Lentera Senja, short for Lansia Energik Sejahtera Sehat Sentosa Jiwa dan Raga (Energetic, Prosperous, Healthy, and Peaceful Older Adults in Body and Mind), is an initiative by the Center for Life-Span Development (CLSD) at the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) that develops a support toolkit to help older adults enhance their understanding of psychological well-being. The program stems from Indonesia’s demographic reality: according to Statistics Indonesia (2023), the proportion of older adults has reached 11.56% and is projected to rise to 20% by 2045. Alongside increasing life expectancy, older adults face complex challenges such as declining physical and cognitive functioning, shrinking social networks, and heightened risks of loneliness, depression, and anxiety. Existing services have tended to prioritize physical health, while psychological, social, and educational dimensions remain insufficiently integrated. This gap motivated the CLSD team to design a structured, user-friendly, evidence-informed toolkit that provides clear guidance for facilitators to strengthen older adults’ understanding of psychological well-being.

A research team from the Center for Life-Span Development (CLSD), Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), is initiating a qualitative study to understand how Indonesian adolescents define mental health, the challenges they face, and the protective and risk factors that shape their psychological well-being. National data indicate that 34.9% of adolescents experienced mental health problems in the past 12 months, yet only 2.6% have accessed services. In response, this study seeks to foreground adolescents’ own voices to ensure that resulting interventions genuinely align with their lived experiences. This research is funded by the 2025 UGM Faculty of Psychology Research Grant.

The Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, through the Mental, Neural, and Behavior expertise group, is organizing a community empowerment program in the form of training on brain imaging analysis using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for students. This initiative is designed to bridge the growing need for neuroimaging competencies in modern psychological research while expanding interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly with medicine and radiology.

A research team from the UGM Faculty of Psychology will investigate factors that contribute to everyday cognitive failures, ranging from forgetfulness and divided attention to simple errors that can escalate into safety risks, by combining an updated self-report questionnaire with a series of mental chronometry–based cognitive tasks. This initiative places objective, standardized measurement at the core of understanding how different components of cognitive functioning work together and, at times, fail, thereby opening opportunities for more targeted interventions to support psychological well-being and daily performance.

The surge of online gambling practices in Indonesia, estimated to involve 1 percent of the population, with the majority in productive age groups, highlights the need for an accurate screening tool to detect gambling disorder and its impacts on mental health, social relationships, and work performance. Responding to this need, a multidisciplinary research team from the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, is adapting and validating the Gambling Disorder Identification Test (GDIT) into Indonesian. This initiative is expected to provide a valid and reliable screening instrument for researchers and practitioners in Indonesia.

The Faculty of Psychology at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) is developing an educational module to support individuals with type 2 diabetes in managing their health independently, called EduDiaCare. The study is led by Dr. Nida Ul Hasanat, M.Si., Psikolog, together with a team of experts from various disciplines. The aim is to produce a practical, research-based guide that helps patients better understand and care for themselves in daily life.

The Faculty of Psychology at UGM has launched a study examining how organizational values are translated into effective strategies that enhance company performance. The study stems from the observation that many organizations fail not only due to market pressures, but because shared values are not consistently operationalized in decision-making. “Shared values” here refers to core principles agreed upon and embraced across the organization, from leadership to employees, as a compass for thinking and acting. Examples include integrity, professionalism, innovation, service, and collaboration. Led by Dr. Bagus Riyono, M.A., Psychologist, the research team will test empirical evidence that values must be embedded in strategy to make a tangible impact on performance.

A research team from the UGM Faculty of Psychology will examine how intensive Qur’an memorization training shapes verbal memory and leaves measurable traces in brain structure and connectivity. Grounded in the structured pedagogy of Islamic boarding schools, combining talaqqi, muraja’ah, and consistent repetition, this study positions hafiz as a model of learning that demands high perseverance and repeated information processing. In neuroscience, intensive learning experiences are known to trigger neuroplasticity, the brain’s capacity to adapt both functionally and structurally. However, specific evidence of how these adaptations manifest in hafiz remains limited. This study aims to map brain regions relevant to verbal memory, particularly the hippocampus and caudate nucleus, assess the integrity of white-matter tracts such as the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) and uncinate fasciculus (UF), and concurrently evaluate behavioral performance in verbal memory. Additionally, this study is the first psychology research in Indonesia on mapping the brains of hafiz using structural brain imaging.

A research team from the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), will examine job flourishing, an indicator of positive mental health at work, among lecturers and administrative staff at a public university in Indonesia. This study responds to growing global concern about workers’ mental health. WHO data point to the high burden of depression, anxiety, and daily stress affecting productivity. In Indonesia, mental health indicators among working populations likewise call for more precise organizational-level mapping. The research focuses on how emotional, psychological, and social well-being at work relate to work engagement, performance, burnout, anxiety, and depression, while offering an evidence-based picture to inform intervention planning in campus settings.

Pradytia Putri Pertiwi, S.Psi., Ph.D, a lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), was invited by the American Red Cross through the Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC) to present her research on the inclusivity and actionability of volcanic hazard Early Warning Systems (EWS) for persons with disabilities (PwD) in Indonesia. The study has been published on the GDPC–American Red Cross platform under the title “Inclusivity and actionability of volcanic hazard Early Warning System in Indonesia: Perspectives of persons with disabilities”.