Our Research Champion: Assoc Prof Dr Fatimah Yusooff

Assoc Prof Dr Fatimah Yusooff is professionally trained in counselling and has extensive teaching experience in psychology and counselling. She has over 30 years of experience as an academic, having taught at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels.

Dr Fatimah’s area of expertise is family counselling, and her knowledge in this field has been recognised through three Excellent Service Awards, which she received in 1994, 2005 and 2009. Similarly, Institut Sosial Malaysia, under the Ministry of Women and Welfare Services, awarded her with the Excellent Lecturer Certificate (Pengajar Cemerlang) for courses taught in 2013.

In addition, she is also part of a vast network of psychology and counselling fraternities, having been an active member of both Persatuan Psikologi Malaysia and Persatuan Kaunseling Malaysia. She is also on the Interview Board of Lembaga Kaunselor Malaysia.

Thanks to her expertise, Dr Fatimah has a close relationship with the Ministry of Women and Welfare, and the Ministry of Youth. She provides constant and continuous expert services and consultancies, mainly assisting the ministries in developing various training modules.

Dr Fatimah has led and been involved in various research projects focusing on family counselling and psychology. As of today, she has 13 research activities and grants. Her research activities have been funded through grants from different bodies, including Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, Agensi Anti Dadah Kebangsaan, and in 2021, she obtained funds from the Economic Planning Unit for a project to develop a national policy for counselling.

One of her earliest research projects was titled “Influence of Parental Skills, Family Functional and Psychological Well-being among Parents: Towards Developing a Model of a Happy Family and Study of 1Malaysia from Psychological Perspectives”. Dr Fatimah is an experienced and productive postgraduate thesis supervisor and consistently produces multiple PhD graduates every year. To date, she has supervised 33 PhD candidates.

Dr Fatimah is an active writer and often publishes in indexed and non-indexed publications. She has written 25 journal articles, 16 paper proceedings, and two book chapters. Titles of the latter are Waste Management – An Integrated Vision Environmental Awareness and Education: A Key Approach to Solid Waste Management, and Pendekatan Kaunseling Terapi Realiti.

Most recently, she has written articles for the International Journal for Studies on Children, Women, Elderly and Disabled People, and Jurnal Penelitian Psikologi. She received the Best Paper Award at the 2010 WSEAS International Conference on Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy in Penang for her paper on “Roles of Dysfunctional Attitudes and Self-Esteem in Relationships”.

By Aisyah Nik Yahya, Centre for Research and Innovation