce meaning, purpose, and coherence in their lives. Prior research suggests that midlife adults who show high levels of psychological health and generativity... more
Life narratives are the internalized stories that people construct to produce meaning, purpose, and coherence in their lives. Prior research suggests that midlife adults who show high levels of psychological health and generativity narrate their lives as redemption scripts, consisting of five themes: (1) a sense of childhood advantage, (2) empathy for others’ suffering, (3) moral steadfastness, (4) overcoming adversity, and (5) prosocial goals. The current study examines personality correlates of this redemptive script in 157 midlife adults. Summing thematic scores across 12 different scenes in life story interviews, the redemptive script was significantly associated with four of the Big Five traits: extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability, but unrelated to cognitive features of personality as assessed on the trait of openness and ego development. The findings suggest that positive socio-emotional features of personality undergird redemptive life narratives whereas the proclivity for complex or sophisticated understanding is not required.