Category Archives: Developmental Psychology

New Study into Pathological Demand Avoidance & Parental Wellbeing

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Jan 16 Sarah Rose

Dr Sarah Rose

Dr Sarah Rose, Lecturer in Psychology & Course Leader for Staffordshire University’s BSc in Psychology & Child Development, blogs on her current research in Developmental Psychology including a new study being conducted with a Masters student:

If I said to you that I knew a child who had been diagnosed as having autism you would probably have some idea of the type of behaviour that this child might display. But what if I said to you that I knew a child with suspected Pathological Demand Avoidance… you probably would be less sure.

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is a recently recognised sub-type of autism. Children, and adults, with this disorder appear to be socially quite adept, can engage in role play and pretending but have extreme difficulty with demands and expectations from others. Consequently, even the simplest daily activities, such as getting dressed when asked to, can become a huge drama.

As PDA has only recently been recognised, many clinicians and educators seem to know little about it and there has only been a handful of research articles published on the topic. Parents of these children are likely to need a lot of support, as their children can often present severe behavioural challenges. A quick look on forums for parents tell us that many have struggled to get a diagnoses and many feel that they have been wrongly accused of poor parenting.

Jan 16 Mandi Baker

Amanda Baker

At Staffordshire University Amanda Baker, a student studying for her MSc in Applied Research in Psychology, is investigating the associations between children with suspected and diagnosed Autism and PDA and the parent’s well-being along with the impact it has on the family.

(August 2016 update) We have completed recruitment for this study and are currently in the process of analysing the data with a view to publicising the findings in the near future.

 

Dr Sarah Rose is a Lecturer in Psychology and a member of the School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise at Staffordshire University, a leading School in the UK for Psychology degrees situated in the heart of England.  We produce internationally recognized research which is driving knowledge in this area forward and we work with a variety of healthcare providers, charities, international sports teams and private sector organisations.

For more information or details of the wide range of Psychology degrees on offer at Staffordshire University please visit our website and our courses page. For further information about our MSc by Applied Research please visit our course page.

Follow the latest news and updates from Staffordshire University’s Centre for Psychological Research via the #StaffsPsyRes twitter hashtag.

Research Digest: New Research by Staffordshire’s Psychologists Presented at Conferences

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The beginning of September can be a particularly busy time for academics. Not only are academic staff busy preparing for the new teaching semester, we are also busy conducting our own research and presenting this work at conferences across the UK and beyond! Here are some updates on recent conference presentations featuring new research conducted by academic staff from Staffordshire University’s Department of Psychology:

Developmental Psychology: Children’s Creative Intentions in Drawing

The Annual British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference was held in Manchester this year. This conference is an opportunity for researchers (from students to Professor level) to hear about new research and ideas in Developmental Psychology. It also a great opportunity to catch up with likeminded researchers, many of whom become friends over the years, and attend social events, including the conference Gala Dinner.

SR & RJ Oct 15

Dr Sarah Rose & Dr Richard Jolley

This year two of our Developmental Psychology Team, Dr Richard Jolley and Dr Sarah Rose, attended the conference and presented work on children’s creative intentions in drawing. This is a new area of research as although we know an increasing amount about how children’s drawing skills develop we know very little about where they actually get their ideas about what to draw from. Sarah and Richard presented qualitative research suggesting that children are inspired by a wide range of sources when deciding what to draw, including their immediate surroundings, recent experiences, memories, imagination and motivation to express their thoughts and emotions.

BPS West Midlands Conference: Health Psychology, Keynotes, Social Norms & Brand Recognition!

Various members of staff and students, including many from Staffordshire’s Centre for Health Psychology, attended the British Psychological Society’s West Midlands Branch Conference held in Coventry in early September. The conference was an opportunity for students (both undergraduate and postgraduate), early career researchers and academic researchers to present their own research and hear about the latest psychological research being conducted in the West Midlands region.

Professor Karen Rodham, Keynote Talk

Professor Karen Rodham, Keynote Talk

Professor Karen Rodham, Professor of Health Psychology at Staffordshire University and current Chair of the BPS Division of Health Psychology, gave an engaging and insightful keynote talk about her practice and research working to better understand how people cope with chronic health conditions such as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Karen discussed her background in Health Psychology, her practice work and ongoing projects into how people cope with and manage chronic pain, including some interesting new research into how individuals represent chronic pain through drawings or portraits.

Oct 15 Dempsey Poster

Dr Rob Dempsey’s poster presented at the BPS WM Conference

Other presenters from Staffordshire University included Dr Rob Dempsey who presented findings from the recent European Commission-funded SNIPE (“Social Norms Intervention for Polydrug usE in university students“) study, included recent work demonstrating that European students have similar overestimations of their peers’ cannabis use behaviours as found in North America. This study is part of an ongoing series of projects conducted by Rob and several Masters in Health Psychology students investigating the role of misperceptions of peer norms (attitudes and behaviours) in health-related behaviours, such as help seeking for various health issues, substance use behaviours, and self-screening behaviours for cancer (e.g. testicular self-examination).

Oct15 JPB Poster

Jenny’s poster

Also presenting data was Jenny Parfitt-Bowman, a PhD student working on a cognitive psychology research project into branding and consumer behaviour using eye-tracking equipment under the supervision of Dr Louise Humphreys and Dr Emily Buckley. Jenny’s research is investigating the processing of brand information when certain features of the product packaging (e.g. location) is manipulated.

 

 

BPS Cognitive Section Conference: Product Branding & Facial Recognition

Dr Louise Humphreys, and PhD student Jenny Parfitt-Bowman, also presented their research at the Annual British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Conference which was held in Kent. Their presentations were on the topic of product branding. In particular, Louise’s presentation discussed the role of automatic and voluntary processes in locating and recognising a branded product, and Jenny’s presentation considered the impact of brand manipulation on visual attention disruption and accurate product recognition (see below for pictures).

Oct 15 JPB Kent 1Oct 15 JPB Kent 2

Also attending the BPS Cognitive Section Conference was Dr Andrew Edmonds, who has posted his own report on new developments in facial recognition research as discussed at the conference (click here to read Andrew’s blog post).

Academic staff at Staffordshire University’s Psychology Department have a wide range of research interests which directly informs their teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate students. The department is home to two centres of research excellence: the Centre for Psychological Research and the Centre for Health Psychology.

For more information about courses offered by the department please click here, including information about our BPS accredited Stage 1 Health Psychology Masters, Stage 2 Health Psychology Professional Doctorate, as well as our new MSc/MA by Research and established MPhil/PhD programmes.

Staffordshire University’s Psychology Department gives Year 12 students an insight into “Uni Life”

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The Psychology Department at Staffordshire University took part in the “Uni Life Event” (23rd to 25th June) which offered year 12 students from the Midlands an opportunity to stay in the halls of residence at Staffordshire’s City Campus in Stoke-on-Trent, explore the state-of-the-art facilities and get hands-on experience of degree courses in subject workshops.

CB Summer School 1

Dr Claire Barlow giving her workshop on children’s drawings

Dr. Claire Barlow and Mel Hall, both lecturers in the Psychology Department at Staffs, ran a workshop about studying Psychology at Staffordshire University. In the session, they talked about the Psychology undergraduate degrees as well as running interactive activities on children’s drawing development, jury decision making and group behaviour.

CB Summer School 2Claire said “The session was really positively received by students, many of whom were introduced to Psychology for the first time. The activities gave students an opportunity to learn more about specialist and applied areas of Psychology and also an insight into studying for a Psychology degree at Staffordshire University”.

CB Summer School 3

Examples of different forms of drawing

Students who took part were asked for their feedback on the session, stating ‘Psychology talks were very interesting and taught me lots about the teaching style at uni. The lectures were interesting’; ‘Psychology was interesting, I now know what I want to do at university’; ‘Sessions were interactive and I now feel more confident’ and ‘Forensic Psychology suited my career aspirations and was really interesting.’

For more information or details of the wide range of Psychology related postgraduate degrees on offer at Staffordshire University please visit our website and our courses page.

The School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise at Staffordshire University is a leading School in the UK for Psychology degrees and is situated in the heart of England.  We produce internationally recognized research which is driving knowledge in this area forward and we work with a variety of healthcare providers, charities, international sports teams and private sector organisations.

Does television affect young children’s creativity?

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New research at Staffordshire University aims to find out! Dr Sarah Rose, Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, is welcoming 60 children and their parents to the Psychology ‘Children’s lab’ on the third floor of the Science Centre during June and July. These children and their parents are contributing to new research on the immediate impact of watching television on children’s creativity.

When they arrive at the lab children are given an ‘unusual box’ to play with. The box has ledges of wood attached to it, loops and holes, and inside is a stairway. In order to test their creativity, the children are given unusual objects to use within the box. The different movements that the children make with the objects in the box, such as moving them up and down the stairs or balancing them on the shelves, are recorded and scored for creativity. Following this, the children either watch an old ‘slow-paced’ episode of Postman Pat from the 1990s, a recent more ‘fast-paced’ episode or are given books and jigsaws to read and play with.

The unusual box (SR)

The “Unusual Box”

To determine the effect of watching the TV episode, all the children are then set a number of action and movement tasks to complete, including exploring how many different ways they can get from one side of a room to another and get a paper cup into a bucket. Similar to the activity with the ‘unusual box’, the different movements are recorded and scored for creativity. The assessment of creativity is of course complex. In this study tasks requiring divergent thinking will be used, these will require children to move and behave in different ways. This is a particularly appropriate way to measure creativity in 3-year-old children who may or may not feel like talking to us when they visit the lab!

The Psychology Children’s lab now has a web presence (https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/childrenslab/) and it is hoped that this project will be the first of many to take place in the lab. Sian Foulkes, a current level 6 student, is working as a research assistant to help Sarah to collect the data from the children and their parents. Student research assistants will also be involved in scoring the various tasks for creativity once they have received training. Sarah says ‘that it is exciting to be welcoming local children and their parents to the children’s lab to take part in ground breaking research and being able to provide hands on research experience for students is very important too’.

For more details about the Children Lab click here. Interested in Child Development? The Psychology department at Staffordshire University also runs a successful BPS-accredited BSc (Hons) Psychology & Child Development degree.