DrAlexa Hayley

Dr Hayley’s research examines how social factors, including social cognition, social identity, stigma, and intergroup conflict, shape mental health and wellbeing. Her work spans social psychology, forensic psychology, and applied mental health contexts, with a particular focus on help-seeking, treatment engagement, and treatment delivery for stigmatised individuals and groups.

She has expertise in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research, and provides qualitative research design consultation to research teams. She supervises Honours, Masters, and Doctoral research students.

Dr Hayley completed her PhD on professionals’ stigma toward people with intellectual disability who have criminally offended. She has extended this program of research through projects examining stigma, gender norm conformity, antisocial behaviour, stigmatised identities, and barriers to mental health support and treatment provision.

Her applied work also includes research on human-animal relationships. She collaborates with not-for-profit animal welfare and rescue organisations to examine barriers and facilitators to funding, practice, and advocacy, and delivers research-informed presentations to community groups on human-animal health, wellbeing, and justice.