Using Psychology to compete like an Olympian – Prof Marc Jones explains!

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Prof Marc Jones

Professor Marc Jones, Head of the School of Psychology, Sort and Exercise, was recently featured on the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest Podcast discussing how psychological knowledge can be applied to help Olympians manage their stress levels and emotions during competitions.

Professor Jones’ research into how individuals respond to stress via threat and challenge states offers a unique explanation for how athletes could better manage the pressures during competitions. You can hear Marc’s interview via the below link:

BPS Research Digest – Episode 7: Use Psychology To Compete Like An Olympian

Marc was also featured on the BBC Radio Stoke Lee Thomas Evening Show in August 2016 discussing Adam Peaty’s gold medal at the Rio Olympics and the psychology behind managing stress in competitive sports.

BBC Radio Stoke (iPlayer) – Lee Thomas Show (link expires end August 2016 – interview starts from 1hr 06 mins into the programme)

Interested in studying Psychology? Staffordshire University offers a range of courses in Psychology, including our popular BPS Accredited BSc Psychology and BSc Sport & Exercise Psychology courses.

Staffs-Uni-Hi-Res_45-1024x683 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.

Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details, and to book your place at an open day, please visit: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/openyourmind/

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.

Growing Success at the Fourth Staffordshire Health Psychology Conference!

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Rachel Povey (Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology) reports on a successful conference held by Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology:

At the end of June, Staffordshire University’s 4^th Health Psychology Conference took place in the Science Centre. This year the conference had grown to 50 delegates who included undergraduate and postgraduate students, graduates, and external partners. The conference had a real buzz about it and as well as the usual oral paper presentations, this year’s programme included posters and workshops for the first time. The conference organization for this year had also changed, with a group of health psychology trainees collaborating with me in the planning and running of the conference (Lisa Cowap, Nicola Stenberg and Harpreet Sohal).

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The oral programme was kicked off by Adam Boughey, a 4^th year trainee who presented a behaviour change intervention using yoga for smoking cessation. A number of thought-provoking papers followed, some of which focused on outcomes of research, others were more reflective discussions from trainees on the Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology. The conference finished with a fascinating keynote from Dr Daniel Masterson, a Health Psychologist and recent graduate of the Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology. Daniel presented his interesting and challenging work as a health psychologist working in the novel environment of urban planning.

Dr Daniel Masterson delivers his keynote talk on urban planning

Prizes were awarded to current PhD Student Sian Calvert for the best poster for her work investigating healthy eating behaviours and social norms in high schools, and to health psychology trainee Harpreet Sohal for the best oral paper. Overall, the conference was a great success, with lots of positive feedback including “one of the best conferences I have attended” and “it has inspired me to conduct further research”. A great day all round!

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 BPS Accredited Stage 2 Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology. The Centre for Health Psychology is part of the School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise, one of the leading research-active academic schools for Psychology and Sport degrees situated in the heart of England.

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

Dr Sarah Rose talks about her Children’s TV Viewing & Creativity research on BBC Radio

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Sarah Rose

Dr Sarah Rose, Lecturer in Developmental Psychology & Award Leader for the BSc Psychology & Child Development, has been featured on local BBC Radio Stations discussing her research into the effects of viewing television on Children’s creativity. Dr Rose’s research investigates whether viewing fast or slower paced episodes of television programmes (Postman Pat) has an immediate positive or a negative impact on children’s creativity.

Sarah explains her most recent findings in two interviews with BBC Radio in Stoke-on-Trent and Shropshire.

To listen to the interviews click on the below links to the BBC iPlayer website (links to the programmes will expire in late August 2016):

BBC Radio Stoke – Morgan in the Morning Breakfast Show (from 53 mins, 49 seconds)
BBC Radio Shropshire – Eric Smith & Clare Ashford Breakfast Show (from 2 hours, 44 mins, 26 seconds)

Dr Rose is the Director of the Staffordshire Children’s Lab and has a specific research interest in understanding the development of children’s creative abilities. The Children’s Lab is part of the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research which is home to psychological research at Staffordshire University.

For more information about the Children’s Lab, their research and ongoing studies seeking participants please click here.

Interested in Psychology? Come to an Open Day & find out more about Psychology courses at Staffordshire University.

Intrigued by Dr Sarah Rose’s research? Wonder whether screen time is actually having more negative than positive effects on child health and development? Thinking about taking a Psychology degree or a related course?

Come to one of Staffordshire University’s Open Days and find out more! Book your place via: www.staffs.ac.uk/openyourmind/

Find out about our Psychology degrees, including our BSc Psychology & Child Development degree which received 100% Student Satisfaction (2015 National Student Survey) and our other highly rated Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses.

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.

Doreen Fleet discusses using sand-trays in Counselling practice

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Doreen Fleet

Doreen Fleet (Senior Lecturer in Counselling and a member of the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research) is conducting a multiple case study using sand-tray with adults in short-term therapy from a pluralistic perspective and blogs about her recently published research:

Sand-tray therapy is a creative intervention and involves the use of a sand-tray and a collection of objects (see below for examples). The objects act as physical metaphors or symbols to represent a client’s inner–experience, personal history, personal relationships and their relationship to the wider world.

Doreen, in her article published in Private Practice in 2015, says:

“In my view sand-tray therapy has something to offer over and above talking therapy; it appears that the client shifts from being stuck and overwhelmed in their pain to being able to explore and express it” (p17).

Being able to express and externalize their pain involves the client becoming “observer and experiencer simultaneously” they are able to take one step out of their pain, without losing connection to thought and feeling” (p17). This process enables the client to go further in their exploration and often brings new insight and relief from working through previously unexpressed emotion.

Jul16 DFleet SandTray 2

In the ongoing multiple case study using sand-tray, Doreen takes the dual role of counsellor-researcher. Doreen, along with her supervisors Dr. Amy Burton, Dr. Andrew Reeves and Dr. Mani Das Gupta have had a paper accepted by Qualitative Research in Psychology entitled ‘A case for the dual-role of counsellor-researcher in qualitative research’ which is now in press.

The article explores how the dual role of counsellor-researcher was managed in the study and a case example taken from the multiple case study is incorporated to illustrate how taking the dual role is a legitimate approach in qualitative research. Some researchers argue against taking a dual role in research, warning that the different roles have conflicting obligations and expectations which are not easily resolved (Kitchener, 1988). Doreen, in her new paper (2016) challenges this and would echo Dallos and Vetere (2005) who state that practice-based data is convincing evidence for counselling research as “it captures the miracle of therapy in a way that statistics and randomized controls cannot” (p131). Doreen and her supervisors argue that this research approach is highly relevant to counselling, as it closes the gap between research and counselling practice.

Are you interested in studying for a Counselling qualification?

Staffordshire University offers counselling courses ranging from Foundation Degrees with local partner colleges, undergraduate degrees (including a British Psychological Society accredited BSc Psychology and Counselling degree) and postgraduate counselling qualifications at our Stoke-on-Trent City Campus:

FdSc in Counselling (Riverside College)
BSc Counselling (top up) (Riverside College)
BSc Psychology & Counselling (BPS Accredited, Staffordshire University)
University Certificate in Counselling (Staffordshire University)
Certificate of Attendance: Introduction to Basic Counselling Skills (Staffordshire University)
PgDip/ProfDip Psychotherapeutic Counselling (Staffordshire University)
MSc Psychotherapeutic Counselling (Staffordshire University)

“Like being in a foreign country”: Communication Issues for People who have had Strokes

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Rachel Povey

Trainee Health Psychologist Louise Clancy together with her supervisor Dr Rachel Povey (Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology) are conducting research into the experiences of stroke patients with communication difficulties. Louise, whose placement is at Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, has already conducted a systematic review and an interview study to examine patients’ communication difficulties, and is now recruiting for a quantitative study which looks at the differences in people with and without communication difficulties after having a stroke.

Communication difficulties after having a stroke are very common with about a third of stroke patients having problems with communicating including speaking, reading and understanding what other people are saying (known as aphasia). The interest for this research came from Louise’s experiences of working in a stroke rehabilitation setting both in the UK and Australia.

Louise explains: “via working in stroke care settings and conducting research in this area I have observed the physical, emotional, cognitive and social challenges faced as a consequence of stroke and have become passionate about facilitating the voices of this group in being heard”.

The findings from all three studies will be used to inform future training programmes for healthcare professionals who work with people with post-stroke aphasia.

May16 Povey Health Stroke 1

The systematic review was completed, together with Dr Greg Norris, a Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist, and looked at communication interventions developed for healthcare professionals working with patients with post stroke communication difficulties. The findings showed that these interventions were beneficial to staff and patients, although time and financial constraints are common issues which can be a key barrier to attending training. The interview study aimed to explore in depth the experiences of staff-patient communication within inpatient stroke care settings. Louise interviewed patients and carers as well as healthcare professionals in order to get an overall view of the issues. The interviews gave an excellent insight into the issues faced by all three groups, with communication issues for people with stroke being likened to “being in a foreign country”. The final piece of research is being conducted using an online questionnaire and is aiming to look at the differences between people with and without communication difficulties after having a stroke.

Louise is conducting this research with the support of Dr Lyndsey Hall-Patch (Clinical Neuropsychologist) and her Academic Supervisor Dr Rachel Povey. If you have had a stroke, and would like to be a part of this interesting study, please go to: http://bit.ly/22gYrg0 to find out more details.

The Home of Health Psychology – Staffordshire University

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

Drs Daniel Jolley & Nichola Street blog on the BPS Annual Conference

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Daniel Jolley and Dr Nichola Street (Lecturers May 16 BPS Conference blog 1 in Psychology) recently attended the British Psychological Society’s flagship event, the Annual Conference, in Nottingham in April 2016.

The conference encompassed a diverse array of presentations that spanned the whole of psychology, alongside Keynote presentations from scholars such as Professor Gail Kinman and Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes (now Vice President of the BPS).

May 16 BPS Conference blog 2

The conference also provided the opportunity for scholars to present their work in different innovated formats. One format was Haiku Desk style, where Dr Street presented a talk entitled ‘When Art and Psychology Collide’. A Haiku Desk limits the text on each slide to only a few words, then “deals a desk” of appropriate images to marry up to the text. The presenter then is given 3 minutes, followed by 2 minutes of questions. Dr Street said: “ I chose to submit into this category as my research is focused on the power of imagery. It was exciting having a different brief for a presentation focused on visual impact and I enjoyed the test of trying to compress my research background, aims and findings into 3 minutes. In practice it certainly was a difficult task to keep to time but I do enjoy the challenge of trying new methods to add novelty in scientific communication.”

Dr Nichola Street at the BPS Conference

Dr Jolley presented a slightly more traditional poster, which showcased research that aimed to test interventions designed to address anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. Dr Jolley said: “Presenting the poster was a great way to discuss my research with many different people – I received some great feedback, and was able to have more one-to-one conversations. As the poster was being showcased all day, I tweeted the poster-board number and a photograph using the conference hash tag (#bpsconf), which may have then inspired delegates to attend in person”.

Dr Daniel Jolley and his poster presentation at the BPS Conference

Drs Jolley and Street also experienced the more typical oral presentations, with Powerpoint; however, one presenter also had the audience take part in a demonstration. Anne-Marie Czajkowski (from the University of Leeds) talk was discussing ‘Mindfulness for Musicians’ where she asked people in the audience to take part in a short mindfulness activity. Dr Jolley said: “Typically, talks do not include such an interactive component, so this was a new experience for us”. Dr Street added: “It was certainly great to include such a demonstration during a more traditional talk, and definitely something I would love to consider using in my own presentations the future”.

You can see therefore that there are all manner of different styles to present your work – why don’t you give it a try?

Dr Daniel Jolley and Dr Nichola Street are both members of the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research (#StaffsPsyRes), a newly established research centre at Staffordshire University.

The Psychology Department at Staffordshire is a research-active group of academic psychologists with expertise in several key areas of psychology, including Health Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and creative methodologies. The University offers a range of Postgraduate courses which provide further training in research skills, including:

For more details about Postgraduate Study at Staffordshire University please visit http://www.staffs.ac.uk/postgraduate/.

Interested in a Psychology degree? Find out more about our Undergraduate Psychology courses, and book yourself on an Open Day.

Health Psychologist, Dr Amy Burton, reports on her Change Exchange visit to Uganda

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Health Psychology in Action: Global Health

Our Health Psychologist, Dr Amy Burton, spent some time working in Africa at the beginning of April. Amy was selected by The Change Exchange to work as a Behaviour Change Consultant for the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology partnership with Kitovu Hospital, Uganda. The Change Exchange is funded by The Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) in association with the Department for International Development (DFID) and The Global Health Exchange. The project places behavioural scientists into health partnerships to evaluate and seek to improve projects aimed at changing healthcare practice in low and middle income countries.

Amy blogs on her experiences:

I heard about The Change Exchange project in two ways: a recent issue of The Psychologist and a visit to Staffordshire University by Jo Hart, one of the project leads. As a recently qualified and HCPC registered Health Psychologist I was keen to put my skills into practice and was excited about the challenge of taking myself out of my comfort zone by working in a low income country (something I have never done before!). Over 45 psychologists applied for the project and I was one of the lucky few to be chosen to take part.

The Change Exchange Team

My first encounter with the rest of the team was a group meeting on a rainy March day in Manchester. This was my first opportunity to hear about the project I would be working on and to meet my colleagues Nisha Sharma and Fiona Gillison. We were appointed to work with an RCOG project based in the Masaka region of Uganda. The Excellence in Obstetric Skills Course trains local health workers in essential skills with the aim of improving care for mothers and babies and reducing the incidence of obstetric fistula (the development of a hole between the vagina and rectum or bladder often caused by prolonged obstructed labour that results in women being incontinent).

Kitovu Health Care Complex

The Fistula Ward

As behavioural scientists, Nisha and I were keen to understand how behaviour change techniques were being employed within the course. We therefore spent some time observing the RCOG obstetric skills course and the “train the trainer” course (to teach Ugandan health care professionals how to teach their colleagues obstetric emergency skills) and coding them for known behaviour change techniques. We had the opportunity to be ‘practice’ patients and learnt a lot about obstetric care!

We were also interested in how the Ugandan health care professionals perceived the course and what barriers they felt they would experience when putting their new knowledge and skills into practice. To explore this we conducted four focus groups with the course delegates to learn about their experiences and ideas.

Amy and Nisha with the RCOG Faculty and ‘Train-the-Trainer’ Graduates

In addition, I travelled with Nisha and the RCOG clinical lead to visit several previous delegates in their health centres and witness how the behaviours learnt on the course were being put into practice. This was an eye opening experience and gave me the opportunity to see first-hand how health centres work in Uganda.

A Health Centre in the Masaka District

I am currently working with my colleagues at The Change Exchange to produce an interim report for the RCOG based on the data we collected during our visit. Nisha and Fiona will be returning to Kitovu in June to conduct more work with the RCOG and hopefully put some of our report recommendations into practice. I am sad to not be returning to Kitovu but I will continue to be involved with the project from the UK.

Working on this project has been an exciting, enlightening and eye opening experience and I very much hope to have more opportunities to put my health psychology and behavioural science knowledge into practice in low income countries in the future.

Interested in Health Psychology?

Come along to one of our MSc in Health Psychology Open Afternoons (Click here for details) or visit one of our Undergraduate Open Days (Details & book your place here).

The Home of Health Psychology – Staffordshire University

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

Follow the Psychology Department’s latest research news via @StaffsPsych and clicking on the #StaffsPsyRes hashtag.

Screen Free Week 2016 – Is too much screen time bad for children?

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Did you know that next week (2^ndto 8^th May 2016) is ‘Screen Free Week’?

The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood presents Screen Free Week 2016 and encourages children, their families and other individuals to turn off their screens* (*except for work and school, college and university assignments) and instead engage in creative and social activities. So prepare to forget about Facebook, turn off twitter, forego your Netflix fix and reduce your screen time.

May16 SR Screen free week pic1

A quick Google search on the topic of ‘children and television’ highlights concerns that too much screen time is alleged to be damaging for children. The American Paediatrics Society, for example, recommends that screen time for children under 2 years be avoided and that for older children it should be limited. But what do we actually know about the impact of screen time on children’s development? Psychologists have been seeking an answer to this question for over 50 years! However, there are still many gaps in our understanding.

While research suggesting a relationship between more screen time in early childhood and negative consequences in later childhood may appear concerning we must treat these findings with caution. It is well known in psychology that causation cannot be assumed from a correlation as it is possible that both variables, the screen time and the later negative behaviour/experiences might be being influenced by something else. For example, eating ice cream and death by drowning are correlated but we do not conclude that eating ice cream is dangerous – instead we might assume that increases in both these events are due to nice weather. Therefore it can be argued that more screen time is not actually directly related to later negative experiences at all… Instead there might be something else which accounts for both, such as parents who are time poor, spend less time interacting with their child, families of lower SES, poor diet, etc.

May16 SR Screen free week pic2

As a Developmental Psychologist I do have concerns about the consequences of excessive screen time in early childhood. Particularly as excessive screen time is likely to result in children spending less time engaged in other activities important for their development, e.g. physical exercise, play, sleep, and family time. However, I do not think that parents should be made to feel guilty for allowing their children some entertainment-based screen time.

Dr. Sarah Rose, Lecturer in Child Development at Staffordshire University, is continuing to investigate the impact of different types of screen media on children. She is particularly interested in how screen time may affect children’s developing creativity. To find out more about her research visit Staffordshire University’s Children’s Lab

Interested in Psychology? Come to an Open Day & find out more about Psychology courses at Staffordshire University.

Come to one of Staffordshire University’s Open Days and find out more! Book your place via: www.staffs.ac.uk/openyourmind/

New research into Children’s Divergent thinking at Staffordshire’s Children’s Lab

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Sarah Rose

Dr Sarah Rose (Lecturer in Psychology & Award Leader for the BSc Psychology & Child Development) updates on new research developments in the Children’s Lab at Staffordshire University:

Divergent thinking is the ability to come up with many different ideas. For example, how many uses can you think of for a paper clip? Psychologists are interested in the number of ideas that people come up with and also the novelty of these ideas.

Although divergent thinking has been studied extensively in adults and older children very little is known about the development of this skill in young children. A current challenge is that there are very limited methods of assessing divergent thinking which do not rely on linguistic skill. Torrance (1981) developed the test of Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement, and although this test can be used with children from as young as three years old it relies on their ability to follow verbal instructions such as ‘Now you do something different’ which more recent evidence suggests that 3-year-olds will struggle to understand (Goswami, 1992).

The only existing test of divergent thinking which does not rely on verbal understanding is the Unusual Box Test (Bijvoet-van den Berg & Hoicka, 2014). To assess divergent thinking the box is placed in front of the child by the experimenter. The child is then presented with novel objects and the actions they make with the box and objects recorded.

An example of an “unusual box”

Dr. Sarah Rose has been successful in securing funding from the Staffordshire University REF2020 research scheme to develop a new Unusual Box for measuring divergent thinking in pre-schoolers and toddlers. Sarah is particularly excited to be developing this new measure as it will enable her to carry out further research into the effect that other activities may have on children’s developing creative skills. The new triangular wooden box is being developed with Dr Elena Hoicka from Sheffield University.

New Study seeking 2- and 3-year old children to test the “unusual box”

Sarah is currently looking for 2- and 3-year-old children and their parents to help test the new box. If you are interested in finding out more about the project please visit the Children’s Lab Webpage.

References:

Bijvoet-van den Berg, S., & Hoicka, E. (2014). Individual differences and age-related changes in divergent thinking in toddlers and preschoolers. Developmental Psychology, 50(6), 1629–39. doi:10.1037/a0036131

Goswami, U. (1992). Analogical reasoning in children. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum

Torrance, E.P. (1981). Thinking creatively in action and movement. Benesville, IL: ScholasticTesting Service

The Science Centre, home to the Psychology Department

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.

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.

InPsych – Psychology at Staffordshire University

News, Events & Research updates from the Department of Psychology at Staffordshire University, UK.

Category Archives: Research

Using Psychology to compete like an Olympian – Prof Marc Jones explains!

Growing Success at the Fourth Staffordshire Health Psychology Conference!

Dr Sarah Rose talks about her Children’s TV Viewing & Creativity research on BBC Radio

Doreen Fleet discusses using sand-trays in Counselling practice

Are you interested in studying for a Counselling qualification?

“Like being in a foreign country”: Communication Issues for People who have had Strokes

Drs Daniel Jolley & Nichola Street blog on the BPS Annual Conference

Health Psychologist, Dr Amy Burton, reports on her Change Exchange visit to Uganda

Health Psychology in Action: Global Health

Screen Free Week 2016 – Is too much screen time bad for children?

New research into Children’s Divergent thinking at Staffordshire’s Children’s Lab