Staff profile

Research Profile

Research interests:

My current research mainly focuses on observing people's experiences when spending time alone and understanding personality and contextual factors that predict the quality of their solitude.

​I mostly use experimental and diary study design to investigate my research questions. My most often go-to paradigm is to have participants sit quietly by themselves for a brief period of time (15 minutes) and observe how they react to that experience. I am looking to explore other data collection methods besides self-reported measures. Specifically, I am exploring options to use eye tracking to understand attention in solitude and physiological measurements to look at changes in parasympathetic responses.

Background:

My doctoral training is in motivational science with a focus on Self-Determination Theory (SDT). SDT focuses on integration of behavioral values and satisfaction of the basic psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence as the basis for sustainable behavioural changes and wellness.

• solitude
• self-regulation
• motivation
• well-being

• Quantitative Social Psychology

Journal Article

• Weick, M., Couturier, L.-C., Vasiljevic, M., Ross, P., Cory, C.J., Crisp, R.J., Leite, A.C., Marcinko, A.J., Nguyen, T.T. & Van de Vyver, J. (2022). Building bonds: A pre-registered secondary data analysis examining linear and curvilinear relations between socio-economic status and communal attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 102: 104353.
• Nguyen, Thuy-vy T., Weinstein, Netta & Ryan, Richard M. (2022). Who enjoys solitude? autonomous functioning (but not introversion) predicts self-determined motivation (but not preference) for solitude. PLOS ONE 17(5): e0267185.
• Nguyen, Thuy-vy, Weinstein, Netta & Deci, Edward (2022). Alone With Our Thoughts: Investigation of Autonomy Supportive Framing as a Driver of Enjoyment During Quiet Time in Solitude. Collabra: Psychology 8(1).
• Weinstein, Netta, Nguyen, Thuy-vy & Hansen, Heather (2021). What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood. Frontiers in Psychology 12: 714518.
• Zhou, Tong, Nguyen, Thuy-vy Thi, Zhong, Jiayi & Liu, Junsheng (2020). A COVID-19 descriptive study of life after lockdown in Wuhan, China. Royal Society Open Science 7(9): 200705.
• Weinstein, Netta & Nguyen, Thuy-Vy (2020). Motivation and preference in isolation: a test of their different influences on responses to self-isolation during the COVID-19 outbreak. Royal Society Open Science 7(5): 200458.
• Nguyen, Thuy-vy T., Werner, Kaitlyn M. & Soenens, Bart (2019). Embracing me-time: Motivation for solitude during transition to college. Motivation and Emotion 43(4): 571-591.
• Nguyen, Thuy-vy T., Ryan, Richard M. & Deci, Edward L. (2018). Solitude as an Approach to Affective Self-Regulation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 44(1): 92-106.