- It's
not my problem it's ours: Interdependence in problem appraisal
and strategies for solving everyday problems
- Once
a boring task always a boring task?
- Wake
up and smell the coffee: Optimism helps people pay attention to
useful negative information.
- Does
talking with your partner affect the way your body responds to
stress?
Does rewarding
behavior increase that behavior? Does the nature of a person's relationship
with another depend on his or her personality? Will a person with
a chronic illness consistently take prescribed medicine once she knows
that this will save her life? Do we think differently when we're in
a good mood?
If you answered "yes" to these questions, you are not alone. For example,
the popular press and everyday common sense suggest that people are
more likely to do something (e.g., volunteer to live on an island
with a group of strangers) when they expect a reward. In fact, however,
psychologists believe that the best answer to this first question
is "it depends."
For more information about this topic and other research questions
-- and a preview of current faculty research interests and projects--,
please surf our list of self-regulation topics.
This list presents a subset of our shared research interests, but
there is much more (see individual faculty web pages for complete
listings of ongoing projects, grants, and classes).
Self-regulation, broadly defined, is the set of processes through
which people work toward their goals. Collectively, we examine personality,
emotional, social, developmental, and environmental or situational
factors that influence the goals people choose, how they think about
them and pursue them, how they react to difficulties in goal pursuit,
and how all of these processes are influenced by other people's opinions
and behaviors over the lifespan.
At the University of Utah, a critical core of faculty across clinical,
developmental, social and health areas is interested in understanding
not just whether and when external events or individual characteristics
affect someone's behavior, but *how* they do so. Although faculty
may differ in the particular process or outcome they are most interested
in studying, they share a common view of human agency -- that people
are active beings who not only react to their environments, but also
act on them. That is, we believe that people are both affected by
their context and creators of that context. The context can be the
physical environment, other people, or even internal states, such
as mood. Thus, we focus on affective, cognitive, motivational, and
social processes that underlie people's regulation of themselves and
others, with a special interest in diverse social and physical environments
across the life span. This common focus leads to several active collaborative
research programs within and across areas in the department. Click here for a list of such collaborations.
Many of us are actively involved in the interpersonal
processes, health, developmental-social,
and diversity interest areas
as well.
Additionally, we are developing an annual interdisciplinary Utah Symposium
on Self-Regulation (please check the site in the future for more details).
The following sections describe the research programs of individual
faculty, list recent faculty books,
provide links to our graduate students,
and describe graduate seminars in self-regulation.
- Beyond
coping: Self-regultion, adaptation, and health.
- Diversity
and Motivation
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