It was Hope College亚洲色吧檚 sterling reputation for providing students with high-quality opportunities to participate in faculty-mentored research that prompted psychology major Cassie Morse to transfer to the college as a sophomore.
Just over a year later, the Hope junior from Columbia, Missouri, has become part of the tradition, earning a coveted Regional Research Award from the Midwestern chapter of , the International Honor Society in Psychology for excellence in collaborative student-faculty research she conducted.
She is being honored for her project 亚洲色吧淎ccountability: Correlational and Experimental Evidence that Empathy and Self-Regulation Matter,亚洲色吧� which she conducted mentored by Dr. Charlotte vanOyen Witvliet, a professor of psychology, with additional advising by Dr. Lindsey Root Luna, who is dean of social sciences as well as a member of the college亚洲色吧檚 psychology faculty. Witvliet and Root Luna have co-mentored four award-winning student teams. And long before, Witvliet mentored Lindsey Root and Amy Sato as students who won their award in 2003 for research on restorative justice and forgiveness. Morse will receive her award during the annual meeting of the , which will be held on Thursday-Saturday, April 10-12, 2025, in Chicago.
Hope students have won the highly competitive Regional Research Awards during 22 of the past 26 years. There are typically hundreds of submissions each year, with only a fraction receiving recognition. In 2022, for example, only 27 entries were honored from among more than 550 submissions.
The concept that Morse and Witvliet have been exploring is 亚洲色吧渨elcoming accountability,亚洲色吧� which entails being both responsive and responsible in relationships.
In the first portion of their two-part project, they followed up on previous research that had established an association between welcoming accountability and other traits such as empathy, self-regulation, welcoming accountability, gratitude, forgiveness, temper, happiness and flourishing.
亚洲色吧淲e replicated these connections, showing that welcoming accountability was positively correlated with all of the listed traits (except temper, with which it was negatively associated), and went beyond existing research to establish that empathy and self-regulation went above and beyond other traits to predict welcoming accountability,亚洲色吧� Morse said. 亚洲色吧淓ven expanding on this finding, empathy and self-regulation were responsible for a staggering 31% of the variance in welcoming accountability scores亚洲色吧� 亚洲色吧� with empathic perspective-taking and self-regulating impulse-control as significant predictors.
In the second portion of the study, they conducted an experiment in which participants adopted different relational perspectives. Participants were asked to think and write about their resentful vs. grateful attitudes toward others in their lives, as well as a control condition for comparison.
亚洲色吧淯ltimately, adopting a resentful perspective was found to lower levels of empathy, self-regulation and welcoming accountability, demonstrating the importance of perspective-taking for its impact on welcoming accountability in relationships 亚洲色吧� tying the correlational and experimental evidence together,亚洲色吧� Morse said.
Witvliet has been studying character disposition and practices since 1997, her first year on the Hope faculty, when she applied for and received her first research grant 亚洲色吧� from the John Templeton Foundation in response to their request for proposals on Scientific Studies on the Subject of Forgiveness. 亚洲色吧淩eceiving that grant changed the trajectory of my research and my life,亚洲色吧� she said.
She has since become internationally recognized for her studies of the emotional and physiological side effects of being forgiving or unforgiving. Morse even knew of Witvliet before meeting her. 亚洲色吧淚 had seen some of Dr. Witvliet亚洲色吧檚 research before I got here,亚洲色吧� she said.
Witvliet has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters about her research, and has given over 180 professional presentations in local, national and international venues. She has conducted more than 170 media interviews about forgiveness, with her research featured in venues such as Time, Newsweek, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, CNN, ABC, CBS, Michigan Radio, multiple podcasts and international newspapers. Her research is referenced in blogs and books, among the latter 亚洲色吧淭he Book of Joy,亚洲色吧� co-authored by Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama in 2016, and 亚洲色吧淭he Science of the Virtues: Why Positive Psychology Matters to the Church,亚洲色吧� by Mark McMinn in 2017.
Building on her decades of research on relational virtues, Witvliet began studying welcoming accountability in 2017, with support from the Templeton Religion Trust, as part of a team of philosophers and criminologists, a psychiatrist and theologian from Baylor University, Harvard and St. Andrews in Scotland. 亚洲色吧淲e developed the constructs and measures for welcoming accountability to other people and transcendent accountability (welcoming accountability to God or one亚洲色吧檚 transcendent guide for living). Simultaneously, we developed theoretically-grounded neuroscience investigations, plus experiments to test mindsets that enhance vs. detract from empathy, self-regulation, and welcoming accountability,亚洲色吧� she said. 亚洲色吧淭his is where Cassie亚洲色吧檚 research comes in.亚洲色吧�
All of Witvliet亚洲色吧檚 research at Hope has been conducted collaboratively with Hope students, who have consistently been coauthors on her publications. That亚洲色吧檚 because the Department of Psychology considers participation in mentored, collaborative research a crucial part of students亚洲色吧� education (as is true of departments in all of the college亚洲色吧檚 four academic divisions 亚洲色吧� arts, humanities, natural and applied sciences, and social sciences).
亚洲色吧淢y colleagues and I prioritize student formation as we conduct research on questions that advance needed knowledge,亚洲色吧� said Witvliet, whose student researchers 亚洲色吧� as teams or individually 亚洲色吧� have received Psi Chi Regional Research Awards 16 times. 亚洲色吧淲e invest deeply in our students to cultivate them as people who grasp our 亚洲色吧榳hy亚洲色吧� in conducting research, alongside the 亚洲色吧榟ow亚洲色吧� of asking research questions and addressing them ethically, learning what research designs can best test hypotheses, and developing skills to execute protocols, data analyses, interpretation, write-up and graphical representation 亚洲色吧� all to learn with wonder and to communicate our discoveries with a range of audiences.亚洲色吧�
At Hope, she noted, the 亚洲色吧渉ow亚洲色吧� involves more than technical or procedural expertise. 亚洲色吧淲e aim to conduct our research with character, competence, and caring for the humans involved in and impacted by our work,亚洲色吧� Witvliet said.
Morse noted that she appreciates the department亚洲色吧檚 combination of classroom instruction and research experience, and emphasis on both the 亚洲色吧渨hy亚洲色吧� and 亚洲色吧渉ow亚洲色吧� of scholarship and service as a professional. She plans to continue to be involved in research at Hope, and as a senior next year she亚洲色吧檒l be applying to Ph.D. programs in clinical psychology. In addition to her major of psychology, she is pursuing an interdisciplinary academic minor in peace and justice, and she is interested restorative justice as a more constructive model for both offenders and survivors than traditional incarceration. With her goals and plans in mind, she noted that she appreciates the role that Hope is playing in helping her achieve them.
亚洲色吧淚 am just endlessly grateful to Dr. Witvliet and the Hope College psychology department and faculty,亚洲色吧� she said.
亚洲色吧淚 have been so thankful and humbled by the opportunities that have been given to me to continue my education in the classroom and have a hands-on chance to learn from research through a focused mentorship,亚洲色吧� Morse said. 亚洲色吧淚 feel very blessed and beyond appreciative of the growth and learning that has been available to me here.亚洲色吧�
To Learn More 亚洲色吧亚洲色吧�
亚洲色吧he research project 亚洲色吧淎ccountability: Correlational and Experimental Evidence that Empathy and Self-Regulation Matter亚洲色吧�:
Morse亚洲色吧檚 research with Witvliet will be among the more than 200 research projects by students from academic programs throughout the college 亚洲色吧� including 18 from the Department of Psychology 亚洲色吧� that are being presented during the college亚洲色吧檚 A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity, which will be held on Friday, April 11, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Richard and Helen DeVos Fieldhouse. The public is invited to the Hope event, and admission is free.
The Hope celebration features poster displays outlining the students亚洲色吧� research, with the students on-hand to speak with visitors. Morse亚洲色吧檚 poster will be there in any case, but, ironically, whether or not she will be present will depend on when the Hope participants in the MPA conference are able to return to campus from Chicago that afternoon.
亚洲色吧ccountability as a relational and responsible virtue:
Please visit the site
亚洲色吧ollaborative research at Hope, including opportunities to get involved:
Please visit the college at /research/index.html
亚洲色吧he Department of Psychology at Hope:
Please visit the department at /academics/psychology/
亚洲色吧si Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology:
Psi Chi is an international organization of professionals, scientists, faculty, students, and alumni whose mission is to recognize and promote excellence in the science and application of psychology. Founded in 1929, the society has chartered more than 1,150 chapters at colleges and universities across the United States as well as abroad, and more than three quarters of a million lifetime members. The honor society亚洲色吧檚 chapters are grouped within six regions: Eastern, Midwestern, Rocky Mountain, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. The Midwestern Region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada. Hope亚洲色吧檚 chapter was chartered in 1965.