Psychology Department - Michael Scheier

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Social and personality psychologists have always had an interest in understanding
human motivation -- knowing what it is that makes people work as hard as they do
for the things they want. My recent research builds on my interest in human motivation
and examines problems in effective self-management. The general thrust of this
research is understanding what happens when people encounter difficulties in their
lives trying to attain the things they want (or avoid the things they don't want). What
are the variables that make some people persist in their goal-directed activities and
others give up? Do some people cope better with problems in self-management
than others, and if so, what determines who receives better outcomes? In thinking
about these questions, my research has been drawn more and more into applied
settings, especially within the health domain.

I have tended to approach this research domain from the perspective of personality
psychology. Specifically, I have become quite interested in examining the role that
dispositional optimism plays in dealing with adversity. Research currently underway
is exploring how enduring differences in optimism impact on the coping process and
reactions to major life events such as recovery from surgery for breast cancer or
coronary artery bypass surgery. Other recent research explores individual differences
in goal disengagement and goal re-engagement processes and tries to understand
how such differences impact adjustment to chronic diseases that become
progressively worse over time.

Last Updated: 9-27-07 MS/tc