People

Gabriele Oettingen

gabriele.oettingen@nyu.edu

NYU Faculty Webpage

Peter M. Gollwitzer

peter.gollwitzer@nyu.edu

NYU Faculty Webpage

To see some of our work in action, check out WOOP!

PhD Students

SunYoung Kim

SunYoung is a fifth-year doctoral student in the Social Psychology program at NYU. She received her BA (2016) and MA (2018) in Psychology from SungKyunKwan University (SKKU), South Korea. Her research interests broadly relate to motivational processes and self-regulation in interpersonal situations and group contexts. She is recently working on projects that examine effective self-regulatory strategies (e.g., mental contrasting) that promote behavioral change in various social contexts. SunYoung also co-manages the lab.

Evelina Bao

Evelina is a second-year doctoral student in the Social Psychology program at NYU. She received her BA (2022) in Psychology and BS(2022) in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. Her research interests are currently around motivation psychology in human physical and mental health. Specifically, she is interested in using motivation psychology theory to elicit healthier behavioral changes.

Sherry Xiong

Sherry is a first-year doctoral student in the social psychology program at NYU. She received her BA in Psychology and Media Analytics in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research interests center around time, meaning in life, and motivation. She is currently working on a project concerning the concept “well-rounded ending”. Sherry is interested in what makes people feel a sense of closure at the end of a life experience, how the ending of one life stage affects people’s transition into the next stage, and what we can do to ease the transitioning process. In her free time, Sherry likes to do song recording, go hiking, and watch drama.

Postdoctoral Fellow(s) and Lab Affiliates

Anne Holding

Anne Holding is a postdoctoral fellow in the NYU Motivation Lab and a recipient of both the Canada Institute of Health Research (CIHR) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Government of Canada fellowship awards. She is currently collaborating on a CIHR funded project at Concordia University to investigate the psychobiology of regret experiences in aging. Anne obtained her B.A. (Hons) and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and is a licensed psychologist. Broadly, her research examines the motivation underlying effective goal pursuit and goal disengagement. She is interested in how people choose goals, how they navigate obstacles in goal pursuit (such as the action crisis), and how they let go of goals that are no longer serving them well.

Birte Thissen

Birte Thissen is a postdoctoral fellow in the NYU Motivation Lab through the German Research Association’s Walter Benjamin postdoctoral fellowship award. She obtained her B.A. and M.A. in Psychology in Germany at the University of Münster and the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and her PhD at the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Her research focuses on flow, the optimal experience of being completely engaged with a goal-oriented activity. She is currently working on a project investigating the effect of self-regulation strategies on the occurrence of flow.

yijun.lin@nyu.edu

Yijun Lin

Visiting Lecturer at New York University

Yijun is a social psychologist studying motivation and emotion. Her research employs experimental and longitudinal designs to explore why people fail to go to bed on time, when procrastination can be harmless, and how boredom can drive meaningful and adaptive behavior. She received a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Florida, an M.S. in Integrated Marketing from New York University, and a B.S. in Psychology from Beijing Normal University. Beyond research, she likes solo traveling and visiting museums.

Simona Sciara

Doctoral Student at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, Italy

Simona is a third-year doctoral student at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan that has been researching with the Motivation Lab since January 2020. She received her BA and MA in Psychology from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University of Milan. In the same university, she collaborated with the UniSR-Social. Lab until 2020 focusing on the study of romantic feelings. Her current research interests mainly regard motivational and emotional processes underlying the use of social media platforms. Her ongoing research applies symbolic self-completion theory (SCT) to explain and predict specific posting behaviors on social networking.

Sandra Wittleder

Post-doctoral Fellow / Project Manager at the MOTIVATE Lab, NYU Langone
Sandra completed her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Hamburg and was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Psychology at NYU. Sandra is passionate about understanding the cognitive processes underlying health behavior change, and finding new multidisciplinary approaches to health interventions.

zhang@leuphana.de

Hong Zhang

Post-doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Psychology at Leuphana University, Germany
Hong completed her Ph.D. in management and marketing at the Free University of Berlin. She has been researching with the Motivation Lab since August 2020. Hong’s research is grounded in a broad interest in people’s cognition, motivation, and emotion in joint decision-making processes. Her ongoing research focuses on the effects of envy on individuals’ perceptions, behaviors, and outcomes in negotiations.

Masters Student Research Assistants & Honors Students

Henry Biedron

Henry Biedron is a first-year master’s student in the social psychology program at NYU. He received his BA as an undergraduate at Kenyon College studying psychology, focusing on how perceptions of social interactions differ in mediated environments. He is currently working with Dr. Anne Holding investigating the roles of Self-Determination Theory and Fantasy Realization Theory on goal-based behavior.

Haifei (Villa) Zhou

Haifei is a first-year master’s student in NYU’s Social Psychology Program. She received her BA in Psychology from NYU. She is currently working with Dr. Jiin Jung on the research of intellectual humility. Her research interests broadly relate to how to improve people’s motivation and efficacy at business level.

Jason Brause

Jason Brause is a second-year master’s student in the general psychology program at NYU. He received his BA from Drew University studying psychology. Jason is currently working with Dr. Birte Thissen to investigate how self-regulatory techniques including mental-contrasting and indulging affect flow in marathon runners when encountering the increased challenge of “hitting the wall.”

jasonmb218@hotmail.com

Christine Cunningham

Christine Cunningham is a second year Master’s student in the Industrial Organizational Psychology program. She received her BA in Modern Languages from Ursinus College. She is passionate about research into motivation and goal setting and the impact in organizational functions. Presently, Christine works with Dr. Anne Holding to research the role and impact of self determination theory and mental-contrasting on goal progress.

George Ryan Ghorayeb

George is a second-year Master’s student in the General Psychology program at NYU. He received his BSc in Psychology from the University of Exeter, England. Broadly, George is interested in how different cognitive and emotional processes help cope with uncertainty and impact perception of reality. He is currently working on his MA thesis on the relationship between conspiracy beliefs, misplaced certainty and fanaticism with Dr. Irmak Olcaysoy Okten.

Yumeng Yan

Yumeng is a senior student double majoring in Mathematics and Psychology at NYU. Her research interests broadly relate to how mental contrasting impacts people’s interpersonal relationships, intellectual humility and emotions when receiving different feedbacks. Currently, she is working on her honor thesis with Evelina on how mental contrasting impacts people’s emotions.

Jialu Li

Jialu Li is a senior at College of Arts and Science, majoring in Psychology with a minor in Data Science. She has developed a keen interest in the interplay between mental contrasting and emotion, exploring how these cognitive strategies influence emotional responses and behavioral outcomes. Currently, she is working on her honors thesis with SunYoung, further deepening her understanding and passion for the field of social psychology.

Frank McPhillips

Frank is a third-year undergraduate student at NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences pursuing a major in psychology and a minor in politics. For his honors thesis, he is working with Birte Thissen and researching how mental contrasting and flow are related to playing chess against engines.

Yingfan Zhang

Yingfan is a master’s student in the social psychology track. She completed her undergraduate in the University of Waterloo, Canada. She is interested in mental contrasting with the contrast between a negative future and a positive reality and the manifestation of avoidance/ approach motivational strategies in it. Currently, she is working with SunYoung Kim on how mental contrasting with a negative future can reduce undergraduates’ smartphone usage.

Tyler Sterle

Tyler is a second year master’s student in the General Psychology Program at NYU. He received his BS from Indiana University studying Informatics and Human-Computer Interaction. Currently, he is working with Sherry Xiong to study how people achieve a sense of closure with life transitions. In Tyler’s MA Thesis, he, Sherry, and Gabriele Oettingen are investigating the effects of mental contrasting on closure for idiosyncratic endings. Tyler also teaches undergraduate level Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences for fundamental statistics concepts and software.

Binquan (Blaine) Liu

Blaine is a second-year master’s student in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology Program at NYU. He received his BS in Applied Psychology with a minor in Computer Science. He is currently working with Sherry Xiong on the projects concerning “well-rounded” endings and the effects on closure. Additionally, Blaine is working on a thesis on how motivation contributes to performance and turnover decisions in organizational settings.

Arielle M.

Arielle, M.A. Psychology student, is interested in conflict approaches and behavioral interventions for communities facing high levels of traumatic stress. Her work, influenced by trauma’s effects on motivation, conflict, goal achievement, and quality of life includes supporting Dr. Sandra Wittleder’s study on food training at NYU Langone. The “Retrain Your Brain for Healthy Eating” study investigates human-computer food training techniques (e.g., touch/no-touch) for diverse urban populations. She also collaborates with Sherry Xiong on the role meaning and significance attribution have on “Well-Rounded Endings”. Arielle’s thesis, guided by Peter Gollwitzer and Barry Cohen, explores self-regulation in conflict. Outside of research; Arielle enjoys health + fitness, community building, and the arts.

am13489@nyu.edu

Lanting Tao

Lanting Tao is a first-year master’s student in the Social and Consumer Psychology program at NYU. She earned a BSc with First Class Honors in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh, where her dissertation examined the relationship between dark triad traits and both positive and negative affect within individuals. Currently, she is collaborating with Dr. Birte Thissen, conducting laboratory studies on the flow experience.

Kristy Huang

Kristy Huang is a first-year Master’s student in the Social and Consumer Psychology program at NYU. She received her BA in Musicology from the University of Oxford where her undergraduate thesis evaluated the ethnomusicological aspect of musical ICH protection in the She ethnic minority village in Wenzhou, China. Currently, she is assisting SunYoung Kim on the study of Mental Contrast in group setting.

Bumin Ko

Bumin is a first-year master’s student in the General Psychology program at NYU. She received her BS from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with Cum Laude. Currently, she is completing her Master’s Thesis with Dr. Birte Thissen, analyzing results in the flow experience. She hopes to examine the interplay between internal and external motivational factors and their impact on personal growth and development.

Lexie Cieluch

Lexie is a first-year master’s student in the General Psychology Program at NYU. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota where she studied finance. She is interested in researching cognitive and behavioral self-regulation techniques. She is currently collaborating with SunYoung Kim to study self-regulation techniques to reduce academic procrastination.