Directory
Jack Bauer
Professor
Full-Time Faculty
College of Arts and Sciences: Psychology
Degrees
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Northwestern University, 2002
- Ph.D., The Catholic University of America, 1999
- B.A., Economics, College of the Holy Cross, 1989
Profile
Jack Bauer, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology and past Raymond A. Roesch, S.M., Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences at the University of Dayton. His courses and research focus on the development of self-identity and personality with an emphasis on life stories, meaning making, growth motivation, and humane flourishing.
His recent book, The Transformative Self: Personal Growth, Narrative Identity, and the Good Life (2021, Oxford University Press), explains how people create a meaningful self-identity in their life stories that helps cultivate personal growth in the directions of happiness, love and wisdom for the self and others. He is co-editor of the book Transcending Self-Interest: Psychological Explorations of the Quiet Ego (2008, American Psychological Association), which examines the problems of egotism and the ways and benefits of transcending it. He has served as co-editor of the Journal of Happiness Studies and associate editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. After college, he was the editor of a newspaper in northern Michigan.
Professor Bauer held a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University, received a Ph.D. from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and received a B.A. in economics from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.
Selected publications
Bauer, J. J., Park, S.W., Kamide, H., Pesola, N. V., Kamble, S. V., Graham, L. E., DeBrosse, J., & Waddar, M. S. (in press). Growth motivation and well-being in the U.S., Japan, Guatemala, and India. Journal of Happiness Studies.
Bauer, J. J., & DesAutels, P. (in press). Toward an integrated psychology and philosophy of good life stories. In N. E. Snow & D. Narvaez (Eds.) Self, Motivation, and Virtue: New Findings from Philosophy and Psychology. New York: Routledge.
Bauer, J. J., Graham, L. E., Lauber, E. A., & Lynch, B. P. (2019). What growth sounds like: Redemption, self-improvement, and eudaimonic growth across different life events in relation to well-being. Journal of Personality, 87, 546-565.
Bauer, J. J., King, L. A., & Steger, M. F. (2019). Meaning-making, self-determination theory, and the question of wisdom in personality. Journal of Personality, 87, 82-101.
Bauer, J. J., & Shanahan, C. (2019). Gratitude, authenticity, and self-authorship. In R. C. Roberts & D. Telech (Eds.), The Moral Psychology of Gratitude (pp. 217-242). London: Rowman & Littlefield.
Wayment, H. A., & Bauer, J. J. (2018). The quiet ego: Motives for self-other balance and growth in relation to well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19, 881-896.
Bauer, J. J. (2016). Eudaimonic growth: The development of the goods in personhood (or: cultivating a good life story). In J. Vittersø (Ed.), Handbook of Eudaimonic Well-Being, pp. 147-174. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Bauer, J. J., Park, S. W., Montoya, R. M., & Wayment, H. A. (2015). Growth motivation toward two paths of eudaimonic self-development. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16, 185-210.
Wayment, H. A., Bauer, J. J., & Sylaska, K. (2015). The quiet ego scale: Measuring the compassionate self-identity. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16, 999-1033.
Bauer, J. J., Schwab, J. R., & McAdams, D. P. (2011). Self-actualizing: Where ego development finally feels good? The Humanistic Psychologist, 39, 121-136.
Bauer, J. J., & McAdams, D. P. (2010). Eudaimonic growth: Narrative growth goals predict increases in ego development and subjective well-being three years later. Developmental Psychology, 46, 761-722.
Bauer, J. J., & Park, S. (2010). Growth isn’t just for the young: Growth narratives, eudaimonic resilience, and the aging self. In P. S. Frye and C. L. M. Keyes (Eds.), Frontiers of Resilient Aging, pp. 60-89. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Bauer, J. J. (2008). How the ego quiets as it grows: Ego development, growth stories, and eudaimonic personality development. In H. A. Wayment & J. J. Bauer (Eds.), Transcending Self-Interest: Psychological Explorations of the Quiet Ego, pp. 199-210. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association Books.
Bauer, J. J., & Wayment, H. A. (2008). The psychology of the quiet ego. In H. A. Wayment & J. J. Bauer (Eds.), Transcending Self-Interest: Psychological Explorations of the Quiet Ego, pp. 3-19. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association Books.
Bauer, J. J., McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. (2008). Narrative identity and eudaimonic well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9, 81-104.
Bauer, J. J., McAdams, D. P., & Sakaeda, A. R. (2005). Interpreting the good life: Growth memories in the lives of mature, happy people. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 203-217.
Bauer, J. J., McAdams, D. P., & Sakaeda, A. R. (2005). Crystallization of desire and crystallization of discontent in narratives of life-changing decisions. Journal of Personality, 73, 1181-1213.
Bauer, J. J., & McAdams, D. P. (2004). Growth goals, maturity, and well-being. Developmental Psychology, 40, 114-127.
Bauer, J. J., & McAdams, D. P. (2004). Personal growth in adults’ stories of life transitions. Journal of Personality, 72, 573-602.
Bauer, J. J., & Bonanno, G. A. (2001). Doing and being well (for the most part): Adaptive patterns of narrative self-evaluation during bereavement. Journal of Personality, 69, 451-482.
Bauer, J. J., & Bonanno, G. A. (2001). I can, I do, I am: The narrative differentiation of self-efficacy and other self-evaluations while adapting to bereavement. Journal of Research in Personality, 35, 424-448.