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!
This fall, Patty taught again her new course titled The Science of Happiness, offering students an opportunity to examine the psychological foundations of well-being and positive emotion. The course explores research on happiness, meaning, and human flourishing, encouraging students to consider how these insights can inform both personal and community life. This course is part of the Transformative Ideas initiative at Duke.
In keeping with the theme of well-being, Patty recently held class outdoors, where students engaged in discussion surrounded by sunshine and fresh air. The outdoor session reflected the course’s emphasis on integrating academic learning with personal application in day-to-day life.
Through The Science of Happiness, Patty aims to help students connect empirical research with lived experience—fostering reflection, engagement, and a deeper understanding of what happiness means in their own lives.
We had an eventful and international summer here at the BABLab!
To kick things off, we welcomed our new co-lab manager, Camryn Yeager, who will be working on the Hope and Spiritual Yearning projects. We are glad to have Camryn on the team!
Our postdoc, Megan Edwards, PhD, along with two of our students (Fr. Mannes Matou, OP and Chris-Ann Bennett), traveled to Tanzania to meet with religious leaders and collect data for the Hope Project. We are excited to continue partnering with them and expanding our cross-cultural understanding of hope.
This year, Patty participated in the University of Birmingham’s Psychology Cross-Training Program, where she mentored two theologians (Aizaiah Young and Man Hei Yip). In August, Patty supported these scholars as they presented the data they collected under her mentorship.
Also in August, Patty and lab manager Jenna joined Co-PI Ward Davis, PhD in the UK to present on Virtual Worship at the International Association for the Psychology of Religion. Patty, Ward, and Jenna gave a symposium with discussants Sam Ashton, PhD and Victor Counted, PhD.
After such a full and exciting summer, we are excited to be back in the lab this fall and look forward to continuing our projects!
We are sad/thrilled that Cheryl is off to grad school in social psych working with Dr. Libby at Ohio State University! Stay tuned for reunion pictures at SPSP!
Congratulations for reaching the end of the school year!! Cheers to all of our collaborators, students, and friends. We wish everyone a fun and relaxing summer ahead ⋆｡°✩
Duke Chapel tower climb with Hope Bass Connections & Science of Happiness course students.
Stay tuned for more BABLab research on hope, compassion, and virtual worship in the year to come!
Happy (almost) end of the Spring semester!
Over the course of the year, our What is Hope? Bass Connections 24-25 Project Team has reviewed hope literature, recruited community populations, conducted semi-structured interviews, and analyzed stories of hope. Last week, the team presented a poster at the 2025 Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase on some of our preliminary findings from this work investigating the lived experiences of hope!
Apply here and see full job description: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/29900 We are hiring a research coordinator to facilitate the activities of grant-funded research (see https://sites.duke.edu/bablab/) and the Duke Interdisciplinary Behavioral Research Center (IBRC, https://ibrc.duke.edu/), directed by Dr. Patty Van Cappellen at Duke University. The position is for 12 months but funding is available to extend appointment depending on performance. The research coordinator will work closely with Dr. Van Cappellen to perform the administrative and research activities of grant-funded projects in her Belief, Affect, and Behavior Lab (BABLab). Current topics are hope, virtual worship and well-being, and empathy. The research coordinator will also assist with some of the administrative duties of the IBRC. The IBRC is an interdisciplinary research facility serving faculty and students in social and behavioral sciences. The IBRC provides the infrastructure (laboratory space), equipment (laptop, software, cameras), support (training, research assistant program), participant access (community participants pool), and funding to facilitate social and behavioral research. This position is ideal for individuals who wish to go to grad school in the near future. I am looking for someone who is passionate about research and has interest in the lab’s topic. I give the opportunity to my staff to present at conferences and to become co-authors on journal manuscripts. We will do a lot of research together as a team and you will be involved from start to finish on most projects! Start date can be arranged with me and can be as early as June 1st. *it is expected for the candidate to move to NC and be in person, in an office on Duke campus.* Work Performed: - Assisting in designing and running a series of experiments with human subjects related to multiple grant-funded projects - Maintaining IRB records - Cleaning and analyzing data - Assisting in writing manuscripts - Assisting in general administrative activities as requested including planning meetings - Manage funds for payment of participants. - Managing and training a team of undergraduate research assistants - Assisting with media outreac - Support research activities of the IBRC including registering new lab users, approving studies and resource requests, and scheduling lab rooms. - Maintain a database of community members and students who wish to participate in paid research at the IBRC.
As the Spring semester wraps up, we are proud to have two of our BABLab undergraduate RAs — Abby and Rohan — presenting their posters at the 2025 Duke URS Undergraduate Research Symposium!
Abby Li, presenting her poster on virtual worship and flourishing.
Rohan Gupta, presenting his poster on perceptions of compassion between Christians and Buddhists.
BABLab Team at Duke URS 2025!
April showers bring May flowers! We are celebrating more good news in the midst of this rainy weather. Last month, our two BABLab post-doctoral fellows Dr. Kunalan Manokara and Dr. Megan Edwards attended and presented at the 2025 SAS Annual Conference in Portland!
Dr. Kunalan Manokara presenting his research on Empathy (left) and Emotion Stereotypes (right) at the Annual Conference.
Dr. Megan Edwards presenting her research on Awe (left) at the Positive Emotions Preconference, which was Co-Organized by Dr. Kunalan Manokara this year (right).
Happy Spring! With new blossoms emerging at the turn of the season, we’d like to celebrate our BABLab members in this season of growth.
Last month, BABLab attended the 2025 SPSP Annual Convention in Denver, featuring: data blitz talk by post-doctoral fellow Dr. Megan Edwards, and an array of poster presentations by lab managers Jenna Faith McClear, Cheryl Tan, and senior undergraduate RA Rohan Gupta!
Dr. Megan Edwards at the Existential Psychology Pre-Conference
Cheryl Tan, Rohan Gupta at the Emotion Pre-Conference
Jenna Faith McClear at the Religion & Spirituality Pre-Conference
The BABLab Team at SPSP 2025!
