{"id":515,"date":"2026-05-19T11:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/cutheme-homepage\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T10:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:10:31","slug":"cutheme-homepage","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Tools – Carleton University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Life Tools\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

In the LifeTools lab, we study skills, strategies, or resources that helps individuals and couples navigate life\u2019s challenges and achieve their goals. Current areas of research include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. The Role of Finances in Relationships<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    This is currently the primary focus on research in the LifeTools lab.  We examine the interplay between finances and relationships. How does financial hardship affect relationship quality? For example, we examine whether financial stress affects how relationship partners interact with each other (Morgan & Peetz, 2023) or perceive each other\u2019s behaviors (Peetz et al., 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    More generally, how is the topic of finances discussed in relationships and is there an optimal way to think about and talk about money? For example, we are interested in what partners talk about when talking about money (Peetz et al., 2024) and how financial communication might shift depending on how financial resources are organized (e.g., whether accounts are joint or separate, Peetz, 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. Goal Strategie<\/strong>s<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      This line of research examines strategies that help people achieve their goals, with a special focus on financial goals. For example, some of our recent studies showed that reminding people of personal financial self-control strategies reduces monthly spending (Peetz & Davydenko, 2021) and shopping lists reduce spending in the grocery store and even when shopping online (Davydenko & Peetz, 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      1. Time Perception<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        This line of research examines how individuals perceive time and how this time perception relates to goals. For example, some of our recent studies showed that people think differently about their goals across the course of each day: they think more about how<\/em> to achieve their goals in the morning than in the evening but equally about why<\/em> they have this goal (Peetz, Sullivan, & Grossmann, 2025). We also examine how representations of time (i.e., calendars and clocks) might shift how motivated people are to pursue their goals and when they start goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


        Want to learn more about what we do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Read more about current and past research for each of these topics in the \u201cResearch\u201d section. You can also check out \u201cFinancial Matters<\/a>\u201c, a Psychology Today Blog summarizing some of our research or watch Johanna Peetz\u2019 podcast with Rational Reminder<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        In the LifeTools lab, we study skills, strategies, or resources that helps individuals and couples navigate life\u2019s challenges and achieve their goals. Current areas of research include: This is currently the primary focus on research in the LifeTools lab.  We examine the interplay between finances and relationships. How does financial hardship affect relationship quality? For example, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[],"class_list":["post-515","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":523,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/515\/revisions\/523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifetools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}