Psychologists for Peace

News and Updates

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2023 Peace Project Award winner announced!

18 February 2024

We are pleased to congratulate the winner of the 2023 Psychologists for Peace Project Award - Freya Wrigley from Cairnmillar Institute with their honours thesis, Racial Microaggressions Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Mental Health Workers in Australia: A Qualitative Study. Congratulations Freya!

The 2023 APS Psychologists for Peace "Peace Project Award" is for students in honours and masters level psychology degrees who may soon be completing their thesis research which could qualify for the award.

The Award is typically for $500 in recognition of high calibre research and to encourage dissemination of the research findings. If there are projects of sufficient merit, more than one award may be made depending on yearly funding. If no entry is worthy of the Award, no winner shall be chosen.

Submissions are due on Tuesday 5th December via the submissions portal in the below link:

https://psychology.org.au/about-us/what-we-do/awards-and-scholarships/ig/psychologists-for-peace-interest-group/psychologists-for-peace-project-award

 

Psychologists for Peace statement on the Israel-Hamas War

01 November 2023

Psychologists for Peace have put together a statement on the current Israel-Hamas war. Read it here.

 

Research For Racial Equality online event on 15th June!

3 April 2023

Join us for a night to showcase the research happening within our community and the winners of the 2021 and 2022 Peace Research Awards! Psychologists for Peace Interest Group (APS) are proud to host this 1.5 hour webinar, which will involve three speakers discussing their research pertaining to reducing racism and inequality in Australia. Each presenter will present their research, followed by 5 minutes of Q and A, so please have your questions ready.

Book via the Eventbrite link here.

 

2022 Peace Project Award winner announced

7 March 2023

We are pleased to announce the winner of the 2022 Psychologists for Peace Project Award - Emily Haines from Flinders University for her honours thesis, Their Win Is Our Loss”: Examining Whether Framing Utopian Thinking and Collective Narcissism Influence Support for Racial Equality - congratulations Emily!
 
We are in the process of organising a webinar in which the award winners from 2021 and 2022 present on their research alongside other researchers from our Psychologists for Peace community, to disseminate the knowledge gained from their hard work and to assist our award winners in connecting with the national Psychologists for Peace community. We will send through further details on this event once it has been organised.

 

2021 Peace Project Award winner announced

15 August 2022

We are happy to announce that the winner of the Peace Project Award for 2021 is Kimberley Bates, who studied at Griffith University. Her supervisor, Professor Kristina Murphy, writes: 

 

Kimberley’s Honours thesis title was: ‘Immigrants’ willingness to report victimisation to police’. Her project was ambitious and involved two studies: Study 1 used survey data collected from ethnic minority immigrants who had experienced criminal victimisation in Australia. The study explored the link between how police were perceived to treat immigrant victims in Australia and victims’ subsequent willingness to trust and report their victimisation to police. Findings showed that when police were perceived as more respectful, displayed empathy, and were neutral in their dealings with victims this had a strong positive effect on victims’ willingness to trust police and report their victimisation. Study 2 involved interviewing victim support workers about how they believed police could work more harmoniously with immigrants who had experienced victimisation. Again, relationship-building and respect were highlighted as crucial to this goal.

 

The Peace Project Award encourages a wider interest in research and practice related to peaceful means of resolving conflict, understanding and preventing aggressive behaviour and the fostering of harmonious relationships at global, inter-group and interpersonal levels.

 

The award is made annually to assist a student enrolled in an accredited fourth year psychology program or Masters by coursework psychology program in carrying out an empirical project on a peace related topic or disseminating its findings. For further details to to the Peace Project Award page.

  

Psychologists for Peace statement on Ukraine

25 March 2022

Psychologists for Peace have put together a statement on the current conflict in Ukraine. Read it here.

 

2021 Youth for Peace Award winners announced

2 December 2021

Congratulations to Marat Schegeni, Yuji De Vera and Mikalea Fernandez of Werribee Secondary College, who won the 2021 Youth for Peace Award with their video Climate Injustice: The Psychology Behind Our Inaction.

Highly commended awards go to the Kilbreda SEALs (Student Environmental Action Leaders) and to the Environment, Social Justice and Liturgy groups at St Columba's College.

The 2021 theme was Creating a Campaign for Climate Action and the award was open for young people aged 16-24. Find out more about the winners here.

 

Video recording of the PfP International Day of Peace event is online

21 September 2021

Psychologists for Peace held an online event for the International Day of Peace on 21st September, with PfP members presenting on their research on peace and mental health. Ariane Virgona (winner of the PfP Peace Project Award in 2019) discussed how polyculturalism, a novel ideology that focuses on mutual influences between cultures, can increase positive and meaningful intercultural engagement. Professor Ann Sanson discussed her current work examining the impacts of climate change on children and young people.

 

Release of the Wise Ways to Win video for children

26 May 2021

PfP have released a video version of their children's book Wise Ways to Win, focussing on helping children learn how to resolve conflict cooperatively and creatively. Visit the Wise Ways to Win page here.

 

PfP member Dr Winnifred Louis launches Psychology of Change Youtube channel

16 May 2021

PFP member and social psychology Dr Winnifred Louis has launched a new Youtube channel through the Social Change Lab. The Psychology of Change channel's first video series is "How To Create Change Using Learnings from Social Psychology".

To see the entire Psychology of Change channel click here.

To find out more about Social Change Lab click here. 

 

2020 Peace Project Award winner announced!

24 March 2021

Congratulations to Erin Geary, winner of the 2020 PFP Peace Reseach Award for their thesis, "Online Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Does Social Connectedness and Learning Community Predict Self-Determined Needs and Course Satisfaction?"

   

PfP member shares their resources on adapting to crisis during COVID-19

06 June 2020

Global issues like the COVID-19 pandemic are peace issues too. Peace psychology can help us navigate these problems. Dr Winnifred Louis, Queensland Coordinator for PfP and Professor at UQ School of Psychology, has shared their videos on adapting to crisis and avoiding explosive conflict for PfP.

 

Further resources on coping with the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health and the psychology sector can be found on the official Australian Psychological Society page at https://www.psychology.org.au/COVID-19-Australians.

 

New video resource from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

18 May 2020

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons." After the ICAN Paris Forum (14-15 February 2020), they have put out a new video resource on creating global change.