Research Summary
Dr Moore has over 40 years teaching and research experience in universities, in psychology and education with experience as a school psychologist. Her research interests are in the following areas:NEW research
Grandparenting research
Grandparent Research - www.grandresearch.comThis year we are conducting a survey of grandfathers - click on the website to find out more.
Sexuality and Relationships
View papers and publicationsThis area of interest began in the early 1980s with studies of Australian responses to the world-wide HIV/AIDS epidemic. Studies focused on adolescent sexual risk taking behaviour and the psychosocial factors associated with risk. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were employed and the work was integrated into three books, Sexuality in Adolescence (1993), Sexuality in Adolescence: Current Trends (2006) (both with D. Rosenthal) and Youth, AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (1996) (with D. Rosenthal and A. Mitchell). More recent research has focused on sexuality from the point of view of sex education, romance, relationships and modern modes of 'courtship' such as the Internet.
Risk-Taking and Gambling
View papers and publications on Risk-TakingView papers and publications on Gambling
A theoretical interest in the nature of risk-taking arose initially from the sexuality research but took on a life of its own in studies of the phenomenology of risk, measurement of risk-taking, prediction of health-related risks, risk-taking and personality, etc. Gambling behaviour provides an interesting domain from which risk-taking can be studied, and it is certainly topical within the Australian context of millions of dollars per year being spent on poker machines and other forms of gambling. Of particular interest are gamblers' beliefs about their control over when and where they gamble, how much they spend, and their non-rational thoughts about how much they will win or lose. Current studies are concerned with (a) student gambling, especially among international students and (b) gambling patrons' beliefs about access to gambling venues and the kinds of features of these venues that are particularly attractive in getting people in the door and keeping them spending money. One goal of our research is to understand the nature and extent of problem gambling among different groups, another is to help gamblers develop strategies to mange their own gambling - in a sense to immunize them against the seductions of the venues. Read more about it on www.problemgambling.org.au.
Health psychology and coping with illness
View papers and publicationsStrategies people use to manage living with chronic illness, social attitudes concerning various illnesses, perceived vulnerability to illness and its relationship to behaviour - these are some of the topics of research that have arisen in this area of research involvement. The interest arose from studying sexual health and broadened to the examination of health promoting, illness preventing and disease managing behaviours of individuals within their social and cultural context. A recently completed major study was an evaluation of a healthy lifestyle program for people diagnosed with prediabetes (for Department of Human Services, Victoria, Australia).
Internet, environment and education
View papers and publications on Internet psychologyView papers and publications on Environmental psychology
View papers and publications on Education
This group of studies concerns some important social environments in which individuals attempt to communicate their beliefs, make changes to their own and others' behaviour, and are in turn influenced by the communications of others. Recent studies include the psychosocial effects of blogging and the role of the Internet in young people's sense of well-being.