James Cornwell

Biography

James Cornwell is the Director of Research for the doctoral psychology program, as well as an Associate Professor of Psychology. Prior to joining the faculty at Wheaton College, he was a member of the faculty at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, teaching and researching in the management and psychology programs. He has also conducted organizational behavior research in industry as a senior analyst for Edward Jones, the financial services company.

In terms of research focus, Dr. Cornwell's work is centered on the roles that ethics and character play in our social identities, how individuals and groups seek to understand the truth, and how different fundamental motivations compete and integrate relate to moral behavior and human flourishing.

Dr. Cornwell spends most of his time outside work with his wife, Sarah, and their seven children. He loves reading broadly, challenging himself with new house building projects, experimenting with recipes, teaching his kids to play soccer, baseball, and the piano, and celebrating feast days with his church.

Education

Columbia University
Ph.D., Psychology, 2014

New York University
B.A., Politics and Psychology, 2007

Areas of Expertise

Moral Psychology
Social Psychology
Personality Psychology
Statistics

Professional Affiliations

Editor-in-Chief, Motivation and Emotion
Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP)
Society for the Science of Motivation (SSM)
Motivation Science Center, Columbia University

Courses Taught

PSYC 746: Research and Statistics I
PSYC 749: Research and Statistics III
PSYC 774: Advanced Social Psychology
PSYC 346: The Psychology of Morality
PSYC/BEC 347: Introduction to I/O Psychology
CORE 392: The Science of Happiness

Research

Dr. Cornwell’s research is centered on motivation, with a particular emphasis on moral motivations and motivations to establish what is true. He is especially interested in the function that ethics and character have in our lives and in the organizations to which we belong, both religious and secular. He is also interested in how individuals, dyads, and groups work together to establish what is true, particularly with regard to ambiguous or inherently non-empirical realities, such as moral theories or beliefs about God and the supernatural. Finally, he is interested in motivational theory more generally, and how the strengths and weaknesses of fundamental motives, as well as their integration or conflict, can lead to either psychological distress or human flourishing.

Selected Publications

Cornwell, J. F. M., Franks, B., Nakkawita, E., & Higgins, E. T. (2025). Life attunement experience: Well-being and morality from the truth of a life. Motivation and Emotion, 49, 530-551.

Cornwell, J. F. M., Krauss, S. W., Wood, M. D., & Wetzler, E. L. (2025) Moral injury moderates the effect of battlefield experiences on suicidal ideation and help-seeking. Journal of Traumatic Stress.

Cornwell, J. F. M. & Higgins, E. T. (2019). Beyond value in moral phenomenology: The role of epistemic and control experiences. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2430.

Cornwell, J. F. M., Franks, B., & Higgins, E. T. (2017). Shared reality makes life meaningful: Are we really going in the right direction? Motivation Science, 3(3), 260-274.

Cornwell, J.F.M. & Higgins, E.T. (2015). The “ought” premise of moral psychology and the importance of the ethical “ideal.” Review of General Psychology, 19(3), 311-328.

Research Lab

Dr. Cornwell directs the Morality, Truth, and Motivation lab, which scientifically studies the ways in which morality provides us with a guiding framework for life in our social world, how the pursuit of truth provides our lives with meaning and strengthens relationships, and how differences in motivational dynamics can predict human flourishing as well as patterns of psychological distress. The lab’s research is based in psychological theory developed in conversation with insights from theology (particularly Christian theology), philosophy, literature, as well as other sciences.