Joshua Hicks
  • Social Area Coordinator
  • Professor
Google Scholar Profile
Research Areas
  • Affective Science
  • Personality Processes
  • Social & Personality Psychology

Biography

Professional Links

Research Interests

Research Interests

My research aims to understand how people answer the “big” questions in life and how people’s answers to those questions influence their attitudes and behavior. Our lab formulates and tests a wide range of hypotheses related to many types of existential concerns focusing on the antecedents and consequences of the experience of meaning in life, authenticity, self-alienation, perceptions of free-will, and mortality awareness.

Affiliated Research Cluster

Personality Processes. Existential psychology; meaning in life; authenticity.
Affective Science. Affect and motivation; cognitive processes related to drug and alcohol abuse; positive emotions as predictors of objective life outcomes.

 

Accepting Students for 2024-2025?: Yes

Selected Publications

  • Recent Publications

    • Kim, J., *Holte, P., Martela, F., *Shanahan, C., Li, Z., Zhang, H., … & Hicks, J. A. (2022). Experiential appreciation as a pathway to meaning in life. Nature Human Behaviour, 1-14.

    • King, L. A., & Hicks, J. A. (2021). The science of meaning in life. Annual Review of Psychology, 72, 561-584.

    • *Maffly-Kipp, J., *Flanagan, P., Kim, J., *Rivera, G., *Friedman, M. D., 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.

    • *Maffly-Kipp, J., Eisenbeck, N., Carreno, D. F., & Hicks, J. (2021). Mental health inequalities increase as a function of COVID-19 pandemic severity levels. Social Science & Medicine, 285, 114275.

    • 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.

    • *Rivera, G., *Christy, A. G., *Kim, J., Vess, M., Hicks, J. A., & Schlegel, R. J. (2019). Understanding relationship between perceived authenticity and well-being. Review of General Psychology. 23, 113-126.

Google Scholar Profile