Patty Van Cappellen, Associate Research Professor in the Social Science Research Institute, has received the Virginia Sexton Mentoring Award from the Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (Division 36 of the American Psychological Association). The award recognizes mentors who have strengthened the psychology of religion by guiding and instructing others in the field.
Van Cappellen is a social psychologist whose research examines the affective and motivational determinants and consequences of religious and spiritual practices and beliefs. She is also active in the domains of happiness and positive psychology, meditation, health behavior maintenance, and intergroup relations.
She directs the Belief, Affect, and Behavior Lab (BABLab), which explores how religion and spirituality intersect with emotional and motivational processes, as well leads the Interdisciplinary Behavioral Research Center (IBRC), an experimental research lab that manages and administers resources to support social and behavioral science across the university.
The Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality promotes psychological theory, research, and clinical practice to understand the significance of religion and spirituality in people’s lives and in the discipline of psychology. The Society is nonsectarian and welcomes psychologists and others from around the world interested in the psychology of religion and spirituality.