Orla Therese Muldoon is an Irish social and political psychologist and professor of psychology at the Queen’s University Belfast.^[1] Her research concerns how groups memberships and social identities affect health and well-being.

Muldoon attended Queen's University of Belfast where she received a first class honours bachelor's degree in Psychology.^[2] She earned her Ph.D. from Queen's University of Belfast in 1996.^[3] During this time she also attended University of Michigan as a John F Kennedy Travel Scholar.^[2] She was a faculty member at Ulster University and Queens University Belfast.^[4] She moved to University of Limerick in 2007 to lead the development of a new department of psychology.^[2][5]

Muldoon was editor-in-chief of the journal Political Psychology, a position she shared with James Liu.^[6][7] She was formerly editor-in-chief of the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology.^[8]

Muldoon has served on the board of the Irish Research Council from 2021.^[9]

Muldoon is a serving member of the Irish Medical Council.^[10]

Muldoon's research concerns how groups memberships and social identities mediate the relationship between health, well-being as well as social and political attitudes. She is the author with colleagues of the Social Identity Model of Traumatic Identity Change,.^[11] She has examined the impact of the war in Northern Ireland on children,^[12][13] the impact of domestic violence, brain injury and sexual violence.^[14] and social identity and post-traumatic stress disorder.^[15][16]

Muldoon has made major contributions to debates raising concern's about Ireland's response to the COVID-19 pandemic because of the lack of diversity on the panel making recommendations.^[17] She has spoken with the media about the statistics of violence against women,^[18][19] and is a regular opinion contributor to The Irish Times.^[20]

• Muldoon, O. T. (2024). The Social Psychology of Trauma: Connecting the Personal and the Political. Cambridge University Press. Open Access {{https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/social-psychology-of-trauma/802E7593368D3B37AE5AD725083B84D4}}

• Muldoon, Orla; Lowe, Robert; Jetten, Jolanda; Cruwys, Tegan; Haslam, S Alexander (2021). "Personal and political: Post‐traumatic stress through the lens of social identity, power, and politics". Political Psychology. 42 (3): 501–533. doi:10.1111/pops.12709. hdl:10344/10561.
• Muldoon, Orla T.; Haslam, S Alexander; Haslam, Catherine; Cruwys, Tegan; Kearns, Michelle; Jetten, Jolanda (2019). "The social psychology of responses to trauma: Social identity pathways associated with divergent traumatic responses". European Review of Social Psychology. 30 (1): 311–348. doi:10.1080/10463283.2020.1711628. hdl:1885/287036.
• Muldoon, Orla T.; Trew, Karen; Todd, Jennifer; Rougier, Nathalie; McLaughlin, Katrina (2007). "Religious and National Identity after the Belfast Good Friday Agreement". Political Psychology. 28 (1): 89–103. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00553.x. hdl:10197/2429. ISSN 1467-9221.

In 2020, Muldoon won the Nevitt Sanford Award for outstanding contributions to political psychology from the International Society of Political Psychology.^[21] She received a Fulbright Award in 2020,^[22] and was one of the first two women in Ireland^[23] to receive a European Research Council Advanced Grant.^[24] In 2022 she was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy.^[25] In 2024, Muldoon was the recipient of the European Research Council Public Engagement with Research award.^[1]

• Orla Muldoon publications indexed by Google Scholar