The 53rd Nebraska Symposium on Motivation developed under the past Series Editor, Richard A. Dienstbier. Prof. Dienstbier oversaw the symposium for many years and he is largely responsible for its continued success. His broad and thoughtful view of the field of psychology has guided the symposium into the twenty-first century. Everyone connected to the symposium is extremely grateful for his leadership. With his retirement, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Psychology developed a new administrative structure for oversight of the symposium and selected Debra A. Hope as the new series editor for a 6-year term. Publication of the 53rd volume has fallen under Prof. Hope’s watch. As the new series editor, one of the first tasks that the symposium committee and I undertook was to evaluate the current needs of the symposium. As a result, we began an extended process to find a new publisher for the symposium volumes who would respect and support the intellectual freedom and rigor of the series as well as promote it broadly in traditional print and electronic formats. We are very pleased that Springer has agreed to be our publisher, starting with Volume 53. The volume editor for this 53rd volume of the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation is Cynthia Willis-Esqueda. The volume editor coordinated the sym- sium that led to this volume including selecting and inviting the contributors and coordinating all aspects of editing. My thanks to our contributors for excellent presentations and chapters.