Psychology collection

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The Department of Psychology offers some of the most popular and highly-rated undergraduate courses at Otago. It provides excellent preparation of students for careers in research and the profession of Psychology. Students from the postgraduate programme have achieved national and international recognition and awards and a number have gone on to positions in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, UK and the USA.

For further information go to the Department of Psychology.

Recent Deposits

Animal age and enriched environment affect the “retirement” of adult‐generated dentate granule cells.

Dinnunhan, Mohammed Fawzan Khan (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Adult neurogenesis occurs in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus, resulting in the addition of functionally integrated neurons. These new cells go through a period of increased excitability around 4-6 weeks after ...
Exploring Communication of the Maritime Bridge Team Using a Novel Speech Act Coding Scheme: A 'Pilot' Study

Shepherd, Tayla (Thesis, Master of Arts, 2017)

Understanding the human factors underlying both failures and successes on ship bridges is key to improving maritime safety, increasing efficiency and productivity of bridge teams, and informing future training programmes ...
Māori University success: what helps and hinders qualification completion

Theodore, Reremoana; Gollop, Megan; Tustin, Karen; Taylor, Nicola; Kiro, Cynthia; Taumoepeau, Mele; Kokaua, Jesse; Hunter, Jackie; Poulton, Richie (Journal Article, AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 2017)

Māori (Indigenous New Zealand) university graduates are role models for educational success and are critical for the social and economic wellbeing of Māori whānau (extended family) and communities. In this study, Māori ...
Equity in New Zealand university graduate outcomes: Māori and Pacific graduates

Theodore, Reremoana; Taumoepeau, Mele; Kokaua, Jesse; Tustin, Karen; Gollop, Megan; Taylor, Nicola; Hunter, Jackie; Kiro, Cynthia; Poulton, Richie (Journal Article, Higher Education Research and Development, 2017)

Higher education confers significant private and social benefits. Māori and Pacific peoples are under-represented within New Zealand universities and have poorer labour market outcomes (e.g., lower wages, under-represented ...
Fiction reading and sexism: Exploring the effects of fiction reading and transportation on sexist attitudes

Redman, Kahla (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

It has long been suspected that stories are a powerful method of persuasion. Now, research is emerging that supports these suspicions, that reading fiction can change people’s attitudes. Specifically, being immersed in a ...
On the mechanisms of effort encoding in the rodent hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex

Porter, Blake (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Spatial cognition plays a vital role in helping an organism respond to its environment, and thus survive. An often overlooked element of spatial cognition is the energetic costs of different routes. Most studies to date ...
How many is too many? Prevalence rates and related childhood factors of Multimorbidity in New Zealand

Jang, Kyungho (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Multimorbidity is the term given to two or more concurrent diseases occurring in the same individual. Compared to singular diseases, multimorbidity is associated with significantly worse health outcomes, more complex ...
The Relationships between Children and Young Adults' Social Evaluations, Prosociality, and Callous-Unemotional Traits

Hinten, Ashley Elise (Thesis, Master of Arts, 2017)

Growing evidence suggests that infants and young children distinguish between prosocial and antisocial others. The main paradigm employed to test this ability is the hill paradigm. The hill paradigm involves three ...
Making Memories: Adults’ and children’s ability to recall the particularisation details of past events and the role of speculation.

Westgate, Shannon Bennet (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Historical claims of sexual abuse often involve highly detailed descriptions of the alleged events (Conway 2013; Howe & Knott, 2015). Such descriptions might include information about the weather, people’s clothing, and ...
Hunting the Snark: The contribution of the avian hippocampus to long-term visual memory and the representation of serial order.

Stuart, Michael (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The study that forms the topic of this thesis was an investigation into the avian hippocampus’ contribution to visual memory and the representation of spatial information. Control and hippocampal lesioned pigeons (Colomba ...
Mother Knows Best? The Influence of Maternal Modelling on Preschool Children's Ability to Delay Gratification

Davis, Kelsey (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Young children’s ability to exhibit self-control has been linked to a wide range of positive outcomes later in life, providing a strong impetus for improving this skill in young children. While previous theorists suggested ...
Social and Cognitive Factors Associated with Iranian Children’s Social Understanding

Sadeghi, Sanam (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

There is evidence that within western cultures, developments in cognitive factors, notably executive functions, as well as social factors such as mother-child interaction, all support the acquisition of social understanding. ...
The relationship between vitamin D, depressive symptoms, and psychological well-being in a non-clinical population

Choukri, Maria Anna (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Vitamin D has a well-established role in physical health, specifically bone formation and mineralization through its role in calcium homeostasis. Recently, new evidence suggests that vitamin D may play a role in mental ...
“I Want It Now!” Neural Correlates of Impulsive Decisions and Actions

Major, Max (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

“I want it now!” Four monosyllabic words that neatly describe the motivations of younger generations, driven by a heightened sense of entitlement and disregard for the potential future consequences of their actions (Twenge, ...
The Measurement and Investigation of Psychological Stress Sensitivity in Schizophrenia Risk

Grattan, Rebecca (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Background: Those with and at risk for schizophrenia have highly sensitive stress responses. It is unclear whether this stress sensitivity is the result of a biological predisposition, or whether the sensitivity develops ...
Control as both an outcome and predictor of intergroup discrimination

Wu, Feifei (Thesis, Master of Science, 2016)

The primary aim of the present investigation was to examine the relationship between perceived control and distinct forms of intergroup discrimination (i.e., ‘evaluations and allocations’). Two studies were conducted. The ...
Belonging in both Te Ao Māori and Te Ao Pākehā: A Qualitative Study Exploring Identity

Tipu, Penny Raylene (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Many individuals identify as both Māori and Pākehā (New Zealand European). However, there are varying extents to which these individuals possess characteristics thought to underpin Māori identity, such as knowledge of ...
Hitting the Wrong Note: Recognition of Music Emotions Decreases with Age

Sutcliffe, Ryan (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Effective emotion recognition underlies successful social interactions. Abundant research with facial emotions indicates that those necessary skills decline with age. Deficits in emotional understanding, and therefore ...
He Tirohanga I te Oranga o ngā Tāngata Whai Ora o te Hapori Haumanu o Te Whare Moana (Māori Men’s Perspectives of Rehabilitation in the Moana House Therapeutic Community: A Qualitative Enquiry)

Ashdown, Jacob Dylan (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

In New Zealand/Aotearoa, there are various rehabilitation programmes that aim specifically to reduce criminal offending among Māori. Currently, there is a lack of research investigating the experiences of rehabilitation ...
Ripple-Associated Hippocampal Activity and Recognition Memory in Rats during Rest

Nisha, Fareesha Nigar (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The hippocampus, has been established as a key structure in the processing of memory operations, with its neural activity proposed to play a critical role in memory consolidation. Memory impairment is prevalent in ...