Category Archives: StaffsPsych Academics

Dr Sarah Dean reports on presenting her research at the 2015 European Health Psychology Society Conference

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Sarah in Cyprus (Sept 15)

Dr Sarah Dean in Cyprus

Dr Sarah Dean reports on her experience presenting her research at the European Health Psychology Society Conference, Cyprus 2015

I have just returned from the 29th EHPS conference on ‘Principles of Behaviour Change in Health and Illness’. This was a great opportunity to hear about research being carried out by health psychologists and practitioners all over the world. As well as presenting my own research on treatment adherence in children with amblyopia or “lazy eye”, I attended 47 short talks, 4 keynote speeches and 3 interactive poster sessions. Topics ranged from organ donation to writing to improve your health. I learnt about ambitious projects to map behaviour change techniques, long term studies that have included certain participants for over 90 years and innovative projects where participants take photos to capture their experiences.

Cyprus EHPS Confernece 2015

The conference’s theme of “Principles of Behaviour Change in Health and Illness”

Presenters at the conference talked of their experiences working with survivors of rape and war in Sierra Leone, working to reduce chronic pain in children in the USA and exploring individuals’ health beliefs in South Africa. Overall the conference demonstrated just how wide reaching the area of health psychology is and the scope of the work that is done to improve health and quality of life the world over. There was also a bit of time left over for sightseeing and enjoying the sun!

For more information on the European Health Psychology Society and its upcoming conferences see: http://www.ehps.net/

Interested in Health Psychology? The School of Psychology, Sport & Exercise at Staffordshire University offers a range of courses in psychology, including a British Psychological Society Accredited Stage 1 Masters in Health Psychology and a Stage 2 accredited Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology. Staffordshire University was the first UK university to offer an accredited Health Psychology Masters degree and is home to the Centre for Health Psychology.

Second Diabetes Training Day for Practice Nurses described as “Excellent”

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Dr Rachel Povey

Dr Rachel Povey, Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology, reports on a successful training event for nurses recently held at Staffordshire University:

On 22nd July 2015, Staffordshire University held a second successful training day for practice nurses on motivating dietary change for people with type 2 diabetes. The programme this year was attended by 14 practice nurses as well as the Senior Healthcare Professional Engagement Officer from Diabetes UK (Suj Ahmed). The training uses an innovative Resource Pack, originally developed by Dr Rachel Povey (course tutor), which is written specifically for practice nurses. Rachel and Lisa Cowap jointly developed the training programme in 2014, using examples from the pack to provide nurses with a range of psychological ‘tools’ which can be used to help motivate patients to make positive dietary changes in the self-management of their condition. This year’s programme was run by Rachel and Lisa, together with Sue Curtis, a Diabetes Specialist from Manchester Diabetes Centre.

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Dr Rachel Povey at the training event

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Lisa Cowap delivers her training session to the attendees

Suj Ahmed, Senior Healthcare Professional Engagement Officer from Diabetes UK stated that “The course is excellent. A good mixture of theory and practical experience for influencing behaviour change in diabetes patients by practice nurses”.He also conducted a straw poll during break discussions and reported that all attendees said they would definitely use some of the learning and techniques from the course to engage their patients to make dietary behaviour changes.

Evaluations of the programme from the nurses were also extremely positive, with a mean rating of 9.1/10, and some encouraging comments, including: “Excellent, should be attended by all Practice nurses” and “Handouts and materials provided are excellent and can be applied to practice”.

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

Psychology Students Highly Satisfied at Staffordshire University!

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NSS Story Aug15

Our graduating Psychology Class of 2015.

Undergraduate Psychology students at Staffordshire University have given some of the highest ever satisfaction ratings for their degree courses as part of the 2015 National Student Survey (NSS). The NSS is an annual survey completed by all final year students studying degrees at UK Universities and gives an insight into students’ experiences at University.

Some of Staffordshire University’s flagship Psychologynss degrees gained extremely high satisfaction ratings on the NSS. The BSc Psychology and Child Development degree received a fantastic 100% satisfaction score, and our BSc Psychology degree scored a brilliant satisfaction rating of 98%.

These exceptionally high student satisfaction scores across courses demonstrates a very strong focus on students’ experiences when studying for Psychology degrees at Staffordshire University and the commitment of our academic Psychology staff in providing the best experience for students.

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Judy David

Judy David, Academic Group Lead for Undergraduate Psychology, comments: “I am delighted our students are highly satisfied with their experience here. We have some exceptional Psychology courses at Staffordshire, designed to give students fascinating insights into Psychology as well as prepare them well for their future. Our academic staff team is well known for being friendly, approachable and supportive and many of our staff are involved in world leading research. So we really can offer our students one of the best experiences possible, and it is lovely to have that recognised in a national survey.”

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Dr Peter Jones

Head of School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise, Dr Peter Jones comments “These results are even better than last year and clearly show at Staffordshire University we have some of the best psychology degrees not only the heart of England but in the whole of the UK. I think this is not just because we have great facilities but because our academic, technical and support teams are brilliant at creating a great student experience. We pride ourselves on developing people and transforming their lives.”

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

The School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise at Staffordshire University is a leading University 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.

Nichola Street Joins the Psychology Department at Staffordshire University.

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The Psychology Academic team are pleased to welcome Nichola Street who joined the University as a Lecturer in Psychology in August 2015. Nichola introduces herself below:

I am delighted to be joining the team at Staffordshire University as a Lecturer in Psychology. My first week here was full of happy, friendly faces and learning my way around the building and campus!

NStreet Aug 15To give you a bit of background to my journey here, I began studying psychology at high school, and was hooked on the subject from the beginning. I went on to complete my undergraduate degree in Applied Psychology and PG Cert in Counselling and Psychotherapy at Liverpool John Moores University.

I had discovered a love of research during my degree and I started my PhD at Aberystwyth University in 2010 under the supervision of Dr Alex Forsythe. My PhD examined perceptions of visual beauty, focusing on the role that individual difference plays in aesthetic responses to natural shapes (fractals). I’d always been fascinated by the draw and hypnotic qualities of nature, and wanted to explore some of the factors that made these scenes so appealing to so many people. I transferred my PhD studies to University of Liverpool to complete my thesis. During the final year of my PhD I also worked as a Research Fellow at University of Salford with Dr Sarah Norgate (lead) on an EPSRC Digital Economy/ Energy 6th Sense Transport research in collaboration with Lancaster University and 3 other UK universities investigating travel behaviour. Our particular focus was the concept of ‘Walking School Buses’ and exploring how to reduce barriers to uptake with the support of a smartphone application ‘goWSB’. Most recently, over the last year, I have been working at University of Liverpool as a Lecturer in the School of Psychology. My role at Liverpool involved coordination for the international psychology module and working on the Online MSc Programmes in a Quality Assurance position. My time at Liverpool taught me many things but one stands outs, that there is an international need for psychological studies and education which should be encouraged as much as possible as psychologists often hold the key to helping tackle global issues in this increasingly global world.

My research focuses on some key underlying questions, namely how the environment in which we spend time can impact our behaviour and wellbeing. I enjoy interdisciplinary working and am currently collaborating with artists and scientists from a number of disciplines to explore this question further. The team and expertise here at Staffordshire is something that attracted me to the university. I was also drawn to the teaching and student-focus here at Staffordshire as I see supporting the next generation of psychologists is such an important task. Alongside my teaching, I’m excited to be taking on some public engagement responsibilities including organising the ‘Weird and Wonderful Psychology’ event to be held later in the year. I enjoy creative and collaborative events and find them very inspiring, so I am hoping to bring some of this passion to the students and wider Stoke population about the wonderful subject that is psychology!

Finally if you like social media, please follow me on twitter @NikkiCMJones, I try to tweet regularly mainly work and research related content alongside some personal stuff (mostly expect pictures of art/animals/food & drink!) and always appreciate making new connections. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into teaching and meeting more of the students and staff here at Staffordshire, so far so good and I’m very glad to be new to the team!

New research explores how officers conduct investigative interviews with children

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Dr Sarah Krähenbühl, Lecturer in Psychology and Forensic Psychology researcher at Staffordshire University, discusses her new research exploring the use of “ground rules” by police officers and social workers when interviewing children:

This study examined over 50 transcripts of investigative interviews conducted with children who were either witnesses to, or victims of, different forms of abuse. The particular focus was when, how and if ground rules were used by the interviewing officers (generally a Police Officer but a Social Worker may take this role) and then to establish the likely impact of this on the child’s understanding and the remainder of the interview.

Ground rules refer to explanations such as shutterstock_131453660 Resized‘say if you don’t know’, ‘tell me if I get something wrong’ and an agreement to tell the truth. The interviewing protocol (known as ‘Achieving Best Evidence’ 2011) states that ground rules should be included in all interviews with children. The study took a mixed methodological approach with numerical assessment of what ground rules were included, when this happened, were there any subsequent repetitions of the rules, and a qualitative approach as to the wording used and implications of this.

The results showed that there was a lack of consistency in ground rule implementation despite clear interviewing protocol guidance. Of greater concern was that when the ground rules were implemented the child’s understanding was not established and the relevance of the ground rules to the remainder of the interview was rarely established. So, this study has relevance not only to interviewing officers and legal professionals but also has implications in relation to assessments of child credibility when giving evidence.

Dr Krähenbühl’s study has recently been accepted for publication by Psychiatry, Psychology and Law and can be accessed via the journal’s website:

Dr Krähenbühl teaches on Staffordshire University’s Forensic Psychology degree – for more information about our degrees please visit the Forensic Psychology course page and the Psychology courses webpages.

Does television affect young children’s creativity?

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

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

The unusual box (SR)

The “Unusual Box”

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

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

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

 

Blog: Mental Health Awareness Week – New Research into Suicidality & Bipolar Disorder

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Dr Rob Dempsey blogs on Mental Health Awareness Week and some ongoing research into the role of psychosocial factors in the experience of suicidality in people with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

This week marks the Mental Health Foundation’s “Mental Health Awareness Week” – an MHAW_RGBannual event which aims to raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing. It is estimated that around 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience some form of mental health issues and there is increasing recognition of the need for increased funding and resources for NHS mental health services.

One of the current research projects I’m involved in is investigating the role of psychosocial factors in the experience of suicidal thoughts, feelings and acts amongst people who have a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder. Bipolar Disorder is characterised by the experience of severe and dynamic mood swings, including the experience of prolonged periods of depression and mania, and can be one of the most disabling mental health diagnoses. Yet, many people manage their Bipolar Disorder very successfully and some report positive experiences associated with their Bipolar Disorder. Of particular concern, however, is the high rate of completed suicide amongst people who have a Bipolar Disorder diagnosis – around 19% are thought to die by suicide (estimates do variety as Bipolar Disorder is often misdiagnosed) – meaning that people who experience Bipolar Disorder are at a substantially greater risk of completing suicide compared to people from the general population (estimates vary but are around 1.5% for the general population).

Our research, led by our PhD Student Rebecca Owen, was motivated by a general lack of good quality psychological research into the experience of suicidal thoughts, feelings and behaviours in people with lived experience of Bipolar Disorder. We were particularly interested in understanding people’s personal experiences of suicidality and understanding the role of psychological and social factors associated with heightened suicidality. Rebecca’s first paper, recently published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, was based on a series of qualitative interviews conducted with 20 people who have a Bipolar Disorder diagnosis and who reported the past experience of suicidal thoughts, feelings and/or behaviours. The interviews focused on our participants’ experiences of factors which worsened their experiences of suicidality and, importantly, were protective against suicidality.

We found a number of key themes in the data – including the “impact of others on suicide” (relating to the potential impact on others after suicide – e.g. family members) and “reflecting on positive social experiences” as being protective factors against suicidality. Factors which triggered or worsened suicidal thoughts included the role of negative social events (e.g. negative social interactions and more major life events like bereavements) as well as not feeling understood by others (including participants’ perceptions of being stigmatised due to their diagnosis), feeling like a burden to others and interactions with other people which reinforced the participants’ own negative self-appraisals and thoughts. These results are novel as they focus on people’s lived experience of suicidality including factors which may protect against or worsen suicidal thoughts and feelings. This study formed the first part of Rebecca’s PhD thesis and helped to inform her current studies which are looking at which of these factors (based on a literature review and this qualitative study) predict suicidal thoughts, feelings and behaviours in people with a Bipolar Disorder over time.

In addition to this study, we are working on papers discussing the impact of social factors on the experience of Bipolar Disorder more generally (and vice versa – how does Bipolar Disorder affect individuals’ social lives), a literature review of studies investigating psychosocial predictors of suicidality in people with Bipolar Disorder, as well as a paper reporting our participants’ subjective experience of participating in research discussing suicide. This latter paper is particularly novel as the majority of our participants reported that discussing their own experiences of suicidality was not distressing and we have identified some good practice guidelines for conducting suicide-focused research interviews.

We hope that this research contributes to the understanding of the experience of suicidality in people with a Bipolar Disorder diagnosis and contributes to the development of evidence-based psychological therapies. We are currently running further studies and we are seeking volunteers who have a Bipolar Disorder diagnosis to participate in an online questionnaire study – for more details about the study please contact Rebecca via rebecca.owen-6@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Dr Rob Dempsey is a Lecturer in Psychology at Staffordshire University and a member of the University’s Centre for Psychological Research and the Centre for Health Psychology. Rob is co-supervising Rebecca Owen’s PhD with Dr Trish Gooding (University of Manchester) and Professor Steven Jones (Spectrum Centre, University of Lancaster). Rebecca’s PhD is funded by a Studentship from the School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Manchester.

 

Blog: Dr Rob Dempsey on making Psychology lectures interactive

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Rob

Dr Rob Dempsey, Lecturer in Psychology, blogs on his experiences of using web and mobile app based audience participation software in his lectures to Psychology students at Staffordshire University.

Over the past six months I’ve been experimenting with audience response technology in my lectures as a means to better engage my students. Given the increasing sophistication of mobile app technologies, and the high proportion of students who own mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, there’s a real opportunity for lecturers to make their teaching more engaging. As I often teach large groups of students it can be challenging to develop sessions which (1) get the students’ attention and keep it, (2) get them interested in the subject you are lecturing on, and (3) inspire them to read around the subject in their independent study after the session. The last point is particularly important if students are to develop as curious and independent lifelong learners.

As someone who completed their Psychology degree less than ten years ago it is surprising how students’ tastes for lectures and their motivation for studying for a degree has changed, certainly compared to my own experiences and expectations as a student. Furthermore, the development of mobile technology seems to be having some unintended negative effects on students’ learning habits and general motivation for learning. Given that we can easily search for any information using our devices whenever and wherever we want, why should we bother to learn new information (or learn anything in detail) when Google always has the answer? Also, the sometimes irresistible urge to check our devices for new emails, messages and tweets, means that there’s a potential for students to easily become distracted by their devices if they’re not suitably engaged. I’ll admit it, I’ve sat through some pretty uninteresting meetings and checked emails, twitter, etc., whilst someone is droning on… If this is something I do, often without fully realising it, then students are equally likely to do this too! Rather than trying to resist all mobile devices (Would a complete ban on mobiles be enforceable in a lecture? Probably not), I’ve been exploring ways in which I satisfy that urge to use devices whilst also sneaking some “learning” in…

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Kahoot!

Possibly my favourite app for engaging students is Kahoot!, a free web-based app which allows you to create short quizzes or surveys to test students’ existing knowledge, their understanding of the concepts you’ve introduced during a session, or simply survey their opinions.

Kahoot! offers three options:

  1. Quizzes – where you can set timed multiple choice questions where students can gain points for fast AND correct answers. Even more appealing is that students are ranked according to their points tally and their rank will appear on their own device and on the main screen after each question (if they are in the Top 5-6).
  2. Discussions – an option to spark a debate or a discussion using more open-ended questions.
  3. Surveys – similar to a quiz but this isn’t timed or associated with points, but useful for getting a sense of students’ opinions on a topic.

Kahoot! stores the responses for all three activity types and produces downloadable reports for lecturers to analyse later.

To date I’ve used both Quizzes and Surveys in my lectures with our Level 4 (1st year) and Level 5 (2nd year) students. What’s great with the Quizzes is Kahoot!’s use of a Countdown-style timer and accompanying music when I’ve posed a question to the group. This really makes students focus on answering questions correctly and in the quickest time possible to gain more points. So far I’ve used quizzes to test students’ understanding of previous lectures (by launching a quiz at the start of a session) and test their knowledge of the topic I’ve introduced (via a quiz towards the end of a session). What’s great with the latter option is that lecturers can use this as an incentive for students to pay attention to the lecture part of a session. The promise of a Kahoot! quiz on the topics I’ve discussed, with accompanying prizes for the top ranked team, can really help to engage students.

Surveys, on the other hand, allow the lecturer to conduct a general survey of students’ opinions about a topic or simply check understanding without the time or points pressure of a quiz.

To give an example of my use of Kahoot!, my recent “Perspectives in Psychology” lecture to the first year students (“An Individual Differences Approach to Helping Behaviour“) first used a quiz to check students’ understanding of the key Individual Differences theories covered in a previous module, followed by a reminder of the Big 5 Personality Trait Theory. I then provided some definitions of helping behaviour (AKA altruism) and showed the students a video clip of a situation where someone received helped from a stranger and asked the students to think about which of the Big 5 traits would predict who would provide help (in the form of offering a coat to a child stuck in the snow – an “altruistic” act). I followed this clip with a short Kahoot! survey asking students to rate whether scoring high or low on each trait would be associated with a greater likelihood of helping a stranger (e.g. would high or low Extraversion be associated with helping?). After each trait question, we reviewed the responses via the results screen (giving a breakdown of responses) and I asked students to explain why they gave that answer (kicking off some debate about trait theory – great!). Rather than sitting passively whilst I waffled talked about which traits predict helping behaviour, I got students involved in applying their own understanding and reviewed the live results on-screen. I followed up this activity by discussing some recent psychological research using the Big 5 to investigate helping behaviour, followed by the introduction of a newer trait theory (the Dark Triad) which could explain more selfish and less altruistic behaviours. This session had a strong focus on introducing new content, something which one of my colleagues positively commented on whilst observing the lecture, in addition to using Kahoot! and it’s probably fair to say that the students (and me – one of my favourite lectures) really enjoyed the session.

There are some opportunities and limitations to using technology like Kahoot! The opportunities include: making lectures more interactive and engaging (which students often comment on in module feedback); testing prior or gained knowledge; satisfying that “must check mobile” urge; motivating students and focusing their attention by “threatening” that a quiz may be imminent so they better pay attention(!); as well as making learning more “fun”. However, software like Kahoot! must be used for a clear purpose in taught sessions, must complement the learning objectives/outcomes for that session, and I feel be used sparingly alongside other activities, otherwise students may become bored of being “Kahooted” every week.

Challenges with using Kahoot! and other software include: maintaining control of the session as students get VERY excited and can lose focus (the lecturer really needs to manage the room and ensure that students’ learn why one answer was correct and others were not); issues where some students may not own a web device (although students can work together in teams and share devices or borrow a device from the department, e.g. an iPad); losing focus of the session’s learning outcomes; taking the time taken to set up a good quiz prior to a session; knowing when, and crucially, when not to use such software. If my use of Kahoot! makes my lectures more interesting, promotes students’ knowledge and understanding of key psychological theories, and encourages them to engage in independent study after my session – great! However, the use of game-like participation software like Kahoot! by university lecturers should not be interpreted as a “dumbing down” of higher education (something which I’m all too cautious of – we should challenge our students in their degree studies). Audience response software should be used as a means of promoting learning and keeping students on their toes!

Finally, my top tip for encouraging participation in Kahoot! quizzes – prizes! Whether you offer a printed certificate, a free pen or some give-away chocolate (I managed to stash some leftover Freddos from a recent departmental event, which my Head of School hadn’t found and eaten… thanks Pete), make sure that you reward those students who came top in the quiz and praise all students for participating. If students answered a question incorrectly but then understand what the correct answer is, and why that is a correct answer, that is the real prize. Also it’s amazing what a bit of friendly competition between students, plus the offer of a mystery prize to those finishing first, can do!