Dr Richard Appiah

Assistant Professor

Department: Psychology

Richard Appiah, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Northumbria University. He specialises in applied health, positive, and clinical psychology. His work primarily examines and leverages the strengths, capacities, and traits/virtues of individuals and groups to design and evaluate positive psychology and health behaviour change intervention programmes to promote mental health, build resilience, and optimise functioning. Dr Appiah began his academic career at the University of Ghana, where he obtained a master’s degree in clinical psychology, before moving to North-West University, Potchefstroom, to pursue a doctorate in health sciences with positive psychology. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Center for African Studies, Harvard University, from September 2021 to August 2023. Prior to joining academia, Dr Appiah was a practitioner clinical psychologist, and had collaborated with Innovations for Poverty Action and Heifer Ghana on the Escaping Poverty Project, where he co-developed group-based mental health and strengths-based intervention modules and led their implementation in 165 rural communities across four regions of Ghana.

Dr Appiah has had grant funding from the DFID, NIHSS-CODESRIA (South Africa), University of Pennsylvania Global Engagement Fund, LEGO Foundation, Harvard University, Thrasher Research Fund, and the European Research Council. He is a fellow of the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (South Africa) and a Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg. His scholarly work is published in peer-reviewed journals and books on themes that coalesce around his research interests, including positive psychology, mental health and well-being, human flourishing, cross-cultural mental health, research ethics, and psychometrics. He serves as Review Editor and Guest Associate Editor for Frontiers in Psychology and Psychiatry, and reviews for a dozen mental health-focused journals. His additional area of expertise is mental health/behaviour change intervention programme development.

Dr Appiah’s research collaboration and supervision bridges between positive/health and clinical psychology, with broad objectives that include, but not limited to: a) exploring individual, group, and contextual factors that bolster (positive) mental health, build resilience, and promote flourishing; b) designing and evaluating the effects of positive psychology and/or behaviour change intervention programmes to promote mental well-being and increase flourishing across population groups; c) exploring, evaluating, and promoting strengths-based programmes/strategies to enhance well-being, improve quality of life, and reduce disparities in health outcomes among vulnerable individuals, communities, and minority groups; and d) generating, adapting, or validating mental health and well-being assessment tools for mental health practitioners and researchers across contexts.

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Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Caregiver mental health and school-aged children’s academic and socioemotional outcomes: Examining associations and mediators in Northern Ghana, Ahun, M., Appiah, R., Aurino, E., Wolf, S. 13 Sep 2024, In: PLOS Global Public Health
A bibliometric review of positive psychology and well-being research in Africa, Wilson Fadiji, A., Khumalo, I., Wissing, M., Appiah, R. 21 Jun 2024, In: Frontiers in Psychology
Balancing Ethics and Culture: A Scoping Review of Ethico-Cultural and Implementation Challenges of the Individual-Based Consent Model in African Research, Appiah, R., Raviola, G., Weobong, B. 1 Jul 2024, In: Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
30-day in-hospital stroke case fatality and significant risk factors in sub-Saharan–Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Ackah, M., Ameyaw, L., Appiah, R., Owiredu, D., Boakye, H., Donaldy, W., Yarfi, C., Abonie, U. 19 Jan 2024, In: PLOS Global Public Health
Editorial: Breaking the mental health stigma for people with substance use disorders, Appiah, R., Ness, O., Boakye, K. 25 Sep 2024, In: Frontiers in Psychiatry
Proverbial positive psychology: can we leverage African ancient wisdom to promote flourishing?, Appiah, R. 1 Nov 2024, In: Journal of Positive Psychology
Measuring positive mental health and depression in Africa: A variable-based and person-centred analysis of the dual-continua model, Khumalo, I., Appiah, R., Wilson Fadiji, A. 20 Jun 2022, In: Frontiers in Psychology
The Inspired Life Program: Development of a multicomponent positive psychology intervention for rural adults in Ghana, Appiah, R., Wilson Fadiji, A., Wissing, M., Schutte, L. 1 Jan 2022, In: Journal of Community Psychology
Context matters: Sociocultural considerations in the design and implementation of community-based positive psychology interventions in sub-Saharan Africa, Appiah, R. 1 Dec 2022, In: Culture and Psychology
Factorial Validity of the Twi Version of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form and Prevalence of Mental Health in a Rural Ghanaian Sample, Appiah, R., Wissing, M., Wilson Fadiji, A., Schutte, L. 20 May 2022, Embracing Well-Being in Diverse African Contexts, Cham, Switzerland, Springer

Further Information

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Qualifications

Psychology PhD May 21 2020

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