Paul Atkins

Paul Atkins
Senior Research Fellow 
Institute for Positive Psychology and Education
paul.atkins@anu.edu.au
Website

Related Research Interests

Dr. Paul Atkins is a facilitator, coach, researcher and trainer. He has over twenty years’ experience facilitating 1000s of groups and individuals to improve resilience and stress management, situational awareness, cooperation and conflict management. He is a member of the design team implementing PROSOCIAL in schools, businesses, community and public groups around the world (www.prosocial.world).

Paul is Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education (ACU). He holds competitive grants investigating resilience and wellbeing in the police, schools, and hospitals. His research is focused on the use of resilience training to reduce stress while enhancing relationships, wellbeing, perspective taking and cooperation.

He has recently published a volume on Mindfulness in Organisations (CUP, 2017) and his work has appeared in the world’s leading psychology and management journals. Paul is a registered organisational psychologist with endorsement by the Australian Psychological Society. He is on the editorial board for the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science and president of the Australia and New Zealand Association for Contextual Behavioural Science.

Relevant Publications

  • Atkins, P. W. B. (2013). Empathy, self-other differentiation and mindfulness. In K. Pavlovich & K. Krahnke (Eds.), Organizing Through Empathy (pp. 49-70). New York: Routledge.
  • Atkins, P. W. B., Hassed, C., & Fogliati, V. (2015). Mindfulness improves work engagement, wellbeing and performance in a university setting. In R. J. Burke, K. M. Page, & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), Flourishing in Life, Work, and Careers: Individual Wellbeing and Career Experiences. New Horizons in Management. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Atkins, P. W. B., & Parker, S. K. (2012). Understanding individual compassion in organizations: the role of appraisals and psychological flexibility. Academy of Management Review, 37(4), 524-546.
  • Atkins, P. W. B., & Styles, R. (2016). Measuring psychological flexibility in what people say: A behavioral measure of self-discrimination predicts wellbeing. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 5(2), 71-79.
  • Christie, A. M., Atkins, P. W. B., & Donald, J. (2017). The meaning and doing of mindfulness: The role of values in the link between mindfulness and well-being. Mindfulness, 8, 368–378.
  • Ciarrochi, J., Atkins, P. W. B., Hayes, L., Sahdra, B. K., & Parker, P. (2016). Contextual positive psychology: Policy recommendations for implementing positive psychology into schools. Frontiers in Psychology, 7(Oct), 1561.
  • Costanza, R., & Atkins, P. W. B. (2014). Toward an Integrated Science and Sociotecture of Intentional Change. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37(4), 438-460.
  • Costanza, R., Atkins, P. W. B., Bolton, M., Cork, S., Grigg, N. J., Kasser, T., & Kubiszewski, I. (2017). Overcoming societal addictions: What can we learn from individual therapies? Ecological Economics, 131(January), 543-550.
  • Costanza, R., Atkins, P. W. B., Bolton, M., Cork, S., Grigg, N. J., Kasser, T., & Kubiszewski, I. (2017). Societal addiction therapy: from motivational interviewing to Community Engaged Scenario Planning. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 26, 47-53. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.02.011
  • Donald, J. N., & Atkins, P. W. B. (2016). Mindfulness and coping with stress: do levels of perceived stress matter? Mindfulness, 7, 1423-1436.
  • Donald, J. N., Atkins, P. W. B., Parker, P., & Christie, A. (2017). Cognitive defusion predicts more approach and less avoidance coping with stress, independent of threat and self-efficacy appraisals. Journal of Personality, Early view online.
  • Donald, J. N., Atkins, P. W. B., Parker, P., & Christie, A. M. R., Richard. (2016). Daily stress and the benefits of mindfulness: Examining the daily and longitudinal relations between present-moment awareness and stress responses. Journal of Research in Personality, 65, 30-37.
  • Donald, J. N., Duineveld, J., Zanden, B. V., Sahdra, B., Atkins, P. W. B., Marshall, S., & Ciarrochi, J. (under review). Can your mindfulness benefit others? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the link between mindfulness and prosocial behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review.
  • Reb, J., & Atkins, P. W. B. (Eds.). (2015). Mindfulness in Organisations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.