The emotional psychology of blood donors: understanding and using the affective key to donor return. Every week in Australia 27,000 blood donations are required to meet medical needs. Though donors are continually recruited, each year around 40per cent of Australian donors fail to re-donate. Why this occurs and how to prevent this is not well understood. Using an approach grounded in psychology and affective science, this project comprises a program of studies that aims to advance understanding ....The emotional psychology of blood donors: understanding and using the affective key to donor return. Every week in Australia 27,000 blood donations are required to meet medical needs. Though donors are continually recruited, each year around 40per cent of Australian donors fail to re-donate. Why this occurs and how to prevent this is not well understood. Using an approach grounded in psychology and affective science, this project comprises a program of studies that aims to advance understanding of the affective factors that contribute to blood donor return and translate that understanding into interventions to increase donor return. The project aims to advance the psychological conceptualisation of blood donation by integrating insight from affective science, while also enabling the Blood Service to meet the nation's demand for blood products.Read moreRead less
How pain shapes our social world. Pain is an important source of human experience. Traditionally it has been defined by its social and psychological costs and treated as a problem that needs to be ‘fixed’. This project represents the first systematic study of the ways in which pain may motivate social and behavioural responses that serve to enhance affiliation, communication, solidarity, and group formation. In this way, pain may serve to connect people with their social worlds - it may act as s ....How pain shapes our social world. Pain is an important source of human experience. Traditionally it has been defined by its social and psychological costs and treated as a problem that needs to be ‘fixed’. This project represents the first systematic study of the ways in which pain may motivate social and behavioural responses that serve to enhance affiliation, communication, solidarity, and group formation. In this way, pain may serve to connect people with their social worlds - it may act as social glue - bringing people together and strengthening social connection. The findings will help to to provide a broader perspective on physical pain and will lead to insights that are important when treating pain.Read moreRead less
The social and cognitive functions of affect. Dealing with affective problems represents a major challenge in clinical, health, organisational and counselling psychology. Yet the role that affective states play in thinking, judgments and many everyday social behaviours remains poorly understood.. This project will produce direct national and community benefit by developing a new, integrative theory of affective influences on thinking and action, and exploring the functions and processing consequ ....The social and cognitive functions of affect. Dealing with affective problems represents a major challenge in clinical, health, organisational and counselling psychology. Yet the role that affective states play in thinking, judgments and many everyday social behaviours remains poorly understood.. This project will produce direct national and community benefit by developing a new, integrative theory of affective influences on thinking and action, and exploring the functions and processing consequences of affect in everyday settings. The real-life consequences of affect infusion in applied areas will also be explored. The project will also contribute to Australia's research capability by training doctoral and postdoctoral students, and fostering international research collaboration.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101071
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Does obesity alter the associations to food related cues, contexts and responses? Obesity is increasing dramatically in the developed world. The reasons for this are unclear, however the abundance of cheap, palatable food is clearly a contributing factor. Studies suggest differences arise in the processing of food rewards between overweight and lean individuals and the way they respond to food associated cues. This indicates that food associated cues may be more likely to evoke feeding behaviour ....Does obesity alter the associations to food related cues, contexts and responses? Obesity is increasing dramatically in the developed world. The reasons for this are unclear, however the abundance of cheap, palatable food is clearly a contributing factor. Studies suggest differences arise in the processing of food rewards between overweight and lean individuals and the way they respond to food associated cues. This indicates that food associated cues may be more likely to evoke feeding behaviours in absence of metabolic needs, therefore contributing to over eating that leads to obesity. This project will determine how rats, exposed to a model of our obesogenic western diet, process distinct cues and contexts associated with food rewards and control value driven responses to gain food rewards.Read moreRead less
Paving the way for ultra-long haul flights: strategies to mitigate jetlag. This project aims to develop and test strategies to mitigate jetlag, founded on biophysical modelling of circadian rhythms. It sets out to quantify the speed of circadian adaptation of sleep, alertness, and metabolism after transmeridian travel and to maximise speed of adaptation via optimised timing of light exposure, food, and exercise in-flight and on-the-ground. Expected outcomes include powerful models for jetlag str ....Paving the way for ultra-long haul flights: strategies to mitigate jetlag. This project aims to develop and test strategies to mitigate jetlag, founded on biophysical modelling of circadian rhythms. It sets out to quantify the speed of circadian adaptation of sleep, alertness, and metabolism after transmeridian travel and to maximise speed of adaptation via optimised timing of light exposure, food, and exercise in-flight and on-the-ground. Expected outcomes include powerful models for jetlag strategies, ready for application in air travel. The project will directly inform Qantas’ operations for ultra-long haul flights and their international network more broadly. Project outcomes will benefit society and the economy through improving travellers’ alertness, sleep, and reducing the risk of fatigue-related accidents.Read moreRead less
Task Contingent Units of Personality and Adaptive Performance. The project aims to test a model of adaptive personality, to cross-validate the model in Italy, China and the United kingdom, and to develop and test a model for the modification and development of adaptive personality factors that enhance adaptive performance. Adaptive tasks differ from routine tasks in degrees of novelty, difficulty and uncertainty which require higher levels and different types of cognitive processing. Individuals ....Task Contingent Units of Personality and Adaptive Performance. The project aims to test a model of adaptive personality, to cross-validate the model in Italy, China and the United kingdom, and to develop and test a model for the modification and development of adaptive personality factors that enhance adaptive performance. Adaptive tasks differ from routine tasks in degrees of novelty, difficulty and uncertainty which require higher levels and different types of cognitive processing. Individuals who adapt their focus, emotions and exploratory activities in response to the changing cognitive demands of tasks are expected to outperform those with less adaptive personalities. Those with more adaptive personalities are expected to perform better on problem solving, learning, innovation and development activities.Read moreRead less
Scalability Of The Transform-Us! Program To Promote Children's Physical Activity And Reduce Prolonged Sitting In Victorian Primary Schools
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$549,823.00
Summary
Transform-Us! is an innovative primary school program that has been found to substantially increase children’s physical activity levels, reduce sitting time and benefit health. With simple changes to the school and classroom environments and teaching practices (eg, standing lessons) we will work with partners in the education and health systems to translate this program across Victorian primary schools to determine the real-world implementation and impact of this program over 5 years.