The Willingly Approached Set of Statistically Unlikely Pursuits (WASSUP) is a measure of the tendency to set implausibly high goals. This measure was developed in collaboration with Charles Carver. This measure was intended to investigate the question of whether persons vulnerable to mania set unrealistic goals. It has seven factorially derived scales, pertaining to goals in different life domains. In several different studies using this measure we have found associations between diagnosed mania and hypomania (on the one hand) with reports of setting highly ambitious goals for popular fame (always), financial success (sometimes), and political influence (sometimes).

The subscales have been consistently found to be elevated among those at risk for bipolar disorder, as measured using subsyndromal lifetime symptoms, as well as those with diagnoses of remitted bipolar disorder.  Among those at risk for the disorder, it predicts the onset of diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and among those already diagnosed, it predicts conversion to more severe forms as well as more severe symptoms of mania over time.  It has been tied to a biological measure of reward, namely eye blink rate while anticipating a reward task.

Here is how we administer the WASSUP, followed by scoring instructions: