My research concerns the question of how goals and plans affect thought, feeling, and action. It spans a number of areas in social psychology, cognition and perception, neuropsychology, and industrial and organizational psychology.
More specifically, the following research topics are addressed:
(1) Self-regulation of Goal Pursuit
- Mindsets: Various modes of information processing at different phases of goal pursuit.
- Risk perception at different phases of goal pursuit.
- Implementation intentions (if-then plans) vs. goal intentions: Differential effects on cognition, affect, and behavior.
- Conscious vs. non-conscious goal pursuit.
- The role of affect in goal pursuit.
- Determinants of the speed of goal pursuit.
- Flexibility/rigidity in goal pursuit.
- Goal pursuit under adverse contextual influences (e.g., stress).
- Goal pursuit in clinical samples.
- Planning to think: The self-regulation of making wise decisions.
- Behavior change interventions based on the self-regulation strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII).
(2) Self and Identity
- Symbolic self-completion: Striving for identity goals by self-symbolizing.
- Social reality of self-symbolizing: Effects of public recognition of identity symbols.
- Social interaction: Interpersonal insensitivity as a consequence of self-symbolizing.
- Identity goal conflicts.
- Moral identity goals.
- A life-span perspective on the willful pursuit of identity.
- Moral insensitivity while striving for identity goals.
- Self-affirmation vs. self-completion.
(3) Emotions
- Cross-culteral differences in the emotions of fear, disgust, and envy.
- The self-regulation of negative emotions: anger, fear, disgust, envy, and sadness.