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Psych: Emotion and Well-Being Research Unit (EWBRU)
Vision: To promote emotional health and well-being by encouraging a self-managed positive lifestyle.
The Emotion and Well-Being Unit (EWBU) aims to understand more fully the psychological and neurobiological processes which promote and sustain well-being. The unit operates within the School of Psychology and Psychiatry at Monash University and comprises researchers from health psychology and affective neuroscience disciplines. EWBU strives for research and teaching excellence by systematically exploring predictors and mechanisms underlying well-being in both real world and laboratory studies. Our team is internationally recognized for its work on identifying correlates and methods for enhancing well-being in a range of settings including education, workplaces and communities and for specific populations such as adolescents and the chronically ill. We are also known for our research on biological mechanisms underlying strong emotional experiences, particularly with music.
Mission: To identify lifestyle activities and interventions which promote well-being and protect against mental illness based on subjective and neurobiological investigations.
The primary objectives of EWBU are to:
- Integrate subjective, behavioural and neurobiological methods to systematically assess processes such as happiness, emotion regulation, affective style and eudiamonic well-being.
- Develop well-being interventions for use in significant life domains (e.g., education, work, parenting).
- Evaluate interventions and lifestyles believed to promote well-being and protect against psychopathology across the lifespan using empirically sound methodologies and the latest technological advances.
Directors
A/Prof Nikki Rickard
E: Nikki.Rickard@monash.edu
+ 61 3 9903 2221
Dr Dianne Vella-Brodrick
E: Dianne.Vella-Brodrick@monash.edu
T: + 61 3 9903 2542
Other Affiliated Staff
- Dr Samia Toukhsati
- Dr Simon Albrecht
Recent Research Collaborations
- Castlemaine Secondary College
- St Kevins’ College
- St Peter’s College
- North Sydney Girls High School
- North Sydney Boys High School
- Department of Transport, Victoria
- The Brotherhood of St Laurence
- Bus Association Victoria
Current Project areas
Documenting, developing and assessing self-managed or lifestyle interventions that access multiple dimensions of emotional health and well-being
- Focus 1: music-based engagement as a means of emotion regulation
- Focus 2: positive psychology and well-being interventions
- Focus 3: community based approaches to emotion regulation and well-being particularly for at risk populations.
Exploring key factors responsible for enhanced well-being in these interventions, and identifying mediating factors underlying the intervention - well-being relationship
- Focus 1: neurobiological measures of affective style, hedonic well-being, emotion regulation, and social bonding (e.g, pre-frontal asymmetry, heart rate variability, neurohormones such as noradrenaline, cortisol, dopamine, oxytocins, prolactin, opioids, and immune markers)
- Focus 2: individual difference factors such as motivation, mental imagery ability, mindfulness, savouring ability, values and social support.
Current Post-graduate Students
| Name | Project Topic |
| Kim Bowling |
Exploring predictors of psychological well-being and general health for individuals with chronic disease: The role of self-compassion and optimism. |
| Sherilene Carr |
Investigating the use of emotionally arousing music to elicit psychophysiological and subjective states conducive to long-term memory formation. |
| TanChyuan Chin |
Music Engagement - Measurement, Associations and Application |
| Bianca Clarke |
Employee Education of Organisational Citizenship Behaviour: A social learning theory perspective |
| Zhiwen Gao |
How tertiary students use music to manage stress |
| Elliot Gerschman |
Life meaning, psychological health and well-being |
| Fleur Harrison |
Mediation of the relationship between Personality and Health outcomes by Health Behaviours and Positive Affect |
| Kaveh Monshat |
Design and evaluation of an online mindfulness training program for promoting the mental health of young people |
| Denise Quinlan |
Development and trial of a brief, group-focused strengths identification programme for children (years 5-8) to enhance well-being, classroom engagement and class climate |
| Will Randall |
Music Use to Regulate Emotions and Promote Well-being in Adolescence and Young Adulthood |
| Paul Read |
Reconceptualising needs, equity and well-being in the context of global sustainability |
| Gavin Slemp |
Employee well-being and psychological needs |
| Neringa Smith |
Positive parenting: Using positive psychology interventions to help children flourish |
| Valeria Zoteyeva |
Exploring benefits of listening to music for psychological and emotional health and wellbeing in veterans participating in VVCS residential programs |
Important links
Psychology of Well-Being: Research, Theory and Practice (Edited by Dianne Vella-Brodrick and Nikki Rickard) http://www.psywb.com/
Content maintained by research.psych@monash.edu
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