Dr Sarah Dean: Reviewing Eye-Patching Treatment for Children with Amblyopia

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Sarah Dean

Dr Sarah Dean, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and a member of Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology, summarises the findings from her recent review of research on patching treatment for children with amblyopia which has recently been published by the British Journal of Ophthalmology:

Amblyopia or ‘lazy eye’ is a condition that affects a lot of children. Children with amblyopia have poor vision in one eye and without treatment this vision does not develop, meaning they have an increased risk of blindness. Treatment for amblyopia often involves the child being prescribed to wear a patch over their ‘good’ eye for part of the day. This forces the child to use their ‘lazy eye’ which allows the vision to develop. Although this treatment has been found to work really well when used with children under 7 years old, a lot of people find it difficult to adhere to their prescribed treatment. I am exploring strategies to encourage children to complete the treatment.

Getting young children to wear eye-patches can be quite difficult!

In our recent paper, myself and my colleagues, Dr Rachel Povey and Jessica Reeves, investigated how effective existing interventions which aimed to increase compliance to patching treatment in children with amblyopia were. We reviewed nine studies in our final sample, with interventions ranging from sticking the patch more tightly to the child’s face, changing aspects of the patching regime, to providing information for the child, family and friends. Our findings indicated that interventions that include an educational element may be most effective in encouraging children to keep wearing their eye-patches to treat amblyopia.

Dr Sarah Dean plans to continue working in this area. In her next study she plans to talk to young children who are undergoing patching treatment to find out more about their experiences of patching. Information from this next study will then help her to develop a new intervention to help children complete their patching treatment.

Read more about Sarah’s review via the British Journal of Ophthalmology’s website:

Dean, S.E., Povey, R. P., & Reeves, J. (in press). Assessing interventions to increase compliance to patching treatment in children with amblyopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Ophthalmology. doi:10.1136/bjophthalmol-2015-307340

Staffordshire University is home to the Centre for Health Psychology, a centre of excellence for teaching and research in health psychology. For further information about Health Psychology courses and research at Staffordshire University please visit the following webpages:

Counselling Workshop on Systemic Practice for North Staffs Mind

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Robert Dempsey

Beverley Meakin

Belinda Priestley and Beverley Meakin, lecturers in Counselling from Staffordshire University’s Psychology Department, blog about a recent Continuing Professional Development (CPD) workshop they gave to counsellors from the North Staffordshire Mind organisation.

On Saturday 19^th September we delivered a one day CPD workshop on Systemic Practice to an enthusiastic group of 24 counsellors from North Staffs Mind. Mind contacted our counselling team and requested an Introduction to Systemic Practice as their counsellors often have to see a partner or carer of adult clients, or parents of young people they work with. It can be quite a challenge to manage therapeutic conversations with more than one person in the room!

A Systemic Approach pays attention to communication patterns, the interpersonal aspects of relationships and the context of the people concerned as well as the ethical and organisational contexts. Family dynamics can be a powerful influence and a therapist can find themselves in a very different environment with family members present rather than on a one to one with the client.

The enthusiasm and openness of the group from Mind helped the day develop into a fascinating experience as participants reflected on their own contexts, family dynamics and ethical concerns. They built on knowledge and skills through engaging in a very life like role play scenario! Feedback was really helpful for us to develop the day further and very clear about what was most worthwhile and enjoyable.

‘Surprisingly I enjoyed the role play!’ commented one participant ‘I feel I gained from every aspect of the CPD’

Others found the role play difficult and the small group exercises more useful ‘looking at systems within families, uniqueness’, ‘learning about the different interventions and family scripts’. There were requests for more… ‘Felt like we only touched the surface, perhaps 2 days training?’ ‘Will definitely be interested in more CPD from Staffs Uni’.

The School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise at Staffordshire University offers a range of qualifications in counselling and psychology. For more information about the wide range of Psychology degrees on offer please visit our website and our courses page.

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)
FdSc in Counselling Theory and Practice (Shrewsbury 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)

Professor Karen Rodham’s Blog: The Need to Address Antibiotics Overuse

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Robert Dempsey

Prof Karen Rodham

Professor Karen Rodham, Professor of Health Psychology at Staffordshire University and current Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Health Psychology, has written a blog piece discussing the potential role of social scientists (including health psychologists) in reducing the overprescription of antibiotic medication.

Read more about this story on Karen’s blog (click the below link):

ProfRoddersBlog: Social Scientists needed to solve the problem of antibiotic overuse

http://www.tamesideandglossopccg.org/campaigns/antibiotics-awareness

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

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Robert Dempsey

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.

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, 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.

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).

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).

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.

The School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise Celebrate Staff Success!

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Robert Dempsey

Staff from the School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise excelled at this year’s Staffordshire University Celebrating Staff Success Awards. This annual award ceremony held in the beautiful Kings Hall in Stoke-upon-Trent (pictured right) celebrates academic and support teams who have achieved success in the previous twelve months, achieved teaching fellowships of the Higher Education Academy, and have excelled in their roles.

Prof Karen Rodham with her Research Excellence Award!

Professor Karen Rodham, Health Psychologist and Professor of Health Psychology, who was nominated in three categories, won the inaugural Excellence in Research Award. This recognised both her own high impact research into chronic health conditions and also the work she has done developing a vibrant research culture within the Psychology Department, including initiatives such as setting up the Stoke Psychology in the Pub series of talks and Staffordshire University’s Images of Research competition. Karen said “it’s great to have research celebrated in this way at Staffordshire University; not least because it shows that research is considered to be an integral part of what we do as a leading academic institution. To win the inaugural prize is an honour.”

Dr Emily Buckley with her award!

Academic Group leader and Health Psychologist Dr Emily Buckley beat stiff opposition to take the Inspirational Leadership Award for her work leading Postgraduate courses in Psychology. Emily was presented her award by Vice Chancellor Professor Michael Gunn, she commented “I was very surprised to win as there was such strong competition. I feel very proud to have won this as is it voted for by my peers.”

Head of the School of Psychology, Sport & Exercise, Dr Peter Jones, also collected a team prize in the Cross University Excellence Award category for his work with colleagues from Marketing and Sport Departments in establishing Team Staffs Elite, the Universities sports scholarship programme which supports students who compete in sport at county level and above. Peter said “This has been a really great event. To see the depth and breadth of academic quality in the University but particularly from the School of Psychology, Sport & Exercise is wonderful. Not only celebrating so many members of the team achieving Fellowships of the Higher Education Academy, Teaching Excellence Fellowships but also winning some really prestigious and high profile awards. I am very proud of all my team.”

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.

Gemma Hurst joins the Psychology Department at Staffordshire University

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Robert Dempsey

The Psychology Academic team are pleased to welcome Dr Gemma Hurst, who joined the University as a Lecturer in Psychology in September 2015. Gemma introduces herself below:

Dr Gemma Hurst

I have made the (small) jump from the Brindley Building to the Science Centre and I am extremely pleased to have joined the Psychology team here at Staffordshire University as a Lecturer. After completing my undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Durham in 2005, my journey at Staffordshire University began. I completed my MSc in Health Psychology here in 2006 before starting my PhD in 2007, under the supervision of Dr Christopher Gidlow, Prof David Clark-Carter, Prof Sarah Grogan and Prof Rachel Davey. My PhD research focused on the use of a multi-component behaviour change intervention to promote physical activity in the area of Sandwell, West Midlands. My PhD was carried out in an applied setting working with Sandwell Primary Care Trust.

Following this, I was involved in the evaluation of a community development project through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Staffordshire University and NHS Stoke-on-Trent. The My Health Matters project focused on addressing the underlying social and environmental determinants of health using a bottom-up, asset-based approach. My role involved investigating the use of community-led interventions to reduce health inequalities relating to physical activity and healthy eating in Stoke-on-Trent using community-based participatory research and a socio-ecological approach. During this time I also began my Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology at Staffordshire University.

More recently, I was employed as a postdoctoral Research Officer in the Centre for Sport, Health and Exercise Research investigating the links between exposure to natural outdoor environments and human health and well-being across Europe – PHENOTYPE.

Gemma before her Stoke Psychology in the Pub talk on the Phenotype project (April 2015)

Therefore, I have a wide range of research interests in the field of health psychology and beyond, including: the evaluation of health promotion programs using both quantitative and qualitative research methods; reducing health inequalities through community-led interventions and partnership working; the social and environmental determinants of health; and understanding the positive health effects of different environments.

Throughout my time at Staffordshire University, both as a student and a member of staff, I have always found it to be an incredibly supportive and welcoming place to be and the Psychology team has continued this pattern. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the students over the past few weeks, they are a great bunch and I am very much looking forward to getting stuck into teaching. If you’d like to know a little more about me and my research, please follow me on twitter @gemma_hurst.

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 the area of Psychology forward and we work with a variety of healthcare providers, charities, international sports teams and private sector organisations.

Daniel Jolley joins the Psychology Department at Staffordshire University

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Robert Dempsey

The Psychology Academic team are pleased to welcome Dr Daniel Jolley, who joined the University as a Lecturer in Psychology in September 2015. Daniel introduces himself below:

This is not my first time to be in the Psychology Department at Staffordshire University. As an alumni, I received by Bachelor Degree in Forensic Science and Psychology in 2010. In the years in-between however, we have both grown in strength.

Dr Daniel Jolley

When I was a student within the Psychology Department, Psychology was housed in the Mellor Building on College Road. Today, the department is found in the fantastic Science Centre on Leek Road. The building is equally impressive on the outside as in. Whilst I have only been here a couple of weeks, I already feel at home.

To provide more background on the time I have spent away from Staffordshire University, after graduating in 2010, I moved to Canterbury to begin a Master’s degree in Social and Applied Psychology at the University of Kent. After this year course, I stayed at the University of Kent to begin my Doctoral studies in Social Psychology. During my PhD, I worked as an Associate Lecturer at Kent and a Sessional Academic at Canterbury Christ Church University. I also worked as a Research Assistant on several projects with other researchers. After completing my PhD in 2014, I then moved to Lancaster University to work as a Research Associate on a number of industry-funded projects, with Professor Paul Taylor.

My research focuses on the psychology of conspiracy theories. This research began at Staffordshire University as a part of my final year project with Dr Jenny Cole. As I was keen to continue exploring the psychology of conspiracy theories, I moved to the University of Kent to work with an expert in the field, Professor Karen Douglas. We worked together during my Master’s course, and she then continued as my supervisor during my PhD, which aimed to examine and attempt to address the social psychological consequences of conspiracy theories.

Alongside my PhD and postdoctoral role, I have been an active member of the British Psychological Society. I am a current committee member of the Social Psychology Section. I was the Section’s Postgraduate Officer for two years, before being appointed as their Web Officer. I am also a member of the BPS Research Board, where I represent the views of early career researchers. So whilst I am biased, I do think the BPS (and the Section in particularly) is a great organisation that I recommend you get engaged in.

I am delighted to be back at Staffordshire University as a Lecturer in Psychology. Both the Academic team and students are a brilliantly engaging group of people, and I am very much looking forward to supporting the next generation of psychologists.

If you wish to find out more about me and my research, I blog at conspiracypsychology.com and tweet @DrDanielJolley.

For more information about Psychology degrees at Staffordshire University please visit the Psychology Department homepage and the course listings.

Dr Andrew Edmonds reports from the BPS Cognitive Section Conference

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Andrew Edmonds, Lecturer in Psychology at Staffordshire University, provides a short report from the BPS Cognitive Section Conference held in September 2015, in particular some new developments in his research area – facial recognition.

The highlight of this year’s Annual BPS Cognitive Section Conference – hosted by the University of Kent – was the fascinating sessions on face processing, superbly convened by my former mentor and co-author, Professor Bob Johnston. Two days of talks reflected on just how far research has come in the field over the last 40-50 years and highlighted some of the challenges still remaining. For example, research has shown that we are relatively poor at processing faces which are unfamiliar to us – such as picking a once-seen face out of a line-up, or even just determining that two simultaneously-presented faces are of the same person – but yet we are often very confident of our judgements in these situations. This has significant implications, not only suggesting that we are not always reliable eyewitnesses but that police officers and passport control officials may also make errors when performing their duties. Current research is therefore aiming to explore what factors affect our ability to perform these face matching tasks accurately – if we can identify these factors, this may help us to understand whether performance on these tasks can be improved and if so, how.

An example of why researching facial recognition and processing is important. The man on the right was convicted of an indecent assault based on the composite image on the left. This was a few years ago now but shows how inaccurate facial composites could lead to wrongful convictions of innocent individuals.

An example of why researching facial recognition and processing is important. The man on the right was correctly convicted of an indecent assault based on the composite image on the left – the development of more accurate facial processing software can have a significant impact on conviction of offenders.

Meanwhile, in the last 10-15 years huge amounts of progress have been made in the development of systems such as EvoFIT to help witnesses produce facial composites (likenesses of criminals) which can lead to the perpetrators of crimes being identified. Whilst identification of criminals from these images is still far from perfect, accuracy is now at such a level that researchers can begin to investigate what makes someone good at constructing an identifiable face composite (e.g. performing well on other face processing tasks, being able to refer to examples of the internal features of faces during composite construction etc.). Somewhat reassuringly, the early evidence suggests that being moderately intoxicated at the time of seeing the criminal does not significantly impair our ability to perfom this task – but the effects of hangovers have yet to be explored!

The conference was also an opportunity to renew old acquaintances and develop new ones, and I am excited by the prospect of collaborating with Dr Sarah Laurence from Keele University on some interesting new projects – we are both interested in how faces become familiar over time and what processes are involved in us learning a new face – so look out for more news on this in the future. I am really looking forward to welcoming Sarah to the university as part of the Visiting Speaker Series in November 2015, and hope to see you there too!

Dr Edmonds is a researcher and a member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group part of the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research. 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.

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

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Robert Dempsey

The Psychology Department at Staffordshire University took part in the “Uni Life Event” (23^rd to 25^th 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.

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.

Claire 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”.

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.

InPsych – Psychology at Staffordshire University

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

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