Daniel Mroczek, PhD, Professor and Lab Director
Dan Mroczek’s research focuses on 1) lifespan personality development, including change, stability, and trajectory models of key traits, 2) the influence of personality (and personality change) on physical health, mortality, and other important life outcomes (e.g., well-being). He also has several methodological interests, in particular multilevel modeling, survival analysis, longitudinal design, secondary and archival data analysis, and integrative data analysis (IDA). His research is supported by the National Institute on Aging. Below are four of his most recent publications:
Allemand, M., Job, V., & Mroczek, D.K. (in press; published online December 13, 2018). Self-control development in adolescence predicts love and work in adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. NIHMS1013876
Mroczek, D.K., Graham, E.K., Turiano, N.A., & Oro-Lambo, M.O. (in press). Personality Development in Adulthood and Later Life. In Robins, R.W., John. O.P., & Pervin, L.A. (Eds.) Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research (4th Edition). New York: Guilford.
Weston, S. J., Gladstone, J. J., Graham, E. K., Mroczek, D. K., & Condon, D. M. (in press; Published advance access online September 13, 2018). Who Are the Scrooges? Personality Predictors of Holiday Spending. Social Psychological and Personality Science
Graham, E.K., Rutsohn, J.P., Turiano, N.A., Bendayan, R., Batterham, P., Gerstorf, D., Katz, M., Reynolds, C., Schoenhofen, E., Yoneda, T., Bastarache, E., Elleman, Zelinski, E.M., Johansson, B., Kuh, D., Barnes, L.L., Bennett, D., Deeg, D., Lipton, R., Pedersen, N., Piccinin, A., Spiro, A., Muniz- Terrera, G., Willis, S., Schaie, K.W., Roan, C., Herd, P., Hofer, S.M., & Mroczek, D.K. (2017). Personality predicts mortality risk: An integrative analysis of 15 international longitudinal studies. Journal of Research in Personality, 70, 174-186.
Eileen Graham, PhD, Research Associate Professor and Lab Co-Director
Eileen’s work focuses on individual differences factors that are associated with health outcomes in older adulthood. Specifically, She is interested in the development personality traits (e.g. The Big Five, well-being) over the life course, and how these dynamic individual difference factors may influence physical health, onset of disease, cognitive decline, dementia, and mortality. Additionally, she uses open science practices, in order to enhance the replicability and reproducibility of the lifespan developmental sciences.
Jing Luo, PhD, Research Assistant Professor
Jing’s research focuses on the interplay among personality, stress, and health across the life course. First, she studies the influences of stress and health-related experiences on the development of personality across the life span. Second, she examines individual differences in early and adulthood stress, including both stress exposure and stress responses. Third, she is interested in the independent and joint influences of personality and stress on changes in health, especially during aging process. Jing’s research addresses these research questions by employing an integrative approach that incorporates longitudinal methods, behavioral genetic studies, meta-analysis, and coordinated data analysis. Jing received her PhD in Social-Personality Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018 and her BA in Psychology from the University of Iowa in 2012. When not doing research, Jing enjoys playing the piano, reading, and traveling.
Katherina Hauner, PhD, Assistant Professor
Katherina’s research aims to modify affective processing and emotional regulation in humans. She examines functioning in both healthy participants as well as clinical populations, and applies a variety of methods, including neuroimaging, psychophysiological measurement, and non-invasive neurostimulation. The long-term goal of her research is to make impactful contributions towards our understanding of cognitive-emotional dysfunction, and to develop biologically-motivated treatments that improve the lives of patients.
Katie Jackson, MS, Senior Biostatistician
Karina Van Bogart, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar
Karina Van Bogart is a postdoctoral scholar in the Lifespan Personality and Health Lab working with primary mentor Eileen Graham and secondary mentor Dan Mroczek. She received her PhD in Biobehavioral Health at The Pennsylvania State University in 2024. Karina’s research focuses on the investigation of how loneliness and social connection are associated with mental and physical health outcomes and aging. Much of her work uses ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to capture dynamic biobehavioral processes in everyday life. Outside of work, Karina enjoys being active and outdoors and spending quality time with her son.
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Manrui Zhang, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar
Manrui is an interdisciplinary researcher interested in cognitive function as an important outcome and predictor of health, well-being, and quality of care. Specifically, her work focuses on 1) the identification of cognitive impairment among older adults and those with neurological injury and disorders, 2) trajectories of cognitive and emotional functioning among people with and without disability in the aging process, and 3) the interplay between psychosocial protectors (e.g., personality, psychological well-being, and social engagement and participation) and cognitive function across the lifespan. Manrui likes traveling, painting, and reading. She enjoys playing pickleball and beach volleyball with friends when she needs a break from research.
Raul A. España, MS, Graduate Student
Raul is a 6th year graduate student in the clinical psychology Ph.D. program at Northwestern and a member of the LPH lab. Raul’s research focuses on personal values in youth and adults, where he focuses on questions such as how personality traits and personal values are similar and how they may differ as a function of factors such as economic development. Currently, Raul is examining differences in physical health outcomes in diverse, cross-cultural samples by examining differences in personality traits and experiences of discrimination. Outside of work, Raul participates in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and is a purple belt.
Juan Garcia-Cardenas, Graduate Student
Juan is a graduate student at Northwestern University, working with Dan Mroczek. Juan’s current work focuses on personality trait development and how they correlate to mental health outcomes, such as depression and suicidal ideation in Latinx adolescence and young adulthood. Juan has future plans to research how personality traits (i.e. Big Five), narrative identity, and ethnic-racial identity shape the experience of grief in Latinx adolescents and young adults.
Kayla Garner, Graduate Student
Kayla’s research and academic interests broadly involve geographical psychology, person-environment fit, psychometrics, and pro-environmentalism. Her recent work focuses on the transactional relationship between people and their geographical environments, as well as how and why personality effects vary across places.
Aubrey Hopper, Graduate Student
Aubrey Hopper is a graduate student at Northwestern University working under the mentorship of Dr. Dan Mroczek. Her research centers on the role of personality in lifespan development and healthy aging, with particular interest in designing personality-tailored interventions aimed at enhancing quality of life for older adults and individuals with disabilities. She is also interested in how individual differences influence the experience and expression of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). Aubrey earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychological and Brain Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, where she researched variables which may influence dyadic relationships in older adults.
Lily Pieramici, Research Assistant
Lab Alumni
Gabrielle Pfund
Stephen Antonoplis
Tomiko Yoneda
Emily Willroth
Emorie Beck
Olivia Atherton
Emily Bastarache
Chloe McGhee
David Condon
Ayla Göktan
Andrew Hall
Magdalena Leszko
Nicholas Turiano
Sara Weston