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Christy Wilson Mendenhall Bw
Christy Wilson-Mendenhall
Research Assistant Professor, Center for Healthy Minds
Research I conducted early in my career pointed to the plasticity of emotions – that our emotional experiences are more malleable than traditionally assumed. How, then, do we actively shape our emotional experiences to become healthier and more resilient? My research program conceptualizes and measures emotional skillsets to test hypotheses regarding whether these skills cultivate well-being. I engage in interdisciplinary integration, drawing on perspectives from situated cognition, constructionist approaches to emotion, and contemplative philosophies, to investigate well-being as an active process of life-long learning, practice, and transformation

Recent Publications

Education

Ph.D., Cognition and Development (Psychology), Emory University

Links

Related Studies

Healthy Minds @ Work Demo

Developing a Program to Learn and Measure Well-Being at Scale

In collaboration with Healthy Minds Innovations, this project strives to learn how to teach and measure well-being to scale

Photo of Tibetan singing bowl by bkkm via iStock

Mapping the Interface between Meditation and Neuroscience

Center researchers and collaborators are building new approaches to understand the links between traditional contemplative perspectives and scientific theory to better study the scientific effects of meditation training on the brain, body, mind and behavior.

Happy and sad face drawings by greenwatermelon via iStock

Measuring Well-Being

Center researchers are developing a program to teach scientifically-informed practices and principles that facilitate well-being.

Image of abstract head and growth by chatchaisurakram via iStock

Moral Psychology and Flourishing

What drives moral behavior and greater well-being?

Smiling Faces Study

Smiling Faces Task and Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Following up with past research participants about the pandemic's impact on their lives and their current psychological outlook.

College students studying with computers and conversing image showing college students at work

The Student Flourishing Initiative

Center for Healthy Minds researchers, along with partners at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Virginia, are creating and studying the impact of a well-being curriculum for college freshman.