Rate My Professor Takeshi Hamamura

Associate Professor Takeshi Hamamura is a cultural psychologist affiliated with the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University, serving in the Curtin School of Population Health. Born and raised in Japan, he pursued his higher education in the United States and Canada, earning a PhD in cultural psychology from the University of British Columbia in 2008. Following his doctoral studies, Hamamura held a faculty position at the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 2008 to 2014, where he taught and conducted research before joining Curtin University as an Associate Professor.

Hamamura's research focuses on cultural and cross-cultural psychology, investigating how culture shapes fundamental psychological processes, including self-concept, self-evaluation, motivation, reasoning, interpersonal relations, group dynamics, and reactions to pain. He utilizes innovative approaches such as big data analysis to explore cultural changes and their ramifications for human behavior across societies. His scholarly contributions have earned international acclaim, with over 5,270 citations on Google Scholar. Notable awards include the Early Career Contribution Award from the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the Michael Harris Bond Award for Early Research Accomplishment in 2015. He has also received a Japanese Studies Grant to study pessimism in Japan. Key publications encompass 'In Search of East Asian Self-Enhancement' (Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2007; cited 958 times), 'Are Cultures Becoming Individualistic? A Cross-Temporal Comparison of Individualism-Collectivism in the United States and Japan' (Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2012; cited 720 times), 'Cultural Differences in Response Styles: The Role of Dialectical Thinking' (Personality and Individual Differences, 2008; cited 454 times), 'Approach-Avoidance Motivation and Information Processing: A Cross-Cultural Analysis' (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2009; cited 290 times), and 'A Cultural Psychological Analysis of Cultural Change' (Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 2018). Hamamura teaches courses in social and cultural psychology, contributing to the training of future psychologists.