Prof. Dr. Rozainee Khairudin

Head of Psychology Department, Taylor's University, Malaysia

Topic: Mindset and Mental Health in Modernising Asia: Emerging Psychological Trends in Psychology and Counselling.

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Professor Dr. Rozainee Khairudin is a distinguished cognitive scientist with internationally recognised expertise in mindset, emotion, memory, and cognitive decline. She obtained her Master’s and PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, and has built an academic career marked by sustained excellence in research, leadership, and global scholarly engagement. She previously served as Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), and is the past President and current President-Elect of the Malaysian Psychological Association (PSIMA).

She currently holds key leadership roles at Taylor’s University as Head of the Department of Psychology, Director of the Mental Health and Well-Being Impact Lab, and Head of Psychology of Modernisation under the Centre for Asian Modernisation (CAM), where she leads strategic and interdisciplinary research aligned with regional and global priorities. At the international level, she served on the Executive Committee of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), placing her among a select group of scholars contributing to the global advancement of psychological science.

Professor Rozainee plays a pivotal role in advancing academic quality and standards in psychology. She serves as an external examiner, assessor, and consultant for the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) and numerous universities locally and internationally. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the Malaysian Journal of Psychology (Jurnal Psikologi Malaysia; JPM) and Co-Editor of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Futures in Education and Society (APJFES), reflecting her leadership in shaping scholarly discourse in the region.

With an extensive and impactful research portfolio, she has secured and led numerous competitive research grants and collaborates widely with international institutions. She is also the founder of the Cognition and Stress Lab at UKM, a state-of-the-art research facility that has significantly strengthened research capacity and innovation in cognitive psychology. Her work continues to make meaningful contributions to both global academic knowledge and societal well-being.

Abstract

Rapid modernisation across Asia has reshaped social structures, educational systems, workplaces, and interpersonal expectations, creating both opportunities and psychological strain. Within this context, mindset has emerged as a critical psychological mechanism influencing how individuals interpret challenges, regulate emotions, and sustain mental well-being. This keynote draws explicitly on the speaker’s body of published research on mindset, which examines it as a dynamic, learnable psychological orientation with significant implications for mental health, academic functioning, and adaptive coping. Building on empirical findings, the keynote highlights how growth-oriented, adaptive, and self-regulatory mindsets are associated with resilience, psychological well-being, and constructive responses to stress, while rigid or maladaptive mindsets may exacerbate distress in high-pressure, achievement-oriented environments common in modernising Asian societies. These insights are situated within emerging psychological trends in psychology and counselling, including positive psychology, strengths-based and preventive mental health approaches, and culturally responsive interventions. The keynote further explores how rapid social change, digitalisation, and shifting value systems interact with relational norms, collective expectations, and evolving identities in Asia, shaping mindset development across the lifespan. Rather than applying mindset concepts in isolation, the address emphasises the importance of integrating mindset research with broader psychological frameworks to ensure contextual relevance and ethical practice. Practical implications are discussed for counselling, education, and mental health promotion, highlighting mindset-informed interventions that foster psychological flexibility, adaptive meaning-making, and sustainable well-being. By grounding contemporary psychological trends in established mindset research, this keynote positions mindset as a vital construct at the frontiers of mental health in modernising Asia, offering evidence-based directions for research, practice, and policy.