My research interests are in the general areas of social judgment, motivation, and affect. Specifically, I am interested in how people's construal of their current state influences their motivation. I have two related lines of research that are addressing this question.

First, I am interested in how counterfactual thinking influences affect and motivation. Initial work suggested a trade-off: when people make downward comparisons in order to improve affect (e.g., "at least I didn't fail the test"), they sacrifice their motivation to improve. On the other hand, when people make upward counterfactuals, they are willing to forego positive affect in order to attempt improvement (e.g., "I should have studied harder"). However, more recent work shows that even downward counterfactuals may be motivating by heightening thoughts about negative possibilities (e.g., "I could have failed that test"). This suggests that the relationship between affect, comparison direction, and motivation is more complex than previously thought. Current work is attempting to understand these effects within the context of affect-as-information approaches and assimilation and contrast effects.

Second, another line of research is attempting to understand the conditions under which self-esteem may be beneficial or detrimental to motivation. On the one hand, self-esteem may benefit motivation by instilling confidence; on the other hand, self-esteem may reduce motivation by producing a self-satisfied complacency. Current studies attempt to reconcile these two views under a single framework. I view this work in the context of a more general trend in personality/social psychology that has begun to question some of the benefits typically ascribed to high self-esteem.