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DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20260904T150000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20260904T160000
DTSTAMP:20260729T235840Z
CREATED:20260729T025659Z
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SUMMARY:Psychology Colloquium: Prof Ron Rapee (Macquarie University)
DESCRIPTION:Prof Ron Rapee (Macquarie University) \n\n\n\nTitle: Identifying risk for the development of internalising distress across adolescence \n\n\n\nAbstract: \n\n\n\nEarly to middle adolescence is a time of major social and emotional change. Peer relationships begin to take on increasing salience; pubertal changes result in increasingly overt alterations in appearance; self-concept becomes more fluid and negative; and emotional reactions become more volatile. This is also a time when several major mental disorders have their peak onset. A large number of potentially modifiable risk factors for the onset of these disorders have been identified but amalgamating these risks into a single score to quantify an individual’s level of risk and help identify key targets for prevention\, has not been done to date.  \n\n\n\nThis talk will describe some outcomes from a longitudinal study of risks for internalising distress across the adolescent years. Participants comprised 528 young people who were assessed annually as part of the RAW (Risks for Adolescent Wellbeing) study. Initial assessment occurred when the participants were in school grade 6 (M age 11 years) and was repeated in each subsequent grade until grade 12. Primary outcomes included measures of anxiety\, depression\, and eating disorder. Potential risk factors included measures reflecting peer relationships; appearance comparisons; negative emotionality; and sleep. In this talk I will describe analyses looking at several of these predictors of distress. Finally\, I will describe our current efforts to develop a quantitative model that combines risk scores from the beginning of high school to predict trajectories of mental health across adolescence. \n\n\n\nBio: \n\n\n\nRon Rapee is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University and former Director of the Centre for Emotional Health. Professor Rapee specializes in mental health\, especially in anxiety and related disorders across the lifespan. He has developed a number of empirically supported treatment programs that are used across the world. Professor Rapee has been honoured by awards from both scientific and consumer groups\, including the Distinguished Career Award from the Australian Association for CBT and the Distinguished Contribution to Science Award from the Australian Psychological Society; and he was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012 for his contributions to clinical psychology\, especially among young people.
URL:https://psychology-events.sydney.edu.au/event/psychology-colloquium-prof-ron-rapee-macquarie-university/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20260911T150000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20260911T160000
DTSTAMP:20260812T034054Z
CREATED:20260729T030040Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260812T034054Z
UID:392-1789138800-1789142400@psychology-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Psychology Colloquium: ECR Fire Talks (University of Sydney Psychology)
DESCRIPTION:ECR Fire Talks (University of Sydney Psychology) \n\n\n\nSamuel Warren \n\n\n\nStaging frontotemporal dementia using multimodal features and event-based modelling \n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) comprises several clinical phenotypes with overlapping features that can impact diagnostic timelines and confidence. Here\, we applied event-based models (EBM) to characterise the relative ordering of shared clinical and neurodegenerative features in behavioural-variant FTD (bvFTD) and semantic dementia (SD). \n\n\n\nMETHODS: Cross-sectional EBMs were applied to bvFTD (n=86) and SD (n=32) groups relative to controls (n=57) using retrospective data from FRONTIER (N=175). Measures included general cognition\, grey matter regions-of-interest\, and behavioural abnormalities common in FTD. \n\n\n\nRESULTS: Behavioural and cognitive features were ordered first in bvFTD\, followed by abnormalities in frontostriatal\, insular\, and then medial temporal regions. In contrast\, SD was characterised by probabilistic orderings of medial-temporal lobe\, cognitive\, insular\, behavioural\, and frontostriatal abnormalities\, respectively. \n\n\n\nDISCUSSION: EBMs applied to cross-sectional data enables identification of syndrome-specific patterns in the relative ordering of clinical and neuroanatomical abnormalities in FTD syndromes. This framework could assist with syndromic differentiation and clinical decision-making. \n\n\n\nBio: \n\n\n\nSam is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on applying novel machine learning\, deep learning\, and statistical models to the characterisation and detection of dementia—with a specific focus on younger-onset dementia. He works on a vast array of data modalities\, such as neuroimaging\, clinical tests\, omics\, and digital health data. This work spans big-data research across large clinical populations\, as well as fine-grained characterisations of rare disorders.  \n\n\n\nYue Li \n\n\n\nNot Always Nice: Cultural Differences in Strategies and Motives for Making Others Feel Worse \n\n\n\nPeople at times try to make others feel bad (i.e.\, affect worsening). Yet this form of interpersonal emotion regulation is understudied and drawn mainly from Western samples. Little is known about how it might differ across cultures\, or between the perspectives of the regulator (who worsens others’ emotions) and the target (whose emotions are worsened). We examined cultural differences in affect worsening motives and strategies among Anglo-Celtic\, East Asian\, and South Asian participants in two studies framed from the regulator (Study 1\, N = 607) or target (Study 2\, N = 606) perspective. Two key findings emerged. First\, after controlling for age\, cultural differences in strategies emerged only from the regulator (but not target) perspective\, with East Asians reporting greater use of show-off and cautioning strategies than the other groups. Second\, cultural differences in motives varied by perspective: East Asians reported stronger self-focused motives (to win\, to help me) as regulators\, and South Asians perceived stronger counter-hedonic motives as targets. These findings suggest that culture shapes affect worsening differently for regulators and targets\, with implications for cross-cultural communication. \n\n\n\nBio: \n\n\n\nYue Li is a post-doc at the School of Psychology working with Prof Carolyn MacCann. She obtained her PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas in August 2025. Her research focuses on culture\, emotion\, and interpersonal relationships. Her current work examines cultural differences in motives\, strategies\, and consequences of making others feel worse. During her PhD\, she investigated how cultural context shapes the perception of emotional facial expressions and the regulation of one’s own and romantic partner’s emotions\, and their implications for health and well-being. \n\n\n\nKyra Webb \n\n\n\nUnderstanding carer experiences of fear and worry about their loved one’s cancer coming back \n\n\n\nPartners\, family members and friends play a vital role supporting people living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis. Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR)\, defined as the fear or worry that cancer may come back or progress is a key concern for cancer carers. Almost half of carers report levels that would be considered clinically significant among cancer survivors. At high levels\, FCR is associated with poorer psychological outcomes such as increased levels of depression and anxiety. Despite identified need\, few interventions addressing carer FCR are available. This talk will describe how foundational work to understand carer-specific FCR experiences has been applied to develop a theoretically informed online intervention tailored to the needs of cancer carers. \n\n\n\nBio: \n\n\n\nDr Kyra Webb is a Research Fellow with the Psycho-Oncology Co-operative Research Group (PoCoG)\, based in the School of Psychology at The University of Sydney. Her research focuses on understanding and improving psychosocial support for people living with and beyond cancer\, as well as the partners\, family members\, and friends who provide care. \n\n\n\nKyra completed her PhD at the University of Sydney in 2024\, where she examined carers’ experiences of fear and worry about a loved one’s cancer recurring or progressing. This work resulted in the development of a conceptual model that captures the unique features of carer fear of cancer recurrence\, alongside the development and psychometric validation of a new measurement tool. Her postdoctoral research builds on this work and focuses on the adaptation and pilot testing of a psychosocial intervention to address carer fear of cancer recurrence. \n\n\n\nKyra is passionate about developing evidence-based\, accessible psychosocial support that is informed by\, and meets the needs of people living with cancer and their family carers. \n\n\n\nIana Wong \n\n\n\nInterpersonal Emotion Regulation in Couples: A Window into Coercive Control \n\n\n\nCoercive control is a subtle form of intimate partner violence\, making it difficult to identify before serious harm occurs. My research examines the psychosocial mechanisms underlying intimate partner violence\, with a current focus on interpersonal emotion regulation. Specifically\, I examine how partners’ deliberate worsening of each other’s emotional states predicts coercive control. A next step in this research is to examine whether it is not worsening alone\, but the combination of improving and worsening a partner’s emotions\, that may serve as an early warning sign of coercive control dynamics. Together\, this program of research aims to better understand the mechanisms underlying intimate partner violence. Together with A/Prof Helen Paterson\, I co organize a university-wide research network for domestic\, sexual\, and family violence researchers\, and invite colleagues working in this space to connect. \n\n\n\nBio: \n\n\n\nDr Iana Wong is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney\, where she works with Prof Carolyn MacCann in the Regulation of Emotion and Affect Lab. She completed her PhD at UNSW in 2025\, where she examined the psychosocial mechanisms linking insecure attachment to intimate partner violence. \n\n\n\nRenèll Rodrigues \n\n\n\nVirtual Reality as an Alternative for Attentional Bias Research and Assessment in Addiction \n\n\n\nAttentional bias is a well-established factor in addiction research. However\, traditional assessment tools face significant limitations. The widely used dot-probe task requires a large number of trials and participants to achieve statistical significance\, while self-report questionnaires (such as the AUDIT) are prone to social desirability bias. \n\n\n\nAlternative methods\, such as 4×4 image arrays measuring participant eye movements (specifically dwell time)\, yield improved results; however\, further analysis reveals an interaction between stimulus characteristics and spatial area\, as many participants demonstrate spatial preferences independent of the stimulus shown.  \n\n\n\nTo address these challenges\, a novel approach using VR technology presents stimuli on two moving conveyor belts\, allowing participants to view them freely without explicit instructions. Initial findings are promising: total viewing time correlates significantly with AUDIT scores\, suggesting that this VR-based free-viewing paradigm could serve as an effective tool for individual clinical assessment. \n\n\n\nBio:Dr. Renèll Rodrigues earned her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2025. Her doctoral research investigated psychophysical methods and virtual reality (VR) technologies to develop novel paradigms for measuring attentional bias\, with a focus on refining individual-level assessments for behavioural health challenges like alcohol addiction. Expanding on another area of interest\, her current research explores the social and educational environments impacting neurodivergent children and adults. 
URL:https://psychology-events.sydney.edu.au/event/psychology-colloquium-ecr-fire-talks-university-of-sydney-psychology/
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DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20260918T150000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20260918T160000
DTSTAMP:20260909T042146Z
CREATED:20260729T030423Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260909T042146Z
UID:396-1789743600-1789747200@psychology-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Psychology Colloquium: Cultural Diversity in Research Community of Practice (University of Sydney Psychology)
DESCRIPTION:Join us for the launch of the School of Psychology Cultural Diversity in Research Community of Practice \n\n\n\nTo mark the launch of the Cultural Diversity in Research Community of Practice\, join us to hear presentations and reflections from four members of our school\, who will share how they have integrated cultural diversity into their research programs. A panel discussion will follow\, where presenters will give practical advice on increasing cultural diversity in your research\, and Community of Practice co-leads Trinh Ha and Rebekah Laidsaar-Powell will discuss the aims of the Community of Practice and how staff and students can become involved. \n\n\n\nPresentations: \n\n\n\n•             Dr Sandra Garrido: Innovation in the Assessment of Childhood Adversity: A Community-Informed Approach for Culturally Diverse Australian Families \n\n\n\n•             A/Prof Celine van Golde: How can you not see that? Why culture matters when conducting research on Gender Based Violence. \n\n\n\n•             Prof Haryana Dhillon: Making psycho-oncology less WEIRD: cultural adaptation of constructs\, measures\, and interventions \n\n\n\n•             Dr Yue Li: Who’s in the sample? Recruitment and cultural diversity in emotion regulation research \n\n\n\nDr. Sandra Garrido is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney and adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the MARCS Institute for Brain\, Behaviour & Development at Western Sydney University. She has been the recipient of an NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Fellowship in 2016 and the Western Sydney University Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2017. Her interests span youth mental health\, dementia\, depression\, social prescribing\, music cognition\, and culturally responsive assessment. She has authored over 90 academic publications and served as STEM Ambassador to the Australian Parliament\, (2023-2025) facilitating evidence-informed policy discussions on youth mental health and digital wellbeing.  \n\n\n\nDr Celine van Golde is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. Her expertise is the study of memory recollections for various parties in the criminal justice system. She explores the effects of (repeated) stressful events on the memory of different stakeholders (e.g.\, victim-survivors\, suspects\, police)\, looking for ways to obtain the most accurate accounts of these events\, while ensuring psychological wellbeing. She does this both for children as well as adults. She further investigates which factors play a role in fact finders\, like jurors and judges’ decision making. She gives regular guest lectures within the NSW Police Force Child Abuse Squad\, the Domestic Violence Investigators\, and the Detective Training Program\, as well as advising judges and lawyers on issues related to eyewitness memory. Recently\, her focus is on gender-based violence where her research facilitates the investigation and prosecution of these offences. She focuses both on physical forms of violence\, as well as non-physical forms\, such as coercive control and emotional abuse. \n\n\n\nProf Haryana Dhillon is a Professor in Psycho-Oncology and Chair and Executive Director of the Psycho-Oncology Cooperative Research Group at the University of Sydney. Haryana is also Chair of the University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee and incoming President of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia. Haryana is a behavioural scientist with experience in cancer clinical research\, in particular post-cancer diagnosis supportive care and psycho-oncology. With more than three decades of experience in cancer clinical research\, Haryana is known for asking rigorous\, practical questions and turning the answers into real-world change. \n\n\n\nDr Yue Li is a post-doctoral researcher at the School of Psychology working with Prof Carolyn MacCann. She obtained her PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas in August 2025. Her research focuses on culture\, emotion\, and interpersonal relationships. Her current work examines cultural differences in motives\, strategies\, and consequences of making others feel worse. During her PhD\, she investigated how cultural context shapes the perception of emotional facial expressions and the regulation of one’s own and romantic partner’s emotions\, and their implications for health and well-being.
URL:https://psychology-events.sydney.edu.au/event/psychology-colloquium-cultural-diversity-in-research-community-university-of-sydney-psychology/
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DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20260925T150000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20260925T160000
DTSTAMP:20260826T230949Z
CREATED:20260729T030558Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260826T230949Z
UID:398-1790348400-1790352000@psychology-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Psychology Colloquium: Postgraduate Prizes with talks by winners (University of Sydney Psychology)
DESCRIPTION:Postgraduate Prizes with talks by winners (University of Sydney Psychology) \n\n\n\nH. Tasman Lovell Memorial Medallion winner: Dr Matthew Blanchard (in absentia) \n\n\n\nFaculty of Science Prize for Outstanding PhD Thesis nominee: Dr Tao Chen \n\n\n\nTitle: Behavioural Rigidity in Dementia: From Clinical Significance to Neurobiological Mechanisms \n\n\n\nAbstract: \n\n\n\nWith the rapid ageing of the global population\, dementia poses an increasing challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in dementia and are associated with faster disease progression\, poorer quality of life and greater caregiver burden. Neuropsychiatric symptoms frequently co-occur\, determining which symptoms should be prioritised for intervention remains a major clinical challenge. In particular\, behavioural rigidity is increasingly recognised as a clinically important symptom\, yet the rationale for prioritising it as an intervention target\, together with its underlying neural and neurochemical mechanisms\, remains incompletely understood. \n\n\n\n    In this talk\, I will present a series of studies using transdiagnostic dementia cohorts to address these challenges. First\, I will introduce a data-driven framework for prioritising co-occurring neuropsychiatric symptoms by quantifying their relative contributions to caregiver burden\, thereby identifying behavioural rigidity as a priority intervention target. I will then present multimodal neuroimaging findings that provide new insights into the neural mechanisms underlying behavioural rigidity\, followed by spatial neurochemical mapping using normative neurotransmitter maps to indirectly investigate its underlying neurochemical basis. Finally\, I will discuss how integrating clinical\, neuroimaging and neurochemical evidence can inform mechanism-informed strategies for developing targeted interventions for neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia. \n\n\n\nBio: \n\n\n\nDr Tao Chen is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Brain and Mind Centre\, The University of Sydney. His research focuses on understanding the neural and neurochemical mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia\, particularly behavioural rigidity and cognitive flexibility. By integrating multimodal neuroimaging with computational approaches in transdiagnostic dementia cohorts\, he aims to translate neurobiological insights into clinically meaningful intervention strategies for dementia. \n\n\n\n    Dr Chen received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Sydney\, where his doctoral thesis passed examination without corrections\, was nominated for the Australian Psychological Society (APS) Excellent PhD Thesis Award and received the Faculty of Science Prize for Outstanding PhD Thesis. He has authored more than 10 first-author peer-reviewed publications\, with his work appearing in leading international journals\, including Brain\, Human Brain Mapping\, and Clinical Psychological Science. He also serves as a reviewer for Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews and is a recipient of the 2026 Psychology Early Career “Pathway” Grant from the School of Psychology\, The University of Sydney. \n\n\n\nAPS Award for Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology nominee: Dr Amaani Hatoum \n\n\n\nTitle: Measuring and modelling maladaptive core beliefs in eating disorders \n\n\n\nAbstract: \n\n\n\nMaladaptive core beliefs have been implicated in both the development and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs)\, and have been associated with increased eating psychopathology\, particularly binge eating\, purging and restriction\, in clinical and community samples. Given this\, it is fundamental that these beliefs are identified as treatment targets and monitored closely in both research and practice. Some theoretical models have outlined the role of a general dimension of negative core beliefs (i.e.\, core low-self-esteem or global negative self-beliefs)\, using a transdiagnostic approach or as relevant to specific ED presentations. However\, these models have not as yet attempted to differentiate or outline which specific themes or dimensions of core beliefs may predispose individuals to\, or maintain\, particular ED presentations. Further\, empirical literature remains unclear regarding which specific core beliefs dimensions are most critical to those with disordered eating\, and if differences exist in the presentation of these beliefs across diagnostic status or according to diverse symptomatology. This thesis aimed to address those questions. The systematic review conducted identified that very few assessment tools had been specifically developed to assess core beliefs in eating disorders. The first empirical study evaluated the psychometric properties the only existing multi-dimensional measure; the Eating Disorder Core Beliefs Questionnaire. An initial CFA did not support the original five-factor 40-item ED-CBQ. A revised version was developed that possessed equal or superior psychometric properties to the original 40-item measure. The ED-CBQ-R demonstrated superior model fit\, similar levels of reliability and construct validity\, and the ability to discriminate between putative ED diagnostic groups. The second empirical study validated and found support for the revised measure in a second non-clinical population. The third empirical study examined the psychometric properties and diagnostic differences on the ED-CBQ-R\, finding no differences between diagnostic groups\, except that the anorexia (restrictive subtype) group displayed higher self-loathing than those with binge eating disorder. Self-loathing beliefs displayed the strongest\, most consistent relationship with various ED symptoms. The fourth empirical study extended the current understanding of the role of core beliefs in the development and maintenance of disordered eating\, by presenting a core beliefs model of disordered eating\, and preliminary findings regarding differences in the processes and pathways from four key core belief dimensions to ED behaviours. The fifth empirical study partially validated the newly developed model in an international sample of English-speaking adults with an eating disorder diagnosis. \n\n\n\nBio: \n\n\n\nAmaani Hatoum is a postdoctoral research associate at the InsideOut Institute and clinical psychologist. She completed her PhD at the University of Sydney\, supervised by Dr Amy Burton\, Prof Maree Abbott\, and Prof Stephen Touyz. Amaani’s research aims to improve assessment in eating disorders\, as well as improving the effectiveness and accessibility of evidence-based mental health interventions. Her specific research interests including i) examining mechanisms of therapeutic change\, ii) and use of digital technologies to support personalised and accessible treatment approaches. \n\n\n\nA.H. Martin Scholarship winner: Olivia Avery \n\n\n\nTitle: Life in the MCP \n\n\n\nBio: \n\n\n\nOlivia Avery is a final-year Master of Clinical Psychology student at the University of Sydney\, currently completing her clinical placement at the Cancer Centre for Children at Westmead Children’s Hospital. Originally from New Zealand\, she holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the University of Canterbury and a Master of Science in Psychology from the University of Auckland. Her clinical training has fostered a particular appreciation for the complexity and depth of the psychology profession\, and she enjoys the opportunity to combine evidence-based practice with genuine curiosity about people and their experiences. She is especially passionate about developing her clinical skills and contributing meaningfully to the wellbeing of children and families navigating complex health experiences.
URL:https://psychology-events.sydney.edu.au/event/psychology-colloquium-postgraduate-prizes-with-talks-by-winners-university-of-sydney-psychology/
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