Category Archives: News

Student Blog: Presenting our MSc Health Psychology research at the 6th Staffordshire Health Psychology Conference

Posted on by

Two of our MSc Health Psychology students, Andrew and Jess, blog about their experiences presenting their MSc research, delivering workshops and attending the 6th Annual Staffordshire Health Psychology Conference.

Before I write about the conference, I just want to acknowledge all of the hard work me and my course mates have done over the past year, on the MSc Health Psychology course. It has been a struggle, but I am so proud of us for everything we’ve accomplished. We made it!

A few weeks ago, the 6th Annual Staffordshire University Health Psychology Conference took place, coinciding with my dissertation hand in. As you can imagine, it was quite the day! Not only was I looking forward to seeing all the people I had interacted with over the year, I was nervous about handing over something I had worked so hard on. Fingers crossed I get the grades I need.

As my postgraduate journey was coming to an end at Staffs, the opportunity to present at the annual Health Psychology Conference presented itself. I of course took that opportunity. When we all received the schedule for the day, it did occur to me that I was the only Masters student doing an oral presentation, and this did worry me at first. What if I was not going to be taken seriously, as someone who is not at the same professional level as most of the audience? Nerves did build up, but the support of my fellow course mates during the day really calmed me down. I am so glad we were all there to support each other at the end.

After it was all said and done, I felt amazing! I had many people congratulating me on a great presentation, and I really enjoyed the experience. If anyone is thinking about attending or presenting at a conference, I would highly recommend it. The networking, presenting, workshopping etc., are all valuable experiences that I feel are definitely helping me in my career journey. Maybe they may help you too.

Andrew.

The 6th Annual Staffordshire University Health Psychology Conference was such a lovely round off to the academic year. As an MSc Health Psychology student, this conference was also where we handed in our dissertation and closed the chapter on a challenging but rewarding year.

The presentations consisted of topics ranging from; promoting physical activity in sedentary office workers to MukBang (online eating behaviour) to experiences of Professional Doctorate students. These topics were also presented by a range of people at different stages in their careers such as MSc students, Professional Doctorate students and professionals working in their field. I feel that the range of talks given at the conference highlight the numerous areas that Health Psychology can be applied to.

The day was organised so well by Meghan and Stephanie and there was plenty of chances to network in between the talks. The conference consisted of oral presentations, poster presentations and workshops. I was lucky enough to present a poster presentation about online health seeking behaviours and facilitate a workshop on mindfulness and its application to health.

One of the activities from the mindfulness workshop

If you have the opportunity to attend this conference, then I wholeheartedly recommend it and if you get the chance to present at this conference, go for it! This conference was so enjoyable and allowed individuals of all levels to showcase the innovative Health Psychology research that is currently taking place at Staffordshire University, in a respectful and encouraging atmosphere.

I would just like to finish this post by saying, if you are thinking about doing the MSc in Health Psychology at Staffordshire University, you will not be disappointed. This year, I feel I have gained so much confidence in my abilities and have had the opportunity to explore so many different avenues of Health Psychology that I didn’t even know existed.

Jess.

Staffordshire University – The Home of Health Psychology

Staffordshire University has a history of excellence in teaching and research in Health Psychology, and is home to Staffordshire’s BPS Accredited Stage 1 MSc in Health Psychology and Stage 2 Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology. The Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research has active team of Health Psychologists who conduct research and provide consultancy in a range of health-related issues.

Keep updated with the latest Health Psychology news from Staffordshire University via following us on @StaffsPsych and via the #HealthPsychStaffs hashtag.

For further information about Health Psychology courses and research at Staffordshire University please visit the following webpages:

Student Blog: My Stage 2 Health Psychology Bursary & Training at Staffordshire University and Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Posted on by

By Meghan Linscott, Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology Trainee

In July 2016, I learned about a Health Psychology Professional Doctorate bursary opportunity at Staffordshire University and Stoke-on-Trent City Council (working across Public Health and Planning). I was excited immediately as I knew I wanted to progress to Stage 2 training but I was not in a position that supported me to do so. I had no experience in planning but after doing some research, I knew I had to apply.

I was invited for an interview at the end of July. The panel was large (with six people round the table from both Staffordshire University and the Council) but very friendly, which helped settle my nerves. One thing that stood out to me was the opportunity for a tour of the Science Centre with the Psychology Technicians following the interview. I took up this opportunity and was impressed with the facilities available. I also got a better feel for the University and knew I could be happy studying there.

Staffordshire University’s Science Centre

I learned I had been successful on the same day as my interview and had no doubt in my mind that I would accept the offer!

Prior to starting my placement, I had always worked with individuals and small groups in roles that provided me with an opportunity to get out and about in the community. Therefore, initially, a desk based role came as a small shock! However, it did not take long for me to settle in and I was treated like an employee from the word “go”. My placement role is wide ranging. I act as a consultant, policy writer and researcher within the planning department to embed health into planning and the built environment. I also support Public Health initiatives such as suicide prevention, dementia friendly communities/cities and asset-based community development. Looking back, very few of the proposals I put forward at interview have been a part of my Prof Doc journey. This is largely because my placement role has been very forthcoming with opportunities to complete the competences whilst also going about my day job.

I am very grateful to have gained experience working at the population level and I could not have anticipated how valuable my bursary experience has been; it has widened my skill set and opened my eyes to the breadth of the health psychology discipline. I can confidently say health psychology and planning go hand in hand and I hope we see health psychology training opportunities as highly regarded as those available for clinical psychology, in the very near future.

Staffordshire University – The Home of Health Psychology

Staffordshire University has a history of excellence in teaching and research in Health Psychology, and is home to Staffordshire’s BPS Accredited Stage 1 MSc in Health Psychology and Stage 2 Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology. The Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research has active team of Health Psychologists who conduct research and provide consultancy in a range of health-related issues.

Keep updated with the latest Health Psychology news from Staffordshire University via following us on @StaffsPsych and via the #HealthPsychStaffs hashtag.

For further information about Health Psychology courses and research at Staffordshire University please visit the following webpages:

Dr Richard Jolley speaks at the University of Oxford on children’s art education

Posted on by

Dr Richard Jolley

Dr. Richard Jolley (Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research) blogs about being an invited discussion panel member on arts education held at the University of Oxford in March 2018:

What is the current state of arts education in National Curriculum schools? What are the benefits of arts education for children’s development, and does learning in the arts promotes attainment in other school subjects? How do other school systems (e.g. Steiner, Montessori) and countries (such as China) approach arts education? What are the barriers to providing children with a more extensive and rich arts education, and how do we address these? What can promote children’s engagement with the arts beyond school contexts? These were some of the questions I was invited to debate upon in March this year by an Oxford student-based charity, Schools Plus, together with three other experts in arts education, at Balliol College, the University of Oxford.

Schools Plus is the largest student-led charity at Oxford. With around 250 volunteers, its aim is to combat educational inequality by pairing volunteer tutors from Oxford and Oxford Brookes Universities with pupils at underperforming local state schools to deliver weekly one-hour lessons. The purpose of the discussion panel was to inform the charity’s volunteers, and other Oxford University students, the important role of the arts for children’s education.

As well as myself, the other speakers on the panel were Dr David Whitley (University of Cambridge), Dr Paulette Luff (Anglia Ruskin University), and Mr. Naveed Idrees (Head Teacher of Feversham Primary Academy, Bradford). Dr. Whitley’s research takes inter-disciplinary perspectives into how art, especially poetry and film, promotes imaginative connections in children’s engagement with the natural world. Dr. Luff is the academic lead of the Creative Writing through the Arts Project with Royal Opera House Bridge, which aims to promote children’s creative writing skills through integration with art, dance and drama. Mr. Idrees has overseen Feversham Primary Academy be transformed from being in ‘special measures’ to within the top 10% nationally for children’s academic process by incorporating the arts into every part of the school day.

The discussion panel (from left to right): Naveed Idrees, Richard Jolley, Lennaert Ludvigsen (chair), David Whitley and Paulette Luff.

During the panel discussion I was asked specifically to lead on the benefits of art education, particularly in relation to drawing, and how other educational systems (such as Steiner and Montessori) and other countries (principally China) approach arts education in their schools. Art education has many benefits for children: promoting their imagination and creativity, expression of emotion and ideas, visual thinking, observational skills, problem-solving and analytical skills, as well as physical/neurological benefits of fine motor control, hand-eye coordination and the development of the brain. How arts education is approached in schools varies considerably in the emphasis they place upon different skills: Steiner (creativity, imagination and expression), Montessori (representational skills), and National Curriculum (a balanced approach). Furthermore, in China, we observe a far more prescriptive approach to teaching art, in which copying existing images still plays an important role but as building blocks of representational schema to then develop more imaginative pictures.

For further information about the discussions you might like to read Schools Plus own article of the event published in the Oxford Student newspaper:

http://www.oxfordstudent.com/2018/03/17/a-call-for-arts-is-drama-more-useful-than-maths/

The discussions I participated in, and meeting the other panel members, helped me reflect upon the bigger picture of my own research on children’s making and understanding of pictures within the wider sphere of children’s arts education. I am currently leading the writing of a grant proposal to the Arts and Humanities Research Council to investigate which types of art experience children are exposed to have a positive impact upon the drawing development. I hope to find out more about the art culture Feversham Primary Academy created that has had such a positive impact upon their children’s general learning experience. It was clear among all the panel members that arts education in all its forms is fundamental for children’s education. We were all of one mind that the challenge for championing its cause, whether presented in research, practice or to government policymakers, is necessary to fulfil the true purpose of education.

Children’s engagement with pictures has been a long-standing research interests of mine, and if you share the same interest you may like to refer to a book I have written on the subject, ‘Children and Pictures: Drawing and Understanding’. The topic is also a subject which students at Staffordshire University study as part of a final year option module on our undergraduate psychology programmes, and has always been popular and well received.

The Department of Psychology at Staffordshire University offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Psychology at the University’s £30 million Science Centre in Stoke-on-Trent.

Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details and to book your place at an open day please click here.

For more information about the Psychology degrees on offer at Staffordshire University please visit the below pages:

Dr Daniel Jolley discusses Grease conspiracy theories live on BBC Radio Derby

Posted on by

Dr Daniel Jolley (Lecturer in Psychology & member of the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research) was featured on BBC Radio Derby’s Sally Pepper’s show (8th June 2018) discussing why people believe in conspiracy theories and beliefs in a conspiracy theory relating to the character of Sandy in the film Grease.

You can listen to Dr Jolley’s interview via the below link (from 2hr, 14 mins, 30 seconds in):

BBC iPlayer: BBC Radio Derby – Sally Pepper Show

The Department of Psychology at Staffordshire University offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Psychology at the University’s £30 million Science Centre in Stoke-on-Trent.

Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details and to book your place at an open day please click here.

For more information about the Psychology degrees on offer at Staffordshire University please visit the below pages:

MSc Health Psychology students attend the 2018 Midlands Health Psychology Network Conference

Posted on by

Dr Gemma Hurst (Lecturer in Psychology & Co-Course Director MSc in Health Psychology) blogs about a recent conference trip with staff and students from the Health Psychology courses at Staffordshire University.

Staff and students recently attended the Midlands Health Psychology Network Conference. Three members of staff and five current MSc students from Staffordshire University attended the event, held at the Kettering Conference Centre on the 24th May.

A trip to the conference was built into the MSc Health Psychology teaching programme to ensure all current students had the opportunity to attend. One of our MSc students, Jessica, really valued the experience, commenting:

“A really engaging day showcasing many of the innovative ideas happening right now in Health Psychology in the Midlands”

Students also valued the opportunity to meet and discuss the PhD research of Staffordshire University MSc Health Psychology Alumni, Lorna (pictured to the right).

The programme included oral and poster presentations covering a wide range of topics and methodologies, including: systematic reviews; quantitative and qualitative research; and intervention development and evaluation. Both staff and students also enthusiastically engaged in a co-creation workshop exploring creative data collection methodologies, including the use of Lego:

‘The MHPN conference provides an opportunity for our MSc students to experience an academic conference in a friendly and supportive environment. Our students took a keen interest in the wide variety of health psychology topics being presented and were able to network with other health psychologists and trainees to discuss their own research and career aspirations. Attendance at this conference will continue to be built into the MSc Health Psychology teaching programme and I look forward to future visits where I can introduce our new students to our graduates”

Dr Gemma Hurst, Co-Director MSc Health Psychology.

The Midlands Health Psychology Network

The MHPN hold a one day conference every year which is attended by around 100 members from across the Midlands and is a forum for health psychologists to share clinical and research experiences, information, knowledge and training. Existing members include MSc students, doctorate students, chartered health psychologists based at local NHS sites and regional universities, third sector employees, senior and early career academics, health practitioners and pharmacists. To learn more about the MHPN please visit their website (www.mhpn.co.uk).

Staffordshire University – The Home of Health Psychology

Staffordshire University has a history of excellence in teaching and research in Health Psychology, and is home to Staffordshire’s BPS Accredited Stage 1 MSc in Health Psychology and Stage 2 Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology. The Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research has active team of Health Psychologists who conduct research and provide consultancy in a range of health-related issues.

Keep updated with the latest Health Psychology news from Staffordshire University via following us on @StaffsPsych and via the #HealthPsychStaffs hashtag.

For further information about Health Psychology courses and research at Staffordshire University please visit the following webpages:

Meet the StaffsPsych Graduates – Luke (BSc Hons Psychology)

Posted on by

As part of our new series of StaffsPsych Graduate Success Stories, we are pleased to introduce Luke who graduated from our BSc (Hons) Psychology course in 2017.

Luke introduces himself and talks about his experiences studying Psychology at Staffordshire University, and tells us how his degree has helped him develop his interest in neuroscience, his aims to pursue a career in research and a PhD in Psychology:

I studied A-levels in Psychology, Business, Physical Education, Applied Science and Biology across three years at college before taking the decision to move into full-time work, taking managerial roles at a hotel and Starbucks for a few years. Eventually, my general interest in the brain through reading and A-levels drew me to wanting to study the brains relation to behaviour at University.

What attracted you to studying Psychology at Staffordshire University?

I visited a few universities, but Staffordshire stood out from my other options. This was mainly because of the staff I came into contact with when visiting were passionate, encouraging and always offered constant contact, even after the visit.

What were the best parts of your experience at Staffs?

I managed to gain a perfect balance between socialising and studying hard. It made both of these easier and more joyful, rather than one being sacrificed for the other. The broad range of opportunities whether it be course related (talks and events) or not (sport) gave me opportunities to try and experience many new things.

What was the biggest challenge(s) that you overcame whilst studying at Staffs?

The third-year project was the biggest challenge for me. Not everything went to plan and a technical error with software put me 3 weeks behind schedule. This was huge challenge but putting in the extra work to overcome this really paid off when seeing the final grades.

What have you done since leaving Staffs?

I have moved on to study an MSc in Neuroscience at King’s College London where I am studying the brain at a much more cellular level. Thanks to modules such as ‘Cognitive and Biological Determinants of Behaviour‘ on the course at Staffs my interest in Neuroscience began. I have specialised in stem cells and currently undertaking my project monitoring neurogenesis (ability of the brain to produce new neurons throughout adulthood) in a mice model of sleep deprivation (gene knockout).

What are your plans for the future?

My next step will hopefully be a PhD. I want to continue to monitor factors that influence the neurogenic niche in both positive and negative ways. Negative factors have been implicated in multiple neurodegenerative disorders and depression. Other options I am also considering would be to move into full-time industry work with a pharmaceutical company or a research assistantship job in a laboratory. I also aspire to a neurosurgeon, as a long-term goal. This is something I would like to study part-time alongside my full-time career.

What advice would you give to someone thinking about applying to study Psychology at Staffordshire University?

Go ahead and apply. Studying Psychology at Staffordshire University changed my career and lifestyle. The staff were incredibly motivating and gave me a level of confidence that was the foundation to being successful in my Master’s. The course is broad, it covers all areas of the discipline, this is great. It will allow you to find which area is best suited to you. My greatest advice would be to make sure you maintain the balance between studies and socialising. This was key to me being able to find enjoyment and success in both.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your time at Staffs?

The thing I really take away from studying the course was the influence of the staff. The teaching is very good and you will get back what you put in. They always made time and effort to have a positive effect on your studies. This not only helped me develop new skills but also the confidence to execute them well.

The Department of Psychology at Staffordshire University offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Psychology at the University’s £30 million Science Centre in Stoke-on-Trent.

Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details and to book your place at an open day please click here.

For more information about the Psychology degrees on offer at Staffordshire University please visit the below pages:

StaffsPsych Technical Skills Staff Support Work Experience Week

Posted on by

The School of Life Sciences and Education recently welcomed seven work experience students to Staffordshire University to give them a taste of working within the scientific field. All students were Year 12 students from local schools and colleges; Stoke-on-Trent College, The Cheadle Academy and St John Fisher Catholic College, and are studying Biology or Psychology.

Some of our work experience students

The combined departments of Psychology and Biology developed an interactive programme showing the effects of stress on the human body through the hormone, cortisol. The activities started with a presentation, led by Biology Technician Sue Avery, which gave the students information about cortisol, how it can be altered and tested for, as well as an introduction to the laboratory testing facilities. Next, Justin Rich (Sport Technician) led the students in a workshop looking at the importance of Health and Safety and Risk Assessments. Students enjoyed the practical session, identifying hazards from a health and safety ‘crime scene’ – a nightmare for most technicians! This laid the foundations for the importance of health and safety in the laboratory and is something that students can take forward into their scientific careers.

Once health and safety matters had been observed, Paul Gallimore and Alice Taylor (Psychology Technicians) introduced the students to the Virtual Reality kit, which caused much excitement amongst the teenagers. Students took part in immersive experiences that were designed to induce relaxed or stressful states; this influenced cortisol levels and students were able to see their physiological responses using the Biopac which shows Heart Rate and Galvanic Skin Response. The visitors particularly enjoyed the stress-inducing experience of ‘walking the plank’ where they were placed at the top of a virtual 30-storey building and attempted to walk out across a wooden beam!

Using the Department of Psychology’s VR equipment in our Virtual Reality Lab

The second day comprised of students testing for cortisol with Rob Manning and Alison Davidson (Biology Technicians). Students watched demonstrations and took part in various activities to learn about the chemical extraction and transformation of cortisol from saliva samples. This included pipette measuring, calibration exercises, microfuge activities, and the use of spectrophotometers which aimed to teach students the importance of accurate measurements and give them the experience of using laboratory equipment. The students learned lots about the chemical processes involved in cortisol detection and analysis and will be able to take these important skills away and reflect upon them in their studies.

This is a great example of technicians collaborating and working together to deliver a successful event. We received fantastic feedback with some of the students commenting that it had helped them to realise which strand of science they wanted to continue to focus their studies at university. We are glad that our efforts could help the students in this way and we wish them the best of luck for their future.

The Department of Psychology at Staffordshire University offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Psychology at the University’s £30 million Science Centre in Stoke-on-Trent.

Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details and to book your place at an open day please click here.

For more information about the Psychology degrees on offer at Staffordshire University please visit the below pages:

New Funded Bursary Opportunity for a Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology trainee at Staffordshire University

Posted on by

The Department of Psychology at Staffordshire University is delighted to announce a further funded student bursary for the highly successful Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology programme.

The two-year bursary is for £14,000 per annum for a full-time trainee, which is inclusive of course fees and a contribution towards living and study costs. The bursary is in partnership with Leicester City Primary Pupil Referral Unit, working within the Primary Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Team. The role at the PRU will be combined with training at Staffordshire University on the Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology course.

Dr Rachel Povey, Co-Director of the Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology said:

“We are very excited about this new collaborative partnership with Leicester City Primary Pupil Referral Unit. This represents another exciting opportunity for a Trainee Health Psychologist to work in an applied environment and complete their competency training.”

Further details about the bursary is available via this link. Applicants should be due to be awarded their BPS Accredited Stage 1 Health Psychology training by 19th September 2018 (further details about the eligibility criteria for this exciting opportunity can be found via the bursary advert). For further information about this exciting opportunity, please contact Dr Rachel Povey (r.povey@staffs.ac.uk).

Please note that the closing date for applications for the bursary is noon on Thursday 14th June 2018.

Staffordshire University – The Home of Health Psychology

Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology is a centre of excellence for teaching and research in Health Psychology, and is home to Staffordshire’s BPS Accredited Stage 1 MSc in Health Psychology and Stage 2 Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology. The Centre for Health Psychology is part of the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research.

Keep updated with the latest Health Psychology news from Staffordshire University via following us on @StaffsPsych and via the #HealthPsychStaffs hashtag.

For further information about Health Psychology courses and research at Staffordshire University please visit the following webpages:

Dr Alison Owen blogs about demonstrating APRIL Face-Aging Software at This Morning Live

Posted on by

By Dr Alison Owen (Lecturer in Psychology, Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research)

From the 17th to the 20th May the This Morning Live Shopping and Lifestyle Show took place at the NEC in Birmingham. The show is a shopping festival, where the This Morning television program is filmed live, and presenters from the show give talks and discussions on topics such as cooking, fashion and healthcare.

I was invited to attend the This Morning Live show by Katy Foxcroft and Gillian Robson, the developers of tanning cream, Tancream. They developed the cream after Gillian was diagnosed with skin cancer five years ago. After undergoing surgery for the cancer, Gillian was advised to wear a high protection sun cream of SPF50 daily. As she liked to have a tan, Gillian used fake tan, however this also meant having to apply a separate SPF50 product, so together Gillian and her friend Katy developed a false tan with added SPF50.

As well as selling their product, Katy and Gillian’s aim is to inform people about the dangers of not protecting their skin from the sun, and the risks of skin cancer. They therefore asked if I was able to come along to the This Morning Live show, as they had heard about the APRIL software that I use here at Staffordshire University, showing people how their skin may age if they do not protect their skin from the sun.

At the stand, ready to show people the APRIL software

I worked on the stall demonstrating the software to visitors to the show, as well as talking to them about all aspects of safe UV exposure, including skin cancer, sun damage, sunbeds and moles. I met such a wide variety of people, from elderly women who had always protected their skin, to a 19 year old girl who used sun beds for 20 minutes at a time, four to five times a week, and had done since she was 13 years of age. It was so interesting to meet so many different people, and hear their thoughts and experiences of protecting their skin from the sun.

The event was definitely ‘Health Psychology in action’. It was great to speak to such a wide variety of people, and to try and encourage them to protect their skin, and make healthier choices about UV exposure, when at times I only had short bursts of sometimes just a minute before they moved on to the next exhibit.

On the second day of the show, we had the addition of a UV camera on the stall to show people damage that had already been done to their skin. This was great for people to see, as they were able to view any underlying damage to their skin, before going on to see what further damage could be done to their skin (using the APRIL software) if they did not start protecting their skin.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As well as talking to visitors to the Tancream exhibit, I was also able to enjoy the show, watching Philip and Holly film sections of This Morning alongside other This Morning presenters, including Rylan, Gok Wan, and the This Morning doctors, Dr Chris and Dr Ranj. It was also an opportunity to meet other experts in the area of sun protection and UV exposure, and do some networking.

The show was a great experience, and just shows how different and varied the job of Psychology Lecturer here at Staffordshire University can be!

Staffordshire University – The Home of Health Psychology

Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology is a centre of excellence for teaching and research in Health Psychology, and is home to Staffordshire’s BPS Accredited Stage 1 MSc in Health Psychology and Stage 2 Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology. The Centre for Health Psychology is part of the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research.

Keep updated with the latest Health Psychology news from Staffordshire University via following us on @StaffsPsych and via the #HealthPsychStaffs hashtag.

For further information about Health Psychology courses and research at Staffordshire University please visit the following webpages:

StaffsPsych on Tour! Talking Conspiracy Theories, Super-recognisers & VR at Biddulph High School

Posted on by

By Dina Grinsted, Schools & Colleges Champion (Psychology)

On 21st May, myself and Dr Alexa Guy visited Biddulph High School to deliver some psychology outreach sessions to a group of Year 12 psychology students, in order to discuss the benefits of studying a psychology degree, and to showcase some of the research that happens here at Staffordshire University.

Dr Alexa Guy delivering a session at Biddulph High School

After starting with a talk on ‘Why Study Psychology?’ and ‘What Do Psychologists Do?’ the students then learnt about conspiracy theories, discussing some well-known conspiracy theories and what they have in common, before looking at why people might believe them, and the impact that they can have on behaviour.

The ‘Jesus in toast’ illusion

This was followed by Jesus in Toast (and other face oddities), a session asking why people are so good at seeing faces in random patterns such as clouds, or even the markings on a piece of toast! We looked at so-called ‘super recognisers’ who are extremely good at identifying faces, and Prosopagnosia – a disorder leading to the inability to recognise faces, sometimes even your own face! They then had a go at creating their own versions of the Thatcher Effect, which has recently been updated to the ‘Adele Illusion’ demonstrating how we often fail to attend to facial features when presented with an inverted face.

The ‘Adele Illusion’ based on the famous ‘Thatcher Illusion’ – this is the same picture but shown in two orientations (look at Adele’s eyes and mouth in both pictures!)

Finally, the students learnt about how Virtual Reality tricks our brain into believing that we are in a different world. After looking through some visual illusions and examples of how we can trick our brains, they saw how VR takes advantage of certain processes. To finish, they were able to try on a VR headset and have a go at diffusing a bomb in VR.

Students trying out our Virtual Reality equipment

Throughout the sessions, the students engaged in the activities, enjoying making their own version of the Thatcher Effect, testing their ability to recognise faces, trying to see pictures in patterns, and diffusing the virtual reality bomb. We are hoping that this will be followed up by a class trip to the university, watch out for future blogs!

The Department of Psychology at Staffordshire University offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Psychology at the University’s £30 million Science Centre in Stoke-on-Trent.

Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details and to book your place at an open day please click here.

For more information about the Psychology degrees on offer at Staffordshire University please visit the below pages: