Graduate Research Services

Project Outline:

This project is funded under ECU Industry PhD scholarship. The industry partner is the Department of Health, Western  Australia. The project applies Human-Centred design approaches to develop a roadmap to cultivate innovation culture in the public health service delivery sector.

Desired skills: Human-Centre Design; Service Design

Project Area: Design

Supervisor(s): Dr Christopher Kueh, Associate Professor Stuart Medley, Dr Neil Lynch (external supervisor: Department of Health WA)

Project level: PhD

Funding: Applicant should apply for ECUHDR or RTP Scholarship. Industry PhD Scholarship available.

Start date: 2/1/2021

For further information contact: Dr Christopher Kueh

Project Outline:

The proposed series of studies will provide the sporting sector with an overview of how elite athletes manoeuvre different setbacks during their career. This series of studies will investigate athletes missing the opportunity to compete at the ‘top level’ in their sport, how they cope with injury, and the transition to life after retiring from competitive sport. The prospective studies bring together an interdisciplinary team of researchers to investigate the ways in which athletes prepare, cope (or not), and transition to life after sport.

Desired skills: Applicants must demonstrate strong knowledge, skills and interest in either exercise physiology/science/psychology/ mental health and wellbeing/ or other relevant academic fields.

Project Area: Exercise Sport Science/Exercise Medicine/Psychology

Supervisor(s): Dr Caitlin Fox-Harding, Associate Professor Joanne Dickson

Project level: PhD

Funding: Applicant should apply for ECUHDR or RTP Scholarship

Start date: 2021

Project Outline:
Forced migration due to climate and environmental change is expected to be one of the defining trends of population movement in the 21st century. But precisely what prompts a decision to move, and how decisions are made about where to relocate to, remain understudied. This project would blend cultural, social, place-based and ecological perspectives to investigate one or several of the following questions: What are the attributes of people who are likely to relocate, and what are the ecological characteristics of places they are likely to relocate from? What are the environmental change tipping points for leaving a place (either as an individual or as part of a collective)? How do people respond to abrupt versus incremental changes to their environment? How are decisions about where to move to made? How are host communities likely to respond to climate migration, in particular in assessing the priorities of local (within Australia) versus international migrants.

Desired Skills: This project would suit someone with a background in social, cross-cultural, cultural and/or environmental psychology. Candidates with a background in human ecology would also be considered. Experience in quantitative methods and software packages (e.g., SPSS, Stata, R); appreciation of experimental design methods; an appreciation of qualitative methods or experience with spatial analysis would be advantageous.

Project Area: Social, cross-cultural, cultural and/or environmental psychology

Supervisor(s): A/Prof Justine Dandy, Dr Zoe Leviston, Dr Deirdre Drake, Prof Pierre Horwitz (Science)

Project level: PhD

Funding: Applicant should apply for ECUHDR or RTP Scholarship

Start date: Ongoing

Project Outline:
The history of youth work in Western Australia is under-researched. There is scope for a variety of further projects in this field, and there may be opportunities to collaborate with youth agencies or with the Youth Affairs Council of Western Australia. Projects could be tailored to suit the requirements of Honours, Masters or PhD.

Desired Skills:

• A sound knowledge of youth work theory
• Good written and analytical skills
• An interest in combining for textual and interview research methods
• An interest in an approach that locates the history of youth work in its socio-political context

Project Area: Youth Work

Supervisor(s): A/Prof Trudi Cooper

Project level: Honours, Masters, PhD

Funding: Applicant should apply for ECUHDR or RTP Scholarship

Start date: Ongoing

Project Outline:
This United Nations Agenda 2030 established 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. It was envisaged that SDGs would only be achievable through holistic collaboration between government, non-government organisations and industry. Implementations requires systemic analysis of problems and integrated cross-government and cross-sectorial policy and strategy. A purpose of this project is to design and conduct research into how youth work can contribute to this program and what support would be required. Ideally this is a PhD project. There is potential for an Australian focus, an international focus, or a comparative focus. It may be possible to design a more bounded research project evaluating local initiatives for a Masters degree.

Desired Skills:

• A sound knowledge of youth work theory
• Good written and analytical skills
• An interest in international policy and strategy for sustainable development
• An interest in systems thinking and the global context of youth work

Project Area: Youth Work

Supervisor(s): A/Prof Trudi Cooper

Project level: Honours, Masters, PhD

Funding: Applicant should apply for ECUHDR or RTP Scholarship

Start date: Ongoing

Project Outline:
A leading model of motivation proposes that two independent systems underpin human behaviour and emotion: an approach motivational system thought to be sensitive to reward stimuli and an avoidance motivational system thought to be sensitive to threat and punishment stimuli. The proposed research aims to investigate both implicit and explicit measures of motivation and goal motivation in relation to affective disorders and to examine whether these motivational processes represent vulnerability and maintenance markers for future symptom severity. All supervisors are members of the international MARG research group (www.imarg.website). The successful candidate(s) would also become a member of MARG.

Desired Skills: Psychology Honours degree (or equivalent)

Project Area: Psychology

Supervisor(s): Professor Joanne Dickson, Professor Alfred Allan, Dr Nicholas Moberly (University of Exeter, UK)

Project level: PhD

Funding: Applicant should apply for ECUHDR or RTP Scholarship

Start date: Ongoing

Project Outline:
Goal motivation is fundamental to human experience and most therapeutic interventions. Despite the importance of goal motivation and the development of prominent theories of goal regulation, relatively little is known about the role of goal motivation in affective disorders (e.g., depression, self-harm). However, in recent years, goal dysregulation is increasingly being implicated in the etiology and maintenance of affective disorders. Affective disorders have also been linked to processes of social comparison. The proposed research aims to draw these two areas of research (personal goal pursuit and social comparison processes) together in order to develop an over-arching motivational-cognitive model of affective disorder. All supervisors are members of the international MARG research group (www.imarg.website). The successful candidate(s) would also become a member of MARG.

Desired Skills: Psychology Honours degree (or equivalent)

Project Area: Psychology

Supervisor(s): Professor Joanne Dickson, Professor Alfred Allan, Dr Peter Taylor (University of Manchester, UK)

Project level: PhD

Funding: Applicant should apply for ECUHDR or RTP Scholarship

Start date: Ongoing

Project Outline:
Recently it has been discovered that individuals present with idiosyncratic face scanning eye movement patterns during face-to-face conversation. A PhD opportunity exists to extend upon this work by exploring situational and dispositional factors that might be associated with eye movement patterns. Specific factors of interest will be negotiated between the candidate and the supervisors.

Rogers, Speelman, Guidetti, and Longmuir (2018). Using dual eye tracking to uncover personal gaze patterns during social interaction. Scientific Reports, 8(4721). doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22726-7

Please note the candidate must be able to run lab experiments on ECU Joondalup campus.

Project Area: Cognition

Supervisor(s): Dr Shane Rogers, Professor Craig Speelman

Project level: PhD

Funding: Applicant should apply for ECUHDR or RTP Scholarship

Start date: Ongoing

Project Outline:
This project seeks to leverage existing supervisor expertise at ECU Design in the areas of visual communication and service design, bringing these two fields together for student research projects. Research projects are available to explore the efficacy of pictorial communication in the service design context. Research may focus on any or all aspects from sketching during the service design process, through to storyboarding during prototyping phases and on to finished visual designs for public touchpoints within a service.

Project Area: Design

Supervisor(s): A/Prof Stuart Medley, Dr Hanadi Haddad, Dr Christopher Kueh

Project level: Honours, Masters, PhD

Funding: Applicant should apply for ECUHDR or RTP Scholarship

Start date: Ongoing