THROUGOUT my career as a social psychologist my interests have centered on how people form judgments, beliefs, impressions and attitudes and what consequences this has for their interpersonal relations, their interaction in groups and their feelings about various "out groups". In connection with these interests I have formulated a theory of lay epistemics (Kruglanski, 1989) that specified how thought and motivation interface in the formation of subjective knowledge.

The work on lay epistemics has branched in several directions the major which were (1) research on epistemic motivations, need for cognitive closure in particular (2) a unified conception of the parameters of human judgment that offers an integrative alternative (known as the "unimodel") to previous theorizing in a variety of social judgment domains (having to do with persuasion, stereotyping, attribution, and statistical reasoning among others), (3) a "motivation as cognition" research program that resulted in our recent theory of goal systems.

My interest in motivation has also led to a fruitful collaboration with Tory Higgins on (4) the regulatory mode theory in which we distinguish between two fundamental aspects of self-regulation having to do with "locomotion" (encapsulated in the "just do it" dictum) and "assessment" (representing a concern with "doing the right thing").

My interest in goals, belief formation, and group processes has led to my involvement in the social psychology of terrorism. I have been writing and teaching a yearly seminar on this topic, looking at issues such as individual and organizational aspects of terrorism, terrorism as a tool of minority influence, suicidal terrorism and other related topics. I have also been member of various panels of the National Academy of Science devoted to the social/psychological aspects of terrorism. As of January 10, 2004 I have been appointed as a co-director of a Center of Excellence for Research on the Behavioral and Social Aspects of Terrorism and Counterterrorism, established at the University of Maryland, College Park.