Peter Chew

James Cook University · College of Healthcare Sciences

Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) is notoriously complex, multifaceted, and difficult to measure as a psychological construct. Recently, Duckitt et al. developed the ACT scales, offering theoretical refinement of the RWA construct. Although the validity of the ACT scales had been supported by a considerable body of research, shortcomings in previou...

The novel coronavirus, now known as COVID-19, was first reported in China in December 2019 and became a global crisis by March 2020. Both adaptive and maladaptive behaviours were observed in response to aspects of the crisis, some of which appeared to be contradictory to coping and curbing the threat of COVID-19. For instance, the purchase an...

The factors contributing to urbanization, such as population growth and the development of mega-cities, have increased environmental stressors on top of everyday stressors, resulting in information overload. This has led to the increasing incidence of direct attentional fatigue, which causes stress and mental fatigue. The attention restoration theo...

Research that has examined the relationships between Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and personality traits has been limited by the use of instruments based on inappropriate criteria. Furthermore, the personality traits have seldom been studied concurrently, precluding an examination of the relative importance of each trait in predicting IGD. The cu...

Critical incidents (CI) trigger acute stress reactions and psychological trauma because of direct or vicarious exposure. Their life-threatening nature makes them reasonable candidates to induce mortality salience (MS). The current review aims to consolidate Terror Management Theory (TMT) research using CIs as MS. A systematic literature review was...

The current study aimed to address the limitations of the terror management theory literature by using big data analysis to examine the theory's predictions in the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, Google Trends were examined before and after the first COVID-19 case was identified in Singapore. The results showed that there was a significant increas...

Two systematic reviews have been conducted to summarize the literature on Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and personality. However, the data was not synthesized statistically, imposing a limit to their conclusions. The current study aimed to extend on the two reviews by conducting a series of five meta-analyses, one for each of the Big Five personal...

The current study aims to examine the effects of mortality salience effects on worldview defense in an offline and online setting. Participants were 146 (66 offline and 80 online) Singaporeans. Participants were randomly assigned to either the mortality salience condition or the control condition and after a delay completed a Worldview Defense Asse...

Nature exposure has been renowned for its positive physiological and psychological benefits. Recent years have seen a rise in nature immersion programs that make use of Guided Forest Therapy walks in a standard sequence of sensory awareness activities to expose participants to natural environments in a safe but effective manner. The study aimed to...

This meta-analytic review aimed to examine the pooled prevalence rates of Internet addiction and gaming disorders in Southeast Asia. Several databases including PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Central were searched and a total of 24 studies were included in this study. The selection of studies was conducted in accord...

M-learning refers to the learning that takes advantage of mobile technologies. Although research shows enhanced educational outcomes from m-learning in some Asian countries, the generalizability to postgraduate clinical psychology training in Singapore remains unclear. Current professional standards in clinical psychology training emphasize the imp...

This study explored medical doctors' clinical assessment of suicide risk and suicide attempters' self-reported suicide intent. Three years of archival assessment records related to suicide attempters who were admitted to the emergency department of a large teaching hospital in Singapore were subjected to analysis. Records related to 460 suicide att...

There has been a paradigm shift in health service delivery to a more holistic approach, which considers Quality of Life (QoL) and overall functioning. Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is a multidimensional construct that encompasses physical functioning as well as psychosocial aspects of emotional and social functioning. This study explored f...

The biophilia hypothesis states that human beings have an innate tendency to connect with nature. The current study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the full and short versions of both the Environmental Identity Scale (EID) and the Nature Relatedness Scale (NR). Participants were 209 Singaporean undergraduate students (67.9% females)...

Background: There has been a paradigm shift in mental health service delivery, from a focus on reducing symptoms to a more holistic approach, which considers Quality of Life (QoL). Method: This study aimed to explore prediction of Quality of Life (QoL) in Asian patients with a major mental disorder i.e., depression or schizophrenia in Singapore. In...

Background: Mental illness is a pertinent risk factor related to suicide. However, research indicates there might be underdiagnosis of mental illness in Asian suicide attempters; this phenomenon is concerning. This study explored prediction of diagnosis of mental illness in suicide attempters in Singapore using available variables. Methods: Thre...

The aim of the study was to examine racism and the Pinkerton syndrome in Singapore. Specifically, the study examined the effects of race on hiring decisions in a simulated hiring decision task. Participants were 171 (61% males) Singaporean Chinese undergraduates from a private university in Singapore. They were randomly assigned into one of nine gr...

This study explored the effect of cardiac rehabilitation on quality of life, depression, and anxiety in Asian patients in Singapore. Out of the 194 patients who were recruited into the study, 139 patients (71.6%) completed both the pre- and post-cardiac rehabilitation questionnaires. Their ages ranged from 28 to 80 (M = 56.66, SD = 8.88), and 103 p...

An important risk factor for suicide assessment is the suicide precipitant. This study explores suicide attempt precipitants across the lifespan. Three years of medical records related to suicide attempters who were admitted to the emergency department of a large teaching hospital in Singapore were subjected to analysis. These cases were divided in...

The purpose of the current study was to examine the internal consistency and structure of the English version of the Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS). Participants were 202 (79% females) psychology undergraduates was recruited from James Cook University’s Singapore (71%) and Australia (29%) campuses. Acceptable internal consistency reliabil...

Racism refers to ‘the differential treatment enacted by an individual, group, or organization on individuals based on assumptions of a group's phenotypic, linguistic, or cultural differences’ (Gamst, Liang, & Der-Karabetian, 2011, p. 251). Currently, there is a lack of psychological research investigating racism in Singapore. The available research...

Background There has been a shift in mental health services from an emphasis on treatment focused on reducing symptoms to a more holistic approach involving quality of life (QOL) and overall well-being. Many psychosocial variables are associated with QOL but a parsimonious framework is needed to deepen our understanding about the contribution of ps...

This study explores youth suicide attempts in Singapore using multiple databases of comprehensive archival records. Three years of medical records related to suicide attempters (N=666) who were admitted to the emergency department of a large teaching hospital in Singapore were subjected to retrospective analysis. Compared to other age groups, a pea...

This study explored ethnic differences in risk and protective factors for suicide attempts, for the major ethnic groups in Singapore, and ethnic differences in prediction of lethality. Three years of medical records related to suicide attempters (N = 666) who were admitted to the emergency department of a large teaching hospital in Singapore were s...

Given the negative relationships between statistics anxiety and statistics achievement, it is important for researchers and instructors to have a reliable and valid measure to identify students with statistics anxiety. The purpose of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties of Vigil-Colet, Lorenzo-Seva, and Condon’s (2008) Stati...

The role of attentional bias in statistics anxiety was explored through cognitive and affective tasks. Participants consisted of 76 (73.7% females) students in the James Cook University Psychology programs at the Australia (35.5%) and Singapore campuses (64.5%). Participants completed the emotional Stroop task and the dot probe task, and measures o...

Appreciation of the importance of statistics literacy for citizens of a democracy has resulted in an increasing number of degree programs making statistics courses mandatory for university students. Unfortunately, empirical evidence suggests that students in nonmathematical disciplines (e.g., social sciences) regard statistics courses as the most a...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between statistics anxiety and the Big Five personality factors using a multivariate approach. Participants were 83 students (69% female) enrolled in three statistics courses. A canonical correlation analysis revealed that Neuroticism was positively correlated whereas Openness to Experie...