At the most general level, my research interests center on how people navigate their social interactions, how their social goals influence those interactions, and the associations between these processes and physiology and general health.

Since joining the Self and Social Motivation Lab, my work with Dr. Crocker has focused on the ways that people's goals to support others (i.e., compassionate goals) and construct desired self-images (i.e., self-image goals) influence their own relationship experiences and close others experiences. This line of work examines how people's goals to support others can be a starting-point for creating close relationships (versus waiting for others to initiate these processes).