Dr Bianca Klettke, PhD
Senior Lecturer, Deakin University, School of Psychology
Dr Bianca Klettke is an academic and leading researcher in the field of cyberpsychology, particularly technology-facilitated sexual violence. Dr Klettke’s research focuses on how to keep young people safe online, including online behaviours such as sexting and cyberbullying. Within these areas, Dr Klettke’s research has focused on identifying the risk and protective factors of these behaviours, to ensure prevention programs are evidence-based.
It is the aim of this work to inform legal bodies, policy-makers, schools, parents and guardians about how to minimise harmful online behaviours and to safeguard young people online.
Dr Elizabeth Clancy
Lecturer, Deakin University, School of Psychology and Psychologist
M Ind & Org Psych, PhD Deakin, MAPS, AFHEA, GCHELT
Dr Clancy is a cyberpsychology researcher, endorsed organisational psychologist, and Lecturer in Psychology at Deakin University, with interests in the well-being and positive development of young adults. Her PhD focused on sext dissemination, including exploring motivations, associated traits and issues of consent in digital relationships, cyberbullying, and the online experiences of trans and gender diverse individuals. An experienced program and project manager, Dr Clancy is highly experienced in program planning, program logic and evaluation for a range of family and school-based health promotion and prevention programs. She supervises 4th-year, Masters, and PhD students, and her teaching work focuses on graduate employability.
Dr Dominika Howard, M.A., Ph.D.
Associate Lecturer, Deakin University, School of Psychology
Dr Dominika Howard is an Associate Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Deakin University. Dominika’s research includes body image, cyberpsychology, problematic online (sexual) behaviours, relationships, and personality. Dominika’s doctoral thesis focused on the issue of body image and sexting among young Australian adults. Specifically, she investigated how body image dissatisfaction is related to unwanted and pressured sexting behaviours. Dominika is involved in international research collaborations with scholars from Europe and North America. She teaches subjects such as Introduction to Forensic Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Psychology of Relationships, Understanding Health, Health Psychology (Chronic Illness), and Research Methods. Dominika also supervises students undertaking their 4th-year thesis.
Mr Yunhao Hu, BPsych Hons
Research Assistant, Teaching staff, Deakin University, School of Psychology
Yunhao Hu is a PhD candidate in the School of Psychology at Deakin University. Yunhao’s research focus includes cyberpsychology, gaming, cyberbullying, and gendered norms. Specifically, he is interested in investigating the association between gaming and toxic online behaviour, as well as the moderating impact of gendered norms. Yunhao is a research assistant in the CyberPsychology Research Group, and also an academic tutor at Deakin University, teaching Introduction to Forensic Psychology and Research Methods. He completed his 4th year research thesis in the area of cyberpsychology with Dr Klettke and Dr Clancy, and is looking forward to continuing this journey.
Dr David Hallford, DPsych (Clinical)
Alfred Deakin Research Fellow, Deakin University, School of Psychology and Clinical Psychologist
Dr David J. Hallford (D.Psych, Clinical) is a clinical psychologist and Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow. His research focuses on the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural processes that precipitate and maintain mental illness. In particular, he has an interest in past and future autobiographical thinking and its functions. He and his colleagues develop novel interventions in face-to-face and automated online formats. His work spans depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, stress and trauma-related disorders, and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. David currently works part-time in his private practice in Melbourne, Australia where he provides psychological assessment and therapy.
Dr Taylor Brown
Lecturer, Deakin University, School of Psychology
Dr Taylor Brown is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Deakin University and a researcher in cyberpsychology and behavioural addictions. Her work investigates how immersive digital environments influence mental health and identity, with a particular focus on the telepresence, user-avatar bond, online flow, and Internet Gaming Disorder. Taylor specialises in digital phenotyping and longitudinal modelling to better understand the “who” and “when” of vulnerability to problematic online behaviours across development.
Taylor has taught and coordinated units in developmental, organisational psychology, placement, and interpersonal communication skills, and contributes to the supervision of Honours and postgraduate students. Her research integrates psychometric and digital data to explore self-representation in virtual spaces, and the psychological mechanisms that underlie both positive and problematic forms of digital engagement.
Taylor’s work aims to inform prevention and intervention efforts that respond to emerging digital risks while recognising the opportunities for growth and resilience in online settings. She is passionate about preparing students and practitioners to critically engage with the evolving digital landscape.
Australian Partners
Dr Evita March, PhD
Senior Lecturer, Psychology, School of Science, Psychology and Sport, Federation University, Victoria
Evita March is a senior lecturer and researcher of psychology at Federation University Australia. Evita’s research interests include interpersonal relationships, cyberpsychology and personality. In particular, Dr March is interested in how people behave online, and she has explored a range of online behaviours including cyberbullying, cyberstalking, online dating, trolling, and online intimate partner violence. Dr March believes that understanding individual differences that predict engaging in online antisocial behaviours is imperative for the development of effective interventions and prevention of cyber abuse.
International Partners
Prof Angela Crossman, PhD
Professor, Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, USA
Angela M. Crossman is a Professor in the Psychology Department at John Jay College, City University of New York (CUNY) and a member of the Psychology & Law, Criminal Justice, and Developmental Psychology doctoral programs at the CUNY Graduate Center. She earned a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University in 2001, then completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Institute for the Study of Child Development (UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ). Her research interests include the accuracy and credibility of children’s memory and testimony, the socialization and development of deception, and adolescent sexting behaviour. She is a member of the Child Maltreatment editorial board and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.
Dr Megan Maas, PhD
Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, Michigan State University, USA
Megan Maas, PhD, is an assistant professor in Human Development & Family Studies. Her work sits at the intersection of sexual violence prevention and sexual health promotion. She received her PhD in 2016 from The Pennsylvania State University as a pre-doctoral fellow funded by the National Institutes of Health. Her award-winning research, recognized by the American Psychological Association, focuses on adolescent sexual socialization, with an emphasis on the bi-directional role that social media, sexting, and online pornography play in the development of attitudes and behaviour related to sexuality and gender.
​Born and raised in California, Dr Maas started her career as a health educator, developing a popular lecture series integrating peer-reviewed information on pornography use with sexual health and violence behaviours. For the last 10 years, she has been invited to talk on this subject for audiences of students, parents, and teachers at universities and organizations across the US.
Deakin University Cyberpsychology Research Group 