From Left: Noah Toh, Keh Jun Sheng, Simon Leow, Tang Bek Wuay, Joanne Tan
SOSS warmly welcomed five new graduate students into our PhD in Psychology programme this year. We managed to get a chance to ask each of them to tell us a bit more about themselves. Read on to find out more about their backgrounds and research interests!
Noah Toh Wei Xing
I hold a Bachelor of Science from the National University of Singapore and a Bachelor of Psychology from James Cook University. My current research interests center on the behavioural and affective implications of executive functions, as well as experiential factors that could improve executive functions. In my pastime, I binge watch television shows such as Black Mirror, Westworld, and Stranger Things.
Keh Jun Sheng
I graduated from University at Buffalo (SIM Global) with a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) in 2014. Ever since, I have been involved in psychological research in both NIE and NTU. My working experience has been predominantly in educational and cognitive research, but my actual research interest centers around social and personality psychology. Recently, I have been interested in understanding more about the social-cognitive underpinnings, behavioral manifestations, and lifespan development of anthropomorphic thinking. I am also interested in the relationship between social media usage and well-being of individuals. In my free time, I enjoy watching TV shows, looking at pictures of mechanical watches that I cannot afford, and thinking of a future where I have a kitten and a puppy that are friends with each other.
Simon Leow
I always asked myself: "What is the meaning of all these?" What happens when life ceases to have meaning? Much of human's life is engaging in activities. We are always doing something – Moving on from one task to another either alone or with others. Is life just a journey filled with activities or does life hold a special meaning for each of us? I refer to such contemplation as the meaning of life. My curiosity over the meaning of life leads me to want to examine the meaning in life. Meaning of life takes a more philosophical angle – What is the ultimate purpose of life? Whereas meaning in life takes a more psychological angle – What are the entities in life that give meaning to one’s life which is a subjective experience? Perhaps the meaning of life is to discover the meaning in life. Interest around meaning in life reflects my general research interest around wellbeing. And because we spend a big part of our lives at work, it is an important contributor to our source of wellbeing. We used to be able to differentiate work and life quite easily. With Internet connectivity and technology, the distinction between work and life is often unclear. It makes it paramount now to examine the role of work as a source of our wellbeing (or ill-being). In a gist, I am interested in studying the synergy between work and wellbeing. Psychology is the study of the human's mind, behavior, and experience. I hope that through this glimpse into the human's psyche and experience, it will offer us a better understanding of what makes life worth living. In my opinion, this is the promise that psychology holds.
Tang Bek Wuay
I graduated from National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) in Psychology. During my course of study in SMU, I will be working with Dr Grace Park in research on industrial and organizational psychology. Specifically, I am interested in the factors that make people and teams more motivated to perform well. One interesting thing about me is that I have worked in Singapore Prison Service for 5 years, both as a drug counsellor and a programme evaluator.
Joanne Tan Qin Ying
I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology from McMaster University, Canada. My undergraduate research focused on Ethology (Animal Behaviour), Ecology, and Evolution. For my Honours Thesis, I used social network analysis to explore behaviour in a cooperatively-breeding cichlid fish. The research was fascinating, but I personally felt that there is much more to discover in the human world.
After living abroad and being a tourist for more than 10 years, I returned home to Singapore in 2015 and worked as a Volunteer Management Executive at Children's Cancer Foundation. My on-the-job experience further reinforced my passion for behavioural research – especially after working with children and attending a training session conducted by volunteers from Google.
Therefore, I am now pursuing a PhD in Psychology at the SMU School of Social Sciences to delve into a deeper understanding of the impact of technological advances on human behaviour and psychological processes. I am particularly keen to examine the impact of media consumption on executive functions such as attentional control and emotional regulation during early childhood.