I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication (Interpersonal Division) and an Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Psychological Sciences (Social Psychology) at Purdue University. I received my Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2006.
My primary interests center on the interpersonal aspects of the self as embedded within the context of social relationships. In particular, I focus on how the behavioral, motivational, and emotional components of the self influence interpersonal communication,
with the central tenet that people’s behaviors and emotions are influenced by their concerns about others’ impression and social acceptance of them. My latest research on relational value and self-regulation was awarded a 2006 American Psychological Association (APA) Dissertation Research Award. Current research projects include (but are not limited to) examining 1) Self-regulatory capacity to monitor/assess relational value, 2) Self-presentation as habit responding, 3) Preemptive self-presentation at the individual and organizational level, 4) Self-presentation as a motivational explanation for comparative optimism, and 5) Machine learning techniques to model the impact of relational communication on distributed team effectiveness. This last project was recently awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant.