Sponsored by the National Institute on Aging                                                                                                           November 7, 2009
Main page for MIDUS website
Information on MIDUS I
Information on MIDUS II
Products using the MIDUS Data
MIDUS Data
MIDUS Pilot Program
Findings From MIDUS Study
Other links of interest

Daniel Mroczek, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Developmental Studies
Fowler House, Room 207, Purdue University
1200 W. State Street West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2055
Phone: (765) 494-2937 Fax: (765) 494-0503
 E-mail: dmroczek@purdue.edu

Education

Research Interests

Mroczek's major interests are in adult development and aging, especially personality and emotional development in the adult years. One of the main findings from my research over the past few years is that there are considerable individual differences in personality and well-being trajectories over long periods of time (10 to 20 years). In ordinary language, this means that not everyone shows the same pattern of personality or well-being change as we grow older. For example, some people show long term increases in happiness over time, while others show remarkable stability. Still others show major declines in happiness. He is interested in why people vary on these long-term trajectories and how it affects their physical health. Do people who show long-term increases in happiness have less heart disease? Do they live longer? And he is also interested in the general association between personality and physical health. Additionally, he have a number of statistical and methodological interests such as longitudinal design, daily diary and experience sampling techniques, multilevel modeling (including growth-curve models), and proportional hazards models. Most of his research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in particular the National Institute on Aging (NIA).

He received his B.S. from Loyola University Chicago and my Ph.D. (in developmental psychology) from Boston University he was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research from 1992 to 1995. From 1995 to 2005, he was on the developmental psychology faculty of Fordham University in New York City

At present, he serve on the Editorial Boards of the Journals of Gerontology,Psychology & Aging, Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, Journal of Personality, and the Journal of Research in Personality.

He is currently Chair of the Social, Personality & Interpersonal Processes (SPIP) panel that reviews grant applications for the NIH (formerly known as the Risk, Health and Prevention Behavior panel; RHPB-4). From 2000 to 2003, he was a member of the National Institute of Aging’s Behavioral & Social Research (NIA-S) review panel. He have also reviewed grant applications for the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in Canada, the Medical Research Council (MRC) in the United Kingdom, and for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Representative Publications

Mroczek, D.K., Spiro, A., Griffin, P.W. & Neupert, S. (in press). Social Influences on Adult Personality, Self-Regulation and Health. In K.W. Schaie & L. Carstensen (Eds.), Social Structures, Aging and Self-Regulation, New York Springer.

Mroczek, D.K., Spiro, A. & Griffin, P. (in press). Personality and aging. In J.E. Birren & K.W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the Psychology of Aging (6 th Edition). San Diego CA Elsevier.

Mroczek, D.K., Spiro, A., Almeida, D. M. & Pafford, C. (in press). Intraindividual change in personality. In D.K. Mroczek, T.D. Little, Handbook of Personality Development. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Mroczek, D.K. & Griffin, P. (in press). Growth-curve modeling in positive psychology. In A. Ong (Ed.), Handbook of Methods in Positive Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Neupert, S., Almeida, D.M., Mroczek, D.K. & Spiro, A. (in press). The effects of the Columbia Shuttle disaster on the daily lives of older adults: Findings from the VA Normative Aging Study. Research on Aging.

Martin, M. & Mroczek, D.K. (in press). Are personality traits across the lifespan sensitive to environmental demands? Journal of Adult Development.

Jennings , P.A., Aldwin, C.M., Levenson, M.R., Spiro, A., & Mroczek, D. (in press). Combat exposure, perceived benefits of military service, and wisdom in later life: Findings from the Normative Aging Study. Research on Aging.

Mroczek, D.K. & Spiro, A, III. (2005). Change in life satisfaction over 20 during adulthood: Findings from the VA Normative Aging Study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 189-202.

Mroczek, D.K. & Almeida, D.M. (2004). The effects of daily stress, age, and personality on daily negative affect. Journal of Personality, 72, 354-378.

Mroczek, D.K. (2004). Positive and negative affect at midlife. In O.G. Brim, C.D. Ryff & R.C. Kessler (Eds.), How healthy are we? A national study of well-being at midlife. pp. 205-226. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Mroczek, D.K. & Spiro, A, III. (2003a). Modeling intraindividual change in personality traits: Findings from the Normative Aging Study. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 58B, 153-165.

Mroczek, D.K. & Spiro, A, III. (2003b). Personality structure and process, variance between and within: Integration by means of developmental framework. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 58B, 305-306.

Mroczek, D.K., Spiro, A. & Almeida, D. M. (2003). Between- and Within-Person Variation in Affect and Personality Over Days and Years: How Basic and Applied Approaches Can Inform One Another. Ageing International, 28, 260-278.

Young, J.F. & Mroczek D.K. (2003). Predicting intraindividual self-concept trajectories during adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 26, 568-603.

Brennan, M. & Mroczek, D.K. (2002). Examining spirituality over time: Latent growth curve and individual growth curve analysis. Journal of Religious Gerontology, 14, 11-29.

Kessler, R.C., Andrews, G., Colpe, L., Hiripi, E., Mroczek, D.K., Normand, S.-L., Walters, E.E. & Zavalavsky, A. (2002). Short Screening Scales to Monitor Population Prevalences and Trends in Nonspecific Psychological Distress. Psychological Medicine, 32, 959-976.

Mroczek, D.K (2001). Age and Emotion in Adulthood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 87-90.

Mroczek, D.K. (2000). The emerging study of midlife. Contemporary Psychology, 45, 482-485.

Kessler, R.C., Mroczek, D.K. & Belli, R.F. (1999). Retrospective adult assessment of childhood psychopathology. In D. Shaffer & J. Richters (Eds.), Diagnostic Assessment in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, pp. 256-284 New York: Guilford Press

Mroczek, D.K. & Kolarz, C.M. (1998). The effect of age on positive and negative affect: A developmental perspective on happiness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1333-1349.

Mroczek, D.K., Ozer, D.J., Spiro, A, III, & Kaiser, R.T. (1998). Evaluating a measure of the five factor model of personality. Assessment, 5, 285-299.

Kessler, R.C., Andrews, G., Mroczek, D.K., Ustun, B., & Wittchen, H.-U. (1998). The World Health Organization Composite Diagnostic Interview Short-Form (CIDI-SF). International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research,7, 171-185.

Spiro, A., III, Aldwin, C.M., Ward, K. & Mroczek, D.K. (1995). Personality and the incidence of hypertension among older men: Longitudinal findings from the Normative Aging Study. Health Psychology, 14, 563-569.

Kessler, R.C. & Mroczek, D.K. (1994). Measuring the effects of medical interventions. Medical Care, 33, AF109-AF119.

Mroczek, D.K., Spiro, A. III, Aldwin, C.M., Ozer, D.J. & Bosse', R. (1993). Construct validation of optimism and pessimism in older men: Findings from the Normative Aging Study. Health Psychology, 12, 406-409.

Bosse', R., Aldwin, C.M., Levenson, M.R., Spiro, A. III & Mroczek, D.K. (1993). Change in social support after retirement: Longitudinal findings from the Normative Aging Study. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 48, 210-217.