The Social and Wellbeing Lab

The impact of relaxation techniques on international students with varying personality traits

This study examines the effectiveness of relaxation interventions on stress management in young adults, focusing on how individuals with different personality traits respond. International freshmen, who often face high stress due to academic, cultural, and social adjustments, are the primary focus. Breathing techniques and meditation, forms of mindfulness, are introduced to assess their impact on reducing stress. By comparing participants with traits like extroversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness, the study aims to determine whether certain personalities show greater improvements. Using both psychological and physiological measures, the research seeks to develop personalized mental health interventions based on individual characteristics.

Exploring the role of interethnic communication in speech-language pathologists

This project explores how ethno-cultural identity conflicts among Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) may contribute to reduced job satisfaction. It highlights the complex relationship between identity conflicts, interethnic communication skills, and job satisfaction within the unique working environment of SLPs.

A Solution to Internship Shortages in Mainland China

The primary objective of this research project is to develop an online training system for teaching basic counseling skills, aimed at helping counseling trainees in Mainland China overcome the shortage of practical opportunities due to limited internship placements. The system will be designed based on existing research in counseling and tailored to the sociocultural context of Mainland China. It will then be implemented as an intervention, and its effectiveness will be compared to traditional internship courses for counseling graduate students. This comparison will assess the system's efficacy in providing practical training.

Emotions play a pivotal role in shaping human memory, influencing how experiences are encoded, stored, and recalled. Positive emotions have been shown to enhance cognitive flexibility and broaden attention, which can foster better memory encoding and retrieval. This study explores the effects of positive emotions on the human memory system through the lens of evolutionary theory and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. It also examines trauma theory, focusing on how traumatic memories are stored and recalled, and how they influence emotional and behavioural responses. Using insights from trauma theory, we investigate how positive emotions can be strategically employed to alter the secondary coding of traumatic memories, reducing their emotional impact and potentially improving trauma recovery. By reinterpreting traumatic memories through the lens of positive emotions, individuals can experience a shift in their trauma response, leading to better emotional regulation and well-being. The integration of these theories provides a comprehensive understanding of the role of emotions in memory and opens new avenues for therapeutic interventions aimed at trauma recovery.