NICOLE Sugden has reached the pinnacle of academia after attaining her doctor of philosophy (PhD) this week from Charles Sturt University.
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“It looked a little strange when they put the doctor sign on my door at work today,” she said.
The achievement marks more than 10 years of tertiary study by the 29-year-old who, in her final year of schooling, was given the news she would never walk again following a motor vehicle accident that has confined her to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
But that hasn’t slowed Dr Sugden down as she has managed to fit in four overseas trips during her study and preparation time for her psychology degree, and more recently her PhD, and taken time out to socialise with her loyal friends.
Now teaching biopsychology at Charles Sturt University and introduction to psychology to dental students at the Orange campus, she says she’s surprised by the way she has developed such a love of teaching.
“When I was at school I was studying Japanese and wanted to pursue a career involving the language, which I suppose could have involved some teaching.
“But a teaching career as such was never on my radar.”
Dr Sugden said after completing her bachelor of psychology (honours) degree at CSU and her PhD she was looking forward to a break from the books.
“It will be nice to have my life back for a while, but I’m looking forward to teaching again next year,” she said.
Dr Sugden said she would like to thank her thesis supervisors Michael Kiernan and Matt Thomas from the Bathurst campus of CSU.
“They were both absolutely awesome,” she said.
Dr Sugden chose the complex topic of prospective memory for her doctoral thesis investigating self-reported prospective memory and its relation to clinical disorders, ageing, naturalistic prospective memory, personality, and social desirability.
The research for her thesis involved the development of a scale that assessed an individual’s concerns about prospective memory lapses, and the investigation of several demographic and personality variables associated with prospective memory failures.
Prospective memory is remembering to perform a planned action or intention in the future.
“After I’ve had a break I will look at trying to get some of my research published,” she said.
janice.harris@fairfaxmedia.com.au