Psych Attack

This episode focuses on Dr Robyn Brunton’s research unpacking the connection between women’s adverse childhood experiences, such as various kinds of abuse, and subsequent pregnancy-related anxiety.

Dr Robyn Brunton is a Lecturer with the School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University based in Bathurst, Australia. If you want to keep up to date with Robyn’s research you can visit her university research outputs page. 

Research papers discussed in this episode

Brunton, R., & Dryer, R. (2021). Child sexual abuse and pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature. Child abuse & neglect, 111, 104802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104802

Brunton, R. J., Dryer, R., Krageloh, C., Saliba, A., Kohlhoff, J., & Medvedev, O. (2018). The Pregnancy-related Anxiety Scale: A validity examination using Rasch analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 236C, 127-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.04.116 

 
Brunton, R. J., Dryer, R., Saliba, A., & Kohlhoff, J. (2019). The initial development of the Pregnancy-related Anxiety Scale. Women & Birth, 32(1), e118–e130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2018.05.004

Brunton, R., Wood, T., & Dryer, R. (2020). Childhood abuse, pregnancy-related anxiety and the mediating role of resilience and social support. Journal of Health Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105320968140

 
Dryer, R., & Brunton, R. (In press). Psychometric properties of the Pregnancy-related Anxiety Scale – Screener. Psychological Assessment.

At the time of this episode’s release, Robyn’s book is available for pre-order:

Dryer, R., & Brunton, R. (Eds.). (2021). Pregnancy-related anxiety: Theory, research, and practice. Routledge.

Sensitive content warning

This episode covers the connection between child sexual, physical, and psychological abuse and subsequent experiences of pregnancy-related anxiety. Please take care while listening and if you are feeling discomfort and think you would benefit from some support, please reach out to your GP or contact a service like Lifeline.

Cite this episode

MacDonald, J. B. & Brunton, R. (2021, July 29). Women's psychosocial health (No. 4) [Audio podcast episode]. In Psych Attack. www.psychattack.com

This episode explores the intersection between physiotherapy and psychology with Ryan McGrath. Ryan describes his research unpacking encounters between physiotherapists and clients experiencing psychological distress.

Ryan McGrath is a practicing physiotherapist and also a PhD candidate with the School of Community Health at Charles Sturt University, based in Albury, Australia. If you want to keep up to date with Ryan’s research you can visit his university research outputs page or email him on [email protected]
 

Research papers discussed in this episode

McGrath, R. L., MacDonald, J. B., Verdon, S., Parnell, T., & Smith, M. (2021). Encounters between physiotherapists and clients with suicidal thoughts and behaviours: A narrative literature review. New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy, 49 (3). DOI: 10.15619/NZJP/49.2.03

McGrath, R. L., Parnell, T., Verdon, S., MacDonald, J. B., Smith, M. (2020) Trust, conversations and the ‘middle space’: A qualitative exploration of the experiences of physiotherapists with clients with suicidal thoughts and behaviours. PLoS ONE, 15 (9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238884

Sensitive content warning

This episode refers to suicidal thoughts and behaviours in the context of things physiotherapists are likely to have discussions with clients about. However, this episode covers the experiences of physiotherapists and specific lived experiences of clients are not discussed. Please take care while listening and if you are feeling discomfort and think you would benefit from some support, please reach out to your GP or contact a service like Lifeline.

Cite this episode

MacDonald, J. B. & McGrath, R. (2021, June 29). The intersection between physiotherapy and psychology (No. 3) [Audio podcast episode]. In Psych Attack. www.psychattack.com

This episode explores mathematical models of how people make decisions with Dr Gabriel Tillman. Gabriel describes his research into why people are worse at driving when someone is talking to them, as well as the parts of speech sounds people use to understand what they are hearing.

Dr Gabriel Tillman is a Lecturer in psychology at Federation University, based in Ballarat, Australia. If you want to keep up to date with Gabriel’s research, you can follow him on Google Scholar or Twitter.

Research papers discussed in this episode
Starns, J. J., Cataldo, A. M., Rotello, C. M., Annis, J., Aschenbrenner, A., Bröder, A., Cox, G., Criss, A., Curl, R. A., Dobbins, I. G., Dunn, J., Enam, T., Evans, N. J., Farrell, S., Fraundorf, S. H., Gronlund, S. D., Heathcote, A., Heck, D. W., Hicks, J. L., … Wilson, J. (2019). Assessing theoretical conclusions with blinded inference to investigate a potential inference crisis. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 2 (4), 335–349. DOI: 10.1177/2515245919869583 | 

Tillman, G., Benders, T., Brown, S. D., & van Ravenzwaaij, D. (2017). An evidence accumulation model of acoustic cue weighting in vowel perception. Journal of Phonetics, 61, 1–12. DOI: 10.1016/j.wocn.2016.12.001

Tillman, G., Strayer, D., Eidels, A., & Heathcote, A. (2017). Modeling cognitive load effects of conversation between a passenger and driver. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 79 (6), 1795–1803. DOI: 10.3758/s13414-017-1337-2. 

Cite this episode

MacDonald, J. B. & Tillman, G. (2021, June 22). Mathematical models of how people make decisions (No. 2) [Audio podcast episode]. In Psych Attack. https://www.psychattack.com

Acknowledgements
The transcript for this episode was developed by Eugenie Dale.

This episode explores the education and training of future psychologists with Dr Elly Quinlan. Elly describes her research unpacking tolerance of uncertainty in psychologists working with complex clients or clients who might be at risk, as well as the potential for discomfort to lead psychologists to avoid asking clients about their sexual abuse histories. 

Dr Elly Quinlan is Senior lecturer and course coordinator for the Master of Professional Psychology program at the Australian College of Applied Psychology, based in Sydney, Australia. If you want to keep up to date with Elly’s research you can follow her on Research Gate.

Research papers discussed in this episode

Causo, F., & Quinlan, E. (2021) Defeating dragons and demons: Consumers’ perspectives on mental health recovery in role-playing games. Australian Psychologist, 56 (3), 256–267, DOI: 10.1080/00050067.2021.1890983

Nixon, B., & Quinlan, E. (2021). Asking the hard questions: Psychologist’s discomfort with enquiring about sexual abuse histories. Violence Against Women. DOI: 10.1177/10778012211014558

Quinlan, E., & Deane, F. P. (Under review). A longitudinal study of trainee psychologists’ tolerance of uncertainty, state anxiety and confidence in case formulation.

Quinlan, E., Schilder, S., & Deane, F. P. (2021). “This wasn’t in the manual”: A qualitative exploration of tolerance of uncertainty in the practicing psychology context. Australian Psychologist, 56 (2), 154–167. DOI: 10.1080/00050067.2020.1829451 

 
Related practice guides
MacDonald, J.B., Quinlan, E., Truong, M., & Lazarus, M. (2024). Managing uncertainty in professional practice(Practice guide). Melbourne: Child Family Community Australia, Australian Institute of Family Studies.

MacDonald, J. B., & Quinlan, E. (2022). How to ask adult mental health clients about sexual abuse. Retrieved from Australian Institute of Family Studies: https://aifs.gov.au/resources/short-articles/how-ask-adult-mental-health-clients-about-sexual-abuse

Sensitive content warning

This episode refers to suicide and sexual abuse histories in the context of things professional psychologists are likely to have discussions with clients about. However, these topics are not the main focus of the episode and lived experiences are not discussed. Please take care while listening and if you are feeling discomfort and think you would benefit from some support, please reach out to your GP or contact a service like Lifeline.

Cite this episode

MacDonald, J. B. & Quinlan, E. (2021, June 13). Education and training of future psychologists (No. 1) [Audio podcast episode]. In Psych Attack. www.psychattack.com

Acknowledgements
The transcript for this episode was developed by Eugenie Dale.