Tag Archives: Sarah Higgins

The Department of Psychology Celebrate Staff Success!

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By Dr Robert Dempsey, Senior Lecturer in Psychology.

In October 2017, the Department of Psychology were pleased to celebrate winning three awards at Staffordshire University’s Celebrating Staff Success Ceremony held at the Kings Hall in Stoke-on-Trent. This yearly awards ceremony recognises the contributions and successes of staff working at the University across a range of roles.

The Department of Psychology had a number of nominated staff across a variety of award categories, including nominations for our Psychology and Me event (for public engagement), research impact (with both Professor Karen Rodham & Dr Amy Burton receiving nominations), as well as a People’s Choice Award nomination for Judy David‘s valued contributions to the successful running of the Department of Psychology.

The team were ecstatic to win three highly competitive University awards for: Living our Values – Brilliant and Friendly (Sarah Higgins), Best Newcomer (Dr Michael Batashvili), and Innovative and Applied Learning (Dr Robert Dempsey).

“I was so surprised to be nominated and then to win it was incredible. It felt amazing to receive the award, mainly because it reminded me how much I love my job and the people I work with, both students and staff.”

Dr Michael Batashvili, Lecturer in Psychology & Winner – Best Newcomer Award

 

“I am delighted and very proud to have received this award. I feel that the award is a reflection of the supportive and encouraging environment that I work in with my many brilliant colleagues and students. A big thank you to the nominator and to everyone that made achieving this award possible. The event was a lovely opportunity to celebrate and reflect on so many achievements from colleagues over the past year.”

Sarah Higgins, Technical Skills Specialist in Psychology & Winner – Living our Values – Brilliant & Friendly Award.

“It was a pleasure just to be nominated and invited to attend the ceremony. To win the award was a very nice surprise and motivates me to keep improving my teaching approaches and develop my students as independent learners, whilst also challenging them and having fun at the same time”

Dr Robert Dempsey, Senior Lecturer in Psychology & Winner – The Innovative and Applied Learning Award

 

“While it was fabulous to see some of our LSE staff winning awards at the CSS event, it was really pleasing to see so many LSE  nominations, and for both academic and professional staff. It was a really enjoyable event – connecting with staff from the many different parts of the University. A  much valued opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the many individual and team achievements within the School and across the wider University”

Dr Nigel Thomas, Head of the School of Life Sciences & Education

 

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

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

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

Sarah Higgins voted Chair of the Association of Technical Staff in Psychology (ATSiP)

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http://www.staffs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/sjh2.jsp

Sarah Higgins

Congratulations to Sarah Higgins, Psychology Technical Skills Specialist and a member of Staffordshire University’s Centre for Psychological Research, who was recently voted as Chair of the Association of Technical Staff in Psychology (ATSiP).

ATSiP was formed in 1976 to facilitate the sharing of knowledge to overcome technical problems within the Psychology discipline. ATSiP comprises of technicians and interested parties working in the Psychology departments at academic institutions from across the UK and Ireland.

The association hosts annual conferences and co-presents national awards with the BPS to recognise the valuable roles that Psychology technicians play in supporting research and teaching activities in academic institutions.

Sarah will commence her role with immediate effect and commented:

“It is an honour to have been voted as the Chair of ATSiP. I am excited by the opportunity to further promote the inspiring work conducted by Psychology technicians and to represent the interests of the association’s members.”

 

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

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

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

BPS Teaching Awards for Professor Clark-Carter & Sarah Higgins

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The Department of Psychology are pleased to congratulate two members of staff who have received national awards for their contributions to teaching. On the 4th – 5th May 2017 Professor David Clark-Carter and Sarah Higgins attended the Annual British Psychological Society Conference held in Brighton to accept their individual awards.

The awards ceremony was held on Friday 5th May where Professor David Clark-Carter received the BPS Education and Public Engagement Board Lifetime Achievement Award and Sarah Higgins received the BPS/ATSiP Technical Support in Psychological Teaching Award.

Professor David Clark-Carter receiving his BPS Education and Public Engagement Board Lifetime Achievement Award

In addition to the awards ceremony they attended a Gala dinner on the 4th May. During the dinner guests were entertained by the Vintage Swing Trio and received an after-dinner speech from Polly Toynbee where she shared insights into her life and career as an award winning journalist and writer.

Sarah Higgins receiving her BPS/ATSiP Technical Support in Psychological Teaching Award

Professor David Clark-Carter: “Each recipient of an award was introduced by the President of the British Psychological Society, Professor Peter Kinderman. I don’t know whether others felt the same but it seemed as though he was talking about someone else when he introduced me in such flattering words. I owe the award to the supportive environment created by my colleagues and to the many students from whom I have learnt.”

Sarah Higgins commented: “It was an honour to attend the BPS awards ceremony where the achievements of those receiving awards were celebrated. I am delighted to have received the award and would like to thank everyone involved in the nomination and decision making processes. It is humbling to be acknowledged for my work at Staffordshire University and a pleasure to work alongside my colleagues to provide the best student experience that we can.”

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

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

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

Graduate, Laura, blogs about her Psychology Technical Skills Internship at Staffordshire University

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Graduate intern, Laura, blogs about her recently completed graduate internship working with the Psychology technicians at Staffordshire University.

I graduated in the summer of 2016 from Staffordshire University with a BSc (Hons) Forensic Psychology and have been travelling and enjoying the summer free of exams, still unsure of the direction my career was going. Just before Christmas last year I saw the Psychology Technical Skills Assistant internship with Staffs Uni, and decided how this could be the opportunity I was waiting for to begin my career and taste what it is like to be an ‘adult’. Which I am sure all graduates will agree is the hardest aspect of completing university. I instantly felt at home when I returned to the university and was welcomed by all the academics and technicians, and have enjoyed every day since I started.

I have had the pleasure of working with some of my own project students with their final year projects and watched them succeed, this had by far been the most rewarding part of the last 3 months, especially after being in their position last year. This has truly opened my eyes to the different aspects of psychological research and has (finally) helped me decide my career path. I am hoping to continue as a Psychology Technician and further advance my skills or go into research and eventually complete a PhD.

I have been fortunate enough to share this experience with Sarah Higgins and Paul Gallimore, both whom are award winning Psychology Technicians and have been amazing with my training. They have embraced my enthusiasm to learn and made the internship as enjoyable and valuable as possible, also helping me overcome a number of challenges along the way. Both have been incredibly supportive of helping me to develop skills for a career and hopefully to have a more permanent career which use my knowledge from this internship.

From project building for students to using specialist equipment such as EEG or eye tracking, all of which I wish I had used in my own final year project! Both psychology technicians are happy to go one step further for each of their students and will to make your project build easier (if there is such thing as making 3rd year ’easier’ anyway). All of the psychology equipment is there for students to use, so please use it to your advantage and have some fun and learn new skills in your final year as an undergraduate.

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

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

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

A Training Programme for Practice Nurses: Motivating Dietary Change Among People with Type 2 Diabetes

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[PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED]

Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology, in collaboration with Diabetes UK, are facilitating a training programme for Practice Nurses in July 2017.

Changing patients’ attitudes towards dietary change can be quite challenging for Practice Nurses. This training programme aims to address and examine the social, emotional and psychological obstacles that people with diabetes are challenged with when trying to change their diets. The day will also teach you some helpful techniques to encourage and motivate your patients and support them to make to the necessary changes to their dietary behaviour so they can live long and healthy lives.

The programme will be supported by an innovative Resource Pack which has been designed and developed by Dr Rachel Povey (Associate Professor in Health Psychology and Registered Health Psychologist). Resources from the pack will be described throughout the training day, and you will be given the opportunity to practise using them.  At the end of the training day you will be given your own Resource Pack to take home as well as a certificate of attendance.In addition, this study day will be a great opportunity for networking and to discuss professional issues, best practices and share experiences.

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 Event details

The event will be held at our Stoke on Trent, Leek Road Campus, ST4 2DF (Only a short walk away from the Stoke on Trent railway station accessible from Manchester, Birmingham and London)

Date: Wednesday 26th July 2017, 10am – 4:30pm

Delegate Fee: £125.00 – Includes lunch, refreshments and a Resource Pack

Time Activity
10:00 Introduction & Welcome
10:15 Session One:

  1. Type 2 diabetes & its management
  2. Dietary guidelines
  3. Your role as a nurse
  4. Introduction to motivating change
11:00 Refreshment Break
11:30 Session Two: Motivating change
12:30 Diabetes UK: Supporting Primary Care to Achieve Targets
13.00 Lunch
13:45 Session Three:

  1. Perceptions and misperceptions of dietary advice
  2. Putting the message across
14:45 Refreshment Break
15.15 Session Four:

  1. First steps
  2. Making and maintaining changes
16:15 Summary
16.30 CLOSE

Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

For any further information concerning this event please contact the events coordinator: Debra Hayes on d.l.hayes@staffs.ac.uk or 01782 294308.

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 Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research and 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:

Sarah Higgins wins the National BPS/ATSiP Technical Support in Psychological Teaching Award!

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We are very pleased to announce that Sarah Higgins, Technical Sarah-HSkills Specialist in the Psychology Department at Staffordshire University, has won a National Award in recognition of her excellent contribution to teaching!

Sarah’s award is jointly recognised by the British Psychological Society and the Association of Technical Staff in Psychology (ATSiP), and has been announced as a joint-winner of this year’s award. Sarah has been invited to the BPS’s Annual Conference to be held in Brighton in May 2017 to receive her award.

Sarah’s award recognises her excellence in teaching, her contributions to teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, supporting staff research projects, her advanced technical skills knowledge as well as her interactions with prospective students at Open Days where she demonstrates the state-of-the-art equipment housed in the £30 million Science Centre home to the Psychology Department. Sarah is also an active member of the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research, home to Staffordshire University’s psychological research, and has previously won national prizes for her own research (click here for further details).

Judy David, Academic Group Lead for Psychology and one of the team who nominated Sarah for the award, commented:

“Psychology is so proud of Sarah, and we feel very lucky indeed to have her in our Technical Team.  The award is so richly deserved! Sarah works incredibly hard in teaching and supporting students and helping them learn new skills and knowledge. We are delighted this has been recognised with this prestigious award.  With two award winners now in our technical team, we know our students are getting the very best experience possible!”

Dr Amy Burton, Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology who was also part of the nominating team, said:

“Sarah is an irreplaceable member of the team having progressed from being an undergraduate student to MSc level and now actively contributing to our MSc Health Psychology. Sarah has shown a fantastic commitment to our students from assisting at open afternoons, giving applicants a taste of the equipment and inspiration on how it might be used, through to one-to-one tutorials facilitating the use of complex technical equipment.

In particular, Sarah plays an essential role in the learning and development of our MSc Health Psychology students and supports them to complete high quality, well-designed and innovative research using technology and equipment at the forefront of the discipline. Sarah fully deserves this award and we are very proud and lucky to have her as part of our team.”

Many congratulations to Sarah on her fine achievement!

Staffs-Uni-Hi-Res_45-1024x683The 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.

Opportunity for a Paid Internship as a Graduate Psychology Technical Support Assistant

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The Psychology Technical Skills Specialists at Staffordshire University are looking to recruit a Graduate Psychology Technical Support Assistant to begin in January 2017. This is an exciting opportunity to develop your practical and applied psychology related technical skills by supporting student learning, research and enterprise activities and developing technical materials.

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This is a 12 week full-time graduate paid internship available to Staffordshire Graduates with a bachelor’s degree from 2016. If you consider yourself to be enthusiastic, an excellent team player and have a willingness and interest in developing psychology related technical skills then this may be the role for you!

Closing date: 18th December 2016 with interviews week commencing 19th December 2016.

For more information and to apply for this internship please go to: https://www.unitemps.com/Search/JobDetails/11946

Staffs-Uni-Hi-Res_45-1024x683The 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.

MSc Health Psychology Graduates Talk at the Stoke-on-Trent Health Literacy Group Meeting

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The Health Literacy Group (Stoke-on-Trent) hosted an event on 24th June 2016 at Keele Hall. The event was organised by Mike Oliver from the Stoke-on-Trent Council Public Health Team who is also a current MSc Health Psychology student at Staffordshire University.

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Mike Oliver facilitating discussions during the Health Literacy event

‘From Ideas to Action: Update and Moving Forward’ encouraged attendees to share ideas and good practices for promoting health literacy for people living in Stoke-on-Trent.

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Jo Protheroe, delivering her keynote speech

Jo Protheroe, Chair of Health Literacy UK, and Lesley Mountford, Director of Public Health for Stoke-on-Trent, were keynote speakers at the event. They shared health literacy statistics and examples of how health literacy can influence a person’s ability to maintain good health.

After the keynotes there were eight presenters who showcased examples of health literacy initiatives and good practice in Stoke-on-Trent. One of these presenters was our Sarah Higgins, who shared her findings on nutrition label health literacy from her research conducted whilst on the MSc Health Psychology course.

Sarah commented: ‘It was wonderful to hear about so many successful health literacy projects in Stoke-on-Trent and to share my research findings with the group. The passion and motivation to influence health literacy in the area is truly inspiring!’

After the presentations group discussions took place to discuss the examples of good practice as well as feedback on future actions to promote health literacy. For more details please follow the Stoke-on-Trent City Council Twitter account (@SoTCityCouncil) and the #HLStoke hashtag.

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 Staffordshire University – The Home of Health Psychology

Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology is a Psy1centre 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:

Could you design and conduct a psychological experiment in one day?

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On Wednesday 11th May 2016 the Psychology Department welcomed sixteen psychology students from Stoke-On-Trent Sixth Form for an ‘Experiment in a Day Workshop’. The interactive workshop provided the students with an opportunity to develop and run memory-based experiments whilst gaining insights into the Psychology technical resources available in the department.

Paul Gallimore and Sarah Higgins, Technical Sarah-H paul-GSkills Specialists in the Psychology Department and members of the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research, delivered the workshop with assistance from George Fortune, a current second year Staffordshire Psychology Student Advocate. In the session, the sixth form students defined the different memory processes and engaged with tasks to test apply their knowledge. Afterwards they then ran their own experiments on student participants from the sixth form to collect data to take away and analyse for a report set by their teacher.

There were four different experiments that the students had a chance to build, all of which tested different types of memory processing from recognition tasks to encoding tasks. One of the experiments ran by the students was the Stroop Task (pictured below) which required their participants to identify the ink colour words were written in. Once the data was collected the group discussed the findings for each of the experiments and provided suggestions to explain the results collected.Stroop Task

Students who took part in the workshop were asked for their feedback, with all students in attendance stating that they enjoyed the workshop, particularly the practical elements. Some students mentioned that they liked being able to take part in the experiments as well as conducting them. Whereas other students mentioned that they enjoyed using the psychology equipment / software and enjoyed the interactive quiz and tasks integrated within the workshop.

If you would like to come and have a go at some experiments and see the equipment that we have to offer why not attend our next open day?

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

Curious about how psychologists test and observe behaviour? Thinking about taking a Psychology degree or a related course?

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

MSc Health Psychology Graduate wins National BPS Prize!

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We are very pleased to announce that our own MSc in Health Psychology graduate Sarah Higgins has won the UK-wide award for ‘Outstanding MSc Thesis’ awarded by the British Psychological Society’s Division of Health Psychology. The competition for this award is stiff with course leaders from across the UK nominating the best MSc thesis from their cohort of students.

Sarah Higgins‘ thesis was entitled ‘The effects of nutrition label format on healthier dietary choices: A forced choice eye-tracking study’ was nominated by her supervisor Dr Heather Semper and course leader Dr Amy Burton as she achieved the highest mark in the 2014-15 cohort, and the work was of exceptional quality. Sarah completed her MSc in Health Psychology alongside a full time job as a Psychology Technician at Staffordshire University, and achieved a Distinction overall for her Masters’ degree.

Sarah Higgins presenting a poster version of her study at the Midlands Health Psychology Network conference in Stoke-on Trent on February 25th 2016.

Sarah Higgins presenting a poster version of her study at the Midlands Health Psychology Network conference in Stoke-on Trent on February 25th 2016.

Sarah’s thesis explored whether hybrid labels, which combine text values and traffic light colours, could improve the selection of healthier dietary choices and the attention to health-related nutrients. She used an eye tracker to investigate the label formats with 48 healthy participants. The analyses showed significantly lower correct selections of healthier dietary choices for colour-only vs. hybrid label formats. The colour-only and hybrid label formats were processed faster than the text-only label formats, with reduced fixation counts and fixation dwell times. For all label formats the percentage fixation dwell time was significantly greater for fats and sugars than other nutrients.

Supervisor Dr Heather Semper said “Sarah’s thesis was exceptional, and we are very pleased that she has won the award and very proud of her. She clearly worked very hard on the project and the topic is novel and interesting. We are currently in the process of writing this study up for publication in a peer reviewed publication. She has a very bright career in health psychology ahead of her”.

The award will be presented at the Division of Health Psychology’s Annual Conference in Aberdeen in August 2016 (http://ehps2016.org/) where she has been invited to present the paper in an oral presentation.

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. 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: