Our Team
Dr. Mark Landau
Professor
Mark J. Landau is a Professor at the University of Kansas. He received his doctorate from the University of Arizona in 2007. Dr. Landau has published many articles and chapters on metaphor’s influence on social cognition and behavior as well as the role of existential motives in diverse aspects of social behavior. He has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health
CV: Download (Updated Jan. 2025)
Email: mjlandau@ku.edu

Amy Kenny
Graduate Research Assistant
My research focuses on non-romantic relationships. While romantic relationships dominate the psychological literature, friendships and platonic relationships are a relatively less explored area. More specifically, I am interested in exploring the ways we form, maintain, and damage these non-romantic relationships and the factors that play into the why and how. By looking into how personality traits, mental states, expectations in relationships, attachment styles, motivations, and emotions may play a part in platonic relationships and friendships, I plan to support the development of healthy and consistent relationships outside of romantic connections.
Email: amy.kenny@ku.edu

Young-Ju Ryu
Graduate Research Assistant
In a broad sense, my research encompasses the domains of motivation and defensive reactions. One of my current projects centers on delving into the motivational grounds and subsequent manifestations of intellectual humility—a tendency to openly admit the potential for being wrong—particularly in response to encountering setbacks or failures. Another project examines cultural differences in gender expressions and how these variations can lead to divergent reactions concerning gender inequality issues. Ultimately, my goal is to suggest ways in which we can foster motivation to promote diversity, inclusivity, and understanding.
Email: youngju.ryu@ku.edu

Dr. Cory Washington
Alumnus
I study how and why people take interest in a goal and persist in the face of difficulty. I’m especially interested in how identity and culture play a role in developing personal relevance for a topic. These ideas can lead to intervention methods to help, for example, first-generation college students get interested in STEM careers; motivating a sub-population of people to get health screenings; helping individuals (with low perceived competence in STEM) be successful in their STEM-related goals by motivating them to take advantage of resources available to help them. Additionally, I use conceptual metaphor theory, expectancy-value model, and identity based motivation as conceptual lenses and tools for my work.
Email: cdwashington@ku.edu

Joe Conti
Alumnus
I’m interested in the diverse ways in which people defend against existential threats such as isolation, meaninglessness, and lack of belonging. Specifically, I study how people may strive to replenish existential resources by engaging with online environments such as games and chatrooms. My goal is to find out when, why, and how this strategy is beneficial and when it is detrimental to mental health and functioning. Additional interests include the utilization of conceptual metaphor theory and the study of time perception.
Email: josephpconti@ku.edu

Dr. Trevor Swanson
Alumnus
My research is currently focused on understanding human motivation through the lens of existential psychology, with a particular interest in how concerns about mortality influence self-regulation. Alongside this work, I am studying the role of conceptual metaphors within language, with an emphasis on how metaphors provide content and structure to our understanding of abstract concepts and thus influence how we perceive the world. Additionally, I am interested in how different strategies of evaluative organization within the self-concept can serve as temporary adaptive solutions to situations of high stress and limited mental resources.
Email: t092s958@ku.edu

Dr. Ariel Mosley
Alumnus
Ariel is interested in issues of social power, group identity, and psychological consequences of subtle forms of discrimination. After graduating from California State University, she earned her Master’s degree in Social Psychology with Mark. Her current research examines how experiences of contemporary subtle forms of discrimination influence the self-concept, and vice versa.
Email: ajm2320@columbia.edu

Dr. Zach Rothschild
Alumnus
Zach graduated in 2013 and has taken a tenure-track position at Bowdoin College. He utilizes perspectives on existential psychology and social cognition to study people’s efforts to maintain meaningful conceptions of the world and a confident sense of personal value.
Email: zrothsch@bowdoin.edu

Dr. Daniel Sullivan
Alumnus
Daniel graduated in 2013 and has taken a tenure-track position at the University of Arizona. He applies his novel theoretical integration of existential psychology and cultural psychology to investigate how people make meaningful sense of suffering, among other important phenomena.
Email: swolf22@email.arizona.edu

Dr. Lucas Keefer
Alumnus
Lucas is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research focuses on how people manage uncertainty about their social environment. In one line of work, he has shown that people manage uncertainty about their close relationships by seeking support from more predictable targets (e.g., material objects) or by adopting reductionist perceptions of others (e.g., objectification). In a related line of work, He has shown that people reduce uncertainty about abstract ideas by conceptualizing them metaphorically, and that this has practically important consequences for attitudes, problem solving, and decision making.
Email: lucas.keefer@gmail.com
