Teresa S. Puvimanasinghe

Area of Research

Areas of clinical psychology relating to coping and posttraumatic growth among people who have experienced mass traumatic events.

Social psychology – altruism and prosocial behaviour

Positive psychology – flourishing and making meaning

Awards

Australian Postgraduate Award (APA), 2011-2013

Adelaide University, School of Psychology Grant for research expenses, 2011

Prof. D.R. Grey Postgraduate Research Foundation Grant, 2010

The S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike Memorial Prize (Sri Lanka) – 1995

Psychology Research Interests

My PhD focuses on how people from refugee backgrounds utilise their religious beliefs, community support, cultural beliefs and activities, as well as cognitive strategies such as maintaining future hope, to cope with past and present stressors while striving to integrate into a new society.

I am especially interested in how engaging in prosocial behaviour or ‘altruism born of suffering’ (e.g. Staub & Vollhardt, 2008) has become an integral part of them – shaping and bringing meaning to their lives. As one interviewee explains her philosophy of life:

“Just do good and go; don’t expect anything in return ... The good you do will wait for you in the front; someone else will do it for you...”

I have encountered so much personal strength, resilience and determination to succeed in members of the two communities I have been studying; it is surprising that more research has not been done in this area. I am hoping that my study in some way is able to highlight the enormous contribution these people can and will make to Australian society, in order to ensure that Australia remains the great and multiculturally diverse place it is.

Publications

Perera, C., Puvimanasinghe, S., & Agger I. (2009). Giving voice to the voiceless: Using testimony as a brief therapy intervention in psychosocial community work for survivors of torture and organised violence. Copenhagen, Denmark: Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims, Hong Kong, China: Asian Human Rights Commission.

Puvimanasinghe, S. (Oct-Dec. 2008). The truth behind the bars. Footprints, 4(5), 27.

Puvimanasinghe, S. (2006). Urgent appeals and advocacy: Bridging grassroots and international opinion for change. Praxis Papers, No 1. Copenhagen, Denmark: Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims.

Fernando, B. & Puvimanasinghe, S. (Eds.). (2005). An X-Ray of the Sri Lankan policing system and torture of the poor. Hong Kong, China: Asian Human Rights Commission.

Puvimanasinghe, S. (Ed.). (2004). An exceptional collapse of the rule of law: Told through stories by families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka. Hong Kong, China: Asian Legal Resource Centre & Asian Human Rights Commission; Negombo, Sri Lanka: Association for the Families of the Disappeared.