Department of Psychology

The Psychology programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS) began 35 years ago and is today highly popular with students, while the general public in Singapore has begun to appreciate what psychology has to offer as a hub discipline that straddles many fields.

Things, however, were not always as such, nor was the development of the programme smooth sailing. This book traces the journey of NUS Psychology — how it started in 1986 as a programme in the Department of Social Work before becoming an independent Department of Psychology in 2005.

Set within a historical context of prevailing sentiments and challenges of the times, this account of the journey illustrates how the start of NUS Psychology was in many ways a strange one. Golden nuggets of information and insights, as well as useful lessons that can be learned from this strange start, are provided by the author — John Elliot, who walked this entire journey.

 

 

Professor Ramadhar Singh
Purdue University Distinguished Alumni Honoree, Department of Social Work (1988-2010)

On a related note, we would like to introduce Professor Ramadhar Singh. Prof Singh earned his MS (1972) and PhD (1973) degrees in social psychology from Purdue University. On March 25, 2022, he will be the Purdue University Distinguished Alumni Award Honoree. Our congratulations to him on winning this coveted award from his 152-year-old alma mater!

Bibliography
The National University of Singapore (NUS) invited Professor Ramadhar Singh of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad for a research seminar in April 1988 and offered him a visiting position in the then-Department of Social Work. He started as a Senior Teaching Fellow for two years in June 1988 and arose to Associate Professorship in 1990 and Professorship in the then-Department of Social Work and Psychology in 1997. After 22 years of dedicated services to NUS, he retired as a Professor of Psychology from the Department of Psychology on June 30, 2010.

Professor Singh fondly remembers the exceptional affection and support of Professor S. Vasoo (former Head, Department of Social Work & Psychology), Professor Edwin Thumboo (former Dean, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences), and University Professor Lim Pin (former Vice Chancellor) who used to regularly ask him: “How is your research going?” Such construal of his identity per se by them, as Professor Singh fondly remembers, remained one of the driving forces for his dedicated scholarship and sustained contributions to social sciences from NUS!

In the early 1990s, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the British Psychological Society, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Singapore Psychological Society elected him Fellow in recognition of his outstanding and unusual contributions. During 1997-2010, he played key roles in development of the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Asian Journal of Social Psychology. Representing the Singapore Psychological Society, he served as the co-chair of the Scientific Committee of the 25th International Congress of Applied Psychology in Singapore (2002).

The employment in the Department of Social Work and Psychology at NUS had created a great opportunity for Professor Singh to advance social sciences in at least five ways. First, he developed the undergraduate and graduate programs. Second, he supervised individual research projects, honors and master’s theses, and doctoral dissertations that got published in international journals. Third, he was instrumental in getting most of the bright undergraduate students admitted to reputed graduate programs in America, Australia, and/or Britain. Fourth, he promoted social work and psychology programs across the globe. Finally, he attracted master’s and post-doctoral fellows from other countries.

Regularly engaging himself in the self-renewal activities available and broadening of his professional network with the visiting psychologists added to Professor Singh’s further growth as a social scientist. For example, the sabbaticals at Rochester (Professor Harry T. Reis) and Oxford (Professor Miles Hewstone) during 2003-04 and at Purdue (Professor Duane T. Wegener) during August through December 2008 equipped him with new knowledge and skills required for the 21^st century competition in psychology. He is as active in research and publication now as he was at his first appointment as Lecturer in Psychology at Patna University, Patna, Bihar, India in 1968.

During his first sabbatical from NUS (2003-04), Professor Singh was honored by the invitation to visit the Laboratory of Professor Colleen Moore (University of Wisconsin, Madison) and of Professor Paul H. Bell (Colorado State University, Fort Collins) and to present a research colloquium at both the universities. He also presented invited colloquia at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, USA, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, University of Leuven, Belgium, and Universities of Kent, Manchester, and Oxford in Britain.

The visits of Professor J. Frank Yates (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: 1990), Professor James C. Nalyor (The Ohio State University: 1996 and 1997), and Professor Philip E. Tetlock (The Ohio State University: 2002) for a research colloquium resulted in collaborative research and international visibility of the Department. Professor Singh’s participation in 28 national and international conferences and 58 invited colloquia at institutions--including six of the Big 10s in the Midwest USA--across 30 nations expanded his professional network considerably, and, more important, brought further international visibility to the Department of Social Work and Psychology and the Department of Psychology (2005-2010).

Professor Vasoo and Professor Singh jointly took the challenges that came from consulting projects on human welfare and volunteerism from some companies and the Government of Singapore. Regular grants for academic research sustained Professor Singh’s academic productivity. He published 31 papers in international journals, three  papers in national journals, and four chapters in edited volumes [e.g., Contributions to Information Integration Theory (1991), Encyclopedia of Psychology (2000)].

Of the 34 articles published from NUS, 28 were co-authored with undergraduate and/or graduate students from time to time. Some of those students still contact him for reference letters for admission and they regularly exchange greetings. They have still been publishing papers together from the data collected at NUS. Therefore, Professor Singh received the Inspiring Mentor  Award from NUS in 2009.

Upon his retirement from NUS, Professor Singh served as the Distinguished Professorship of Management at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB: 2010-2016). Since July 2016, he has been serving as the Distinguished University Professor at the Ahmedabad University but has remained in contact with his former colleagues and students of NUS. He remained a member of our Centre of Social Development (Asia) until 2016.

The work done at NUS and his subsequent sustained contributions to Indian institutions resulted in Professor Singh’s inclusion among the Faces and Minds of Psychological Science by the Association of Psychological Science, Washington DC, USA (2013) and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Research from the Indian Institute of Management Indore (2021). The Purdue University Distinguished Alumni Award is the latest addition to his international visibility.

We—the faculty and the staff of the Department of Social Work—congratulate Professor Ramadhar Singh on his sustained contributions to academia and wish him more such national and international accolades in the future. We are glad that he had worked with us and that he is still associated with us. We are proud and delighted to follow his distinguished career as social scientist of Asia with great interest.

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Webpage: https://ramadharsingh.wordpress.com
Association of Psychological Science: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/faces-minds/inferring-missing-information.html
Lifetime Achievement Award from IIM Indore: https://www.iimidr.ac.in/news-events/iim-indore-presents-the-maiden-lifetime-achievement-award-for-excellence-in-research-to-ramadhar-singh/