Exploring emotions: The FEEL Lab's Journey

The Functions of Emotion in Everyday Life (FEEL) Lab is on a mission to understand how emotions impact our lives, and is situated within the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences.

Led by Associate Professors Peter Koval and Katie Greenaway, and Dr Elise Kalokerinos, the lab conducts research to uncover the complexities of human emotions. In a world where emotions influence everything from our daily interactions to major life decisions, the FEEL Lab studies how emotions unfold in real-life situations.

Driven by a desire to improve emotional well-being, the lab develops free and open-access tools to facilitate data collection and allow researchers worldwide to study emotions in real-time. EMOTE (Everyday Measures of Temporal Emotions) is a searchable and cumulative database of experience sampling data, offering researchers an invaluable repository of personally meaningful events that can't be recreated in the lab. SEMA (Smartphone Ecological Momentary Assessment) is a flexible, user-friendly smartphone platform designed for intensive longitudinal survey research, and has been utilised in over 60 leading scientific journal publications.

The FEEL Lab is currently involved in projects that address important issues affecting individuals and communities. For example, one project examines how keeping secrets impacts well-being without requiring participants to reveal their secrets. Another project focuses on climate change anxiety, offering a framework to analyse interventions and their effects on individuals, society, and the environment.

As lab members gain new skills and collaborate on research, their enthusiasm drives them to find practical solutions to emotional challenges.

While the FEEL Lab conducts rigorous scientific research, its ultimate goal is to contribute to societal well-being. By providing open-access resources and collaborating with others, the lab strives to enhance our understanding of emotions and promote positive change.

With each breakthrough, the FEEL Lab brings us closer to understanding and embracing the role of emotions in our lives.