Programme Director, Minor Programme in CU-ASK: Innovative Problem Solving
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Social Science

Dr. Yukun ZHAO 趙昱鯤博士
Email: yukunzhao@cuhk.edu.hk

Dr. Zhao is keen to apply social science to make a real impact to the world. Before joining CUHK, Dr. Zhao was the Vice Director of the Positive Psychology Research Center at Tsinghua University, where he became a major force behind the positive psychology movement in the Mainland China. He organized China International Positive Psychology Conferences, developed positive education programs that have been applied in more than 50 schools, taught MOOCs in positive psychology, and oversaw the Positive Psychology Certificate Program at Tsinghua University that had trained more than 2,000 people. He also published five books and co-edited/co-translated six books, mainly written for the layperson. He serves on the Board of Advisors of the International Positive Psychology Association. As the Director of the CU-ASK programme, he strives to help students to learn the skills of how to apply social knowledge to make impacts to the real world.

Education

Ph.D., Psychology, Tsinghua University
M.S., Applied Positive Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
M.S., Computer Science, Rutgers University
M.S., Chemistry, Rutgers University

Research Interests

Positive Psychology
Chinese Cultural Psychology
New Technology in Psychology 

Teaching Areas

Course Instructor:
SOSC1002 Managing Creativity and Group Dynamics in Innovation Teams
UGED1252 The Successful Self

Course Coordinator:
SOSC4001 ASK Project I
SOSC4002 ASK Project II
SOSC4010 ASK Internship I
SOSC4020 ASK Internship II

Selected Publications

Zhao, Y., Huang, Z., Seligman, M., & Peng, K. (2024). AI chatbot responds to emotional cuing. Nature Scientific Report.
Tong, S., Mao, K., Huang, Z., Zhao. Y., & Peng, K. (2024) Automating Psychological Hypothesis Generation with AI: Large Language Models Meet Causal Graph. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.(*Corresponding author)
Zhao, Y., Huang, Z., Wu, Y., & Peng, K. (2023). Autonomy matters: Influences of causality orientations on Chinese adolescents’ growth mindset. Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, 17, 18344909231157466.
Zhao, Y., Yu, F., Jing, B., Hu, X., Luo, A., Peng, K. (2018), City Developments and Well-Being: A Big Data Analysis on Chinese Social Media. Social Indicators Research, 1-22.