Psychology thesis topics and supervisors - Ngā Kaupapa ā-tuhinga roa me ngā kaiarataki

Are you interested in researching Sustainable Livelihoods to protect people, planet and prosperity, or in Security Psychology, which promotes safety and security in everyday life?

If your answer to either (or both!) of these questions is yes, then contact me for a chat soon. I am free to supervise or co-supervise (with Dr Veronica Hopner) master's and doctoral students in 2026, as part of our Applied Industrial and Organisational Psychology professional courses.

Stuart Carr's staff profile including research expertise

I am happy to supervise students interested in psychological research of migrant communities. My areas of expertise include working with migrant communities of colour or ethnic migrants and Muslim migrant communities. I am primarily a qualitative researcher.

Shemana Cassim’s staff profile and research expertise

I am interested in supervising qualitative research in the areas of community, social and forensic psychology, with a particular focus on research projects that advocate for ethical non-violence and strive to transform narratives of accountability to challenge the conditions of possibility that enable marginalisation and violence in our communities.

Stephanie Denne's staff profile and research expertise

I am primarily interested in quantitative research, although I am more and more encouraging a mixed methods approach. Areas of interest are psychometrics, sport psychology, and wellbeing in informal carers.

I am open to discussions around most subjects as a research methodologist.

Richard Fletcher’s staff profile and research expertise

I am a societal and community psychologist with interests in human security psychology, social determinant of health, urban poverty, indecent work, homelessness, and food insecurity. I'm involved in a range of applied community and policy projects aimed at addressing issues of human insecurity and precarity.

Darrin Hodgetts' staff profile including research expertise

I'm happy to supervise students interested in the intersections of psychology with security studies, namely extremism and mixed, unclear and unstable (MUU) ideologies. I also supervise in the area of industrial organisational/work psychology. I focus on areas of climate action and sustainable livelihoods, especially those linked to Unfree Work in terms of labour exploitation, debt bondage, modern slavery or human trafficking.

I am primarily a qualitative researcher.

Veronica Hopner's staff profile including research expertise

My areas of research interests are primarily in the areas of:

• Pasifika communities, particularly in the justice sector
• child offending
• youth and adult offending
• diverse worldviews of psychology
• trauma
• intersectionality between psychology and law
• child and youth mental health
• psychological interventions and evaluations (in partnerships with agencies and government departments).

Julie Ioane’s staff profile and research expertise

I am available for honours and master's supervision in 2026.

My main research interests are in the criminal justice and health sectors, with special interests in mental health, social inequality, Corrections practices (domestic and overseas) and family violence interventions. I'm a community-oriented qualitative researcher with particular knowledge of narrative, ethnographic and autoethnographic methodologies.  

Matthew Kean's staff profile and research expertise

I supervise research in mindfulness, meditation and spirituality using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. My current work focuses on Buddhist-informed psychology and spiritual cognition. If your interests include mindfulness, Buddhist philosophy or related spiritual topics — I’d love to hear from you.

Important: Please get in touch within the first 6 months of the year before you plan to start, as my supervision load fills quickly. Already at capacity for 2026.

Heather Kempton's staff profile including research expertise

I am happy to supervise students whose work and/or research interests align with industrial and organisational psychology, particularly those taking a macro-level perspective. My main research areas include organisational culture, organisational climate, and the influence of leadership styles on employee outcomes, mediated through job resources. I am also currently interested in contemporary workplace issues such as precarious employment, hybrid and remote work arrangements and the transition to retirement.

I primarily supervise quantitative research projects. It is essential that you have (or are willing to develop) solid skills in quantitative data analysis (like SPSS, R, Mplus, AMOS or similar).

Feel free to get in touch if your interests match these areas.

Michelle Lee’s staff profile and research expertise

My main research interests span across Indigenous, health, social and community psychologies. With a particular interest in social determinants of health, precarity and associated insecurities in food, housing, income and leisure. I am also interested in neurodiversity, ADHD and Autism. I am happy to supervise students interested in these topics. I am primarily a qualitative researcher.

Ahnya Martin's staff profile and research expertise

My research interests focus on critical health psychology, including:

• health and space
• understandings and use of medication
• the social construction of food
• gendered experiences of health and illness
• disability
• neurodivergence.

I am primarily interested in qualitative projects.

Kathryn McGuigan's staff profile and research expertise

My field of interest is Industrial and Organisational Psychology with a focus on sustainable development. I am available to supervise honours, master and doctoral students in research on the following topics:

• Decent work
• Workplace well-being
• Workplace spirituality
• Organizational commitment
• Leadership
• Social enterprises
• Sustainable livelihoods
• Culture, ecosystem.

I am happy with both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Minh Nguyen’s staff profile and research expertise

My main research interests are:

• Mātauranga Māori
• Kaupapa Māori Psychology
• Indigenous Psychologies
• Traditional ecological knowledge, rongoā Māori (Māori healing systems), te taiao, particularly the interconnected relationship between people and the environment
• Mana wahine.

Pikihuia Pomare's staff profile and research expertise

Registered Nurse, Clinical Psychologist

Associate Professor Margaret Sandham is a clinician-researcher and academic with dual registration in nursing and clinical psychology. Her research explores the intersections of neurodevelopmental conditions (particularly ADHD), outcome measurement, wellbeing science and health systems innovation. She has a strong focus on improving diagnostic pathways, advancing culturally responsive practice, especially for Māori, and enhancing person-centred palliative care through the use of intelligent technologies and outcome measurement.

Margaret has published extensively in international journals, with methods including systematic reviews, qualitative meta-syntheses, artificial intelligence, network analysis and psychometric analysis, with applications in mental health, palliative care, older adults and workforce wellbeing. Her work on outcome measurement has been presented at global conferences, including the 2024 International Test Commission Conference.

Research interests:

• Outcome measurement (psychometrics)
• ADHD and neurodevelopmental conditions
• Wellbeing measurement and workforce mental health
• Culturally responsive and kaupapa Māori health research
• Palliative and end-of-life care
• Health technology and intelligent care systems
• Nursing

Margaret Sandham’s staff profile and research expertise

Kia ora.

My field of research is around:

• tamariki and rangatahi (child and adolescent) mental health
• computerised therapies
• the application of clinical psychology practice
• child and adolescent therapies
• family therapy.

Matthew Shepherd’s staff profile and research expertise

Available to supervise master's and doctoral projects that explicitly draw on critical health psychology and use qualitative methods. 

Key areas of interest are:

• men and masculinities (and the relationship to health and wellbeing)
• disability and its relationship to access and full participation in society
• chronic health conditions (particularly invisible conditions)
• embodiment and sport (in particular martial arts).

Gareth Terry's staff profile and research expertise

I would be happy to discuss supervising research projects that utilise any qualitative methods, including (but not limited to) discourse analysis, thematic analysis and mapping.

I'm open to discussing supervising projects focusing on issues related to critical health psychology. This can include a range of foci, including, psychiatry, clinical psychology, neuropsychology, migrant and refugee experience and the history of psychology.

In particular, I would be keen to supervise students whose projects focus on issues related to housing, especially renting. I am currently focusing on a project entitled 'Our home/their property: The renter's life project'. The project aims to document and theorise the social practices and power relations that shape tenant-landlord relationships, including mapping the intergenerational consequences materially, socially and psychologically.

Associate Professor Matt Williams and I would like to supervise a doctoral student who is comfortable with quantitative methods and interested in exploring the relationship between renting and mental health.

Clifford Van Ommen's staff profile and research expertise

For students seeking supervision in 2027 and beyond, my main research interests are:

1. Misinformation and conspiracy theories. For example, what drives people to believe and spread misinformation? Why do people change their minds about conspiracy theories?
2. Metapsychology and methodology. For example, how often do researchers make action recommendations that aren't warranted by their findings? How can we better estimate the prevalence of rare beliefs and behaviours?

Most of my research is quantitative, and I am a strong supporter of open science practices, for example, preregistration, open data and open materials.

Matt Williams' staff profile and research expertise

Available for honours and master's supervision in 2025.

My main research interests are in the intersection between health and I/O psychology, particularly chronic illness and/or disability at work and related areas. I am a qualitative researcher, with particular knowledge of narrative and ethnographic methodologies.

Megan Young's staff profile and research expertise

Quantitative projects using data from the Health, Work and Retirement longitudinal study. Particular topics of interest; determinants of frailty; caregiving; work and retirement.

Fiona Alpass's staff profile and research expertise

Don Baken’s staff profile and research expertise

I am interested in understanding how the brain supports consciousness and spatial attention function, with a particular interest in impaired consciousness (Disorders of Consciousness) and impaired attention (unilateral spatial neglect). I have the following specific projects I am looking to progress in 2026:

• Development and validation of neuroimaging tools to measure states of consciousness (requires skills in machine learning/MATLAB coding and/or analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) data)
• Māori experiences of neuroimaging following brain injury (Qualitative project)
• Investigation of changes in attention function (visuospatial or auditory spatial) during healthy transitions in consciousness (requires skills in MATLAB coding or similar and some experience in the analysis of EEG data).

Corinne Bareham-Waldock's staff profile and research expertise

I am interested in qualitative research with a special interest in embodiment, gender-based violence and cyborg methodologies.

Geneva Connor's staff profile and research expertise

I am interested in supervising postgraduate students (including neurodivergent) with an interest in neurodivergent peoples’ lived experiences through qualitative methodologies. Topics might include, but are not limited to:

• intersection(s) of disability and chronic health conditions (for example, Ehlers-Danlos, PCOS, PMDD, MCAS or eczema)
• women’s experiences
• burnout
• suicide ideation
• wellbeing/self-care.

ND experiences within work, home, secondary school, tertiary or other institution, or interpersonal relationships are of interest. I am also open to more general topics related to psychological and spiritual wellbeing, including within Christian or Catholic contexts.

Sharon Crooks' staff profile and research expertise

Leigh Coombes' staff profile and research expertise

I welcome supervision inquiries from students interested in disaster studies. My primary research areas include disaster communication, resilience, and social justice in disaster preparedness, response and recovery. My work encompasses both natural hazards, such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and anthropogenic crises, such as CBRN events.

I am open to both theoretical and applied projects, as well as research focused on advancing methodologies within the field. Methodologically, I mainly engage with qualitative and mixed-methods research. If your research interests align with these areas, please feel free to get in touch.

Manomita Das' staff profile and research expertise

My key interest areas revolve around cognition and gaming, both video gaming and tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). Areas of interest within gaming include loot boxes and gambling, microtransactions and NFTs, cooperation, socialisation, learning and motivation.

My primary focus is quantitative research, but I would be happy to work alongside other supervisors who are more versed in qualitative research for potential mixed-methods projects.
Finally, projects that connect with local communities in Aotearoa are highly welcomed for discussion.

Shaun Garea’s staff profile and research expertise
Gaming Research and Investigation Laboratory (GRAIL) research website

I support quantitative or qualitative research projects in the fields of ageing, sleep health, and sleep and society. I am actively involved with Massey’s Health Work and Retirement study as well as other programmes of research where there may be opportunities for student theses.

Health Work and Retirement study

Topics I am focusing on are:

• Predictors, outcomes and experiences of sleep disturbance across the lifespan
• Sleep among people with cognitive impairment or dementia
• Sleep of informal carers
• Non-pharmacological interventions for ageing well
• Experiences, practices and sociology of sleep and dreaming
• Discourses of sleep in the media.

Students may also consider contacting supervisors at Massey’s Sleep/Wake Research Centre for other sleep-related topics.

Sleep/Wake Research Centre

Rosie Gibson's staff profile and research expertise

Available for new supervision in 2026.

Kia ora koutou. I recently completed my doctoral research in psychology alongside a postgraduate diploma in clinical psychology. My research has primarily focused on issues that are important to Māori health and wellbeing, including:

• The role of wairuatanga and spirituality in supporting rangatahi Māori wellbeing
• Rongoā Māori and Indigenous healing practises and psychologies
• Re-indigenisation, whānau oranga and intergenerational healing
• Wāhine Māori, rangatahi and tamariki wellbeing.

I am experienced in Kaupapa Māori theory and research methodologies, as well as qualitative methodologies such as reflexive thematic analysis. I am also a clinical psychologist and mahi wairua practitioner and am interested in exploring the integration of mātauranga Māori and western methodologies to support healing.

Alana Haenga-O’Brien's staff profile and research expertise

Mālō e lelei.

My research interests are primarily in the areas of Pacific kainga (families) and communities, particularly in the areas of:

• Family violence
• Holistic wellbeing
• Spirituality and faith-based perspectives
• Pacific and Indigenous psychologies.

Sesimani Havea’s staff profile and research expertise

Kia ora koutou.

I am available to supervise projects related to social media and communications technologies, marketing, sociality and drinking cultures.

Alternatively, I would be interested in projects that involve some facet of analogue gaming (e.g. board gaming and tabletop gaming). Within this sphere I am particularly interested in areas related to wellbeing, and sociality (including digital forms again) but I am happy to consider other aspects including those focussed on outcomes such as learning and training, looking at meaning making and understanding within games as a medium, or focussing on specific topics such as climate change or political constructs.

I am most familiar with qualitative research methods but happy to consider quantitative/mixed projects and to be part of supervision teams on the same.

Ross Hebden’s staff profile and research expertise

I'm a cognitive psychologist with a broad interest in the ways people rely on their environments when they remember, reason, and make decisions. My current research examines people's metacognitive judgements about their own knowledge – particularly cognitive biases (such as illusions of knowledge) and implicit assumptions that underpin these judgements. I apply these ideas to 'hot topics' such as conspiracies, disinformation, urban myths, climate change beliefs and the influence of semantic context on juror decision making.

If you are an honours or master's student with a background in cognitive psychology or social cognition, are comfortable doing experimental or quantitative observational research, and are happy to work on a 'partly pre-designed' project, please get in contact.

I'm also happy to supervise doctoral students interested in doing a thesis on cognitive and/or environmental topics.

Stephen Hill’s staff profile and research expertise

I specialise in qualitative research and supervise or co-supervise PhD and master's students primarily in the School of Psychology and the Joint Centre for Disaster Research.

Topics of interest include:

• kaupapa Māori or Māori-centred research in disasters, sustainability and resilience
• indigenous peoples and disasters
• sociology of disasters
• disasters and public health
• gender and disasters
• humanitarian concerns, human rights and disasters.

Christine Kenney's staff profile and research expertise

My background is in community and indigenous psychologies, analytic philosophy, and I maintain a research focus on issues of urban poverty, Indigenous gift economies and social practices, social inequalities, indigenous philosophies and psychologies, coloniality, and theoretical psychology. I am primarily a qualitative orientated researcher, keen to support applied research projects based within or around the Manawatū area.

Pita King’s staff profile and expertise

My research focuses broadly on mental health with a focus on women’s health, emotions, wellbeing and how colonisation impacts on emotional wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Ute Kreplin's staff profile and research expertise

Nicole Lindsay's staff profile and research expertise

Mandy Morgan's staff profile and research expertise

Research methods:

• Qualitative methods, including discourse-based, narrative and thematic analysis.
• Theoretical approaches include feminist and critical theories (like Reproductive Justice, decolonial feminism, post-structuralism, social constructionism).

Research topics:

• Sexual and reproductive health.
• Sexuality and gender.
• Reproductive healthcare services (especially for marginalised groups).

Note: I do not supervise topics related to mental health issues, including disordered eating or sexology.

Examples of topics supervised:

• Contraception, abortion, voluntary childlessness.
• Menstrual health and inequity (like period poverty, users of reusable products).
• Youth sexuality (like education, engagement with pornography).
• Reproductive healthcare (person-centred care, policy for LGBTQ+ communities).
• Sexuality (casual sex, negotiating heterosex, bisexual women's identities).
• Gender issues (gender-based violence, working mums' breastfeeding).

Special opportunities or funding: None at present

Tracy Morison's staff profile and research expertise

Professional site

I am interested in understanding what drives behaviour and thinking at work and how we can use this knowledge to foster wellbeing. My research mostly applies theories, approaches and constructs from positive psychology, such as mindfulness and psychological capital, but is not limited to these. I am interested in supervising surveys as well as experimental studies. I am happy to discuss suitable topics with interested students.

Anja Roemer's staff profile and research expertise

I am interested in supervising qualitative research that enables and empowers women's experiences and voices to contribute to the knowledge that attends to mothering, gender and violence, care ethics, and the everyday lived experiences of women as embedded in oppressive Eurocentric systems of social power relations, gender norms and stereotypes.

Ann Rogerson's staff profile and research expertise

Kirsty Ross's staff profile and research expertise

Using Health Work and Retirement study longitudinal data. Working knowledge of quantitative analysis and using SPSS or R would be helpful.

• Neighbourhood quality and changes in psychological wellbeing (mental health, depression, anxiety, quality of life, self-perceptions of ageing, sense of control or loneliness) among older people.
• Neighbourhood quality and later frailty onset and/or fear of falling among older people.
• Moderators of the relationship between neighbourhood cohesion and wellbeing among older people.
• Trajectories of perceived neighbourhood qualities across time in older age and implications for wellbeing.
• Trajectories of factors that predict frailty.

Qualitative analyses:

• Peri-menopause and the use of Menstrual Tracking Apps among women (existing data for somebody with an interest in sophisticated approaches to analysis.
• I am happy to discuss qualitative data collection on various topics around older people.

Christine Stephens' staff profile and research expertise

Natasha Tassell-Matamua's staff profile and research expertise

As a clinical psychologist, my research programme focuses on clinical and applied psychology. I am developing a new platform of research on lived experience involvement in clinical psychology training that focuses on recovery-oriented and lived experience-led teaching. I supervise quantitative research, and doctoral research involving qualitative methodology is co-supervised with staff with the requisite expertise. I continue to do a small amount of research in my existing platform of driving anxiety, as part of an HRC-funded longitudinal investigation of older drivers, out-of-home mobility, and predictors and impacts of driving cessation on older people and their whānau, based at the University of Otago.

Jo Taylor's staff profile and research expertise

Hukarere Valentine's staff profile and research expertise

I am interested in supervising student projects on issues around natural hazards and society. Subject areas may include:

• perceptions of natural hazards
• preparedness for emergencies
• community resilience, response and recovery for events
• natural hazard warnings.

Focuses may be cross-peril and include earthquakes, flooding, coastal issues, volcanoes and landslides.

Julia Becker's staff profile and research expertise

Elliot Bell's staff profile and research expertise

Simon Bennett's staff profile and research expertise

I am available for supervision in 2025 and happy to supervise qualitative projects related to my expertise. My research has centred on issues of significance to Māori, including:

• Māori psychological experiences, healing and wellbeing
• wairua and spirituality
• racism in Aotearoa New Zealand.

I have practice in kaupapa Māori theory and research, as well as qualitative methodologies, namely narrative inquiry and discursive psychology. I am also a clinical psychologist, with an interest in lived experience and mental health recovery research.

Eleanor Brittain's staff profile and research expertise

Thereafter, inquiries are welcomed from prospective students interested in projects focused on feminist theory, post-structuralism (in particular Foucault), discursive methods of analysis, sexuality education, pornography, menstruation tracking apps, youth sexual and reproductive health or issues of gender, sexuality and identity.

Siobhan Healy-Cullen's staff profile including research expertise

Emma Hudson-Doyle's staff profile and research expertise

Dianne Gardner's staff profile and research expertise

Available in 2026 for master's or doctoral theses.

Research interests include EMDR, trauma, Single-N Designs, strong focus on clinical and applied research.

Jessica McIvor's staff profile and research expertise

I would like to hear from potential master's and PhD students who are interested in conducting research on:

• disaster management information systems
• application of internet of things (IoT) for disaster management
• the use of big data and deep learning to enhance disaster management situation awareness and decision-making
• designing human-computer interaction (HCI) for emergency response
• situation awareness and cognitive requirements capturing techniques for emergencies.

Raj Prasanna’s staff profile and research expertise

Students thinking about starting their thesis in the second semester 2026 or in 2027, please get in touch if you want to use qualitative methods to explore:

• relationships between bodies, digital technologies and identities, including but not limited to:
  • menstruation/period/fertility/ovulation tracking apps
  • digital resources to manage menopause and perimenopause
  • other digital health apps
• health or appearance — especially as it relates to postfeminism, positive body image, using digital resources or to issues in the first 6 chapters of the Critical Health Psychology book
• young people’s talk and representations of mental health issues
• experiencing online misogyny
• drug and alcohol harm reduction in specific sites such as festivals.

Critical Health Psychology book

Sarah Riley's staff profile and research expertise

Critical Health Psychology book

Sarah Riley's staff profile and research expertise

I am interested in supervising post-graduate students working on topics related to my research expertise in emotion, self-injury, suicide prevention, metapsychology and experimental and longitudinal survey methods.

Projects might include:

• Experimental and survey-based studies investigating how people understand and regulate their emotions
• Evaluations of current assessment methods for identifying suicide risk
• Dyadic surveys of youth and whānau exploring interpersonal influences on emotional wellbeing
• Evaluations of participant’s experiences of taking part in research

Students will be expected to attend regular supervision (in-person or online) and contribute to a supportive and welcoming lab culture. Students will need to have some familiarity with quantitative statistical analyses (like linear regression or moderation) and statistical programs (like SPSS, jamovi or R) and/or a willingness to develop their knowledge and skills. There may also be opportunities to support research dissemination and translation.

Kealagh Robinson's previous research

Kealagh Robinson’s staff profile and research expertise

Limited supervision available for Rainbow/LGBTQ+ related research projects (honours/master's/doctoral) in 2026 and 2027.

I am passionate about mentoring emerging scholars in our field using a junior colleague model. I am interested in supervising quantitative post-graduate research on topics related to my research expertise in Rainbow/LGBTQ+ mental health, affective science, child and adolescent psychology, parenting and families, and experimental and longitudinal methods.

Projects might include:

• Experimental studies investigating how individuals regulate their emotions in different contexts.
• Survey-based studies examining the mental health needs of Rainbow/LGBTQ+ young people in a given community.
• Parent-child dyadic interaction tasks investigating how emotions are regulated interpersonally.
• Ecological momentary assessment studies that investigate Rainbow/LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of minority stress and their coping strategies over time.
• Measurement development studies that create and validate new questionnaires for assessing constructs related to emotion regulation or minority stress in Rainbow/LGBTQ+ populations.

Find out more on my website

Ilana Seager van Dyk's staff profile and research expertise

Available to supervise honours and master's-level qualitative research projects in 2026. 

I am a qualitative researcher with particular experience in Foucauldian-informed discourse analysis, media analysis and research on sexual desire. I welcome inquiries from students interested in projects broadly focused on critical health psychology, discursive methods of analysis, poststructuralism, gendered experiences, feminist theory, media, sex and sexuality, or reproductive health. I am happy to co-supervise. I am located off campus, in Ōtautahi, Christchurch. 

Jessica Tappin's staff profile and research expertise

Ian de Terte's staff profile and research expertise

Available to disucss relevant master's level projects for 2026.

My interest is primarily in quantitative research, particularly experimental surveys, although I am also open to mixed-method approaches. Topics of focus include risk perception, behaviour change, message framing and social norm interventions.

Lauren Vinnell's staff profile and research expertise

Quantitative projects using data from the Health, Work and Retirement longitudinal study. Particular topics of interest include:

• determinants of frailty
• caregiving
• work and retirement.

Fiona Alpass's staff profile and research expertise

Topics I am focusing on from HWR are:

• Predictors, outcomes and experiences of sleep disturbance across the lifespan
• Sleep among people with cognitive impairment or dementia
• Sleep of informal carers.

Rosie Gibson's staff profile and research expertise

Quantitative projects using data from the Health, Work and Retirement longitudinal study and qualitative projects using the Wāhi Kōrero study.

Main topics of interest include:

• caregiving
• work and retirement
• well-being.

Wāhi Kōrero

Shanika Yoshini Koreshi's staff profile and research expertise

Using Health Work and Retirement study longitudinal data. Working knowledge of quantitative analysis and using SPSS or R would be helpful.

• Neighbourhood quality and changes in psychological wellbeing (mental health, depression, anxiety, quality of life, self-perceptions of ageing, sense of control or loneliness) among older people.
• Neighbourhood quality and later frailty onset and/or fear of falling among older people.
• Moderators of the relationship between neighbourhood cohesion and wellbeing among older people.
• Trajectories of perceived neighbourhood qualities across time in older age and implications for wellbeing.
• Trajectories of factors that predict frailty.

Christine Stephens' staff profile and research expertise