We provide a supportive and stimulating environment to help our academic staff excel in research. In the past five years, we have received 21 fellowships for our academic staff at a total value of over $21 million.
We are committed to supporting research-focussed staff and translating EMCR fellowships into continuing positions.听This is facilitated by our general departmental initiatives that guide and support all staff through:
Research in this theme aims to enhance mental health and wellbeing from childhood through to old age. It focuses on exploring psychological and neurobiological development, understanding the various challenges people face at different life stages, and developing evidence-based interventions to support mental health and wellbeing.
By understanding the unique needs, stressors, and opportunities at each stage of life, this research seeks to create effective interventions that promote long-term psychological wellbeing and improve quality of life for individuals across the lifespan.
Key researchers:听听Maree Abbott听(subdiscipline lead),听Alice Norton, Caroline Hunt, Elizabeth Seeley, Fiona White, Ilan Dar-Nimrod, Jemma Todd, Louise Sharpe, Oliver Lester, Paul Rhodes, Rachel Menzies, Sally Gainsbury, Shannon Webb,听Tanja Hirvonen, Trinh Ha
Research in this stream focuses on adult and older adult mental health and wellbeing that aims to improve our understanding and treatment of cognitive, affective, attentional, relational and behavioural aspects of common mental health presentations, including their prevention. Translational research in this stream promotes access to inclusive, best-practice, evidence-based psychological assessment and intervention.
Areas of focus include anxiety, depression, eating disorders, chronic health conditions, adjustment to illness, problem gambling, application of the Social and Emotional Wellbeing Model to promote wellbeing for Indigenous peoples, reducing bias and promoting inclusivity, and responding to climate change distress.
The research group uses qualitative and quantitative designs and develops collaborative partnerships and co-design with lived experience partners, policy makers and other key stakeholders.
Research groups
Key researchers:听David Hawes听(subdiscipline lead),听Caroline Hunt,听Elizabeth Seeley,听Maree Abbott,听Jasmine Fardouly,听Mark Dadds,听Shannon Webb,听Trinh Ha,
This theme focuses on clinical and developmental aspects of child and youth mental health, with research enhancing understanding of common emotional, behavioural, and neurodevelopmental problems, and improving evidence-based practice with children and their caregivers.
This includes novel approaches to conceptualisation and measurement/assessment, the study of risk mechanisms and resilience beginning in the perinatal period, prevention and intervention, translational research, implementation science and child mental health literacy.
Key stakeholders in child and youth mental health (e.g., practitioners; policy makers; those with lived experience) are partners in this work.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Sean O鈥機onnor听(subdiscipline lead),听Gordon Spence, Michael Cavanagh
Coaching psychology is an applied subdiscipline within psychology. It explores the theory and practice of behaviour change, goal attainment and adult developmental understandings of work, life and well-being.
It draws from a broad range of knowledge bases both within and outside psychology. These include Organisational and Counselling Psychology, Health, leadership and well-being science. It builds on insights found in cognitive and social psychology, motivation, goal theory and systems science.
Our graduates undertake work in organisations and private practice, assisting individual, teams and leadership groups to effect positive change in their lives and organisations.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Micah Goldwater听(subdiscipline lead),听Caroline Moul, David Hawes, Mark Dadds
The developmental psychology research area specialises in understanding learning, behavior, and cognition from birth to adulthood. We both investigate neurotypical and neurodiverse developmental trajectories integrating experimental, longitudinal, and applied methods, conducting research in the lab, clinic, and classroom. The team aims to advance scientific knowledge and design interventions that promote optimal development and well-being.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Carolyn MacCann听(subdiscipline lead),听Alissa Beath,听Damian Birney,听Elizabeth Seeley,听Kit Double,听Lisa Kim,听Micah Goldwater,听Sabina Kleitman,听Simon Boag,听Tanja Hirvonen
Our Educational Psychology subdiscipline explores how cognitive, emotional, and social factors influence learning and development.
高清福利片ers examine cultural factors, personal qualities (cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, personality traits, and other socio-emotional characteristics) and processes (meta-cognition, learning strategies, coping, cognitive processes) in education.
高清福利片 aims to discover how these factors affect student learning, achievement, and wellbeing, as well as the effectiveness and wellbeing of educators. Together, our work advances understanding of how people learn, adapt, and thrive across diverse contexts, shaping evidence-based educational practices and policies.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Haryana Dhillon听(subdiscipline lead),听Alissa Beath,听Ben Colagiuri, Daniel Costa,听Ilona Juraskova, Jasmine Fardouly, Jemma Todd, Joanne Shaw, Louise Sharpe, Rebecca Pinkus, Rebekah Laidsaar-Powell,听Sabina Kleitman,听Simon Boag
Our global aim in health psychology is to support individuals, families, and communities across the lifespan to live full and healthy lives. Our work encompasses novel, theoretically-based approaches to how people make decisions about their health, responses to a disease diagnosis, treatments, and recovery.
Prevention of illness and maximising well being are important pillars of our research spanning social and societal influences on health issues including body image, illness stigma, symptom interpretation, and informal care support. Our strengths in pain, cancer and psycho-oncology, cardiovascular disease, eating disorders, placebo/nocebo effects, and mental health contribute to improving health across the lifespan.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Sharon Naismith听(subdiscipline lead),听Fiona Kumfor, Muireann Irish,听Olivier Piguet
The neuropsychology theme specialises in understanding how cognitive dysfunction relates to underlying changes in brain structure and function, spanning healthy individuals and those with neurological or neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, and frontotemporal dementia.
The team brings clinical expertise in the assessment of individuals across a range of neurodegenerative, mental health, sleep-wake and neurological conditions and combines gold-standard neuropsychological approaches and innovative tests with neuroimaging, biofluid and other biomarkers, to gain a holistic appreciation of the complex interplay between brain, body and behaviour.
The team also brings expertise in developing new tools for clinical assessment and innovations in the efficiency of neuropsychological assessment, scoring and feedback. They have skills in clinical trials including in the design, testing and translation of new interventions that aim to improve cognition and brain health. The neuropsychology theme offers a unique mix of clinical, training and research opportunities underpinned by the Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic, FRONTIER Clinic and Sydney Neuropsychology Clinic.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Michael Bowen听(subdiscipline lead),听Iain McGregor, Ian Johnston, Melissa Sharpe,听Morgan James, Nick Everett
Neuropsychopharmacology explores how drugs and the brain's natural chemical signalling systems impact the brain, behaviour, and mental health. Integrating psychology, neuroscience, and pharmacology, investigating how neurochemicals, substances of abuse, and existing and potential therapeutic compounds impact brain function and cognitive, emotional, and behavioural processes. This research aims to deepen our understanding of the brain's chemical systems and advance treatments for disorders of the brain and mind.
Research groups
Research in this theme seeks to uncover the complexities of the brain and how it produces perception, thoughts, decisions, and actions. It spans basic experimental psychology through to neuroscience to identify the underlying psychological mechanisms that drive our thoughts, emotions, and actions.
By understanding how the brain processes information and shapes behaviour, research in this theme reveals how we perceive and respond to the world arounds us, such as how we make decisions, and how differences in theses process 鈥 whether biological or learned 鈥 contribute to psychological disorders.
Key researchers:听Melissa Sharpe听(subdiscipline lead),听Ian Johnston, Justin Harris, Kelsey Zimmerman, Laura Bradfield,听Michael Bowen, Morgan James, Nick Everett
Behavioural neuroscience seeks to reveal the physiological mechanisms that underlie the way we learn, and ultimately behave. To do this, we use a range of behavioural tasks that model particular cognitive processes in tandem with a modern suite of neuroscience techniques, including optogenetics, fiber photometry of genetically-encoded activity sensors, chemogenetics, and advanced microscopy.
Together, this allows us to develop integrated theories of how the brain works from psychological and physiological perspectives. This work is important because it helps us understand how innate or learned changes in the brain produce psychopathology.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Evan Livesey听(subdiscipline lead),听Bruce Burns, Caleb Owens, Celine van Golde, Damian Birney, Daniel Pearson, Dominic Tran, Helen Paterson, Ian Johnston, Irina Harris, Jemma Todd, Jessica Lee, Kelsey Zimmerman, Kit Double, Laura Bradfield,听Louise Sharpe, Melissa Sharpe, Micah Goldwater, Reuben Rideaux, Sabina Kleitman
Researchers in the Cognition subdiscipline are interested in the cognitive processes behind a wide variety of psychological functions including attention, metacognition, decision making, and intelligence.
Our goals are to understand these processes, including commonalities and differences across individuals, and how they influence key aspects of modern life such as the experience of pain and other health outcomes, coping with addiction, eyewitness testimony, and learning in the classroom.
Grounded in fundamental science, our research informs solutions to societal problems related to health, psychopathology, forensic psychology and education.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Muireann Irish听(subdiscipline lead), Irina Harris, Reuben Rideaux, Tom Carlson
The School of Psychology's cognitive neuroscience subdiscipline explores the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive processes and behaviour, in healthy and clinical populations. Integrating multimodal neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and computational approaches, our research investigates areas such as memory, attention, perception, decision-making, and language.
The subdiscipline emphasises translational approaches to understand and address neuropsychological, neurological and psychiatric conditions, bridging basic science with real-world applications.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Sabina Kleitman听(subdiscipline lead),听Bruce Burns, Celine van Golde, Helen Paterson, Ilona Juraskova, Micah Goldwater
The cognitive decision-making subdiscipline drives research into how people think, evaluate, and choose in real-world scenarios. We explore the processes behind judgment, choices, problem-solving and self-monitoring, focusing on improving decision quality, including under uncertainty, risk, and stress.
Our work spans high-stakes contexts, including performance, forensic investigations, medical diagnostics, cybersecurity, and organisational strategy. Using theoretical and applied multi-disciplinary approaches, we research innovative insights and practical solutions, from optimising decision-making tools and technologies, including AI to enhancing training systems for critical roles.
Our work advances our understanding of adaptive and reflective thinking and collaborations to help develop more competent and adaptive decision-makers.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Helen Paterson听(subdiscipline lead),听Celine van Golde
高清福利片 applies cognitive, social, and clinical psychology to legal settings to enhance the justice system and support those affected by crime, including witnesses, victims, and the wrongfully accused. 高清福利片 predominantly focuses on improving eyewitness accounts, jury decision-making, and lie detection.
We investigate best practices to collect reliable and credible testimony from witnesses while safeguarding their psychological wellbeing.
By better understanding factors influencing eyewitness reliability, we aim to provide practical solutions for legal professionals. Ultimately, our work seeks to bridge psychological science and legal practice, contributing to fairer legal outcomes and more effective support for individuals impacted by crime.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Justin Harris听(subdiscipline lead),听Ben Colagiuri, Caroline Moul, Daniel Pearson, Dominic Tran, Evan Livesey, Ian Johnston, Jessica Lee, Kelsey Zimmerman, Laura Bradfield,听Melissa Sharpe
Our Learning subdiscipline seeks to reveal the principles of how we process information to form representations of how our world works. Often, this involves the development or evaluation of mathematical models that capture the fundamental principles of learning, which can be validated through empirical research.
In doing so, we elucidate the specific ways that people develop models of their environment to understand how this influences their expectations and, ultimately, their behaviour. Revealing the fundamental principles that govern how an individual learns allows us to identify how this is changed in psychopathology, which provides insight into how to treat psychological disorders through a cognitive lens.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Alex Holcombe听(subdiscipline lead), Tom Hardwicke
Meta-research (research on research) is a burgeoning discipline that leverages theoretical, observational, and experimental approaches to investigate quality, bias, and efficiency in the complex and evolving scientific ecosystem.
Key researchers:听Michael Bowen听(subdiscipline lead),听Iain McGregor, Ian Johnston,听Laura Bradfield,听Melissa Sharpe,听Morgan James, Nick Everett
Neuropsychopharmacology explores how drugs and the brain's natural chemical signalling systems impact the brain, behaviour, and mental health.
Integrating psychology, neuroscience, and pharmacology, investigating how neurochemicals, substances of abuse, and existing and potential therapeutic compounds impact brain function, and cognitive, emotional, and behavioural processes.
This research aims to deepen our understanding of the brain's chemical systems and advance treatments for disorders of the brain and mind.
Research groups
Key researchers:听David Alais听(subdiscipline lead),听Alex Holcombe, Bart Anderson, Daniel Pearson,听Frans Verstraten, Irina Harris, Reuben Rideaux, Tom Carlson
Our work examines how we come to know our world and act upon it. We study the sensing of the surrounding environment through vision, touch and hearing, the sorting and prioritising of sensory information, and how it guides decision-making and action.
The group employs complementary methods to understand perception and attention including behavioural, neuroimaging, electrophysiology and computational approaches.
The goal is a deeper understanding of the processing arc from sensing, processing and acting on the world. Insights from this work can be applied to optimise perception and attention in normal and clinical populations and in a variety of practical applications.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Olivier Piguet听(subdiscipline lead),听Eilane Deschrijver, Fiona Kumfor,听Muireann Irish
The social neuroscience subdiscipline examines the variables that shape the way we interact with each other. We are interested in understanding how external (e.g., life events, social and political structures, size of social groups) and internal (developmental periods, changes in brain integrity) variables modulate individual or group social interactions. We are also interested in understanding the brain processes that underpin these social interactions by using various neuroimaging techniques (e.g., EEG, MRI).
Research groups
Research in this theme explores the intricate interplay of personal, social, and cultural factors that shape human behaviour. It focuses on understanding how individual differences (such as 鈥榩ersonality鈥), social interactions, and cultural contexts influence actions and attitudes to provide a comprehensive understanding of human behaviour.
By understanding the interactions between personal, social, and cultural determinants of behaviour, research in this theme aims to uncover the full range of factors that influence human behaviour and to appropriately situate and apply psychological research and practice in the diverse world in which we live.
Key researchers:听Sean O鈥機onnor听(subdiscipline lead),听Gordon Spence,听Michael Cavanagh
Coaching psychology is an applied subdiscipline within psychology. It explores the theory and practice of behaviour change, goal attainment and adult developmental understandings of work, life and well-being.
It draws of a broad range of knowledge bases both within and outside psychology. These include organisational and counselling psychology, health, leadership and well-being science. It builds on insights found in cognitive and social psychology, motivation, goal theory and systems science.
Our graduates undertake work in organisations and private practice, assisting individual, teams and leadership groups to effect positive change in their lives and organisations.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Paul Rhodes听(subdiscipline lead),听Caroline Hunt, Elizabeth Seeley,听Oliver Lester,听Shannon Webb,听Tanja Hirvonen, Trinh Ha
The main priority of our research in cultural psychology is to embed Indigenous Psychology perspectives, including initiatives focused on improving Social and Emotional Wellbeing for
individuals, families and communities. This will be achieved through community-led participatory action research led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academics. In addition, we will prioritise research that focuses on cultural safety, working with CALD and refugee populations, affirmative cultures in Deaf and disabled communities, neurodiversity and lived experience. Finally, we will research psychological theory and practice related to the wider field of cultural psychology, including semiotics, borders, affective atmospheres, ecological niches, post-human cultures and others.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Micah Goldwater听(subdiscipline lead),听Caroline Moul,听David Hawes, Mark Dadds
听The developmental psychology research area specialises in understanding learning, behavior, and cognition from birth to adulthood. We both investigate neurotypical and neurodiverse developmental trajectories integrating experimental, longitudinal, and applied methods, conducting research in the lab, clinic, and classroom. The team aims to advance scientific knowledge and design interventions that promote optimal development and well-being.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Carolyn MacCann听(subdiscipline lead),听Alissa Beath,听Damian Birney,听Elizabeth Seeley,听Kit Double,听Lisa Kim,听Micah Goldwater,听Sabina Kleitman,听Tanja Hirvonen
Our Educational Psychology subdiscipline explores how cognitive, emotional, and social factors influence learning and development.
高清福利片ers examine cultural factors, personal qualities (cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, personality traits, and other socio-emotional characteristics) and processes (meta-cognition, learning strategies, coping, cognitive processes) in education.
高清福利片 aims to discover how these factors affect student learning, achievement, and wellbeing, as well as the effectiveness and wellbeing of educators. Together, our work advances understanding of how people learn, adapt, and thrive across diverse contexts, shaping evidence-based educational practices and policies.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Helen Paterson听(subdiscipline lead),听Celine van Golde
高清福利片 applies cognitive, social, and clinical psychology to legal settings to enhance the justice system and support those affected by crime, including witnesses, victims, and the wrongfully accused. 高清福利片 predominantly focuses on improving eyewitness accounts, jury decision-making, and lie detection. We investigate best practices to collect reliable and credible testimony from witnesses while safeguarding their psychological wellbeing.
By better understanding factors influencing eyewitness reliability, we aim to provide practical solutions for legal professionals. Ultimately, our work seeks to bridge psychological science and legal practice, contributing to fairer legal outcomes and more effective support for individuals impacted by crime.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Haryana Dhillon听(subdiscipline lead),听Alissa Beath,听Ben Colagiuri, Daniel Costa, 听Ilona Juraskova, Jasmine Fardouly,听Jemma Todd, Joanne Shaw, Louise Sharpe, Rebecca Pinkus,听Rebekah Laidsaar-Powell, Sabina Kleitman,听Simon Boag
Our global aim in health psychology is to support individuals, families, and communities across the lifespan to live full and healthy lives. Our work encompasses novel, theoretically-based approaches to how people make decisions about their health, responses to a disease diagnosis, treatments, and recovery.
Prevention of illness and maximising well being are important pillars of our research spanning social and societal influences on health issues including body image, illness stigma, symptom interpretation, and informal care support. Our strengths in pain, cancer and psycho-oncology, cardiovascular disease, eating disorders, placebo/nocebo effects, and mental health contribute to improving health across the lifespan.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Damian Birney听(subdiscipline lead),听Alissa Beath,听Carolyn MacCann, 听Ilan Dar-Nimrod, Kit Double, Lisa Kim, Sabina Kleitman,听Simon Boag
The individual differences subdiscipline examines how and why people differ from one another across various dimensions including intelligence, personality, behaviour, emotion, and cognition, and human factors broadly defined. 高清福利片 spans both theoretical and empirical approaches, investigating the structure, development, and processes that create these differences.
We study variations within educational, developmental, clinical, organisational, and broader psychological, sociological, and cultural contexts, often incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives from fields like business, data/decision science, and neuroscience.
The focus extends to both practical applications and fundamental understanding, encompassing assessment methods, measurement techniques, and the implications of individual differences for human development, occupational and cultural experiences, and learning outcomes in different contexts.
Research groups
Key researchers:听Rebecca Pinkus听(subdiscipline lead),听Carolyn MacCann, Celine van Golde, Eliane Deschrijver, Fiona White, Helen Paterson, Ilan Dar-Nimrod, Jasmine Fardouly, Kit Double, Sally Gainsbury, Tanja Hirvonen
高清福利片ers explore how people understand, navigate, and regulate themselves and their social environments. We study topics including race, gender, sexuality, appearance, and social identity, and how people interact and maintain relationships with individuals and groups, both in the physical world and online.
In addition to resolving basic scientific questions, our research addresses real-world issues such as reducing prejudice, discrimination, conflict, and violence, as well as decision-making, lie detection, and risky behaviours.
By understanding the interaction between personal and social factors, we aim to improve wellbeing and inform policies that benefit communities. Our work is dedicated to solving problems and making a positive impact on society.
Research groups
