Rate My Professor Wendy Phillips

Wendy Phillips is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia. She earned her PhD in Psychology from the University of New England between 2007 and 2010. Her research specializations encompass self-compassion and its links to depression, anxiety, psychological well-being, physical health, and health behaviors. Phillips investigates upward counterfactual thinking in relation to depression, implicit and explicit cognitions in psychopathology, personality trait patterns across transdiagnostic dimensions of mental health, social media use profiles and their impact on depression and anxiety, and cognitive profiles associated with substance abuse. She also explores climate change communication strategies, including audience segmentation and cultural worldviews influencing environmental risk perceptions, as well as decision-making styles, intrinsic motivation, basic psychological needs, and their connections to affect.

Throughout her career at the University of New England, Phillips has produced a substantial body of peer-reviewed publications, frequently employing meta-analytic approaches, latent profile analysis, cluster analysis, and experimental methods. Key works include Thinking styles and decision making: A meta-analysis (Psychological Bulletin, 2016), Self-compassion, physical health, and health behaviour: A meta-analysis (Health Psychology Review, 2021), Audience segmentation and climate change communication: Conceptual and methodological considerations (Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2014), Self-compassion: A resource for positive aging (Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2013), Implicit cognition and depression: A meta-analysis (Clinical Psychology Review, 2010), Upward counterfactual thinking and depression: A meta-analysis (Clinical Psychology Review, 2017), and Ambulance ramping predicts poor mental health of paramedics (Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2023). Her scholarship has amassed over 2,200 citations, underscoring its impact on cognitive, clinical, health, and environmental psychology. Recent contributions address athletic mindsets, trait mindfulness in loneliness and distress, and self-compassion mindsets as balanced systems.