Lab Director
Abigail Scholer
Abby (ascholer@uwaterloo.ca) received her Ph.D. in social psychology from Columbia University in 2009. She was on the faculty of her undergraduate alma mater, Gettysburg College, for two years before joining the faculty of University of Waterloo in 2011. She currently holds a Canada Research Chair in Motivated Social Cognition. Her research interests relate to the study of self-regulation, motivation, and social cognition, as broadly described on the lab home page. These days, she is particularly passionate about investigating what people understand about regulating motivation—metamotivation—and how this affects their overall success at goal pursuit. When she’s not working, Abby enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, reading a great novel, and colouring outside the lines.
Graduate Students
Krista Quinn
Krista Quinn (k6quinn@uwaterloo.ca) is in her first year of graduate studies in the social psychology program. Her present research focus is on understanding feedback specifically from the feedback-giver’s perspective. Krista is specifically interested in exploring the reasons that feedback-givers may withhold negative feedback, especially in instances when the feedback would be beneficial for the receiver. Aside from research, Krista enjoys many forms of media and loves discussing her favourite books (particularly mysteries), TV shows (particularly sitcoms & mysteries), and music (all kinds).
Candice Rubie
Candice (carubie@uwaterloo.ca) is a first-year graduate student in the social psychology program. Broadly, her research interests include the role of metamotivation in giving effective feedback and enhancing motivation during goal pursuit. Outside of her studies, Candice enjoys reading anything she can get her hands on, listening to music, and spending time with her friends and family.
Katie Bain
Katie (ksbain@uwaterloo.ca) is a third-year graduate student in the social psychology program being co-supervised by Abby and Joanne Wood. She is primarily focused on understanding what kinds of motivational factors may cause support providers to undervalue certain types of support messages, thereby leading them to offer less effective help to others. Katie is also interested in exploring how people perceive motivational cues from different tasks, and how such cues may affect their behavioural choices. Outside of her studies, she enjoys spending time with her friends, listening to music, and watching sitcoms.
Candice Hubley
Candice (cmhubley@uwaterloo.ca) is a fifth-year graduate student in the social psychology program. She is broadly interested in how people regulate their motivation. She is particularly interested in the role that quitting has in self-regulation: how sometimes, disengaging from a goal is beneficial. Candice and Abby have examined this idea in the context of COVID-19 (goals disrupted by the pandemic), and they are continuing to investigate related questions. Candice also studies people’s metamotivational beliefs about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with Abby, as well as metamotivational beliefs in children. Aside from work, Candice enjoys playing sports, going to the beach, and spending time with friends and family.
Jessica Ross
Jessica (jrross@uwaterloo.ca) is a fifth-year graduate student in the social psychology program. She is primarily interested in motivation and self-regulation during goal pursuit. Applying a metamotivational approach, Jessica and Abby are examining people’s beliefs about motivation in the domains of regulatory focus theory and to-date/to-go progress framing, including the effects these beliefs have on performance and other downstream consequences. More recently, they have started to explore whether people’s metamotivational beliefs can be changed through interventions. Outside of work, Jessica enjoys reading, spending time in nature, and being with friends and family (and her cats).
Erik Jansen
Erik (e2jansen@uwaterloo.ca) is a sixth-year graduate student in the social psychology program. His primary research interests center on how people manage the motivation of others and the novel challenges this can pose for effective goal pursuit. Using a metamotivational perspective, Erik and Abby have investigated what people know about how to manage the motivation of others in the domains of regulatory focus (with David Miele and Kentaro Fujita) and construal level (with Kentaro Fujita and Tina Nguyen). Recently, they have been exploring ways to manage regulatory mode in teams. Outside of work, he enjoys listening to music and podcasts, reading, biking, hiking, and spending time with friends.
Abdo Elnakouri
Abdo (abdo.elnakouri@uwaterloo.ca) is a seventh-year graduate student in social psychology. Broadly, he is interested in how worldviews are shaped by goals and relationships. Abdo and Abby are examining how people might preferentially create a shared reality (similar attitudes and judgements about the world) with those who help them achieve their goals and whether this leads to goal success. In another line of research with Abby and Ian McGregor, Abdo is exploring whether people who believe that an omniscient God guides them during difficult decisions experience self-regulatory benefits. When he's not working, Abdo enjoys traveling, learning, listening to music, and spending time with friends and family.
Alumni
Kassandra Cortes - Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfred Laurier University
Jeffrey Hughes - Employment and Social Development Canada
David Kille - Instagram
Jane Klinger - The Ohio State University
Franki Kung - Purdue University
Jhotisha Mugon - University of Waterloo
Andriy Struk - Quantitative Trader in partnership with Alex Struk
Amanda Wudarzewski - Run for Life