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

This page lists staff who have current capacity for research supervision within the School of Psychology. Staff and their research interests are listed by campus.

Auckland campus supervisors

Siautu Alefaio

Research interests include:

• Pacific-indigenous humanitarian psychology
• Pacific-indigenous faith-based family violence prevention and intervention
• Pacific-indigenous matua care-practices
• Pacific-indigenous disaster preparedness, risk resilience and management, humanitarian response, and overall psycho-social impact of climate change in Oceania.

Stuart Carr

If you have spoken with me already and have a provisional agreement, that's fine. In any other case, I am unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Stuart Carr's staff profile including research expertise

Richard Fletcher

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.

Darrin Hodgetts

I am a societal and community psychologist with interests in the social determinants of health including urban poverty, homelessness, decent work, and food insecurity.
I am involved in a range of applied community and policy projects exploring issues such as urban poverty, social inclusion, and change.

Darrin Hodgetts' staff profile including research expertise

Veronica Hopner

I am happy to supervise students who are interested in the intersections of psychology with security studies, human security psychology and counter-terrorism.

The topics I am focused on are:

• modern slavery
• right-wing extremism and women
• left-wing extremism
• misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories

I am primarily a qualitative researcher.

Veronica Hopner's staff profile including research expertise

Julia Ioane

I am interested in supervising honours, master's and doctoral students, 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).

Heather Kempton

I supervise research in the area of mindfulness, meditation and spirituality. I have both quantitative and qualitative interests in the topic.

I’m close to capacity in terms of supervision, but I may be able to supervise students who already have experience in mindfulness, Buddhist philosophy, or other spiritual topics. For example, I have previously supervised a student looking at Kundalini awakenings.

Heather Kempton's staff profile including research expertise

Andrea Lamarre

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Andrea Lamarre's staff profile including research expertise

Michelle Lee

I'm able to take on students who are interested in topics related to industrial and organisational psychology from a macro perspective. My areas are organisational culture, organisational climate and leadership style, particularly in an Asian setting. I've conducted research on:

• hierarchical culture
• psychosocial safety climates
• safety and team climates
• transformational, transactional, ethical, toxic and paternalistic leadership, specifically the job demands-resources model and employee work outcomes.

My approach is mostly quantitative and multilevel, where we collect pockets of data from groups or organisations. I'm also interested in researching new norms of work during and after the pandemic, and identity and retirement transitions.

While most of my studies are in an Asian setting, I welcome cross-cultural studies on those topics, involving employees in New Zealand and overseas.

James Liu

My research is in social, cross-cultural, and political psychology. I do a lot of work in the area of social identity and intergroup relations, and am happy to supervise student research in this area.

I currently supervise research in:

• collective remembering and the making of political culture (how social representations of history influence national psychology and intergroup relations)
• digital influence (the impact of mass media, especially the internet and social media, on psychological functioning and relationships)
• global consciousness (how people can develop a prosocial orientation for others that goes beyond the limits of national and local identities)
• action-oriented work in any of these areas or their intersection (for instance, developing social media that supports growth in global consciousness)
• cross-cultural psychology (I have collected lots of big datasets, and am happy to supervise students who are interested in doing research work using this data, especially if they encompass one of the four areas above).

James Liu' staff profile and research expertise

Kathryn McGuigan

My research interests focus on critical health psychology, including:

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

I am also interested in research on neurodivergence and disability. I am primarily interested in qualitative projects.

Pikihuia Pomare

I am not available for supervision in 2023.

Pikihuia Pomare's staff profile and research expertise

Matthew Shepherd

Kia ora. I am looking to supervise honours, master's and doctoral students in research around:

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

Clifford Van Ommen

I would be interested in supervising students as part of the Our home/their property: The renter’s life project. This project aims to document and theorise the social practices and power relations that shape tenant-landlord relationships, including mapping their intergenerational consequences materially, socially, and psychologically.

I am happy to discuss supervising students who are familiar with qualitative methods and are interested in contributing to this project.

Dr Matt Williams and I are looking to supervise a doctorate level student, comfortable with quantitative methods, interested in exploring the relationship between renting and mental health.

Clifford Van Ommen's staff profile and research expertise

Matt Williams

I may have a small number of spaces for new students in 2023.

I am open to discussions with students who are interested in the following areas.

• Misinformation and conspiracy theories.

One specific vacancy in 2023 I have is for a master's student who will analyse qualitative data I am collecting from people who have changed their beliefs about conspiracy theories. This data arises from a Marsden-funded longitudinal project.

• Metapsychology and methodology.

For example, how frequent are numeric reporting errors in published articles? How effective are attention checks when collecting data online?

• The relationship between renting and mental health.

Dr Clifford van Ommen and I are seeking a doctoral student who is comfortable with quantitative methods to conduct a project on this topic.

Most of my research is quantitative, and I am a strong supporter of open science practices such as pre-registration, open data and open materials. I lead the Reproducible Psychology at Albany lab, where students can network in a supportive environment.

Whenever possible, I prefer to work with students who have successfully completed 175303 The Practice of Psychological Research and 175746 Psychological Research: Quantitative Data Analysis, or equivalent courses from other institutions.

Matt Williams' staff profile and research expertise.

Amanda M Young-Hauser

I am a qualitative researcher drawing on narrative theory. I am available to supervise honours and master's students who are interested in:

• social (in)justice, in particular poverty and inequality
• the intersection of wage (minimum and living) and wellbeing
• crime and punishment
• intimate partner violence and restorative justice.

Amanda M Young-Hauser's staff profile and research expertise

Manawatū campus supervisors

Health and Ageing Research Team

Researchers in the Health and Ageing Research Team (HART) use quantitative or qualitative methodologies across a range of topics.

Find out more about HART

Quantitative analysis of existing survey data

If you choose to study one of these topics you should have good quantitative analysis skills, having completed 175.746 (Psychological Research: Quantitative Data Analysis) or equivalent. You will be expected to develop a theoretical basis for the research question and conduct sophisticated multivariate and/or longitudinal data analysis.

The HART team can provide access to a large sample of older Māori who have provided data on a range of aspects of general health and wellbeing, as well as an extensive set of Māori-specific identity, cultural-participation, marae roles, language, and whānau. The HART team are able to provide assistance in the development of research questions, analytical strategy, and writing supervision around these data.

Professor Christine Stephens

• Social networks, housing, and health of older people across time.
• Chronic health conditions and loneliness (mediated and moderated by environmental variables and depression).
• The effects of housing and neighbourhood characteristics on social participation among older people.
• Social participation and quality of life among older people.
• Effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on wellbeing.

Christine Stephens' staff profile and research expertise

Professor Fiona Alpass

Combining work and caregiving: the impact on health and wealth over time.

Older workers, including:

• flexible work opportunities and job satisfaction
• attitudes, motivations and workability
• senior entrepreneurs.

Fiona Alpass's staff profile and research expertise

Dr Juliana Mansvelt

Research areas include:

• geographical and place-based differences in relation to loneliness, quality of life and wellbeing
• changes in leisure experiences (recreational activities, life engagement, voluntary work) after retirement.

Susanne Röhr

My research focuses on epidemiological aspects of healthy ageing, using existing data from large-scale population-based longitudinal studies, either from Aotearoa New Zealand or overseas.

I am looking forward to hearing from students who have good statistical analysis skills (such as regression analysis, mixed models, latent growth curve analysis, SEM, moderation and mediation) and are keen to write a master's thesis based on a scientific publication with an interest in:

• brain health equity, social determinants of health (such as social environment, socioeconomic factors, natural and built environment) and healthy ageing, especially cognitive functioning
• lifestyle and healthy ageing, especially cognitive functioning
• modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia
• social network, social isolation, loneliness, social engagement and health-related outcomes, especially brain and mental health and cognitive functioning
• Creativity, arts and healthy ageing, especially brain and mental health and cognitive functioning

I also welcome student-led qualitative studies using creative research approaches, such as public health narrative, photovoice and oral hear/say history interviews that involve collecting new data in regional settings or in collaboration with local organisations and councils. Topics include:

• lifestyle behaviours and motivation for maintaining or improving brain health and wellbeing across the lifespan
• climate change, attitudes towards environmental challenges and age-related brain health
• creativity and brain health and wellbeing
• ageing in place, risk of displacement and brain health.

Susann Roehr's staff profile and research expertise

Dr Polly Yeung

Ageing and disability

• Using the ICF-based Framework to develop a model of functional components and contextual factors.
• The relationship between visual impairment, mobility, loneliness, social engagement and quality of life.

Dr Andy Towers

Drug and alcohol consumption

• Factors predicting change in alcohol consumption in older New Zealanders.
• The relationship between alcohol consumption, health, and healthcare utilisation in older New Zealanders.
• Drug use in older adults (medication use, illicit drug use).
• International comparisons of drinking patterns in older adults.

Brendan Stevenson

Unavailable for 2023.

Qualitative research topics

Students interested in these topics must have a sound background and interest in qualitative methodologies. They will be expected to develop a sophisticated methodological basis for their research question.

Professor Christine Stephens

• Loneliness and barriers to participation among older people.
• Neighbourhood quality and wellbeing.
• COVID lockdown experiences (existing data).

Dr Juliana Mansvelt

Ageing in place

• The role of mundane commodities, objects, and commodity practices in shaping experiences and meanings of ageing in place (including through shifts in dwelling circumstance).
• Experiences of dwelling in rural and other places.

Leisure and consumption

• Contribution, productivity and pleasure in daily activities, including shopping.

Technology

• The uptake and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) by older people.

Don Baken

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Don Baken’s staff profile and research expertise

Shemana Cassim

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

Shemana Cassim’s staff profile and research expertise

Corinne Bareham-Waldock

I am interested in understanding how the brain supports consciousness and spatial attention function, with a focus on impaired consciousness (disorders of consciousness) and impaired attention (unilateral spatial neglect).

Specific projects include:

• developing and validating neuroimaging tools to measure states of consciousness. This requires skills in machine learning/MATLAB coding or analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) data.
• feasibility of bedside neuroimaging to assess consciousness state of Māori patients with a disorder of consciousness.
• investigating changes in attention function during healthy transitions in consciousness (requires skills in MATLAB coding and analysis of EEG data).

Corinne Bareham-Waldock's staff profile and research expertise

Sharon Crooks

I am keen to supervise students interested in neurodiversity, especially:

• adolescent and young adult experiences within education including high school and tertiary
• lived experience of ASD or ADHD with respect to various everyday phenomena (such as peer friendships, labels and identity development, masking, high school/tertiary drop-out, bullying, support)
• parent, sibling or advocate experiences.

I have broader interests in human development and mental health, especially adolescent experiences.

Sharon Crooks' staff profile and research expertise

Leigh Coombes

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Ross Flett

Available for honours and master's supervision. Not available for doctoral chief supervision.

Do a Google Scholar search from about 2020 and see if you can find an article or two that you’d be interested in replicating or extending in some way. I don’t want to supervise research with children or adolescents, people whose autonomy is diminished in some way for example because they are incarcerated or institutionalised.

Happy to talk to Māori and Pasifika students about their interests – there may be something you want to do that would be realistic to have me involved in as a Pākehā/Palagi. I would tap into Māori and Pasifika supervisory support as appropriate.

Ross Flett's staff profile and research expertise

Dianne Gardner

I am interested in a range of topics related to industrial and organisational psychology, especially wellbeing at work. This can include:

• positive and negative outcomes of work demands
• work-life balance
• coping, resilience and cognitive hardiness
• the role of individual and organisational factors in work-related wellbeing, learning from errors, and the effective management of hazards at work.

My overall approach is that of positive psychology – the focus on human strengths and resources in the workplace.

Dianne Gardner's staff profile and research expertise

Rosie Gibson

I am available to consider supervision of quantitative or qualitative research projects in the fields of ageing, sleep health, and sleep and society.

Topics I am focusing on are:

• experiences, practices and sociology of sleep and dreaming
• discourses of sleep in the media
• 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

Rosie Gibson's staff profile and research expertise

Jocelyn Handy

I am interested in supervising students researching organisational or health-related issues using qualitative methodologies. I am currently interested in precarious labour and developing environmental sustainability in organisations.

Stephen Hill

My current research interest is in distributed and collaborative cognition, with a particular focus on memory.

This work examines how people strategically use their environments and work with others when remembering, planning, and thinking. This work has potential application to areas such as ageing and cognition, occupational expertise, cognitive development and eyewitness memory, in addition to basic research in cognitive psychology.

I have a couple of ready-to-go projects available for research students, particularly at honours or master's level. Some of our work is lab-based on the Manawatū campus but there are opportunities to do studies in other ways if you are based elsewhere.

Christine Kenney

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

Ute Kreplin

My research spans emotional process, positive psychology, wellbeing, and the use of mobile technology to quantify wellbeing.

I have four research streams that I would be happy to supervise students on. They are:

• menstrual health
• rural wellbeing
• the impact of physical spaces on wellbeing (including biological markers).

Ute Kreplin's staff profile and research expertise

Nicole Lindsay

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Nicole Lindsay's staff profile and research expertise

Mandy Morgan

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Mandy Morgan's staff profile and research expertise

Tracy Morison

My scholarship spans health psychology, critical psychology and feminist psychology. I am interested in how the social context enables or restricts sexual and reproductive decision-making, relations, and practices for different groups of people according to their gender, sexuality, and other social categorisations.

In terms of methodology, my expertise lies in in-depth qualitative methods (reflective thematic analysis, discourse analysis, critical discursive psychology, narrative discursive analysis) and feminist and other critical theories (such as feminist post-structuralism, Foucauldian theory, social constructionism).

I have some space for students in 2023. Students interested in conducting qualitative research on sexual and reproductive health issues are welcome to contact me about supervision. Especially around contraception, abortion, sexuality education, and teenage/unintended pregnancy.

Tracy Morison's staff profile and research expertise

Michael Philipp

I primarily supervise research in the area of social cognition – investigating the mental processes underlying our social perceptions and social judgements.

This year I am looking to supervising projects that investigate how we perceive minds (for an example, see Gray, Gray, & Wegner, 2007, Science). Projects of particular interest to me include investigating cues that affect how we perceive other minds and how different perceptions of mind affect our moral commitments to nonhuman animals.

Honours and master's students should begin planning their projects with me well before starting the research semester. Your specific topic and methodology will develop from our discussions.

My supervision focuses on professional development and growth. I provide structured guidance throughout the research process, and I expect students I supervise to attend regular lab meetings throughout the year. I am a strong proponent of open, transparent research practices (including preregistration and replication), and I expect these practices in the research I supervise.

Anja Roemer

I am available to supervise topics related to industrial and organisational psychology.

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.

Kirsty Ross

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Kirsty Ross's staff profile and research expertise

Christine Stephens

Quantitative studies using existing longitudinal data with a large population sample. There is a range of possible topics in these data that I would be interested in supervising. They include:

• social networks, housing, and health of older people across time
• chronic health conditions and loneliness (mediated and moderated by environmental variables and depression)
• the effects of housing and neighbourhood characteristics on social participation among older people
• social participation and quality of life among older people
• effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on wellbeing.

Quantitative or qualitative studies involving data collection supported by local organisations and councils. These could include:

• loneliness and barriers to participation among older people (survey)
• neighbourhood quality and wellbeing (interviews).
• COVID lockdown experiences (existing data).

Christine Stephens' staff profile and research expertise

Natasha Tassell-Matamua

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Natasha Tassell-Matamua's staff profile and research expertise

Jo Taylor

I am a clinical psychologist. I usually supervise quantitative research of relevance to clinical psychology, although I co-supervise mixed-methods research at doctoral level.

I am particularly interested in research on recovery-oriented and service user-led teaching in clinical psychology training, and in supervising research that aligns with this.

Jo Taylor's staff profile and research expertise

Hukarere Valentine

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Wellington campus supervisors

Julia Becker

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.

Simon Bennett

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Eleanor Brittain

I am available for supervision in 2023 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

Ella Kahu

I am available to supervise qualitative research projects. My primary research expertise is in student engagement in higher education. I would be interested in projects looking at engagement or related aspects of the student experience such as belonging, wellbeing, or self efficacy, or in the experiences of specific cohorts of students.

My preference is for the context to be university but I am open to other settings as well. I may be able to supervise other social psychology topics.

Ella Kahu's staff profile and research expertise

Emma Hudson-Doyle

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

David Johnston

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Raj Prasanna

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.

Sarah Riley

In 2023 I’m available for students who want to use qualitative methods to explore:

• menstruation/period/fertility/ovulation tracking apps
• digital resources to manage menopause
• relationships between bodies, digital technologies and identities
• drug and alcohol harm reduction in specific sites such as festivals and retirement homes
• managing lifestyle changes in response to advice from a health professional.

Sarah Riley's staff profile and research expertise

Ilana Seager van Dyk

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 or in my staff profile including my research expertise.

Ian de Terte

Unavailable for new supervision in 2023.

Ian de Terte's staff profile and research expertise.