Adam J. Rock

University of New England (Australia) and California Institute of Integral Studies · School of Psychology and School of Consciousness and Transformation respectively

Although phenomenologist Edmund Husserl's project was not directed at transpersonal experiences, his methods are nevertheless applicable in a profound and effective way. We explore Husserl's project and its methods for their relevance to transpersonal studies. Husserl laid out the proposition that science, including psychology, must be grounded in...

This participatory team science project extended Laythe and Houran’s (2022) prior application of a famous probabilistic argument known as the "Drake equation" to the question of postmortem survival. Specifically, we evaluated effect sizes from peer-reviewed, empirical studies to determine the maximum average percentage effect that ostensibly suppor...

We used a multiteam system approach (MTS) to map the critical and constructive feedback from four invited Commentaries on Rock et al.’s (2023) probabilistic analysis of purported evidence for postmortem survival. The goal was to mine actionable insights to guide future research with the potential for important learnings or breakthroughs about the n...

Although ubiquitous in numerous nightlife cultures, poker-machines present a high risk for problematic use and addiction. Previous research has demonstrated that gambling cues (e.g., flashing lights) can activate gambling urges in poker-machine gamblers. However, the processes that contribute to the maintenance of cue-reactive urges to gamble remai...

Objective. This research aimed to validate the Informal Supporter Readiness Inventory (ISRI) for evaluating the preparedness of informal supporters, in an Australian sample, to provide assistance in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV). Method. The ISRI’s four distinct factors were each assessed with separate confirmatory factor analyses...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) transcends cultural, social and economic boundaries, affecting countless individuals globally. Recovery for IPV survivors is supported by their social networks, yet the readiness of these networks is often poorly understood. This perspective paper proposes an extension to existing network-oriented IPV support models...

Objectives Attachment orientation has been argued to play a role in the development and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms, but this relationship has yet to be fully understood. Attachment orientation may also contribute to appraisals of uncertainty such as threatening and negative beliefs about the consequences of loss of...

Objective This article outlines the development and validation of the Informal Supporter Readiness Inventory (ISRI), based on the model developed by the present authors in (Davies, 2023). This scale assesses the readiness of informal supporters to intervene or provide support in situations of intimate partner violence (IPV). Methods The research f...

Self‐reflection is broadly considered a core competency for psychologists; however, there is an absence of measures of self‐reflection, limiting the extent to which self‐reflection can be assessed in both research and practice contexts. Whilst the Self‐Reflection and Insight Scale (Grant et al., 2002) has been validated in a range of formats with d...

Introduction Prevalence of distress in cancer patients is established at approximately 50%, yet uptake of psychosocial support is minimal. Objective This study aimed to understand why clinically distressed oncology patients choose not to access psychosocial support, including whether this differs by geographic location. It also aimed to determine...

Background Early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) have been theorised to contribute to reoccurring interpersonal problems. This study developed a novel experimental paradigm that aimed to assess if EMSs moderate the impact of interpersonal situations on interpersonal responses by manipulating the degree of rejection in a series of interpersonal vignettes...

Background. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health issue that consists of physical, sexual, and psychological violence perpetrated by a current or formerpartner. Informal supporters (e.g., family and friends) of survivors are more often witness to IPV or are the first people a survivor will disclose abuse to and are more able to...

Despite the increased risk of disasters in the Bangladesh, there is a dearth of research about women’s physical and mental health vulnerability following disasters. This study aimed to explore the physical and mental health status and associated risk factors of women in recurrent disaster-affected areas of Bangladesh. Participants (N = 408) were re...

Objective The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) is a 36-item self-report measure of nine emotion regulation strategies, extensively used in research. Despite widespread use, the instrument’s factor structure has not been investigated in an Australian sample, and some international scholars have questioned the factorial validity of t...

Prevalence estimates of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptomology in non-clinical samples suggest these symptoms are commonly experienced in the general population. Research in community samples is needed to understand possible etiological pathways. Previous research, predominantly in clinical samples, has demonstrated (1) significant associations bet...

Although the preceding exchange in this special subsection of the Journal (Augustine, 2022a, 2022b; Braude et al., 2022) has highlighted the differences between skeptics and proponents of discarnate personal survival, there is much more in common between us that often goes unsaid, such as a common respect for sound reasoning and for investigating m...

We assessed the 29 winning essays of the Bigelow Institute of Consciousness Studies (BICS) contest using an evidence hierarchy approach adopted by many scientific fields. Two independent judges rated the target essays for their quality of scientific evidence, reproducibility, and replicability using an evidence hierarchy adapted from several publis...

Competency-based professional psychology training is now common practice in many countries. An implication of competency-based training is the need to assess practitioner competence across multiple domains of practice; however, standardized measures of competence are limited. In Australia, currently there is no standardized, quantitative measure of...

The aim of this study was to examine the strength of scientific evidence, reproducibility and replicability of the 29 essays of the winners of the Bigelow contest.Six essays (20.5%) were included in the category with the high strength of scientific evidence. Four essays (14%) were included in the category with medium strength of scientific evidence...

In this study, we quantitatively assessed mediums' phenomenology during readings in which survival psi is ostensibly used to telepathically communicate with physically deceased targets (discarnates) and during psychic readings for living targets to represent somatic psi which cannot be experimentally demonstrated. We also correlated dimensions of p...

Spiritual emergency (SEY) refers to a process of spiritual emergence (SE) or awakening that becomes traumatic for an individual, leading to a state of psychological crisis. There is evidence that SE(Y) is associated with both psychotic symptomatology and personality traits. This study examined the relationship between SE(Y), psychotic symptoms, and...

The APA emerging measure the Social Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale (SAD-D) is recognized as the only social anxiety scale that is based on the DSM-5 criteria. This scale also addresses the limitations of other social anxiety measures as it is dimensional, time efficient and assesses a broad range of symptoms. However, research in community samples...

Studies have shown that paranormal belief is correlated with numerous variables, including schizotypy and transliminality. The current study aimed to examine (a) the role of transliminality in understanding variability in paranormal belief and (b) whether transpersonal self-expansiveness improved the prediction of paranormal belief after accounting...

Objective This study investigated the baseline prevalence of general psychological distress reported by students in a regional Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Institute in Australia. In addition, the relationship between psychological distress, emotion-focused coping and academic success at the end of one semester of study was explored. Met...

Attachment anxiety has been consistently linked with increased vulnerability to depression, and hyperactivating emotion regulation strategies (e.g., rumination) have been shown to mediate this relationship. Investigations of mediators of the attachment avoidance to depression relationship have yielded inconsistent findings, and the nature of this r...

Previous research has demonstrated that gambling cues (e.g., flashing lights on poker-machines) can trigger an urge to gamble in poker-machine gamblers. However, the psychological mechanisms that promote the urge to gamble remain poorly understood. The present study explored whether reward responsiveness predicted urge to gamble and positive affect...

This essay provides an anthropological account of a neuroepistemological account of mystical experience. We commence by outlining the various qualities of mystical experience (e.g. time-consciousness and space-consciousness distortion). Subsequently, we analyse the epistemology of mystical experience with special reference to the constructivist ver...

The adult attachment dimension of attachment anxiety has been demonstrated to be associated with a variety of anxiety symptomology, including worry, intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and reassurance seeking. A variety of research has indicated that IU is associated with level of worry and reassurance seeking. The relationships between attachment anxi...

Early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) have been hypothesised to be associated with interpersonal problems. Furthermore, a stronger contention is that EMSs impact negatively on, or cause, interpersonal problems. The aims of this meta‐analysis were: (1) to assess the strength of the association between EMSs and interpersonal problems, (2) clarify which EM...

Spiritual emergency (SEY) is a process of spiritual emergence (SE) or awakening that becomes traumatic for an individual, leading to a state of psychological crisis. The current study aimed to operationalize and empirically validate a definition of SEY. Twenty expert participants (i.e., academic, clinical and experiential) completed two rounds of a...

Spiritual emergency (SEY) is a type of religious or spiritual struggle that has been associated with physical and psychological health problems as well as providing a unique opportunity for growth. The SEY construct provided the impetus for the development of a diagnostic v-code that exists within the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Me...

This study investigated whether early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) are associated with interpersonal problems and whether this relationship is mediated by trait mindfulness. One hundred and seventeen participants (M = 34.66, SD = 17.14) were recruited and completed measures of EMSs (Young Schema Questionnaire, Short Form, Version 3; YSQ‐SF‐3), trait...

Despite extensive evidence relating attachment dimensions to maladaptive interpersonal behaviours and dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies, few studies have explored social anxiety in the context of adult attachment dimensions. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether attachment-related anxiety and avoidance are associated wit...

Individuals with flying phobia experience increases in subjective anxiety in response to flying-related cues. However, the cognitive processes that contribute to cue-reactive anxiety in individuals with flying-related anxiety remain poorly understood. Preliminary research suggests that changes in visual imagery and volitional control may contribute...

Previous research has demonstrated that depressive symptoms are positively linked to early maladaptive schemas and negatively linked to trait mindfulness. However, the role trait mindfulness may play in buffering the effect of early maladaptive schemas on depressive symptoms has not yet been studied. Therefore, in the current study, we examined whe...

Poker-machine gamblers have been demonstrated to report increases in the urge to gamble following exposure to salient gambling cues. However, the processes which contribute to this urge to gamble remain to be understood. The present study aimed to investigate whether changes in the conscious experience of visual imagery, rationality and volitional...

PROJECT CONTEXT AND AIMS: Quantitative research methods underpin psychological literacy and are critical for the development of professional competence in psychology. They feature prominently in the undergraduate psychology curriculum in Australia and internationally, and are reflected in the course learning outcomes and graduate attributes specif...

Background Attachment anxiety and avoidance have been found to be associated with worry. A substantial body of research suggests that intolerance of uncertainty (IOU) is a phenomenon which predicts level of worry, yet the relationship between attachment, IOU and worry remains to be investigated. Methods The present study recruited 281 participants...

In Australia, poker-machine gamblers represent a disproportionate number of problem gamblers. To cultivate a greater understanding of the psychological mechanisms involved in poker-machine gambling, a repeated measures cue-reactivity protocol was administered. A community sample of 38 poker-machine gamblers was assessed for problem-gambling severit...

In order to further our understanding about the limits of human consciousness and the dream state, we report meta-analytic results on experimental dream-ESP studies for the period 1966 to 2016. Dream-ESP can be defined as a form of extra-sensory perception (ESP) in which a dreaming perceiver ostensibly gains information about a randomly selected ta...

Probability bias regarding threat-relevant outcomes has been demonstrated across anxiety disorders but has not been investigated in flying phobia. Individual temporal orientation (time perspective) may be hypothesised to influence estimates of negative outcomes occurring. The present study investigated whether probability bias could be demonstrated...

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Flying phobia is a highly prevalent anxiety disorder, which causes sufferers significant distress and life interference. The processes which maintain flying phobia remain poorly understood. A systematic search of the literature was performed to identify what research has been conducted into the processes which may be involved in the fear of flying...

Generally, academic psychologists are mindful of the fact that, for many students, the study of research methods and statistics is anxiety provoking (Gal et al., 1997). Given the ubiquitous and distributed nature of eLearning systems (Nof et al., 2015), teachers of research methods and statistics need to cultivate an understanding of how to effecti...

Although essential to professional competence in psychology, quantitative research methods are a known area of weakness for many undergraduate psychology students. Students find selecting appropriate statistical tests and procedures for different types of research questions, hypotheses and data types particularly challenging, and these skills are n...

Rock, A. J., & Storm, L. (2015). Testing Telepathy in the Medium/Proxy-Sitter Dyad: A Protocol Focusing on the Source-of-Psi Problem. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 29(4), 565–584.

In order to enhance our understanding of the nature of poker-machine problem-gambling, a community sample of 37 poker-machine gamblers (M age = 32 years, M PGSI = 5; PGSI = Problem Gambling Severity Index) were assessed for urge to gamble (responses on a visual analogue scale) and altered state of consciousness (assessed by the Altered State of Awa...

Context: The examination of the accuracy and specificity of information reported by mediums addresses the existence of non-local information transfer. Objective: This study was designed to replicate and extend a previous methodology achieving positive findings regarding the anomalous reception of information about deceased individuals by researc...

Certain mediums are able to report accurate and specific information about the deceased loved ones (termed discarnates) of living people (termed sitters) even without any prior knowledge about the sitters or the discarnates and in the complete absence of any sensory feedback. This study aimed to investigate the phenomenology associated with, and ac...

It is a long-standing assumption that holotropic breathwork (HB) induces an altered state of consciousness. However, this assumption has not been empirically tested. Consequently, 32 participants were recruited for the present study, which aimed to use the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) to quantify the pattern of phenomenological su...

Spiritual emergency (SE) is a process of spiritual emergence that becomes a psychological crisis and may appear identical to clinical psychosis. This study attempted to validate Goretzki, Thalbourne and Storm’s (2009) Spiritual Emergency Subscales (SES), and Experiences of Psychotic Symptoms Scale (EPSS) as measures of SE and psychosis, respectivel...

A reliable and valid assessment instrument would aid clinicians in their diagnosis of spiritual crisis, or emergency. The current study investigated the structural validity and personality correlates of the 30-item Spiritual Emergency Scale (SES) (Goretzki, Thalbourne, & Storm, 2013). Participants (N 5 162) were recruited via email and social media...

Numerous mediumship studies (e.g., Beischel & Schwartz 2007, Kelly & Arcangel 2011, Rock, Beischel, Boccuzzi, & Biuso 2014) have reported statistically significant results, thus suggesting that various contemporary mediums are able to demonstrate anomalous information reception (AIR) under laboratory conditions. Importantly, however, such studies a...

Shamanism is a worldwide social phenomenon consisting of a set of practices (e.g., ritualistic drumming, sensory deprivation, the ingestion of entheogens and dream incubation) designed to obtain knowledge from alternative realities for the purpose of benefiting one's social group. The aim of this paper is to provide a cross-cultural exploration of...