People & Lab

principal INVESTIGATOR

Paul Paul Jose, PhD

Paul Jose received his B.A. in psychology from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1974, and his Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Yale University in 1980. His field of study has historically been social developmental psychology, but he has conducted studies and published articles in educational psychology, clinical psychology, social psychology, cross-cultural psychology, and statistics. Currently his main areas of interest are adolescent development, positive youth development, and statistical mediation and moderation.

Postdoctoral Researchers

Magda Magdalena Kielpikowski, PhD
Jaimee Jaimee Stuart, PhD

Postgraduate students

Buaphrao Buaphrao Raphiphatthana, PhD studentBuaphrao completed her undergraduate study, majoring in psychology at the university of Otago. She gained her BSc with Honours in psychology at VUW. Her PhD research examines how mindfulness and other positive psychological constructs, e.g. grit and resilience, are experienced across cultures.
Anna Anna Kurek, PhD student Anna completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She went on to travel and live in Europe where she decided to pursue an MSc in Psychology and Mental Health in the UK. After graduating with distinction from Liverpool, intrigued by Dr. Jose’s research and expertise in developmental psychology, she set her sights on doctoral study at Victoria University. Her PhD research examines the role of technology on personality development and self-identity and the ways in which the lines may be blurred between the offline and online world’s youth create for themselves.
Becky Becky Bloore, PhD student Becky is currently a research assistant at VUW before starting her PhD later on in the year. Her main interests involve positive psychology, the fear of happiness, the hedonic treadmill of happiness and consumer psychology in relation to wellbeing. She is currently working on the Fear of Happiness with Paul and collecting data from the UK in May. She is also working on research with the university looking at positive wellbeing in relation to technology use amongst young people in New Zealand.
Catherine Ross, Student
Jeremy Mason, Student 
Fraser Crocombe, Student 
 Samantha Samantha Stanley, Honours student Samantha moved from Nelson in 2012 to study psychology and philosophy at Victoria University and has just completed her Bachelor of Arts degree. Samantha is currently studying psychology at honours level with Dr. Jose as her supervisor. She is interested in pursuing a career in research.
Paul Millin, Student 
Laura Gabriel Bankier-Perry, Student Gabriel studied Psychology at the University of Waikato, completing a Bachelor of Social Sciences in 2014, before moving to Wellington to study further. He is currently working on his Honours research project with Paul, focusing on the relationship between hope and wellbeing. Gabriel is interested in the insights positive psychology can provide for leading a good and meaningful life.