Research Areas
Research
in the GERE (Goals, Emotions, and Relationship Experiences) Lab spans multiple topics and areas of research,
intersecting personality psychology, social psychology, and sometimes even health
psychology. Broadly speaking, I am interested in well-being and have
focused on areas of research that have been identified as important for
facilitating well-being. As a result, my primary areas of research
focus on goal pursuit and romantic relationships.
GOAL PURSUIT
One important predictor of high levels of well-being is goal pursuit. People who are able to make more progress toward their personally meaningful goals have higher levels of subjective well-being, indicated by higher positive affect, lower negative affect, and higher life satisfaction. My research focuses on predictors of goal progress, with a focus on how romantic relationship partners influence goal pursuit processes. For example, my lab has investigated factors such as partner social influence, partner instrumentality, conflict between partners' goals, social support and their influence on goal pursuit processes (e.g., goal progress, goal importance) and well-being indicators (relationship and personal well-being). I'm interested in all types of personal goals and most often don't focus on a specific type of goal (I study whatever goals people happen to pursue!). In more recent work, I have also been interested in individual predictors of goal pursuit, such as motivation, self-control, and mindfulness. To study goal processes, my research approach most often relies on daliy diary studies, experience sampling, and/or longitudinal methods.
ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS
The quality of people's romantic relationships is a strong predictor of both physical health and subjective well-being. However, relationsips are challenging to navigate and difficulties often emerge, especially over time. My research has examined various factors that influence the quality of romantic relationships. Here are a few topics that I am most interested in exploring:
1) People often expect their relationship partner to understand them and assume that their partner knows them well. However, ample research demonstrates that people's perceptions of others are not fully accurate and are often infleunced by biases (e.g., projection of one's own states onto the partner). My research has examined accuracy and bias in perceptions of romantic partners, the cues people use to make judgments about their partner's states, and how perceptions relate to partners' daily experiences and behaviors. We don't know much about how perception accuracy and bias influence the quality of the relationship and there are opposing predictions regarding their likely effects.
2) People's peceptions of the rewards and threats in their relationship also influence the quality of their relationship, and perceptions of rewards and threats may change over the course of the relationship. Although quite a bit of research has focused on threats in relationships, we know less about rewards, how those change and what role they play in relationship quality. I'm particularly interested in studying relationships that have stood the test of time and better understanding how high quality relationships can be maintained over long periods of time in a way that they are still rewarding and fulfilling.
3) New relationships are exciting and bring a lot of "new"-ness into people's lives, often resulting in considerable self-growth or self-expansion. But the new-ness wears off over time, and relationships are hard to maintain and partners are not perfect. In some recent work, I've started to explore how self-expansion (with or without the partner) and relationship boredom influence the quality of the relationship and how people navigate the relationship when their expectations are not met over time. For example, what do people do to grow in the context of their relationships? Do people have different levels of motivation for self-growth and what happens in the partners are mismatched? What if one partner experiences most of their self-growth outside of their relationship? I've also been focusing on predictors of boredom and self-expansion, such as mindfulness, appreciation, and other individual differences.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES & WELL-BEING
In some new research, I have started to examine the role of various individual differences in well-being
and their influence on relationship processes. In particular,
motivations and experiences that are associated with self-growth can
facilitate well-being, but it is unclear how they might relate to daily
experiences and influence relationship processes. Thus, some of my
current work focuses on self-expansion (i.e., self-growth) in the
context of relationships. Mindfulness has also been shown to be
associated with well-being, but its impact on relationship processes
has not been extensively examined.