School of Psychology Newsletter – October 2015

P syc b a b b l e

Word from the Head

Kia ora tatou

The Psycobabble this month contains a veritable torrent of success stories ranging from newly minted PhDs, to conferences, to impressive publications, to Robert Michael’s stunning success as a trans-Tasman finalist in the 3MT contest, and the list could go on and on. But perhaps the biggest and best bouquet would go to Professor Colleen Ward as the only academic this year from VUW to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. This is a very big deal. I had a quick perusal of the calendar and counted fewer than 20 such Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand across all the faculties and schools at VUW.

The Royal Society of New Zealand is modelled after the original Royal Society of London, which was kicked off in 1690. Right from the beginning the Royal Society of London was experimental and scientific in its aims and ethos. This is reflected in its motto, Nullius in verbia, which is Latin for “Take nobody’s word for it”. The look-alike NZ Royal Society was established in 1867, and rapidly accumulated a list of scientific luminaries as Honorary Fellows, including Darwin and Einstein. The society currently has 404 Fellows living in New Zealand and 40 Honorary Fellows living outside New Zealand. The latest addition to the list of Honorary Fellows (Professor Jeffry Simpson) has strong research collaborative links with both our School at VUW and the School of Psychology at Auckland University. He also happens to be the first Psychologist to be elected as an Honorary Fellow in the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Science is a vast international club, and our school is a vibrant member of this club. This is reflected in many ways, including the number of postgraduate students we fund to attend overseas conferences (22 this year alone), the many overseas academic visitors we receive, the international collaborative research networks our academic staff have, and the substantial contributions many of our staff make to international journals and professional academic societies. This kind of engagement informs and enriches our teaching at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels.

Finally, a warm welcome to our newest member of staff, Associate Professor Louise Dixon, who joins our expanding Forensic programme.

Best wishes Garth Fletcher

Welcome to new staff

The ranks of new staff in the school continues to expand, this time with the arrival of Louise Dixon.

Dr Louise Dixon Associate Professor

Dr. Louise Dixon has taken up the role of Associate Professor in the School and will contribute to both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, with a focus on the MSc in Forensic Psychology Programme.

Louise is originally from the North West of England and received her PhD in Psychology in 2005 from the University of Birmingham and also completed her training to become a UK registered Forensic Psychologist at this time. She went on to become a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at Birmingham until recently moving to New Zealand to experience a new challenge.

Louise specialises in the prevention of interpersonal aggression and violence. Primarily, her research has centred on the study of intimate partner violence and abuse and has a strong applied element. It has addressed issues related to aetiology, psychological risk assessment, offender rehabilitation, programme evaluation, primary prevention and policy change in this area. As such it has influenced practice and policy in correctional settings, policing, psychological, health and political areas. Her laboratory will study issues centered on interpersonal and family aggression and use both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

In addition to psychology (of course) she loves dogs, sport, good food and wine and welcomes collaboration, new friends and adventures!

Louise is located in EA620 – extension 6548.

Congratulations Colleen, FRSNZ!

The CACR whanau [and the wider school!] are immensely proud of Prof Colleen Ward who has just been elected to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. The 12 new Fellows (of which only three are women) were elected by their peers at the Annual General Meeting of the Society on the 20th of October.

Academy Chairperson Professor Richard Le Heron FRSNZ said that being elected as a Fellow is an honour given to New Zealand’s top researchers for showing exceptional distinction in research or in the advancement of science, technology or the humanities.

Colleen’s citation read –

Professor Colleen Ward, Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research, Victoria University of Wellington, has made substantial contributions to the psychological study of immigration, acculturation and intercultural relations. Her research has been systematically and widely applied and she is recognised internationally for her sustained leadership in capacity. In New Zealand Professor Ward has received a number of government contracts aimed at understanding and improving relationships amongst the many cultures that call New Zealand home.

Colleen becomes one of 404 Fellows and 59 Honorary Fellows of the RSNZ. Fellows are involved in providing expert advice, promoting best and innovative research practice and disseminating information on the sciences, technology and humanities.

Way to go Colleen! Robert Michael, 3MT Trans-Tasman Finalist

Like all momentous events, my Trans-Tasman 3 Minute Thesis experience begins with Celine Dion’s warbling cover of The Power of Love blearing through the airport shuttle’s stereo at 3:30 a.m. on a frigid Wellington morning. I’m headed to The University of Queensland in Brisbane, where I will join 49 other PhD students from various countries. Our task? Give a 3 minute talk explaining our research. A panel of judges will then select 10 finalists. These finalists then present once more to a new panel of judges, who select a final winner and runner-up.

The UQ campus is immense; it has its own post-code. The competition is hosted in a fancy auditorium in one of the newest buildings on campus. Worryingly, the stage has a trapdoor. One of the organisers assures us, however, that the judges do not have buttons to trigger the trapdoor, and that the trapdoor does not open to a pit of venomous snakes.

After a much needed coffee, the semi-final talks begin. I’m stunned by the consistent high quality of people’s presentations. When my turn comes, I learn a valuable new skill for public speaking: Ensure that the stage lights blind you, thus preventing you from being able to acknowledge the existence of an audience. I am shocked when my name is announced as one of the finalists.

We break for lunch and then the final begins. The ten finalists present once more and then wait anxiously while the judges deliberate. The well-deserved winners are then announced: 1st prize goes to Eamonn Fahy from the University of Melbourne, and runner-up goes to Jaysuman Bin Pusppanathan from Universiti Teknologi Malasyia. Jaysuman is doubly blessed, also taking away the People’s Choice award.

After a barrage of congratulations and photos, we head to a new venue for celebratory drinks and socialising. It’s a surreal experience to come together for just one day with such a diverse and talented group of people. Everyone was so incredibly friendly, and New Zealand was well represented.

I had a great time. I strongly encourage everyone to give the next 3MT a go. It’s a unique experience that helps you think creatively about your research and communicate it in an accessible way. Thank you to the innumerable friends and colleagues who have been so supportive, and to the PGSA and FGR—who make the whole exhilarating event possible.

You can watch Robert’s presentation, and those of the other finalists, at http://threeminutethesis.org/trans-tasman.

Robert (third from left) with the other Trans-Tasman 3MT finalists.

Stuff That Sucks

Congratulations to Ben Sedley who recently had his book Stuff That Sucks: Accepting what you can’t change and committing to what you can published.

A beautifully designed and illustrated book aimed at adolescents that will help them deal with painful emotions by drawing on the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and presenting them in ways that are eye-catching and easy to understand.

Young people often struggle with their emotions and do not want to be told that ‘everyone feels like that’ or that ‘you will grow out of it’. Instead, in many cases, it’s more useful to validate their emotions and offer a truthful understanding of the pain that they are feeling. Stuff That Sucks encourages adolescents to accept their emotions rather than struggling against them. It also shows how to reconnect with what is really important, giving teens the tools to help clarify their personal values and take steps towards living a life where those values can guide them in their day-to-day behaviour. Jargon-free and full of illustrations, Stuff That Sucks is an accessible and approachable guide to painful emotions.

Copies will be available in all good bookstores from Friday 23rd October, or Ben will have copies to sell - see him in EA524.

The Honours Poster Session

The Honours poster session was held on Friday 16th October and brought the Alan MacDiarmid Foyer to life with a display of excellent posters and lively presentations as students discussed their projects with other students and staff.

But what was the experience like from a student’s perspective? Emma Tennant describes how she felt about the poster session:

The poster session was a great opportunity to see what everyone had been working on for the year. I really enjoyed getting to share my research with others. In fact, I found that explaining it out loud was really helpful in consolidating my ideas, which will certainly come in handy when putting the finishing touches on the project! It was really encouraging to engage with people interested in my work, and a valuable way for the Honours students to support each other.

Mevagh: In a New York State of Mind…

Congratulations to Mevagh Sanson, a PhD student in Maryanne Garry's lab, who was awarded a 2015 Fulbright Science and Innovation scholarship. The Scholarship will enable Mevagh to travel to New York City in November where she will spend just under a year as a visiting student researcher at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, working with Associate Professor Deryn Strange to examine the effectiveness and consequences of trigger warnings.

CACR Scores a Trifecta!

The CACR has scored an impressive trifecta with three of its lecturers having separate papers accepted for the same special Culture Issue of the journal Current Opinions in Psychology.

The special issue was organised by prominent cross-cultural psychologists — Prof Michele Gelfand from the USA, and Prof Yoshihisa Kashima from Australia — who separately invited the CACR scholars to submit a contribution on their respective areas of expertise.

Prof Colleen Ward’s paper (co-authored with Dr Nicolas Geeraert) is titled Advancing Acculturation Theory and Research: The Acculturation Process in its Ecological Context.

Dr Taciano Milfont co-authored a paper with Prof P. Wesley Schultz is on Culture and the Natural Environment.

And A/Prof Ron Fischer’s paper is titled Values: The Dynamic Nexus between Biology, Ecology and Culture.

An online edition is already available with the hardcopy edition expected to be published in April 2016.

To have one CACR-authored paper accepted for this special Culture Issue is a wonderful thing, but to have three CACR-authored papers accepted is not only remarkable, it’s sensational! Congratulations to Colleen, Taciano and Ron.

Department of Corrections NTE Conference

From 13 to 16 September a group of staff and students from the Forensic/Correctional Psychology lab attended the Department of Corrections NTE Conference in Rotorua.

Devon Polaschek presented a key note address on the first day which was well received and subsequently referenced at almost every other talk we attended. Clare-Ann Fortune chaired the Research Forum which had an audience of interested Correctional Psychologists. Victoria students dominated the Research Forum presenting research which often drew on Corrections data. Students also had the opportunity to attend key notes and workshops on a range of topics from advanced statistics (they loved it), through to practice oriented workshops on offender treatment planning and evaluation, domestic violence and risk assessment with offenders in prison youth units.

The students were invited to attend the formal dinner and participated in the quiz – coming a very commendable second, After the Research Forum presentations: (L-R) Tadhg Daly, Chelsea Richards, partly due the previously undetected skills Jonathan Muirhead, Tanya Waterman, Simon Davies, Johanna Herrmann, Jessica of Jono and Tadhg at making a tower out Scanlan, Danica McGovern, and Clare-Ann Fortune. of blocks of foam, wooden skewers, tooth picks and paper clips.

Congratulations to our Newly Minted PhDs

Well done to Emma-Jayne Brown, Gregg Franco, Wendy Kelly and Agnes Szabo who recently made it through the PhD oral examination process and have now officially had their theses approved for deposit into the library. Final step - graduation!

Clinical Practice Advisor Mary Barnao was also recently awarded her PhD but completed it a little differently …

I have recently been awarded a PhD by Publication from Deakin University in Melbourne. The impetus for my research came from my clinical experience working in the specialty of forensic mental health, and specifically, an awareness of the problems arising from a lack of holistic, integrative frameworks to formulate the complex rehabilitation needs of mentally disordered offenders (MDOs).

My PhD aimed to explore whether the use of Ward and colleagues’ Good Lives Model (GLM) of offender rehabilitation could enhance the manner in which forensic rehabilitation was undertaken. This question was addressed from the service user perspective. The GLM is an overarching framework that promotes individuals’ personal goals while reducing and managing their risk of recidivism. Although there is a burgeoning literature on the use of the GLM with offenders in correctional services, virtually nothing is known about its application to MDOs in a forensic mental health setting.

In my first empirical study twenty participants were interviewed about their experience of rehabilitation, both within and beyond therapeutic programs, and seven themes were identified using thematic analysis. The purpose of the second study was to explore whether the key issues for service users, as identified in the first study, could be ameliorated through implementation of the GLM. A multiple-case study research design was employed to examine the impact of a brief GLM program on participants’ views of rehabilitation. The results were promising but it was concluded that greater attention to the wider system was required for full and effective implementation of the GLM. The research highlighted the potential of the GLM to fill the conceptual and ethical vacuum in forensic mental health and to provide a new paradigm that places the MDO at the centre of their rehabilitation.

Should Haves and Should Dos from Psyc Society

You should have found out about 'Middle Child Syndrome' with New Zealand vs. Team Americas at the great debate. Everyone was in a state after Taciano took the stage and changed the stakes when he proclaimed Team New Zealand was a fake. “You can’t trust them” he forewarned of the storm from Doctor Dougall who proved to be no frugal. "I've had a bloody guts full" he roared with force so brutal describing the fruitful but futile attempts to raise three tiny terrors that yank on the A packed out Hunter Lounge for the Psyc Society’s annual Great chains of his mental noodle persistently and without Debate. refusal. Such were the tactics used and abused by the two newest academics to the stew but to conclude there were three winners of the debate hailing from the states and three participation awards were drawn for team NZ, their feelings forlorn and their dispositions dead.

Thanks again to our MC Dave Harper and to our six participants: 1st place - Matt Crawford, Taciano Milfont and Sue Schenk. 2nd place - Marc Wilson, Dougal Sutherland and John McDowell. The first ever Psyc Society ball proved popular Okay I'm done with the rhymes. You also should have come to Psyc Society’s debut ball! This event was well sold out with over a quarter of a thousand attendees and was a fantastic night for all. Just look at all the smiling faces... Why do they all have their eyes closed? (Because they’re having such a good time!)

Finally to finish the year off we had our AGM. It’s been a fantastic year for us. Our memberships have increased and our Facebook page passed 1000 likes and is currently over 1300. We wish to congratulate all our new exec members who were elected to represent the society in 2016 and we wish them the very best of luck for what is already shaping up to be an exciting next year ahead!

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