We study the careful balance of care needed to foster satisfying relationships, while also sustaining one's own well-being.
We study how the emotions we express and perceive in others affects our ability to build deeper social connections.
We study how emotions and motivations uniquely shape personal well-being, partner well-being, and overall relationship quality.
Claire Shimshock successfully defended her dissertation, "Understanding judgments and consequences of amplifying positive emotions." We are delighted that Claire will be continuing her work in the Le Lab as a postdoctoral fellow next year. In this next stage, she will be taking her multi-method work on close relationships and well-being in new directions. Congrats, Dr. Shimshock!
At the 2026 Annual Meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Princeton chaired the symposium "Parenting and flourishing: Emotions, goals, and self-expansion in the family." As part of this symposium, Princeton gave a talk titled "Parenting self-expansion: The personal and relational benefits of parenting growth."
At the 2026 Annual Meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Michelle presented a poster on her work, "Linking perceived partner emotion regulation to stress, loneliness, and perceived support."
At the 2026 Annual Meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Gideon presented a poster on his work, "Keeping score, feeling poor: Exchange orientation predicts lower relationship satisfaction through diminished gratitude."
At the 2026 Annual Meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology main conference, Claire presented her work on "Taking 'thank you' to heart: Responses to gratitude shape its emotional and relational benefits." At the Close Relationships Preconference, Claire also presented on her work, "You inspire me: The role of romantic partner inspiration on goal pursuit and relational well-being."
At the 2026 Annual Meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Laura presented a poster on her work, "Regulating partners: Emotions as mechanisms for change in intimate relationships."
Bonnie Le received the Rusbult Young Investigator Award at the 2026 Annual Meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. This award is presented annually to an investigator who has made original and important contributions to relationship science. As part of the award, Bonnie gave a talk at the Close Relationships Preconference on "Fostering well-being in how we care and what we share."
Photo credits: Unsplash
