Psychology collection
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
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The impact of mobile mindfulness meditation on mental health and well-being in university students
Mindfulness meditation is a common psychotherapy informed by Buddhist mindfulness that is gaining traction outside of the clinic. One area that is particularly popular is mobile mindfulness meditation, the use of applications ... -
Local field potential recordings in rat anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and ventral tegmental area during fatigue induced by voluntary effort exertion tasks
Fatigue is a universal experience that affects the daily lives of species. Nevertheless, there are disagreements about the definitions and measurement of fatigue. Historically, fatigue was considered a result of energy ... -
Testing the Effectiveness of a Combined Web-Based and Ecological Momentary Intervention for First-Year University Students
First year university students engage in heavy alcohol use. Concerns around adverse alcohol-related health outcomes has prompted research on methods to reduce alcohol consumption in university students. The current study ... -
Exploring the Role of Online Health Information and Social Media in the Illness Experience of Arthritis-related Fatigue: A Qualitative Study
Past research has identified that people with arthritis experience the symptom of fatigue which has a considerable impact on their daily lives and social support networks. People with arthritis seek information to cope ... -
Voices of Parents and Grandparents: Pacific Peoples’ Views on Factors Contributing to Teenagers’ Wellbeing
Families foster individuals psychologically, culturally, morally and provide an avenue to social acceptance. Strong relationships are central for advancing wellbeing. When individuals feel connected to their Pacific identity ... -
“I don’t think it’s a real word though”: Perceptions of Mindfulness as a Treatment for Arthritis-related Fatigue
Fatigue is a pervasive and debilitating symptom of arthritis that results in interference both physically and cognitively, often disrupting daily activities and thought patterns. Previous qualitative and quantitative ... -
Professional learning and development in home-based early childhood education and care : exploring the benefits for educator-child shared talk and children's social emotional and self-regulatory development
Research shows that parent-child reminiscing conversations (shared talk about past events) impart benefits for children’s development across a range of domains. To date, there is limited research investigating whether ... -
Investigating Secreted Amyloid Precursor Protein-alpha and its Functional Domains in Stimulating Hippocampal Protein Synthesis
Secreted amyloid precursor protein alpha (sAPPα) is produced by α-secretase cleavage of amyloid precursor protein (APP). Not only is sAPPα of interest because its production competes with amyloid beta (Aβ) production which ... -
The effect of prior knowledge on open and closed question generation
Given that eyewitness evidence is one of the most influential forms of courtroom evidence, and that eyewitness errors are a major contributor to wrongful conviction, it is paramount that investigators collect evidence from ... -
Salience and motivated behaviour in schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a long-term psychotic disorder that affects approximately 1% of the population worldwide. Schizophrenia is characterised by negative symptoms, such as anhedonia and social withdrawal, and positive symptoms, ... -
The Effects of Maternal Factors on Child Functioning Above and Beyond Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptomology
Current literature has identified that Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptom severity does not account for all of the variance in child adaptive functioning. Identifying factors that account for variance ... -
Beyond the DSM-5: Examining the effects of processing speed and working memory on ADHD symptoms and adaptive functioning
Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) not only exhibit significant variability in the impulsive and hyperactive symptoms that characterise the diagnosis, but also in the presence and severity of ... -
“It often rests on the shoulders of a passionate individual”: Exploring the discursive constructions of gender and sexuality within education settings in Aotearoa New Zealand.
In this thesis I explore the discursive constructions of gender and sexuality within secondary and tertiary education settings in Aotearoa New Zealand. Previous research has established teaching and education practices ... -
Social Functioning in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Examining the Effects of Working Memory and Perspective-Taking
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood disorder that is associated with secondary difficulties extending beyond the diagnostic criteria, including impairment in social functioning. Currently ... -
A Path to Fusion? The Role of Reflective Processes in Identity Fusion.
The current study aimed to determine whether identity fusion (fusion), a form of extreme group alignment, is underpinned by processes of autobiographical reasoning about memories of events shared with the group. A secondary ... -
Reflection and Perspective: Enhancing Case-Based Learning in Aviation
Previous research has suggested that individuals have an ability to learn from their previous experiences and use this information in future situations. Pilots have reported an ability to recall previous accident reports ... -
The Visual Search Environment: Are Two Heads Better Than One?
Visual search tasks such as luggage screening are characterised by high error rates. Screeners are required to find illegal objects among distractors which are often difficult to tell apart. Different kinds of distractors ... -
The Effect of Mood on Eyewitness Memory
In the present research, we investigated the effect of participants’ mood during encoding on true and false memory of an event using the misinformation paradigm. In addition, we also examined how the emotional content of ... -
Interviewing witnesses of serious crime: Assessing current police practices
Eyewitnesses play a vital role in advancing criminal investigations—often providing details that are crucial to apprehending perpetrators or justifying charges. To better align with the evidence base on enhancing episodic ... -
An Exploration of University Students’ Lived Experience with Alcohol within the Contexts of Family, Peers, and Orientation
Undergraduate students in New Zealand universities demonstrate high rates of hazardous drinking, as do other undergraduates in many universities around the world. There are a number of factors related to hazardous drinking ...