Student Representative | Hester Xiao (University of Sydney)

Hester Xiao is a PhD candidate under supervision of Associate Professor Carolyn MacCann and Dr. Rebecca Pinkus in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. Hester holds a Master of Philosophy (Psychology) from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Social Sciences from The University of Hong Kong.

Hester’s research interests lie in emotion regulation (intrinsic and extrinsic) processes in interpersonal contexts, their interplay with individual characteristics and their effects on individual experiences in the relationships. Her work has investigated the associations between emotional intelligence and intrinsic emotion regulation processes through meta-analysis. Hester adopts intensive longitudinal dyadic designs to examine extrinsic emotion regulation processes in romantic relationships, by considering the interpersonal influence from partner’s emotional intelligence and emotion regulation. She is also interested in goals for extrinsic emotion regulation.

In addition to her research, Hester is a casual academic at the School of Psychology, a member of ACPID, SASP, Society for Affective Science, and International Society for Research on Emotion.