Research - School of Psychology

Research in the School of Psychology

The School of Psychology prides itself on its diverse research excellence and its strong national and international research links. School staff currently hold over $7 million in competitive research funding from government and industry sources. Over 30% of our staff are supported by prestigious Research Fellowships from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and Cancer Australia.

The School provides a well-resourced and stimulating intellectual environment for research students and offers competitive top-up scholarships, teaching fellowships, and financial support to attend national and international conferences.

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Research Highlights

Recently awarded grants and fellowships

Recently published research

Recent PhD completions - Congratulations to:

Martin Daly (PhD), Integrative Psychology: A comprehensive and practicable framework for the unification of psychology.
Nicole Livermore (PhD), Panic-spectrum psychopathology in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: The applicability of the cognitive model.
Sarah Maguire (DCP/PhD), The development of an instrument to assess severity of anorexia nervosa: The Clinician Administered Staging Instrument for Anorexia Nervosa (CASIAN).
Jonathan Osbourne (DCP/MSc), Does a prior history of PTSD contribute to dementia symptomatology in World War II and Korean war veterans?
Jane Rouse (PhD), Higher order cognition and moral judgement in preschool children.
Rhea Stein (DCP/PhD), End-of-life decision-making: A randomised controlled trial of a structured intervention for patients living with advanced cancer.
Jessica Taubert (PhD), A comparative approach to the composite face effect: A study of human and nonhuman behaviour.
Petra van Nieuwenhuijzen (PhD), The effects of Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB) on brain and behaviour in rats
Wu Yi Zheng (PhD), Mahjong gambling in the Chinese-Australian community in Sydney: Venturing into the unknown.

Clinical

The research conducted by the Clinical Psychology Unit examines the psychological, sociocultural, emotional, intellectual, neuropsychological and behavioural aspects of human functioning in effort to promote understanding of various disorders, evidence based treatments, healthy development and adjustment. Academic staff members have interest and expertise in many different areas of adult and child clinical psychology and neuropsychology.

Dr Maree Abbott		Professor Alex Blaszczynski
	Anxiety and cognition Rumination in social phobia Intrusive thoughts, worry and generalized anxiety Perfectionism and procrastination Overeating/binge eating More information		Pathalogical gambling Impulse control behaviours Mental models of risk Post-traumatic stress Internet addiction More information
Dr David Hawes		A/Prof Caroline Hunt
	Child psychopathology & conduct problems Parenting practices & behavioural parent training Psychopathy and callous-unemotional traits Child temperament, emotion processing, and empathy More information		Understanding factors involved in school-based bullying Anxiety, including models of pathological worry, procrastination More information
Dr Sunny Lah		Dr Catalina Lawsin
	Neuropsychological rehabilitation Nature and mechanism of neuropsychological disorders arising from brain insults Memory deficits in neurological disorders More information		Quality of life among cancer survivors and families Psycho-social interventions pre and post treatment Systemic and socio-cultural factors influencing utilization of mental health Barriers to cancer screening among ethnic minorities and recent immigrants More information
Dr Paul Rhodes		A/Prof Louise Sharpe
	Family-based treatment of anorexia nervosa Process research in family therapy Systemic approaches to chanllenging behaviour in developmental disabilities Teaching and supervision practices in family therapy More information		The efficacy of cognitive and/or behavioural treatments in the management of chronic pain and rheumatoid arthritis Understanding the process of adjustment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other illnesses The role of hypervigilance in the development, maintenance, prevention and treatment of chronic pain More information
Dr Marianna Szabo		Professor Stephen Touyz
	Worry: relationship with problem solving and decision making; other cognitive aspects Children: developmental aspects of worry, anxiety and depression Depression More information		Eating disorders from the perspective of: clinical psychology psychiatry neuropsychology behavioural medicine More information
Dr Andrew Kemp		Dr Niko Tiliopoulos
	Neuropsychiatry and mental health: understanding clinical depression and response to treatment using measures of brain and body function More information		Personality disorders - cluster A in the DSM-IV-TR Psychology & psychopathology of religion & spirituality More information
Dr Helen Paterson
	The effects of stress/trauma on memory The impact of post-incident debriefing on psychological wellbeing More information

Cognition

Cognitive psychology explores the internal mental processes that people use to store, process, retrieve, transform and use information to interpret objects and events in the world and to solve problems, make decisions, speak and act.

Professor Sally Andrews		Dr Bruce Burns
	Language: reading, spelling, word recognition Memory: lexical memory, working memory, implicit memory Bilingualism, cross language comparisons Expertise More information		How streaks of events affect decision making Biases in the interpretation of financial data Hormonal influences on risky choices Cognitive illusions in reasoning Complex problem solving More information
Dr Karen Croot		Dr Irina Harris
	Speech perception and production, foreign accents Motor learning More information		Object recognition and interpreting object orientation Visual attention and selection Capacity limits in encoding visual information, repetition blindness, attentional blink More information Visual Cognition Lab
Dr Ros Markham		Dr Caleb Owens
	Memory functioning Emotions and their interactions More information		The involuntary capture of visual and auditory attention Top-down modulation of attentional capture Inattentional blindness Locus of selection in visual attention False memory and eye-witness testimony Gullibility, reasoning, and problem solving More information
Dr Helen Paterson		Dr Karen Gonsalkorale
	Eyewitness memory Interviewing strategies More information		The role of control in implicit stereotyping and prejudice More information
Dr Evan Livesey
	Implicit learning and automaticity Associations and reasoning in causal learning More information

Developmental

Developmental psychology is concerned with describing and explaining psychological changes that occur as individuals progress from conception to death. Such changes have many sources, including physical maturation, learning, social interaction and other experiences. Developmental Psychology is thus best described as an approach to psychological investigation which can concern itself with typical and atypical development in all domains of psychology, from language and cognition to emotion and social behaviour.

Dr Marc De Rosnay		A/Prof Pauline Howie
	Emotional development Emotion understanding Emotion regulation and social competence Acquisition of social fears More information Working Group on Emotional Resilience in Infancy and Childhood		Metacognitive factors in children’s testimony and event recall Interview techniques to facilitate accurate reporting in children Memory development Source monitoring and imagery More information
A/Prof David Livesey		A/Prof Caroline Hunt
	The development of kinaesthesis and its link to visual processing Development of response inhibition and other executive function Relationship between the development of theory of mind and executive function Movement imagery and sporting ability (e.g., use by elite athletes) Development of haptic perception More information		Understanding factors involved in school-based bullying More information
Dr Sunny Lah		Dr Marianna Szabo
	Impact of epilepsy, epilepsy surgery and head injury on memory and learning ability in children Congnitive fatigue, executive functions and social/moral reasoning in prematurely born children or children who have sustained a head injury More information		Children: developmental aspects of worry, anxiety and depression More information
Dr Fiona White		Dr Sabina Kleitman
	Developmental aspects of prejudice and discrimination More information		Developmental trends of metacognitive processes More information

Health

Health psychology relates broadly to questions about how people stay physically well, and how to optimise their experience and that of their families, when they become ill. Overall, Health Psychologists study the factors which promote and maintain good health and prevent illness, lead people to take up optimal screening to detect illness at an early stage (such as mammograms for the detection of breast cancer), and ensure early and accurate diagnosis, effective treatment, good psychological adjustment to acute and chronic illness, optimal quality of life and optimal end-of-life care. Health psychologists are also interested in the analysis and improvement of the health care system and health policy formation.

Professor Phyllis Butow		Dr Ilona Juraskova
	Risk perception Medical decision-making Stress and burnout in cancer health professionals Medical and health communication More information Centre for Medical Psychology & Evidence-based Decision-making)		Medical decision-making Doctor-patient communication Quality of life outcomes of cancer patients HPV vaccination: psychological impact More information
Prof Madeleine King		Dr Barbara Mullan
	Impact of cancer on psychological, social and physical function Measurement issues in health-related quality of life and other self-reported health outcomes Patient preferences and utility estimation in health context, particularly cancer Decision aids to assist decision making for cancer patients More information		Social cognition models in health psychology The role of gender in health Gender issues in nursing and allied health professionals Sexuality and ill health Sex education Communication skills training More information
Dr Melanie Price		Dr Margaret Charles
	Doctor-patient communication Communicating health risk information Health decision-making Health related Quality of Life More information		Relationship between social capital and psychological wellbeing Psychological aspects of palliative care More information
A/Prof Louise Sharpe
	Psychological impact of disease Development of interventions to facilitate adjustment to illness Evaluation of interventions for preventing physical and psychological morbidity in patients with ill health More information

Learning

The psychology of learning is concerned with understanding how experience shapes behaviour. Learning research with humans and other animals examines the effect of external stimuli and events, internal physical states, motivation, attention and higher order cognition on the performance of a wide range of simple and complex behaviours, from reflexive biological responses to reasoned decision making. The study of learning seeks to reveal the theoretical, functional and neurophysiological underpinnings of these behavioural changes.

Professor Robert Boakes		A/Prof Justin Harris
	Activity and body weight in rats or humans Flavour/odour preference/aversion learning in rats or humans Placebo effects Conditioning in rats or humans More information Australian Learning Group		Simple associative learning Vision and touch perception More information
Dr Evan Livesey		Professor Bernard Balleine
	The relationship between learning and attention Implicit learning and automaticity Discrimination learning and stimulus generalization Associations and reasoning in causal learning More information Australian Learning Group		Motivational control of Pavlovian conditioning More information
Dr Ian Johnston
	Goal directed behaviour Habit formation Executive processes More information

Method & Theory

This group is concerned with the philosophical, theoretical and methodological aspects of research in psychology. These include: the analysis of philosophical and theoretical assumptions that underpin psycho-social research; theory construction; the concept of measurement; evaluating research designs, research types, and the use of descriptive and inferential statistics.

Dr Margaret Charles		Dr Fiona Hibberd
	Quantitative methods Psychological measurement Teaching and learning of statistics More information		History and philosophy of psychology Psychoanalysis Conceptual issues in statistics and psychometrics More information
Ms Lisa Karlov		A/Prof Cyril Latimer
	Quantitative modelling in psychology Measurement of self-esteem / self-concept Depression More information		The scientific status of psychological theory Explanation in psychology Wholes and parts Instrumentalism and realism in pychological theory The ontological status of theoretical entities More information
Dr Terry McMullen		A/Prof Joel Michell
	History and philosophy of psychology More information		History and philosophy of quantitative methods in psychology More information
Dr Sabina Kleitman
	Using multivariate techniques for individual differences research More information

Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the study of the biological basis of all aspects of psychology, and is both a basic science and a clinical process to understand and treat psychological and psychiatric disorders. The scope of neuroscience is extensive and neuroscientists employ a wide range of techniques: Studying the physiology of neural tissue, using animal models of behaviour to investigate the molecular biology and neurochemistry of fundamental psychological processes, and application of neuroimaging techniques to associate brain activity with human perception, action, attention, memory, language, emotion and mood.

Professor Bernard Balleine		Professor Ian Curthoys
	Neural basis of reward and reward prediction Prefrontal cortical involvement in the acquisition of instrumental conditioning The role of the thalamo-striatal pathway in instrumental conditioning Motivational control of Pavlovian conditioning More information		The anatomy and physiology of the vestibular system Vestibular loss and compensation Long-term potentiation (LTP) The role of the hippocampus in spatial memory The role of the hippocampus in spatial learning The neural basis of schizophrenia More information
Dr Ian Johnston		Dr Andrew Kemp
	Psycho-neuroimmunology Neurochemistry of complex cognition More information		Cognitive and affective neuroscience: cognition and emotion perception, positive psychology, electroencephalography and event-related potentials Neuropsychiatry and mental health: understanding clinical depression and response to treatment using measures of brain and body function More information
Professor Iain McGregor		Professor Robert Boakes
	Long term effects of party drugs on brain, cognition and behaviour Beer intake in rats: effects of anti craving drugs Beer intake in rats: effects of anti craving drugs Is the adolescent brain particularly susceptible to long-term adverse effects of cannabis The response of rats to predator odors: brain mechanisms and effects of anxiolytic drugs Isolation of pheromones from predators that produce defensive behaviors in rodents More information Psychopharmacology Lab		Activity and body weight in rats or humans More information
Dr Irina Harris		A/Prof Justin Harris
	Neural processes (using TMS) underlying: object recognition Visual attention and selection Capacity limits in encoding visual information, repetition blindness, attentional blink More information Visual Cognition Lab		Neural coding in tactile and visual systems More information
Dr Sunny Lah
	Neuropsychological rehabilitation Impact of neurological disorders and/or brain injury on psychological functioning More information

Organisational

Organisational psychology focuses on the application of the research, theory and practice of psychology to the enhancement of life experience, work performance and development of organisations and groups. Coaching psychology encompasses executive coaching, workplace coaching, leadership development and personal coaching at both group and individual levels. In coaching the key theoretical frameworks include solution-focused, cognitive-behavioural, and psychodynamic theory, complexity/systems theory and adult developmental theory.

Dr Michael Cavanagh		Dr Anthony Grant
	Coaching; workplace, life and health Meta-cognition and attention in self regulation and emotional regulation Client coach relationships Positive psychology, wellbeing and goal attainment Leadership and adult development Mindfulness Group functioning and team development More information The Coaching Psychology Unit		Life, workplace and executive coaching Socio-cognitive issues in the psychology of coaching and performance enhancement Trans-theoretical model of change Evaluation of personal development programs Applied positive psychology Insight and self-reflection More information The Coaching Psychology Unit

Perception

The process by which signals from the sensory periphery (receptors in the eyes, ears, skin etc) are interpreted and organized to produce a meaningful experience of the external world. By representing the objects and attributes of our surrounding environment, perception allows us to interact with our world.

A/Prof David Alais		Professor Bart Anderson
	Visual perception of motion & orientation Binocular rivalry Auditory movement Auditory localization during head movements interactions between visual and auditory movement audio-visual attention Models of cross-modal integration More information		Perceptual organization Computation of three dimensional shape of surfaces Surface reflectance Material properties of surfaces More information
Dr Ann Burgess		Dr John Cass
	Eye position and visual perception Vestibular perceptual judgments Eye movements during linear accelerations Eye movements and perception to bone conducted sound More information		Spatial vision Time perception Motion perception Visual search Attentional capture More information
A/Prof Colin Clifford		Professor Ian Curthoys
	Visual perception of colour, form and motion Visual adaptation and contextual modulation Relationship between processing and awareness in vision The binding problem Computational models of vision Functional neuro-imaging of visual processing More information Colour, Form & Motion Lab		The anatomy and physiology of the vestibular system Vestibular loss and compensation Vestibulo-ocular reflex Eye movements, especially ocular torsion Linear acceleration and angular acceleration stimulation More information Vestibular Research Laboratory
Dr Alex Holcombe		Dr Hamish MacDougall
	Binding perceptual features How motion influences perceived position Temporal aspects of perception Filling-in blindspots More information Sydney University Perception and Action Lab		Head-eye coordination during vehicle operation Balance posture and locomotion More information

Personality & Intelligence

Our research focus is on the understanding of (a) trait theories of intelligence (including traditional notions of and emotional intelligence), metacognition and personality; (b) the core individual characteristics (cognitive/metacognitive abilities, normal and abnormal personality, mental and, religion and spirituality, and decision-making paradigms) that influence/predict different life outcomes; and (c) the ways these individual differences serve as the bases of much of contemporary psychological assessment in educational, clinical, cross-cultural, forensic, and organizational settings.

Dr Sabina Kleitman		Dr Carolyn MacCann
	Meta-cognition Decision-making Cognitive styles/thinking dispositions and their role in cognition Cognitive response-selection strategies and their role in academic achievements More information		Emotional intelligence Coping with stress Methodological issues in personality assessment Response distortion in personality assessment Non-cognitive predictors of academic achievement More information
Dr Niko Tiliopoulos		Dr Fiona Hibberd
	Personality - the traits approach Adult attachment styles Psychology & psychopathology of religion & spirituality Cross-cultural psychological elements of faith More information		Conceptual issues in statistics and psychometrics More information

Social

What makes social psychology social is that it focuses on how people are affected by other people. In particular, social psychology is the scientific investigation of attitudes, feelings and behaviour, and the interactions between these components. A fundamental goal of social psychology is to understand the factors that shape people's interpersonal relationships and their experiences in the social world.

Dr Hisham Abu-Rayya		Dr Karen Gonsalkorale
	Cross-cultural transitions/acculturation and adjustment Inter-group and inter-personal relations and dynamics. Faith/religious (particularly Islamic) identity of adolescents and adults Psychology of religion/religiosity and mental health Mixed-ethnic marriages Marriage happiness Ageing More information		The role of control in implicit stereotyping and prejudice Predicting behaviour in cross-race and intergroup interactions Ostracism by ingroups and outgroups The relationship between ingroup favouritism and outgroup derogation More information
A/Prof Michael Walker		Dr Fiona White
	Perseverance in playing poker machines The role of handedness in playing poker machines The relationship between gambling cost and the prize structure The factors affecting reliability in measuring problem gambling More information Gambling Research Unit		Forms of prejudice/discrimination The reduction of intergroup bias/prejudice/discrimination Improving the measurement of intergroup bias/prejudice/discrimination More information
Dr Lisa Zadro		Dr Alan Craddock
	Comparing the immediate and delayed effects of ostracism Ostracism across the lifespan Moderators of ostracism (e.g., social anxiety) Strategies to reduce the aversiveness of ostracism More information		Perfectionism, family of origin issues, self-esteem and spiritual orientation Couple personality patterns and relationship satisfaction Counselling as involving development of insight into attitudes towards the self Implications of Allport's views of personality for counselling More information
Professor Margaret Foddy		A/Prof Pauline Howie
	The basis of trust in social dilemmas Avatars and anonymity on the internet Status and influence in small groups Non-verbal cues affect social influence Judging merit More information		Social factors in children’s testimony and event recall More information
A/Prof David Livesey		Dr Helen Paterson
	Relationship between the development of theory of mind and executive function More information		Memory conformity The effects of group discussion on memory More information

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