Dr Michael Halloran
Lecturer
My research focuses on the relationship between cultural, social identity, and individual processes. My current research projects include investigations of cultural trauma and recovery, attitudes towards indigenous reconciliation, the self-definition of people from rural and metropolitan culture, status-based intercrop bias, and the effects of terror management processes on cultural worldview validation.
m.halloran@latrobe.edu.au

Psychological Science Staff Page

Dr Emiko Kashima
Lecturer
My primary research question concerns how shared cultural beliefs and practices, including values, stereotypes, the self and identities, are maintained and transmitted through social processes, such as interpersonal communication and reactions to personal and collective threats. The current research topics are: communication of cultural beliefs, cultural differences in and terror management responses, interpersonal grounding of knowledge in intercultural contacts, and acculturation and social networks of international students..
e.kashima@latrobe.edu.au

Psychological Science Staff Page

Dr Jim McLennan
Senior Research Fellow and Manager of the National Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre Project on Volunteer Fire-fighters.
My research interests are in emergency services volunteering, emergency management decision making, safety critical decision making and safety cultures.
j.mclennan@latrobe.edu.au

Psychological Science Staff Page

Dr Art Stukas
Senior Lecturer
My research focuses broadly on interpersonal processes and more specifically on a) the dynamic interplay of interpersonal expectations and self-perceptions (including those related to stigma and stereotypes), and b) motivations to engage in volunteerism and other forms of community involvement (and the effects of such behaviour on volunteers, recipients, and communities).  
a.stukas@latrobe.edu.au

Psychological Science Staff Page

Amy Brown
PhD student
My research is looking into motivations for precocial behaviour. In particular, I am focusing on everyday considerate behaviour.
amy.brown@latrobe.edu.au

David Collins
DPsyche (Clinical) student
I am interested in investigating some of the inter- and intra-personal strategies that narcissistic people use to create and maintain their highly positive self-views. I am specifically investigating the way in which narcissistic people use self-presentational behaviour to gain validation of their self-views.
d.r.collins@latrobe.edu.au

Maree Daly
PhD/Clinical Masters student;
Research Assistant for Dr. Art Stukas
My research is concerned with changes that occur to the self-concept across the transition to first-time motherhood. I am particularly interested in self-concept structure, that is, the way in which information about the self is organised. Using Linville's idea of self-concept complexity, I will examine how differences in self-concept structure relate to well-being during pregnancy and in the early postpartum and also how changes to self-concept structure may predict changes to well-being.
m.daly@latrobe.edu.au

Kathryn Gillard
Masters by Research student
My current research is entitled "The effects of peer group influence on body concerns and eating attitudes of adolescent girls." I am proposing to conduct two studies, the first of which will investigate peer group norms and feelings of discrepancy from the peer group norm in adolescent girls. The study will look at the effects of such discrepancy on eating behaviours and body concerns as well as psychological well being. My second study will use social identity theory to investigate the strength of peer group influence on adolescent girls in regards to body concerns, and eating attitudes and behaviours.
kathryn@sbss.com.au

Cahal Meegan
DPsych (Clinical)
My research interests include perceptions of fairness, prejudice and discrimination. Currently, my research involves international students, examining how and when people make attributions to discrimination and it’s consequences for psychological well-being.
cahal.meegan@rmit.edu.au

Adela Ristovski
DPsych (Clinical) student
I am researching forgiveness of offenders in the criminal context. In particular, I am looking at how the source of compensation influences victim forgiveness of the offender. I am also interested in the interaction between victims' trait empathy, attributions for the causes of the crime and conciliatory gestures on forgiveness. This research has implications for the usefulness of various forms of restorative justice such as crimes compensation agencies, compensation orders and voluntary compensation by the offender.
a.ristovski@latrobe.edu.au; a.ristovski@hotmail.com

Biserka Swann
Masters by Research student
My research interests focus largely on migrants and cultural identities. My current research topic will centre on cultural distance and psychological adjustment of migrants to Australia. My honours thesis was specifically focused on how second generation Australians with a Serbian or Croatian background experienced the wars in their ancestral homelands. The impact these wars had on their everyday lives were explored and how they negotiated or maintained their ethnic and Australian identity was investigated.
bikkiswann@hotmail.com

Jonathan Tandos
PhD/Clinical Masters student
My research interests include the self-fulfilling prophecy (behavioural confirmation) and self-verification effects in social interaction, stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination, and discursive psychology. I am currently conducting a PhD project examining expectancy effects between clinicians and clients in psychotherapy settings.
j.tandos@latrobe.edu.au

Chris Tanti
PhD/Clinical Masters student
My broad research interests are in child and adolescent development, intra group processes, the self and identity, and motivational processes. My research is investigating developmental issues in social identity. While a large body of evidence supports the Self-Categorization Theory approach to identity, little attention has been paid to developmental issues. My research is focussing on adolescence as there are significant cognitive and social changes during this time that should influence the process of self-categorization. I am planning a large study of about 200 adolescents, from preadolescence through to early adulthood, to identify age-related trends in social identity. Further studies will attempt to tease out the influence of cognitive and social factors in these trends.
c.tanti@latrobe.edu.au

Laura Varanelli
PhD student
My current research is on the interaction between intuitive and analytic mental processes in judgment and decision making.
l.varanelli@latrobe.edu.au

Ken Williamson
MPsych (Clinical)
I am looking to conduct cross cultural research into individual choice in settings of social uncertainty within the context of Social Identity Theory, Self Categorization Theory, and Optimal Group Distinctiveness.
kenwill@optusnet.com.au

Ruth Chalwell
PhD student
My primary research interest is Terror Management Theory. I'm also a big fan of Social Identity Theory.
rmchalwell@students.latrobe.edu.au

Chelsea Cornell
Research Assistant for Dr. Art Stukas
I have been working for Art since 2002 on a series of studies investigating behavioural confirmation processes. I graduated with first class honours in 1999 in developmental psychology and continue to have an interest in this field as well as in social psychology. I also have a passion for the performing arts and began studying voice in 1997.
c.cornell@latrobe.edu.au