SMP Research Projects

Research projects

We have a wide range of psychology, health and medicine projects led by our expert researchers. Projects range from short-term honours projects to graduate projects, from three-year PhD projects through to industry and government supported projects. 

If you’re a student interested in participating in a project, please contact the listed project supervisor for further discussion and ideas. 

This controlled trial investigates the efficacy of Groups 4 Health to improve the mental health of people of higher weight through psychotherapy and behaviour change, decreasing feelings of loneliness and weight stigma through social networks.

Theme

  • Diagnostics, Therapeutic and Clinical Care
  • Society, Culture and Health

People

  • Dr Fiona Tito Wheatland, Health Care Consumers Association ACT

Social identify and self concept are ways we see ourselves in relation to other people. These have important impacts on self-regard, the amount and type of social support available to us and our wellbeing and resilience under stress.

Theme

  • Society, Culture and Health

Student intake

Open for students

People

  • Dr Kasia Banas (University of Edinburgh), Co-investigator

Behavioural parenting interventions based on social learning theory have proven effectiveness in reducing child problem behaviour, particularly externalising behaviour(e.g., noncompliance, aggression).

This program of research is conducted in collaboration with the ACT Government to enable evidence-based policy decision-making.

Theme

  • Society, Culture and Health

Student intake

Open for Honours, Masters, MPhil, PhD students

People

This study aims to examine kinship carers’ affective attitudes regarding their children in care, including the context of these attitudes (eg, child’s past trauma), and their associations with child behavioural and emotional adjustment.

The Aligned Study is an investigator-initiated, randomized controlled trial of pharmacogenomic-guided therapy versus standard care for people with depression who require initiation or change in antidepressant therapy.

Theme

  • Diagnostics, Therapeutic and Clinical Care

People

  • Assoc Prof Kathy Wu
  • Prof Anthony Rodgers
  • Prof Sean Hood
  • Prof Anthony Harris
  • Prof Tim Usherwood
  • Dr Mike Millard
  • Dr Zhixin Liu
  • Assoc Prof Gian Luca Di Tanna
  • Prof Colleen Loo
  • Dr Jacquie Garton-Smith

Individuals with trait anxiety and social anxiety have an attentional bias toward threatening information in their environment.

Our unit runs a number of studies which examine many aspects of upper and lower limb arthroplasty.

Student intake

Open for Honours, Masters, Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, PhD students

People

The primary objective of this project is to investigate psychological, cognitive and physiological changes associated with a single session of psychedelic drug exposure with psilocybin or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in a group setting.

Theme

  • Brain, Vision, Mental Processes and Health
  • Diagnostics, Therapeutic and Clinical Care

People

  • Dr Ted Cassidy
  • Kisten Gainsford

Although adolescents provide a unique and important perspective on the parent-teen relationship that can inform developmental theory and family-based intervention, traditional measures of their views are based on ‘paper and pencil’ surveys.

Assessment of Alignment Strategies in Total Knee Replacement - PhD Applicants invited to apply

Student intake

Open for Honours, Masters, Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, PhD students

People

The project has been designed for the collection of outcome and safety data on the use of novel interventional pharmacotherapy approaches. The AIPPAP Research Registry is designed to capture real-world clinical data on the use of ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin.

Theme

  • Diagnostics, Therapeutic and Clinical Care

Student intake

Open for Honours, Masters, MPhil, PhD students

People

This project aims to develop and test a new model of psychological processes by which people come to understand information as true or not.

Theme

  • Society, Culture and Health

Student intake

Open for Honours, Masters, MPhil, PhD students

People

This project aims to significantly deepen understanding of the phenomenon of radicalisation toward violent extremism by moving beyond static descriptions of what antecedents are present in violent extremists to dynamic causal explanations of why people radicalise.

Theme

  • Society, Culture and Health

Student intake

Open for Honours, Masters, MPhil, PhD students

People

  • Dr. Emily Corner
  • Dr. Helen Taylor (ANU)
  • Professor Jane Goodman-Delahunty (University of Newcastle)

This study explores the rural health workforce. In particular what leads to the uptake of rural health care by medical doctors including general practitioners, and whatsupports continued medical practice in rural areas.

Theme

  • Diagnostics, Therapeutic and Clinical Care
  • Society, Culture and Health

People