Contact Details
- Phone
- +64 3 470 9541
- kobus.duplooy@otago.ac.nz
- Position
- Senior Lecturer
- Department
- Department of Psychological Medicine (Dunedin)
- Qualifications
- B.Mil, B.Soc Sci (Hons): Psych, M.Sc. Clin Psych, PhD (Psych), MBA with Distinction
- Research summary
- Wellbeing, sport and performance psychology
- Teaching
- Kobus is currently involved in lecturing and facilitation of tutorials to predominantly second and third-year medical students at the University of Otago on a variety of mental health-related topics. As the Head of Behavioural Science, he oversees all teaching by the department to Early Learning in Medicine (ELM) students. In addition to this, he also presents additional lectures to Psychiatry Registrars, Dentistry, and Health Science students on various mental health and wellbeing-related topics. Kobus is currently also employed by Massey University on a part-time basis as a Senior Professional Clinician/Psychologist - Teaching Supervisor. In this role, he works collaboratively as a team member delivering the Postgraduate Diploma in Psychological Practice. This entails active oversight of the internship learning experience and progress of assigned interns, contributing to teaching delivery and evaluation of student work (practice and academic).
- Memberships
- Full Member of the New Zealand Psychological Society
- Member of the Executive Committee of the New Zealand Psychological Society's Otago Branch
- Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Community Psychosocial Research (JCPR)
- Clinical
- Kobus is a registered Clinical Psychologist with more than 16 years of clinical experience . He currently focuses his clinical work on predominantly assisting elite athletes, high-performance teams, and executives from the business community whom he sees in a private capacity for psychotherapy and/or executive coaching.
Research
Kobus holds strong research interests in the areas of wellbeing, sport, and performance psychology. From a research publications and dissemination perspective, he has published 14 peer-reviewed journal articles and 36 conference proceedings to date. He has also supervised 7 master's and 4 PhD students toward successfully completing their research projects.
He is currently also appointed as an Extraordinary Professor at the North-West University's Community Psychosocial Research entity (Compres) in South Africa where he remains involved in numerous research projects.
Additional details
Brief career history
Kobus moved to Dunedin from South Africa in February 2020 to take up the position of Professional Practice Fellow in the Department of Psychological Medicine. In July 2021 he was appointed Senior Lecturer and Head of Behavioural Science. Prior to this, he was appointed as Senior Lecturer in 2014 at the Institute of Psychology & Wellbeing (IPW) on the North-West University’s Potchefstroom Campus in South Africa. At the IPW he worked with individual athletes and various sports teams from amateur up to elite level such as the Springbok Women’s Sevens and NWU Varsity Cup rugby sides, as well as conducting corporate workshops to improve employee well-being and performance as a consultant of Cognacity, a UK-based employee wellbeing company.
Kobus also saw clients for individual, couple, and group psychotherapy while training master’s degree psychology students at the North-West University’s Potchefstroom Campus in the use of particular psychometric instruments and psychotherapeutic modalities such as interactional and group psychotherapy. He was also involved in training postgraduate Forensic Accounting students on interviewing skills at the Department of Accounting Sciences. In 2019, he was promoted to Associate Professor and Acting Director of the Institute of Psychology & Well-being during periods of the Director’s absence.
Professional distinctions and memberships
- 2020 – 2021: Best new teaching staff award: ELM 2 – University of Otago
- 2020 – 2021: Best new teaching staff award: ELM 3 – University of Otago
- 2020 – 2021: Department of Psychological Medicine teaching award in ALM – University of Otago
- 2019 – 2019: Promoted to Associate Professor - North-West University (South Africa)
- 2018 – 2020: Promoted to Acting Director: Institute of Psychology & Wellbeing – North-West University (South Africa)
- 2017 – 2018: Member of the top-performing group in the North West University Busines School MBA company project
- 2017 – 2018: Top performing student in MBA subject: Technology Management
- 2014 – 2014: Top Young-Up & Coming Researcher – South African Association for Counselling and Development in Higher Education
Publications
Du Plooy, K., Wishart, B., Scarf, D., & Samaranayaka, A. (2023). The impact of Green Prescription on sustained physical activity levels, quality of life, and mental health. Journal of Sport & Exercise Science, 7(4), (pp. 69-70). doi: 10.36905/jses.2023.04.01 Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Edwin, J., Cornwall, J., & du Plooy, K. (2023). What do medical students want in self-help mental health resources? A focus group study. In T. Milne, M. Anwar, L. Burga, H. Harcombe, M. Garelja, A. Middleton, D. C. Ribeiro, N. Fleming, K. Ogbuehi & A. Bahn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 267th Otago Medical School Research Society (OMSRS) Meeting: PhD Student Speaker Awards. Dunedin, New Zealand: OMSRS. Retrieved from https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/handle/10523/12839 Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Walsh, A., & du Plooy, K. (2023). Mental skills training in elite sports environments: Current status of integration. Journal of Sport & Exercise Science, 7(2), 1-8. doi: 10.36905/jses.2023.02.01 Journal - Research Article
Heyns, M., Verster, R., & du Plooy, K. (2022). Can empowered staff be a competitive advantage? Exploring the relationship between psychological capital, work engagement, job satisfaction, and intentions to leave among employees of a ferrochrome producing mining company. In C. A. Bisschoff (Ed.), Proceedings of the 15th International Business Conference. (pp. 1276-1289). Potchefstroom, South Africa: North-West University. [Full Paper] Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Full paper
Du Plooy, K. (2022, November). Mental wellbeing and performance research: Why it is important and how it can benefit us all. Verbal presentation at the Department of Psychological Medicine Research Day, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs