Ben Wilkowski, PH.D.

Affect; Self-Regulation; Personality; Interpersonal Relationships, & Ethics

I am currently accepting graduate student applications

Ph.D., North Dakota State University 2008

M.S., North Dakota State University 2005

B.A., Ohio University, 2002

 

Academic Positions

Full Professor, University of Wyoming, 2020-present
Associate Professor, University of Wyoming, 2014-2020

Assistant Professor, University of Wyoming, 2008-2014

 

Other Appointments

Co-Editor, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2019-present
Director, University of Wyoming Cognitive/Developmental, Legal, & Social Psychology graduate programs, 2018-Present

 

Click here for vitae (complete listing of publications, grants, teaching, etc.)

 

Research Interests

The ASPIRE lab broadly focuses on how people’s goals and emotions are used to coordinate people’s social behavior and bind them into social relationships and groups. This broad focus allows graduate students to focus on a variety of more specific topics in their own research. Current projects focus on topics such as: 1) Addressing the question of “What do people want” by examining the structure of higher-order Goal-Contents (Wilkowski et al., 2020; 2022; in press); 2) Examining How people Self-Regulate and Pursue their Goals in everyday life through the use of experience-sampling protocols (Wilkowski & Ferguson, 2016; Wilkowski et al., 2018; Williamson & Wilkowski, 2020; 2022); 3) the different functions that Role Models can play in motivating members of Disadvantaged groups to pursue challenging or counter-stereotypic goals (DiMariano & Wilkowski, in preparation); 4) Examining how individuals who changed political parties over their course of their lifespan use psychological conflicts to narrate and explain this change in their identity (Peck & Wilkowski, in preparation). When Ben’s not working, he’s a father of three fantastic children, and spends as much time as possible hiking, skiing, running, and enjoying all that Laramie WY has to offer.

Teaching

Psyc 2000: Research Methods

Psyc 2380: Social Psychology

Psyc 4390: Personality Science (advanced undergraduate-level course)

Psyc 5140: Personality Science (graduate-level course)

Psyc 5650: Theories of Social Psychology

Psyc 5785: Graduate Seminar, Emotions and their Social Consequences

 

Publications

Wilkowski, B.M., Rivera, E.,* Williamson, L.Z.,* DiMariano, E.,* Meier, B.P., & Fetterman, A. (in press). Toward a comprehensive, data-driven account of American political goals: Recognizing the “values” and “vices” within both liberalism and conservativism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

 

Rivera, E. D.,* Wilkowski, B. M., Moss, A. J., Rosenzweig, C., & Litman, L. (2022). Assessing the efficacy of a participant-vetting procedure to improve data-quality on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Methodology, 18(2), 126-143. 

 

Williamson, L.Z.,* & Wilkowski, B. M. (2022). What we repeatedly do: Evaluating the determinants and consequences of habit enactment during daily goal‐pursuit. British Journal of Psychology, 113, 1-24.

 

Wilkowski, B. M., Williamson, L. Z.*, Rivera, E.*, Fetterman, A., & Meier, B. P. (2022). What is the “opposite” of a value?: A lexical investigation into the structure of generally‐undesirable goal‐content. Journal of Personality, 90, 357-374.

 

Williamson, L.Z.*, & Wilkowski, B.M. (2020). Nipping temptation in the bud: Examining proactive self-control in daily life. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46(6), 961-975.

 

Wilkowski, B. M., Fetterman, A., Lappi, S. K.,* Williamson, L. Z.,* Leki, E. F.,* Rivera, E.,* & Meier, B. P. (2020). Lexical derivation of the PINT taxonomy of goals: Prominence, inclusiveness, negativity prevention, and tradition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(5), 1153. 

 

Wilkowski, B.M., Ferguson, E.L.*, Williamson, L.Z.*, & Lappi, S.K.* (2018). (How) does initial self-control undermine later self-control in daily life? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 1315-1329. 

 

Wilkowski, B.M., & Ferguson, E.L.* (2016). The steps that can take us miles: Examining the short-term dynamics of long-term daily goal pursuit. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 516-529. 

 

Wilkowski, B.M. & Robinson, M.D. (2008). The cognitive basis of trait anger and reactive aggression: An integrative analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 12, 3-28. 

* indicates graduate student advisee