Building capacity for online counselling for schools: developing and evaluating an online school counselling program. The wellbeing of children and young people is an important goal nationally and school-based online counselling has the potential to directly benefit them. The impact of mental health problems and poor life and career choices in adolescence is undisputed. This project will facilitate access to career and mental health support through technology.
Understanding the school as an intergroup system: Implications for school reform and improving student and staff outcomes. This project applies a novel social psychological understanding of group processes and intergroup relations to Australian schools. The result is a new and promising framework that will be trialed and evaluated through this project. The central idea is that one's group memberships and associated norms and practices directly impact on the attitudes and behaviours of individ ....Understanding the school as an intergroup system: Implications for school reform and improving student and staff outcomes. This project applies a novel social psychological understanding of group processes and intergroup relations to Australian schools. The result is a new and promising framework that will be trialed and evaluated through this project. The central idea is that one's group memberships and associated norms and practices directly impact on the attitudes and behaviours of individual members. The aim is to change the relevant groups within a school and how they relate in order to build a more positive school climate and higher school identification and as a result, improve school outcomes (e.g., attendance, academic achievement, well-being).Read moreRead less
Babera dariadya yewing (Echoes of a flawed truth): investigating theory and practice on the interplay between bullying and racism. The negative impact of bullying and racism is being increasingly documented for Aboriginal youth, yet little attempt has been made to understand the differential impact of these stressors on the wellbeing and identity of Aboriginal Australian youth. This project will seek to address this issue, to guide future action-based research.
Trauma memory and narrative structure in post-traumatic distress. The project enhances understanding of factors that maintain enduring distress and disability following traumatic experiences which have major social and financial costs to individuals, communities and to the nation. Better knowledge of these factors is central to improving early detection and refining prevention and early intervention for individuals and to help understand how communities can better manage their response to sever ....Trauma memory and narrative structure in post-traumatic distress. The project enhances understanding of factors that maintain enduring distress and disability following traumatic experiences which have major social and financial costs to individuals, communities and to the nation. Better knowledge of these factors is central to improving early detection and refining prevention and early intervention for individuals and to help understand how communities can better manage their response to severe traumatic events. The results may lead to significant refinements to efficacious psychological treatments involving exposure to emotional memories. The project's innovative approach to studying autobiographical memories will enhance Australia's internationally competitiveness in a key area within psychology.Read moreRead less
School principals’ diminishing wellbeing. School principals’ diminishing wellbeing. This project aims to investigate the effect of State Education Departments’ policy interventions designed to improve school principals’ flagging wellbeing. Increasing competition, accountability and public scrutiny make principals stressed; since their influence on students is second only to teachers’, this threatens Australia’s socioeconomic outcomes. The project will map policy interventions to changes in princ ....School principals’ diminishing wellbeing. School principals’ diminishing wellbeing. This project aims to investigate the effect of State Education Departments’ policy interventions designed to improve school principals’ flagging wellbeing. Increasing competition, accountability and public scrutiny make principals stressed; since their influence on students is second only to teachers’, this threatens Australia’s socioeconomic outcomes. The project will map policy interventions to changes in principals’ motivation and wellbeing, and share information about the most productive and cost effective interventions with key stakeholders across Australia. This research could reverse the declining wellbeing of Australia’s school leaders.Read moreRead less
Investigating memory reliability in intoxicated witnesses of crime. Eyewitness testimony is a crucial piece of evidence for solving a crime. Inaccurate testimony leads to miscarriages of justice such as failed prosecutions or false convictions. Many witnesses and victims are affected by alcohol or other drugs during the crime. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team aiming to improve understanding of how intoxication with different substances affects the reliability of victim and w ....Investigating memory reliability in intoxicated witnesses of crime. Eyewitness testimony is a crucial piece of evidence for solving a crime. Inaccurate testimony leads to miscarriages of justice such as failed prosecutions or false convictions. Many witnesses and victims are affected by alcohol or other drugs during the crime. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team aiming to improve understanding of how intoxication with different substances affects the reliability of victim and witness memory accuracy. Crucially, crimes are frequently distressing; therefore the interaction between intoxication and stress urgently requires exploration. This project will significantly advance our understanding of key mechanisms behind drug effects on memory, and support fairer judicial outcomes for all. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100739
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$396,521.00
Summary
Measuring the sound of inner speech with advanced brain signal analyses. The overarching aim of this project is to develop an objective, electrophysiological marker capable of identifying the auditory properties of a person’s inner speech, which is defined as the silent production of words in one’s mind. This will be accomplished by combining novel experimental paradigms with advanced brain signal analyses. This marker would represent a historically significant event, placing Australia at the fo ....Measuring the sound of inner speech with advanced brain signal analyses. The overarching aim of this project is to develop an objective, electrophysiological marker capable of identifying the auditory properties of a person’s inner speech, which is defined as the silent production of words in one’s mind. This will be accomplished by combining novel experimental paradigms with advanced brain signal analyses. This marker would represent a historically significant event, placing Australia at the forefront of cognitive science. It would provide deep insight into the fundamental nature of inner speech, such as whether it is a “special form” of overt speech, and would inform the ongoing development of brain-computer interfaces aimed at deciphering inner speech for people who are unable to produce overt speech.Read moreRead less
Beyond Directional Motivated Reasoning: Social Identity and Partisan Truth. This project aims to develop and test a new model of psychological processes by which people come to understand information as true or not. This project expects to generate advances in knowledge about how different groups produce opposing understandings of the world ("partisan truth"), despite equally rational and unbiased psychological processes. Expected outcomes include the development of a single framework to explain ....Beyond Directional Motivated Reasoning: Social Identity and Partisan Truth. This project aims to develop and test a new model of psychological processes by which people come to understand information as true or not. This project expects to generate advances in knowledge about how different groups produce opposing understandings of the world ("partisan truth"), despite equally rational and unbiased psychological processes. Expected outcomes include the development of a single framework to explain current piecemeal findings, expanding the analysis to current and socially-urgent partisan debates over truth (eg, vaccine hesitancy). Significant benefits include advancing knowledge and the development of guidelines to aid policy-makers and educators in the ultimate reduction of social discord caused by partisan truth.Read moreRead less
Adjustment to retirement through social identity change. This project aims to improve our understanding of the factors governing successful adjustment to retirement. Retirement involves a major life change, to which 30 per cent of people fail to adjust successfully. Previous work in the social identity tradition suggests that the negative effects of significant life changes (eg moving into care) can be buffered by access to social group networks, but this possibility has not been examined in the ....Adjustment to retirement through social identity change. This project aims to improve our understanding of the factors governing successful adjustment to retirement. Retirement involves a major life change, to which 30 per cent of people fail to adjust successfully. Previous work in the social identity tradition suggests that the negative effects of significant life changes (eg moving into care) can be buffered by access to social group networks, but this possibility has not been examined in the context of retirement. This project plans to address this gap through studies that establish the importance of social group factors for successful adjustment among Australian, English, American and Chinese retirees. It also plans to test the efficacy of a new model that seeks to improve adjustment to retirement by incorporating various forms of social planning into preparation for this transition.Read moreRead less
Toward a social-psychology of prejudice reduction: Examining lay beliefs. This project aims to expand social–psychological knowledge of prejudice by examining beliefs about what prejudice is, as well as the social and psychological factors affecting these beliefs. If people believe their own intergroup attitudes (even negative ones) to be correct and normative, anti-prejudice appeals will likely be rejected. What is needed, then, is an analysis of what people believe to be prejudice or not in th ....Toward a social-psychology of prejudice reduction: Examining lay beliefs. This project aims to expand social–psychological knowledge of prejudice by examining beliefs about what prejudice is, as well as the social and psychological factors affecting these beliefs. If people believe their own intergroup attitudes (even negative ones) to be correct and normative, anti-prejudice appeals will likely be rejected. What is needed, then, is an analysis of what people believe to be prejudice or not in the first place, and how these beliefs are changed. This project aims to provide this analysis via qualitative and quantitative experimental social-psychological research. Project outcomes are expected to clarify social–psychological theory, offering new insight into how anti-prejudice arguments can be successful.Read moreRead less