School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University

This morning we welcomed a new cohort of Higher Degree Research candidates to the School of Applied Psychology at the Mount Gravatt campus. We are thrilled to welcome these students and are excited to see the impact they will have in their chosen fields of psychological research!

Below is a photo of the welcome packs the candidates received in their orientation!

Congratulations to Dr Tim Piatkowski from the School of Applied Psychology who recently attended the AIVL (national body) Health and Human Rights Summit. He was awarded the Peer Researcher Recognition Award and his community-led drug checking program (including the world first steroid checking trial) received the Harm Reduction Program of the Year Award.

Dr Natalie Loxton recently presented her work on "Uncovering Student Profiles in Statistics Education: Examining Anxiety, Attitudes, and Self-Efficacy" at the Australasian Congress on Personality and Individual Differences. Well done Natalie!

Congratulations to our recent PhD graduates from the School of Applied Psychology!

Vedanta Survana (PhD (Clinical Psychology)) supervised by Jessica Paynter, Lara Farrell, Dawn Adams, and Lisa-Marie Emmerson.

Victoria Hambour (PhD (Clinical Psychology)), supervised by Amanda Duffy and Melanie Zimmer-Gembeck.

Dr Jacob Keech and the HaPI Lab from the School of Applied Psychology recently presented an invited symposia on Self-Control for Health and Behaviour at the 2025 Australasian Society for Behavioural Health and Medicine Conference. Well done to the team!

You can learn more about the HaPI lab here:https://hapiresearchlab.com/

Important new paper led by Associate Professor Jessica Paynter from the School of Applied Psychology: How can we make therapy better for autistic adults? Autistic adults’ ratings of helpfulness of adaptations to therapy.

How can we make therapy better for autistic adults? Autistic adults’ ratings of helpfulness of adaptations to therapy - Jessica Paynter, Kristyn Sommer, Amanda Cook, 2025 Autistic people are at elevated risk of mental health conditions and experience significant barriers to effective support. While adaptations to therapy for auti...

New paper led by Associate Professor Darren Wishart from the School of Applied Psychology: When what’s on the outside counts: Protective motorcycle apparel
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2024.12.033

Thinking of taking a break from social media? New research led by Dr Veya Seekis from the School of Applied Psychology explores the effect of a social media detox on body image and well-being: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144524001712

New Paper led by Dr Lan Nguyen from the School of Applied Psychology: Design and development of a gamified cognitive training program targeting executive functions for older adults. Read the paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187595212400260X

New publication led by School of Applied Psychology PhD Candidate Jasmine Zaphir: The bioSocial Cognitive Theory of eating (bSCT-e): Applying and elaborating on a biopsychosocial substance use theory for food addiction.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666324005543?via%3Dihub
Well done Jasmine!

Did you know that the School of Applied Psychology run clinics open to the public in which our postgraduate students complete placements during their training? You can learn more about the clinics here: https://www.griffith.edu.au/griffith-health/school-applied-psychology/clinics

New Paper Alert! "Feasibility and acceptability of a theory-based online tool for reducing
stress-induced eating" co-authored by PhD Candidate Tenelle Maroney and Dr Jacob Keech from the School of Applied Psychology! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666324003611?via%3Dihub