SOSS’ Psychologist receives Early Career Research Award

Associate Professor Angela Leung, a faculty researcher at the School of Social Sciences, receives the Early Career Research Award at the 71^st International Council of Psychologists (ICP) Conference held on 4-6 July 2013 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Professor Leung’s research focuses on the interplay between culture and creativity.  She has developed a systematic programme of research to examine the personal qualities necessary for people to thrive in a multicultural environment. Her research documented a series of ground-breaking empirical studies to demonstrate the enduring benefit of creativity as one psychological ramification of multicultural experiences. Further, these studies were the first to systemically reveal how and when individuals can capitalise on their intercultural contacts to instigate their creative capability.

In her award winning paper, she seeks to offer another novel perspective to understanding the contextual perspective of creativity.  Based on the instrumental account of emotion regulation, she and her colleagues examined the instrumental value of trait-consistent emotions in creativity.  Results confirmed that emotions such as worry (versus happy) are some trait-consistent experiences for neurotic individuals and experiencing these emotions can facilitate performance in a creativity task. These findings offer a new perspective to the controversy concerning the emotions-creativity relationship and further demonstrate the role of instrumental emotion regulation in the domain of creative performance.

ICP has been established to promote links between psychologists in different countries as well as to promote the work of the discipline around the world. The Seisoh Sukemune/Bruce Bain Encouragement of Early Career Research Award recognises outstanding early career contributions to scholarly endeavours addressing psychological issues of a universal or multinational significance. This effort is designed to encourage research that systematically addresses the psychological dimensions affecting the quality of human life, and to enhance and reinforce the mission and goals of ICP. The successful early career researcher receives an invitation to present the winning paper at the next ICP convention.

Congratulations, Professor Leung!