Professor Molden received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Columbia University in 2003 and has been a member of the Northwestern Department of Psychology for 22 years. He studies how people’s various motivations influence how (a) they perceive and interact with others, and (b) how they achieve their own goals. Regarding the former, he particularly focuses on the specific strategies people use when seeking to fulfill their fundamental needs for belonging, such as by constructing their social networks, initiating friendships, and maintaining close relationships. Regarding the latter, he focuses primarily on how people’s beliefs about their own capacities for self-regulation influence with how much effort, and how much success, they pursue the outcomes they believe are important. Both of these areas are important components of adolescent development that have profound implications for mental health and well-being. Professor Molden is a Fellow of the Midwestern Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He is also a Faculty Associate of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation and appeared in outlets such as American Psychologist, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Psychological Science.