Peter Strelan

Associate Professor Peter Strelan

Associate Prof/Reader, Associate Dean Learning Quality & Student Exp

School of Psychology

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Dr Peter Strelan.

Peter Strelan works at the intersection of social psychology and individual differences. His broad research interest is in the area of forgiveness, with a specific focus on the relation between justice and forgiveness.

He also has an interest in body image, in particular the application of objectification theory to explaining the antecedents and consequences of negative body image.

I am an education specialist with expertise in the flipped classroom and interest in the development of innovative teaching exercises. I also conduct research that is located at the intersection of social psychology and individual differences. Broadly speaking, I am interested in how people get along, particularly when conflict and transgressions occur.  Both justice and social harmony are fundamentally important to humans; how do we get both following a transgression? Thus, most of research is concerned with forgiveness, with a special emphasis on the relation between justice and forgiveness. 

Honours project for 2022. I am offering the following projects:

1./ An exploration of the dynamics of forgiveness within the context of small family businesses. This is a qualitative project co-supervised with Assoc. Prof Chris Graves from the Business School. A/Prof Graves will provide access to small family business members for interviews, and will provide the qualitative expertise for this project. 

2./ An Exploratory Study of Students’ and Academics’  Expectations of Zoom tutorials. In this project you will interview students and academic at the University of Adelaide about their expectations of online tutorials – for example, what is appropriate behaviour? Should an online tute be different to a f2f tute and, if so, why? How? What makes for a good online tute experience? How might a good online tute be different to a f2f tute? This will be a qualitative thesis co-supervised with Dr Jon Bartholomaeus and Prof Anna Chur-Hansen (who will provide the qualitative expertise). 

3./ Episodic Empowerment Scale Validation. I will be a co-supervisor on this project to Dr Jon Bartholomaeus. The aim of the project is to validate the eight-item scale of episodic empowerment. Episodic empowerment refers to feelings of power that arise from certain social contexts—like being given temporary authority of others. This project will involve validating the episodic empowerment scale with participants in high, low, and neutral power situations. Centrally, it is important to establish that individuals with high or low feelings of power do not respond to the measure in differing ways; one’s experience of power should not change their conceptualisation of power. This project will draw on social psychology experimental techniques and include the use of statistical tools such as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

4./ Behavioral measure of forgiveness. We have developed a measure of recalled forgiveness behaviours. We have run two studies, one as a previous honours thesis, and there is capacity to run a further study that extends this work, for example, testing the extent to which this new measure predicts wellbeing outcomes and relationship quality, either as a cross-section survey type study or a longitudinal study.

5./ The revenge and counter-revenge cycle. Sometimes people get caught in cycles of revenge and counter-revenge. The perceived wisdom for why this occurs refers to theories of equity and attribution (basically, individuals de-emphasize their own role in a transgression and over-emphasize what the other is doing, so that each perceives they are being treated inequitably and the revenge cycle is perpetuated). There is an opportunity to test an individual differences explanation, which is that revenge cycles tend to occur when both protagonists score high on vengeance-seeking (for example). This idea could be tested by collecting data on couples and employing the Actor Partner Interdependence Model, which is a fairly sophisticated statistical approach to testing effects within and between dyads. 

 

External

  • $232,000: ARC Discovery Grant (DP0877945) 2008-2010
    • CI: Strelan.
    • “A new conceptualisation of forgiveness: Altruistic and self-interested foci as predictors of psychological costs and benefits of forgiveness”

The University of Adelaide

  • NCSU-Adelaide Starter Grant (w/Kelly-Lynn Mulvey, NCSU) 2020[PS1] 

    $1,200              Faculty of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship; supervised Ria Aiyar 2019/20

    $1,200              Faculty of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship; supervised Tayla Bradley 2018/19

    • $20,000 NCSU-Adelaide Starter Grant 2020
    • $1,200              Faculty of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship; supervised Ria Aiyar 2019/20
    • $1,200              Faculty of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship; supervised Tayla Bradley 2018/19
    • $20,000 SGDE Development Grant 2016
      • with Cathy Snelling and Sophie Karanicolas (Dentistry), Adriano Millazo (Public Health), David Wilson, Kim Hynes (Medicine)
    • $2,200 Faculty of Health Sciences cultural enrichment teaching grant 2016
  • $9,595 School of Psychology RIBG small grant 2015
    • Development of a children’s card sort measure of forgiveness
  • $9,074 School of Psychology RIBG small grant 2014
    • When love does not conquer all: Towards improving interventions for children with a disrupted attachment history and associated ASD-like symptoms.
  • $3,990 School of Psychology RIBG small grant 2014
    • Trust as a mediator between relationship closeness and forgiveness
  • $6,000 Faculty of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship
    • supervised Youngblood Roche 2013/14
  • $6,000 Faculty of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship
    • supervised Caroline diFiore 2013/14
  • $6,000 Faculty of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship
    • supervised Jasmine Currall 2012/13
  • $6,000 Faculty of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship
    • supervised Sarah Hunter 2012/13
  • $5,625 School of Psychology RIBG small grant 2012
    • The deleterious effects of self-focused attention on forgiveness
  • $6,000 Faculty of Health Sciences Summer Scholarship
    • supervised Alison Robb, 2011/12
  • $3,000: School of Psychology application support for ARC-Discovery Grant 2007
  • $1,500: School of Psychology conference travel 2006
  • $15,000: Faculty of Health Sciences Establishment Grant 2005

Currently I...

  • co-chair the Adelaide Education Academy
  • chair the Programs Board
  • coordinate the Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) Advanced program
  • coordinate and teach into the first year Research Methods courses in Psychology (enrolment = ca. 500);
  • deliver the Social Psychology lectures in the first year Introduction to Psychology course
  •  

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2021 Principal Supervisor Trait and Situational Predictors of Interpersonal Objectification in Male and Female Perpetrators Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Danielle Grace Tetley
    2020 Principal Supervisor Development of an online intervention based on acceptance and commitment therapy facilitated in schools to support and enhance psychological flexibility and wellbeing in adolescents. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr David Arthur Scholz
    2019 Co-Supervisor The Design, Application and Evaluation of a Comprehensive Model to Assess Attitudes Towards Educational Technologies Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Andrew Charles Kemp
    2018 Principal Supervisor The Act of Forgiveness: Can Psychological Flexibility Explain and Facilitate Genuine Intra and Interpersonal Forgiveness Doctor of Philosophy/Master of Psychology (Clinical) Doctorate Full Time Mrs Jemima Rohini Bem
    2018 Principal Supervisor Objectification Among Couples in Romantic Relationships Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Stephenie Joulie Pagoudis
    2017 Co-Supervisor Factors associated with Success at University of International First - year Students Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Rev Susan Frances Straub

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2018 - 2021 Principal Supervisor The Empowering Role of the Belief in a Just World for the Self in Adaptive Psychological Functioning Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Jonathan David Bartholomaeus
    2018 - 2022 Co-Supervisor Psychological Literacy in Undergraduate Psychology Learning and
    Teaching    		 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Samantha Jane Newell
    2017 - 2023 Co-Supervisor Exploring Systemic Injustice and Wellbeing among Uyghurs in Australia Doctor of Philosophy/Master of Psychology (Clinical) Doctorate Full Time Mrs Mastura Alim
    2014 - 2019 Principal Supervisor Does it matter why people forgive? How a victim's reasons for forgiving change the outcomes of forgiveness Doctor of Philosophy with Master of Psychology (Organisational and Human Factors) Doctorate Full Time Jordan Brian Gabriels
    2014 - 2020 Principal Supervisor Trust Heals, Commitment Hurts: Disentangling Predictors of Coping with Interpersonal Betrayal Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Josiah Krieg
    2012 - 2017 Principal Supervisor A Principles-based Approach to ACT with Self-Forgiveness: New Approaches to Flexible Living Doctor of Philosophy/Master of Psychology (Clinical) Doctorate Full Time Dr Grant Malcolm Dewar
    2008 - 2013 Principal Supervisor Predicting Pro-Relational and Prosocial Responses to Received Forgiveness: The Role of State Gratitude Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Louise Elizabeth Joan Mooney
    2008 - 2014 Principal Supervisor The Identification and Measurement of Barriers to Forgiveness Following an Interpersonal Transgression Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Heather Pearce
    2008 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Measuring Children's Forgiveness: Development of the Children's Forgiveness Card Set Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Emma Kemp
    2007 - 2011 Principal Supervisor The Development of an Implicit Association Test for Measuring Forgiveness Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Jeremy Goldring
    2006 - 2009 Co-Supervisor The Conceptualisation, Status and Measurement of Technology-based Gaming Behaviour and its Correlates Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Daniel King
  • Position: Associate Prof/Reader, Associate Dean Learning Quality & Student Exp
  • Phone: 83135662
  • Email: peter.strelan@adelaide.edu.au
  • Fax: 83133770
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Hughes, floor 7,Hughes, floor Level Seven
  • Org Unit: Psychology
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