Category Archives: Awards

‘Science of Happiness’ Teaching Assistant Sophie Brooks Graduates With Distinction, Senior Project Features BABLab PI Dr. Patty Van Cappellen.

Awards, Lab Members, Student Opportunities

This past fall, Sophie Brooks served as a teaching assistant for BABLab PI Dr. Patty Van Cappellen’s course, The Science of Happiness, where she helped facilitate invigorating class discussions, community-building events among students, and offered overall support in executing the course. To learn more about The Science of Happiness course, check out this feature article by Duke Mag.

Throughout her time at Duke, Brooks pursued a self-designed Program II degree, Mind, Meaning, Movement: A Multidimensional Approach to Human Wellness, where she explored health and wellness through the disciplines of psychology, neuroscience, religion, philosophy, and movement practices.

For her senior project, Brooks designed a podcast, In Sync, to cultivate wellness through a curated collection of expert interviews. One of the episodes featured the BABLab’s very own Dr. Patty Van Cappellen, whom Brooks TA’d for last fall. Some highlights of the conversation include insights from Dr. Van Cappellen’s groundbreaking research in positive psychology, exploring how we can move beyond simply being “okay” to truly flourishing in life, among other topics. The episode is available in both Apple Podcasts and Spotify

Brooks graduated from Duke University with distinction in May following a successful project defense.

Congratulations to Sophie on all her success at Duke. The BABLab wishes you luck in all your future endeavors!

Dr. Patty Van Cappellen Receives APA Div. 36 Mentoring Award!

Awards, Media

We’re thrilled to celebrate Dr. Patty Van Cappellen for receiving the Virginia Sexton Mentoring Award from the Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (APA Division 36)! This award honors her outstanding dedication to mentoring and supporting others in the field of psychology of religion.

Congratulations, Patty, on this well-deserved recognition!

 Read the full announcement on the SSRI website ›

BABLab RA Cai Liu Wins Bruner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research!

Awards, Lab Members

We are proud to announce that Cai, one of the BAB Lab’s current research assistants, has won the highest award for undergraduate researchers by the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience! The Jerome S. Bruner Award recognizes a senior-year Duke student for excellence in psychological research activities, intellectual curiosity, and future potential for scholarly activity. Congratulations on this honor, Cai!

More information here.

 

Maria Receives Jerome S. Bruner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research!

Awards

Congratulations to Maria, the recipient of the 2019-2020 Jerome S. Bruner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research!

Maria has been conducting research at the BAB lab since Fall 2019. Currently, she is writing her honors thesis on awe with Dr. Van Cappellen.

For more information about her award-winning thesis project, please read: https://psychandneuro.duke.edu/news/senior-maria-naclerio-receives-2019-2020-jerome-s-bruner-award-excellence-undergraduate

American Psychological Association Div. 36 Award

Awards
Dr. Patty Van Cappellen received the Margaret Gorman Early Career award from the American Psychological Association Div. 36 and gave an address entitled:
“Religion/spirituality: From the mind to the body.”

Abstract:

I will present a summary of my own research that showcases the importance of studying religion as a practice in addition to a system of beliefs. First, I’ll discuss the fact that religious and spiritual practices (e.g., attending a place of worship, praying, meditating) are associated with the experience of meaningful positive emotions. To explain this association, I’ll specifically focus on embodied processes showing that the very body postures adopted in worship and prayer are associated with distinct religious experiences. I’ll then turn my attention to the implications of experiencing positive emotions in religious practice describing research on well-being and spirituality. Finally, I’ll briefly describe an ongoing investigation on the psychological and biological factors that amplify the positive emotions experienced in spiritual practices with attendant consequences for sustained adherence to these practices. Together, I aim to argue for the importance of moving the study of religion beyond the mind and for taking seriously the role that positive emotions play when experienced during religious and spiritual practices.

Early Career Award!

Awards

Congratulations to Patty Van Cappellen, PhD. for receiving the

Margaret Gorman Early Career Award

Recipients of this award have shown innovative research in the psychology of religion, marked by scholarly excellence, and has implications for theory, practice or further research. Dr. Van Capellen received her Ph.D. in Psychology at the Université catholique de Louvain in 2012. Her research in religion and spirituality has encompassed the topics of emotions, health, biology, embodiment, antisocial behaviors, as well as qualitative research with the Hebrew Bible. You can read more about her research on the psychology of religion and spirituality here.