The Motivation, Affect, and Personality (MAP) Lab

Current Areas of Interest

1) Developing an Organizing Taxonomy of Superordinate Motivation: What do people really want? This question is both fascinating and practically important for a number of reasons. Yet no past psychological description of these motivational objectives has gained widespread acceptance. Much of our recent work (Wilkowski, Fetterman, Lappi, Williamson, Leki, Rivera, & Meier, 2020; Wilkowski, Williamson, Rivera, Fetterman, & Meier, 2022; Wilkowski, Rivera, Williamson, DiMariano, Meier, & Fetterman, 2025; Wilkowski, DiMariano, & Peck, 2026) has thus been focused on developing a comprehensive model of the “big” things that energize people’s behavior. This work suggests that people are motivated to approach values such as Prominence, Inclusiveness, and Tradition (Wilkowski et al., 2020), but also to avoid disvalues such as Elitism, Rebellion, and Disrepute (Wilkowski et al., 2022; 2025). In an ongoing and intensive project, we are partnering with Andrew Elliot and Jer Clifton to develop a more complete and definitive taxonomy of these motivational objectives, which we refer to as Ultimate Purposes – the trans-situational, indefinite, and superordinate commitments that guide our lives and give us direction. We are particularly interested in graduate students who are eager to join this effort!

2) Related Questions: As we develop a better understanding of the Ultimate Purposes that energize and guide our lives, many enthralling questions naturally arise. Applicants to the MAP Lab may develop a thriving research program of their own by conducting research on one of these questions:
  ▪ Ultimate Purposes and Concrete Goals: Much of our time is focused on very concrete considerations (e.g., How do I pass this course? What will I eat for dinner today?, etc.). While these concrete goals provide very specific directions for how to behave, one’s life can become disorganized, overwhelming, or dissatisfying if these goals are not successfully guided by one’s ultimate purposes. Exploring the connection between the “big” purpose of a person’s life and more concrete goals they pursue on a daily basis is topic ripe for consideration, and important for understanding how Ultimate Purposes have any true impact on our daily lives.

▪ The Origins of our Ultimate Purposes: While some theorists view motivational systems as biologically-evolved, others view values and socially and culturally constructed in some way. It is likely that both matter in some way, and we are currently exploring the intersection between these two ideas. In a current project, we are exploring the role that perceptions of the social-learning environment play in guiding people toward the adopting of purposes such as Tradition, Self-Direction, Rebellion, or Elitism. If a person perceives their culture as providing them with the single useful way of living one’s life, it might have different implications for the values they adopt than if they view their culture as providing outdated advice, or as providing a multitude of useful examples one can potentially follow.

▪ The Consequences of our Ultimate Purposes: Naturally, the ultimate purpose that one devotes themselves to should have many important consequences – e.g., for their psychological well-being, achievements, social relationships, and so on. In another on-going project, we are exploring how a person’s ultimate purposes impact their happiness and subjective well-being. For example, past research suggests that “intrinsic” values (e.g., relationships, personal growth) support well-being, but do other values also support well-being? Does a commitment to avoid disvalues (e.g., Elitism) also benefit well-being, or does it actually undermine it? Might people sometimes prioritize other outcomes (e.g., justice) above their personal well-being?        

3) Self-Regulation: How do people pursue their ultimate purposes and goals? Another focus of our lab is to examine the processes people use to pursue these objectives in everyday life. For example, we have proposed an Integrative Cybernetic Model, which examines a multitude of self-regulatory processes used to pursue goals in daily life (e.g., planning, testing, self-control; Wilkowski & Ferguson, 2016). Beyond this, we have examined the antecedents of self-control failures in everyday life (Wilkowski, Ferguson, Williamson, & Lappi, 2018), the benefits of more ‘proactive’ self-control strategies (Williamson & Wilkowski, 2020); and the utility of ‘good habits’ (i.e., goal-congruent habits) for goal pursuit in daily life (Williamson & Wilkowski, 2022).

4) Affect and Personality: Individual differences in motivation are just one aspect of personality, and the MAP Lab also seeks to understand many other aspects that make up the rich fabric of people’s personalities. For example, Ben also has a long-standing interest in understanding individual differences in anger and aggression, largely working from a social-cognitive perspective (e.g., Wilkowski & Robinson, 2008). More recently Kaleb has conducted research on the ‘dark’ trait of psychopathy.

Representative Publications:

Wilkowski, B. M., DiMariano, E.*, & Peck, J.* (2026). Understanding the full landscape of values and superordinate goal content: An empirical integration of past models in the American cultural context. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 130(2), 399-430. [pdf]

DiMariano, E. M.*, & Wilkowski, B. M. (2026). Testing the motivational theory of role modeling in first and continuing-generation college students: A scale development approach. Psychological Reports, 00332941261425589. [pdf]

Wilkowski, B.M., Rivera, E.,* Williamson, L.Z.,* DiMariano, E.,* Meier, B.P., & Fetterman, A. (2025). 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, 51(2), 167-184. [pdf].

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. [pdf]

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. [preprint pdf]

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. [preprint pdf]

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. [preprint pdf]

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. [preprint pdf]

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. [preprint pdf]

*Denotes graduate student author

Lab Alumni:

Erika DiMariano, Ph.D.
Originally from Trophy Club, Texas, Erika obtained her Ph.D in Psychology from the University of Wyoming in 2025. While in our lab, Erika’s research focused on the motivating function of role models in underrepresented groups (e.g., DiMariano & Wilkowski, 2026). She is now a Learning Coordinator for GP Strategies, managing training operations for Texas Instruments.
Zach Williamson, Ph.D.
Originally from Mountain View, Wyoming, Zach obtained his PhD in psychology from the University of Wyoming in 2021. While in our lab, his research focused on the use of strategic self-control and the importance of developing goal-supportive habits. He is now an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Missouri Western State University.
Emilio Rivera, Ph.D.
Originally from Junction City, Kansas, Emilio obtained his Ph.D. in psychology from University of Wyoming in 2023. While in the Lab, Emilio’s interests focused on social interdependence, power, and aggression. He also collaborated lab on research related to police shooting decisions and misuse of force, and he authored a methodological paper on how to ensure participants provide high-quality data in internet-based research. He is now an associate Research Methodologist at Gallup, where he continues to put the methodological skills he learned at UW to use.
Elizabeth Ferguson Leki, Ph.D.
Originally from Mobile, Alabama, Elizabeth earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in 2017. While in the lab, Liz’s research focused on guilt and shame. After working in Under Armour’s Data Science division for many years, she moved to Xometry as Director of their Machine Learning operations. There, she puts to work many of the advanced statistical skills she learned at UW (and beyond).