Current Research
Understanding Emotions as a Pathway to Health Behavior Change
The Levens Affective Behavioral Science Lab investigates how emotions shape health, well-being, and behavior across the adult lifespan. Our research is grounded in the idea that positive emotional experiences are not merely outcomes of healthy living, but powerful mechanisms that can be leveraged to promote and sustain healthy behaviors.
A central focus of our work is understanding how positive emotions influence behavior change motivation and decision making. Positive emotions enrich daily life, foster resilience, protect against the effects of stress, and contribute to a sense of meaning and well-being. Because people are naturally motivated to repeat experiences that feel rewarding, we study how positive affect can be harnessed to make health behaviors more enjoyable and, therefore, more likely to be maintained over time.
Our research integrates perspectives from affective science, health psychology, behavioral medicine, exercise science, and neuroscience to examine health behavior change and develop innovative interventions that enhance both health and quality of life.
Areas of Research
1. Promoting Physical Activity Through Positive Emotion
Despite the well-established benefits of physical activity for physical health, mental well-being, and healthy aging, most adults do not meet recommended activity guidelines. Traditional interventions often emphasize planning, self-regulation, and goal setting, yet these approaches frequently produce only modest and short-lived improvements in behavior.
Our research takes a complementary approach by focusing on the emotional and rewarding aspects of physical activity. For example, we have developed guided imagery interventions designed to simultaneously engage reward and self-regulatory processes that support physical activity enjoyment and adherence. Currently these interventions are being tested in a series of registered clinical trials with collaborators, and initial findings are promising and exciting. Broadly, we investigate how cultivating positive emotions before, during, and after exercise can strengthen positive associations with physical activity and increase long-term engagement.
Currently recruiting students interested in this line of research
Featured Collaboration: Optimizing Positive Emotion-Based Interventions to Promote Physical Activity
Regular physical activity is essential for preventing chronic disease and reducing cancer risk, yet many adults struggle to maintain recommended activity levels. This National Cancer Institute funded grant collaboration with Dr. Austin Baldwin at Southern Methodist University tested a scalable, technology-delivered intervention that aims to increase physical activity by targeting key psychological processes that support behavior change.
The study evaluates three intervention strategies: positive affective imagery, which strengthens positive emotional associations with exercise; episodic future thinking, which helps individuals connect present choices with valued future outcomes; and action planning, which translates intentions into concrete behavioral plans. By identifying the most effective combination and dosage of these components, the project seeks to optimize a low-cost intervention that increases physical activity adherence while improving motivation, future-oriented decision making, and self-regulation. Ultimately, this work will inform the development of scalable and personalized interventions to improve population health and support cancer prevention.
Featured Lab Project: Positive Affective Interventions and Exercise
Our lab is conducting a comprehensive scoping review of interventions that seek to increase physical activity by strengthening positive emotional associations with exercise. This work aims to identify effective intervention strategies, summarize theoretical frameworks used across studies, and inform future research directions in affect-based health behavior change. This project is led by senior doctoral student Kristen VanSwearingen.
2. Healthy Aging and Midlife Health Promotion
A second major focus of our research examines how emotions and health behaviors contribute to healthy aging. Midlife represents a critical opportunity for intervention, as behaviors established during this period can have lasting consequences for cognitive, physical, and emotional health later in life.
Our work seeks to identify scalable, accessible approaches that help individuals adopt and maintain health-promoting behaviors that support healthy brain aging.
Currently recruiting students interested in this line of research
Featured Collaboration: Promoting Exercise Adherence and Brain Health Through Reward and Self-Regulation
Despite the well-established benefits of exercise for physical and cognitive health, many adults struggle to maintain long-term participation. This National Aging Institute grant collaboration with Dr. Laura Martin at Kansas University Medical Center examines how interventions that simultaneously target the brain’s reward and self-regulatory systems can improve exercise adherence and promote healthy aging.
The project develops guided imagery interventions that use positive affective imagery to increase enjoyment and positive feelings toward exercise and episodic future thinking to strengthen connections with one’s future healthy self. These strategies are integrated with a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) program and evaluated for their effects on physical activity behaviors, motivation, positive affect, future-oriented thinking, self-regulation, and health decision making. By identifying mechanisms that support sustained exercise engagement, this research aims to advance intervention approaches that enhance physical activity, support brain health, and reduce risk factors associated with cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.
3. Women’s Health, Menopause, and Emotional Well-Being
The menopausal transition is accompanied by significant biological, psychological, and social changes that can influence emotional experiences, cognitive functioning, and overall well-being. Our research examines these intersecting influences to better understand women’s health during midlife and later adulthood.
Current work investigates:
- Emotional experiences during the menopausal transition.
- The role of positive affect in supporting cognitive and emotional health.
- Relationships among physical activity, emotional well-being, and cognitive functioning.
- Lifestyle factors that contribute to resilience and successful aging in women.
By identifying pathways through which positive emotions and health behaviors promote well-being, this research aims to develop interventions that improve quality of life during and beyond menopause.
Currently recruiting students interested in this line of research
4. Emotion Processing and Emotion Regulation
How individuals process and regulate their emotions is an important part of daily living and overall well-being, yet individuals vary significantly in their emotion processing and regulation abilities and habits. Basic science emotion processing and regulation research provides important insight into individual differences that may be meaningful for understanding variability in lifestyle behaviors, resilience and wellbeing, and vulnerability to psychopathology. One line of research in my lab uses experimental design methods to identify processing biases and emotion regulation choices that vary by context and individual. My work in this area began with efforts to identify emotion processing biases that may contribute to psychopathology (see featured complete line of research) and evolved to exploring how emotion processing and regulation biases vary by context and individuals to contribute to meaningful differences in experience and behavior. I also use my knowledge of affective science mechanisms and theory derived from this line of research to inform areas of research that are more applied.
Featured Completed Line of Research: Updating biases in working memory for emotional content in depressed, remitted depressed and optimistic individuals
To explore potential emotion biases in working memory, I designed an emotion n-back task to assess how depressed and recovered individuals engage with and disengage from different emotional content in working memory. Results revealed depression specific biases in updating emotional content. I also applied the n-back task to determine if executive processing biases may contribute to dispositional differences such as optimism and found that individuals who engage with positive content for longer in working memory report higher levels of optimism. This research catalyzed my investigation of emotion and executive control interactions that facilitate maladaptive and adaptive behavior. My research in this area contributed to the understanding of how adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation behaviors are supported by underlying emotion and executive function interactions, for which I received the Division of Experimental Psychology 2011 New Investigator Award in Experimental Psychology: General.
5. Digital Health and Scalable Behavior Change Interventions
The growing digital health landscape presents unprecedented opportunities to expand the reach, accessibility, and personalization of health interventions. The Levens Lab collaborates with industry partners, data scientists, and computer scientists to explore how technology can facilitate both physical and mental health behavior change. By combining behavioral science with emerging technologies, we seek to develop scalable interventions capable of reaching diverse populations and reducing barriers to health promotion.
This is an area of research that I am currently looking for and exploring opportunities to grow.
Our Approach
The Levens Lab employs an interdisciplinary and translational approach to research, integrating methods from affective science, health psychology, behavioral medicine, exercise science, and neuroscience. We use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, participatory intervention design, mindfulness-based approaches, guided imagery techniques, and digital health technologies.
Across all projects, our overarching goal is to develop effective, engaging, and scalable interventions that make healthy behaviors more enjoyable, more meaningful, and ultimately more sustainable.
Training the Next Generation of Scientists
Dr. Levens is committed to mentoring students for careers in both academia and industry. As digital health continues to transform healthcare, there is a growing need for scientists trained to bridge behavioral science, technology, and health intervention development. Students in my lab gain experience in interdisciplinary research, behavioral science methodologies, affective science theory, intervention development methods and practices, and collaborative projects that prepare them for high impact contributions across academic, healthcare, and industry settings.