Lisbeth Ku
Lis received her PhD in Psychology from University of Sussex, and is currently a senior lecturer in De Montfort University. Her main research interest is to explore the influences of socially grounded values and motivational forces on behaviours that have significant bearings on the well-being of the individuals who carry them out, as well as on the societies that they occur in. Apart from publishing in academic journals such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Environmental Psychology, and Psychology and Marketing, Lis’s writings can also be found in news outlets such as The Conversation and not-for-profit forums such as The World Economic Forum. A professed lover of fauna and flora, Lis’s recent research seeks to develop psychological intervention programs that could help to reduce consumption and enhance sustainability.
Academic publications
Sung, K., Ku, L., Yoon, J. & Kim, C. (2023). Predictors of upcycling in the highly-industrialised West: A survey across continents of Australia, Europe, and North America. Sustainability, 15(2), 1461. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021461
Ku, L., Bernardo, A. B., & Zaroff, C. (2022). Are higher-order life values antecedents of students’ learning engagement and adaptive learning outcomes? The case of materialistic vs. intrinsic life values. Current Psychology, 41, 3461-3471. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00851-9
Ku, L., Newby, C., Moldes, O., Zaroff, C. M., & Wu, A. M. S. (2022). The values you endorse set the body you see: The protective effect of intrinsic life goals on men’s body dissatisfaction. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 63, 393-404. https://doi.org/10.111/sjop.12818
Liu, A., Baines, E., & Ku, L. (2022). Slow fashion is positively linked to consumers’ well-being: Evidence from an online questionnaire study in China. Sustainability,14 (21), 13990. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142113990
Moldes, O., Dineva, D., & Ku, L. (2022). Has the COVID-19 pandemic made us more materialistic? The effect of COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions on the endorsement of materialism. Psychology and Marketing, 39(5), 892-905. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21627
Moldes, O., & Ku, L. (2020). Materialistic cues make us miserable: A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence for the effects of materialism on individual and societal well-being. Psychology and Marketing, 37, 1396-1419. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21387
Zhang, M. X., Ku, L., Wu, A. M. S., Yu, S. M., Pesigan, I. J. A. (2020). Effects of social and outcome expectancies on hazardous drinking among Chinese university students: The mediating role of drinking motivations. Substance Use and Misuse, 55, 156-166. https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2019.1658784
Nalipay, M. J. N., & Ku, L. (2019). Indirect effect of hopelessness on depression symptoms through perceived burdensomeness. Psychological Reports, 122, 1618-1631. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294118789044
Ku, L., Wu, A. M. S., Lao, K. P., & Lam, I. N. (2018). “We want the world and we want it now”: The effects of materialism and time perspectives on consumer (over)spending tendency among Chinese, International Journal of Psychology, 53, 356-364. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12391
Ku, L. (2016). Materialism and achievement motivation: How Chinese primary school children, secondary school teenagers, and university young adults are similar. In R. B. King & A. B. Bernado (Eds.), The Psychology of Asian Learners: A Festschrift in Honor of David Watkins (pp.579-592). Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-576-1_35
Tong, T. S., Ku, L., & Zaroff, C. M. (2016). Culture-specific variables as protective factors in adolescents at risk for juvenile delinquency. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 60, 535-554. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X14556609
Wu, Y., Ku, L., & Zaroff, C. M. (2016). Sexual arousal and sexual fantasy: The influence of gender, and the measurement of antecedents and emotional consequences in Macau and the United States. International Journal of Sexual Health, 28, 55-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2015.1111281
Cheung, F., Lai, B. P. Y., Wu, A. M. S., & Ku, L. (2015). Ethnic minority students’ education and career decision outcome expectation in Hong Kong, Journal of Early Adolescence, 35, 1092-1107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431614552017
Ku, L. (2015). Development of materialism in adolescence: The longitudinal role of subjective well-being among Chinese youths, Social Indicators Research, 124, 231-247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0787-3
Zaroff, C. M., & Ku, L. (2015). The neuropsychological basis of emotion and social cognition in men. In C. M. Zaroff and R. C. D’Amato (Eds.), Understanding the Neuropsychology of Men: Theories and Practices (pp. 213-229). New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7615-4_10
Ku, L., Dittmar, H., & Banerjee, R. (2014). To have or to learn? The effects of materialism on British and Chinese children’s learning, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105, 803-821. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036038
Ku, L. & Zaroff, C. M. (2014). How far is your money from your mouth?: The effects of intrinsic relative to extrinsic values on willingness to pay and protect the environment, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 40, 472-483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.10.008
Zaroff, C. M., Wong, H. L., Ku, L., & Van Schalkwyk, G. (2014). Interpersonal stress, not depression or hopelessness, predicts suicidality in university students in Macao. Australasian Psychiatry, 22, 127-131. https://doi.org/10.1177/1039856214527139
Wu, A. M. S., Cheung, V. I., Ku, L., & Hung, E. P. W. (2013). Psychological risk factors of addiction to social networking site among Chinese smart phone users. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2(3). pp. 160-166. https://doi.org/10.1556/JBA.2.2013.006
Wu, A. M. S., Lei, L. M. L., & Ku, L. (2013). Psychological needs, purpose in life, and problem video game playing among Chinese young adults, International Journal of Psychology, 48(4), 583-590 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2012.658057
Ku, L., Dittmar, H., & Banerjee, R. (2012). Are materialistic teenagers less motivated to learn? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from UK and Hong Kong, Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 74-86 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025489