Rate My Professor tegan cruwys

Professor Tegan Cruwys is Professor in Psychology and NHMRC Leadership Fellow at the Australian National University's School of Medicine and Psychology. As a clinical psychologist, she holds a PhD/MClinPsych, PhB (Sci)(Hons), and is a Member of the Australian Psychological Society (MAPS) Fellow of the College of Clinical Psychologists (FCCLP). Her research employs the social identity approach to examine how group memberships serve as protective factors against mental health challenges, including depression, loneliness, posttraumatic stress, social anxiety, and disordered eating. Cruwys directs the Health and Identity Lab and is a key researcher in the INSIGHT initiative. She serves as principal investigator on major projects such as 'Unlocking the social cure: Innovations in basic and translational science of the social determinants of mental health,' 'Connecting adolescents to reduce relapse,' 'Neighbour Day,' 'The Psychology of Schoolies,' and 'Thwarted identity: The missing link between psychopathology and prejudice.' Additional roles include co-investigator on initiatives addressing weight stigma syndemic, AI chatbot harms to mental health, inclusive fitness environments, and social barriers to eating disorder recovery.

Cruwys's scholarly impact is substantial, with nearly 20,000 citations on Google Scholar. Her seminal contributions include the co-authored book The New Psychology of Health: Unlocking the Social Cure (Routledge, 2018, 1104 citations), Depression and social identity: An integrative review (Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2014, 817 citations), Social group memberships protect against future depression, alleviate depression symptoms and prevent depression relapse (Social Science & Medicine, 2013, 789 citations), Groups 4 Health: Evidence that a social-identity intervention that builds and strengthens social group membership improves mental health (Journal of Affective Disorders, 2016, 585 citations), Advancing the social identity approach to health and well-being: Progressing the social cure research agenda (European Journal of Social Psychology, 2017, 751 citations), and Together apart: The psychology of Covid-19 (Sage, 2020, 503 citations). Previously an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow and Associate Professor, she has translated theoretical insights into evidence-based interventions like Groups 4 Health, influencing mental health policy and practice. Recent works, such as Disorders of Self-Categorization: How and Why a Healthy Social Self-System Is the Cornerstone of Mental Health (Psychological Review, 2025) and Nothing is so impactful as good theory: Evidence for the impact of the social identity approach to health on policy and practice (Social Science & Medicine, 2025), underscore her ongoing leadership in integrating social psychology with clinical applications.