Journal Articles

Kim, J., Hong, E. K., Jeffers, A., & Hicks, J. A. (2026). Meaning-augmentation motive: Valuing meaning facilitates experiential over material purchases. Motivation and Emotion, 50(2), 239–259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-025-10176-4

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Jyung, M., Kim, J., Jun, Y., Son, E., & Choi, I. (2026). To be authentic or not to be: How and why North Americans and South Koreans differ in making true-self-congruent choices. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 155(4), 1049–1080. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001907

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Kim, J., Hong, E. K., Jeffers, A., & Hicks, J. A. (2025). Meaning-augmentation motive: Valuing meaning facilitates experiential over material purchases. Motivation and Emotion. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-025-10176-4

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Rivera, G. N., Kim, J., Kelley, N. J., Hicks, J. A., & Schlegel, R. J. (2025). Liking predicts judgments of authenticity in real-time interactions more robustly than personality states or affect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 51(8), 1431–1443. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231218758

Hong, E. K., Kim, J., & Choi, I. (2025). Mapping meaning and pleasure on the temporal horizon: Long-term orientation predicts preference for meaningful over pleasurable activities. European Journal of Social Psychology, 55(2), 274–293. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3142

Hong, E. K., Kim, J., & Choi, I. (2025). Implicit theories of happiness: When happiness is viewed as changeable, happy people are perceived much more positively than unhappy people. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 51(2), 185–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231184711 

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Guthrie, D., Maffly-Kipp, J., Gause, C., Kim, J., Martela, F., & Hicks, J. A. (2025). The role of interpersonal mattering vs. cosmic mattering in the experience of meaning in life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 20(1), 136–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2024.2314289

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Kim, E., Yun, G., Lee, D. Y., & Kim, B. (2024). Posttraumatic Growth Processes in Mothers of Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Thematic Analysis of Autobiographical Writing. Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue, 30(4), 507-540. https://doi.org/10.20406/kjcs.2024.11.30.4.507

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Jung, Y., Na, J., & Kim, J. (2024). Psychology of hope: Focusing on the concept of hope and trends in hope research. Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 38(1), 19–43. https://doi.org/10.21193/kjspp.2024.38.1.002

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Moon, H., Lee, D. Y., Kim, S., Park, S, & Park, S. W. (2023). Identity development and college year moderate the relation between upward social comparison and negative self-evaluation among college students.​ Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 37(4), 553-572. https://doi.org/10.21193/kjspp.2023.37.4.004

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Chen, K., Kim, J., Zhang, H., Clark, D. A., & Schlegel, R. J. (2023). For the love of my child: How parents’ relative extrinsic aspirations for children and interdependent self-construal predict their relational well-being. Motivation and Emotion, 47, 1116–1130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-023-10042-1

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Ward, S., & Kim, J. (2023). Does money make life meaningful? Socioeconomic status, financial self-efficacy, and meaning in life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 18(6), 906-923. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2022.2154694

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Maffly-Kipp, J., Gause, C., Kim, J., Vess, M., & Hick, J. A. (2022). Agentic meaning-making: Free will beliefs, sense-making, and psychological distress experienced following collective traumas. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 3, 100074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2022.100074

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Choi, J., Kim, N., Kim, J., & Choi, I. (2022). Longitudinal examinations of changes in well-being during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: Testing the roles of extraversion and social distancing. Journal of Research in Personality, 101, 104306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104306

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Kim, J., Chen, K., Rivera, G. N., Hong, E. K., Kamble, S., Scollon, C. N., Sheldon, K. M. Zhang, H., & Schlegel, R. J. (2022). True-self-as-guide lay theory endorsement across five cultures. Self and Identity, 21(8), 939–962. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2022.2028670

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Kim, J., Flanagan, P., Martela, F., Shanahan, C., Li, Z., Zhang, H., Eisenbeck, N., Carreno, D., Schlegel, R. J., & Hicks, J. A. (2022). Experiential appreciation as a pathway to meaning in life. Nature Human Behaviour, 6(5), 677–690. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01283-6

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Moon, H., Lee, D. Y., Kim, S., & Park, S. W. (2022). The incremental validity of narrative identity in predicting psychological well-Being: McAdam’s three-level model of personality. Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 36(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.21193/kjspp.2022.36.1.001

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Cho, H., Lee, D. Y., & Park, S. W. (2021). The moderating effect of identity clarity on the relation between parental academic achievement pressure and materialism: An undergraduate sample. Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 35(3), 27-45. https://doi.org/10.21193/kjspp.2021.35.3.002

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Maffly-Kipp, J., Flanagan, P., Kim, J., Rivera, G. N., Friedman, M., Vess, M., & Hicks, J. A. (2021). Meaning-making, psychological distress, and the experience of meaning in life following a natural disaster. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(5), 812–820. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620942688

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Seto, E., Kim, J., & Hicks, J. A. (2021). The illusion of time: Testing the bidirectional relationship between belief in free will and temporal horizons. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(2), 176–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619900060

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Kim, J., Christy, A. G., Rivera, G. N., Hicks, J. A., & Schlegel, R. J. (2021). Is the illusion of authenticity beneficial? Merely perceiving decisions as guided by the true self enhances decision satisfaction. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(1), 80–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620903202

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Maffly-Kipp, J., Flanagan, P., Kim, J., Schlegel. R. J., Vess, M., & Hicks, J. A. (2020). The role of perceived authenticity in psychological recovery from collective trauma. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 39(5), 419–448. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2020.39.5.419

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Kim, J., Schlegel, R. J., Seto, E., & Hicks, J. A. (2019). Thinking about a new decade in life increases personal self-reflection: A replication and reinterpretation of Alter and Hershfield’s (2014) findings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(2), e27–e34. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000199

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Kim, J., Chen, K., Davis, W. E., Hicks, J. A., & Schlegel, R. J. (2019). Approaching the true-self: Promotion focus predicts the experience of authenticity. Journal of Research in Personality, 78, 165–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2018.12.001

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Rivera, G. N., Christy, A. G., Kim, J., Vess, M., Hicks, J. A., & Schlegel, R. J. (2019). Understanding the relationship between perceived authenticity and well-being. Review of General Psychology, 23(1), 113–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000161

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Kim, J., Christy, A. G., Schlegel, R. J., Rivera, G. N., & Hicks, J. A. (2018). Following one’s true self and the sacredness of cultural values. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 76, 100–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2018.01.001

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Kim, J., Christy, A. G., Schlegel, R. J., Donnellen, M. B., & Hicks, J. A. (2018). Existential ennui: Examining the reciprocal relationship between self-alienation and academic amotivation. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(7), 853–862. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617727587

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Christy, A. G., Kim, J., Schlegel, R. J. Vess, M., & Hicks, J. A. (2017). The reciprocal relationship between perceptions of moral goodness and knowledge of others’ true selves. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(8), 910–917. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617693061

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Kim, J., Seto, E., Christy, A. G., & Hicks, J. A. (2016). Investing in the real me: Preference for experiential purchases to material purchases driven by the motivation to search for true self-knowledge. Self and Identity, 15(6), 727–747. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2016.1208623

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Kim, J., Hong, E. K., Choi, I., & Hicks, J. A. (2016). Companion versus comparison: Examining seeking social companionship or social comparison as characteristics that differentiate happy and unhappy people. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(3), 311–322. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216629120

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Kim, J., & Hicks, J. A. (2016). Happiness begets children? Evidence for a bi-directional link between wellbeing and number of children. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11(1), 62–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2015.1025420

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Hackel, L. M., Larson, G. M., Bowen, J. D., Ehrlich, G. A., Mann, T. C., Middlewood, B., Roberts, I. D., Eylink, J., Fetterolf, J. C., Gonzalez, F., Garrido, C. O., Kim, J., O’Brien, T., O’Malley, E. E., Mesquitea, B., & Barrett, L. F. (2016). On the neural implausibility of the modular mind: Evidence for distributed construction of perception, cognition, and emotion. Behavioral and Brain Science, 39, 34–36. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X15002770

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Davis, W. E., Kelley, N. J., Kim, J., Tang, D., & Hicks, J. A. (2016). Motivating the academic mind: Abstract construal of academic goals enhances goal meaningfulness, motivation, and self-concordance. Motivation and Emotion, 42(2), 193–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-015-9522-x

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Kim, J., & Hicks, J. A. (2015). Parental bereavement and the loss of purpose in life as a function of interdependent self-construal. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1078. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01078

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Kim, J., Kang, P., & Choi, I. (2014). Pleasure now, meaning later: Temporal dynamics between pleasure and meaning. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 55, 262–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2014.07.018

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Han, M., Choi, I., Kim, B., Lee, H., & Kim, J. (2012). Korean mind map I: Thinking style and values of Korean college students. Korean Journal of Psychology: General, 31(2), 435–464.

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