Rate My Professor David Preece

David A. Preece, PhD, MPsych(Clin), MAPS, FCCLP, is an Associate Professor and Clinical Psychologist in the Curtin School of Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University. He earned his PhD from Edith Cowan University, receiving the Australian Psychological Society Award for Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology in 2019 and the ECU School of Arts and Humanities Research Medal in 2020. Preece completed his clinical training with a Master of Psychology (Clinical) and held a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Stanford University as a Fulbright Scholar. He directs the Perth Emotion and Psychopathology Lab at Curtin University, where he lectures in postgraduate psychology programs and supervises research students. Previously affiliated with Edith Cowan University and the University of Western Australia, he has received the Raine Robson Fellowship (2023), Curtin enAble Institute Early Career Researcher of the Year (2023), Australian Psychological Society Early Career Research Award (2022), Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy Tracy Goodall Early Career Award (2022), Curtin School of Psychology Research Publication Award (2020), APS College of Clinical Psychologists Student Prize (2014), and Delta Psychology Prize (2013). He is a finalist for the Premier's Science Awards Early Career Scientist of the Year in 2023 and 2024 and served as past National Chair of the Australian Psychological Society College of Clinical Psychologists.

Preece specializes in research on emotion regulation, alexithymia, emotional awareness, and their roles in psychopathology and mental health. He has authored over 120 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, including invited chapters in the Handbook of Emotion Regulation and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology. Key publications include "The psychometric assessment of alexithymia: Development and validation of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire" (Personality and Individual Differences, 2018), "Establishing the theoretical components of alexithymia via factor analysis: Introduction and validation of the attention-appraisal model of alexithymia" (Personality and Individual Differences, 2017), "The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties in General Community Samples" (Journal of Personality Assessment, 2019), and "Alexithymia and emotion regulation" (Journal of Affective Disorders, 2023). These highly cited works have advanced theoretical models and assessment tools for alexithymia and emotion dysregulation, influencing clinical practice and research globally. Preece contributes to public health initiatives, such as research on loneliness at the Curtin enAble Institute.