Mindfulness
2026
Manuella B Kury, Barbara L. Fredrickson, Patty van Cappellen et al.
Extensive research documents that mindfulness meditation (MM) and loving-kindness meditation (LKM) have benefits for emotional, social, and mental health outcomes. Despite this work documenting the benefits of meditation practice, research also demonstrates that meditation does not always have equivalent effects for all people. So, who is most likely to benefit from meditation practice? In this...
Mindfulness
May 1, 2022
Brian P Don, Patty van Cappellen, Barbara L. Fredrickson
Abstract Objectives Research demonstrates that meditation interventions tend to positively influence social well-being. Yet, prior research has exclusively examined meditation in relation to average levels of social outcomes (e.g., social connectedness), despite other work demonstrating variability or fluctuations in social functioning play a distinct role in contributing to well-being. This...
Emotion
October 15, 2019
Patty van Cappellen, Lahnna I Catalino, Barbara L. Fredrickson
42 citations
New health behaviors are difficult to maintain and meditation is no different. We tested two key pathways of the upward spiral theory of lifestyle change (Fredrickson, 2013), which identifies positive emotions as critical ingredients for the maintenance of new health behaviors. The present experiment combined a laboratory session that introduced novices to meditation with a 3-week follow-up...
Mindfulness
May 29, 2017
Barbara L. Fredrickson, Aaron J. Boulton, A. Firestine et al.
The purpose of this study was to uncover the day-to-day emotional profiles and dose-response relations, both within persons and between persons, associated with initiating one of two meditation practices, either mindfulness meditation or loving-kindness meditation. Data were pooled across two studies of midlife adults (N = 339) who were randomized to learn either mindfulness meditation or...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
June 17, 2016
Patty van Cappellen, Baldwin M. Way, Suzannah F. Isgett et al.
138 citations
The oxytocin (OT) system, critically involved in social bonding, may also impinge on spirituality, which is the belief in a meaningful life imbued with a sense of connection to a Higher Power and/or the world. Midlife male participants (N = 83) were randomly assigned to receive intranasal OT or placebo. In exploratory analyses, participants were also genotyped for polymorphisms in two genes...
Cognition & Emotion
May 13, 2013
Patty van Cappellen, Vassilis Saroglou, Caroline Iweins et al.
184 citations
Spirituality has mostly been studied in psychology as implied in the process of overcoming adversity, being triggered by negative experiences, and providing positive outcomes. By reversing this pathway, we investigated whether spirituality may also be triggered by self-transcendent positive emotions, which are elicited by stimuli appraised as demonstrating higher good and beauty. In two...