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Associate Professor Fiona White

Associate Professor

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Biographical details

Associate Professor Fiona White is an international expert in developing effective strategies to promote intergroup relations. She has lead a number of prejudice reduction projects involving contact and recategorization strategies, and has received competitive funding from the Australian Research Council, Office of Learning and Teaching and ViCHealth.

Across her career, Fiona has published over 40 papers in peer-reviewed publications with over 500 citations and 60 conference presentations. She has supervised two post-docs, 10 postgraduates and over 60 honours students to completion.

Fiona has also been lead author on three editions of a developmental psychology textbook (White, Hayes & Livesey, 2005; 2010; 2013) that has had substantial national impact with over 14,000 copies sold. A/Prof. White also maintains a research active role in the scholarship of teaching having been awarded six highly competitive research-teaching grants (> $500K). In recognition of the quality embodied by her contribution to the research scholarship of learning and teaching Fiona was the successful co-recipient (with Dr Caleb Owens) of the 2012 Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2013 OLT Teaching Citation Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.

Fiona also holds the position of Associate Dean of the Bachelor of Liberal Stduies (BLAS) in the Faculty of Science.

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Research interests

A/Prof. White is recognised internationally for developing new measures of prejudice, identifying sources of prejudice and developing strategies for its effective reduction:

i) Advancing our understanding of the sources of prejudice: I have developed the Family Socialisation Model (FSM) of racial prejudice transmission. This unique framework shows how family cohesion, adaptability and communication moderates prejudice transmission between parents and their adolescents. A significant research outcome is that if parents report high/low levels of prejudice, then low/high levels of communication and cohesion with their adolescent should be encouraged (White & Gelitzman, 2006). Contact with outgroup friends also influences prejudice. I conducted the first Australian field study to show that University and school students with direct contact with Asian friends report significantly lower levels of both subtle and blatant Asian prejudice than adolescents with no Asian friends (White, Wooten et al., 2009). This study highlights the importance of contact through friendship, an essential tool in reducing the salience of the original ingroup/outgroup (racial) category, and thus prejudice.

ii) Highlighting the bidirectional nature of prejudice: I have shown that Asian participants report significantly less implicit prejudice and significantly greater explicit prejudice than their Anglo counterparts (McGrane & White, 2007). The different implicit and explicit levels displayed by each group suggest the possibility of a dissociated causal mechanism – where unlike the majority, minority groups are significantly less inhibited by normative standards to respond without prejudice and have highly developed coping mechanisms. I also explored these possibilities amongst Muslim and Christian students (White & Abu- Rayya, 2009; 2012; 2013). Implementing my newly developed prejudice measure – the Cultural Issues Scale (CIS) - I found that Muslims reported significantly more outgroup prejudice than Christians. Acknowledging this imbalance in bidirectional prejudice has contributed to my formulations of even more robust prejudice reduction strategies.

iii) Integrating dual identity and E-contact (DIEC) tenets to successfully reduce prejudice in the long-term: The achievements of this distinctive 3-year project include - i) the development of a 50-page student handbook with structured tasks and discussion questions for 8 contact sessions; ii) a synchronous internet chat tool that facilitated E-contact between in- and outgroup team members; iii) the development and validation of the new 18-item Cultural Issues Scale (CIS), and explicit measure of blatant and subtle outgroup bias, iv) the development and validation of the new Image Affect Scale (IAS) – a measure of affective outgroup bias that requires participants to rate how positive they feel towards images (i.e., Mosque, Church etc) and; v) the development of an outgroup knowledge quiz. The result highlights include:- intergroup bias and anxiety decreases, and outgroup knowledge increases in the short-term (2 weeks) for Muslims and Christians; and intergroup bias decreases in the long-term (6 and 12 months) for Muslims. This study advances previous paradigms which have only had success with one group at a time, over a short period. Professor Crisp, editor of JESP and renowned scholar in intergroup relations wrote, "You have provided a polished, compelling paper. The piece tells a really clear, novel and important story that is sure to garner a lot of attention. I am therefore delighted to accept your submission for publication on JESP. Thanks for a wonderful contribution - and many congratulations!".

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Teaching and supervision

Undergraduate Teaching:

PSYC2013: Cognitive, Social and Developmental Psychology

PSYC2014: Personality and Intelligence I

PSYC3017: Social Psychology

Honours Seminar: Current Approaches in Advanced Social Psychology

PhD Supervision:

Eileen Chu: Bicultural identification and racial discrimination (Primary Supervisor)

Maram Abu-Rayya: Identity, psychological well-being, and school adjustment among Australian Muslim adolescents (Associate Supervisor)

Andrea Van Dommelen: The role of social identity complexity, inclusiveness and structure intergroup relations (Associate Supervisor)

Betty Luu: Infant’s perceptions of trust (Associate Supervisor)

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Associations

Executive Member of the Psychology Education Interest Group of the Australian Psychological Society (APS)

Registered Psychologist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) – Psychology Board of Australia

Member of the Australian Psychological Society (MAPS)

Member of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP)

Member of the Australasian Human Development Association (AHDA)

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Awards and honours

2013: Office of Learning and Teaching Citations Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning – For developing and evaluating the innovative Constructive Feedback and Plagiarism Reduction Program that engages students’ writing skills and successfully reduced plagiarism rates (Fiona White and Caleb Owens).

2012: Vice Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Award for Support of the Student Experience for the "Constructive Feedback and Plagiarism Reduction Program" conducted in first-year Psychology (Fiona White and Caleb Owens).

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International links

United Kingdom

(Queens University, Belfast) Professor Rhaninnon Turner and I share a research interest in developing effective and novel strategies to reduce prjeudice and improve intergroup harmony.

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Selected grants

2013

  • Investigating the relative effectiveness of different contact strategies in improving intergroup relations; White F; DVC Research/Bridging Support Grant.

2009

  • Cooperative dual identity: A new approach to promote ethnic harmony between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians; White F, Abu-Rayya H; Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP).
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Selected publications

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Books

  • White, F., Hayes, B., Livesey, D. (2012). Developmental psychology: From Infancy to adulthood. Sydney, Australia: Pearson Education.
  • White, F., Hayes, B., Livesey, D. (2010). Developmental psychology: From Infancy to adulthood. Sydney, Australia: Pearson Education.
  • White, F., Hayes,, B., Livesey, D. (2005). Developmental Psychology: From Infancy to adulthood. Frenchs Forest, NSW, Australia: Pearson Education.

Book Chapters

  • Cranney, J., Morris, S., Martin, F., Provost, S., Zinkiewicz, L., Reece, J., Milne-Home, J., Burton, L., White, F., Homewood, J., et al (2011). Psychological Literacy and Applied Psychology in Undergraduate Education. In J. Cranney and D. S. Dunn (Eds.), The Psychologically Literate Citizen: Foundations and Global Perspectives, (pp. 146-164). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • White, F. (2011). The social psychology of intergroup harmony and the education of psychologically literate citizens. In J. Cranney and D. S. Dunn (Eds.), The Psychologically Literate Citizen: Foundations and Global Perspectives, (pp. 56-71). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • White, F., Lloyd, H., Goldfried, J. (2007). Evaluating student perceptions of group work and group assessment. In Angela Brew & Judyth Sachs (Eds.), Transforming a university: the scholarship of teaching and learning in practice, (pp. 71-80). NSW, Australia: Sydney University Press.

Journals

  • Owens, C., White, F. (2013). A five-year systematic strategy to reduce plagiarism amongst first-year psychology university students. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65, 14-21.
  • White, F., Abu-Rayya, H. (2012). A dual identity-electronic contact (DIEC) experiment promoting short- and long-term intergroup harmony. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(3), 597-608.
  • Abu-Rayya, H., White, F. (2010). Acculturation orientations and religious identity as predictors of Anglo-Australians' attitudes towards Australian Muslims. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 34(6), 592-599.
  • White, F., Wootton, B., Man, J., Diaz, H., Rasiah, J., Swift, E., Wilkinson, A. (2009). Adolescent racial prejudice development: the role of friendship quality and interracial contact. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33, 524-534.
  • Cranney, J., Turnbull, C., Provost, S., Martin, F., Katsikitis, M., White, F., Voudouris, N., Montgomery, I., Heaven, P., Morris, S., et al (2009). Graduate attributes of the 4-year Australian undergraduate psychology program. Australian Psychologist, 44(4), 253-262.
  • Church, A., Anderson-Harumi, C., del prado, A., Curtis, G., Tanaka-Matsumi, J., Medina, J., Mastor, K., White, F., Miramontes, L., Katigbak, M. (2008). Culture, cross-role consistency, and adjustment: Testing trait and cultural psychology perspectives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(3), 739-755.
  • White, F., Charles, M., Nelson, J. (2008). The Role of Persuasive Arguments in Changing Affirmative Action Attitudes and Expressed Behavior in Higher Education. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(6), 1271-1286.
  • McGrane, J., White, F. (2007). Differences in Anglo and Asian Australians' explicit and implicit prejudice and the attenuation of their implicit in-group bias. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 10(3), 204-210.
  • Marx, B., Job, R., White, F., Wilson, J. (2007). Moral comprehension and what it might tell us about moral reasoning and political orientation. Journal of Moral Education, 36(2), 199-219.
  • White, F., Gleitzman, M. (2006). An examination of family socialisation processes as moderators of racial prejudice transmission between adolescents and their parents. Journal of Family Studies, 12(2), 247-260.
  • White, F., Lloyd, H., Kennedy, G., Stewart, C. (2006). An investigation of undergraduate students' feelings and attitudes towards group work and group assessment. Research and Development in Higher Education Series, 28, 616-623.
  • Messer, B., White, F. (2006). Employees' mood, perceptions of fairness, and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Business and Psychology, 21(1), 65-82.
  • Church, A., Katigbak, M., del prado, A., Oritz, F., Mastor, K., Harumi, Y., Tanaka-Matsumi, J., Vargas-Flores, J., Ibanez-Reyes, J., White, F., et al (2006). Implicit Theories and Self-Perceptions of Traitedness across Cultures: Toward Integration of Cultural and Trait Psychology Perspectives. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37(6), 694-716.
  • White, F., McGrane, J. (2006). Measuring ambivalent attitudes by unidimensional unfolding. Australian Journal of Psychology, 58, 58.
  • White, F., McGrane, J. (2006). Psychologists' misunderstanding of measurement and its impact upon the assessment of social attitudes. Australian Journal of Psychology, , 39-40.
  • White, F., McGrane, J. (2006). Reducing prejudice towards Aborigines: The relevance of culturally salient stereotypes in adapting the accuracy motivation paradigm. Australian Journal of Psychology, , 25-26.
  • White, F. (2006). Review of the book Clinical Issues with Interracial Couples: Theories and research. Journal of Family Studies, , 17-36.
  • White, F. (2006). Review of the book Ethnicity and Causal Mechanisms. Educational Psychology: an international journal of experimental educational psychology, , 849-850.
  • Livesey, D., Keen, J., Rouse, J., White, F. (2006). The relationship between measures of executive function, motor performance and externalising behaviour in 5 and 6 year old children. Human Movement Science, 25(1), 50-64.
  • White, F., McGrane, J. (2005). Adolescent racial prejudice development: the role of friendship quality and inter-racial contact. Australian Journal of Psychology, , 173-174.
  • White, F., Sartore, G., Gallate, J., Cartwright, A., Curthoys, I. (2005). Digital videotaping (DVT): Evaluating an innovative mode of lecture delivery in psychology. Psychology Learning and Teaching (PLAT), 5(1), 23-31.
  • Abbott, G., White, F., Charles, M. (2005). Linking values and organizational commitment: A correlational and experimental investigation in two organizations. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78, 531-551.
  • White, F., Matawie, K. (2004). Parental Morality And Family Processes As Predictors Of Adolescent Morality. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 13(2), 219-233.
  • White, F., Abbott, G. (2003). Organisational commitment and work value theories are integrated to demonstrate relationships between higher order work values and positive forms of commitment by employees towards organisations. Australian Journal of Psychology, , 32.
  • White, F. (2003). Review of the book Mixed matches: interracial marriage in Australia. Journal of Family Studies, , 115-116.
  • White, F., Davies, A. (2003). The effect of communication medium and task-type on group polarisation and persuasive argumentation, Australian Journal of Psychology. Australian Journal of Psychology.
  • White, F. (2002). A Cognitive-behavioural Measure of Student Goal Setting in a Tertiary Educational Context. Educational Psychology: an international journal of experimental educational psychology, 22(3), 285-304.
  • White, F. (2002). Learning racism: A family socialization perspective. Australian Journal of Psychology.
  • White, F. (2001). Organisational support and reciprocation wariness in the exchange relationship at work. Australian Journal of Psychology, , 134.
  • White, F. (2001). Review of the book What are Human Rights? Journal of Family Studies, , 254-255.

Conferences

  • Karlov, L., Charles, M., White, F. (2012). Analytical thinking: How to effectively target thinking early in undergraduate tertiary education. 4th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, Barcelona: International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED).
  • White, F., Owens, C., Nguyen, M. (2008). Using a constructive feedback approach to effectively reduce student plagiarism among first-year psychology students. UniServe Science Symposium 2008, Sydney, NSW, Australia: Uniserve Science.
  • White, F., Daly, M., Scott, K. (2006). Student evaluations of eLearning technologies in undergraduate psychology: a blended model for the future. 23rd Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education ASCILITE 2006, Australia: Sydney University Press.
  • White, F., Lloyd, H., Kennedy, G., Stewart, C. (2005). An investigation of undergraduate students' feelings and attitudes towards group work and group assessment. Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Annual Conference - HERDSA 2005, Sydney: Institute for Teaching and Learning.

2013

  • Owens, C., White, F. (2013). A five-year systematic strategy to reduce plagiarism amongst first-year psychology university students. Australian Journal of Psychology, 65, 14-21.

2012

  • White, F., Abu-Rayya, H. (2012). A dual identity-electronic contact (DIEC) experiment promoting short- and long-term intergroup harmony. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(3), 597-608.
  • Karlov, L., Charles, M., White, F. (2012). Analytical thinking: How to effectively target thinking early in undergraduate tertiary education. 4th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, Barcelona: International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED).
  • White, F., Hayes, B., Livesey, D. (2012). Developmental psychology: From Infancy to adulthood. Sydney, Australia: Pearson Education.

2011

  • Cranney, J., Morris, S., Martin, F., Provost, S., Zinkiewicz, L., Reece, J., Milne-Home, J., Burton, L., White, F., Homewood, J., et al (2011). Psychological Literacy and Applied Psychology in Undergraduate Education. In J. Cranney and D. S. Dunn (Eds.), The Psychologically Literate Citizen: Foundations and Global Perspectives, (pp. 146-164). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • White, F. (2011). The social psychology of intergroup harmony and the education of psychologically literate citizens. In J. Cranney and D. S. Dunn (Eds.), The Psychologically Literate Citizen: Foundations and Global Perspectives, (pp. 56-71). New York: Oxford University Press.

2010

  • Abu-Rayya, H., White, F. (2010). Acculturation orientations and religious identity as predictors of Anglo-Australians' attitudes towards Australian Muslims. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 34(6), 592-599.
  • White, F., Hayes, B., Livesey, D. (2010). Developmental psychology: From Infancy to adulthood. Sydney, Australia: Pearson Education.

2009

  • White, F., Wootton, B., Man, J., Diaz, H., Rasiah, J., Swift, E., Wilkinson, A. (2009). Adolescent racial prejudice development: the role of friendship quality and interracial contact. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33, 524-534.
  • Cranney, J., Turnbull, C., Provost, S., Martin, F., Katsikitis, M., White, F., Voudouris, N., Montgomery, I., Heaven, P., Morris, S., et al (2009). Graduate attributes of the 4-year Australian undergraduate psychology program. Australian Psychologist, 44(4), 253-262.

2008

  • Church, A., Anderson-Harumi, C., del prado, A., Curtis, G., Tanaka-Matsumi, J., Medina, J., Mastor, K., White, F., Miramontes, L., Katigbak, M. (2008). Culture, cross-role consistency, and adjustment: Testing trait and cultural psychology perspectives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(3), 739-755.
  • White, F., Charles, M., Nelson, J. (2008). The Role of Persuasive Arguments in Changing Affirmative Action Attitudes and Expressed Behavior in Higher Education. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(6), 1271-1286.
  • White, F., Owens, C., Nguyen, M. (2008). Using a constructive feedback approach to effectively reduce student plagiarism among first-year psychology students. UniServe Science Symposium 2008, Sydney, NSW, Australia: Uniserve Science.

2007

  • McGrane, J., White, F. (2007). Differences in Anglo and Asian Australians' explicit and implicit prejudice and the attenuation of their implicit in-group bias. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 10(3), 204-210.
  • White, F., Lloyd, H., Goldfried, J. (2007). Evaluating student perceptions of group work and group assessment. In Angela Brew & Judyth Sachs (Eds.), Transforming a university: the scholarship of teaching and learning in practice, (pp. 71-80). NSW, Australia: Sydney University Press.
  • Marx, B., Job, R., White, F., Wilson, J. (2007). Moral comprehension and what it might tell us about moral reasoning and political orientation. Journal of Moral Education, 36(2), 199-219.

2006

  • White, F., Gleitzman, M. (2006). An examination of family socialisation processes as moderators of racial prejudice transmission between adolescents and their parents. Journal of Family Studies, 12(2), 247-260.
  • White, F., Lloyd, H., Kennedy, G., Stewart, C. (2006). An investigation of undergraduate students' feelings and attitudes towards group work and group assessment. Research and Development in Higher Education Series, 28, 616-623.
  • Messer, B., White, F. (2006). Employees' mood, perceptions of fairness, and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Business and Psychology, 21(1), 65-82.
  • Church, A., Katigbak, M., del prado, A., Oritz, F., Mastor, K., Harumi, Y., Tanaka-Matsumi, J., Vargas-Flores, J., Ibanez-Reyes, J., White, F., et al (2006). Implicit Theories and Self-Perceptions of Traitedness across Cultures: Toward Integration of Cultural and Trait Psychology Perspectives. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37(6), 694-716.
  • White, F., McGrane, J. (2006). Measuring ambivalent attitudes by unidimensional unfolding. Australian Journal of Psychology, 58, 58.
  • White, F., McGrane, J. (2006). Psychologists' misunderstanding of measurement and its impact upon the assessment of social attitudes. Australian Journal of Psychology, , 39-40.
  • White, F., McGrane, J. (2006). Reducing prejudice towards Aborigines: The relevance of culturally salient stereotypes in adapting the accuracy motivation paradigm. Australian Journal of Psychology, , 25-26.
  • White, F. (2006). Review of the book Clinical Issues with Interracial Couples: Theories and research. Journal of Family Studies, , 17-36.
  • White, F. (2006). Review of the book Ethnicity and Causal Mechanisms. Educational Psychology: an international journal of experimental educational psychology, , 849-850.
  • White, F., Daly, M., Scott, K. (2006). Student evaluations of eLearning technologies in undergraduate psychology: a blended model for the future. 23rd Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education ASCILITE 2006, Australia: Sydney University Press.
  • Livesey, D., Keen, J., Rouse, J., White, F. (2006). The relationship between measures of executive function, motor performance and externalising behaviour in 5 and 6 year old children. Human Movement Science, 25(1), 50-64.

2005

  • White, F., McGrane, J. (2005). Adolescent racial prejudice development: the role of friendship quality and inter-racial contact. Australian Journal of Psychology, , 173-174.
  • White, F., Lloyd, H., Kennedy, G., Stewart, C. (2005). An investigation of undergraduate students' feelings and attitudes towards group work and group assessment. Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Annual Conference - HERDSA 2005, Sydney: Institute for Teaching and Learning.
  • White, F., Hayes,, B., Livesey, D. (2005). Developmental Psychology: From Infancy to adulthood. Frenchs Forest, NSW, Australia: Pearson Education.
  • White, F., Sartore, G., Gallate, J., Cartwright, A., Curthoys, I. (2005). Digital videotaping (DVT): Evaluating an innovative mode of lecture delivery in psychology. Psychology Learning and Teaching (PLAT), 5(1), 23-31.
  • Abbott, G., White, F., Charles, M. (2005). Linking values and organizational commitment: A correlational and experimental investigation in two organizations. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78, 531-551.

2004

  • White, F., Matawie, K. (2004). Parental Morality And Family Processes As Predictors Of Adolescent Morality. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 13(2), 219-233.

2003

  • White, F., Abbott, G. (2003). Organisational commitment and work value theories are integrated to demonstrate relationships between higher order work values and positive forms of commitment by employees towards organisations. Australian Journal of Psychology, , 32.
  • White, F. (2003). Review of the book Mixed matches: interracial marriage in Australia. Journal of Family Studies, , 115-116.
  • White, F., Davies, A. (2003). The effect of communication medium and task-type on group polarisation and persuasive argumentation, Australian Journal of Psychology. Australian Journal of Psychology.

2002

  • White, F. (2002). A Cognitive-behavioural Measure of Student Goal Setting in a Tertiary Educational Context. Educational Psychology: an international journal of experimental educational psychology, 22(3), 285-304.
  • White, F. (2002). Learning racism: A family socialization perspective. Australian Journal of Psychology.

2001

  • White, F. (2001). Organisational support and reciprocation wariness in the exchange relationship at work. Australian Journal of Psychology, , 134.
  • White, F. (2001). Review of the book What are Human Rights? Journal of Family Studies, , 254-255.
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