Stefano Di Domenico, PhDDepartment of Psychology · University of Toronto Scarborough

Motivation · Personality · Financial life

Stefano
Di Domenico, PhD

I am an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. My research uses multiple methods to examine basic questions in human motivation, personality and individual differences. These interests also inform my teaching.

I also serve as Section Editor for Money and Economic Issues at the Center for Self-Determination Theory.

Alongside my academic work, I founded BehaviorBlock Inc., a behavioral intelligence consultancy. This website brings together my scholarship and teaching. For applied research and advisory services, visit BehaviorBlock.

Explore my research Explore my teaching

Research

Questions that connect my work

The Psychology of Money

What shapes our financial lives?

I study how motivation, personality, and values shape financial behaviour and well-being, including how people manage money and what they hope it will make possible.

Motivation and Optimal Functioning

What enables people to thrive?

I use self-determination theory to study how social environments support or undermine motivation, growth, and well-being, and how people come to endorse and integrate their goals and values.

Personality and Individual Differences

Why do people think, feel, and act differently?

I investigate basic questions about personality and individual differences, using multiple methods to examine how personality is organized and expressed in thought, feeling, and behaviour.

Teaching

Courses I teach

I want students to leave my courses better able to think for themselves, form well-informed judgments, and pursue questions that matter to them.

UTSC Academic Calendar
Psychology and Money: prominent historical coins, banknotes, shells and an accounting ledger, with hands exchanging a coin

PSYC87

Psychology and Money

The thesis of this course is that money is a product of the human mind that, in turn, shapes how we think, feel and live.

We first examine the origins and psychological foundations of money. We then consider money and well-being, including the effects of inflation and wealth concentration. We explore how personality, motivation and money scripts influence financial behaviour. We also examine disordered money behaviours and money in relationships. Finally, we consider the future of money and its implications for human experience.

First offered in Winter 2026.

Selected scholarship

Publications

Full publication record on Google Scholar

Contact

For academic correspondence, research conversations, and speaking enquiries:

s.didomenico@utoronto.ca

Department of Psychology
University of Toronto Scarborough

Looking for BehaviorBlock?

For research, intervention design and evaluation, workshops and advisory services, visit BehaviorBlock .

BehaviorBlock