Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research – Showcase Seminar (Thurs 22nd Sept, 4-6pm)

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

We are delighted to announced that the first of our Visiting Speaker Series of research talks for the 2016/17 academic year will feature a number of short talks by Psychologists based in the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research at Staffordshire University.

The Centre is home to research activity in the Psychology Department at the University, and is part of the research-active culture in the department incorporting academic staff, postgraduate researchers and PhD students.

The Showcase Seminar takes place on Thursday 22nd September, 4pm-6pm, in the R002 Lecture Theatre located in the Ground Floor of the Science Centre (click here for the location of the Science Centre in the Stoke-on-Trent campus).

4pm	Welcome to the Showcase Event
	Short talks by: Dr Daniel Jolley: Tin-foil hats and secret plots: What’s the harm with conspiracy theories anyway? Dr Rachel Povey: ‘They said I’m a square for eating them’: Children’s beliefs about eating fruit and vegetables. Dr Justine Drakeford: Do executive problems in Major Depressive Disorder cause temporal order memory deficits? Dr Helen Combes: Q Method: Inter-disciplinary differences in Understanding psychological health. Dr Amy Burton: Being a behavioural scientist in Uganda. Dr Robert Dempsey: Why the Clinical Risk Factor approach may not be sufficient for understanding suicidality in Bipolar Disorder.
5:45pm	Professor Karen Rodham
6pm onwards	Discussions and networking opportunities at the Verve Bar, Leek Road Campus, Staffordshire University (short walk from the Science Centre)

The Showcase Seminar is open to everyone who has an interest in Psychology – including students, staff and members of the public! No need to book, just turn up!

Upcoming Visiting Speaker Talks

The Visiting Speaker Series then continues in the 2016/2017 academic year with talks from invited speakers from across the UK, including:

29/9/2016: Dr Kevin Hochard (University of Chester) discussing the relationship between suicidality and sleep disturbances.

10/11/2016: Stacey Heath (University of Exeter) talking about the relationships between community identification and psychological wellbeing.

For details of the dates and locations of these talks please visit our Visiting Speaker Series pages (click here). Details of further talks will be announced via our @StaffsPsych twitter feed. You can follow the discussions about the Visiting Speaker Series using the #StaffsVSS hashtag.

The Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research is home to research activity in the Psychology Department at Staffordshire Centre. The Centre is home to a number of research-active psychologists who are engaged in research across a wide range of psychological subdisciplines. The Centre has two overarching research streams, Health and Behaviour Change, and Applied Perception and Cognition.

The Centre provides training for PhD students, Research Masters degrees, as well as Professional Doctorates in Clinical and Health Psychology (click here for more details). The Centre also provides bespoke training to private and public organisations, as well as expertise for consultancy research opportunities. For more details about the Centre, its research activities, events and consultancy, please visit our website (click here).

Dr Daniel Jolley blogs on attending the BPS Social Psychology Section Annual Conference

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Daniel Jolley (Lecturer in Psychology) recently attended the British Psychological Society’s, Social Psychology Section Annual Conference, in Cardiff, and blogs about his visit to the conference:

The conference theme “Reclaiming Social Psychology: Interdisciplinary Dialogues” brought together an excellent showcase of Keynote speakers, such as Prof. Clifford Stott (Keele University) and Prof. Rebecca Lawthom (Manchester Metropolitan University), alongside over 140 delegates. The conference had an inspired atmosphere, which could be felt during the Keynotes, Oral and Poster Presentations. There was certainly a buzz throughout the conference.

Dr Daniel Jolley presenting his research into beliefs in conspiracy theories at the BPS Social Psychology Section Conference.

(Copyright, @DrSimonGoodman)

During the Conference, I presented an Oral Presentation on my current research in to belief in conspiracy theories, intergroup prejudice and contact. I received some good feedback on this work, so indeed, whilst presenting can be a slightly nerve-wracking experience, presenting new work is very rewarding.

I also delivered, alongside Dr Jane Montague (Derby University), a Postgraduate Workshop on Dissemination in the 21^st Century. Jane and I talked through our experiences of academic publishing, the use of Twitter, and reflected on blogging. The workshop attendees were complimentary of the workshop, and several have already put into practice some of the handy tips we gave them by joining Twitter.

As a declaimer to my positive review, however, I must confess that I am a part of the Conference Organising Committee. This means my role involved such tasks as helping plan the programme schedule (so deciding themes and times of presentations), alongside Chairing sessions throughout the conference. This is the third year that I have been involved in the Conference Organising Committee, and like all the years before, being involved is a fantastic experience that has further developed an array of skills.

If you are interested in learning more about Social Psychology – or attending the Section’s conference – please visit our website. Hopefully see you there in 2017?

The School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise at Staffordshire University is a leading School in the UK for Psychology research and is situated in the heart of England.

The School is home to the recently launched Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research, a hub for research excellence for psychology research at the University. The Centre houses experts from a variety of psychological disciplines (including our renowned Centre for Health Psychology) and offers Postgraduate Training in Research, including Applied Masters by Research courses, MSc in Health Psychology, MPhil/PhDs, as well as Taught Professional Doctorates in Health and Clinical Psychology.

Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details, and to book your place at an upcoming 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.

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:

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.

The Third Annual Staffordshire Psychology Student Conference a Great Success!

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Robert Dempsey and Dr Louise Humphreys, co-organisers of this year’s Psychology Student Conference, report on a very successful event featuring a range of talks by current third year students about their final year research projects:

The Psychology Department at Staffordshire University were pleased to host the Third Annual Psychology Student Conference in March 2016. The Conference featured a range of talks and poster presentations by current Final Year Psychology Students and was well attended by current first, second and third year students, postgraduate research students, academic staff and invited guests from the University including Professor Allan Howells, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Enterprise & External Affairs).

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The students presented research using a variety of psychological methodologies and included presentations on diverse topics such as “Experiences of positive body image in women with a BMI above 25“, “The effects of cooperative gaming vs competitive gaming on spontaneous helping behaviour“, “The Effect of Fact vs. Myth-Based Interventions on Mental Health-Related Stigmatising Attitudes”, and “The effects of physical activity and hypnosis on physiological stress response and psychomotor performance”.

All our students did a fantastic job of presenting their research and presented in a confident, professional and engaging manner.

Student Awards Ceremony

The Conference was also followed by a Student Awards Ceremony where we acknowledged the contributions of our student presenters and also gave out prizes for Best Performance at each level of study, plus two student-nominated awards for Best Teamwork and Unsung Student (recognising a student who makes a valuable contribution to student life at Staffordshire). Professor Allan Howells, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University presented the awards and raised the students for their hard-work and their confidence in presenting their research in front of a large audience.

Staff attending the conference also voted for the Best Student Talk and Best Student Poster Presentation. We were extremely impressed with the overall quality of the students’ presentations and the hard work they had obviously placed into their final year research project. The two winners of the Best Talk and Poster prizes were:

Kondwa Thawethe won the Best Poster Prize for her poster titled: The effect of music listening on cold pressor pain perception and tolerance.
Paige Johns won the Best Talk for her oral presentation titled: Effect of different presentation modes and levels of negative arousal on an individual’s susceptibility to developing false memories.

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Dr Louise Humphreys, Level 6 Psychology Tutor and conference co-organiser, said “the conference was fantastic event and was very much enjoyed by all who attended. The presentations covered such a range of topics and the students were very enthusiastic about their research – I really enjoyed hearing about the work that they had done. I felt very proud to be part of the event. It was also great to see students from various years receive awards – to see their hard work and achievements being recognised.”

Dr Robert Dempsey, conference co-organiser and Award Leader for the BSc Psychology degree, commented: “I thought the conference was a great showcase for our students’ final year research projects and that our students did a fantastic job of presenting their work to an audience of their peers and staff. I was very impressed by the quality of the students’ talks and poster presentations and, like many who attended the event, I really enjoyed the conference and enjoyed hearing about great research being produced by our students“.

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.

New research explores experiences of talking about suicidality from perspective of people with Bipolar Disorder diagnoses

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Rob Dempsey

Dr Rob Dempsey, Lecturer in Psychology & Course Leader of Staffordshire University’s BSc (Hons) Psychology degree, blogs about a new study published with his PhD Student Rebecca Owen on understanding the experiences of discussing suicidality from the perspective of people with Bipolar Disorder diagnoses:

As part of Rebecca’s PhD research we have been exploring the experiences of suicidal thoughts, feelings and behaviours by people with a Bipolar Disorder diagnosis, with a particular focus on understanding the role of social factors and appraisals of social interactions in suicidality. We have already conducted a qualitative study where we interviewed 20 people with bipolar disorder to explore the sorts of social factors that might enhance or reduce their feelings of suicidality. We published the first part of this study last year on the relationship between social factors and suicidality (click here) and have previously blogged about our findings (click here and here).

As part of these interviews we also asked our participants about their experiences of discussing suicidality with us to help us to better understand if there were any negative or positive effects of discussing suicidality on our participants and to obtain feedback about our research. We identified six themes in our analysis:

(1) talking about suicide was not distressing for the majority of our participants.

(2) negative interview expectations: whilst most participants did not find taking part in the interview to be distressing, many had negative expectations before the interview about how they would cope with talking about personal experiences of suicidality.

(3) personal benefits: discussing suicidality for some participants helped them understand and reflect on their own experiences and, for some, helped with their own personal recovery process.

(4) value of suicide research: most participants felt that research into suicidality was worthwhile and many participants mentioned that they took part as part of a desire to help other people in similar circumstances.

(5) interview advice: for future studies, participants emphasised the importance of having stable moods before discussing suicide-related experiences, and positively commented on our approach in the interviews to build towards discussing suicide in a gradual and careful manner, and ensuring regular breaks during the interview for the participant.

(6) talking about suicide was difficult: although most of our participants did not find the interview distressing, it is important to note that some did find talking about suicide and reflecting on past negative experiences to be difficult. A couple of our participants were also experiencing some ongoing difficult life circumstances at the time of the interview which appeared to explain why they felt talking about suicide was more difficult for themselves than other participants.

So what did we learn from these interviews? It was clear from conducting this study that many people with personal experience of bipolar disorder valued the opportunity to discuss their own experiences of suicidality, even though it was something difficult to discuss. Anecdotally, we were aware that many people with bipolar disorder experience significant periods of suicidality but may feel unable to discuss such experiences with friends, family or healthcare workers for a variety of reasons. We also found that a number of individuals with bipolar disorder, including those who didn’t end up taking part in our interviews, felt that suicidality in bipolar disorder was a poorly understood phenomenon – so there was a clear interest from individuals with lived experience bipolar disorder in better understanding suicidality. Whilst the majority of our participants did not find discussing suicidality to be distressing in our interviews, some participants did find reflecting on negative experiences to be difficult. The research team were careful to sample only those individuals whose moods were stable (based on a standardised screening interview) and only sampled those individuals who were willing to discuss their experiences with Rebecca.

Based on our analysis of the interviews, and our own experiences of conducting this study, we have made a number of recommendations for best practice when conducting similar interviews in the future. Examples include: (1) ensuring participants have a realistic overview of what the interview will involve during the pre-study consent process; (2) ensuring participants’ mood stability prior to the study and that the risk of suicidality is minimal; (3) providing extensive training in interviewing for the interviewer (including on-going support and training in discussing difficult topics during interviews); as well as appropriate after-study practices like liaising with the participant’s care team if the individual became distressed, follow-up phone-based support as well as post-interview brief mood-boosting techniques (see our paper via the link below for more details).

We are very grateful to our participants for their time and for their very valuable contributions to the study. We are in the process of completing a larger-scale project investigating which of the psychosocial factors identified in these interviews and a review of the past research literature are associated with increased suicidality over time or which help to buffer (reduce) feelings of suicidality. These quantitative studies will allow us to model the psychosocial pathways implicated in suicidality for people with bipolar disorder diagnoses, which may be crucial for developing theory-informed targeted psychological therapies.

Owen, R., Gooding, P., Dempsey, R., & Jones, S. (in press). The Experience of Participation in Suicide Research from the Perspective of Individuals with Bipolar Disorder. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease.

The Science Centre, home to the Psychology Department

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.

New paper exploring the effectiveness of mindfulness for reducing stress in health care professionals

Posted on March 5, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Amy Burton and Dr Sarah Dean (Senior Lecturers in Health Psychology) have been working in collaboration with an MSc Health Psychology graduate, Catherine Burgess, and researchers at the University of Leeds to explore the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions for reducing stress in health care professionals.

With the proposal of a move to a 7 day NHS service hitting the headlines there are growing concerns about the impacts this may have on the quality of patient care. Many health care professionals already feel overworked, stressed and at risk of burnout with a recent survey highlighting that 81% of doctors and specialists are considering early retirement due the impact of stress on their sleep, relationships and physical health (Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, 2015). It is therefore vital that we identify successful ways to reduce stress levels in the caring professions.

Mindfulness is one approach to reducing stress and is a simple form of meditation that encourages the stressed person to focus on the present moment and acknowledge and accept their thoughts and feelings. For this research the team identified and reviewed nine published studies that have tested the value of using mindfulness interventions to reduce stress in health care professionals. The results of this review indicated that mindfulness interventions significantly reduced stress levels in this group.

However, there were problems with the studies that indicate the need for more work in this area. Many of the interventions were very time intensive and drop out was common due to work, family and other pressures. This suggests that the mindfulness approach is not always possible within current health care environments without additional support. Furthermore, the quality of some of the reviewed studies was poor and very few explored whether the reduced stress levels reported were maintained long term. The team propose that more high quality research is needed before clear conclusions about the value of this type of intervention for reducing stress in health care professionals can be drawn.

Details of the full paper:

Burton, A. E., Burgess, C., Dean, S., Koutsopoulou, G., & Hugh-Jones, S. (2016). How effective are mindfulness-based interventions for reducing stress among healthcare professionals? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Stress and Health.

The Home of Health Psychology – Staffordshire University

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

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

The Psychology of the “Adele Illusion”

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Andrew Edmonds, Lecturer in Psychology at Staffordshire University, talks about the psychology behind the “Adele Illusion” a recent meme being shared via social media:

You may by now have seen Adele as you’ve never seen her before – with her eyes and mouth upside down! Even the biggest admirers of her work would probably agree that this makes her face look a bit distorted. However, turning the whole image upside down makes this disappear. This is a modern version of the Thatcher illusion, first discovered in 1980 by Peter Thompson.

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A post shared by The Shade Room (@theshaderoom)

So what is going on here? It is thought (e.g. Edmonds & Lewis, 2007; Thompson, 1980) that inverting the eyes and mouth of a face disrupts information about the spatial relationship between the features of a face (broadly termed ‘configural information’). Research has shown that this configural information is unavailable to us when a whole face is turned upside down.

So, if configural information is unavailable to us, and it is the disturbance of this information which produces the weird appearance in the upright Adele face (with the eyes and mouth inverted), then this may explain why the upturned features disappear when we turn the face upside down! However, more recent research suggests that the illusion may actually be due to a reduced sensitivity to inverted facial features (e.g. Psalta, Young, Thompson and Andrews, 2014).

The same picture of Adele just turned the right way up!

Whatever the explanation, illusions such as this are more than just a bit of fun – they have helped psychologists to identify the sorts of processes that are involved in ‘normal’ upright face processing. It is thought, for example, that we use configural information for the processing of familiar faces but not when processing those which are unfamiliar to us. This is just one of the many differences between familiar and unfamiliar faces which I am interested in understanding in my own research, as well as the question of how faces become familiar to us over time.

Listen to Dr Andrew Edmonds being interviewed by BBC Radio Stoke about the Adele Illusion via: Dr Andrew Edmonds featured on BBC Radio Stoke discussing the “Adele Illusion”

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.

New Research into Stereotypes of Ageing funded by Staffordshire University

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Robert Dempsey

Dr Amy Burton

Dr Amy Burton and Dr Sarah Dean, Senior Lecturers in Psychology, have been successful in securing funding from the Staffordshire University REF2020 research scheme to explore ageing stereotypes. Amy blogs on their research plans:

In the UK there are currently 10 million people aged 65 and above and it is predicted that this will reach 19 million by 2050 (Cracknell, 2010). Average life expectancy has increased steadily but healthy life expectancy has not matched this, meaning additional demands are being placed on services such as the NHS (Cracknell, 2010). It is recognised both within academic literature (e.g. Reed, Stanley, & Clarke, 2004) and in the work of charities (e.g. Age UK, 2013) that research is crucial to understanding the experiences of older adults in order to break down the barriers preventing them from active participation in society and healthy ageing. Such research will have a substantial impact on the health and well-being of older adults.

Dr Sarah Dean

Dr Burton’s research into barriers and facilitators to physical activity in older people with sight loss highlighted an important psychological concept in need of further exploration (Burton, Clancy, & Cowap, n.d. Under Review). During focus groups participants frequently used examples of negative self-directed stereotypes to justify reduced participation in physical activity (e.g. ‘Young adults, rather than 70 or 80 year olds […] they are the ones that really need all of the exercise and can actually do it’). Stereotype Embodiment Theory proposes that age stereotypes can be internalised by individuals across the lifespan (Levy, 2009). Such self-directed stereotypes have been implicated in reductions in cognitive functioning and physical health (Levy, 2003). Furthermore, evidence suggests that attributing illness and functional decline to old age and holding the belief that ‘to be old is to be ill’ is associated with negative health outcomes and reductions in health maintenance behaviours (Beyer, Wolff, Warner, Schüz, & Wurm, 2015; Stewart, Chipperfield, Perry, & Weiner, 2012).

Dr Burton and Dr Dean will be using the REF2020 funding to further explore and define the ageing stereotypes held by people living in the UK and how self-directed stereotypes impact on health and wellbeing outcomes for older people.

Drs Burton and Dean are members of Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology, a centre of excellence for teaching and research in health psychology, and are course leaders for Staffordshire’s BPS Accredited Stage 1 MSc 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:

InPsych – Psychology at Staffordshire University

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

Tag Archives: Research

Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research – Showcase Seminar (Thurs 22nd Sept, 4-6pm)

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

Growing Success at the Fourth Staffordshire Health Psychology Conference!

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

The Third Annual Staffordshire Psychology Student Conference a Great Success!

Student Awards Ceremony

New research explores experiences of talking about suicidality from perspective of people with Bipolar Disorder diagnoses

New paper exploring the effectiveness of mindfulness for reducing stress in health care professionals

The Psychology of the “Adele Illusion”

New Research into Stereotypes of Ageing funded by Staffordshire University