President’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to Psychology in Australia

The APS confers a range of awards and prizes each year to honour outstanding achievements in psychology. The recipients of the 2017 APS awards are profiled below.

Emeritus Professor Don Thomson FAPS 

Don has a long career underpinned by two key principles: (1) that research should inform practice, and practice should inform theory and (2) the importance of psychologists and lawyers having a greater understanding of each other’s concepts and assumptions so that the needs and wellbeing of society are better met. 

In 1992 Don established the first postgraduate program in forensic psychology in Australia at Monash University. It provided graduate psychologists with an understanding of legal-system issues so that psychologists could play a significant role not only in the provision of psychological services within the legal system but also in reforming the legal system. He introduced similar programs at Edith Cowan University in 1995 and Charles Sturt University in 1998. In 2016 Deakin University bestowed on him the title of Emeritus Professor of Psychology.

In 1981 Don was appointed as a consultant to the Australian Law Reform Committee to provide a psychological perspective in the revision of the Law of Evidence (1981-1986) and the Law of Contempt (1983-1986). In 1990 he was appointed Chair of the Victorian Psychological Council under the 1968 Victorian Psychological Practices Act and in 1990 President of the Council’s successor, the Victorian Psychologists Registration Board under the 1987 Victorian Psychologists Registration Act (1990-94) and Member of the Victorian Psychosurgery Review Board (1988-93).

Don has been a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society since 1986. In 2003 he was awarded the inaugural NSW Forensic Psychology Award for contribution to the academic profile of forensic psychology in NSW and in 2006 received the APS College of Forensic Psychologists inaugural award of distinction.

Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Science Award

Professor Herb Marsh MAPS

Herb Marsh is Professor of Psychology at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University, and Emeritus Professor at Oxford University. He is an ISI highly cited researcher (http://isihighlycited.com) with 700+ publications, 94,000+ citations and an H-index = 150 in Google Scholar. He co-edits the International Advances in Self Research monograph series, and has been recognised as the most productive educational psychologist in the world and the 11th most productive researcher across all disciplines of psychology. In an international study funded by the European Commission of publication citations based on the H-Index across all science, social science and humanity disciplines, he was the highest ranked Australian researcher at an Australian University, and 216th in the world (www.webometrics.info/en/node/58). He founded and has served as Director for 20 years of the SELF Research Centre that has 500+ members and satellite centres at leading Universities around the world, and in 2015 was elected as President-Elect of the International Positive Psychology Association. Herb was awarded a Career Achievement award by the American Educational Research Association. In addition, he coined the phrase ‘substantive-methodological research synergy’ which underpins his research efforts. In addition to his methodological focus on structural equation models, factor analysis, and multilevel modelling, his major substantive interests include self-concept and motivational constructs; evaluations of teaching/educational effectiveness; developmental psychology; sports psychology; the peer-review process; gender differences; peer support and anti-bullying interventions.

Outstanding Academic Mentor Award

Professor Amanda Baker MAPS

Amanda is a clinical psychologist and Senior Research Fellow in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle. Her research has been supported by National Health and Medical Research Council fellowships continuously since 2003. Amanda’s dedication, competence and ingenuity have helped to reshape the treatment of coexisting mental health and substance use problems in Australia. She has led an internationally renowned research program trialling novel interventions for ‘dual diagnosis’ and pioneered the development and evaluation of scalable healthy lifestyle interventions targeting the prevention of chronic physical disorders among people with comorbid mental and substance use disorders. Amanda mentors academic researchers across a number of Australian universities as well as postdoctoral clinicians and researchers based in the UK, USA and the Netherlands.

Professor Tony Jorm MAPS

Tony has held positions at Deakin University, the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne, where he has supervised 30 doctoral students to completion and supported many postdoctoral and other early-career researchers. From his early work on the psychology of reading, to researching dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly, through to his more recent pioneering work on mental health literacy and mental health first aid, he has facilitated the development of early-career researchers through joint publications, assistance with grant applications, facilitating networking and collaboration with other researchers, encouragement of mutual support, and nominations for positions and awards. He maintains an open-door policy with early-career researchers and strives to make their work his highest priority.

Early Career Research Award

Dr Ryan Balzan MAPS

Ryan is a Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Research Fellow at Flinders University and a registered psychologist. His research and clinical work focus on the cognitive processes underlying psychosis. He heads a cognitive neuropsychiatry lab investigating the role that cognitive biases play in the development and maintenance of delusions and subclinical delusion-proneness. Ryan has also contributed to the development of novel psychological treatments for psychosis, such as metacognitive training (MCT), and his clinical trials of these treatments provide the evidence needed to support research translation into widespread clinical practice. Ryan has more than 35 research publications in high-impact journals and has been chief investigator on three grants investigating psychological interventions for psychosis. He has received several awards and scholarships including the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Early Career Researchers, the Beck Institute’s Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Scholarship, and an Australia-Germany Research Cooperation Scholarship to travel to Germany to adapt the MCT program for eating disorders.

Dr Tegan Cruwys MAPS

Tegan graduated with a PhD from the Australian National University, and is now Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland and a practising clinical psychologist. She has 44 peer-reviewed publications and received over 1000 citations, with an H-index of 16, and has attracted almost $1 million in competitive research funding, including a Discovery Early Career Research Award from the Australian Research Council.

Tegan’s core research contribution has been in advancing our theoretical and empirical understanding of how and why social relationships are protective of health. She has partnered with social and community organisations to conduct research with groups such as people experiencing homelessness, people experiencing long-term poverty, older adults with cognitive decline, people at risk of eating disorders, those in residential drug and alcohol treatment, and people discharged from psychiatric hospital. She has a commitment to maintaining a strong grounding in psychological theory while investigating topics with implications for social justice and public health.

Dr Deborah Mitchison MAPS

Deb’s research areas include disorders of eating and body image. Some of her most-cited work pertains to the documentation of the rise in eating disorders in the Australian population, especially in under-studied groups such as males, obese, and older people. She is leading The EveryBODY study at Macquarie University examining the epidemiology and risk factors of eating and body image disorders in a sample of over 5000 adolescents. She has made a significant impact in the field of eating disorders with 34 highly cited publications, invited presentations and $400K in fellowship and project grant funding. Internationally, Deb serves on the Scientific Review Committee of the Academy for Eating Disorders and has been awarded membership to the prestigious Eating Disorder Research Society. Deb was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the Australian and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders.

Award for Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology

Dr Caitlin Cowan MAPS

University of New South Wales

Thesis title – Microorganisms to the rescue: The use of a probiotic treatment to reduce developmental vulnerability in rats

Caitlin used a rodent model to investigate the role of the gut-brain axis in modulating early-life stress demonstrating that a probiotic formulation can ameliorate behavioural, neural and physical outcomes for stressed infant rats. Remarkably, the treatment was effective across generations, preventing the transmission of stress phenotypes to the offspring of stressed males. Caitlin has presented this work at many local and international conferences and has eight publications to date. Her outstanding research and communication skills have been recognised by numerous awards, including conference travel awards, presentation prizes and the University Medal in Psychology.

Dr Sophie Schneider MAPS

Macquarie University

Thesis title – Body dysmorphic disorder in adolescents: Presentation, correlates, and sex differences

Sophie examined body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) in adolescents. The thesis established the prevalence and correlates of BDD, examined the impact of sex differences and subthreshold disorder presentations, and explored the measurement and classification of BDD symptoms. Resulting publications include five journal articles, one book chapter, and four conference presentations. Sophie received the 2016 Macquarie University Faculty of Human Sciences Higher Degree Research Excellence Award, 2015 International OCD Foundation Research Poster Travel Award, and the Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation for the thesis.

Dr Gemma Sharp MAPS

Flinders University

Thesis title - Predictors and outcomes of labiaplasty

Labiaplasty is the most common form of female genital cosmetic surgery. Gemma showed that sociocultural factors, particularly genital images in the media, influenced women’s consideration of labiaplasty. Furthermore, although women were satisfied with their labial appearance post-surgery, there were no changes to their psychological/sexual wellbeing. She has received several awards including the APS Elaine Dignan Award, the The MHS Early Career Research Award, and the ABC Radio National Top 5 Under 40 Scientist Award. She will continue this research in 2018 through a NHMRC Early Career Fellowship at Monash University.

APS Prize

The APS Prize is awarded to each student who gains first place at the end of an accredited fourth-year program in psychology through an Australian higher education provider.

Jenny Bui

Australian Catholic University

Psychometric Evaluation of the Assessment of Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQoL-8D) in Adults with Obesity Seeking Bariatric Surgery

Joel Goulter

Australian College of Applied Psychology

Adaptive Cognition: Expertise, Executive Function and 
Attentional Load

Danushika Sivanathan

Australian National University

Vulnerable Narcissism as a Mediator of the Relationship between Perceived Parental Invalidation and Eating Pathology

Monique Bremner

Bond University

The ‘Ifs’, ‘Ands’, and Cigarette Butts of Chronic Smoking: The Roles of Alexithymia and Impulsiveness

Jessica Pearson

Cairnmillar Institute

Fat Talk and its Effects on State-Based Body Image in Women

Janene Dravsnik

Central Queensland University

Canine Co-Therapy: The Potential of Dogs to Improve the Acceptability of Trauma-Focused Therapies for Children

Nikki Tina Curtin

Charles Darwin University

Singing for Freedom: Popular Songs as Pathways for Healing the Past and Instilling Hope for the Future in Australia

Karen Griffith

Charles Sturt University

What Are You Looking At? Investigating the Interaction of Facial Expression, Eye-Gaze and the Detection of Threat

Hayley Grant

Curtin University

Metamemory and Objective Memory as Predictors of Quality of Life in Parkinson’s Disease

Alexandra Lavale

Deakin University

Mirror Neurons and Facial Emotion Recognition: The Role of Facial Mimicry

Stephanie Black

Edith Cowan University

Investigating the Relationship Between Preferences for Therapists’ Sex and Seeking Mental Health Support Among a Sample of Australian Respondents

Timothy Campbell

Federation University Australia

Sensory-Processing Sensitivity: A Model to Predict Social Anxiety

Madelaine de Valle

Flinders University

Brief Online Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Perfectionism: Intervention Evaluation and Investigation of Moderators

Rachelle Wicks

Griffith University

Predictors and Correlates of Family Outcomes of Early Intervention for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Monique Champion

James Cook University

Improving Mental Health Outcomes Following Mild to Moderate Traumatic Brain Injury: 
A Pilot Study

Mai Loan Nguyen

La Trobe University

Subjective Cognitive Decline and Differential List-Learning and Story-Recall in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

Daniel Guilbert

Macquarie University

Familiarity and the Emotional Attentional Blink

Emma Thompson

Monash University

Interaction Patterns in Transdiagnostic Group Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy for Anxiety

Amber English

Murdoch University

The Relationship Between Pain and Arousal: The Modulation of Noxious Sensation by the Brain’s Alerting Network

Georgina Rose David

Queensland University of Technology

Understanding the Effect of Core-Belief Disruption, Rumination and Disclosure as Predictors of Posttraumatic Growth and Posttraumatic Depreciation

Tanya Xu

RMIT University

Effects of Consuming Daily Sucrose with/without Caffeine on Anxiety, Memory, and Neuroplasticity and Neuroproliferation Markers 
in Adolescent Male Rats

Rachel Clark

Southern Cross University

Facebook Use and Psychological Needs in Older Adults

Kim Morris

Swinburne University of Technology

Investigating Response Inhibition and the Role of the COMT Gene in Schizophrenia Using Magnetoence Photography

Brittany Child

University of Adelaide

Exploring the Role of Working Memory in Associative Learning: How Do Increases in Working Memory-Load Affect Performance on a Human Causal Learning Task?

Micah Boerma

University of Canberra

Grit and Self-Control as Predictors of Academic Achievement and Academic Satisfaction at University

Carra Simpson

University of Melbourne

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind... Healthy Mouth? – An Investigation of Oral Bacteria, Cortisol and C-reactive Protein in Adolescent Depression and Anxiety

Rachel Chesham

University of New England

Meta Analysis of the Efficacy of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Social Anxiety

Christian La Spina

University of New South Wales

The Role of Ventral Tegmental Area GABA Neurons in the Renewal of Extinguished Alcohol Seeking

Aimee Bennett

University of Newcastle

The Tortoise or the Hare? Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off and the Influence of Experimental Design

Blake Saurels

University of Queensland

The Influence of Surprise on Time Perception and Visual Sensitivity

Li Zou

University of South Australia

Predictive Coding in Second Language Processing

Jacob Ducat

University of Southern Queensland

Examining the Impact of Comprehensive versus Constrained Test Batteries

Manuel Seet

University of Sydney

Conditioned Motor Inhibition: A Neurophysiological and Behavioural Investigation of Learned Stimulus-Stop Associations

Lucy Gillespie

University of Tasmania

Smiley or Not: Children’s Use of and Response to Emojis and Punctuation in Digital Communication

Tharen Kander

University of the Sunshine Coast

Facebook Engagement: Socially Connected or Socially Isolated?

Rebecca Cole

University of Western Australia

The Role of Dysfunctional Sleep Beliefs, Maladaptive Perfectionism and Worry About Sleep in Perception of Sleep Quantity 
and Quality

Maryann Barrington

University of Wollongong

Linguistic Familiarity and Co-articulation in the Serial Recall 
of Mixed and Pure Lists

Eirini Leonaki

Victoria University

Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism: Differences and Similarities in Self-Regulatory Strategies

Lena Crystal Hattom

Western Sydney University

The Relationship Between Mixed Emotions and Psychological Well-being: A Possible Role for Ambiguity Tolerance