Psychology experts

Associate Professor Anne Pedersen

Asylum seekers, prejudice against different cultures

Associate Professor Anne Pedersen researches prejudice and anti-prejudice against different cultural groups; in particular, asylum seekers, Indigenous Australians and Muslim Australians.

As a strong asylum seeker advocate for the past decade, Professor Pedersen has a keen interest in the integration of such advocacy with her academic work.

She works as a community psychologist in the Social and Political Psychology Research Unit in the School of Psychology and Exercise Science.

Dr Emma Thomas

Social and political action, social change

As a social psychologist, Dr Emma Thomas specialises in research on social and political action (action for social change). She has particularly focused on understanding the motivators of efforts to combat poverty and preventable disease in developing countries (e.g. through social movements like ‘Make Poverty History’).

Her recent research explores the role of social identity, group emotions (collective guilt, sympathy and outrage), and small group interaction, in motivating pro-social behaviour; and how public perceptions of protest can facilitate or undermine social change.

Dr Jon B Prince

Cognitive psychology

Dr Prince's research concerns the mental processes that enable us to experience music. Specifically, how do we combine the dimensions of pitch and time to form a coherent musical experience?

His work contributes to our understanding of auditory and visual cognition, examining how the perception of an external stimulus depends on our ability to combine information across multiple dimensions (e.g., colour, form, location) into a mental representation of one object.

The interdisciplinary nature of his work in music cognition depends on the ability to combine knowledge from diverse areas such as social science, biology, music, cross-cultural humanities, and computer science.

Dr Kathryn Modecki

Adolescent decision-making, juvenile delinquency, youth violence

Dr Kathryn Modecki focuses on adolescent decision making, juvenile delinquency, and youth violence. Specifically, she examines how adolescents process risky, delinquent, and violent decisions.

Her research investigates how factors such as heightened peer pressure, emotional arousal, and excitement-seeking can influence adolescents to make antisocial decisions.

Dr Modecki’s research informs both prevention strategies aimed at averting antisocial behaviour and intervention strategies, aimed at rehabilitating antisocial youth. Her research is relevant to policy questions regarding adolescent legal responsibility: are adolescents mature enough to be held fully culpable for their crimes, or to make responsible decisions regarding their own medical care, or their alcohol use?

Dr Modecki has significant experience working with delinquent youth, has served on the Board of Directors for Outward Bound USA’s at-risk youth programs, and is trained in both developmental psychology and prevention and intervention research methodology. Her past research has informed US Supreme Court decisions regarding juvenile sentencing.

Dr Chris Lee

Personality disorders, trauma treatments

An expert in personality disorders and trauma treatments, Dr Chris Lee has interests in anger and recovery from trauma, depression, and complex personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder. He has published research on personality disorders and post-trauma stress disorders.

Dr Lee was Senior Clinical Psychologist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital for 11 years, and he is now the Director of the Clinical Psychology Program at Murdoch University and has a half-time private practice. As well as conducting Australian Psychological Society supervision workshops, he hosts therapist training workshops on personality disorders and trauma treatments throughout Australia and internationally.

Dr Lee has received an award for contribution to research from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in 2006 and EMDRIA award for research excellence in 1999, and the inaugural Francine Shapiro award for research excellence in 2009. He is a reviewer for 'Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry', ‘Cognitive Research and Therapy’, and ‘Journal of Clinical Psychology’.

Robyn Bett

Anxiety in young children, therapeutic groups

As a clinician that works with both children and parents, Robyn Bett’s research has focused on anxiety in young children, and the potential of therapeutic groups.

Robyn Bett is the Academic Chair of the Postgraduate Counselling Program and she is involved in developing and examining models of experiential learning and supervision for counseling trainees. Her specialist teaching areas are in therapeutic groups, working with children and families and developing case studies.

She has a background in drama therapy and storytelling and remains interested in the role of creativity in personal life.

John Gardiner

Child and adolescent mental health

John Gardiner’s areas of expertise include the psychological impact of traumatic injury and chronic illness on children and adolescents; and the management of severe emotional and behavioural disorders in schools.

He has joined Murdoch after 13 years as the Chief Clinical Psychologist at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children and more than 20 years of work in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Mr Gardiner continues to work as a consultant for the Department of Education on the identification and management of students with severe mental health conditions and in the area of disability discrimination.

Professor Craig McGarty

Social psychology

Dr Angela Ebert

Complex trauma; building resilience in individuals and communities

Angela Ebert is currently investigating the mechanisms for resilience building within Rwandan genocide survivors, with a view to applying them for the benefit of trauma victims in Australia.

She has run training for psychologists and allied health professionals in working with complex trauma since 1993, and is the founding director of the Association for Torture and Trauma Surviviors (ASeTTS) in Western Australia, a specialised agency for traumatized refugees and torture survivors.

Professor Peter Drummond

Chronic pain; clinical psychology; psychophysiology

Professor Peter Drummond specialises in research on chronic pain and headaches.

The aim of his research is to clarify the physiological and psychological mechanisms that underpin pain and headaches, so that more effective treatments can be developed.