PhD alumni

Meet our PhD alumni and explore their research topics.

To find out more about our PhD Alumni and how to contact them, please visit their individual profile pages via the links below.

PhD candidate Amanda Wallis — Amanda Wallis

The role of place attachment in increasing individual preparedness for natural hazard events.

PhD Candidate Amy Walsh — Amy Walsh

Motivation reduces positive and negative emotional distractions.

PhD candidate Anna Kurek — Anna Kurek

Understanding Online Disinhibition: An Investigation of the Relationship Between Information and Communication Technology and Adolescent Personality, Identity,

PhD candidate Claudie Peloquin — Claudie Peloquin

Representing Minds Representing Minds: An Examination of the Association between Recursive Mental State Attributions and Executive Processes.

PhD Candidate Becky Bloore looking over her shoulder in front of a blue backdrop — Becky Bloore

How Hedonic and Contra-Hedonic Motivations to Experience Positive and Negative Emotions Predict Dysfunctional Emotion Regulation and Depressive Symptoms.

PhD candidate Buaphrao Raphiphatthana — Buaphrao Raphiphatthana

Investigation into the relationship between mindfulness and grit, and the role of meditation experience in the relationship, across cultures.

Teddy bear sitting on a tree branch — Charlotte Gutenbrunner

Overgeneral autobiographical memory and psychopathology in adolescence.

Cellphone camera viewing network of faces — Ceara Nicolls

Transference of Self Concept in First Impressions of Similar Others.

image of flying planes leaving emissions across the sky — Chelsea Rose

The measurement and prediction of conspiracy beliefs.

PhD candidate Chris Deak photographed in front of an attractive book case of academic literature. — Chris K. Deak

Cooperative gender beliefs and cost-benefit trade-offs of gender inequality.

PhD candidate Christopher Maymon — Christopher Maymon

Exploration of Relations between Belief-Tracking and Motor Processing using a new Ecologically-Valid Helping Task for Adults.

PhD candidate Cong Fan — Cong Fan

Processing Mechanisms Of Eye-Head Cues And Eye-Finger-Pointing Cues In The Dot-Perspective Task.

on location photo of PhD candidate Daniel Wegerhoff — Daniel Wegerhoff

Understanding gangs: Developing an epistemically pluralist framework for gang research

Image of PhD candidate Gates Hendersen looking into the camera — Elle Henderson

Autism and Social Interaction: A Discursive Psychological Study.

PhD candidate Cong Fan — Emma Ashcroft

Visual deficits in dyslexia: theoretical models and interventions.

PhD candidate Emma Tennent — Emma Tennent

Identity and help in calls to Victim Support.

image of PhD candidate Fiona Dempsey looking into the camera — Fiona Dempsey

Control and Intimate Partner Aggression.

image of PhD candidate Geraldine Smieszhala in a green top standing infront of foliage on campus — Geraldine Smieszhala

Negative Reinforcement in the Description-Experience Gap

puzzle pieces connecting together — Giovanni Zani

Action Prediction: a Multimodal Techniques Investigation of the Functional Relationship Between Belief-Tracking and Motor Processes

PhD candidate Gloria Fraser — Gloria Fraser

Rainbow experiences of accessing mental health support in Aotearoa New Zealand: A community-based mixed methods study.

PhD Candidate Hannah Hawkins Elder standing in front of an academic poster in Easterfield Building — Hannah Hawkins Elder

The Explanation of Disordered Eating: A Metatheoretical Approach.

PhD candidate Hazel Godfrey — Hazel Godfrey

A role for attentional bias in cognitive deficits in chronic pain?

PhD Candidate In Kuk Kim standing for a photo in front of a window with Wellington City in background — In Kuk Kim

Strategic Communication for Pro-Environmentalism: Is Political Polarisation Reduced by Environmental Messages that Emphasise Conservative Worldviews?

Johannes Karl

Dispositional Mindfulness in Context: Cultural and Individual Perspectives.

PhD Candidate John Kerr on location shot on Victoria University grounds — John Kerr

Why do we argue about science? Exploring the psychological antecedents of rejection of science.

inverse image of text on a stamp — Katherine Fowler

Language and Cognitive Functions in a Neurological Tumour Population: A Long-Term Follow-up Study.

PhD candidate Katheryn Edwards — Katheryn Edwards

Minimal mindreaders let spinning dogs lie: New evidence for the dual-process account of human mindreading.

PhD Candidate Kealagh Robinson looking into the camera with stairwell from VUW on location is in the background — Kealagh Robinson

Emotion in non-suicidal self-injury: A contradiction between global self-reports and real-time responses.

PhD candidate Kris Nielsen — Kristopher Nielsen

What is Mental Disorder? Developing an Embodied, Embedded, and Enactive Psychopathology.

Image of alumni Laina Isler looking into the Camera — Laina Isler

A typological investigation of personality: Trait expression as a coordinated system of self-regulatory functioning.

A close landscape shot of PhD Candidate Laura Anderson outside Victoria University grounds on a lovely sunny day. — Laura Anderson

(Over)Estimating Shared Cultural Knowledge: Evidence for early use of a knowledge prediction heuristic in children.

School teacher with child investigating puzzles — Lauren Bryce

Understanding mechanisms that may underlie the development and maintenance of anxiety in children and adolescents: Cognitive biases and parenting behaviours.

Brick wall with fractures from earthquake — Lauren Vinnell

Why do people prepare for natural hazards? An application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to household preparation.

Locational photo of Linda Wilkin-Krug on the Kelburn Campus — Linda Wilkin-Krug

An Immune Rat Model of Autism: Does Environmental Enrichment Alter Higher Social Functioning?

Slot machines — Lorance Taylor

The Role of Free Spins in Slot-machine Gambling.

hands up in a classroom — Lynley McLay

Hands-on learning: The influence of hand gestures on children’s recall of scientific information.

Many hands clasping eachother — Madeleine Brocklesby

A longitudinal investigation of non-suicidal self-injury and perfectionism in a sample of New Zealand adolescents.

PhD candidate Marco Zdrenka — Marco Zdrenka

Am I Luckier Than You? Individual Differences in Precognition Performance.

photo album being viewed by three women of different ages — Mary Dewhirst

Parent-Adolescent Reminiscing and Youth Psychopathology: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Investigation.

PhD Candidate Michaela Pettie — Michaela Pettie

When Genetic and Environmental Factors Meet in Modelling Autism.

PhD Candidate Molly Fisher posing for a photo in front of a red art installation — Molly Fisher

Deconstructing dependence and gender concerns in men's hostile sexism

hand holding a glowing orb — Pieter Six

Observing Action in Uncertainty: The Role of Belief-tracking in Action Observation

cocaine powder and rolled money alongside a razor blade for snorting lines — Quenten Highgate

The Effects of Repeated Dopamine D2 Receptor Antagonism on D2 Receptor Expression and Behavioural Inflexibility

dice — Rana Asgarova

Gain-loss asymmetry in human experiential tasks.

bright yellow now/later sign post — Rebecca Olsen

The effect of episodic future thinking on delay discounting.

PhD candidate Reneeta Mogan Naidu — Reneeta Mogan Naidu

Aligning bodies and minds: New insights about synchrony's effects on creative thinking, cohesion and positive affect.

line up of female suspects — Robbie Taylor

The Number of Unanimous Witnesses who Identify a Suspect from a Lineup Influences Mock Jurors.

hands reaching towards pills — Ross van de Wetering

Identification of novel neurochemical systems involved in the development of drug addiction using liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry.

good and evil written across the knuckles of hands — Roxy Heffernan

Beyond dynamic risk factors: Towards a comprehensive explanation of offending.

set of empty children's swings — Ruth Glynn

The effect of selective discussion on young people's autobiographical memories.

PhD candidate Samantha Stanley photographed, head and shoulders, in front of a backdrop of greenery — Samantha Stanley

Clarifying the nature of the association between social dominance orientation and environmentalism.

PhD candidate Sam Clack standing in front of a statue. — Samuel Clack

From syndromes to symptoms: Advancing our understanding of mental disorders.

PhD candidate Schyana Sivanantham — Schyana Maya Sivanantham

Movement as a window to the mind: grasping adults’ perception and understanding of others’ goal-directed movements.

police cuffing hands of criminal — Simon Davies

An Investigation of How Change in Dynamic Risk and Protective Factors Affects the Prediction of Imminent Criminal Recidivism.

graffiti artist finishing mural on pavement — Sophie Hedley

Exploring the role of schizotypy in creative cognition.

case files on a desk — Tadhg Daly

Why are Psychopaths Difficult to Treat? Testing the Two-Component Model for the Treatment of PCL Psychopaths.

A Māori — Tahlia Kingi

Ko ngā pūtake o te mātānawe ki tā te rangatahi: An exploration of self-injury in rangatahi Māori.

PhD candidate Tamara Qumseya — Tamara Qumseya

Toward a better understanding of the cultural identity negotiation: The experiences of minority youth in multicultural societies.

PhD Candidate Tessa Burgess posing for a photo in front of a large tree — Tessa Burgess

Untangling Social Reminiscing and Emotional Support

hands clenching puzzle pieces — Timothy Ganly

An Exploration of the Relationship Between Overgeneral Memory and Avoidance.

Alumni prior to 2017

Alumni prior to 2017 can be viewed at these links.

Related links

Please find links to easily search theses by all PhD Alumni.