Dr. Adler’s research focuses on the interface between adult development and clinical psychology. Broadly conceived, his research interests revolve around the reciprocal relationships between self and identity processes and psychological functioning. He is especially interested in the most productive ways people make sense of the difficult things that happen to them and how that personal meaning facilitates changes in identity. In other words, he studies the ways in which the process of making sense of negative experiences influences important life outcomes, including mental health, personality maturity, and the process and outcome of psychotherapy treatment. He is currently working on several research projects that all focus on related issues of identity development and mental health. In addition to his research, Dr. Adler is a practicing psychotherapist, having worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stone Center Counseling Service at Wellesley College and completed his APA-Approved Pre-Doctoral Internship at the Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Chicago. At Olin he works to make the best of psychological science relevant and exciting for students, both professionally and personally. For more information about Professor Adler's research, see his personal website: http://faculty.olin.edu/jadler
Articles
Living Into the Story: Agency and Coherence in a Longitudinal Study of Narrative Identity Development and Mental Health Over the Course of Psychotherapy, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2012)
Narrative identity is the internalized, evolving story of the self that each person crafts to...
Mixed emotional experience is associated with and precedes improvements in psychological well-being (with Hal E. Hershfield), PLoS ONE (2012)
Background: The relationships between positive and negative emotional experience and physical and psychological well-being have...
The distinguishing characteristics of narrative identity in adults with features of Borderline Personality Disorder: An empirical investigation (with Erica D. Chin, Aiswarya P. Kolisetty, and Thomas F. Oltmanns), Journal of Personality Disorders (2012)
While identity disturbance has long been considered one of the defining features of Borderline Personality...
Epistemological Tension in the Future of Personality Disorder Diagnosis, The American Journal of Psychiatry (2011)
To the Editor: In August 2011, the DSM-5 Personality and Personality Disorders Work Group posted...
The Successful Treatment of Specific Phobia in a College Counseling Center (with Robin Cook-Nobles), Journal of College Student Psychotherapy (2011)
Specific phobias are highly prevalent among college students and can be quite debilitating. However, students...
Contributions to Books
Developmental and Narrative Perspectives on Religious and Spiritual Identity Development for Clinicians (with Paul Wink and Michele Dillon), The Psychology of Religion and Spirituality for Clinicians: Using Research in Your Practice (2012)
Identity gives an individual a sense of sameness and continuity (Erikson, 1968) and provides answers...
Sitting at the nexus of epistemological traditions: Narrative psychological perspectives on self-knowledge, Handbook of self-knowledge (2012)
To inquire about self knowledge implicitly suggests that there is a self that can be...
Autobiographical Memory and the Construction of a Narrative Identity: Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications (with Dan P. McAdams), Social Psychological Foundations of Clinical Psychology (2010)
Going back to Freud, cliniciants have listened to, tried to understand, and tried to change...
The Most Important Fiction, The World Book of Happiness (2010)
We are all protagonists in our own life story - and also the narrator. Crafting...
Telling Stories About Therapy: Ego Development, Well-Being, and the Therapeutic Relationship (with Dan P. McAdams), The Meaning of Others: Narrative Studies of Relationships (2007)
We need narratives of relationships to understand them precisely because relationships have idiosyncratic meanings in...