Pre-Conference Workshops
Walking on the Psycho-Path
3 March 2022 (Thursday), 2.00pm-3.30pm
Venue: James Cook University Singapore, details TBC
Speaker's Bio
Julia CY Lam, DPsych, is a Consultant Forensic Psychologist at Forensic Psych Services, a company she founded in May 2015. She specializes in forensic psychological assessment and provides reports on medico-legal issues for Court purposes. A scientist-practitioner, she has worked in universities, hospitals, prisons and correction services, gambling treatment facilities and private clinics. She has been a pioneer in forensic-clinical work in the private sector of Singapore since 2009.
Synopsis
Forensic Psychology is a field that deals with both psychology and the law. Forensic psychologists can perform many roles and it is definitely not “CSI” (Crime Scene Investigation). They are involved in different contexts of law, e.g. criminal (offenders with mental conditions), civil (psychological injury) and family (custody of children of divorce family, parental fitness). Julia will share with you why and how she became a Forensic Psychologist, and some of the interesting cases she has encountered so far.
Program-Wide Positive Behaviour Support for Singapore Preschools
3 March 2022 (Thursday), 4.00pm-5.30pm
Venue: James Cook University Singapore, details TBC
Speaker's Bio
Dr. Lily Lau is a Senior Principal Psychologist (Singapore and Australia Registered) at the Department of Child Development, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. She has been practicing for over ten years. She specializes in working with children and caregivers of children with developmental disorders, and behavioural and/or emotional difficulties, where she provides diagnostic assessment and intervention. As part of her role in the hospital, she also supervises psychology interns and junior psychologists. In addition, she provides and supervises psychologists in preschools to provide collaborative consultation to school teachers. She also trains and supervises learning support educators in preschools to provide behavioural support to children with behavioural and/or emotional difficulties.
Dr. Lau is also an accredited trainer for ‘Signposts for Building Better Behavior’ Program, where she has trained and coached over hundreds of professionals to facilitate the program for parents and caregivers. Occasionally, she provides lecturing and tutoring at universities. Dr. Lau has published a few papers in the area of child development, and her current research interests, which stemmed from her PhD research, are in the areas of classroom management, and parenting.
Synopsis
In a community sample of Singaporean pre-schoolers aged between 1.5 – 5 years old, up to 30% of the children were reported to have emotional or behavioural difficulties (Rescorla et al., 2011). This is a concern given that untreated early problem behaviour may lead to academic failure and the development of a range of mental health problems in adolescence and adulthood (Campbell, 1995; Vitaro et al., 2005). Research has documented that around 50% of children with problem behaviours at ages 3 or 4 years old have an increased risk of continuing to display difficulties throughout the schooling years and into early adolescence (Campbell, 1995, 2002). As close to 99% of preschool-aged children attend a preschool (Ng, 2013), it is important that preschools adopt Program-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (PW-PBS). PW-PBS has been demonstrated to be effective in increasing engagement and appropriate behaviours, reducing difficult behaviours and improving social skills (e.g., Jolstead et al., 2017). In this workshop, PW-PBS practices will be shared.
Using Google Trends as a Research Tool
3 March 2022 (Thursday), 2.00pm-3.30pm
Venue: James Cook University Singapore, details TBC
Speaker's Bio
Dr Kai Qin Chan is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at James Cook University, Singapore. He has taught a wide range of undergraduate courses in the last 10 years of his career. His teaching specialization is in research methods and statistics, and as such, he is naturally interested in using cutting-edge methods to uncover psychological phenomena.
Synopsis
Nowadays, when people want answers to life's challenges, they often Google for solutions. This inadvertently leaves behind traces of their concerns, as Google indexes every search term within its Google Trends functionality. These indexed searches are treasure troves of data, but by itself, it is of limited use because Google Trends is fundamentally a descriptive tool; it only reveals searches over time and nothing more. However, when used in combination with other sources of data, Google Trends may be used for predictive research to reveal socially significant patterns. In this workshop, you will learn how to utilize Google Trends for predictive research.
Moderated Multiple Regression: From Theory to Publication
3 March 2022 (Thursday), 4.00pm-5.30pm
Venue: James Cook University Singapore, details TBC
Speaker's Bio
Dr Kunchana (Gi) Chouynuu is a learning advisor for Mathematics and Statistics at James Cook University, Singapore. She has several years of experience in teaching research methodologies and statistical analyses for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Gi completed a PhD in social psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia. She also holds a Master’s degree in Quantitative Methods for Science, Social Science and Medicine from Lancaster University, UK.
Synopsis
This workshop aims to introduce the concepts of the moderated multiple regression (MMR) and its applications in the SPSS PROCESS Macro tool.
The workshop will cover topics such as recapitulation of multiple regression, data preparation for MMR, coding systems and planned contrasts, assumption tests, interpretation of output, reporting the results, and limitations of MMR. It will also briefly introduce advanced models of the MMR and APA publication guidelines, including best practices in the Open Science Framework.
Attendees are required to have basic knowledge of correlation and simple regression analyses. Attendees are welcome to bring their own data for practice.
Notes: If the attendees wish to use their personal computer, they need to have SPSS pre-installed in it. A free 30-day trial version of SPSS is available at https://www.ibm.com/account/reg/sg-en/signup?formid=urx-19774. There are also affordable rental versions of SPSS at https://www.ibm.com/sg-en/products/spss-statistics-gradpack/details.
Keynote Speakers
Sylvia Xiaohua Chen
Professor, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Director of the Yan Oi Tong Au Suet Ming Child Development Centre
Speaker's Bio
Sylvia Xiaohua Chen is a Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences, an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, and Director of theYan Oi Tong Au Suet Ming Child Development Centre at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (previously American Psychological Society) and the Hong Kong Psychological Society. She is President of the Asian Association of Social Psychology (AASP) and the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, which is the flagship journal of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP). She served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and Asian Journal of Social Psychology for four years, respectively.
Sylvia’s research interests center around the social psychology of bilingualism and biculturalism, globalization and multiculturalism, personality and social behavior in cultural contexts, as well as cultural diversity and mental health. She was a recipient of the Early Career Award conferred by the IACCP, the Michael Harris Bond Award for Early Career Research Contributions and the Jung-heun Park Young Scholar Award conferred by the AASP, and the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme awarded by the Research Grants Council. She has also received several academic awards from the American Psychological Association Division 52 (International Psychology).
Keynote Address
Title: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Implications for Psychological Research
Abstract: The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected both physical health and mental well-being around the world. Since the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003 stimulated psychological research related to infectious diseases, the importance of social factors and cultural norms has been recognized in promoting effective coping strategies and health behaviors in the general public. There are burgeoning empirical studies during the COVID-19 pandemic showing the interface between public health, personality and social psychological perspectives. I will talk about the effects of containment and closure policies on controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in East Asia, based on time-series data in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore during the early period of outbreaks. I will also talk about our multinational study that examined the consequences of the pandemic on mental health and explored the effects of government responses to the outbreak. It is suggested that multidisciplinary empirical research in health care and social sciences, personality and social psychology is needed for a clear understanding of how cultural values, social norms, and individual predispositions interact with policy to affect life-saving behavioral changes in different societies.
William Tov
Associate Professor of Psychology, Singapore Management University
Deputy Director of the Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA)
Speaker's Bio
Will Tov is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Singapore Management University. He completed his doctorate in social and personality psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the multilevel processes that underlie well-being. At the macro-level, he is interested in cultural similarities and differences in well-being as well as the societal-level conditions associated with well-being. At the micro-level, he examines daily fluctuations in emotion, satisfaction, and meaning—and how these fluctuations are influenced by positive personality traits, memory, and social interactions. He was awarded a Lee Kong Chian Fellowship at SMU in recognition for excellence in research. He currently serves as co-deputy director of the Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA) which manages the Singapore Life Panel – a high-frequency monthly survey of the well-being of older adults in Singapore. His work has been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, and the Journal of Personality.
Keynote Address
Title: Happiness for All: Sharing the Science of Well-Being with the General Public
Abstract: Well-being science has evolved rapidly over the past few decades. Prior scepticism about the extent to which people really know if they are happy has given way to a large body of research suggesting that what people say about their well-being is linked to important social, health, and work outcomes. Policymakers and organizational leaders have begun to incorporate the insights from well-being measures into their planning and advocacy. However, before the use of such indicators can gain widespread acceptance, the general public needs to have confidence in the validity of these measures and understand the science that undergirds it. I will share several critical findings from the field of well-being science that have strong empirical support. Though some findings may seem intuitive, I argue that the implications of these basic findings for the functioning of individuals and society are not always appreciated. Greater well-being literacy will enable a more fruitful dialogue between citizens and governments on how policies can best be crafted with respect to improving and sustaining well-being.
Forum: Strengthened By The Past
Background
People frequently feel nostalgic, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once believed to be maladaptive, research findings have shown that nostalgia is a useful psychological resource that can boost our well-being. This forum will discuss how the psychology of nostalgia has been applied in various settings, such as tourism, psychological treatment, marketing, gaming, and consumer behavior.
Panellists & Moderator
| Professor Abhishek Singh Bahti Panellist | Professor Nigel V. Marsh Panellist | Associate Professor Xi Zou Panellist |
|---|---|---|
|
Campus Dean Head (Singapore) Learning, Teaching and Student Engagement James Cook University Singapore Vice President (Regional) International Tourism Studies Association  |
Professor of Clinical Psychology Director of Professional Programs James Cook University Singapore  |
Associate Professor Division of Leadership, Management & Leadership Nanyang Business School Nanyang Technological University  |
| Associate Professor Roberto Dillon Panellist | Mr. David Wee Panellist | Associate Professor Denise Dillon Moderator |
|
Academic Head Science and Technology Associate Professor Information Technology James Cook University Singapore  |
Founder and Managing Director Wee's Collection  |
Associate Dean of Research (and Research Education) Associate Professor, Psychology  |
Biographies
Professor Abhishek Singh Bahti
As Campus Dean JCU Singapore, Abhishek contributes to JCU’s Tropical Asian initiatives. His efforts guide the learning, student experience and teaching and academic governance of programs offered in JCU Singapore. Abhishek Bhati’s research investigates resilience planning in tourism, sustainable development of cities and scholarship of learning and teaching. In particular, he is interested in technology and the role it has as a catalyst for tourism industry changes; “Smart City” as a mechanism for future sustainable development; and the need for tourism to deliver United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Recent projects he has conducted have studied tourist vandalism and effectiveness of stakeholder responses to tourism developments. Prof Bhati’s other projects include incorporating ‘work integrated learning’ (WIL) based learning strategies in tertiary education.
He has been successful in securing collaborative grant with Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT), Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), external industry grant and several internal research grants. His current research interest is tourist behaviour management, resilience planning and scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Professor Marsh is a New Zealand-trained clinical psychologist. He has held academic appointments in Clinical Psychology in Australia, Lebanon, Malaysia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Most of his most recent clinical work has involved with the neuropsychological assessment of individuals with traumatic brain injury, stroke, occupational exposure to neurotoxins, or suspected dementia.
His expertise within clinical psychology is in the areas of psychological assessment and research design. The majority of his research publications deal with the assessment of the psychosocial consequences of traumatic injuries or chronic illness for both the individual and their familial caregivers. He has conducted research across the life span with published studies on age groups ranging from infants to older adults. He has also published studies on non-clinical groups, primarily in the area of organisational psychology.
Professor Marsh has previously been awarded grants to conduct research on traumatic brain injury, quality of life in dialysis patients, dementia in older adults, resilience in very low-income families and internet use amongst young adults. He has served as a consultant in the areas of healthy ageing, occupational health, genetics and rehabilitation.
He is a Visiting Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Norwich Medical School of the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. In 2016, 2017 and 2018 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Oviedo in Spain where he worked with the Health Sciences Research Group on School Learning, Difficulties and Academic Performance.
Dr. Xi Zou received a BBA with First Class Honours in Information Science from the Lingnan University in Hong Kong and a PhD with Distinction in Organisational Behavior, from Columbia Business School in the United States. Her research draws on social psychology to understand how culture and motivation shape people’s judgments, decision-makings, and behaviors, and the implications for interpersonal dynamics and job performance. Her work has been published in the top management and psychology journals such as Academy of Management Review, Organisational Behavior and Human Decision-Making Processes, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. She is currently an Associate Editor at Frontiers in Psychology, as well as on editorial boards of Academy of Management Perspectives, Journal of Management Studies, and Management & Organization Review. Before joining NBS, she was a faculty at London Business School in the United Kingdom. She has extensive experience in teaching leadership development and business negotiation.
Associate Professor Roberto Dillon
Dr. Roberto Dillon is the author of several well received game related books published by AKPeters, CRC Press and Springer ("On the Way to Fun", "The Golden Age of Video Games", "Ready: a Commodore 64 Retrospective", "HTML5 Game Development from the Ground-Up with Construct 2" and “2D to VR with Unity 5 and Google Cardboard”) and was invited to speak at the most important game conferences around the world (GDC, GameConnection, Casual Connect, Develop, GMGC, KGC etc.)
He is active both as an indie developer and as an academic in the field of game design and development. His games have been showcased at events like Sense of Wonder Night in Tokyo, FILE Games in Rio de Janeiro and the Indie Prize Showcase at Casual Connect Asia besides reaching top positions on Apple's App Store and Google Play across several countries and categories.
He is currently an Associate Professor at James Cook University lecturing game design and project management classes. Over there in 2013 he founded, and directed since then, the very first Museum of Video and Computer Games in South East Asia. Before joining JCU, he was the Chair of the Game Software Design and Production Department at DigiPen Singapore, teaching a variety of courses ranging from Games History to Game Mechanics, with his students gaining top honors at competitions like the IGF both in San Francisco and Shanghai.
Roberto was also featured in the documentary “Inside the Storm, Season 2 Episode 4: Nintendo”, aired on Channel News Asia, in several reports on TV news (Italian TG5, Leonardo, TG3 etc.) and newspaper published in Singapore (Straits Times, Today, ZaoBao), Italy (Corriere della Sera, Il Sole 24 Ore, il Secolo XIX, La Stampa etc.) and USA (USA Today).
Mr. David Wee
Mr David Wee is the founder of Wee’s Collection, a company specializing in Heritage related events management. The company also runs a museum and is in the midst of developing an e-commerce trading platform for vintage items. Prior to this, David was working as a constituency manager with the People’s Association upon his graduation from the Singapore Management University with a Bachelor of Business Management, Summa Cum Laude.
As a collector for 25 years, the opportunity to set up Wee’s Collection came about when David was approached by a Community Club in 2012 to showcase his collection for their “Heritage Nite”. From then, he has gone on to build many different sets, depicting scenes of old Singapore. David’s passion has always been to bring heritage and memories to his clients, strongly believing that: “Every item has a story behind it”.
Inspired by many private museums that he has visited while travelling, David decided to set up something similar in Singapore. His museum took 3 years to develop and was completed in 2020. Today, it serves as a location for both educational and heritage development.
Associate Professor Denise Dillon
Dr Denise Dillon is the Associate Dean of Research (Psychology & Education) and Associate Dean Research Education at the Singapore campus of James Cook University (JCU). After serving as Head of Academic Group for psychology, arts and education for almost 10 years she now facilitates and promotes the strategic direction of research within JCU Singapore, improvements in the quality and impact of that research, and the growth of local, national and international research collaborations.
Dr Dillon has extensive supervisory experience in fourth-year and graduate research, having supervised more than 100 fourth-year students and more than a dozen graduate-level students to completion. Graduate students include those in the Master and Doctor of Clinical Psychology courses, and PhD.
She is a full member of the Singapore Psychological Society (SPS) and a member of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP), Division 4: Environmental Psychology. She is an ARMS Accredited Research Manager (Foundation) and a certified Forest Therapy Guide (ANFT no. 1818009).