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INPSYCH PSYCHOLOGY NEWS, STORIES AND EVENTS
WELCOME If you are a prospective, existing or former student I hope the Spring edition of In-Psych will keep you up to date with the developments in the Psychology Department at Staffordshire University. The last three months have been very busy as we continue to invest in the student experience with over £100K capital spent in new equipment including a bank of new iPads for student use in workshops and a new EEG which may be used in your final year projects. All this equipment will be used by both our students and research team alike. We are continuing to develop our student employability programme; we have ran our annual Psychology Careers Fair, held our Final Year Student Conference where our students presented their project work, and our monthly Psychology in the pub series has continued in The Glebe with Dr Rob Dempsey, Dan Masterson, Dr Gemma Hurst
and Dr Ken McFadyen, presenting recently on subjects as diverse as sexuality, social norms and alcohol use, and health benefits of green environments. Our students have also been busy getting involved in a diverse range of studies as part of our new second year Research Assistantship module which lets them practice their research skills. It has also been particularly pleasing to see the big election result of the year had a Psychology winner! Our Second year Psychology student Jamie-Lee Cunningham was elected Vice President of the Student Union on a health and well-being ticket. Congratulations to Jamie-Lee, she is a shining example of Staffordshire Psychology student.
Dr Peter Jones Head of School @pgwjones_dr
REF 2014: Psychology Research at Staffordshire University is rated International Standard The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a Government initiative every five years to evaluate the quality of University research. This year was the first time our Psychology team was submitted to the REF as a standalone subject area. With respect to Psychology, we have done extremely well in terms of the ratings our work has been given for its impact. 100% of our research impact was classified as being internationally significant. More specifically, 60% of our impact was rated as 3* (in other words, internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour) and the remaining 40% was classified as 4* (in other words, world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour). Karen Rodham, Professor of Health Psychology comments: “the results have been out for a little while now and we have had some time to look through all the data, take stock and identify the lessons to take away. The fact that so many of those submitted for the REF were early career researchers highlights the opportunities that this university provides for people to grow and develop their research careers. As someone who has only recently joined the university,
this confirms the impression I had before I decided to accept the offer of a job here – that Staffordshire University is a university committed to conducting high quality research that has meaning beyond the confines of academia.” Head of School Dr Peter Jones adds “this is great news for Psychology at Staffordshire University and provides validation of our work, as well as encouragement for us to continue to build and grow our research. To be so highly rated for research and rated in the top 10% of Psychology degrees in the UK for student satisfaction show what a great team we have here at Staffs.”
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2nd Undergraduate Psychology Conference The Psychology department at Staffordshire University held their annual conference for current final year students to present their research findings. The conference, held in the University’s Science Centre in March 2015, featured a series of talks by current students on their research projects and included an audience of psychology students and academic staff. The conference offered current final year students valuable practice presenting their research, and also allowed first and second year psychology students to hear about some of the research conducted by their fellow students, something which will help with developing their ideas for their own final year projects. It was great to hear our current final year students provide some valuable feedback to other students about how to manage their own projects in the future. Further details of some of the talks given at the conference are below: Emily Inwards started the conference with a great talk about her research exploring young adults’ attitudes towards two sexualities: asexuality and bisexuality. Emily’s talk highlighted the subjective nature of these sexualities and presented her work in a very engaging and professional manner!
Psychology Careers Fair 2015 – Improving students’ employability
about his project and this came across in his presentation. Tom is a very engaging speaker and I believe he will be successful in achieving his future aspiration of becoming a University Lecturer.” Kizzy Moss presented her interview project exploring the experiences of individuals with a sibling with Down ’s syndrome. Past research has focussed on parents’ perceptions whilst the perspectives of siblings have been overlooked. Kizzy used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to identify a number of key themes in relation to her participants’ experiences which included issues about children taking on high levels of responsibility and mothering roles for their siblings and a need for greater acknowledgement of the types of support needed by this group. Dr Amy Burton, Kizzy’s project supervisor, commented: “Kizzy has been a great student to supervise, she is passionate about this area of research and this enthusiasm showed in the quality of Kizzy’s presentation at the conference”.
Heather Semper, Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology & Employability & Careers Tutor for Psychology, reports on a successful Psychology Careers Fair The Psychology Department hosted a very successful annual careers fair on Monday 16th March 2015 in the Science Centre. A number of organisations attended the fair, including the British Psychological Society, the Samaritans, Think Ahead, Saltbox, In Mind, Challenge UK, and the Staffordshire University Careers team. Students had the opportunity to discuss their career options with the exhibitors, there were talks given by current postgraduate students studying Psychology related postgraduate courses at Staffordshire about their experiences in postgraduate study. The event was also well received by students who tweeted: “Found the careers fair really useful & informative today! Thank u team staffs!!!”.
Details about the other student talks at the conference can be found via the InPsych blog: bit.ly/1xITIUT” here
Tom Barker gave an overview of his research in progress which is using the Psychology Department’s eye-tracking equipment to get a better understanding of individuals’ eye movements when they are lying. Dr Louise Humphreys (pictured right), Tom’s project supervisor, commented “I have been impressed with Tom throughout the whole supervision process. He is very enthusiastic
Psychology’s Big Bang Psychology Staff (Dr Sarah Dean, Dr Louise Humphreys, Dr Erica Lucas and Judy David) and Student Advocates (Liam Howitt, Blessing Edobor and Kiran Ul-Haq) attended the Big Bang UK Young Scientist and Engineers Fair at the Birmingham NEC on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th March 2015. This large event aims to promote science, technology, engineering and maths to young people aged 7-19. The StaffsPsych team were part of the British Psychological Society’s stall at the fair and gave live demonstrations to visitors using the department’s Mirror Drawing task, a procedural memory activity. Level 4 Psychology student Blessing said “Working at the Big Bang Fair 2015 was an amazing experience I will never forget. I was involved in approaching people of diverse age groups to
perform a mirror drawing task and at the end explaining why they experienced difficulty in performing the task using a Perception and Learning explanation. I felt really pleased to have taken part in this event to promote Psychology and Staffordshire University. I was able to put my communication skills into effective use during the event. I will also like to add that taking part in this event boosted my confidence level because I was given an opportunity to be in charge; to work as an exhibitor, as participants looked up to me for an explanation and I believe my response was well appreciated based on their expressions. Once again it was an amazing experience!!!’’
SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY, SPORT AND EXERCISE
Midlands Health Psychology Conference:
Staffordshire Staff & Students well represented Several members of staff plus past and present students from our Health Psychology MSc and Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology attended the Midlands Health Psychology Network (MHPN) Conference at the University of Derby in February 2015. Dr Amy Burton, Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at Staffordshire University, reports on a successful conference for our Health Psychology students and staff. The MHPN hold a one day conference in February every year which is attended by around 100 members from across the Midlands and is a forum for health psychologists to share clinical and research experiences, information, knowledge and training. Existing members include MSc students, doctorate students, chartered Health Psychologists based at local NHS sites and regional universities, third sector employees, senior and early career academics, health practitioners and pharmacists.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Healthy Mind and Healthy Body – Understanding, Supporting, and Improving” and gave delegates the opportunity to learn about recent developments in E-Health research from key note speaker Dr Neil Coulson and body image scanning research from key note Professor Sarah Grogan. In addition, several past and present Staffordshire University students delivered poster and oral presentations on their research: • Professional Doctorate students Louise Clancy and Lisa Cowap presented findings from a research project led by Dr Amy Burton investigating facilitators and barriers to physical activity in older people with sight loss; • Current MSc student Becky Rushton presented a poster on her project supervised by Dr Sarah Dean investigating adding personality to the Theory of Planned Behaviour to explain cervical screening behaviours;
• And past MSc student Catherine Burgess gave an oral presentation on her project supervised by Dr Sarah Dean exploring quality of life in people with Lupus. All of the conference sessions were well attended and the day was a fantastic opportunity to showcase the quality of the Health Psychology research currently being conducted at Staffordshire University.
Dr Alison Owen’s Sun Protection Research featured on BBC1’s Inside Out Alison was featured in a segment of BBC1’s Inside Out Programme which focused on the dangers of sun exposure as BBC journalist Laura McMullan, a former tanning addict and cancer survivor, takes a young woman (Jess – a tanning bed user) from Stoke-on-Trent on an exploration of the health risks associated with excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Alison was seen showing Jess and Laura the potential negative effects of Jess’s current UV exposure on the health of Jess’s skin at age 70 based on computer modelling software used at the University. Alison was delighted to appear on the show and hopes her work will help promote campaigns to reduce the use of sunbeds and reduce skin cancer rates. Alison commented: “It was really interesting working with someone who has experienced the negative effects of sun exposure first hand. I think that Laura’s story will really hit home with people and hopefully make them more aware of the dangers of tanning.” The facial morphing software featured in the BBC programme was the same as Alison uses in her sun protection research. Alison has found that nearly everyone who took part in her studies, including young men and women, were shocked by the effects that too much sun could have on their skin and the majority said it would
prompt them to take better care of their skin in future. “It seems to have more impact than just reading a leaflet, it’s so personal. A lot of people don’t think they’ll end up getting skin cancer but seeing yourself like that really gets the message across,” said Dr Owen. Alison believes that using the research to educate youngsters in schools would make a big difference to the number of people diagnosed with skin diseases. Alison is currently working with colleagues from Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology to help tackle binge drinking by using similar software to show the effects of alcohol abuse on skin health.
Dr Alison Owen, Lecturer in Psychology at Staffordshire University, was featured on the West Midlands’ edition of BBC1’s Inside Out programme broadcast on Monday 23rd February 2015.
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Dr Amy Burton recently delivered a training session for pain management professionals at Birmingham Community Healthcare (BCHC) pain team. The session covered an introduction to culturally competent communication and practical tools to help health care professionals to communicate more effectively with patients from different cultures. One activity encouraged the attendees to practice the ‘teach-back’ technique involving delivering small chunks of information to the patient and then checking understanding before moving on to additional information. The health care professionals practiced through role play by explaining an everyday concept to a partner - practice examples included:
Election Success!
Staffordshire Psychology Student voted to the Staffs Students Union
the offside rule, how to bake a cake, and how to ride a motorbike! The training was well received: “One of the biggest clinical challenges facing the BCHC pain team is the provision of care to culturally diverse patients. The training delivered by Dr Amy Burton has helped to increase openmindedness and cultural awareness, as well as enabling the Pain Team to develop its ability to communicate more meaningfully with people from minority backgrounds” Dr Laura Chipchase, Specialist Health Psychologist in Pain
The health care professionals are now planning to incorporate techniques from the training within their pain management programmes. “Unfortunately there are a lot of students not getting the full university experience and there are many different reasons for this. A big reason for me running for this role was to get students more involved in university life, and try to make it so there are no obstacles in a student’s way to getting the most out of the opportunities at university.”
InPsych Blog Launched The Psychology Department have recently launched a blog where staff and students will be posting blogs across a wide range of topics, including employability experiences, new research studies conducted by academic staff and reports from conferences attended by staff and students. Keep up to date with the latest InPsych news by visiting the blog site: www.blogs.staffs.ac.uk/inpsych New stories on the blog include full reports of the Final Year Student Conference, an MSc Student Blog about presenting research at the MHPN Conference, and the mentoring work by current second year Psychology student Anthony Miller on working with GCSE students.
For more information about Jamie-Lee’s election success visit the InPsych blog.
Jaime-Lee Cunningham, a current Level 5 Single (Hons) Psychology student at Staffordshire University, was successful in her election as a Full Time Officer of the Staffordshire University Students’ Union with a Health and Sport ticket. Jaime-Lee comments on her motivation for seeking election to the union and her hopes for her term in office:
Join the conversation The Psychology Department has its own Twitter Feed. This is a place for you to hear about all the news, exciting research and events taking place in the department. Whether you’re considering coming to study Psychology at Staffordshire University, already a proud enrolled student or just want to keep in the loop about our latest research and events, follow @StaffsPsych
OPEN DAY DATES Open Days are a great way to find out more about the courses you are interested in and to see what university life will be like. Come and see us at one of our next open days.
Wednesday 29th April 2015 Saturday 20th June 2015 Saturday 19 September 2015 Saturday 10th October 2015
HAVE A STORY? We are always looking to share news from the School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise from students and staff. If you have a story you would like to share please email: psemarketing@staffs.ac.uk