MICHELLE ALBAUGH
Curriculum Vitae
September, 2014
PhD Candidate, Human Development and Social Policy
School of Education and Social Policy
Northwestern University
2120 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
m-albaugh@u.northwestern.edu
Cell: 847-525-2970
Profile: http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/profile/?p=495&/MichelleAlbaugh/
Education
Ph.D., Expected December 2014
School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University,
Evanston, IL
Degree: Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy
Dissertation Title: Religious and Nonreligious Coping after
Negative Life Events: Autobiographical Narrative, Personality
Trait, and Ethno-Religious Perspectives
Expected Degree Completion: December 2014
M.A., June 2007
School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University,
Evanston, IL
Degree: Master of Arts in Human Development and Social Policy
Thesis Title: Autobiographical Narratives, Political Ideology, and
Metaphors of the Family
B.M., Magna Cum Laude
School of Music, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Degree: Bachelor of Music with Elective Studies in Business
Dissertation Summary
Religious and Nonreligious Coping after Negative Life Events: Autobiographical Narrative,
Personality Trait, and Ethno-Religious Perspectives
FRAMEWORK
I implement a true mixed method approach to investigate (1) the adaptive and nonadaptive ways that
religious people narrate coping with adversity, (2) the correlates of their autobiographical coping narratives
in terms of quality of life outcomes, and (3) the potential for religious coping styles to mediate the strong
links between personality traits and wellbeing. I foreground the real life stories of people of faith as they
make sense of tragedy and tackle adversity in their lives. I then disentangle the divergent ways that people
from four different religious traditions use their religious resources for psychological adaptation and
human development. The work marries previously unconnected research streams—autobiographical
narrative investigations of meaning making and coping (cf. the work of Laura King and colleagues) with
the quantitative stress and coping literature (cf. the work of Carver, Scheier, Connor-Smith, and others)—
and borrows a sociological tool for categorizing religious people by their religious tradition (Steensland et
al, 2000). I also use structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques to perform latent variable modeling
tests of personality trait  religious coping  wellbeing mediation hypotheses, using bootstrapping to
generate standard errors for indirect effects. The end result is a nuanced synthesis of top-down, hypothesistesting with bottom-up, exploratory work that addresses a priori questions and hypotheses, raises new
Albaugh CV 2011 – 2
questions, and in turn generates new theories that reveal the variety with which religious people express
and integrate their religiousness in the most vulnerable times of their lives.
FINDINGS
I find evidence that passive religious deferral coping is a significant pathway by which trait neuroticism
transmutes into low wellbeing. I discover that heightened religiousness (at least among Christians) is
significantly related to a higher likelihood of telling stories that end with a lingering sense of hope and
positivity and diminished likelihood of telling stories that end with a lingering negativity. Among mainline
Protestants, heightened religiousness predicted active, nonreligious coping in life narratives, but
quantitative measures of religiousness for this group did not emerge as more prevalent religious talk.
Among the Catholics in our sample, active, nonreligious coping in narratives was significantly related to
diminished (rather than enhanced) life satisfaction. Letting the narratives speak to this finding revealed a
particular way of narrating tragedy that held deep loss in inextricable connection with emergent gain, an
amalgamation that did not require active striving to acquire.
IMPLICATIONS
These are several of the headlines from the work, and the take home message is that the way that religious
people use their religious resources matters, for good and for ill. Further, the way that people tell their
stories matters for quality of life, and the relationships among these psychological variables are
differentially expressed by religious social context. These results broaden our view of the intricate
interplay among identity, coping, and religiousness. They enlighten us as to the unique ways that people of
different religious traditions view their personal and social world, creating enhanced pathways of
understanding and connection across religious divides.
LIVED EXPERIENCE OF THE RESEARCH
Finally, this research became more personally meaningful to me: In the midst of my dissertation work, my
son was born with seizures that nearly took his life and then I was diagnosed with cancer. Naturally, my
CV reflects this temporary shift in focus away from academic pursuits to tend to these important family
matters. I am now in full health and inspired to invest further in my research and teaching. In the words of
Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."
Dissertation Committee: Dan P. McAdams (chair), Jelani Mandara, James Spillane
Research Experience
June 2007 – Mar 2009 Graduate Research Assistant, Foley Longitudinal Study of Adulthood and Aging,
Foley Center for the Study of Lives, Northwestern University: Duties included
study design and development, interviewing respondents, and quantitative data
management.
Feb 2005 – Mar 2009
Graduate Research Assistant, Faith and Politics Study, Foley Center for the Study
of Lives, Northwestern University: Duties included qualitative fieldwork, coding,
and codebook development; management of quantitative data; and supervision of
undergraduate research assistants.
Jan 2003 – Aug 2004
Project Facilitator, TLC3 In-Depth Qualitative Sub-Sample of the Fragile Families
and Child Wellbeing Study, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern
University. Duties included qualitative fieldwork, qualitative coding, and finding
“lost” participants between data collection waves.
Albaugh CV 2011 – 3
Fellowships
Sept 2008 – Aug 2009 University Fellow, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
Sept 2005 – Aug 2006 Spencer Research Training Program Fellow, Northwestern University
Sept 2004 – Aug 2005 University Fellow, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
Research Interests
Positive growth and development throughout the life course; response and adaptation to loss and adversity; the role
of religion and spirituality in human development, personality and identity; religious identity formation; qualitative
narrative methods; structural equation modeling, and mixed-method research.
Publications
Albaugh, M. L. (manuscript in preparation). Let go and let God? Passive religious deferral coping
mediates the relationship between neuroticism and psychological wellbeing.
Albaugh, M. L. (manuscript in preparation). Religiousness and happy endings: Pollyannaish or
psychologically adaptive?
Albaugh, M. L. (manuscript in preparation). Religious and nonreligious coping in life narratives predict
religiousness and wellbeing, but Not if You are mainline Protestant: A mixed method study
McAdams, D. P., & Albaugh, M. L. (2009). The Redemptive Self, Generativity, and American Christians
at Midlife: Life Stories of Evangelical and Mainline Protestants. In J. A. Belzen & A. Geels
(Eds.), Autobiography and the psychological study of religious lives. Amsterdam-New York:
Rodopi.
McAdams, D. P., Albaugh, M. L., Farber, E., Daniels, J., Logan, R. L., & Olson, B. (2008). Family
metaphors and moral intuitions: How conservatives and liberals narrate their lives. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 95(4), 978-990.
McAdams, D.P. & Albaugh, M.L. (2008). What if there were no God? Politically conservative and liberal
Christians imagine their lives without faith. Journal of Research in Personality 42(6).
Presentations
Albaugh, M. L. (2011, October). Religion, Coping, and Well-Being: An Autobiographical Narrative
Investigation. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of
Religion (SSSR), Milwaukee, WI.
Albaugh, M. L. (2008, November). Coding Qualitative Data. Invited Lecture in Methods of Observing
Human Behavior (SESP 372).
Albaugh, M. L. & McAdams, D. P. (2008, April). Family metaphors: How conservatives and liberals
narrate their lives. Presented at the Human Development and Social Policy Department Brown
Bag, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University.
Albaugh CV 2011 – 4
Albaugh, M. L., & McAdams, D. P. (2007, October). Faith, Politics, and the Life Story. Paper presented
at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR), Tampa, FL.
Albaugh, M. L., & McAdams, D. P. (2007, July). Personality, Politics, and Personal Ideology: Right and
Left Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology
(ISPP), Portland, OR.
Poster Presentations
Albaugh, M. L.(June, 2011). Autobiographical Narratives of Religion and Coping after Negative Life Events:
Personality and Ethno-Religious Perspectives. Poster Presented at the Biennial Conference of the
Association for Research in Personality. Riverside, CA.
Albaugh, M. L., & McAdams, D. P. (2008, January). Politically Engaged Christians Imagine Life Without Faith.
Poster Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP),
Albuquerque, NM.
Albaugh, M.L. (2007). Political Orientation and Pastoral Leadership: A Lakoff-ian View. Poster Presented at the
Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), Memphis, TN.
TA Experience
Adult Development and Aging (SESP 203). Winter 2014, Instructor: Regina Logan. Duties: lecturing during
instructor’s absence, advising students to develop research project ideas, grading papers and exams, giving
written and verbal feedback, discussing student/class progress with instructor; and collaborating to
determine final grades.
Introduction to Community Development (SESP 202). Winter 2010, Instructor: Jody Kretzman. Duties: leading
section discussions; grading papers, presentations, and exams; giving written and verbal feedback; meeting
with students as needed; discussing student/class progress with instructor; and determining final grades.
Studies in Organizational Change (LOC 306). Winter 2008, Instructor: Prof. James Spillane. Duties: grading
papers and exams, giving written and verbal feedback, meeting with students as needed, discussing
student/class progress with instructor, moderating/assisting/evaluating small group (in-class) discussions.
Introduction to Psychological Services (HDPS 201). Fall 2007, Fall 2009, Wtr 2010, Spr 2010, Fall 2010, Spring
2011. Instructors: Nancy Remley / Nathania Montes. Duties: grading papers and exams, giving written and
verbal feedback, meeting with students as needed, discussing student/class progress with instructor,
leading class in instructor’s absence.
Professional Service
Reviewer for Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Student Poster Award (2011, for 2012
conference)
Professional Memberships
Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP)
Association for Research in Personality (ARP)
Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR)