My current interests include self-regulation acquisition in health professionals; implementation and adoption of evidence-based practices; using computerised technologies to enhance and disseminate evidence-based programs.
Dr Suvena Sethi researches evidence-based programs in communities
How did you get into psychology?
Looking back on my high school and early undergraduate years, I think I can safely say that I dreaded attending classes for every single subject other than biology and psychology. Maths was awful, as were physics, chemistry, history, and learning French (even though I’m bilingual, I somehow couldn’t seem to learn French! I came out of five years of learning French knowing only 4 words and the score of the 2001 rugby game between France and the All Blacks). I pursued biology and psychology at University, and as much as I loved biology, I never found myself feeling like I was... ‘any good at it’. A second year subject in psychology allowed us to directly test Skinner’s operant conditioning theory – we learnt how to train rats to press levers to obtain sugar. It was by far the most fun I had ever had University. And here I am today.
What do you think makes a good psychology researcher?
I can’t say I know of a prescriptive formula for this, but there a few key ingredients that I think work really well. Certainly, a real curiosity about answering the ‘why and the how’ is important – but some of the researchers I really admire are able to channel that curiosity into meaningful action - whether it be via disseminating their ideas through collaborations and setting up a research design to answer their questions, or whether it is talking more about their ideas via corridor conversations (or social networking sites). A quiet room also helps.
What are you researching at the moment?
My current interests include self-regulation acquisition in health professionals; implementation and adoption of evidence-based practices; using computerised technologies to enhance and disseminate evidence-based programs.
Tell us something that people might be interested to know about you?
Through moving around a fair bit in my early teenage years, I am now inflicted with an unrelenting travel bug. You can always catch me planning and plotting my next adventure, with an ever-expanding list on my wall of all the places I absolutely-have-to-and-must visit. I also have a pretty impressive collection of travel posters.
