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Dr. Min Yong

Associate Professor

Area
School of Social Sciences
Faculty of Mgmt, Law & Social Sciences
E-mail
m.yong@bradford.ac.uk
Phone
+441274238620
Dr. Min Yong
2 research projects
22 publications

Biography

I completed my undergraduate degree at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and my postgraduate degrees at University of Otago, New Zealand. I also completed a PG Certificate of Academic Practice from Lancaster University. I am a Chartered Psychologist (British Psychological Society) and a Fellow from Advance HE. After my PhD, I did two brief stints as a postdoctoral researcher at University of Winnipeg, Canada and University of Nottingham Malaysia campus before moving to a faculty position (teaching and research track) in Sunway University, Malaysia. My research primarily focuses on social cognition and executive function in older adults. Why do some people age successfully and some don't? What are the ups and downs in successful ageing? As PI, I have been successful on several grants from Leverhulme Trust, Ministry of Education in Malaysia, AHRC UK, Newton Fund (British Council) in addressing these fundamental to applied research questions. 

Research

I am interested in social cognition (e.g. Theory-of-Mind) and executive function in older adults. I also have a keen interest in using mobile phones and virtual reality as a possible tool to examine executive function in adults. My work is primarily an experimental quantitative approach. I welcome both undergrad and postgrad students who are keen in this research area. 

Research projects

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Principal Investigator

The current COVID-19 pandemic has raised many opportunities and challenges for student learning, particularly when involving workplace placement / internship. Some of the opportunities allowed students to continue placement in a new type of environment e.g., hybrid workplace (encouraging students to be flexible and learning to be more technologically-savvy) as well as giving an experience to those with accessibility issues without the need to compromise their personal and health needs. However, this also created several barriers (e.g., legislation, public health regulations, ad-hoc changes from in-person to virtual) in promoting inter-disciplinary teaching and research for both students and academic staff.

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Role
Principal Investigator

It has been proposed that fiction or narrative stories can provide cues to refine and improve Theory of Mind (ToM): the ability to understand others’ mental states. Having this ability promotes social relationships and engagement and may minimise cognitive decline in older adults. At present, there are mixed findings as to whether reading a piece of fiction will improve ToM and very little is known whether this effect has any age-related differences. We aim to examine whether there are age effects in engagement in fiction and ToM, and examine links between fiction-reading, ToM performance, and cognitive ability.

Teaching

Modules

  • Social Psychology (Level 7) - PSY7011-B
  • Placement (Psychology) - PSY5014-Z
  • Social Psychology - PSY5010-B

Professional activities

  • University of Otago - PhD
  • University of Otago - Postgraduate Diploma in Science
  • Lancaster University - PG Certificate of Academic Practice
  • Universiti Malaysia Sarawak - BSc (Hons)

  • Advance HE, Fellow
  • British Psychological Society, Chartered Psychologist

Publications

  • The little book of speculative design for NGOs and community groups in Malaysia

    Tsekleves, E., Darby, A., Lee, C. A. L., & Yong, M. H. (2020) Lancaster University.

  • The little book of speculative design for policy-makers in Malaysia

    Tsekleves, E., Darby, A., Lee, C. A. L., Ismail, S. H., & Yong, M. H. (2020) Lancaster University.

  • ImaginAging Malaysia: Bringing participatory speculative design to Malaysia’s exploration of healthy ageing in place

    Lee, C. A. L., Yong, M. H., Lim, S. C., Giga, S., Lau, S. L., Johan, J., & Tsekleves, E. (2021) Design for Global Challenges and Goals (Design for Social Responsibility). Routledge.