Dr Chris Kilby

Chris is the Associate Head of School for Learning and Teaching. Chris employs innovative teaching strategies for online and face-to-face classes in statistics and research methods that focus on problem-focused learning, emotion-focused learning, and narrative-based learning. His approach to teaching was acknowledged nationally in 2021 through his receipt of the APS Early Career Teacher award. Chris is also the President of the Australasian Society of Behavioural Health and Medicine.

In terms of research, Chris is fascinated by how two people can undergo the exact same stressful situation (such as an exam or sitting in traffic) and yet respond to and experience that situation differently. It is even more fascinating that the way the body physiologically responds to stress also differs from person to person. Chris is interested in understanding where these differences come from – what is it about an individual that can produce such drastic changes in response to challenges and hardship and, ultimately, what could we potentially harness to improve the way we cope with everyday stress and minimise the health burdens that sometimes follow with stress. Inherently, these are complex issues that call for a multidisciplinary perspective on stress from a biopsychosocial perspective. But less obvious are the issues of measurement and laboratory induction of stress. How do we ensure that our participants are all undergoing the same type of stress? How do we capture the stress response in an individual? How do we account for the great interindividual and intraindividual differences in the stress response? How does stress theory explain and rationalise these complexities? These are deeper questions that Chris is also interested in answering. In 2022, Chris published the Subjective Thoughts About Stress Scale (STRESS), a self-report measure of stress beliefs. Currently, Chris has focused his research efforts on stress in youth residential workers through the WAYS project (Working Around Youth worker Stress). Chris is regularly seeking honours and masters students who have an interest, passion, or work experience in youth residential work to join this program of research.