Psychology

Klaire Somoray

Senior Lecturer, Psychology
klaire.somoray@jcu.edu.au

Jessica Oliva

Senior Lecturer, Psychology
jessica.oliva@jcu.edu.au

Meegan Kilcullen

Senior Lecturer - Clinical Psychology
meegan.kilcullen@jcu.edu.au

Sam Teague

Senior Research Fellow
sam.teague@jcu.edu.au

Brian Law

Senior Lecturer, Psychology
brian.law@jcu.edu.au

Richard Kocsis

Lecturer, Psychology
richard.kocsis@jcu.edu.au

Emily Adam

Senior Clinical Educator, Psychology
emily.adam@my.jcu.edu.au

Emma Ward

Lecturer, Psychology
emma.ward@jcu.edu.au

Jonathan Connor

Senior Lecturer, Psychology
jonathan.connor@jcu.edu.au

Evaluation of NQPHN's mental health stepped care model

James Dimmock

02 Dec 2024 - 30 Sep 2026

The NQPHN is commissioning a provider to undertake an evaluation of their new mental health stepped care model. The PAHL group, led by James Dimmock, Ben Jackson (UWA), and Sam Teague, has been invited to submit an application by NQPHN.

1 in 10 men: Informing prevention of and treatment for paternal mental health problems

Sam Teague

01 Jan 2024 - 31 Dec 2026

Every year, 30,000 Australian babies are born to 1 in 10 fathers who struggle with mental health problems. Awareness of paternal mental illness is low, and few effective treatments exist. With Movember and Healthy Male, our vision is to transform paternal mental health prevention and healthcare. We aim to generate and mobilise new evidence to inform healthcare supports that will reduce rates of paternal mental illness, improving outcomes for dads in need and their families.

Beyond the bump: Leveraging social media to build positive perinatal mental health in regional, rural and remote North Queensland women

Sam Teague

13 Jan 2025 - 12 Jan 2027

This project aims to codesign, develop, and evaluate a preventative intervention to address mental health among perinatal women in regional, rural, and remote (RRR) areas. Co-designed with RRR perinatal parents and mental health professionals, the intervention will deliver a established psychotherapeutic techniques that are effective for preventing perinatal depression and anxiety (psychoeducation and behavior change on health literacy, interpersonal therapy) at-scale, tailored to the unique needs of the RRR maternity and mental health system. The evaluation will assess the feasibility, reach, engagement, and acceptability of the intervention, enabling a future larger-scale efficacy and implementation trial.

Professionally Psyched: A podcast to build professional identity, career clarity, and belongingness.

Amanda Krause

Advancing data analysis skills through a Digital Resource Library.

Amanda Krause

Developing a psychology resource library.

Amanda Krause

We have gathered student and staff feedback (see Appendix for quotes), which will inform further library developments. Overall, the feedback received has been largely positive; participants have praised the library as an open-access "one-stop-shop" for statistics-related content. All interviewees have stated they would use this resource, though intended uses varied depending on degree stage (e.g., to understand basic concepts v. thesis writing) and role (staff noted they could use it to learn jamovi themselves and as a teaching aid). Highlighted features include the glossary, colour-coded write-up details, and table of contents page as a navigational tool. Participants wanted interactive definitions within individual resources and helpful visuals (e.g., images and tables). The fact that staff and students also suggested additional topics to be included in the library suggests that it will be a resource that can assist the Department in delivering better research methods education in online and flex delivery modes.

“Bonus chats”: A podcast series to build professional identity.

Amanda Krause

We successfully delivered 10 podcast episodes that involved Honours, HDR and ECR students and staff as interviewees. Anecdotal feedback from participants via email was very positive, with more students than required indicating interest in participating in subsequent seasons. The podcast series, Professionally Psyched, has been well received by students (as of Dec, 2024, there had been 179 plays of episodes and 50 Spotify followers). However, most engagement seems to have been from Honours students – likely due to their involvement as podcast interviewers. The impact on professional identity is too early to identify, however preliminary data from the baseline assessment survey has found that there is a significant positive moderate-strong correlation between professional identity and a sense of belonging at JCU (r(54)=.590, p<.001). This finding is promising in increasing professional identity may further build a sense of belonging and therefore have implications towards retention for JCU Psychology students.

Examining how focused and immersive music listening events can support well-being.

Amanda Krause

Stigma prevents many people from seeking well-being support; however, positive music listening experiences can buffer the impact of stigma on help-seeking. Recent research suggests that community-based, focused music listening experiences have real potential for improving individual well-being, but research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms. This project uses a case study to examine people’s experiences of participating in communal, high-fidelity, and immersive music listening sessions. Expected outcomes include solidifying a research partnership with a community organisation and disseminating evidence relating to substantiating the mechanisms underpinning the well-being benefits of focused and immersive music listening. JCU College of Healthcare Sciences 2024 Research Seed Grant

Deepfake detection and biases

Klaire Somoray

Deepfakes are computer-generated synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is manipulated to have another person's likeness. The public is generally poor at detecting deepfakes, performing only marginally better than chance (Somoray & Miller, 2023). A series of studies will expand on our previous work examining factors that influence deepfake detection as well as investigating the public's biases associated with deepfakes.

GenAI in the classroom

Klaire Somoray

Our project will examine both the student and educator perspectives, aiming for high-impact outcomes: 1) Phase 1-2 will assess AI's impact on students’ learning and assessment, informing AI literacy frameworks, assessment reforms and development of OER guides for ethical and critical use of AI and 2) Phase 3 will focus on educator’s perspectives, guiding future professional development programs.