Psychology of Action

• Deliberation, implementation, action, and evaluation mindsets: Information processing at different phases of goal pursuit.
• Goal intentions versus implementation intentions: Differential effects on cognition, affect, and behavior.
• Differences in conscious vs. non-conscious goal pursuit.
• The willful control of unwanted automatic thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• Emotional states of mind: Effects on action control.
• Persistence in goal pursuit: Effective self-regulatory thoughts.
• Affective consequences of goal implementation: The speed of goal pursuit.
• Neuropsychological aspects of action control: e.g., effects of implementation intentions in frontal lobe patients.
• Health promoting behaviors: The role of goals and plans.
• Flexibility/rigidity in goal pursuit.

Self and Identity

• Symbolic self-completion: Various forms of self-symbolizing as a consequence of self-definitional incompleteness.
• Social reality of self-symbolizing: Effects of public recognition of self-definitional symbols.
• Social interaction: Interpersonal insensitivity as a consequence of self-symbolizing.
• Intentions as symbols: Negative effects on action initiation.
• Identity conflicts: Motivational versus volitional crises.
• The willful pursuit of identity: A life-span perspective.

International cooperation partners are:

• Prof. J. Bargh, Yale University, guest in Konstanz 1996/97
• Prof. P. Carnevale, University of Southern California
• Prof. H. Grant, Lehigh University
• Prof. P. Jensen, Columbia University, New York
• Prof. A. Nadler, Tel Aviv University, Israel
• Prof. G. Oettingen, New York University / University of Hamburg, Germany
• Prof. P. Sheeran, The University of South Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
• Prof. S. Taylor, UCLA
• Prof. D. Amodio, New York University
• Prof. J. Hirsch, Columbia University, New York
• Prof. T. Webb, University of Sheffield, UK