Behavioural Ethics, Affect and Meaning Lab
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Professor Brock Bastian+61 3 83448880
Research Overview
The BEAM lab is focused on examining motivational and affective processes involved in ethical decision-making and behavior, how people regulate and respond to negative experiences, and determinants and consequences of living a meaningful life.
Staff
- Dr Kelly Kirkland, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Kelly Kirkland
Kelly Kirkland is a Research Fellow in the BEAM lab. Kelly is interested in how different societies and cultures influence our tendency to cooperate and our approaches to moral issues.
- Dr Maria Suñol, Visiting Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Maria Suñol
Maria Suñol is a postdoctoral researcher with a psychiatry and pain neuroimaging background. She is interested in the interplay between neurobiological and psychosocial factors shaping pain empathy, the ability to understand and respond to pain experienced by others, including humans and non-human animals.
- Amy Lee , PhD student
Amy Lee
Amy Lee is a PhD student studying the relationship between polarisation and moralistic thinking. Her research specifically aims to understand when and why people engage in moralistic thinking within polarised contexts, and the potential repercussions for further polarisation.
- Aaron Walton, PhD student
Aaron Walton
Aaron Walton is a PhD candidate interested primarily in the consequences of lower free will beliefs. His research focuses on the wellbeing benefits of undermining free will belief through exposure to arguments that free will is an illusion.
- Josh Rhee, PhD student
Josh Rhee
Josh Rhee is a PhD student researching how and when everyday non-moral ideas may come to gain moral significance. He is particularly interested in the influence of intergroup conflicts, and challenges to people’s existing assumptions about the world, in bringing about increasingly moralised thinking.
- Ji Young Song, PhD student
Ji Young Song
Ji Young Song is a PhD student studying the relationship between moral emotions, the Self, and moral reasoning. In particular, he is interested in how affective states, such as awe and self-transcendence, can change the way the Self is understood in relation to the broader environment, and how this can change moral reasoning.
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Past PhD Students
Nicholas Tan
Melanie McGrath
Jack Klein
Christoph Klebl
Brodie Dakin
Khandis Blake
Charlie Crimston
Laura Ferris
Ali Teymoori
Collaborators
Research Projects
For project inquiries, contact our research group head.
Faculty Research Themes
School Research Themes
Cognitive Psychology and Behavioural Neuroscience, Social and Personality Psychology
Key Contact
For further information about this research, please contact Laboratory Director Professor Brock Bastian
Department / Centre
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
Unit / Centre
MDHS Research library
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