ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
To complete this survey you must:
• I am 18 years or older
• I reside in Australia
• I read and understand English well enough by my own assessment to complete a survey in English.
• I do not have a personal relationship with any of the researchers.

STUDY DESCRIPTION
This study examines how people learn when multiple events of information are presented for a very short time. When we complete daily tasks, we find that some take more mental effort than others. For example, doing a mathematical task in your head demands more mental effort than brushing your teeth. Another thing that takes mental effort is in situations where we conduct concurrent tasks. For example, trying to learn and understand what the teacher is saying, taking notes and talking to the student next to us. Each individual task is simple enough, but when we are trying to do two things at once, it requires a much greater mental effort to stay focused. What you feel when you are trying to do multiple mental tasks concurrently is an example of working under a high cognitive load.

The present study has been designed to look at how people learn when they complete an online browser-based task where they need to make choices while placed under non-stressful situations that might demand a greater mental effort.

NAME OF INVESTIGATOR
How Hong Sii, Seung Hwa Song.

HREC APPROVAL NUMBER
This study has been approved by the ACAP Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval Number: 826010623).

PROJECT END DATE
Data collection will end 31st October 2023.

SURVEY LINK
https://www.psytoolkit.org/c/3.4.0/survey?s=6SKR4

829050623

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
To complete this survey you must:
• be 18 to 25 years of age (including 18 and 25 years)
• be an Australian resident/citizen (or currently reside in Australia)
• be proficient enough in English to complete an online survey in English.
• not have a personal relationship with any of the researchers.

STUDY DESCRIPTION
Young people between 18-25 years of age can find it difficult to navigate their career pathways and make confident career decisions once they have left adolescence which can affect their professional growth. Developmentally, young people are expected to take on an adult role and become independent, yet get influenced by people around them, including their caregivers. Thus, this study will investigate the relationship between parental attachment and career development among young adults, and will assess the role of personal and social resources.

NAME OF INVESTIGATORS
Rachael Lee and Dr. Anna Praskova.

HREC APPROVAL NUMBER
This study has been approved by the ACAP Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval Number: 827010623).

PROJECT END DATE
Data collection will end 31st August 2023.

SURVEY LINK
https://acap.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3lbEE1gM6g2Uclw

832140623

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
N/A

STUDY DESCRIPTION
Australia is experiencing a teacher shortage crisis because of high teachers’ turnover and low attraction and intake into the profession. This worrying trend became more pronounced during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, exaggerated further with increased demands on teachers who were tasked to modify education under the strict COVID-19 restrictions with limited time and resources, with many experiencing increased work-life conflict. Thus, the aim of this mixed method study was to firstly (a) identify the key stressors primary school teachers faced during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then (b) quantitatively investigate theory-driven relationships between teachers’ work-life conflict, career calling, burnout, and intention to leave.

A survey study using retrospective-prospective design (capturing how past events affect present outcomes and intentions) was completed by a sample of primary school teachers recruited via teacher Facebook groups such as Australian Teachers who worked in Australian primary schools between January 2020 and May 2023. The survey included demographic questions (e.g., age, gender, teaching context), an open-ended question capturing the key stressors for the teachers during COVID-19, and a series of brief psychological scales (e.g., teachers’ burnout, intention to leave). Those who completed the anonymous survey had an average 12 years of teaching experience (SD = 10.02). At the peak of the pandemic, most teachers (90%) worked in public institutions, 5% in catholic institutions, and 5% in independent institutions.

Content analysis of 59 usable responses (M age = 38.2 years, SD = 11.50; 70% female) to the open-ended question showed that, during the peak of the pandemic, teachers noted substantial increase in work demands that interfered with their other life commitments and reported a strain on resources and strain on their health and wellbeing. Furthermore, teachers expressed increased dissatisfaction with their job as a teacher and heightened concern for their students’ wellbeing as well as concern about the quality of education that they were providing.

A moderated mediation analysis was conducted in PROCESS for SPSS on the numerical responses of 79 teachers (M age = 37.5, SD = 10.41 years; 55% female). As expected, results showed that as teachers’ work-life conflict at the peak of COVID-19 increased, so did their burnout, and, in turn, their intention to leave teaching profession. Notably, this effect was the strongest for teachers with low career calling (less passion for teaching), indicating that having a passion for teaching served as a key personal resource that reduced teachers’ intention to leave.

This study gave voice to primary school teachers who were working tirelessly during the pandemic to ensure the quality of education was maintained despite all the adversaries. By identifying the key stressors and impacts of the pandemic on the primary school teachers work and life, as well as the key personal resource (having a calling for teaching) that reduced the negative effects of burnout on intention to leave, the findings provide the much-needed context to better understand and manage the current teacher shortage crisis.

NAME OF INVESTIGATORS
Dr Anna Praskova and Marissa Kotsaris.

HREC APPROVAL NUMBER
This study has been approved by the ACAP HREC (Approval Number: 808200223).

PROJECT END DATE
N/A

SURVEY LINK
https://www.acap.edu.au/applied-psychology/student-research-initiatives/

820090523

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
To participate in this study you must be aged 18 years or over with self-assessed proficiency in English at a level that allows the completion of an online survey.

STUDY DESCRIPTION
Hostile attribution bias is a cognitive bias where individuals interpret the behaviours of other people as threatening across a range of social settings. Existing research shows that people with hostile attribution bias react more aggressively in both experimental and real-world scenarios. However, research is limited when exploring the connections between personality and hostile attribution bias. Therefore, this study aims to examine how emotional intelligence, personality, and attachment-style relate to hostile attribution bias. These findings may assist in understanding the various factors that influence aggressive behaviour and highlight potential intervention options.

NAME OF INVESTIGATORS
Prof. John Reece; Miss. Marisa Mackdacy.

HREC APPROVAL NUMBER
This study has been approved by the ACAP HREC (Approval Number: 853250923).

PROJECT END DATE
04/03/2024.

SURVEY LINK
https://acap.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eu1PFp8syPhdYmW

853250923