Psychology

The NUS psychology programme was first introduced during the 1986-87 academic year and is the oldest psychology programme in Singapore.

NUS offers a full undergraduate programme, including an honours course, as well as Masters and Ph.D. programmes. Since its inception, the psychology programme has attracted a strong response from students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Psychology contributes to society by providing behavioural scientists who are equipped with the skills to use empirical research methods to seek an account of human behaviour and experience. It has been only a little over a hundred years that psychology has been a discipline in its own right.

News

August 6, 2025

Pitfalls of self-reported measures of self-control: Surprising insights from extreme debtors

In the realm of personal finance and psychology, personal debt has long been an area of concern, with individuals racking up large amounts of credit card debt and other forms of debt. Self-reported measures, such as the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS), are frequently used to predict and assess risk factors for debt-prone individuals. However, these …

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August 4, 2025

STEER India 2025: Exploring community and cultural development in a dynamic nation

In June this year, seven NUS students from various faculties embarked on a nine-day journey to New Delhi and Agra in India as part of the Study Trips for Engagement and EnRichment (STEER) programme led by Associate Professor Loh Wai Lam, Academic Director of NUS Global Relations Office (GRO). The trip, jointly organised by GRO and the Office of International Affairs & Global Initiatives at O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), was curated to enable the students to experience the vibrancy and dynamism of India through a blend of academic discourse and cultural immersion.

July 15, 2025

Predicting anhedonia using naturalistic and lab-based measures of reward

Depression is one of the most common mental health challenges affecting young people, with symptoms often emerging and intensifying during the critical transition from adolescence into young adulthood. Among these symptoms, anhedonia, the reduced ability to feel pleasure or interest in activities, has gained attention as a particularly serious and understudied issue. Anhedonia not only …

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July 14, 2025

The art of academics: NUS graduates on pursuing their artistic passions

In marking 120 years of excellence, innovation and service, the University also celebrates the achievements of 17,646 graduates from the NUS Class of 2025.

May 8, 2025

Tails of truth: How effective are fables with human-like animals in teaching children honesty?

Research by NUS psychologist Associate Professor Ding Xiao Pan and some of her students shed light on how effectively classic fables such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears that feature anthropomorphised animals, or animals with human traits, instill virtues in children.

April 3, 2025

FASS Inspiring Mentor 2024 Award Winners Announced

We extend our congratulations to the winners of the 2024 FASS Inspiring Mentor Awards.

Ms. Loo Bee Bee, Senior Associate Director, Department of Psychology
Associate Professor Ong Ee Cheng, Department of Economics
Professor Jessica Pan, Office of the Provost and Department of Economics

March 18, 2025

Baseline Study for Health District @ Queenstown unveils key insights on residents’ well-being

NUS study highlights the need for stronger social connections, trust and cohesion in a holistic approach to healthy longevity.

March 15, 2025

Can classic moral stories with anthropomorphized animal characters promote children’s honesty?

From ‘The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’ to ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, moral stories have long served to entertain children and convey moral lessons through their succinct narratives. Many of these classic moral tales feature anthropomorphised animals as key characters, with anthropomorphism — the attribution of human traits to non-human animals — being prevalent in …

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March 8, 2025

Investigating the network structure of domain‐specific knowledge using the semantic fluency task

Cognitive scientists have a long-standing interest in mapping out how information in our brains is organised and retrieved. Semantic memory is the part of long-term memory that stores facts and information about the world, and is conceptualised as a network of concepts that are connected based on associations and relationships. In order to study the …

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February 24, 2025

Detecting lies through others’ eyes: Children use perceptual access cues to evaluate listeners’ beliefs about informants’ deception

Children often observe interactions between informants and receivers, providing them with insights into complex social dynamics. For example, a child might witness their father hide a diamond necklace and later overhear him tell his wife a white lie about forgetting her birthday gift, or they might see a sibling eat the last cookie and then …

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