Prof Rachel Msetfi
Biography
Prof. Rachel Msetfi is a higher education leader and an experimental psychologist. She joined Maynooth University in 2023 as Vice President for Research and Innovation, where she oversees research and development, technology transfer, graduate research, and strategy implementation. Her leadership includes chairing key committees such as the Research, Ethics, and Risk Management Committees, contributing to the university’s vision and governance.
Rachel's research lies in the interdisciplinary space, integrating experimental psychology with applied fields, especially focusing on mental health and wellbeing. She has an international track record of peer-reviewed publications and research partnerships, combining psychology, computational science, and machine learning to understand psychopathology, particularly depression.
Previously, Rachel held leadership roles at the University of Limerick, where as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education and Health Sciences, she lead strategic initiatives, expanded research capacity, and championed flexible, inclusive education. Under her leadership, the faculty received recognition for gender equality and achieved significant growth in student and research outputs.
Rachel remains passionate about advancing research, education, and innovation while fostering an inclusive environment where colleagues and students alike can thrive.
Research Interests
Prof. Rachel M. Msetfi’s research sits at the intersection of experimental psychology, computational science, and clinical applications, with a focus on mental health, particularly depression. Her work has transformed the understanding of how individuals perceive control, feelings of helplessness, and the relationship between these perceptions and psychopathology. By combining traditional psychological theories with computational learning models, Rachel's research offers micro-level insights into the cognitive and emotional processes that underpin mental health disorders.
A key strand of her research explores how depressive symptoms influence an individual's sense of control, demonstrating how reduced perceived control is linked to feelings of helplessness and the onset of depressive episodes. Her studies have shown how enhancing perceptions of control can mitigate depressive symptoms and improve psychological wellbeing. Recent work also investigates how public health restrictions, such as those during the COVID-19 pandemic, affect mental health by disrupting feelings of control.
Rachel’s research extends into practical applications, exploring how digital and machine learning technologies can be used to assess and treat mental health issues. Her collaborative work has led to the development of innovative interventions, including mobile phone-based therapies, aimed at improving perceptions of control in depressed individuals.
Additionally, she has contributed to understanding the effects of antidepressant medications on cognitive processes and how attentional training can alleviate depressive symptoms. Her research group, the Computational Psychopathology Research Group, collaborates internationally to further this work, with partners in Europe and North America.
Prof. Msetfi’s commitment to advancing mental health research is reflected in her contributions to interdisciplinary research that bridge the gap between theoretical psychology and practical, real-world applications.
Conference Publication
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Azaglo, P.; van de Ven, P.; Msetfi, R.M.; Nelson, J. (2023) Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) Machine Learning Models for Depression Detection Using the Concept of Perceived Control [Link] [DOI] |