Principal Investigator
Tonglin Jiang
Assistant Professor, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences at Peking University, Associate Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Editorial Board Member of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2024 Rising Star of the Association for Psychological Science (APS).
Ph.D. Candidates
Yige Yin
Yige earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Beijing Normal University and is currently a PhD student at the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences at Peking University. She is interested in the existential question of how to live a so-called examined life. In pursuit of this question, she has studied complex emotions that inspire reflection on life, such as awe and nostalgia. Her current research explores how broader societal contexts and significant events shape human experiences of meaning in life. She is also eager to approach this question through the lenses of aesthetic experiences and time perception in the future.
Wenying Yuan
Wenying is a PhD student at the School of Psychological and Cognitive Science at Peking University. She received her BA in Psychology from Southwest University in China and her MA in Psychology from Beijing Normal University. Her research interests center on self and existential threat. She explores the adaptive functions of awe, self-concept clarity, and psychologically rich life. She is curious about the strategies that help face existential threats and how existential threats can guide people’s existence in today’s rapidly shifting social and cultural realities.
Yuling Wang
Yuling Wang (王予灵) is a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Psychology at Peking University. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Central China Normal University and his Master’s degree in Psychology from Nanjing Normal University. Before joining PKU, he conducted doctoral research (discontinued) at Southwest University and worked as a full-time research assistant in Professor Kaiping Peng’s lab at Tsinghua University.
Yuling is interested in self-exploration and how people construct meaning, pursue authenticity, and foster inclusiveness. His research spans topics such as authenticity, meaning, cultural values, awe, wisdom, and adolescent well-being. He enjoys integrating philosophical reflection with empirical methods to explore how individuals live wisely and relate meaningfully to others and the world around them.
Yi (Sarah) Lin
Sarah is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences at Peking University under the supervision of the Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor, Tonglin Jiang. She completed her BA degree in Education at the University of Sydney, and her MA degree in Applied Psychology at Tsinghua University. Sarah’s research focuses on investigating the relations between complex emotions (awe, gratitude) and human features. Her work uses mixed methods to bridge theory and real-world applications, ultimately aiming to translate lab findings into practical insights for communities, companies, and families.
Jiayu Liu
Jiayu received her bachelor’s degree in Information Management and Information Systems from GUET and her master’s degree in Psychology from the Institute of Psychology, CAS. Her research interests focus on the dynamic interplay of self-cognition and complex emotions. With a solid background in computational methods, data mining, and multimodal data analysis, Jiayu integrates artificial intelligence and advanced quantitative methods to lift the veil on the evolving interplay between Mind, Self, and Society.
Chenlu Guan
Chenlu is a doctoral researcher broadly interested in self-meaning. She finished her undergraduate studies in Applied psychology and postgraduate studies in medical psychology at Dalian Medical University. She is good at employing cognitive neuroscience approaches to investigate the psychological foundations of human behavior.
Beyond her academic pursuits, Chenlu enjoys basketball (her favorite player is Stephen Curry from the Golden State Warriors), badminton and street dance.
Master's Students
Xiaohan Wu
Xiaohan Wu is currently a Master’s student at the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Minzu University of China. Her research interests lie in nostalgia, meaning in life, and cultural psychology. Specifically, her work focuses on: (1) investigating the mechanisms through which nostalgic emotion influences family systems; (2) analyzing contemporary patterns in the pursuit of meaning in life using online behavioral data; and (3) conducting cross-cultural studies on nostalgia to examine the moderating role of cultural factors. In her spare time, she enjoys landscape photography and outdoor activities.
Xuan Li
Xuan Li is currently a Master’s student at the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Tianjin University. Her research interests focus on the role of complex emotions in consumer behavior and technology adoption. She is also intrigued by topics such as nostalgia, psychological richness, self-continuity, and self-compassion. Xuan believes that human beings and society form the ultimate laboratory for testing psychological theories. She enjoys the sense of resonance that arises when experiencing new and novel things.
Undergraduate Student
Xijin Zhu
Xijin Zhu is currently an undergraduate at the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences. He joined the SEME lab in 2023 while transitioning from Medical School to Psychology. Beyond research, he enriched the lab’s culture through various non-academic activities.
Alumni
Junyao Chang
Junyao Chang is a member of the 2024 undergraduate class at Yuanpei College, Peking University.
Her primary research interest lies in the self. Throughout her undergraduate and upcoming master’s studies, she has focused on the cognitive and emotional processes related to self-concept. During her undergraduate years, she was fortunate to conduct two research projects—including her thesis—at the SEME Lab, an experience she deeply cherishes. For her master’s studies, she will most likely explore topics related to authenticity.
Outside of research, she loves singing, photography, and traveling. She is also a big foodie who enjoys all kinds of delicious treats! As a passionate animal lover—especially cats—she proudly considers herself a devoted cat person!
Yuhui Du
Yuhui earned his Bachelor degree in Science at Peking University and a Master degree in Applied Psychology at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is now a PhD student at Texas A&M University. Yuhui’s main research question is to investigate how authenticity and meaning are created through the self’s interaction with the external natural and cultural contexts. He has been involved in research that explores the relationship between awe, authentic-self pursuit and meaning in life (Yuan et al., 2024), or investigates the solitary nature of human beings (Yin et al., 2024). He is now particularly interested in the (Chinese) cultural logics and narratives of authentic self, which reveal the cultural fundamentals of what makes an ideal person (Du et al., in press).
Xinyu Pan
Xinyu Pan is now a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University. Her research focus on social cognition in different cultures— how people think about themselves and other people —to understand how people connect. Using methods such as behavioral experiments, big data analysis, diary studies and fieldwork, she investigated both the barriers and benefits of social connection, aiming to promote a happy life across cultures.
Yuwan Dai
Yuwan Dai is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Renmin University of China. She previously served as a postdoctoral researcher and laboratory manager in the SEME Lab from 2021 to 2024. Her work focuses on understanding strategies for thriving amid life’s challenges. Her research interests include awe, self-concept clarity and objectification. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, scuba diving, and outdoor activities.
Current position: Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Renmin University of China
Yukun Zhu
Yukun holds a BS in Psychology from Yuanpei College, Peking University. His research interests lie in consumer behavior and human-computer interaction, with a particular focus on how consumers perceive and prefer AI-driven products. Outside of work, he enjoys photography and traveling. He is currently working as a Business and Market Research Officer at Hello Straw (UK) Ltd.
Yifan Cheng
Yifan’s research interests center on self-concept, objectification phenomena, and consumer behavior. After graduation, her work has expanded to human-machine collaboration in autonomous driving and human factors in intelligent cockpits UX.
Xingchen Bian
Xingchen is a Master’s student in the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences at Peking University, with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of International Business and Economics. Her current job as an electronic game designer and product manager is driven by a passion for serious games—she envisions them as engaging, accessible interventions that can empower a broad audience. Xingchen aims to develop games that help players pursue meaning in life, embrace their authentic selves, and enhance their overall well-being.