Psychology
Welcome to Stellenbosch University

Research Interest

​Department Interest - 

New Department Psychology website went LIVE!

 https://www0.sun.ac.za/psychology/​​

Dr Bronwyne J Coetzee
  • Child and adolescent mental health
  • Universal prevention programmes
  • Developing and implementing CBT-based programmes to support psychological well-being amongst children and adolescents
  • Psychosocial and behavioural aspects of chronic illnesses and progressive diseases amongst children, adolescents and adults
Dr Zuhyr Kafaar
  • HIV and AIDS
  • Psychometry
  • Psychological test construction and validation
  • Measurement theory
  • Research on children and adolescents
  • Telepsychology
Prof Ashraf Kagee
  • Adherence to antiretroviral therapy
  • Common mental disorders among persons living with HIV
  • Stress and trauma
  • Health behaviours; structural barriers to health promotion
  • Various topics related to health psychology and public mental health.
Prof Lou-Marie Kruger
  • Women's mental health
  • Poverty and mental health
  • Feminist psychology
  • Psychology and Biography-writing
  • Psychoanalytic psychotherapy in South Africa
Ms Anthea Lesch
  • Social and structural inequalities and their impact on the health and well-being of vulnerable and marginalised groups;
  • HIV/AIDS and biomedical HIV prevention research
  • Community engagement approaches and strategies,
  • Chronic illness, health and well-being,
  • Qualitative research methods and arts-based methodologies;
  • Race and racism in contemporary South Africa 
Professor Elmien Lesch
  • Non-residential father and daughter relationships
  • Women's lived experience of singlehood
  • Fathers' and sons' communication about sex
  • Student couples' constructions of gender in intimate heterosexual relationships
  • Sexuality constructions of Black tertiary educated women

Possible Research Foci for Future Students:

  • Any component of father-daughter relationships
  • Exploring the relationships of gay sons and straight fathers
  • Any component of committed, same-sex relationships
Prof Helene Loxton
  • Development, implementation and evaluation of CBT-based anxiety prevention programmes for vulnerable South African children.
  • Exploring the viability of child-friendly CBT-based activities within a multi-cultural South African context.
Dr Dale Moodley
  • Popular culture and music
  • Gender and sexuality studies
  • Formal and informal sexual socialisation practices
  • Adolescent sexual and reproductive health
  • Psychosocial research methods
  • The intersections between psychoanalysis and poststructuralism.  
Prof Tony Naidoo
  • Career/Vocational related behaviour, assessment and interventions
  • Career Guidance and counselling
  •  Applied contextual community psychology assessment and interventions
  • Community based participatory action research
  • Cross-cultural research
  • Ecopsychology and the human-nature interaction
  • Masculinities' study
Professor Desmond Painter
  • Race and racism (including psychosocial studies of whiteness)
  • Nationalism, ethnicity and language ideologies
  • Gender and sexualities
  • Histories and consequences of psychologization in the global South
  • Politics, society and subjectivity in the history of South Africa, and the city and the self
Dr Chrisma Pretorius
  • Clinical Neuropsychology
  • Psychosocial impact of chronic illnesses, such as Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, Multiple Sclerosis and Dementia
  • The role of stigma
Dr Rizwana Roomaney
  • Health-related quality of life
  • Women's health (including conditions such as endometriosis, female cancers, polycystic ovaries, premenstrual dysphoric disorder)
  • Online health-seeking behaviour
  • Measurement construction
  • Mixed methods research​
Ms Mariam Salie
  • Infertility and psychosocial treatment
  • The psychology of abstract mathematics
  • Muslim Mental Health
Ms Megan Snow
  • Chronic illness
  • Developmental psychology
  • Health Psychology
  • Children and development
  • Youth risk behaviour
  • Psychopathology
  • Women's mental health
Dr Hermann Swart
  • Social Psychology
  • Intergroup Relations
  • Diversity
  • Intergroup contact
  • Intergroup emotions
  • Prejudice and stereotype reduction
  • Xenophobia
  • Interpersonal friendships.
Prof Leslie Swartz
  • Disability rights and access
  • Disability and mental health issues within sub-Saharan Africa​