Dr Sean Lee ~ Senior Lecturer Psychology

Sean’s primary specialization is industrial and organizational psychology. His secondary specializations include emotions, well-being, and psychometrics. His studies focus on how we may enhance people's creativity as well as promote better health and overall well-being - both within and outside the workplace. Through his teaching positions held at the Singapore Management University, Prep-Zone Academy Singapore, and, presently, James Cook University Singapore, he has accumulated a wealth of teaching experiences - having taught classes consisting of demographically-diverse students from the IGCSE and IB Diploma level up to the PhD level. He is a full member of both the American Psychological Association (APA) and Singapore Psychological Society (SPS), and currently serves as Editorial Board Member at the Asian Journal of Social Psychology and Review Editor at Frontiers in Psychology (Emotion Science Section). He also conducts ad hoc peer-reviews for other notable academic journals, such as Organizational Psychology Review, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, and Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health.

Students who are interested in pursuing a PhD/Masters or any Higher Degree in Research (HDR) in JCU Singapore under my supervision may choose to develop and lead a research project in any of the areas listed below:

• Creativity and Innovation - Examining factors that facilitate or impede the production of creative ideas (either alone or in work groups/teams).

• Emotions, Health and Subjective Well-Being - Exploring ways to improve our physical and mental health (in any area, such as school, workplace, day-to-day life, etc.).

• Psychometrics - Testing whether our scales and measures mean the same for different groups of participants. Projects aimed at creating new psychological test measures are also welcome.

• Psychological impact of COVID-19 (including mental and physical health correlates)

However, I should note that scholarships allocations are a) extremely limited at present, and b) not decided by the academic supervisor. Instead, these are strictly assessed and decided upon by the university's committee. Hence, you can expect fewer administrative and/or logistical hurdles if you are prepared to be self-funded.

Students who are interested in volunteering/assisting in an existing research projects (Research Assistantship experience) may also drop an expression of interest via email. For senior/post-graduate students, there may also be opportunities for you to lead research projects (with supervision).

Teaching

• PY3107: Psychological Assessment in Action (Level 3; SIN)

Interests

Research

• Creativity (Individual and Team)
• Emotions, Health, and Subject Well-Being
• Psychometrics

Experience

• 2023 to present - Voluntary Research Assistantship Coordinator, James Cook University Singapore
• 2022 to present - Learning & Teaching Coordinator, James Cook University Singapore, School of Social and Health Sciences
• 2021 to present - Editorial Board Member, Asian Journal of Social Psychology
• 2020 to present - Review Editor, Frontiers in Psychology (Emotion Science Section)
• 2021 to 2023 - Advisor, James Cook University Singapore Psychology Society
• 2021 to 2023 - Bachelor of Arts Program Coordinator, James Cook University Singapore, School of Social and Health Sciences
• 2017 to 2019 - Research Award Reviewer, Association for Psychological Science

Research Disciplines

• Clinical and health psychology (5203)
• Applied and developmental psychology (5201)
• Social and personality psychology (5205)

Awards

• 2022 - Early Career Researcher Award
• 2020 - Teaching Excellence Award
• 2019 - Multidisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship Award
• 2019 - Presidential Doctoral Fellowship Award
• 2019 - Fred Long Award for Research Excellence

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU.

Journal Articles

• Lee S, Choy B and Yong J (2022) A bubble of protection: examining dispositional optimism as a psychological buffer of the deleterious association between negative work-family spillover and psychological health. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 31 (1). pp. 35-46
• Leung A, Brandon K, Phang R, Lee S and Huang T (in press) Linking creativity to psychological well-being: integrative insights from the instrumental emotion regulation theory. The Journal of Creative Behavior,
• Hartanto A, Yong J, Toh W, Lee S, Tng G and Tov W (2020) Cognitive, social, emotional, and subjective health benefits of computer use in adults: a 9-year longitudinal study from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS). Computers in Human Behavior, 104.
• Hartanto A, Yong J, Lee S, Ng W and Tong E (2020) Putting adversity in perspective: purpose in life moderates the link between childhood emotional abuse and neglect and adulthood depressive symptoms. Journal of Mental Health, 29 (4). pp. 473-482
• Lee S, Hartanto A, Yong J, Koh B and Leung A (2020) Examining the cross‐cultural validity of the positive affect and negative affect schedule between an Asian (Singaporean) sample and a Western (American) sample. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 23. pp. 109-116
• Lee S and Park G (2020) Does diversity in team members' agreeableness benefit creative teams? Journal of Research in Personality, 85.
• Lee S (2020) Inflammation, depression, and anxiety disorder: a population-based study examining the association between Interleukin-6 and the experiencing of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Psychiatry Research, 285.
• Hartanto A, Lee S and Yong J (2019) Dispositional gratitude moderates the association between socioeconomic status and interleukin-6. Scientific Reports, 9.

Book Chapters

• Leung A, Koh B and Lee S (2020) Culture and creativity in multicultural teams. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology. Oxford University Press, New York, USA

Other research outputs

• Lee S (2019) Revisiting the Miller-Kanazawa debate: should Asia Be afforded more attention From evolutionary psychologists? Frontiers in Psychology, 10.
• Lee S (2018) A proposed nomenclature and framework of emotional labor. Southeast Asia Psychology Journal, 6. pp. 41-58
• Lee S (2018) Testing for measurement invariance: does your measure mean the same thing for different participants? APS Observer, 31 (8). pp. 32-33

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Investigating the Death Positivity and God-serving Biases in Implicit Afterlife beliefs (PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Education Leadership and Change in China's "Double Reduction" Drive: Issues and Options (PhD , Secondary Advisor)