Prestigious Awards in Psychology

Prestigious Awards in Psychology

The New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS) -the premier membership association for psychologists in New Zealand, offers awards for excellence in practice and research related to psychology and social justice issues.

Three prestigious awards were conferred on this year’s recipients at the New Zealand Psychological Society Conference held in Wellington 20-23 April.

The Public Interest Award- Janet Peters
This award recognises valuable contributions to psychology in the service of the public interest. Recipients of the award are able to have $500 donated by the New Zealand Psychological Society to the charity of their choice.

The award was conferred upon psychologist Janet Peters from Tauranga. In presenting the award NZPsS President, Frank O’Connor congratulated Janet on her impressive work over a number of years directed towards a population that would otherwise not have recognised that mental health issues should be shared, rather than hidden in shame. In this respect her major contribution has been her involvement with the Ministry of Health’s national public health programme, “Like Minds Like Mine”, which was designed to counter the stigma and discrimination against people who suffer mental illness. Janet’s approach makes use of a breadth of research evidence in order to convey important community information to both professionals, and the wider community. She has thus been very successful in disseminating psychological knowledge about a wide range of health and wellbeing matters to the wider community. This has required not only a sound knowledge of relevant research, but also of cross- cultural matters, mass communication and how people acquire information. Janet asked that the Tauranga St Johns Ambulance Service be the recipient of the $500 to be awared to the charity of her choice.

Goddard Early Career Award-Applied Psychology- Dr Gwenda Willis
The Goddard Award was named after Professor Graham V Goddard, Professor of Psychology and Head of the Department of Psychology, University of Otago, who was tragically killed in a tramping accident in 1997. This award recognizes early career achievement and excellence in applied psychology. The recipient receives $500 and one year’s free membership of the NZPsS.

This award was conferred upon Dr Gwenda Willis for her outstanding research and achievements in forensic psychology. Gwenda graduated in 2009 with a PhD and a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology from the University of Canterbury and currently holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Deakin University. She received a Fulbright Travel Award in 2007 and the coveted MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year - Science and Society Category Award in 2008. To date, Gwenda is sole or joint author of 17 papers describing her PhD and postdoctoral research into the contribution of community reintegration planning to recidivism by sexual offenders treated in the Kia Marama treatment programme. More recently she has been focussing on the Good Lives Model of offender rehabilitation. President Frank O’Connor noted the social importance of Gwenda’s research in the context of the concern about the presence of released sexual offenders in local communities.

Karahipi Tumuaki- Presidents’ Scholarship- Tia Neha
The President’s Scholarship of $2000 is awarded to Māori postgraduate students who are active in the Māori community and who are enrolled for a degree requiring a piece of research for either a Masters or higher level post-graduate degree in psychology. The research must be Maori-centred and related to the betterment of the Māori community.
The 2012 award was conferred on Tia Neha

Tia is enrolled for a PhD at Otago University and is focusing on the role of family oral traditions, autobiographical memories and whether or not these factors link to Māori children’s learning, specifically literacy and numeracy achievements.

President, Frank O’Connor noted that Tia was a very worth recipient of the scholarship Her research employs a mātauranga Māori methodology and aims to develop an understanding of the ways in which Māori children learn and attain skills in the cultural environment they are raised in and how that learning relates to their achievements in the classroom. Tia has a background in education, has been the first author of two publications, has contributed to a number of others. She also has an extensive list of presentations related to her research.

Background to the New Zealand Psychological Society
The New Zealand Psychological Society is the largest professional association for psychologists in New Zealand. It has over 1200 members and subscribers and aims to improve individual and community wellbeing by representing, promoting and advancing the scientific discipline and practice of psychology.

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