Nebraska Motivation Symposium on the Nature of Behavior Change in April 2017

By Debra Hope, Professor of Psychology, Clinical Program

This year, for the 65th Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, the Department brought together a behavioral neuroscientist (Rick Bevins) and a clinical psychologist (Deb Hope) to organize our annual Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. This surprising collaboration developed in discussions over a few years with two motivations (pardon the pun). First, both Rick and I love to coordinate the symposium and wanted to do one together. Second, we both share a common interest in the processes by which behavior change occurs and how this change may or may not be maintained. The topic of “Change and Maintaining Change” was quite timely as researchers across many domains seek a fundamental understanding to guiding and maintaining change in behavior in areas of significant societal importance (e.g., addiction, climate change, HIV).

Symposium faculty.

Once again this year, we had outstanding scholars who are all recognized leaders in their respective disciplines. This year’s speakers included Dolores Albarracín (University of Illinois), Chloe Bird (RAND), Stephen Higgins (University of Vermont), George Koob (NIAAA), Greg Madden (Utah State University), and Connie Roser-Renouf (George Mason University). Each of them pursues a research program aimed at explicating the processes that impact behavior change, as well as ways to implement successful and more effective interventions. The speakers approached this timely topic from a multi-disciplinary and translational perspective that leveraged fundamental and applied knowledge from social and cognitive psychology, public policy, communication studies, behavioral neuroscience, and economics.

Although this year’s symposium was supported by the retired UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman and the Friedline bequest at the Nebraska Foundation, we were privileged to have Chancellor Ronnie Green provide the opening day welcome for the first time.

In order to expand the reach of the Symposium, we provided free live streaming of the presentations through the UNL website. This is a wonderful opportunity for scholars around the world to participate, even though they may not be able to travel to Lincoln. Next April we will be at the 66th symposium in which Maital Neta and Ingrid Haas will chair a meeting on social and affective neuroscience, examining the role of emotion and motivation in social decision-making, and the neural mechanisms that support these processes. Join us in person or online.