I am a Research Fellow in the Centre for Emotional Health. I graduated from my PhD in Psychology at Macquarie in 2015, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Minnesota and Macquarie University, before starting my Macquarie University Research Fellowship in 2018.

My research focuses on improving our understanding of the empirical structure of psychopathology based on the specific patterns in which symptoms of mental disorders tend to co-occur. For example, someone who is depressed is likely to also experience anxiety, and someone who gambles compulsively is likely to also struggle with drug or alcohol addiction. My research focuses on how we can best use these patterns in symptoms and disorders to understand the nature, causes, and consequences of mental illness across the lifespan. My current research focuses on trying to pin down the patterns of co-occurrence among the individual symptoms of mental illness.

Psychopathology; empirical classification; quantitative methods; risks and consequences of psychopathology; structure of psychopathology; developmental psychopathology; Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP);

I am available to supervise students interested in topics related to my field of research. If you're interested in working together, feel free to send me an email: miri.forbes@mq.edu.au

Journal Editorial Board Member

• Journal of Abnormal Psychology (2019-current)
• Journal of Sex Research (2015–current)
• Archives of Sexual Behavior (2015–current)

Peer-Review (2013–current)

See my Publons profile for a summary of my review work

Invited External Assessor

• The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research – Replication Studies programme (2018)
• Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grants (2018)

I work hard to make my research findings accessible to the public — writing op-eds and research-focused articles for traditional and online media outlets, and doing regular interviews on research for podcasts, print journalism, radio, and TV.

My research has featured in online and print media outlets around the world, including Alternet, CNN, Daily Life, Huffington Post, IFLScience, Newsweek, PBS, Quartz, Salon, The Australian, The Conversation, The Daily Mail, The New Zealand Herald, andThe Sun UK. I've also had invited interviews on radio stations including BBC Radio 5, Sydney Educational Radio, and Triple j, and on TV for ABC's The Drum.