Charlotte V.O. Witvliet, professor of psychology, has been a member of the Hope faculty since 1997. Her teaching responsibilities have included: 

  • Introductory Psychology
  • Positive Psychology
  • Behavior Disorders
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Internships
  • Advanced Research Lab
  • Neuroscience Capstone I & II

Prof. Witvliet loves teaching and mentoring students with a vision to cultivate their competence and compassion so students are prepared for effective and faithful service and leadership in a diverse world.

Prof. Witvliet adopts a bio-psych-social-spiritual approach to study mental health, emotion and virtues (e.g., forgiveness, gratitude, hope, accountability). She has mentored undergraduate students to become co-authors on a fifth of her 100+ publications and over half of the 180 professional conference presentations from her lab. Her student research teams have won 15 Psi Chi Regional Research Awards, and several of her lab students are now psychology professors who mentor their students. 

She has been principal investigator on six external research grants from the Templeton Religion Trust, John Templeton Foundation and the Fetzer Institute. She has been a member of national, multi-year, interdisciplinary work groups on the pursuit of happiness, leading from the soul and living accountably.

Prof. Witvliet has conducted over 170 media interviews about virtues, especially 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, The Science of Happiness with Public Radio International, and international newspapers. Her research is referenced in blogs and books, including The Book of Joy, co-authored by Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, and The Science of the Virtues: Why Positive Psychology Matters to the Church by Mark McMinn. She has been interviewed for the podcasts such as The Science of Happiness, BioLogos and Hidden Brain.

Areas of expertise

Prof. Witvliet’s primary areas are mental health and character virtues to promote whole person flourishing.

Professor Witvliet has conducted research in trauma, moral injury and mental health to provide competent and compassionate care for people in seasons of crisis, healing and growth — remembering that we are accompanying people on their journeys. She brought psychophysiological methods to learn how people respond to relational injustices and embody character virtues when it is difficult to do so.

Her research contributions have focused especially on forgiveness and its emotional and physiological side effects. Her team’s experiments have tested compassionate and benefit-focused reappraisal strategies that facilitate granting forgiveness with truth-telling and transformation.

Her lab also studies empathy (perspective-taking, concern for others) and self-regulation (goal-setting, impulse control) in relation to interpersonal virtues: forgiveness, gratitude, humility, hope and relational accountability.

Prof. Witvliet’s goal is to assist people as they lean into interconnected flourishing everyday.

Education

Prof. Witvliet was awarded the Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Purdue University in 1997. After training as a scientist-practitioner, Prof. Witvliet completed her American Psychological Association predoctoral internship at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center affiliated with Duke University, focusing on trauma and associated disorders, neuropsychological assessment, behavioral medicine, inpatient and outpatient care. 

Honors, grants and awards

  • Lavern ’39 and Betty DePree ’41 VanKley endowed professor, 2019–2023
  • Midwestern Psychological Association Fellow, 2021
  • John H. and Jeanne M. Jacobson endowed professor, 2011–2015
  • Ruth and John Reed Faculty Achievement Award, 2008
  • Towsley Research Scholar Award, 2000–2004
  • Fifteen Psi Chi Regional Research Awards received by student research teams

Professor Witvliet has involved students in all of her external grant-funded research from:

  • Templeton Religion Trust
  • John Templeton Foundation
  • Fetzer Institute
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Google Scholar

Selected publications