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.

Amid the growing role of social media in shaping public opinion, a new study from the Faculty of Psychology at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) examines how political conversations in digital spaces influence young people’s emotions and political engagement. Drawing on the dynamics of discourse on platforms like TikTok—from sympathetic support to aggressive commentary, the research seeks to understand users’ response patterns to political conversations of differing tones and characteristics. This study is funded by the 2025 Research Grant of the Faculty of Psychology UGM and is situated within the Cyberpsychology theme at the Center for Indigenous and Cultural Psychology (CICP).

A research team from the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), is examining how Common Method Bias (CMB) affects findings in survey research. CMB refers to bias that arises when the same measurement approach is used for multiple constructs at the same time, for example, administering many questions to the same respondents, at the same time and place, using the same form. As a result, correlations between concepts can appear higher than they truly are, with part of the “high” value coming from the measurement method rather than the actual phenomenon. Internationally, many journals now require authors to demonstrate efforts to reduce CMB. In Indonesia, however, reporting and mitigation of CMB are still uncommon, highlighting the need for trusted guidance.

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.

The Career Center of the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), held a blended-format webinar titled “Learning Effectively and Growing as a College Student” on Friday (October 3). The event, attended by first- and third-semester undergraduate students, featured two inspiring speakers: Nadia Puti Dianesti, S.Psi. (Alumna and 2024 Outstanding Student of the Faculty and University) and Alya Nur Faiza (2025 Outstanding Student of the Faculty of Psychology UGM).

Yogyakarta, October 2, 2025 – An innovation by students from the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), which initially earned a gold medal at the 36th National Student Scientific Week (PIMNAS), has now achieved a new milestone with its publication in a high-impact international journal. The article titled “PsyBot: A Randomized Controlled Trial of WhatsApp-Based Psychological First Aid to Reduce Loneliness Among 18–22-Year-Old Students in Yogyakarta, Indonesia” was published on July 31, 2025, in SSM – Mental Health (Elsevier), a Scopus Q1-indexed journal with a 2024 CiteScore of 4.2 and an Impact Factor of 2.6.

Reny Yuniasanti, M.Psi., Ph.D., Psikolog, is known as an educator who firmly upholds integrity while actively contributing through professional organizations. Her academic journey began as one of the first cohort of the Master of Professional Psychology Program at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in 2005. She successfully completed her studies despite the fact that the program’s academic system was still in its trial phase.

The Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), has established a partnership with the Civil Service and Human Resource Development Agency (BKPSDM) of Balikpapan City. The signing of the cooperation agreement took place at the Faculty of Psychology UGM on Wednesday (September 24). read more