Postgraduate Conference 2012

The Department of Psychology held its annual Postgraduate Conference, with Dr. Desmond Painter as the keynote presenter. Dr Painter is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Stellenbosch University. He has published numerous articles in the areas of critical psychology and the social psychology of language. ...read more

Wechsler IQ tests: Distribution of Cross-cultural Norms

Under the co-ordination of Professor Ann Edwards in the Department of Psychology, Rhodes University, cross-cultural norms have been developed in a series of studies on the adult and child Wechsler IQ tests (WAIS-III and WISC IV). ...read more

ICP 2012 Presentations on Sports Concussion Research and Management

An invited symposium on sports concussion was chaired by Professor Ann Edwards at the 30th International Congress of Psychology held in Cape Town in July 2012. Results were presented from three doctoral and three masters theses conducted on South African players of Rugby Union under her supervision at Rhodes University over the past eight years. Doctoral students included Dr Vicky Alexander, Dr Sue Clark and Ms Diana Zoccola; Masters students were Mr Mark Horsman, Mr Ian Smith and Ms Thandi Salmon-Godlo. With the exception of Mark Horsman and Ian Smith, all were in attendance at the conference to present their own work. Dr Clifford van Ommen (currently Psychology Clinic Director at Massey University in Auckland New Zealand) was also present as the co-supervisor on Ms Salmon-Godlo’s thesis while he was still at Rhodes University. The statistical analyses were conducted on all studies by Professor Sarah Radloff, of the Department of Statistics at Rhodes University. While not in attendance at the symposium she was a co-author on all the presentations in acknowledgement of her invaluable contribution to this entire research series. ...read more

Unprecedented number of applicants for the Masters Programmes in Clinical and Counselling Psychology

The psychology department has once again seen a dramatic increase in the number of applicants for the 12 places that it offers annually in the Clinical and Counselling Psychology Programmes. ...read more

Psychology student wins International Congress of Psychology PsySSA/Discovery student presentation award

Tracey Feltham-King, a PhD student in the Psychology Department, won the PsySSA/Discovery student presentation award at the International Congress of Psychology held in Cape Town from 22 to 27 July. This congress, held every four years, attracted in the region of 5 500 psychologists from around the globe. Ms Feltham-King’s presentation, entitled ‘The significance of gender in the abortion debate as represented in the South African newsprint media from 1978 to 2005’, drew off research conducted within the ambit of the Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction research programme in which Rhodes was awarded a SARCHI chair earlier this year. ...read more

Prof Michael Guilfoyle's work included in Critical Psychology collection

Prof Michael Guilfoyle's paper, "From Therapeutic Power to Resistance? Therapy and Cultural Hegemony", has been recognised by Ian Parker, and included in a four volume work entitled "Critical Psychology". This collection, which includes the work of such authors as Michel Foucault, Rom Harre, Michael White, and Judith Butler, ...read more

Dr Charles Young won scholarship to attend workshop at the Beck Institute, Philadelphia.

Dr Charles Young has won a scholarship to attend a three-day workshop in cognitive psychotherapy for faculty and students at the Beck Institute in Philadelphia. The Beck Institute for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, a non-profit organisation, is an international Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) training and resource centre. ...read more

Prof Macleod appointed Associate Editor of international journal Feminism & Psychology

Prof Macleod, who has been on the editorial board of the international journal Feminism & Psychology since 2010, has now been appointed Associate Editor of the journal. Feminism & Psychology is one of a handful of journals that provide a forum for debate at the interface between feminism and psychology. ...read more

Rhodes Psychology Student Finalist in PsySSA/Discovery Award student presentations at ICP

Tracey Feltham-King, a PhD student in the Psychology Department, is one of two finalists for the XXX International Congress of Psychology (ICP) 2012 PsySSA/Discovery Award student presentations. The ICP, which will run from 22 to 27 July in Cape Town, will bring together over 5 000 psychologists and psychology students from around the globe. ...read more

Megan Campbell Awarded SKILL Programme Scholarship

Megan Campbell, a Psychology PhD candidate, has been awarded a SAVUSA study visit scholarship to go to the Netherlands for 3 months. The SAVUSA (South Africa- VU University Amsterdam-Strategic Alliances) aims to contribute to the academic climate and the transfer of knowledge between both countries. SAVUSA offers South African PhD’s and Master’s students the opportunity to broaden their skills by carrying out a part of their studies in the Netherlands and develops academic programmes with a strong societal component around relevant themes. ...read more

Social Change Award 2012 - Professor de la Rey

Earlier this month the psychology department awarded Professor Cheryl de la Rey the Social Change award. This event was instituted in 2008, and the idea was to identify psychologists who had made and are making important contributions to social change in South Africa. ...read more

Neurocognitive Screening to Facilitate Medical Management in the Diving Arena

Neuropsychologists Professor Ann Shuttleworth-Edwards and her former doctoral student Dr Victoria Whitefield-Alexander steer a national clinical and research programme on the use of computerized neurocognitive screening using the ImPACT programme to facilitate the medical management of sports concussion. Against this background they were invited to present a paper at an international conference on diving medicine that was held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in March last year on the potential for the use of similar screening for divers. ...read more

Three Members of Department Accepted as Emerging Psychologists

Three members from the Psychology Department, Dr Anita Unni, Dr Tracy Morison, and Ms Megan Campbell have been accepted as Emerging Psychologist for the 30th International Congress of Psychology (ICP 2012). The Emerging Psychologist Programme (EPP) is part of ICP’s strategy to develop and consolidate emerging scientists in the psychology discipline. ICP believes that this programme will form a platform to stimulate growth in various fields of these emerging scientists. ...read more

Psychology Postgraduate Conference

The Department of Psychology held its Postgraduate Conference last week, with Professor Garth Stevens, giving the keynote lecture entitled "Re-imaging our research vistas in the continuing pursuit of a socially relevant psychological praxis: Uncovering the spectacularly ‘ordinary’ in the Apartheid Archive Project". Prof Stevens is an Associate Professor/Clinical Psychologist at University of the Witwatersrand.
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Prof de Jong delivers Public Lecture

On 12 October, the Professor Joop de Jong (MD, PhD) delivered a public lecture on Public mental health - the state of the art of dealing with distress. Prof de Jong is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and epidemiologist with active interests in public mental health systems, various models of trauma and post-traumatic reconstruction of communities. ...read more

Social Change Award 2011 - Prof Mkhize

The Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, Professor Hlengiwe Buhle Mkhize, was awarded the Rhodes University Psychology Department’s Social Change Award on Tuesday night (20 September). ...read more

Psychology co-hosts successful Narrative Therapy Conference

The Rhodes Psychology Department and the Grahamstown Narrative Therapy Network co-hosted a Narrative Therapy conference where participants experienced both cognitive and emotional shifts with positive implications for practice through the rich variety of input.

The conference was well-attended with international presenters from as far afield as New Zealand, the United States and Ireland as well as local presenters from Durban, East London and Grahamstown.

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Distinguished Publication Award for Prof Macleod

The American-based Association for Women in Psychology has awarded Professor Catriona Macleod the 2011 Distinguished Publication Award (DPA) for her book, 'Adolesence', pregnancy and abortion: Constructing a threat of degeneration.

Prof Macleod, Psychology Professor at Rhodes, humbly admitted that she did not know that her book, which is published by Routledge, was nominated and only learnt after the award that a member of the DPA committee nominated it. ...read more

Dr. Trudy Meehan curates an exhibition at festival

There is life after mental illness; there is also life during mental illness. That is what we want to say with the paintings and drawings from the Mark Hipper-Tower Hospital Art Group that are exhibited at Eden Grove during the Festival. These works demonstrate the patients’/artists’ capacity for creativity and self expression. However, they also demonstrate their capacity for discipline and focus. The art works testify to the capacities that remain intact or are in the process of recovery despite the imposition of mental illness. When making an art work, one has to make serious ...read more

Prof Edwards’ article in Monitor on Psychology

Monitor on Psychology, an American Psychological Association’s magazine that provides editorial on the science and practice of Psychology, is billed as a “must read” magazine for psychology educators, scientists, and practitioners. Recently, an article written by Frank Dattilio from Harvard University, Dave Edwards from Rhodes University, and Daniel Fishman from Rutgers University was featured in the magazine (June 2011, Vol 42, No. 6). Rebecca Clay, the author of the piece had ...read more

Prof Macleod Appointed Advisor to Council of ASSAf

Prof Macleod was appointed as advisor to the council of ASSAf this year. The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) was launched in 1996 with 100 founder members, with then-President Nelson Mandela as patron. In 2001 the ASSAf Statute (Act 67 of 2001) was passed, making it the official science academy of South Africa. ASSAf has established the following vision:

ASSAf aspires to be the apex organisation for science and scholarship in South Africa, internationally respecte ...read more

Prof Hermans - Creator of Dialogical Self Theory

Earlier this week Professor Hubert Hermans, one of the main theorists in narrative psychology and in narrative psychotherapy, visited the Psychology Department. Professor Hermans presented a talk on the “Dialogical Self”.

During his career he has developed several influential methods and theories. One of them is the Self Confrontation Method (SCM) that has led to the establishment of the Association for SCM practitioners that has around 300 members in 2010. ...read more

Staff Contributes to Daily Dispatch

On 5 May 2011 Natalie Donaldson, wrote an opinion editorial in the Daily Dispatch looking at the high rate of gay teen suicide in the USA and relating this to the South African context for LGBTI Pride Week. Ms Donaldson is a Junior Lecturer in the Psychology Department; and a researcher in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) Psychology; and an activist in LGBTI rights. ...read more

Where do I stand?

Where do I stand? is a powerful new documentary that is already being used in university classrooms across South Africa and the U.S.. Called "brilliant" and "compelling," Where Do I Stand? captures the experiences and perspectives of seven young people during the xenophobic attacks that broke out in South Africa in 2008. These attacks caught many South Africans off guard, as they were shocked by violence that felt like a violation of the principles of their newly democratic rainbow nation. The film uses the attacks as a window into the young people’s lives, as they think deeply about their actions during and after this violence and carve out their place in this complex and divided country
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BUMPER YEAR FOR PSYCHOLOGY POSTGRADUATE GRADUATION

BUMPER YEAR FOR PSYCHOLOGY POSTGRADUATE GRADUATION ...read more

Staff contribute to international newsletter

The latest issue ofAdvances in Cognitive Therapy contains an article by Professor David Edwards and Dr. Charles Young of the Department of Psychology in collaboration with two colleagues who are clinical psychologists in Cape Town. ...read more

Honours students talk Sport Psychology

On Wednesday evening, Gary Steele hosted the first sports psychology lecture evening on behalf of the Psychology Department. ...read more

The Psychology of poverty

The Department of Psychology held its Postgraduate Conference last week, with Lou-Marie Kruger, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Stellenbosch University, giving the keynote lecture entitled “Keep the lights off. ...read more

Psychology goes green!

On Sunday 10th October, 6 members of the Psychology Department participated in the Green Fund Run showing our commitment to environmental awareness and a ‘greener’ university. ...read more

In the interest of aviation safety

At the recent South African Society for Aerospace Medicine (SASAEM) Conference (9-12 September, 2010) a symposium and specialist panel discussion was convened on ‘Psychological Assessment of Aircrew’. Professor Ann Edwards (in the Department of Psychology at Rhodes) and Dr Whitefield-Alexander (one of her former research students) were invited to present at the conference and to form part of the panel. ...read more

Department well-represented at PSYSSA Conference

Three staff members and three students represented the Department of Psychology at this year’s Psychological Society of South Africa’s Conference in Durban. ...read more

Highlighting our Community Engagement

On the 13th and 14th September the Department contributed to the University wide Community Engagement Launch by taking part in the visual displays at Eden Grove that depicted the Department’s engagement with the community through a variety of projects. ...read more

Facing the past - a must for social change

Earlier this week Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, an acclaimed academic and author, discussed her paper entitled: “In search of Human Solidarity: Transcending the Boundaries of the Self and the Meaning of Moral Imagination” at a psychology department lecture. ...read more

Marc Kahn from Investec visits the Department

Marc Kahn visited the department today to run a three-hour seminar for the honours students. The topic of his seminar was "Organisation Development: Working with leadership and culture at Investec Bank." ...read more

Psychology lecturer to attend Summer Institute

Natalie Donaldson, junior lecturer in the Psychology Department of Rhodes University, has been the only South African accepted to attend the second International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Psychology Summer Institute at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in the United States. ...read more

Unprecedented number of applications for the 2011 Master's degree

The Department of Psychology is delighted at the number of applications Rhodes received for the Masters degree in Counselling and Clnical Psychology for 2011. ...read more

Publication success early in academic career of PhD student Megan Campbell

Megan Campbell, a counselling psychologist and PhD student registered in the Psychology Department, recently had a research article accepted for publication in the US journal, International Journal of Play Therapy. ...read more

Professor Macleod invited to join Editorial Board for Feminism & Psychology

The journal Feminism & Psychology has established itself as the leading international forum for cutting-edge feminist research and debate in - and beyond - psychology. ...read more

Psychology Professor makes her mark

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the South African Department of Health (DoH) commissioned Prof Catriona Macleod, Head of Department of Psychology at Rhodes University, and a team of researchers to produce two significant official documents that will be used in the DoH’s comprehensive preventive and promotion efforts with regard to reproductive health among young women.
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Psychology departmental seminars in 2010

The department of psychology is hosting a series of seminars in which psychology staff will present their current research. ...read more

Rhodes Psychology Department shines at SACNA

The department takes great pleasure in congratulating Clifford van Ommen who was awarded his doctorate from Unisa recently. Entitled “‘My brain will be your occult convolutions’: Toward a critical theory of the biological body”, the project forms part of a growing engagement with biology by critical psychology and, more broadly, body studies. ...read more

Professor David Edwards delivers keynote lecture at Psychotherapy Congress

In February Professor David Edwards was honoured at a congress on “The changing faces of psychotherapy” in Stellenbosch. ...read more

Clifford van Ommen is awarded DLitt et Phil

The department takes great pleasure in congratulating Clifford van Ommen who was awarded his doctorate from Unisa recently. Entitled “‘My brain will be your occult convolutions’: Toward a critical theory of the biological body”, the project forms part of a growing engagement with biology by critical psychology and, more broadly, body studies. ...read more

Professor Ann Edwards receives prestigious invitation

Professor Ann Edwards was recently invited to become a member of the editorial board of Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, the official journal of the Academy of Neuropsychology. ...read more

Rhodes Phd candidate, Judy McKenzie wins UNESCO Prize

Judy McKenzie, a PhD candidate in the Psychology Department at Rhodes University is ‘honoured and excited’ to have been awarded the UNESCO/Emir Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah Prize to Promote Quality Education for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities. ...read more

28 October 2009: Public Lecture - Dr Yogan Pillay - Social Change & Psychology

On Wednesday 28 October at the Rhodes University Eden Grove Red lecture theatre, Dr Yogan Pillay gave a talk titled “every little bit helps- social change and psychology”. Dr Pillay is the Deputy Director General of Strategic Health Programmes at the Department of Health. ...read more

Professor David Edwards - translation of book into Chinese

Conscious and Unconscious was published in 2003 by Open University Press (now a Division of McGraw Hill) in the series Core concepts in Therapy. ...read more

29 July 2009: Inaugural Lecture - Professor Catriona Macleod

On 29 July 2009 Professor Catriona Macleod delivered her inaugural lecture Constructing a threat of degeneration: "teenage pregnancy" in academic and popular rhetoric.

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27 July 2009: Public Lecture - Professor Kevin Durrheim

Professor Kevin Durrheim a visiting Professor of Psychology from University of Kwazulu Natal delivered a public lecture on "Racial Identity & Racism in South Africa Today"

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Phelophepa Health Care Train

The Phelophepa Psycholoy Clinic on board the Transnet Phelophepa Health Care Train aims to assist individuals from some of the most deprived communities in SA by firstly offering solution focused individual counselling. ...read more

2 April 2009: Public Lecture - Professor Joop de Jong

Professor Joop de Jong, a visiting Professor of Cultural and International Psychiatry from the VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam delivered a public lecture on 2 April 2009. ...read more

27 March 2009: Public Lecture - Professor Roger Brooke

The Psychology Department hosted a public lecture by Professor Roger Brooke a Professor of Psychology at the Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA on 27 March 2009. ...read more

18 March 2009 - Community Engagement Day in the Library Quod

As part of the Rhodes University SRC Community Engagement Awareness Week, the Psychology Department made use of the opportunity to showcase our community involvement at the display space in the library quad provided by the SRC on Wednesday 18 March 2009. ...read more