The Psychologist Summer 2020

the

the psychologist

psychologist july/august 2020

july/august 2020

Towards a ‘new normal’ and beyond

www.thepsychologist.org.uk

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the

the psychologist

psychologist july/august 2020

july/august 2020

contact The British Psychological Society 48 Princess Road East Leicester LE1 7DR 0116 254 9568 info@bps.org.uk www.bps.org.uk the psychologist and research digest www.thepsychologist.org.uk www.bps.org.uk/digest www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk psychologist@bps.org.uk Join over 100,000 people following us on Twitter: @psychmag Download our iOS/Android apps advertising Reach 50,000+ psychologists at very reasonable rates.

CPL, 1 Cambridge Technopark Newmarket Road Cambridge CB5 8PB contact Kai Theriault 01223 378051 kai.theriault@cpl.co.uk june 2020 issue 48,717 dispatched cover Eliza Southwood www.elizasouthwood.com environment Printed by Warners Midlands plc on 100 per cent recycled paper.

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Towards a ‘new normal’ and beyond

www.thepsychologist.org.uk

The Psychologist is the magazine of The British Psychological Society It provides a forum for communication, discussion and controversy among all members of the Society, and aims to fulfil the main object of the Royal Charter, ‘to promote the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge of psychology pure and applied’

The Psychologist needs you!

We rely on your submissions throughout the publication, and in return we help you to get your message across to a large and diverse audience.

For details of all the available options, plus our policies and what to do if you feel these have not been followed, see www.thepsychologist.org.uk/contribute The main message, though, is simply to engage with us.

Contact the editor Dr Jon Sutton on jon.sutton@bps.org.uk, tweet us on @psychmag or call /write to us at the Society’s Leicester office.

Managing Editor Jon Sutton Deputy Editor Annie Brookman-Byrne Production Mike Thompson Journalist Ella Rhodes Editorial Assistant Debbie Gordon Research Digest Matthew Warren (Editor), Emily Reynolds, Emma Young

Associate Editors Articles Paul Curran, Harriet Gross, Michelle Hunter, Rebecca Knibb, Adrian Needs, Paul Redford, Sophie Scott, Mark Wetherell, Jill Wilkinson History of Psychology Alison Torn Interviews Gail Kinman Culture Kate Johnstone, Sally Marlow Books Emily Hutchinson Voices in Psychology Madeleine Pownall Psychologist and Digest Editorial Advisory Committee Catherine Loveday (Chair), Emma Beard, Harriet Gross, Kimberley Hill, Deborah Husbands, Peter Olusoga, Richard Stephens, Miles Thomas

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the

Eliza Southwood www.elizasouthwood.com

psychologist july/august 2020

02 ‘We can support the engagement of the wider community to develop solutions…’

Society pandemic resources; intensive care; Conference 2020; and more

10 ‘A high stakes version of ‘Groundhog Day’ Matthew Warren on lessons for how we conduct research

14 A web of coronavirus perspectives Highlights from our extensive online coverage

20 ‘… a very different experience of death’ Ella Rhodes hears from those working in bereavement during the pandemic and beyond

26 ‘It’s everyone, everywhere, everything…

There’s nothing that’s untouched’ Rowena Hill, a psychologist seconded to the government’s C19 Foresight Group

30 10 lessons for dealing with a pandemic

Jolanda Jetten, Stephen Reicher, Alex Haslam

and Tegan Cruwys; plus John Drury, Reicher

and Nick Hopkins on the psychology of

physical distancing 34 How do we ensure the responsible and practical

use of PPE?

Sandra Lovell

36 Vaccines: the good, the bad, and the ugly Kavita Vedhara on the fascinating world of psychological adjuvants and more

40 Vaccinating against viruses of the mind David Robson on efforts to achieve ‘herd immunity’ against misinformation

44 ‘We can come out of it poorer, but better’ Kim Stephenson and Pradnya Surana on money

46 Moral progress after Covid-19 Roger Paxton thinks a better society is not just possible but likely

50 ‘What is remarkable about what we have achieved is that it’s unremarkable’ Carl Walker on the mutual aid response

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54 ‘Nothing could be worse than a return to normality’ Lee Rowland curates 10 quotes

58 ‘We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world’ Part two of our interview with new Society President Hazel McLaughlin

60 ‘The levers that government

are pulling are psychological’

Jon Sutton hears from BPS

Director of Policy Kathryn Scott 66 Changing landscapes:

2040 visions

We asked contributors:

It’s 2040. You’re still working

in Psychology, but it has

changed. How? What could psychology look

like? (Alison Clarke);

Psychology as a thing of the

past (Angel Chater); Work,

workers and workplaces

(Roxane Gervais); A green

perspective (Jan Maskell);

When the job hunts you

(Linda Kaye); We now fit the

system to the person

(Sarah Rutter, Angela Busuttil,

Mike Rennoldson); Restoring

and honouring community

(Sally Zlotowitz).

Whatever your coronavirus story – loss, Zoom meetings, challenges, finding meaning in a simpler life – the chances are that psychology and psychologists have featured heavily. Early on as we adapted to remote working and pandemic life, juggling anxieties and hope, we decided to reflect that in a special summer edition. Well over 100 psychologists have contributed to our theme of ‘Towards a new normal, and beyond’, including some of their artistic efforts dotted throughout.

We thank them all.

Dr Jon Sutton Managing Editor @psychmag

88 Jobs in psychology Featured job, latest vacancies

94 Books Gemma Milne on hype; Stuart Ritchie on science fictions; and your lockdown shelfies

100 Culture Helen Johnson on arts and culture in a ‘new normal’; and more

104 ‘We have to remember to find the beauty in what’s already at home with us’ Lockdown photography from Keon West

108 Eye on fiction Which utopia, whose future?

Gavin Miller on science fiction.

112 One on one One thing I have learned during lockdown…

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Getty images

‘We can support the engagement of the wider community to develop solutions…’

In the last issue of The Psychologist we reported on the many activities of the British Psychological Society Covid-19 coordinating group. Ella Rhodes caught up with some of the lead members of its workstreams to see how the focus has shifted as we progress further into the pandemic – and perhaps towards a new normal.

Find all the resources mentioned, and more, at http://bps.org.uk/coronavirus-resources 02

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Isolation and confinement

The Effects of Isolation and Confinement group has already published 14 pieces of work, including blogs about the needs of young offenders and refugees, two videos on the importance of play, guidance for schools which are re-opening on using psychological perspectives to encourage re-engagement, advice for key workers who have isolated themselves from their families, and guidance on how to support care-experienced children.

The group, led by Vivian Hill (UCL Institute of Education) and Glasgow City Council principal educational psychologist Alison Crawford, is also set to publish a number of other documents, including one on coping and building community resilience within schools.

Hill told me the group is also working on a paper discussing the psychological effects of lockdown on all of

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the psychologist july/august 2020 news those who are shielding and their loved ones.

‘The other thing that we continue to work on is the social, emotional and mental health needs of children and young people. We’re acknowledging that their mental health needs, at this point of slow reintegration into school, is the initial level of response… but we’re likely to see, over time the medium term and longer term mental health consequences for those young people and their families.

We are ready to work in partnership with schools and communities to address these needs as lockdown eases.’

The group is also continuing to look at the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on certain populations including those living in poverty, in overcrowded homes and the BAME community. ‘The pandemic has served to highlight the impact of social inequalities and helps to identify the levels of intervention that are needed going forward. This coincides with the BPS policy team’s focus this year on moving from poverty to flourishing. As we mentioned in our back to school paper we’re very concerned about the impact of digital poverty and making sure that all children and young people have access to, not only internet, but devices to work on. We acknowledge that easing lock down poses greater risks to some communities and that we need to work closely with them to understand their concerns and to develop specific tailored responses.’

Hill said her work with the group had been an ‘utterly unique’ experience. ‘I think what it has helped us to see is the value that psychology and psychologists can bring in times of stress, where there are high levels of uncertainty we can support the engagement of the wider community to develop solutions. What I have particularly enjoyed is working with other psychologists who work with different ages, different populations and a different focus to see the impact psychology can have at individual, group and community levels.’

Working differently

Chair Elect of the Division of Occupational Psychology, Janet Fraser, has been leading the Working Differently group in producing resources for organisations and workers as lockdown eases. They recently released a document outlining how employers and employees can prepare for the ‘new normal’ at work – suggesting employers should engage with employees, address their expectations and provide practical support. They are also about to publish advice to help people upskill, and futureproof their skills, in response to different ways of working; guidance for professionals supporting young people transitioning into work given the pandemic’s potential impact on youth unemployment; and advice to help employers and employees deal with distress and anxiety about returning to workplaces.

For those people who are still working from home Fraser and the group have created guidance for healthy and sustainable homeworking based on the ‘SHARE’ approach – Safe homeworking, Help yourself and others, Adapt to change, Relieve the pressure and Evaluate.

Some of their key recommendations include adopting a flexible approach, good communication and taking steps

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to develop and maintain work-life balance.

Their most recent publication, aimed at those exposed to traumatising or distressing material, gives a step-bystep guide for organisations whose employees may be at risk of vicarious trauma while working from home. The guidance, ‘Taking trauma related work home – advice for reducing the likelihood of secondary trauma’, is based on five Rs – recognise, review, respond, refresh, respect – to help employers fulfil their duty of care to their employees.

Fraser said it was a privilege to lead the group’s work.

‘The group’s commitment is outstanding and we all want to help by using psychology to make a difference in the Covid situation.’

Adaptations

In a similar vein the adaptations workstream has turned its attention to supporting psychological professionals back into the workplace and in working from home. Led by Consultant Lead Clinical Psychologist and chair elect of the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) Dr Roman Raczka, the group has issued advice on safety considerations for psychological professionals returning to the workplace.

The adaptations group has also released guidelines to support psychological professionals in completing psychological assessments, such as cognitive tests and questionnaires, remotely. The authors suggested considering several factors prior to using remote assessment including the accessibility, security and privacy of using remote assessments, maintaining confidentiality and the impact on a client of postponing or cancelling an assessment or adapting the method of conducting an assessment.

Raczka and his colleagues will also soon be publishing advice on using interpreters via online and videoconferencing approaches. They have also set up a sub-group to work on a document which will explore the dilemma of providing face-to-face therapy vs not providing therapy when remote working is not possible.

The DCP Digital Healthcare sub-committee, of which Raczka is a member and co-author, have produced two guidance papers – Top-Tips for Video Therapy - Adult Patient Version as well as guidance for supervisors Digital Adaptations to Supervisions and Observations – which will be online soon. This sub-committee has also developed Digital Competences for Clinical Psychologists and Psychological Practitioners in IAPT (www.digitalhealthskills.com) which will be used to inform training curricula and CPD.

Dr Roman Raczka

Behavioural science and disease prevention

The behavioural science and disease prevention group is led by Professor Angel Chater (University of Bedfordshire), and has recently published a document on the Covid-19 tracing app. ‘Our group aims to bring to the attention of policy makers and communicators the things that they

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“don’t know they don’t know”, specifically around the determinants of human behaviour. With this, we hope to build capacity to use, or at the very least, consider, behavioural science in the prevention of infection and disease management during Covid-19.’

The recent document on behavioural science perspectives on the digital contact tracing app for Covid-19, led by Professor Madelynne Arden (Sheffield Hallam University), considers elements of behaviour which could have an impact on the app’s success. For the app to work people need to do four things – download the app, carry a working phone at all times, identify and report virus symptoms, and self-isolate if necessary.

The authors pointed out that people would need sufficient capability, opportunity and motivation for those behaviours to occur.

The authors outlined some of the numerous barriers and facilitators for those behaviours including having knowledge of the app and what it is for, being able to identify Covid-19 symptoms, concerns over data use and privacy, and concerns about outcomes such as being told to self-isolate. The authors wrote that there was an urgent need for researchers and policy makers to address what the barriers and facilitators were for each apprelated behaviour and how these differ by occupation, gender, socio-economic group, ethnic group, disability, age and level of risk for developing severe Covid-19.

The group is currently working on guidance for behaviours that may have been impacted on by Covid-19, while not being directly related to the disease, but may lead to further public health issues. Some of those behaviours include physical activity and sedentary behaviour, nutrition, substance use, sleep, and health-service use.

Diversity and Inclusion

Layne James Whittaker

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Diversity and inclusion champion for this Covid-19 work, Layne James Whittaker – who is also a member of the BPS Diversity and Inclusion taskforce – has been advising the ‘working differently’ workstream on considerations it should take on people from BAME groups returning to work. She said she could see potential gaps in returning to work for the BAME community, particularly regarding possible anxiety about returning to the workplace due to a higher risk of dying from Covid-19.

‘There are also concerns that employers will have additional health and safety risks when their BAME staff return to work because of this [increased risk]. There is a fear of the possibility of a loss of job or not being hired because of the risks.’ James Whittaker added that the BPS Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce had recently discussed the anxieties that key workers may have about being viewed as lesser-skilled again once things return to some degree of normal.

‘One concern about returning to work after all these changes due to Covid-19 is Diversity and Inclusion, and the possibility that issue will be pushed aside when returning to work. There will be anxieties for a lot of

groups of people that may need their employers to make sure they continue with their reasonable adjustments when returning to work. It will be important that disabled people have that extra support.’

Also a British Sign Language interpreter, James Whittaker has been helping the Working Differently workstream to consider upskilling for disabled people and disadvantaged groups. ‘I was asked to be involved in that so I could give more details on how this may impact those with Deafness. I have also made some suggestions with the working with interpreters subgroup of how best to work with British Sign Language interpreters remotely, I have sent over some tips and guidance that we use in our profession.’

Bereavement

Since our last edition the bereavement workstream, led

by Professor Nichola Rooney, has been busy producing guidance on coping with the death of a colleague, death and grieving in a care home, continuing bonds and videos on digital legacies and saying goodbye online. To read more on the bereavement group’s work from Rooney, as well as more insights into those working regularly with grief and loss, see p.20.

Rehabilitation

The work of the psychological care and rehabilitation of patients group, led by David Murphy and Dorothy Wade, is now well into the implementation phase. NHS England guidance released in June cites the BPS guidance and Murphy has been representing the group on a national taskforce commissioned by NHS England to produce a public facing information website and a web-based multidisciplinary rehabilitation package, which it is hoped will be available to support NHS services across all four nations.

Staff wellbeing

The staff wellbeing group has completed work focused primarily on actute hospital staff, but is continuing to consider wellbeing of psychologists and occupational health staff. The group’s co-lead Dr Julie Highfield has recently been appointed as National Director for Wellbeing for the Intensive Care Society: see p.6.

David Murphy, who is continuing to chair the Coordinating Group as he moves from the President to Vice President role, reflected on the process behind the phenomenal impact the group has had, which he also focused on in his presidential address. ‘To have achieved so much in a relatively short space of time really has been remarkable, particularly as the BPS had been relatively late out of the blocks. We’ve agreed to take time to reflect on what helped the process and what could have been better, for our own benefit but also to contribute learning to the Society going forward. For me, the keys have been starting by mutually agreeing a shared purpose and ways of relating of working together, bringing members and staff together from across different silos, and providing the support they need.’

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the psychologist july/august 2020 news

from the chief executive The theme for the Society’s 2020 Conference, which was to be held in Leeds at the beginning of July, was ‘Psychology of the future: Changing landscapes’. Due to the unforeseen ‘changing landscapes’ we have been living through, that event moved online for two days of webinars. And the theme also survived in this issue, with several contributions looking back as if from 2040.

It may seem like 2040 is a long way away now, and if the events of 2020 so far have shown us anything, it’s that the focus of our world can change seemingly overnight. Whatever the priorities we have in 20 years’ time, however, what won’t change is the need for psychology to take a leading role in facing up to them.

Coronavirus has shown that psychology, with the BPS taking its place at the forefront, is capable of responding to an unprecedented global crisis quickly with material to make a significant contribution.

While very few people may have seen Coronavirus coming specifically, a pandemic has always been on the table as one of the major threats to our way of life.

So, as much as it may be difficult to know exactly what challenges we’ll be facing up to in 20 years’ time, we’re all aware of the

kinds of things that we might be looking at.

Global health has been brought right into focus, but that doesn’t diminish the challenges that are going to be posed by the growing climate emergency, the emergence of artificial intelligence and the disgracefully high levels of poverty that exist in our world.

One thing that never stops surprising me with psychology is the breadth of expertise that we have within the BPS. This can be seen in our Coronavirus response – health psychologists have been helping us to understand what needs to be done to stop the spread of an infectious disease, and behavioural and social psychologists have been advising on the steps we need to take to reach that goal.

These are just two examples.

Psychologists from across the society have contributed to the production of our Covid-19 resources and been advising on the wider response to the pandemic.

There hasn’t been a single focus of the news agenda – whether school closures, bereavement, or encouraging people to behave responsibly – where psychology hasn’t had a huge amount to say.

I want the BPS of the future to be better at harnessing and promoting this,

not just during times of crisis but in planning and getting ahead of the game.

Our role should also be to connect psychology across borders, and allow psychologists in the United Kingdom to share their expertise with counterparts across the world.

Some of the challenges that we’re going to face over the coming decades are too big for any one nation or scientific discipline to face alone, and in 2040 I hope that psychology, and the BPS, are more visible, more influential, and even more central to the global response to adversity.

It’s now up to us to make our response to Covid-19 the catalyst for a lasting shift in how psychology is viewed by the public, politicians and decision makers.

Sarb Bajwa is Chief Executive of the British Psychological Society.

Contact him at Sarb.Bajwa@bps.org.uk

‘This pandemic did not affect us all equally’ Writing in a British Psychological Society statement, President David Murphy has flagged up the differential impact of Covid-19 on Black and Minority Ethnic groups, and called for the profession to ‘help highlight and tackle many of the factors underlying racism and other forms of inequity and oppression’. ‘…this pandemic did not affect us all equally,’ Murphy said.

‘It arrived in a society beset with systemic racism, inequity and oppression of minority and marginalised groups and only magnified this further. People from Black and minority ethnic groups were more likely to be in jobs that had the greatest exposure to risk of infection, more likely to have been in poorer health, in more precarious employment and suffered more serious consequences including death.’

Referring to the ‘heinous killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis’, Murphy added that it had ‘served to bring all of these underlying systemic inequities to the fore’. ‘Whilst it happened on another continent, many have felt it could have been them, or their brother or father. It is not hard to

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understand the rage that results from this sense of injustice and disempowerment.’

Turning to the role of the British Psychological Society, Murphy noted that it ‘does not exist in a vacuum, the inequities in society play out in our profession and discipline in many ways which we must acknowledge and address. … We are striving, through the work of the diversity and inclusion taskforce and other initiatives to build the BPS into an anti-racist and “inclusionist” organisation at every level. We are not there yet and we gratefully accept all the support that those in marginalised and oppressed groups are able to provide, whilst recognising that these problems are not of their making nor their responsibility to solve.’

Read the full ‘BPS statement on racial injustice’ at www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-statement-racial-injustice We have begun to collect member/reader views at https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/standing-against-racism – where you can also find a collection of archive links.

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‘The patients are just so sick…’

Cardiff and Vale UHB

A Consultant Clinical Psychologist in Wales’ largest Intensive Care Unit in Cardiff, Dr Julie Highfield led the BPS Covid-19 Coordinating Group’s staff wellbeing work and has recently taken up a secondment with the Intensive Care Society as its National Project Director for Wellbeing. Ella Rhodes spoke to her.

Dr Julie Highfield

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How did you come to work in critical care?

Before I went into my clinical psychology training my areas of interest were quite medically based. Once I qualified I came to a bit of a crossroads – I could do a job in a community mental health team or I could go for a job in nephrology. The nephrology job was really exciting because they had never had a psychologist in place before, so at that point I thought ‘I’ll go with the thing that sounds really different and innovative’. I’ve never looked back since.

About six years ago my husband, who’s also a psychologist, was looking to change jobs and found a really interesting job in South Wales. I started looking for jobs in South Wales too and the critical care one was the most interesting because it was adults and paediatrics and a good third of the job was about staff wellbeing and organisational wellbeing, which I had developed an interest in in my last job… I had worked with the Trust HR team supporting struggling teams, and considering staff wellbeing.

Whenever you read in the newspaper that a person’s condition is ‘critical’, that means they are unwell enough to come to critical care, which is also called intensive care. So many different conditions, a mixture of kidney patients, heart patients, respiratory patients, physical trauma patients. It felt like a combination of every bit of health I’d dipped my toe into before, plus staff wellbeing. That’s how my journey came about – organically but with a little bit of design.

You’ve been working on the frontline during the Covid-19 pandemic could you tell me about that experience so far?

It’s been hugely increased workload for a start, the patients are just so sick we can’t get in to see them, and we’re seeing them further down the line than we normally would. Our patient work has tripled with little extra resource. The relatives’ work has massively increased as well, because the relatives are less able to be supported by the process of coming in and visiting.

In the middle of all of this we were also setting up a more robust psychology follow-up service for patients.

It’s part of NICE guidance for critical care then we offer a follow-up review two to three months down the line, post-hospital discharge. Most patients who experience intensive care don’t remember an awful lot of it – that’s the nature of sedation, it actually affects long wave sleep and the way you lay down memories. As time goes on and we lighten sedation patients often experience delusions and hallucinations and can be very confused and disorientated, which is what we call ICU delirium.

The memories of this remain with some patients, and leave them with a sense of threat and trauma… much of follow-up allows for sense making and processing of this. There’s also a lot of other stuff which is partpsychological, part-physiotherapy, part-medical, which is filling in the gaps and making sure people are on the right pathways.

I’ve noticed the difference between Covid patients and other ICU patients is the intensity of the delirium seems to be greater, the hallucinations are far more vivid than I’ve ever come across. People are left with worse fatigue and it’s hard to know whether that’s post-viral fatigue, or if it’s related to ICU deconditioning.

What’s really positive from a public point of view is they understand what critical care is, they feel more able to access information and read up on it, and they’re more clued in to the nature of this disease, and what to expect.

The social support around it is huge because obviously people are incredibly worried about people who’ve been in hospital with Covid. We are seeing a lot of post-traumatic growth where people are so grateful for the hospital, so grateful for the team, so grateful to be alive, actually, that it feels like a joy and a pleasure to get home no matter what.

What will your secondment with the Intensive Care Society involve?

I’d been doing some work for the Intensive Care Society for wellbeing anyway and when this project came up they invited me to apply for a secondment. Our aim is to be responsive to critical care staff psychological needs during the pandemic, but also to embed more psychologists into services to enable wellbeing in the long term.

Along with critical care doctors Laura Vincent and Peter Brindley, I published an article on the results from a survey of the UK, critical care population in 2019.

In essence, we saw that about one in three ICU staff were experiencing high levels of burnout prior to the pandemic. Staff wellbeing in ICU is really, really poor, and so it’s crucial we do something about it. It’s not all about

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the psychologist july/august 2020 news sending people to a psychologist, it’s about embedding psychological health within the system.

We’re hoping to embed a peer-support model to train up units and create systems of peer-to-peer support that will then be supervised by psychology. We want to embed clinical psychologists into units where they don’t already have them so that they can provide that one-to-one support and help with the system, with teamwork, and with group facilitation. In the larger units we’re hoping that they will match fund with us and then we can provide a service for patients and staff as well. We have another longer-term aim which is about setting up the resources to develop the wellbeing culture within ICUs; a lot of that will be online and through a series of webinars. We want to look at ICU leadership and support leaders, because our best evidence about wellbeing at work is actually about who leads you. It makes a massive difference to your wellbeing if you feel listened to, understood and enabled by your leader. That’s really hard to do in an ICU environment which is 24/7: it’s very hard to have a single leader, there’s often multiple team leaders and different kinds of personalities, so it’s quite a complex system.

The Intensive Care Society is fundraising for the wellbeing work Highfield is involved with. To find out more or donate see tinyurl.com/yarud7er See also thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/there-balancebetween-their-fears-and-their-sense-duty

Conference 2020 For two days at the beginning of July, when the physical event was scheduled to have been held in Leeds, the BPS 2020 Conference went online. Across webinars and virtual networking opportunities, delegates were promised an event that would ‘push the boundaries of that 2020 vision – are we seeing the challenges ahead clearly? And are we ready?’

Alongside keynotes from Stephen Reicher, Paul Slovic, Miranda Wolpert and Alison Gopnik, there were addresses from both the outgoing President David Murphy and incoming President Hazel McLaughlin.

A symposium convened by Murphy featured Angel Chater, Ingram Wright, Vivian Hill and Daryl O’Connor, on psychological contributions to managing the pandemic. A panel discussion on Covid-19 and the media saw Michael Smith chair Linda Kaye, Daniel Jolley, Roxane Cohen Silver and our editor Jon Sutton.

As student competition asked the same question our contributors address later in this issue: It’s 2040. You’re still working in Psychology, but it has changed. How? Find the winning entry from Alice Thomson (University of Westminster) plus two runners up, from Chenel Walker (King’s College London) and Amanda Ripley (University of Derby), via thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/we-can-only-go-forward-here Find out more via www.bps.org.uk/events/bps-conference-2020 Recordings of the sessions are expected to be available in due course.

What are the barriers to our profession and how can we remove them?

That’s the question for our latest Voices In Psychology programme, aimed at identifying and nurturing new writing talent.

Deadline 25 September

Find out more via tinyurl.com/psychmagVIP2020

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‘A high stakes version of Groundhog Day’ Matthew Warren with an update on the research response to Covid-19, and the issues raised

Find our Research Digest at www.bps. org.uk/ digest Editor: Dr Matthew Warren Writers: Emily Reynolds and Emma Young Reports, links and more on the Digest website 10

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s the reality of the coronavirus pandemic set in in March, we looked at the work of psychologists attempting to understand how the crisis is affecting us, and to inform our response to it (see the May issue).

A few months later, and hundreds of studies have been conducted or are in progress, examining everything from the spread of conspiracy theories to the characteristics that make people more likely to obey lockdown measures.

However, some researchers have raised alarm.

They’re worried that many of these rapid new studies are falling prey to methodological issues which could lead to false results and misleading advice. Of course, these aren’t new problems: the pandemic comes at the end of a decade in which the field’s methodological crises have really been thrust under the spotlight. But is the coronavirus pandemic causing researchers to fall back on bad habits – or could it lead to positive change for the field?

A methodological crisis…

The past decade has been a turbulent one for psychology.

Researchers have come to realise that a lot of psychological research rests on rather shaky foundations.

A pivotal 2015 study from the Open Science Collaboration, for instance, attempted to replicate the findings of 100 psychology studies published in three influential journals, finding a significant effect for just 36 of the 97 studies that had originally found a positive outcome. Other replication attempts have cast doubt on well-known findings that appear in many introductory textbooks (see tinyurl. com/10replicate).

And it’s not all about reproducibility: even when findings do hold up, they don’t necessarily generalise beyond the narrow group in which they were found.

Most work focuses on participants who are Western and Educated and come from Industrialised, Rich and Democratic countries – an issue that has become known as psychology’s WEIRD problem.

Of course, none of this will be news if you follow psychology research (or read the Research Digest blog).

And things have undoubtedly improved (Leif Nelson and Joseph Simmons, in a 2017 paper, concluded ‘the Middle Ages are behind us, and the Enlightenment is just around the corner’). Researchers are more aware than ever of the underlying causes of these problems. Increasingly, they are pre-registering their studies so that their methods

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Nick Oliver/www.nickoliverillustration.com

and hypotheses are out in the open before they even begin collecting their data. Replication studies abound, weeding out those findings that fail to replicate. Large collaborations are popping up to study psychological phenomena with huge numbers of participants across multiple countries.

… meets a health crisis

Enter the Covid-19 pandemic. On the surface, psychology seems like it should have a lot to contribute in a crisis whose management relies on getting people to act in certain ways. But many researchers point out that the methodological issues that have come to the fore in the past ten years are all the more serious when it comes to an actual health emergency.

Some critics say that evidence from past psychological research is simply too flawed or opaque to inform decisions that involve life-or-death situations – an argument perhaps best exemplified by a recent preprint from Hans IJzerman from Université Grenoble Alpes and colleagues, which questions whether psychology is really ‘crisis ready’. The team explicitly call out the lack of generalisability and reproducibility

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in past work. How can we be sure that studies based on small, ‘WEIRD’ pools of participants in very specific circumstances apply to a broad population in the midst of a crisis? Andrew Przybylski, Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute and co-first-author on that preprint, likens the situation to ‘a high stakes version of Groundhog Day’. Just because we’re trying to figure out how to respond to a crisis doesn’t mean that all of those issues that have come to light in the past ten years have just gone away, he says.

Of course, others have expressed more optimism about the role of psychology. This preprint was partly a reaction to a review published in Nature Human Behaviour, in which Jay Van Bavel and colleagues outlined the ways that psychology could support the response to the coronavirus pandemic. While acknowledging that evidence is limited, the team make a number of suggestions based on past work, such as taking into account that people have an ‘optimism bias’, believing bad things are more likely to happen to others than themselves. And we have published dozens of perspectives from psychologists about how the field can help right now – some in this very issue. Still, the debate about whether or not the field is ‘crisis ready’ continues.

Letting our guard down

And for many, that sense of repeating past mistakes also permeates much of the rapid research that psychologists have produced since the crisis began. Writing at The 100% CI in late March, Anne Scheel from Eindhoven University of Technology expressed worries that new studies attempting to understand the pandemic are being rushed out with major flaws: they may have a small number of participants and be underpowered, for instance. And there’s still the question of generalisability.

Yes, these studies are being conducted in the context of the pandemic so are at least more relevant to the current situation. But they’re still conducted in an artificial environment – usually online – and often consist of surveys that may not tap into how people think or behave in their daily life. And that WEIRD problem is not going anywhere.

In other words, in ‘crisis mode’, researchers may be falling for the same old pitfalls that psychology has been trying to move on from in the past decade. ‘[I]t feels as if we’ve put our guard down rather than up,’ Scheel writes.

Three months after typing those words, does she feel like things have improved? ‘My long-story-short answer would be: I’ve rarely felt so grimly vindicated,’ says Scheel.

Meanwhile, new scales to tap into attitudes and behaviours related to coronavirus have cropped up – but here too many researchers have expressed scepticism about the assumptions and methodologies used to

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develop these. Take the ‘Fear of Covid-19 Scale’, for instance, a seven-item scale that has already been translated into many languages and which asks questions like ‘I cannot sleep because I am worried about getting coronavirus-19’. The implication is that higher scores on the scale are bad; indeed, the authors write that the scale will ‘be useful in providing valuable information on fear of COVID-19 so as to facilitate public health initiatives on allaying public’s fears’.

But another group (led by Craig Harper) found that people who scored higher on the scale were more likely to practice positive public health behaviours like social distancing. They suggest that rather than measuring some pathological ‘fear’, the scale may actually be tapping into adaptive negative emotions that help us respond to dangerous situations. Again, concerns about the validity of measures aren’t new (in fact, the same team recently made a similar argument that scales of ‘social media addiction’ are really tapping in to normal, rather than pathological, social behaviour, as we reported in April). But these issues are arguably more problematic in a crisis situation.

None of this is to imply there aren’t many psychologists doing useful research right now – indeed, we shared some of the important work being done in areas like mental health in that May issue article.

However, it’s clear that the crisis has highlighted – and potentially exacerbated – many of the field’s existing problems and limitations.

A way forward

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But there have also been a number of suggestions for how to improve the research response. With calls for data sharing and collaboration, and the increased use of open science practices like Registered Reports, there are some bright spots, says Przybylski.

The preprint that claimed psychology is not crisisready had one unlikely proposal: draw from rocket science. NASA uses a system of ‘technology readiness levels’ to determine whether a new piece of technology is ready to be deployed. The first level indicates that researchers have reliably observed some principle that could help develop a technology; at later levels they have tested a piece of technology in an appropriate environment; and at the highest level they have successfully used the complete system in a mission.

The team writes that most psychological research findings haven’t even passed that first level: it’s still unclear whether many of the effects researchers have found are reliable, let alone whether they can be used in real-world interventions. So they suggest a psychological equivalent of NASA’s framework, called ‘Evidence Readiness Levels’, to guide the development and implementation of psychological research. Interestingly, they’re not the only ones who have suggested a NASAinspired rating system. Another preprint from Kai Ruggeri and colleagues (including NASA chief scientist James Green) proposes a similar rating system that could allow

decision makers to quickly assess the quality of evidence.

Others have argued that the actual infrastructure by which psychologists communicate and share information needs to be adapted to better suit the crisis. Along with several colleagues, Ulrike Hahn at Birkbeck, University of London has set up an initiative (www.scibeh.org) that aims to ‘reconfigure behavioural science for crisis knowledge management’. It’s a kind of meta-science project, says Hahn: ‘In a sense [it’s] trying to use extant tools to do something like build what the internet would be like, if the internet was still run by scientists, for scientists’. To that end, the team have set up subreddits where behavioural scientists can talk to each other and with policy makers and journalists, as well as a growing database of resources on psychology and the coronavirus. Although the project is still in a proof-of-concept stage, the team hopes that these sorts of forums can facilitate the kind of speedy, transparent discussion and early evaluation of ideas and results that is necessary in a crisis, while also making information readily available to policy makers and the public.

Researchers have also highlighted the urgent need for more large-scale, collaborative studies. In an April paper in Lancet Psychiatry, for instance, a multidisciplinary team (including numerous psychologists, with Emily Holmes as lead author) outlined priorities for mental health research during the pandemic. Alongside various recommendations, the authors call for work to be conducted at scale with multiple research groups and networks, warning against ‘the current uncoordinated approach with a plethora of underpowered studies and surveys’. And at least some funding bodies and research councils are beginning to recognise the need to consolidate efforts in this way, notes Przybylski, who was also a co-author on this paper. Having large consortiums working together is ‘the kind of thing that I hope will eventually move psychology into the domain of “real science” along with physics and chemistry,’ he says.

That idea that improvements in our response to the pandemic could also lead to improvements in psychology more generally underlies many of these suggestions. Przybylski says that the notion of evidence readiness levels, for instance, ‘has been implicit in a lot of our thinking for a long time’, well before coronavirus emerged. Similarly, infrastructure that facilitates communication between researchers and builds an online community is always going to be helpful, says Hahn.

‘That kind of “ideal internet for science” won’t stop being useful once the crisis has passed.’

Of course, whether or not the crisis does end up leading to long-term change remains to be seen.

Some studies have already been published following rapid review, but most of the larger scale research will only hit the journals months or years down the line. Will we then look back at the pandemic as a time when psychological research held a strong line of defence and response, or when we let our guard down and allowed poor practices to spread?

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‘Authentic, genuine, we’re-all-in-thistogether connectedness’ Several perspectives written for The Psychologist website during lockdown considered research during the crisis, and beyond. Read them via tinyurl.com/psychmagcorona – here, Jon Sutton draws out a few themes.

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Describing the work of the Health Psychology Exchange in facilitating PPIE, Redsell and her co-authors reported: ‘Early on, health psychology investigators informally reported that the urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic meant they did not think they had not had time to include PPIE in their research activities. The process of involvement appeared mystical to some investigators, and misunderstandings about the extent of the role of PPIE in research generally led to it either being left out completely or bolted on once a near top copy of the research project had been developed by the academic team. Investigators who were interested in including PPIE in their proposals appeared put-off by a sense of needing to embrace it completely rather than pragmatically.

This contrasts with the perspective of public contributors who report that they are keen to help at any stage of research project development and are fully aware of the need for pragmatism, speed and rapid turnaround. It seems likely that the challenges the health psychologist investigators faced were similar to those of academics working in other disciplines. This suggests that involvement is perceived as the ‘icing on the cake’ of research, rather than valued by academics. This may be underpinned by paternalism in that investigators may not think public contributors can provide rapid involvement, despite not actually asking them.’

The piece concluded with a call for health psychologists to serve as the ‘flag bearers of behaviour change within the discipline by ensuring that public views and perspectives are included in health and social care research, both during and post-Covid-19… This shift would ensure that finite funding resources are supporting research that is truly valid and meaningful for the public.’

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The crisis prompted Liuba Papeo to reevaluate her life’s work. ‘I began questioning the very existence and relevance of my research. What I do, as a cognitive neuropsychologist who studies the relation between brain and behaviour, often feels far from the stuff of the real world. …With the explosion of the Covid-19 crisis, that feeling had become stronger than ever. Everybody suddenly turned to scientists for explanations and solutions, and I felt like I had nothing to say or to offer.’

However, although Papeo recognised that ‘we have to invest as much as we can now in Covid-related research’, she argued that ‘other lines should stay open and alive.

We do not know exactly what the future will be like. We cannot know where those lines of research will take us.’

Exploring similar themes, Emma Smith admitted that ‘It felt vain and tone deaf to care about my PhD at all.’

Others noted that their research had become ‘harder, and more important’, with family researchers Bonamy Oliver and Alison Pike calling for ‘a suite of free and open source tools that enable robust understanding of the multiple aspects of contemporary family processes in these strangest of times.’

For the researchers on the Repeated Assessment of Mental health in Pandemics (RAMP) Study the crisis emphasised the importance of a multidisciplinary understanding, while for Taryn Talbott it was an opportunity to embrace technology such as Instant Messaging to conduct qualitative research remotely.

Maddi Pownall thought in terms of collaboration. ‘The ability to survive academia is reliant on togetherness with other people. It’s the hum of excitement when meeting with a potential collaborator, the tipsy introductions at a conference wine reception, the room full of laughter from frustrated PhD students, the one-to-ones with struggling students. When you strip back all of this, as the pandemic has done so mercilessly, the bare bones of academia are exposed. It’s not as pretty a place to be.’ Pondering the scope for the pandemic to bring us closer together, Pownall hoped to sustain ‘a sense of authentic, genuine, we’re-all-in-this-together connectedness’.

Sarah Redsell, Lynn Laidlaw, Judit Varkonyi-Sepp and Sarah Hotham noted that the pandemic has ‘stimulated countless applied research projects from academics in all disciplines, including psychologists. However,’ they said, ‘not all research being conducted is high quality and some of it does not appear to include outcomes of value to patients or the public.’ The authors proceeded to make a strong case for Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE), research being done ‘with’ and ‘by’, as opposed to ‘about’ or ‘for’, people who use services.

‘PPIE is a process interwoven with the entire research process from concept to dissemination,’ they wrote.

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A web of coronavirus perspectives As lockdown began, The Psychologist team set to work collecting evidence-based perspectives on coronavirus and the pandemic response for our website. At the time of writing, we are approaching 100 features, views, interviews and more gathered there, from more than 120 psychologists. We are very grateful to all who gave their time and expertise so generously in challenging times.

To dip into what has been variously described as a ‘treasure trove’ and a ‘confusing mess’, see tinyurl.com/ psychmagcorona – here, we look to give you a snapshot of what’s on offer, by drawing out some key themes.

Some of the pieces not mentioned here have made it into the issue in full, and the collection continues to grow by the day…

‘Here, I was reflecting on how fluid we have to be since everything is changing so often. I was also trying to bring in bits of nature with the strips of colour – nature is an important source of calm at the moment.’

Hayley Gains is a Postgraduate student in Psychology at the University of Exeter, and one of The Psychologist’s ‘Voices In Psychology’ winners.

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The public and the science Social psychologists came to the fore during the crisis.

Before lockdown began, Stephen Reicher and John Drury were urging ‘don’t personalise, collectivise’, arguing that coronavirus was ‘a powerful wake-up call.

We have to change the way we frame the epidemic.

We have to change we see the individual and society.

We have to collectivise – or we die.’ Reicher, Drury and Clifford Stott returned to the importance of a community perspective with ‘The truth about panic’, and Chris Cocking responded to the Dominic Cummings affair with a warning that ‘resilience requires those in authority to be honest, open and consistent’. ‘Appeals by politicians for people to “come together” in emergencies need to be backed up with real practical attempts to engender and maintain such collective unity,’ Cocking continued, ‘otherwise it risks becoming empty rhetoric that will simply fall on deaf ears.’

Psychologists attending the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, or its subgroup the Scientific Pandemic Influenza group on Behaviour (SPI-B), talked to us about the challenges inherent in the idea that the response was ‘led by the science’. Brooke Rogers spoke to our journalist Ella Rhodes about how ‘all interventions must stand up to scientific scrutiny’, but towards the end of March Susan Michie was telling us that SPI-B was ‘not currently engaged with the latter parts of the translation process, the written and verbal communication of scientific advice and behavioural advice for the general population. For example, there has been confusion as a result of vague, ambiguous and inconsistent messages, as seen in differences between NHS and Government written guidance and in the interpretation of guidance by different Government ministers. This undermines the likelihood that people will follow the guidance, and can cause anxiety, frustration and resentment.’

Lockdown living Early on, in a piece that found an unusually large online audience, Nathan Smith and Emma Barrett looked to extreme environments for tips on how to cope with isolation and confinement. Holly Carter and Dale Weston, from Public Health England, spoke to Ella Rhodes about the difference between self- and supported-isolation (away from the home), and why the latter was likely to be particularly stressful. Holly and Dale were back, alongside Clifford Stott and

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the psychologist july/august 2020 coronavirus perspectives

Richard Amlôt, to outline evidence-based strategies to of which they have not felt so far in their career, and promote adherence to social distancing measures. “containing” their internal conflicts. As a practitioner Health behaviours were the focus for Emma of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for over 10 Davies and James Morris (alcohol consumption years, no other approach felt more apt in supporting during isolation), Sharon Cox (‘now is not the time staff move to a place of acceptance. That is, while to afford smoking tacit approval’), and Dominic staff and the system are doing their best, at times the Conroy and Emily Nicholls (‘how is health behaviour outcome is not what anyone wants, or can sometimes changing, among whom, and will any changes last prevent.’ post-lockdown?). Colm Mulcahy wondered whether habitual behaviours could play an important role in sustainable transport post-lockdown.

Making meaning…

Gender was on the agenda for Stephen Blumenthal, Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning cropped finding male clients more willing to open up via up across a few contributions, including Coralee remote therapy; and for Terri Apter – would the Pringle-Nelson with a perspective from Canada which pandemic be a disaster for feminism? What were considered whether it’s a time for ‘tragic optimism’. the implications for work-life balance, and the Looking to research on purpose, significance and shaping of domestic routines? coherence, Rhi Wilmott concluded Nancy Schlossberg, a 90-year-old that we do not know when the counseling psychologist and pandemic will end, or what life “… some people might retired professor, asked her ‘aging will look like once it does, but think back on Covid-19 as ‘perhaps the present uncertainty rebels’ about those relationships being a positive pandemic, will give rise to new forms of and routines. ‘This enforced opportunity for individuals to meaning. When we emerge from as well as a deadly one” pause, reflect and even to plan, may the chrysalis of lockdown, this ultimately amount to a collective resource will help us greet the focus that will eventually reveal world with purpose.’ Erin Beal how each of us wants to, and will, live that future’, she took a similar slant, arguing that ‘If one positive can concluded. come from this incredibly difficult time it is maybe Also putting a positive spin on affairs was Jennifer that we can reflect on the areas of our life that we miss Symonds. ‘After lockdown is over, having less time to the most, the ones that feel most threatened. It may communicate with family, more distance from local highlight what we hold most dear and the areas of our neighbourhoods and communities, a tighter schedule frameworks that we most want to spend time in when with less flexibility for exercise and fewer hours for we are allowed to reengage in the ‘new normal’ post reflection, re-exposure to greater levels of pollution, lock down.’ and for some, a return to daily relational conflicts at Nisha Pushpararajah pondered whether the extent work, could be key reasons why some people might to which a nation adopts a cultural/collectivist mindset think back on Covid-19 as being a positive pandemic, could be behind differences in policy and public as well as a deadly one. Perhaps, adapting back to the responses. Sue Shea and Robin Wynyard recalled ‘new normal’ at the end of the lockdown could be our Leon Festinger’s work on cult members after their biggest challenge.’ prophecies fail. ‘Using the concept of the “day after” to metaphorically describe the “new normal”, we suggest that consideration may need to be given to the adaptation or revision of certain theories to take into The frontline account the fact that the “unexpected” can happen, Long before it was added to the official list of symptoms in the UK, Evelina Thunell, Asifa Majid and and that there are circumstances where the concept of “control” is simply not within our reach.’

Johan N. Lundström were considering whether loss Letticia Banton was noticing a ‘strong tension’ in of smell is an early diagnostic indicator of Covid-19 – and the role of psychology in determining that. Anita her counselling work: ‘even though I find the adverse circumstances are asking a lot of me personally and Mehay, Jane Ogden and Rosie Meek were considering professionally, at the same time I am witnessing my why prison conditions can be a perfect storm for therapeutic relationships deepening and strengthening. spreading disease.

My clients and I may both be wounding, but somehow Working with hospital staff, Olivia Sutton spoke we are also both healing.’ And in one of our more to those working on non-Covid wards: ‘I began to get unusual perspectives, Claudia Nielsen looked beyond a sense from the interviews that the staff did not see the grave for meaning, shining a light on the taboo themselves as the ones who needed support, despite subject of post-mortem consciousness in ‘I asked Laura sharing their worries rather openly with me.’ Janice what she thought happens after death…’ (for more on Smith spent time ‘listening to [healthcare workers’] our bereavement perspectives, see p.20). anxieties, normalising work-related emotions, some

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…and making art We reached out for artistic contributions from our readers and Twitter followers, and many of them feature throughout our issue. Some of those artists and others wrote for us about how they were finding meaning through creative endeavours.

Vaithehy Shanmuganathan-Felton, Luke Felton, Celia Briseid and Betty Maitland cultivated wellbeing and mental health through gardening. Lynne Rothwell thought ‘every stitch and row is a small win’ as she recommended knitting and other crafts during lockdown. Health Psychologist Karen Rodham ‘decided that part of my new lockdown routine would be to have a period of reflection at the end of each day.

I would choose one event from my day and turn it into a felt image’ (see box, right). Andréa Watts took her ‘coaching through collage’ tool online. Natalia Braun ‘creatively adjusted’ to the pandemic through rhythm and movement. Kevin Dutton, in collaboration with the cartoonist Rob Murray, asked people what they were most looking forward to and then ‘bottled’ that moment. Nicholas Sarantakis drew at the ‘crossroads of the unconscious’, and artist Imogen Mathews was drawn to the ‘ambiguous crossroad’.

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Work in a new normal The pandemic has led to some huge changes in working, with potential knock-on effects for our wellbeing. Sarah Pickup described an ‘evolution of wellbeing risks’ for those who have had to adjust to working from home. Pre-Covid-19, employers were seemingly becoming more concerned about employee wellbeing, although Pickup said that artificial initiatives such as resilience building and raising awareness of mental health do not address primary wellbeing issues. Pickup suggested some broad actions for employers to consider when employees return to work, including a ‘focus on preventative methods through the identification and control of primary wellbeing risks’, and a ‘visible, measurable and accountable strategy… a commitment to a new wellbeing culture’.

Ishbel McWha-Hermann and Rosalind Searle focused on the financial wellbeing side of work. ‘While much of psychologists’ attention has been consumed by dealing with the downstream consequences of inequality, Covid-19 has provided an opportunity to instead focus upstream and to apply our understanding to the source of inequality – wage rates… Investing in people through living wages not only reaps rewards for employees and their organisations; it also addresses poverty at root cause, enabling individuals, families, and societies to flourish.’ As for those out of work, Kelly Camilleri, Katie Voss and Vicki Weare wonder if people who ‘have experienced sudden, uncontrollable changes to their circumstances, and face first-hand the challenges and unpleasant realities of claiming benefits’ now have increased ‘understanding towards those who have been victims of this system for much longer’.

Felt artwork by Karen Rodham (Staffordshire University)… read more on our website ‘Today the metaphor of staying afloat was used in an email. I’d describe myself as afloat most of the time.

The water is a bit choppy. And like lots of other people, I have moments each day when I need a bucket to bail out the water washing into my boat…’

Towards a new normal Several perspectives considered lessons for how research is conducted (see also p.10), and changing practice for both psychologists and for people more broadly.

Vulnerable groups were uppermost in contributors’ minds. Natasha Hill, Hannah Jerome and Anna Smith considered the impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable bariatric patients, and how understanding around stigmatised groups may change. Lauren Jenner was hopeful that experiences of the pandemic may help those without autism relate to those on the autism spectrum. Lorraine Crawley shared reflections emerging from her recent clinical work – ‘our clients’ perceptions of the current way in which we are living.

While there are of course individual differences in this, there are two emerging themes: “I’ve been practicing living like this for years”, and “Now people will understand what brain injury has been like for me”.’

Susan Brannick’s focus was other animals, as the pandemic brought into sharp relief issues of how we share our planet with them. ‘A simple question about why we treat animals the way we do opens up a vast landscape of psychological theory, including the consequences for categorisation, as well as philosophy, human and animal rights, culture and essentially what it means to be human,’ Brannick wrote. ‘If practices such as wildlife trafficking, deforestation and factory farming are truly implicated in human health outcomes, then this burgeoning body of work offers some much needed coordinates of where we may start our journey.’

In the brave new world of Zoom and Teams, some of our contributors inevitably considered digital and remote service provision. Jeanne Wolstencroft wondered whether the pandemic would be a turning point for mental health care provision, and Nicole

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Gridley shared how parenting support programmes were adapting to the use of virtual spaces. Lauren Jones and her supervisors reported on a digitally-mediated model for an early intervention multidisciplinary team response to social, emotional and mental health needs in primary school settings in a rural county.

An upbeat ending Elizabeth Haines, Lauren Taylor, Rachel Ison, Sarah Dunstan, Sarah Hollingsworth, Jessica Blumsom, Holly Ellerton and Danielle Hills wrote a ‘Letter to Psychology’: ‘You were referred following the loss of normality due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Together, we thought about how this has impacted your life.

When we first met, you were in a state of shock, and throughout our sessions we explored how you were experiencing a period of grief after this traumatic event.’ They concluded ‘Over the last year we have acknowledged that your progress is ongoing, and your grief may be too, but in the face of this pandemic you have shown resilience and post-traumatic growth.

Accepting your “new normal” has allowed you to see yourself from a strengths-based perspective, and you even described a realisation that there are some parts of your “old normal” that you feel should be left behind, for example the limited methods of service delivery.

I know that you will continue to show determination to move towards your new normal and you should be proud of what you have achieved so far. Remember you are reflective, hard-working and compassionate.’

Viewing Covid as a ‘catalyst for change’, Richard Pemberton and Tony Wainwright focused on psychology’s political structures and contribution to the public good. ‘The scale of innovation and crossdivisional working within psychology has been truly impressive,’ they said. ‘Will it persist after the pandemic, or will we allow ourselves to retreat back into our all too often fiercely guarded and factional boxes? Will we be able to use the learning from the massive social changes we have experienced to fundamentally reset the way we apply our knowledge and expertise to the other major threat the world is facing?’ Our collective Covid-19 response, Pemberton and Wainwright wrote, ‘demonstrates the value of joined up working and a progressive and effective professional body.’ Turning to topics such as climate change, they concluded that ‘What we do in the coming months will have far reaching consequences for future generations. Paradoxically, this ‘shock doctrine’ [in Naomi Klein’s terms] might be just what we need.’

And that’s where we’ll leave this round-up.

As we write, on 9 June, we are still publishing a new perspective on the website most days. The headlines each day are still made by psychology and psychologists. We have stepped up to the plate.

Let’s sustain this as we move towards a ‘new normal’.

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Children and coronavirus School closures and lockdown in the face of Covid-19 will have affected children of all ages in myriad ways – the lack of face-to-face contact with peers, less chance for play and interrupted education will be felt for some time.

Counselling psychologists Gail Sinitsky and May Lene Karlsen shared some initial findings from their Children Heard survey.

They hope the written and artistic responses to this survey may inspire adults to consider what may be important in building the ‘new normal’. In the face of crisis there is a natural tendency to become more protective of children but, they asked, may this come with costs?

‘When fear becomes an obstacle to hearing children’s voices, are we unintentionally preventing them from being active agents in their lives?’

Janet Empson asked ‘what do children think is normal?’. Empson has worked for 40 years as a developmental and health psychologist and in 2015 published an article on what children thought was normal about their own lives. She has collected children’s views of the coronavirus and lockdown and while, at first, some children saw the lockdown as new and exciting, some younger children have become more emotional and some of the older children are playing new games which involve killing the coronavirus.

Empson wrote that the mental health implications of coronavirus would be profound, especially for the most vulnerable members of society; she suggested biopsychosocial recovery would take at least 18 to 24 months for many households. Others focused on particularly vulnerable groups of children: having both worked with refugee children on the island of Lesvos in Greece, Health Psychologists Maria Gialama and Sinead McGilloway considered ways we might meet their psychosocial needs during Covid-19.

Transitions from primary to secondary school and on to university have always been stressful, and Elizabeth Gillies pointed out that during this time of sudden change and uncertainty the skills it takes to cope with transitions should be embedded into the school curriculum.

She outlined various key elements which should be taught, and spoken about, to create good transitions. These included having the knowledge that change is part of a typical lifespan, that coping mechanisms we’ve used in previous transitions can help us cope with future change, and understanding the various, strong, emotions which can emerge at times of change. ‘Embedding wider transition education into the curriculum can bring the knowledge and skills of cultural agility. Intentional planning by transition teams in international schools take notice and plan for beginnings and endings.’

At the time of writing, uncertainty remained over when and how the majority of children might return to school. Still time to make use of the tips supplied by Naomi Fisher early in lockdown, updating her previous article for The Psychologist with some tips on how to encourage children to learn and thrive while being home schooled.

For more resources on supporting children and young people, for the public and professionals, created by the BPS Covid-19 response group see bps.org.uk/coronavirus-resources

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Early Career Conference Bursary Scheme This Research Board bursary scheme supports the work of UK early career psychologists.

Conference bursaries are available to support members of the Society, who are UK early career psychologists, to attend any academic conference, either in the UK or internationally, relevant to the applicant’s work. Each bursary consists of up to £250 (UK) or £500 (international) to contribute towards the costs of registration and travel to attend the full conference.

There are two rounds of the scheme each year, with submission deadlines on 1 April and 1 October. Get your applications in now for the October deadline.

For the full criteria and a link to the electronic application form please contact Carl Bourton at the Society’s Leicester office carl.bourton@bps.org.uk Note: For the purposes of the bursary scheme, an early career psychologist is defined as a person who is employed at a UK HEI and is within eight years of the completion of their doctoral degree in psychology.

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the psychologist july/august 2020 bereavement

‘People are having a very different experience of death’ Ella Rhodes hears from those working on bereavement during the pandemic and beyond

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he United Kingdom is currently set to see the highest number of deaths from Covid-19 in Europe and the second highest number in the world after the USA. At the time of writing, in May, we have already seen almost 60,000 excess deaths across the four nations during the Covid crisis – a number which also takes into account those who have died from the disease in the community and care homes but have not been tested.

The level of excess grief this translates to is quite unimaginable when we consider each of those individuals’ social circles and families – all of whom have been touched by loss. Consultant clinical psychologist and Chair of the Division of Clinical Psychology Northern Ireland, Professor Nichola Rooney (Queen’s University Belfast), has been leading the British Psychological Society’s Covid-19 coordinating group’s work on bereavement. She said that while grief is a normal reaction to loss, and should not be unnecessarily pathologised, a minority of bereaved people go on to develop complicated or prolonged grief reactions.

In considering the aftermath of the pandemic Rooney said there were going to be a number of psychological sequelae, including high levels of grief and an unprecedented need for increased access to psychological support. ‘The restrictions in place because of the virus, have meant that people are having a very different experience of the death of their loved ones. This can make their grief journey very different, particularly if they are grieving isolated from their usual supports.

‘It is important that we ensure that those coming in contact with bereaved people understand the many reactions and difficulties experienced, and I am keen that the bereavement resources we are developing can help to support not only the bereaved but also those who support them. Understanding how to manage and cope with the difficult emotions, behaviours and cognitions associated with grief will hopefully mean that people are less likely to be

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Professor Nichola Rooney

Shahina Haque – see box opposite

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others – for example if you’re old or you’ve got an prescribed antidepressants or to have their responses underlying condition it doesn’t seem to matter so pathologised.’ much. That can add to bereaved relatives’ feelings of While initially Rooney said she was slightly helplessness and we really need to capture the people overwhelmed by the scale of responding to the behind the statistics. I think the next wave we might crisis, she soon drew on her 35 years’ experience as a see will include a bit more anger and so I think we’ll psychologist. ‘I’ve worked in Northern Ireland so most have to be very sensitive about messages and how of my life I’ve dealt with trauma and not just one-off they’re given.’ traumas. While often people view trauma in the Rooney, who is also a context of one-off disasters such non-executive director on the as the Grenfell Tower fire, I have of the Public Health been working in an environment “… we’ve seen how it may board Agency and a professional of over 30 years’ exposure to be perceived that some adviser to the Regulation and ongoing trauma and now we are Quality Improvement Authority seeing its intergenerational impact. deaths seem to be more in Northern Ireland, previously Covid is also different from one-off important than others – managed psychological services traumatic events, lasting for many for example if you’re old or in Northern Ireland where she months and impacting on every developed the bereavement service aspect of our lives. Some aspects you’ve got an underlying the regional specialist children’s therefore chimed with some of my condition it doesn’t seem for hospital. She is currently leading experiences from Northern Ireland.’ to matter so much” the Northern Ireland Department Rooney also drew on the of Health’s workstream on expertise of her fellow group Covid-19 bereavement and on the members, who included health, psychological care of patients with severe Covid-19. educational, and counselling psychologists working in the area of end of life care. One member, Dr Theresa Jones, also a clinical psychologist, works in Kenya with A set of resources The Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform.

Rooney and the BPS Covid-19 Bereavement group have ‘Theresa’s work shows us that we can learn from other designed a set of resources to support people before, pandemics such as Ebola and SARS… even though during and after the Covid crisis. They are for people there were cultural differences, the same themes were in different population groups and ages, for the public, coming through. In any kind of emergency there’s the and professionals working with grieving people. So far same grief reactions to it; there’s increased sadness, they have produced a range of booklets on supporting there’s increased anxiety, a sense of hopelessness.’ each other through death and grief, managing death and grief in care homes and coping with the death of a colleague.

‘Everyone will have a sense of grief’ There are also two videos by counselling Some of that previous research has found that the psychologist Dr Elaine Kasket on saying goodbye lack of rituals in the face of death and dying had the using technology and managing your digital footprint, potential to increase prolonged, or complex, grief as well as an interactive document that helps with reactions. ‘It was a case of knowing what happens in alternative ways to recreate rituals and memorials. Two emergencies and then extending it to this situation. A lot of the work tends to focus on the more pathological documents on end-of-life care pathways and end-of-life care guidance, for psychologists working in palliative side like PTSD and depression but, actually, I think care or with patients who are dying, has also recently everyone will have a sense of grief or loss.’ been published. Guidance on writing advance care Clinical and counselling psychologists will not plans and information on end of life care pathways is be alone in supporting bereaved people – particularly currently being prepared. those who experience prolonged or complicated grief.

Rooney said the wave of grief we are already Rooney said health psychologists would also be vital in encouraging people to use healthy lifestyles to promote seeing, and will see more of in the future, should be recognised on a community-wide level. She suggested mental health. Psychologists at large may be keen to that psychologists have a role in helping communities support schools, universities and workplaces which and the government to plan for a social recognition may have seen a high level of bereavement and who of this grief in a sensitive way once the pandemic has want to remember their lost friends and colleagues in slowed. ‘We need to ensure that any such response a sensitive way. Community psychologists will also have a role in supporting places which have seen many is inclusive and that everyone can have access to the best quality evidence-based support they need. How deaths to recover. we manage this and support people to readjust to their ‘We all have a role in ensuring that the public lives without their loved ones will undoubtedly impact messages about Covid-related deaths are handled on the grief journeys of many people and ultimately on sensitively. I think we’ve seen how it may be perceived their psychological health and wellbeing.’ that some deaths seem to be more important than

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the psychologist july/august 2020 bereavement

Let’s talk about death openly Health Psychologist Angel Chater, Professor of Health Psychology and Behaviour Change (University of Bedfordshire) and member of the BPS Covid-19 Bereavement and Care of Relatives group, speaks openly about bereavement. Here, she urges society to recognise and be open about loss.

There is nothing more certain in life than death; we just don’t know how or when it will happen. When my dad died, no one, except my partner, spoke about him again; perhaps scared of upsetting me. I was 20 years old, and felt totally lost. My mum died a few years later, followed by my grandparents, and then my partner just a few years ago. He made every effort, after they died, to keep my parents present in our lives by talking about them; enabling our children to hear stories of their grandparents as they grew up.

It was one of the kindest gifts a person could ever give to someone who has been bereaved. When he died, I didn’t want our children to experience that same eerie silence; so I make the same effort that brought me such comfort, to talk about their dad and grandparents and

continue bonds with those we hold dear to us. Over the last two decades, I have learned a lot about grief, personally, and professionally. I’ve watched my children grieve, and heard the stories of bereaved strangers through my research.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, death has become part of daily conversations and news stories.

Physical distancing measures to protect infection have led to an inability to mourn in traditional ways, or physically comfort those outside of our household.

Impact of grief When someone you love dies, it hurts, both physically and psychologically. Yet those who have been bereaved

Shahina Haque is the Family Support Services Manager at Saint Francis Hospice, Essex, and she spoke to Ella Rhodes about the impact of Covid-19 on working with people with life-limiting conditions.

Since the pandemic came to the UK the nature of Haque’s work has changed immeasurably. Before the crisis, as well as supporting a caseload of clients, Haque managed the hospice’s family support services, which includes the bereavement service for patients and their loved ones, its child bereavement service and pastoral care services for spiritual and religious support. Since then all of the hospice services have moved to the telephone or online with Haque supporting her team through that transition. ‘It’s been a balance of supporting my team, the teams around the hospice and supporting clients.

The intensity of the work has increased, we aren’t getting as many referrals as we would have but the level of support we’re providing has increased.’

Working with patients who have life-limiting illnesses during lockdown has been a challenge for both clients and members of staff. ‘Before the pandemic we helped people to focus on making memories and spending quality time with their families – but like most of us they’re

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not allowed to see families and aren’t able to make the most of their time.

A lot of our patients are worried… they don’t want to die in pain and want to have a peaceful death. There’s also been a fear of not getting treatment.’

Haque said she and her team had found working during the pandemic to be an isolating experience at times.

Although a small group still work within the office maintaining social distance, a team is on standby working from home if they become unable to work. ‘We’re hearing about similar things that our clients are going through that we’re also going through, similar anxieties – we’ve been asking how we can detach from that without losing ourselves in it. A lot of my team have elderly parents, or vulnerable family members and are worried about them. There’s a lot of conversations that happen in the office about these things, and they need to be nurtured, acknowledged and respected. When we were all in the office we could just walk in after a difficult conversation or session and share a cup of tea and talk – we miss

that. But the team are doing incredibly well and I’m very proud of them.’

Haque said the pandemic had affected the ways she and her team spoke about death and dying with clients and one another, and she wondered whether the public more generally may change the conversations they have about death. ‘I think we will be talking about complicated grief for a while… as a society I’ll be curious to see whether we embrace the learning from this.’

Once the Covid crisis has diminished, and all staff are able to return to the hospice, Haque said she would be interested to see how various types of reunion play out – between colleagues who have been apart for months while remaining socially distant and between therapists and clients who have only spoken on the phone. ‘I wonder what that reunion will look like and how it will impact on the therapeutic relationship.

I think [for clients] on an emotional level actually seeing the person that’s helped them through this difficult period will add another level to that relationship.’

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describe others who haven’t as walking on eggshells around them. Enabling conversations about someone’s ‘person’ can reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation.

People often open up to me, as I am open with them, and we see this level of openness in bereavement support groups.

Collective grief, even when the bereavement is not personal, could lead to grief outcomes. Grief impacts upon our mental health, cognitive abilities and health behaviours. Grief following sudden, unexpected, and mass loss of life may follow a different course to more ‘natural’ deaths. Levels of emotional distress such as low mood, anxiety, depression, and complicated grief (e.g. yearning or lack of acceptance) can develop across all ages. Concentration, self-esteem or quality of sleep may decrease. In an attempt to escape or cope, detrimental levels of alcohol or drug use, poor diet, lack of activity, self-harm or overworking may be seen.

Re-grief during Covid-19 Evidence suggests individuals can experience re-grief, with feelings from a past bereavement returning following a trigger (e.g. milestone life event).

For those already bereaved, the Covid-19 pandemic may trigger thoughts and feelings related to the loss of their person, evoking a re-grief response.

While some would conceptualise grief through stages (such as anger, depression and acceptance), I propose a more helpful concept of ‘Your world and the ball of grief’, adapted from ‘the ball and the box’ analogy. Many would argue we do not get over or move on from grief, but that it stays with us and instead your world grows around it and you learn to move forward. In this analogy, at the time of a bereavement, your world is almost completely consumed by a ball of grief, which can repeatedly hit a pain button leading to grief outcomes. Over time, rather than the ball of grief getting smaller as some would suggest, I’d argue that the ball of grief stays the same, but your world gets bigger, making it less likely to constantly hit that pain button.

Covid-19, re-grief and grief empathy Those who have been bereaved often feel better understood by others who have experienced a loss.

In our research, we’ve interviewed young people who

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have experienced the death of a parent. They share the pain that is felt when someone you love dies, and tell us they feel comfort in being around ‘someone like me,’ giving them a greater sense of empathy. Covid-19 and the national bereavement it has caused may be leading those who have been bereaved before to feel unsettled, and think of their person more than usual. But they may not realise why this is. It may be linked to a sense of grief-empathy, that perhaps intensifies feelings of re-grief, as additional ‘balls of grief’ are added to their world, making it feel overwhelming (Figure 1).

Covid-19 and anticipatory grief During times of mass death a sense of anticipatory grief may also occur, leading people to imagine a scenario where someone else they care about dies. This may be exacerbated by news reports and official advice of ways to reduce risk of death, evoking feelings of anxiety.

When we feel anxious and overwhelmed, it is common to enter a ‘fight or flight’ response, which could lead to unintended negative outcomes such as denial of the threat, anger, isolation, substance use or self-harm.

Social support can help during these times; however, the rules of social-distancing during Covid-19 limit physical contact from friends and family. These restrictions to physical connectedness are likely to be detrimental. As a society we need to find other ways to reach out to those grieving.

Physical activity as a behavioural medicine for grief Physical activity can provide significant benefit to those who have been bereaved, and this is particularly found in outdoor activities. The importance of outdoor physical activity has been seen during the Covid-19 ‘lockdown’, whereby it is one of the few reasons people are encouraged to leave their home. Being physically active can reduce grief outcomes, including levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It can also build social support and a sense of belonging.

With all this in mind, we developed the #ECLIPSETogether programme. This aims to see Everybody Connected through Loss In Physical activity, Sport and Exercise, Together. This programme encourages everybody around the world to take time

Figure 1: Balls of grief

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the psychologist july/august 2020 bereavement

to be physically active and join others to connect and remember loved ones.

Key sources

Embrace ways to connect Being aware of grief responses and the promotion of physical activity to benefit grief outcomes could be supportive in times of bereavement. Given the current wide-scale loss of life, we must recognise and enable open grief. While the world is grieving, please don’t feel alone or uncomfortable talking about grief openly.

Instead, let’s make it the norm to talk about grief, embrace ways to connect together and continue bonds with those you love.

Brewer, J. & Sparkes, A. (2011). The meanings of outdoor physical activity for parentally bereaved young people in the United Kingdom: Insights from an ethnographic study.

Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 11(2), 127–143.

Chater, A., Williams, J., Shorter, G. & Howlett, N. (2020). Physical activity for the benefit of mental health outcomes in young people: a focus on parental bereavement. The Sport and Exercise Scientist, 64, 16-17.

Kristensen, P., Weisæth, L. & Heir, T. (2012). Bereavement and mental health after sudden and violent losses: A review. Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 75(1), 76-97.

Stahl, S.T. & Schulz, R. (2014). Changes in routine health behaviors following late-life bereavement: a systematic review. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 37(4), 736-755.

Williams, J., Howlett, N., Shorter, G. & Chater, A. (2019). Benefits of physical activity for young people who have been parentally bereaved: A report to the Forces Children’s Trust.

United Kingdom: Forces Children’s Trust.

To read the full version of this article, including full references, see: https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/whenworld-grieving-please-dont-walk-eggshells

Full list available in online/app version.

‘You don’t need words of wisdom’ Psychologist Bianca Neumann-May is no stranger to talking about death and dying. A team leader for the St Nicholas Hospice Care family support team in Suffolk, Neumann-May said that thanks to modern medicine we are less familiar with death than we might have been in the past.

‘Most people think a hospice supports someone dying in its building, on its ward… this is an important part of what we do, but at any one time we are supporting hundreds of families in the community, wherever they call home. We provide open access bereavement support across the communities of West Suffolk and Thetford. This includes psychological support for people facing death as well as their families, friends and loved ones.’

Neumann-May and her team are also involved with encouraging and supporting the local community to have conversations about dying, death, caring and grief. ‘People felt comfortable having these conversations before we had antibiotics, health and social care, early intervention services and preventative measures. As we have become less exposed to death, as a society we have lost our ability to talk about it.

‘If loved ones were able to have an open conversation it would mean they would be able to make time for those important things like holding hands, reading, knowing what songs to play.

Conversations might also give the person dying a sense of control over some of the more practical things, they can tell you where to find the will, what they want to happen to their belongings. Conversations and the expression of wishes make us more in charge of death.’

As well as helping people to talk through their wishes Neumann-May has been working with the local community – using a Compassionate Communities model. ‘A Compassionate Community is a community that provides support to someone who is dying.

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The community could be family, neighbours, local organisations, a faith group, local businesses or people living in a particular area.’

She and her colleagues have also prepared a bereavement management plan that suggests alliances which need to be formed or strengthened in the community to prepare people for both a higher level of death or dying and the increased prominence of death and dying in the wake of Covid-19.

‘We have made contact and exchanged ideas around the plan with minority groups and hard to reach populations like the prison population, refugees, BAME communities, special needs services and multi faith groups around educating these groups and leaders on grief and loss as well as offering a knowledge exchange so that we learn about these groups too.

We’ve been learning about strengths and customs, about resilience and community spirit, boundaries of accessing services like ours so that we are actually making a more cohesive society with an energy and urgency of mutual support that continues beyond the current crisis.’

Neumann-May and her colleagues have created a wealth of resources for talking about death and grief with children and adults which are all available via www.stnicholashospice.org.uk. In short Neumann-May suggested the following tips for talking about death and grief: ‘Listen. You don’t need words of wisdom!

Ask what they need right now. Take their distress seriously. Show empathy and compassion. Ask them what they do that brings them joy usually (this may be something they used to do a long time ago). Create opportunities to remember the deceased, talk about the funeral. Offer practical support such as making meals or help with laundry, childcare, grocery shopping, lifts to doctors, community groups or events or the cemetery.’

Bianca NeumannMay

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Rowena Hill It’s everyone, everywhere, everything… There’s nothing that’s untouched’ Dr Rowena Hill is a psychologist from Nottingham Trent University now seconded full-time to the cross-governmental C19 National Foresight Group.

On 1 May, our editor Jon Sutton spoke with her from lockdown.

Tell me about joining the crossgovernmental C19 National Foresight Group. How did that come about?

I haven’t had time to ask anyone specifically, but I suspect it came about from the range of relevant work I had done previously.

Including myself and a team of eight other psychologists and other academics at Nottingham Trent University we have been completing research and policy work around disaster and emergency management for a few years now. I also sit on a number of national groups and organisations relevant to the emergency services, as well as at regional level. I have also worked for a number of years connecting academic work with sectors, and sectors with academic work. So I think it was a combination of those factors.

I was approached directly and was initially asked if I could be seconded full-time from Nottingham Trent University. I’m the only full time seconded academic on the group. NTU have made a commitment of ongoing support until next summer, which I’m really proud to be able to say.

Although C19 was initially a health emergency, it is a societal wide experience. It’s everyone, everywhere, everything. There’s nothing that’s untouched.

It’s remarkable. In a very sad, collective way we’re all in this together. The societal wide approach needs new ways of working and a longer-term look. So this cross government departmental group was established.

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That’s such a big commitment, for the government to be looking that far ahead in terms of your time.

It suggests they are taking it seriously and know they’re in it for the long haul.

Essentially, there are a few different time periods

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we are considering. One is up until, or if, we’ve developed a vaccine. We are going to have to live alongside the virus until a vaccine is developed. Until then, if the virus is anywhere in the world, it’s our problem to manage. Looking forward after the initial physical distancing and lockdown stage we are beginning to see the language around ‘restart’, particularly around opening up NHS services which have had to be paused. But then we need to be looking further ahead to phases of recovery. We’re hoping to see as many academic findings as possible contributing to evidencing the ways forward and framing those phases, sharing with us the academic research and foresight that studies are suggesting we need to be considering.

Beyond the initial ‘response’ of trying to bring the R rate down, we might think in terms of ‘adaptation’ and ‘stabilisation’ phases within that umbrella term of recovery. Adaptation refers to social interventions that we need to apply; for example, physical distancing, school closures, shop closures. I use the word physical rather than social, for reasons that psychology has been very good at articulating. Then the stabilisation phase is a way to frame and think about our economic management of what we might have to do in the future… this pandemic has a long tail. Partnerships at local level are already thinking about the economic implications and what the nature of those impacts will be on their local economies, encouraging commerce, management of services to enable the economic stability of a region.

We know that recovery isn’t restoration; it isn’t ‘return back to where we were’. We can’t do that financially or socially. Instead we need to consider what is that normality we can establish, even if it’s not

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the psychologist july/august 2020 government foresight group Eliza Southwood www.elizasouthwood.com

familiarity in the fullest sense. And then, eventually, it will become recovery once we’ve hopefully got the vaccine, and we no longer need to do those societal behavioural adaptations and economic stabilisation has been achieved.

Presumably there’s a recognition within government that those adaptations might be economic, social, structural, but the psychological is intimately tied with all those things.

Yes. My role is to feed psychology and the range of relevant academic subjects, to the Foresight Group, to make the most sensible use of academia in the wider sense and enable it to be evidence and data based, to be useful to decision makers. We focus on the longer term, rather than the here and now interventions, the foresight.

So how do you begin to get a handle on that?

Well, we’ve started to frame our thinking in a few different ways. There are the primary impacts of Covid-19 and these include impacts from the measures we’ve had to put in place. Then we know there are

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going to be secondary impacts, as a consequence of the primary impacts. So we’re trying to work with academic outputs and keep our eyes on rapid and systematic literature reviews. We then feed that in responsibly to the Foresight Group to inform the potential longer-term social, economic and psychosocial impacts.

For example, there are areas such as academic denial: that missed education, people who haven’t been able to sit their exams, the possible effect of unconscious bias on student outcomes which academia is trying to understand in order to mitigate… how that plays out in the longer term for a whole cohort of students who have missed out on learning, achieving and celebrating. Then there are the impacts of physical distancing and isolation, something that psychology has been really active in feeding into: how we can cope with that, the longer term effects, the secondary impacts. And there are wellbeing issues: as a community how have we stayed connected even when we physically distance, what are the impacts of financial precarity as experienced as a greater collective within society, how can we understand the experiences

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of our communities and families who are caring and working differently, what are the impacts of collective adversity?

What about beyond lockdown?

We are trying to gain a forward look to see what the challenges are within the changes we have made and continue to make. For example those who are bereaved, what are the impacts of not displaying grief through typical expressions of rituals, the probability of complex grief, and the experience of a higher level of death in the community, how can we help. When we’re relaxing the measures, will we see a surge in seeking access to healthcare and wellbeing support? Will we see a surge in domestic violence reporting; there are suggestions at the moment from charities that rates are increasing, but that’s not necessarily coming through in reporting figures, perhaps because people aren’t in a position to access those reporting mechanisms and support.

From an emergency services point of view, who are already stretched and fatigued, and living with the consequences of what we’ve been through, how will they manage those consequences as a collective group?

So I think Foresight is about everybody needing to think about everybody’s future. Health, education, transport, social care, all sorts of different government departments coming together and thinking through what communities and society are needing in the future in a joined up and considered way. Things were changing so quickly in those early stages. Everybody from Government departments to organisations across all sectors were trying to manage the emerging enormous task that was in front of them. The people who brought the Foresight Group together realised that they needed to get together a group who could have the headspace to take that longer view: not just what happens in the coming weeks, but months, years ahead.

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When you talk about the evidence base on that, is there a danger that much of what we have isn’t relevant to ‘unprecedented times’, and what is being set up now isn’t ready or might not end up being the most rigorous because it’s being done quickly. Are you finding gaps?

At the start of April there was hardly anything… a lot of academics were taking the time to rewrite entire courses and put them online, so of course there was a delay. The structure we have at NTU to support this work spans across a range of academic subjects, and across those subject areas we saw professional bodies and think tanks start to brigade research topics to Covid-19. Things are starting to come through now which are Covid-19 focused.

In my role, on behalf of the group, one of the big challenges is the consistency of findings. We just don’t have that yet. I’m very careful in how I convey how confident I am about inferences and taking work between contexts or applications. We just don’t have

the numbers – but that’s across the board. We don’t have the numbers for the epidemiological modelling yet. We don’t have the numbers for many different areas. It’s a big challenge for scientists of all disciplines.

We’ve got this mass of information, published material that’s got integrity, but how much can we extrapolate sensitively and with enough confidence to make ‘good enough’ decisions? It’s uncomfortable for us as academics and researchers, but that’s the realm that governments across the world are working in – do we have reasonably enough confidence to make this decision, the best decision we can make at the time?

When you lay the political contexts on top of that, it becomes even more complicated.

Psychologists sometimes feel that they are lower down the scientific hierarchy at least in part due to the complex, messy nature of our subject matter.

But if you’re saying that actually applies across the board at the moment, you’re not getting policymakers saying, ‘Come on Dr Hill, we need confidence, we need black and white answers on this!’

I think we’re quite comfortable as scientists understanding the weight of evidence around a phenomenon and then taking a position on it.

My position and my interpretation might be different to yours. But as an embedded scientist in this group, I see the challenge has perhaps been an expectation that academics and scientists will agree. But we’re not trained to get a consensus of opinion. We’re trained to get a consensus of approach, and perhaps a consensus of findings. And that’s really different. We’re trained to critically evaluate, to explore and be curious, and just because you’re then asked to be in that governmental environment, it doesn’t mean you turn off all those skills nor should they lose their value.

Do you think that makes it hard for the government response to genuinely, honestly be ‘led by the science’? Or is it still possible to be led by the science, when the science that’s being presented to them is nuanced?

I think so. Because the science is supposed to be leading, it’s not supposed to be the decision making process, right? Otherwise, we’d be voting for scientists not politicians. Ultimately, the politicians are the decision makers and they need to take a view on that science.

Good point. A lot of your research in the past has focused on critical occupations and frontline staff.

It sounds like the scope of the Foresight group is wider than that. But have you retained that particular interest in this situation?

Yes, alongside this I’ve been involved in a small team that have been developing resources. And I’ve been pointing people very loudly to the British Psychological Society sites: for those of us who were looking around to the different disciplines for evidence based resources and having a collection of voices, the

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the psychologist july/august 2020 government foresight group

We got my mother-in-law a Portal, for video calls…

BPS response really impressed me. just that small technological change has made a big So yes, I work with people who lead those emergency services, but my focus on the consequences difference. for the relatives of emergency responders also becomes To what extent do you think the country, the world, increasingly relevant. The consideration of the families is going to be fundamentally psychologically changed by all this? Might we look back on this as a time of of emergency responders has come up frequently huge personal loss, but also a blip where things did across my existing roles with national bodies. Mostly go back to something like before, but with more video the concern is related to the risk of passing on the virus to their family. The reality of what our emergency meetings?

I think it’s likely to be a big shift and C19 will services are doing… the NHS of course, but also the continue to challenge us through the impact on the rest of our key workers, who aren’t necessarily getting economy and budgets. I’m really pleased that as a as much attention and support – is humbling. They world and as a nation we’ve decided, ‘we’re going to really are seeing the true horror of this, the experience stop being as economically viable in order to save of more death and the impact it may have. The lives’. I love that we’ve done that, that we’ve placed emergency responders, body handlers, faith leaders, humanity before money. But we have to live with the those who work in social care, refuse workers, people consequences of doing that. We won’t be able to return who work in crematoriums who are working really to where we were, because we haven’t got the economic hard at the moment. We know that many people are position that we had. That drives things like spending working in very adverse conditions, with shifts that on public sector services, how much multi-agency have been rearranged or roles refocused. We know early intervention support we can put in place, things as psychologists, if you take somebody out of one that are generally unnoticed when role and put them in another, that they are there, but missed when might be a little bit fuzzy because they go because they support our it’s an interim role, it’s evolving, it’s “…one of the big social fabric. somebody else’s area of business, challenges is the that can become a stressor. Think consistency of findings. We And individual and community of an NHS worker being deployed resilience can only go so far… to another part of the NHS, or just don’t have that yet” Yes. It’s conservation of resource Fire Rescue Service taking on theory. It’s emotional, social, responsibilities of ambulance spiritual and financial support. workers to get people to hospital.

And when you draw from it, you need to replace it.

Then they’re coming home and having to wash And I’m not yet quite sure how we’re going to fill it their uniforms in pillowcases and leave their shoes back up again and in what time frame. outside and be a daughter, dad, sister, grandad, friend, neighbour whilst trying not to pass on the experience I don’t think anyone is under any illusions over how of what they have been doing all day. It has involved difficult it is going to be to figure out a ‘new normal’. whole lifestyle and work changes for them and their family, as well as it being an adverse situation in a more Psychology must surely play a major role in that… but I do still come across many psychologists who general, wider sense. feel that our evidence-base is not ‘crisis ready’, that How do you think you will adapt to the ‘new normal’? we must exercise caution in our attempts to embed psychology in policy and politics, even that we need What an interesting question. I think of everybody to ‘stay in lane’. else’s foresight, but perhaps not mine.

I understand caution of confidence in findings, but this Part of it is around seeing how I can usefully develop this role: how I can continue to take academic is a societal wide issue, it’s a societal wide approach.

We need to work with other disciplines who are just as conversations both into the national conversation cautious and some who are very confident to add value and to support local strategic decision makers. I take to that approach to move forward. My ambition is that that really seriously. And how can we, as an academic we try to somehow, pretty damn quickly, figure out a group, start talking to other disciplines more to start way that’s much more sophisticated than ‘here’s the to build a more comprehensive, integrated foresight Psychology aspect of this economic consequence’… for those strategic leaders at national and local level to we need to be working with other subjects and use? thinking past ‘this is our answer, this is their answer’.

For me on a personal level, it’s figuring out how With Covid-19 it’s all so tied up together that those can I see my parents again. They’re about half an different lanes can’t work… we all need to figure out hour away, they’re shielding and they will be for the how we pool together. foreseeable future. At the moment I deliver their shopping and give them a hug and a kiss through a double-glazed window. I miss being physically next Watch Dr Hill as a discussant in our webinar to them, to be able to show my love and affection for ‘Towards the new normal, and beyond’, them. I find that hard. via tinyurl.com/BPSnewnormal

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23/06/2020 10:32

10 lessons for dealing with a pandemic… … from Jolanda Jetten, Stephen Reicher, Alex Haslam and Tegan Cruwys.

Plus John Drury, Reicher and Nick Hopkins on physical distancing.

Yeah it’s your life do whatever you want, but you are now responsible for my life.... We started saying, ‘It’s not about me it’s about we.’ Get your head around the we concept. It’s not all about you. It’s about me too.

It’s about we.

Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York

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ndrew Cuomo wasn’t writing the blurb to our book, Together Apart: The Psychology of Covid-19. But if he had been, he couldn’t have summarised the text any better.

For what we seek to do is help people get their heads around the ‘we-concept’ – what it is, why it is important, the nature of its antecedents and its consequences. Group psychology has been, and will continue to be, of central importance in dealing with the pandemic.

23/06/2020 11:22

Eliza Southwood www.elizasouthwood.com

the psychologist july/august 2020 10 lessons

Since we have been involved in the response to Covid-19 in a multitude of ways, we wanted to bring together a text which could not only assist the general reader in understanding the relevance of psychology to the pandemic, but which would also help policy makers and practitioners in dealing with it. We drew on the expertise of a host of authors from across the globe.

That expertise is grounded in published, quality psychological research. To whet your appetite, then, here are our top 10 psychological lessons for how to understand and deal with Covid-19, each with an illustrative reference.

Shared identity is fragile and needs to be nurtured by good leadership The shared identity between members of the public is fragile and can easily be disrupted by leadership that sets people against each other in rhetoric or which favours some groups over others in practice. It is therefore critical to have good leaders who appeal to an inclusive sense of community and who provide the practical support needed to maintain a commonality of experience (Ntontis et al., 2020).

Shared identity is as important between Government and “other individuals become public as between different In a pandemic, people don’t part of my collective self, sections of the public Shared identity is important, not panic their perspectives only amongst different sections The traditional view is the people of the public, but also between are psychologically vulnerable, and their concerns the public and the Government. and in a crisis, they crack. In their become mine” This is essential to trust in the desperate and blind attempts Government, to the influence at individual self-preservation, of Government and hence to their ability to steer us people turn a crisis into a tragedy. But the study of through a crisis. Such shared identity is enhanced emergencies and disasters reveals that this is not what when Government treats us as equals: involving us in generally happens. People more usually respond in a developing policy, listening to us, being open with us, calm orderly manner, they look after each other and treating us with respect. It is critically undermined by they try to find safety together (Quarantelli, 2001; anything which smacks of ‘one rule for us and another thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/truth-about-panic). for them’ (Tyler & Blader, 2003).

Common experience leads to the formation of shared identity In a crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, people are faced with the same threat and share the same experience. This gives rise to a sense of common fate which in turn is an important precursor of shared identity – the shift from thinking of ourselves in terms of ‘I’ to ‘we’. When that happens, other individuals become part of my collective self, their perspectives and their concerns become mine. Shared identity thereby becomes the basis for coordination and mutual support (Drury & Alfadhli, 2019).

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Shared identity is at the root of adherence to pandemic restrictions The levels of adherence to lockdown in the UK were exceptional despite the fact that many were suffering.

Had they been acting out of individual interest many would have disobeyed since they had little to lose personally by going out. But they didn’t – they were acting in terms of the collective interest and to ensure they didn’t infect others and endanger the most vulnerable in the community (Duffy & Allington, 2020).

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Shared identity is at the root of mutual support amongst the public Another feature of the pandemic, across the world, has been the remarkable growth of community self-help, from neighbours checking on each other, to street level WhatsAapp groups to the formation of over 4,000 mutual aid groups involving over three million people in the UK alone. Such groups are an organisational expression of the shared identity that emerges in a crisis (Maki et al., 2019; see also Walker, this issue).

Key sources Bonell, C., Michie, S., Reicher, S. et al. (2020).

Harnessing behavioural science in public health campaigns to maintain ‘social distancing’ in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: key principles. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Duffy, B. & Allington, D. (2020). The accepting, the suffering and the resisting: the different reactions to life under lockdown. The Policy Institute, Kings College London. tinyurl.com/ ybdpjoem Drury, J. & Alfadhli, K. (2019). Social identity, emergencies and disasters. In R. Williams, S. Bailey, B. Kamaldeep et al. (Eds). Social scaffolding. London: Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Haslam, C., Jetten, J., Cruwys, T. et al. (2018).

The New Psychology of Health: Unlocking the social cure. London: Routledge.

Haslam, S.A., Reicher, S.D. & Platow, M.J. (2020). The new psychology of leadership: Identity, influence, and power (2nd Edition). Psychology Press.

Jackson, J. et al. (2020) The lockdown and social norms: why the UK is complying by consent rather than compulsion. LSE blogs. tinyurl.com/ y9vehafx Jetten, J. & Peters, K. (Eds.). (2019). The Social Psychology of Inequality. Springer.

Maki, A., Dwyer, P. C., Blazek, S. et al. (2019).

Responding to natural disasters: Examining identity and prosociality in the context of a major earthquake. British Journal of Social Psychology, 58, 66-87.

Ntontis, E., Drury, J., Amlôt, R., Rubin, G.J. & Williams, R. (2020). Endurance or decline of emergent groups following a flood disaster. Int Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.

Quarantelli, E.L. (2001). Panic, sociology of. In N.J. Smelser & P.B. Baltes (Eds.) International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 11020–11023). New York: Pergamon Press.

Reicher, S.D. & Stott, C. (2020). Policing the coronavirus outbreak: Processes and prospects for collective disorder. Policing. Advance online publication.

Tyler, T.R. & Blader, S.L. (2003). The group engagement model. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 349-361.

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Professor Jolanda Jetten is at the University of Queensland j.jetten@psy.uq.edu.au

Professor Stephen Reicher is at the University of St Andrews sdr@st-andrews.ac.uk

Professor Alex Haslam is at the University of Queensland a.haslam@uq.edu.au

Dr Tegan Cruwys is at Australia National University Tegan.Cruwys@anu.edu.au

Shared identity preserves mental and physical health during a pandemic When we feel part of a group and can draw on the support of other group members, it increases the sense of coping and lowers stress. Relatedly, membership of social groups is a powerful prophylactic against a wide range of mental and physical disorders. That is why, even as we have to physically distance from others, we must devise new ways to retain social connectedness.

A key challenge of the pandemic is to stay together apart (Haslam et al., 2018).

Without good leadership, a pandemic can undermine shared identity and exacerbate social divisions While disasters have the potential to bring people together and to unlock all the benefits of shared social identity, they also serve as a spotlight that illuminates and potentially exacerbates social divisions. The poor, the vulnerable, and those who are discriminated against all suffer more both during and after pandemics. Unless explicitly recognised and addressed, this will undermine shared identity and increase social tensions (Jetten & Peters, 2019).

Division plus repression can turn social cohesion into social disorder If the less privileged groups in society are less able to abide by the restrictions of Covid-19, and if, on top of that, they experience repressive sanctions when they violate these restrictions, then the potential for social disorder is greatly increased. Effective policing of a pandemic should only use enforcement as a last resort. Instead it needs to engage in a dialogue with communities, understanding their situation, explaining and encouraging adherence (Reicher & Stott, 2020).

Trust the people!

All the foregoing nine lessons combine to support one overall conclusion. In a crisis the people are not the problem. To the extent that they come together under a shared identity, people develop a collective resilience which is the most precious of resources for confronting a challenge. Accordingly, the relationship between the Government and the public in a crisis (and beyond) needs to shift from paternalism to partnership. Rather than seeking to shepherd us, Government and its agencies should seek to scaffold the collective selforganisation of the public. Don’t treat us as children, unable to look after ourselves. Trust the public and harness the power of the group.

Together Apart is available as a free download from www.socialsciencespace.com/wp-content/ uploads/Together-Apart-Complete-ms.pdf and also as a paperback book from Sage publishers.

23/06/2020 11:22

the psychologist july/august 2020 10 lessons

The psychology of physical distancing John Drury (University of Sussex), Stephen Reicher (University of St Andrews) and Nick Hopkins (Dundee University) have some advice.

The physical distancing behaviours we have all been required to adopt during the pandemic are often difficult to maintain. Why? In important ways, physical distancing is antithetical to a basic self-process – the comfort we feel with proximity to members of our ingroup, those we define as ‘us’ or ‘we’, and hence our tendency to try to get closer to them.

Experimental evidence for this is provided by the ‘two chairs’ study (which John, Stephen and David Novelli published in 2010), in which people chose to sit more closely to strangers in a hypothetical ingroup than to those in an equivalent outgroup. These results have been replicated in numerous experiments, and complemented by field studies also showing that people try to get physically closer to fellow ingroup members, including strangers.

Put differently, as well as maintaining ‘personal space’ on some occasions, on other occasions people seek to share common identityspace – as well as our personal identities, we have multiple social (or group) identities the we share with others and which become salient to us in different contexts. This explains why people often gravitate to the most crowded parts of crowd events, report a better ‘atmosphere’ in those locations, and can feel safer – others will come to their aid if needed, because ‘they’ are ‘us’.

Understanding how group norms operate and how they can change can help moderate the tendency to get closer to others, and other risky behaviours. In some groups, the norms for behaviour may encourage group members to touch those around them (as when football fans may hug strangers when their team scores a goal) or share personal items (as when those at a music festival may share bottles of beer). How do we create and encourage new group norms in order to make health-protective behaviours part and parcel of what it means to be one of the group and, conversely, to make risky behaviours at odds with being a good group member?

First, we must invoke higher-order group values (e.g. ‘we look after each other’) in order to promote the new norms. Messaging must allow expression of these norms to demonstrate commitment to (and hence acceptance in) the group and its shared values. People should distance for our greater good, for our public health, for keeping those we care about safe, to support our health and care workers, as a way of showing solidarity and being good citizens.

Second, messages must address not only what group members should do (in Robert Cialdini’s terms, ‘injunctive norms’), but also what they are typically doing (‘descriptive norms’). Messages which hold examples of bad practice and say ‘don’t do this’ can easily backfire because they can convey that many people in our group are behaving like this anyway, even if they know they shouldn’t.

Third, the source of information is as important as its content.

Messages are unlikely to be listened to if they are just imposed on a group from the outside. It is crucial that the messages are seen as the voice of the group itself, and this means involving group members in the development of the new norms (Bonell et al., 2020). Well-known and respected members of the group who are seen to embody the collective values should be the face and the ‘voice’ of any messaging campaign. Feedback should be sought from group members in order to develop and refine the messages. In sum, reconfiguring group norms must be something that is done with and not to a group.

Read the full version of this piece, plus references, at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/psychology-physical-distancing

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23/06/2020 11:23

How do we ensure the responsible and practical use of PPE? Sandra Lovell on the place of Personal Protective Equipment in safety controls for Covid-19

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s an occupational psychologist and assessor of safety cultures across multinationals in mining, oil and gas and chemical processing, I have facilitated many groups of frontline operators discussing their use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at work. From aluminium mines in Siberia to oil and gas plants in Abu Dhabi and utilities companies in the UK, I would hear: ‘There is a PPE policy, but it isn’t applied consistently...’

‘We’re told to wear PPE, but don’t…’

‘If someone sees you without a hard hat, you can be thrown off site...’

‘I’ve cut corners to get an emergency situation sorted faster.’

‘We’re not asking why enough – when someone’s not wearing their gas monitor…’

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In nearly every assessment I’ve carried out, PPE is problematic.

Having available protective kit that is accessible and fit-for-purpose is one of my mantras when I’m working in safety-critical environments. I’m often to be found rummaging through operating procedures with process controllers, inspecting computer interfaces in site control rooms, observing safety-critical tasks in air traffic control towers and the like. Across all safety-critical sectors, workers are required to use personal protective equipment (PPE) and follow rules to protect their and their co-workers’ health and safety.

As psychologists, we can draw upon research that influences safe working practices, such as the theories of motivation, learning and social cognition (Fiske & Taylor, 1991), and gives workers empowerment in the safety agenda (Geller, 2002).

Across industrial settings, PPE includes gloves, respirators, fire-resistant coveralls, hard hats, safety glasses, high-visibility clothing, and safety boots. And yet PPE is widely regarded as the least effective means of controlling hazards; hats and boots won’t prevent you getting crushed by a forklift truck, a harness won’t stop you falling to the ground if it’s not tied on, gloves carry viruses from one surface to another. For this reason, workers must be trained in the function as well as the limitations of PPE (HSE, 2020).

Nonetheless, despite the drawbacks, reliance upon PPE is commonplace in hazardous workplaces. So I

23/06/2020 13:54

the psychologist july/august 2020 PPE Getty images

Sandra Lovell is a Chartered Psychologist, specialising in health, safety and wellbeing at work Independent Lovell HF Swansea sandra@lovellhf. com Find full references with the online version

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find it startling that in a time of a bio-hazard pandemic we, in a country that is reputedly world-leading in safety, have struggled so hard to source PPE and to make it accessible to health workers, patients and the general public. I find it incredible that the far-off threat of asbestosis in the construction industry is better equipped than the imminent threat of death from Covid-19. I have been bewildered that the PPE, imported via lengthy logistics, has been late, scarce and not up to the required standard set down (HSE Rapid Evidence Review, 2020).

Workers are leading the charge These are unusual times for the industrial safety psychologist, more used to operators, contractors, miners and makers avoiding PPE they can ‘do without’.

Health and social care staff have been crying out for protective kit. They have been threatening to refuse starting their shift without PPE and, when the kit is delivered, co-workers are cross-checking each other carefully and disposing of protective clothing meticulously. The workers are leading the charge whilst governments are falling short in coordinating the provision.

There are additional levels of safety controls to be considered, of course. The ‘hierarchy of controls’ (NIOSH, 2015) provides a strategy for reducing workplace hazards. Methods are Elimination, Substitution, Engineering, Administration and PPE. The hierarchy is typically expressed as an upside-down pyramid, where elimination is the most effective way to reduce hazards and takes pride of place at the top.

At the bottom is PPE. And, until we have a vaccine or the virus has been eliminated, we have to rely on less effective safety controls.

There are any number of reasons why people typically don’t use PPE reliably, from badly-designed clothing to a belief that it may do more harm than good. Just this week a homeless charity worker said to me: ‘I don’t wear visors and masks because it means I can’t do my job … my homeless community won’t trust me wearing it and, besides, they have more important worries than getting a virus.’ This wasn’t the first time that I’ve heard PPE obstructing someone’s perceived ability to do their job. But it illustrates the ongoing battle we have with decisions to wear or not to wear, to scare or not to scare.

PPE and the public Between 11 February and 24 April 2020 there were nine shifts in PPE guidance (Foster & Neville, 2020) amidst the government’s continued struggle to reach required PPE stocks. Clarity and consistency are required: it is no wonder that health workers lost trust in the guidance and took measures into their own hands (Berry, 2020). For the public, non-surgical face

masks were suggested, albeit with caveats about the efficacy of cloth masks (Dyer, 2020). Next, England mandated masks on trains, which could be discarded in transit through the Severn Tunnel, whilst Wales went mask-free. That is until the WHO recommended a three-layered mask and Wales promoted this. The guidance still appears to be less about efficacy and more about supply. In the same way that workers must be trained in the function and limitation of PPE, so must the public. Like other controls further up the pyramid, PPE is fraught with uncertainty around how the virus spreads, contamination of clothing, the additional risk of sanitiser-induced dry, cracked skin... the questions go on.

To what extent will the public follow suit in donning the right kind of masks and to what extent will the wearing of PPE affect other at-risk behaviours in the streets, shops, parks and eventually pubs?

Optimistic bias (Kahneman, 2011) may reduce the likelihood of the general public wearing masks.

But, if the messaging focuses on protecting others, people might be more likely to wear masks.

How does this play out if mask-wearing communicates (a shared belief) that you are a carrier of Covid-19?

As, reportedly, the most anxious country in Europe (Radio 4, 2020), how we ensure a responsible and practical use of PPE in the ‘new normal’ will need strong and astute messaging. Amidst our ‘social reconnecting’ behaviours post-lockdown, people need reassurance and clearer guidance on ways of navigating the PPE risk-benefit ratios.

Psychology at the forefront Accounting for our cognitive distortions, the Government will need to communicate requirements clearly with lockdown-easing or hardening measures as we watch the R-rate change over the coming months.

The Recovery Strategy (May 2020) sets out to provide population-wide public health education to help people take responsible risk judgements and act in ways that will avoid passing the virus to others.

In the daily government briefings, the deputy chief medical officer for England acknowledged that a combination of science, politics and practicality will inform the way forward (18 May 2020). Together with emerging evidence about the virus spread, mortality rates, range of symptoms, vaccine development, mask-wearing efficacy, how we source and use goodquality, abundant supplies of personal protective equipment throughout the coming months is likely a continued challenge. Psychologists need to be at the forefront of the scientific community which advises the Government. How we train and maintain its reliable use is going to require a good deal of applied behavioural, cognitive and social psychology in order to best protect our frontline staff, our backbone staff and our most vulnerable in society.

23/06/2020 13:54

Eliza Southwood www.elizasouthwood.com

Vaccines: the good, the bad and the ugly Kavita Vedhara on the fascinating world of psychological ‘adjuvants’

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n the absence of an effective vaccine, and a vaccine programme that can cover the world’s population, people will continue to become infected with Covid-19. However, the course of this disease is far from uniform. It has been suggested that large numbers of people are infected but remain asymptomatic. Others have only mild disease, and at the other end of the spectrum it’s estimated that 3 per cent will die.

What factors determine whether you get infected and the severity of the disease? The current data are pointing to risk factors such as being male, lower socio-economic status, age and ethnicity as being important. But none of these are modifiable. If you are an older, Asian, blue-collared worker, the data will not fill you with optimism. However, psychological science, and specifically psychoneuroimmunology, suggests that there may also be modifiable influences on whether you get Covid-19 and the severity of the illness.

The early work of Sheldon Cohen and colleagues demonstrated that when you experimentally expose people to the common cold, levels of stress influence not only who becomes infected, but who becomes symptomatic. These findings have been replicated many times and suggest that there will be huge potential for psychologists to elucidate the role played

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by psychological factors in determining who gets Covid-19, and the course of the disease.

I am not suggesting that this will be about stress alone. The pandemic will force us to embrace more sophisticated models of psychological influences on health. At a time when social distancing (or physical restriction, as it is now being called) has been mandated, it means that some of our more powerful weapons in the armoury against stress (e.g. social support) are not only unavailable, but their corollaries (e.g. loneliness) may serve to compound the effects of an already stressful situation.

There probably won’t be an effective vaccine But what about when we find the holy-grail and a vaccine is developed? At the time of writing, vaccine trials have already begun. But having a vaccine and having an effective vaccine are two very different things. The ugly truth about vaccinations is not only that they usually take decades to develop; but that we have never developed an effective vaccine against a coronavirus before. Furthermore, even when we develop effective vaccines, it is common for them not to be universally effective – just because you are vaccinated doesn’t mean you are protected against the disease. Perhaps the best example of this is the

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the psychologist july/august 2020 vaccination

our cognitions, or developing complex logic models seasonal flu vaccine, where some studies suggest that based on theories. Nor did we have the privilege its effectiveness among older people may be as low as of spending years on developing the intervention.

17 per cent.

This was a change in public policy backed up by None of that sounds very optimistic, so let law enforcement. The parallels with the widespread me return to my glass being half-full. When the adoption of behaviours such as wearing seat-belts vaccine comes there will be huge opportunities for and drink driving are clear. That’s not to say health psychological science to play its part. The first, and psychology has become irrelevant. It has played its part one closest to my heart, will be the potential for in informing the messaging, the timing of the lockpsychological and behavioural factors to influence down, and it will no doubt play its part in sustaining the effectiveness of vaccines. The literature is replete social distancing and helping people adapt to a new with evidence from observational and intervention socially distanced normal. But is it time to examine studies which show that our ability to produce whether other threats to population health, such as antibodies in response to vaccinations (antibodies obesity, require changes in public policy, such that are how vaccines confer protection) is associated psychology’s role is not to support people in initiating with our mood, physical activity and aspects of diet the required changes in behaviour, but in sustaining among other things. The size of these effects are them? Or do we consider that the role of the state modest, but some research suggest they are equivalent should be restricted to only those diseases where the to the effect sizes of statins; on a population level, threats are immediate and where our actions directly these effects are clinically important. Understanding impact on the health and well-being of others? At a what the preeminent psychological determinants of time of rapidly vanishing resources, the answer may be vaccine effectiveness are, and then developing suitable interventions to enhance these, will be a critical area of unpalatable. research and practice.

The second area concerns that research and group of individuals often referred “Understanding what the Multidisciplinary the tension between the basic to as the ‘anti-vaccers’: people preeminent psychological and applied sciences who refuse vaccination. Given the Our response to the pandemic highly infectious nature of Coviddeterminants of vaccine has raised questions about the 19, a vaccine programme will only effectiveness are, and modelling that informed the early be effective if we can vaccinate the then developing suitable decisions. Did we lock down majority of the world’s population – perhaps greater than 90 per interventions to enhance soon enough? Should we have abandoned contract tracing so cent. So there will be an urgent these, will be a critical early? Why did we not mandate need to better understand the area of research that people displaying symptoms cognitions and social influences should self-isolate for 14, rather that lead people to make these and practice” than 7, days? Or should we, as the behavioural choices and to develop unrelentingly impressive Prime interventions which will increase Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda the uptake of any future vaccine.

Ardern, said, have ‘gone hard and (gone) early’?

Raising these questions does not negate the importance of the modelling. It is important to Other unintended consequences and acknowledge that the modelling played a vital role opportunities in shaping the government and NHS’ response. It There are people who are better informed than me enabled them to do the unthinkable and prepare the who will drive forward the science and debate in NHS’ critical care capacity for the relentless wave of various other areas of psychology and science. But I Covid-19 patients. Indeed, modelling has and will can’t resist the opportunity to mention just four that I continue to make hugely important contributions in am beginning to have opinions on. And as with all the many areas of health. best disclaimers, the opinions expressed here are not However, the pandemic has also highlighted, for necessarily the opinions of anyone else… I share them me at least, the potential limitations of modelling. only in the interest of provoking healthy debate.

Would we have been better to take a more genuinely multidisciplinary approach? Other disciplines were undoubtedly ‘in the room’ and we should not be Population health so naïve as to think that the scientists made the It was obvious very early on that the only way to decisions: ‘advisers advise, but the politicians decide’ contain the virus would be to restrict the movement (a now familiar refrain). But I am left wondering if of the population. This has been largely very effective. the results from the modelling were preeminent?

All the data show that the vast majority of people have Did all disciplines have an equal voice? Also was adhered to the ‘rules’. But we didn’t achieve this by sufficient consideration given to the more traditional developing individualised interventions that spoke to

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Kavita Vedhara is Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Nottingham www. covidstress study.co.uk kavita. vedhara@ nottingham. ac.uk

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cornerstones of science i.e. to observe and experiment?

It is evident that there were lessons to be learnt from observing the pandemic unfold in other countries.

What happened when other countries went into lockdown? How long did it take them to ‘flatten their sombreros’? What can we learn about the potential effectiveness of interventions such as facial coverings, and widespread community testing and contact tracing, by examining the incidence and spread of the disease in those countries that adopted these measures?

Hindsight affords us 20-20 vision and everyone can be wise after the event. But for me, a good outcome would be the further disintegration of disciplinary boundaries as well as a recognition that applied sciences flourish only when based on the best available basic science.

This is true for all science, but perhaps of particular relevance to the modellers and those of us in the behavioural sciences given our replication crisis.

The role of technology Six months from now any return to normal will almost certainly rely in part on real-time assessments of our risk of disease and our ability to get people to make rapid changes in behaviour. Countries such as South Korea who appear to have contended with Covid-19 more effectively than most introduced technology to support them very early on. An app used by large swathes of the population is able to update people on episodes of disease local to them. If you have travelled on a bus which was taken by someone who tested positive for Covid-19, you are alerted and urged to get tested. These alerts are regular and frequent and seemingly effective in prompting a behavioural response (to get tested and/or to self-isolate).

What are the implications for health psychology of the widespread adoption of such technology?

Well, Psychologists have known for some time the value of real-time or momentary assessments but it is true that we still tend to rely (and I include myself in this) on retrospective accounts. Most measures of mood, for example, ask you to report how you have felt in the past few weeks. Most measures of behaviour ask you to report what you have done historically, not concurrently. This pandemic will not only drive forward the technological innovation to make momentary assessment possible, simple and affordable, but acculturate the world’s population, and psychologists, in the need for such assessments, as well as their potency in producing behavioural change.

This will be a fantastic innovation for many of us and will vastly improve the rigour and effectiveness of our science.

38

How health psychology positions itself among other health sciences I, among others, have been an advocate for some time of psychological interventions which can be used to optimise existing treatments: so-called ‘psychological

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adjuvants’. Psychological interventions to promote the effectiveness of vaccines, or recovery from surgery, are nice examples of this. But the pandemic highlights for me that the reverse is also true i.e. that some psychological interventions might be more effective if they are not delivered in isolation but combined with other ‘treatments’. For example, there is much debate about the mental health consequences of the pandemic. Let’s consider just the example of how best to manage people’s stress, anxiety and worry about returning to work, sending their children back to school etc.? When that time comes in the (hopefully) not too distant future, should we be thinking only about psychological interventions that can be delivered at scale? I think not. Interventions to reduce these negative feelings would, in my view, be more effective if combined with other interventions. Two obvious candidates spring to mind. The first is face coverings.

There is much debate regarding the effectiveness of face coverings in protecting us against Covid-19 and while there is no randomised controlled evidence to support their use, it seems we in the UK will move toward adopting them like many other countries have.

But whether or not they protect us from Covid-19 is not their only potential benefit. We can hypothesise that anxiety reduction programmes would be more effective if combined with the use of face coverings.

This combined approach would give people the cognitive skills to manage their affective response, while the face coverings could provide the reassurance they will need to manage their fears and participate in society once more.

Similar adjuvant potential could be offered by antibody tests. These tests are currently not available.

But once tests have been developed which provide a reliable way of telling us if we are immune to the virus, then they could play a pivotal role in enabling individuals to return to some semblance of normality.

Again we could hypothesise that combining antibody testing with interventions aimed at cognitive restructuring and/or stress management would together be more efficacious than a psychological intervention alone. Perhaps we too should be wary of perpetuating dualism by thinking only of the mind, when thinking about health.

Every cloud…

Finally, a word on Gavi and Corona. Six months ago those words represented alcoholic indulgences best enjoyed on far flung beaches in the company of colleagues (you know who you are), family and friends. Six months from now those words will probably make me think first and foremost of the vaccine alliance and of a disease that has shaped our lives like no other. But I will hold on to the hope that a crisp glass of Gavi on a sun-drenched beach will once again be part of my future…

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the psychologist july/august 2020 vaccination

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23/06/2020 12:31

the psychologist july/august 2020 misinformation

Vaccinating against viruses of the mind David Robson on psychological efforts to achieve ‘herd immunity’ against the spread of misinformation in pandemic times

T

here are multiple pandemics sweeping the globe in 2020.

The first, of course, is caused by the Covid-19 virus. But hot on its heels, we have seen conspiracy theories and false information spreading in its wake. There was the idea that the pandemic itself was a hoax, and that it was being spread by the new 5G networks, leading vigilante gangs to attack mobile masts. Then there were the claims of miracle cures – such as the idea that drinking methanol could kill the virus, a belief that caused hundreds of deaths in Iran.

The sources are varied – from misguided health gurus to anti-vaccination campaigners and even foreign governments who may wish to sow discord for political gain – but the total inundation of misinformation may be unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. ‘All the stories I’m seeing suggest that it’s gotten much worse under the current pandemic,’ says Jay Van Bavel, a social neuroscientist at New York University, who recently co-authored a paper on the ways that behavioural sciences can help with the pandemic response (Van Bavel et al., 2020).

With so much uncertainty around the coronavirus pandemic already, the misinformation threatens to confuse people’s understanding of the disease and the best ways to protect themselves and their loved ones.

It is, Van Bavel says, ‘the perfect recipe for disaster.

This is not misinformation about the normal types of political debates. We’re talking about potentially the worst pandemic in 100 years.’

While there is no single panacea, the latest psychological research might help us to stem the spread of false claims using a form of inoculation.

When that strategy is combined with health campaigns that use the cutting-edge psychology of persuasion, some scientists even hope that we may reach a kind of ‘herd immunity’ against misinformation.

Mental antibodies In the same way that a regular vaccination uses a weakened or inert form of the pathogen to prime

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the immune system for the real thing, a fake news inoculation requires people to be exposed to the threat in a safe environment (where the claims are easily debunked). This then heightens our awareness of misinformation in the real world – activating so-called ‘mental antibodies’ that help us detect unverified claims in the future.

The concept originated with the American social psychologist, William McGuire, in the 1960s. Under the political tensions of the Cold War, McGuire was concerned about the potential of foreign propaganda to brainwash US citizens, and began to look for ways to combat misinformation. He realised that many people have the knowledge and intelligence to rationally appraise a false claim – if they pay enough attention. But many people simply don’t engage those skills, allowing their opinions to be swayed by the propaganda (Pratkanis, 2011).

To avoid that outcome, McGuire suspected you needed to make someone aware of their own vulnerability to the lies; only then would they be mentally engaged enough to resist persuasion.

In his initial studies, he examined participants’ susceptibility to dubious health claims – like the idea that teeth brushing is bad for dental health. As he’d hoped, initially warning people about the potential threat of misinformation, and then providing them with examples of the fallacious arguments, provided the necessary shock to their system – so that they were more sceptical of the fallacious material at a later date (McGuire et al., 1961; McGuire et al., 1962).

Unfortunately, the idea never really took off until around 50 years later, when a PhD student called Sander Van der Linden came across one of McGuire’s paper one day in the library of the London School of Economics.

He says that he was immediately struck by McGuire’s prescience. ‘He wrote the paper long before the internet, long before we knew that misinformation spreads through a network, in a way that is very analogous to how a virus replicates in infected hosts.’

With the spread of misinformation online only increasing, it seemed like the perfect time to resuscitate McGuire’s ideas.

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Key sources Bright, J., Au, H., Bailey, H., et al (2020) Coronavirus Coverage by State-Backed English-Language News Sources.

Oxford Internet Institute Data Memo. tinyurl.com/ycw2bn76 Cook, J., Lewandowsky, S. & Ecker, U.K. (2017). Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation. PloS one, 12(5).

Johnson, D.R. (2017). Improving Skeptics’ Reasoning When Evaluating Climate Change Material.

Ecopsychology, 9(3), 130–142.

Lewandowsky, S., Ecker, U.K., Seifert, C.M. et al (2012). Misinformation and its correction: Continued influence and successful debiasing. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(3), 106–131.

McGuire, W.J. & Papageorgis, D. (1961).

The relative efficacy of various types of prior belief-defense in producing immunity against persuasion. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62(2), 327.

McGuire, W.J. & Papageorgis, D. (1962). Effectiveness of forewarning in developing resistance to persuasion.

Public Opinion Quarterly, 26(1), 24–34.

Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Zhang, Y. & Rand, D. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media. https:// psyarxiv.com/uhbk9/ Pluviano, S., Watt, C., & Della Sala, S. (2017). Misinformation lingers in memory: failure of three pro-vaccination strategies. PLoS One, 12(7).

Pratkanis, A.R. (Ed.). (2011). The science of social influence: Advances and future progress (p 86). Psychology Press.

Roozenbeek, J., & Van Der Linden, S. (2019a). The fake news game: actively inoculating against the risk of misinformation. Journal of Risk Research, 22(5), 570–580.

Roozenbeek, J., & van der Linden, S. (2019b). Fake news game confers psychological resistance against online misinformation. Palgrave Communications, 5(1), 1–10.

Schwarz, N., Newman, E., & Leach, W. (2016). Making the truth stick & the myths fade: Lessons from cognitive psychology. Behavioral Science & Policy, 2(1), 85–95.

Van Bavel, J.J., Baicker, K., Boggio, P.S., et al (2020). Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nature Human Behaviour, 1–12.

Van der Linden, S., Leiserowitz, A., Rosenthal, S., & Maibach, E. (2017a). Inoculating the public against misinformation about climate change.

Global Challenges, 1(2), 1600008.

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His first experiment asked whether an inoculation could stem the spread of false information around global warming. For around a decade, climate change deniers have been attempting to question the scientific consensus with the so-called ‘Oregon Petition’ – a website that claimed to have the signatures of more than 31,000 American scientists who believed ‘there is no scientific evidence that the human release of carbon dioxide will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere’. In reality, fewer than 1 per cent of the signatories had a background in climate science, and many of the signatures were clearly fabricated. (Charles Darwin and ‘Dr’ Geri Halliwell are among the signatories.)

The website is surprisingly convincing: around 10 per cent of people change their opinion about the existence of a scientific consensus, having seen the petition – a huge effect for one single piece of misinformation. It’s powerful enough to completely ‘wipe out’ any benefits from traditional educational campaigns, says Van der Linden, who is now based at the University of Cambridge.

To see if an inoculation might prevent them from being swayed, Van der Linden took a group of participants and offered them one of two warnings before they saw the Oregon Petition. The first was a general message that ‘some politically motivated groups use misleading tactics to try to convince the public that there is a lot of disagreement among scientists’ – followed by a reiteration of the actual climate science. Not only did it protect against the misinformation; after seeing the petition, belief in the scientific consensus was actually around 6.5 per cent higher than before the intervention.

The second form of inoculation was an even more detailed description of the petition itself, and its fabricated signatures.

This was even more effective – boosting the acceptance of the scientific consensus by nearly 13

per cent. Both inoculations worked better than a third intervention, which involved arming the participants with the facts about climate change, without a specific warning about potential misinformation on the topic, which had barely any effect (Van der Linden, 2017).

Following the controversies over the US presidential election in 2016, Van der Linden next attempted to protect people against political fake news more generally. In this study, the inoculation was a board game – in which participants were encouraged to create a viral article on a controversial topic like the refugee crisis. Afterwards, they were significantly less likely to be persuaded by actual fake news articles on the same issue, compared to a control group who had not played the game (Rozenbeek et al., 2019a).

Van der Linden’s greatest success is an online game (called Bad News) that simulates sites such as Twitter, allowing users to build followers by employing misinformation techniques like impersonating or delegitimising official accounts, appealing to partisan divides, or creating a conspiracy theory (Rozenbeek et al., 2019b). Once again, the inoculation worked – and proved to be so popular it has attracted around a million users to date. The UK Foreign Office was quick to note its success and has now translated the game into 15 languages to help combat misinformation worldwide.

Van der Linden is now updating the Bad News game to specifically target the misinformation around Covid-19. It’s drawing particular attention to the use of ‘fake experts’ (without any real qualifications) to question medical advice, for example, which is one of the most common strategies being used at the moment.

But Van der Linden hopes that more organisations will take note of the idea of inoculation, to pre-emptively warn people about the strategies that may be used to spread misinformation around the pandemic. ‘We’re trying to get the policy conversation going around this idea of pre-bunking rather than debunking.’ This will be especially important as we gear up for any potential release of a real Covid-19 vaccine, he says, since we are likely to see an explosion of fake news around its safety and effectiveness.

Research from the University of Regina in Canada suggests that even small nudges can activate our ‘mental antibodies’. For a recent pre-print, Gordon Pennycook examined people’s tendency to share fake coronavirus news. As McGuire had first noted, he found that many people sharing the misinformation just weren’t questioning its accuracy before deciding to pass it on. Simply asking the participants to rate the reliability of a single headline primed people to think more carefully about the messages they were reading, and subsequently reduced their willingness to share a host of other fake stories (Pennycook et al., 2020).

Pennycook argues that the companies themselves would need to find the best ways to implement this, but he could see the advantage of occasionally prompting users to rate the accuracy of what they are seeing. ‘They could gain information about the stuff

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the psychologist july/august 2020 misinformation

that is being spread around their platform, and at the same time, get people to think about the accuracy [of what they are sharing],’ he told me.

Anti-viral measures Clearly, prevention will be best medicine. But what can be done when the message is already out there?

Many previous campaigns – such as the widespread attempts to debunk anti-vaxxer myths – may have failed because they struggled to present the information effectively. It was rather common, for instance, for myth-busting articles to repeat the false claims, often in the headline. Unfortunately, that allows the lie to take root before the reader knows to be sceptical, days or weeks later. It is the false claim that becomes the thing they remember, rather than the debunking (Pluviano et al., 2017). Some campaigns also suffered from overloading the reader with statistics – which confused rather than persuaded.

Fortunately, the latest research suggests some principles that should make any message stick. These tend to centre on the principle of fluency, or how easily the brain can process a claim. As Norbert Schwarz and Eryn Newman wrote in a recent review of the best ways to combat misinformation, ‘when thoughts flow smoothly, people nod along’ (Schwarz et al., 2016).

Fluency can come from vivid storytelling (with the use of colourful anecdotes, say) and slick presentation (such as setting out the key facts in a bold, easy-to-read font). Just a single image can increase a statement’s persuasiveness, since it makes the central concept easier to visualise, even if it doesn’t actually offer any proof for the actual claim.

The purveyors of misinformation will already be using these strategies, but any individual, media outlet or health organisation hoping to combat those claims will have to pay equal attention to these factors. If possible, they should try to avoid repeating the false claims themselves and build their campaigns around the true facts themselves. So a campaign about the best ways to reduce coronavirus transmission, that tacitly deals with some of the fake news claims without expressing them, would be better than an article on the ‘10 coronavirus myths’.

If repeating the claim is unavoidable, they should make sure that truth is more salient than the lie – both in the presentation and the storytelling. And, using the principle of inoculation, they should warn people of the fact that it is untrue before the passage itself (rather than, say, placing the myth upfront in a heading) and explain how and why they are being misled.

Whether we are an official spokesperson or simply trying to make a small individual contribution, we can all use these principles to fight the spread of misinformation. (See ‘How to clean up your Facebook page’, below, for more information on the ways to deal with misinformation in your own social network.)

‘They are often small effects, but it all adds up,’ says Van Bavel.

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How to clean up your Facebook page Besides guiding official responses to the misinformation surrounding coronavirus, psychological principles can also guide our own behaviour on social media.

The first step is to avoid repeating the false claims themselves and only share material you know to be factually accurate. The research shows that even intelligent people can be easily fooled by fake claims thanks to their ‘cognitive miserliness’, so try to verify information against a reliable source before sharing it.

When you do attempt to debunk a false claim, try not to be too emotional – particularly if it relates to a politically sensitive issue, says Jay Van Bavel. ‘People who disagree with you will be much more likely to share it.’ His work shows that moderating your language can increase the reach of your message to the people who need to hear it, rather than simply preaching to your own echo chamber.

If you get into an active disagreement with someone sharing a conspiracy theory, try to ask questions rather than simply presenting them with facts. When doing so, ask them to explain how this elaborate conspiracy works, rather than why they believe it.

Experiments show that this shift in focus forces the person to confront the fact that they don’t understand the details of the issue as well as they think – the illusion of explanatory depth – which ultimately causes them to question their beliefs (Johnson, 2017).

Like a real virus, the survival of misinformation relies on its R (reproduction) number – essentially, whether each person will pass it on to more than one other person. If enough people are educated about misinformation – and sceptical enough not to pass it on – could we ever reach a state of ‘herd immunity’? In the first place, that might concern immunity against misinformation on a single topic (like the coronavirus), but the dream would be to have sufficient scepticism to radically reduce the spread of lies in multiple domains.

There is already some evidence that knowledge of misinformation in one domain can inoculate you in another (Cook et al., 2017) and Van der Linden’s new research is currently investigating how to maximise the effects. ‘People can raise their eyebrows at that idea but we think it’s possible and worth pursuing’, says Van der Linden. ‘For me, the whole point of the “inoculation” metaphor is to achieve herd immunity.’ One strategy would be to ensure that the inoculations – such as his Bad News game – themselves go viral, so that they reach the majority of the population and train them to think more critically about what they are consuming.

He readily admits you are not going to convince the most hardcore conspiracy theorists. ‘But that’s not necessary, right? You only need a critical part of the population to be vaccinated. We don’t know what that number is – whether it’s 50, 60 or 70 per cent – but that’s what we’re working towards.’ It is wonderful to imagine that, by the time the real Covid-19 pandemic is under control, we may also have a working treatment for the viruses of the mind.

David Robson is author of The Intelligence Trap: Revolutionise your thinking and make wiser decisions, out now in paperback (Hodder and Stoughton).

See www. davidrobson. me/theintelligencetrap Twitter: @d_a_robson

23/06/2020 12:31

‘We can come out of it poorer, but better’ Kim Stephenson and Pradnya Surana on the importance of reframing our relationship with money

T

he economic changes resulting from the pandemic are likely to be unprecedented, and catastrophic for many – perhaps for the majority.

The economy will be hit hard, with companies large and small folding. The knock-on effects of redundancies, the damage to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and the consequent greater reliance on benefit (covering which there will be less tax income) will push almost everybody down the financial scale. It’s likely hundreds of thousands more UK citizens will become unable to afford basic elements such as food and housing. Davide Furceri and others, writing for the International Monetary Fund blog in May (tinyurl.com/ya59tetw), warned that pandemics leave the poor further behind.

There won’t be the capital available for investment to rebuild businesses, let alone the infrastructure,

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benefit systems, transport etc. The situation arising from attempts to limit the spread of the virus – little public transport, few social gatherings – will give way to the same conditions that come from a simple lack of money. It’s a very serious problem, both in financial and psychological terms, for individuals, and for society as a whole. We will have less money, we can’t change that. Yet, if individually and collectively we try to do what the psychological research shows is the best thing to do, then we can come out of it poorer, but better.

The past Despite the saying ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’, measures of status and success (both individual and national) are judged by external standards, rather than a self-reference to money as a means to the end of a fulfilling life. This is reflected in many classic papers in economics when the sole criterion is financial success; basic economic principles (that humans are selfish ‘First to get in touch were a pair and logical) hold sway (Ackerlof, of junior doctors, one working 1970; Hardin, 1968). on a Covid ward at the Royal In those circumstances, the Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, economics dictate that in any the other at Kingston Hospital capitalist society there are a few in Surrey. They yearned to hike ‘winners’ and many losers when there back up to the top of Tryfan, a is a decline in material resources and mountain in Snowdonia, where money. Those that lose, and sink to they’d got engaged the year (or remain at) the very bottom of the before (theirs, it turned out, was financial scale, have greater problems one of many weddings that the with mental health (which makes virus had kicked into touch). Once good decision making even harder) cartoonist Rob Murray had drawn and have very little scope for errors in that inaugural “peak experience” financial decisions (Elliott, 2016). The and we posted it on Twitter – you extra resources of those at the top of can see the cartoon [see left] – the scale allow them to make financial other requests followed…’ errors, to prioritise poorly and yet still avoid the harshest consequences of Read more from Dr Kevin the economic downturn.

Dutton on the Bottle The majority, who are in the Moments project at https:// middle ground, theoretically have thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/ enough to fulfil all needs of life, bottling-moments-vaccineif they can adopt the ‘positive against-inhumanity psychology’ view of money as simply

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the psychologist july/august 2020 money

a tool to aid a fulfilling existence. If they do this, and look to meaning and fulfilment, with money as a very useful tool, they will have greater wellbeing.

This is irrespective of their actual financial position.

In addition, they will use the money they do have in ways that increase their happiness, rather than cause them stress and anxiety. But with the existing emphasis on financial success as personal fulfilment, the middle ground are constantly in competition with their peers, forever trying to ‘catch up’. This stress impacts upon their cognitive ability (Mani et al., 2013).

In theory, the wealthy have more than enough money. But their happiness and fulfilment in life depends more on what they choose to do with their money and how it aligns with their values, than on how much wealth they have (Diener & Oishi, 2000).

Crisis and continuation of the existing normal With that existing normal, the consequence of the crisis is obvious. The wealthy will have less success, less money and less satisfaction. More of them will struggle to keep up. The number of poor people will increase dramatically, they will be under even greater pressure, and the incidence of mental health problems will increase. The majority will have less money, more stress, their decision making will worsen and they will be more likely to slide down into genuine poverty, with fewer psychological resources to get out again.

Whatever the details of change, that existing ‘normal’ of finance being about money and not psychology will mean that less money in the system – which is inevitable – means more misery, mental illness, dissatisfaction and poverty, both psychological (in terms of poorer function, cognitive and emotional) and financial (Elliott, 2016).

An alternative normal To quote Viktor Frankl, ‘The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.’

We can choose, as individuals and as a society, to cling to the (unsatisfactory) attitudes of the past regarding what financial wellbeing means. We can also decide to create, for ourselves and others, a different attitude based on the psychological research.

There is very limited research on dealing with money-related issues; therapists tend to give secondary importance to these issues, believing that moneyrelated behaviours and irrational beliefs are not isolated psychic phenomenon but are integral to the individual as a whole (Goldberg & Lewis, 2000; Furnham, 2014). However, there are some psychological interventions that can improve financial and overall wellbeing. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) can help to address negative emotions like guilt, shame, suppressed anger, or self-esteem issues by challenging thought patterns. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can help in accepting the current financial situation without overreacting, reducing stress and

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anxiety. Everyone has the autonomy to change their perception from ‘total panic’ to ‘cautious optimism’ around money.

Perhaps the main point is that we must use what money we do have to work towards our true values.

The current situation may be an ideal time to reflect upon what really matters: what we really care about, individually and collectively (Wong, 2010). Meaning therapy and logotherapy have the potential to support individuals and organisations navigate the existing or upcoming financial crisis and to help build a desirable future. Counting our blessings or being grateful for small luxuries can divert our attention away from the negatives of the situation (Desteno et al., 2014; Emmons & McCullough, 2003). We are all social beings; we can survive and flourish with each other’s support. Pro-social spending, charitable acts (Surana & Lomas, 2014), and random or intentional acts of kindness can instantaneously improve subjective wellbeing and community spirit (Bellotti et al., 2013).

As psychologists, we are qualified to help individuals and society in this crisis: not simply by dealing with ‘mental health’, but also helping people to re-frame their concepts of finance and financial wellbeing (both national and individual). Currently, ‘money’ is a source of stress, competition (in a zero-sum game) and dissatisfaction. It could, if psychologically re-framed, be an opportunity to have greater wellbeing and joy in life.

We can mourn the fact that we were used to the way it was: that we crowed over our successes, measured our performance relative to others, got stressed when we were outperformed in material terms and so on. If we stick to that, then less money means more misery, and we all mourn, bargain, deny… but eventually we have to accept. Or we can view this as a rather scary and unpleasant opportunity to make things better. In the shorter term, if we focus on values, we don’t feel so unhappy, and we make better use of the money we’ve got. In the long term, maybe when we get more money again (as we will do, at some point), we’ll then be better set to use the money we have to make the world better, and to be much happier, more fulfilled, more socially useful.

Mr Kim Stephenson is an Occupational Psychologist kim@ stephensonconsulting. co.uk

Dr Pradnya Surana is a positive psychologist and financial wellbeing expert surana pradnya@ gmail.com Both authors are contributing to the British Psychological Society’s 2020 theme ‘From poverty to flourishing.

Key sources Desteno, D., Li, Y., Dickens, L. & Lerner, J.S. (2014). Gratitude: A tool for reducing Economic impatience. Psychological Science.

Diener, E. & Oishi, S. (2000). Money and Happiness. In E. Diener & E.M. Suh (Eds.), Culture and subjective well-being (p.185–218). The MIT Press.

Elliott, I. (2016). Poverty and mental health-A review to inform the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Anti-Poverty Strategy (p.110).

Mani, A., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E. & Zhao, J. (2013). Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function.

Science, 341(6149), 976–980.

Surana, P.K. & Lomas, T. (2014). The power of charity: Does giving away money improve the wellbeing of the donor? Indian Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(3), 223–230.

Full list available in online/app version.

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Moral progress after Covid-19

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Roger Paxton thinks a better society is not just possible but likely

jobs and professions, such as shelf-stacking and caring, ight Covid-19 result in moral together with the realisation of the risks involved in benefits? World War II is the these jobs. We are now aware of the mismatch between classic example of a national crisis that produced domestic the pay and social value of many of these roles.

We’re looking out more for our neighbours. We moral progress: old class feel bad hearing about businesses likely to fold, with divisions were breached, the people losing their livelihoods, and we think it’s welfare state and the NHS good that new government funding arrangements are were born and there was a mitigating these problems. People with gardens and new sense of caring, hope and unity. The standard spacious homes can’t help but reflect on the plight of counterexample is the aftermath of the 2008-2009 those locked down in small flats, global financial crisis: the bankers many also with lost or precarious who caused the crisis suffered no adverse consequences – the “People with gardens and incomes. It seems wrong. We’re the value of the contrary in fact – and inequalities spacious homes can’t help appreciating natural world more as we have less continued to grow. I think that but reflect on the plight access to it. In short, we’re more moral progress – a better society – aware of what’s right and good in after Covid-19 is not just possible of those locked down in relation both to one another and but likely, and could even be small flats” the environment. This could all substantial. just be rallying round the flag, as Moral psychology can help us people do in wartime (and wartime to understand the social changes references are everywhere), but let’s as we have adapted to lockdown, allow some optimism. and to predict what is likely to happen in the future.

Suppose next that people are moving on from In James Rest’s well-known four component model, this awareness to ethical reasoning. Many must moral decision-making proceeds through ethical be considering the tension between saving lives sensitivity, ethical reasoning, ethical motivation and and saving the economy. People struggling to feed ethical implementation. The first of these, sensitivity, themselves and their families are probably eager to is the recognition of moral issues. Reasoning is the open up workplaces and restart the economy, whereas consideration of the issues from an ethical standpoint. those with health problems and less pressing financial Motivation involves reflecting on other motives concerns prefer caution. But there seems a shared impinging on the decision. Finally, implementation is acceptance that the tension should be managed on the the integration of reasoning and motivation to decide on a course of action and put it into practice. Applying basis of both ethics and economics. Perhaps ethical reasoning is broadening – as we travel less, we reduce the Rest model to the pandemic, is there evidence first energy consumption and pollution. Lockdown is of widespread ethical sensitivity? having a positive impact on the climate and we see that we could and should continue to do more for the environment than we have in the past.

An optimistic analysis Perhaps ethical reasoning is also looking further Many news items and comments provide evidence of ahead – it’s clear now that the new normal, perhaps for widespread ethical sensitivity. A recent YouGov poll years, will be very different from the old one. Many of found that most Britons want health and wellbeing to us will be inconvenienced, but what about all those be prioritised over GDP growth after the pandemic. likely to suffer much more than inconvenience; the There is also a new appreciation of the value of some

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young people whose jobs and prospects have disappeared, and those who work in the hospitality, tourism and transport industries?

Many people are engaging in longer term ethical reasoning; reflecting on the futures of these people and wanting help for them.

But not all of our thinking is Dr Roger Paxton is BPS Ethics ethical reasoning. If I’m young, Committee Chair healthy and sociable, or desperately rspaxton@gmail.com short of money, why should I But perhaps this is too comply with social distancing?

Most people who contract Covid-19 recover, and do so optimistic: new problems are looming as we move from the first phase of the crisis to ending the without hospital care, so why should I worry much? lockdown. Inevitably the lockdown will be eased Many people must have been tempted. This is ethical in stages, and the easing is likely to affect people motivation; acknowledging the other motives that pull in different regions and different demographic or us away from the moral course of action. occupational groups differently. Ethical motivation will be challenged not just by heightened anxiety caused by the unavoidable consequent increase in risk, but also Choosing the moral course by a reduction in perceived social support when we Despite these pulls, the extent of compliance has been are no longer ‘all in it together’. Envy and resentment surprisingly high. The fourth component of the Rest may arise as new influences in moral motivation. The model, ethical implementation, brings together ethical psychological advice and support that seem to have reasoning and motivation, and currently seems to be helped so far will then be needed resulting in people choosing the even more to maintain the ethical moral course, despite its costs implementation that has been so and inconvenience. Many others, “Beyond the immediate It is more important especially those in the health and future a stable new normal impressive. than ever that psychological voices social care ‘front line’ are going may be reached, but this are heard. further in ethical implementation, Beyond the immediate future risking their lives to care for new normal may be very a stable new normal may be victims of the outbreak. The BPS different in terms of social reached, but this new normal and psychologists individually have contacts from the old one” may be very different in terms contributed to this widespread of social contacts from the old choosing of the moral course. one. Whether or not a stable new The BPS has responded rapidly normal is soon reached, the very visible moral progress and effectively with wide-ranging evidence-based outlined here can and should be maintained and even guidance, and psychologists have been among the experts advising the government. It’s obvious that clear developed further. Driven by public opinion, wider ethical implementation could follow. This crisis has guidance can help with the balancing of morality with emphatically highlighted the value and popularity other concerns that ethical implementation requires. of the NHS, belatedly demonstrated the similar importance of social care, and reminded us of our reliance on the legions of poorly paid delivery drivers What next?

But the most important question remains: will this new and others in the service sector. We have become more aware of the natural environment. normal of increased altruism and care be sustained?

Popular pressure resulting from this new Will the future be like the aftermath of World War II or appreciation could halt the erosion and underfunding the 2008-2009 financial crisis? of both health and social care, lead on to their The first reason for optimism is that if most people are behaving morally now, why shouldn’t they continue integration, and begin to reduce the glaring inequalities that leave so many people struggling to survive. Much during the year (or more) that this new normal is stronger and faster action on the climate emergency likely to continue? Probably a stronger reason is that, may become a vote winner, along with a continuation as several economic commentators have noted, now, of the current expanded role for the state in delivering unlike in 2009, it’s in all our interests to become collective benefits. Psychologists can help to bring all a more caring society. Only collective, rather than individualistic or competitive action will deal with this this about; continuing to help people and organisations to weather the changes, demonstrating the many crisis and prevent its recurrence. In terms of the Rest benefits of a new moral order and supplying evidence model, ethical reasoning and motivation coincide to on how to achieve it. support implementation of the morally preferred path.

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the psychologist july/august 2020 moral progress

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‘What is remarkable about what we’ve achieved is that it’s unremarkable’ Carl Walker seeks to make sense of the mutual aid response to coronavirus, and how to sustain it in an era of entrenched inequality

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orthing is a Sussex town on the south coast. In the last few weeks, as coronavirus has swept through our country, bringing with it a level of social disruption not witnessed for generations, local groups of residents have organised and mobilised to support the most vulnerable and isolated people in the neighbourhood.

In our mutual aid group in East Worthing, nearly 80 volunteers have delivered essential food and medication to almost 100 local families in under two weeks.

This group of local people have set up a designated phone line, organised a daily rota and taken referrals to help people from pharmacies, GP surgeries and the local hospital. We have delivered school food packages to local pupil premium families. Our fundraiser to

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begin a temporary local foodbank made its target in less than a day, and a call put out by the local hospital to ask for donations of folding beds for staff to sleep in at the local hospital received 250 emailed offers.

Our group have provided well organised and essential community support and care at breakneck speed from a standing start.

What is remarkable about what we’ve achieved is that it’s unremarkable. Mutual aid groups have sprung up the country over as an informal, emergency response to help isolated people to access food and medicine.

Coronavirus, psychology and a common identity It could be argued that the actions of this sudden mutual aid resurgence flies in the face of the individualising tendencies of modern liberal governance where the retrenchment of the welfare state and years of fiscal austerity have led to financial

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Nick Oliver/www.nickoliverillustration.com

exclusion, marginalisation and isolation for an increasing number of people. A core feature of the era of austerity economics has been the distinction between a deserving and an undeserving poor – those who relied on state support through welfare were routinely demonised as profligate skivers by governments, mainstream media and an entertainment industry content to muddy the social fabric with public suspicion and contempt.

This period of economic austerity was linked to nearly 120,000 excess deaths in England, with the over 60s and care home residents bearing the brunt. The spending restraints were associated with 45,368 excess deaths between 2010 and 2014. Every £10 drop in spend per head on social care was associated with five extra care home deaths per 100,000 of the population.

An uncomfortable question rears its head: how have our communities mobilised to fight the 8000 deaths (at time of counting) but passively witnessed 120,000 deaths linked to an economic austerity?

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the psychologist july/august 2020 mutual aid

Recent developments in social and community psychology might point the way. If we look a little closer at the impacts of recent disasters throughout history, whether it’s crowd behaviour in emergency evacuations or the response of New Yorkers during and after the September 11th attacks (Tierney, 2003), we see repeated stories of altruism and cooperation, even when people themselves are at great risk.

Psychological research suggests that being in an emergency can create a common identity amongst those affected. Emergencies appear to at least temporarily dissolve social division as the development of this identity facilitates a degree of cooperative altruism even when amongst strangers in life-threatening situations – see the work of social psychologists Chris Cocking, John Drury, Stephen Reicher and others.

The Elaborated Social Identity Model (ESIM) of crowd behaviour developed by Reicher suggests that a common identity emerges among people as a result of a shared fate in the face of illegitimate attacks from an outgroup. According to Reicher, it is this common identity that can result in people helping and supporting each other, even if they are complete strangers. Coronavirus functions in a similar way, positioning groups of people as being under attack from a common and indiscriminate enemy.

However, in the UK in recent years, experiences of shared identity have been shorn by the crass identity politics of the Brexit debate and the repeated scapegoating of those on the economic margins of society, be they migrant workers or those on benefits.

Indeed, marked as the era of austerity was by fiscal spending restraint, it was as marked by social division, mistrust and malaise. This country has been riven with uncommonly overt political and cultural divisions that have filtered through to the very core of our day-to-day relations with people. The conditions for a common identity through which to collectively respond to the public health impacts of austerity were absent.

But during Coronavirus we have seen the mass mobilisation of community solidarity behaviours.

The Brexit self-categorisations of division have been displaced by shared, collective self-categorisations of what makes us similar to others. We have the conditions for a common identity that has resulted in communities like ours helping and supporting each other in unprecedented ways and developed the ‘we-ness’ that typically emerges from disasters (Clarke, 2002).

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Community psychology and mutual aid The community response to Coronavirus lends itself to a relational account of wellbeing that foregrounds what Duff (2012) calls ‘enabling places’ where wellbeing is not as a set of entities to be acquired as internalised qualities of individuals but instead as a set of effects produced in specific times and places, as situational and relational (Atkinson, 2013).

This resonates with the politicised philosophy of wellbeing that lies behind the term mutual aid.

Mutual aid finds its conceptual roots in the anarchism propounded by the Russian philosopher Peter Kropotkin. He argued against the creeping social Darwinism of his time by providing examples of how societies thrive by adhering to the principles of mutually beneficial reciprocity.

This broader notion of what constitutes wellbeing, and the emphasis of social movements cooperating for the common good, leads us to the door of community psychology.

Community psychology as a Key sources discipline is oriented to a valuesbased approach to wellbeing that Atkinson, S. (2013). Beyond components focuses on working with those of wellbeing: the effects of relational experiencing exclusion, in order to and situated assemblage. Topoi, 32, bring about social change. Central 137-144. to the discipline is the idea that all British Medical Journal. (2020). Health and social care spending cuts linked to people, especially those with lived 120,000 excess deaths in England. experiences of exclusion, have vital tinyurl.com/y4gzzcbz forms of expertise necessary to Clarke, L. (2002). Panic: myth or reality? bring about meaningful change.

Contexts. https://journals.sagepub.com/ To some extent this stands at doi/pdf/10.1525/ctx.2002.1.3.21 odds with the hierarchical and Cocking, C., Drury, J. & Reicher, S. (2009). The psychology of crowd paternalistic approach to care behaviour in fires: implications for the implicit in many professional emergency services. Irish Journal of and statutory services. The Psychology, 30(1), 59-72. principles and practice of mutual Duff, C. (2012). Exploring the role of aid resonates with community ‘enabling places’ in promoting recovery psychology because it is driven from mental illness: a qualitative test of a relational model. Health and Place, 18, by the organisational and care 1388-1395. expertise of everyday people living Hancock, L, Mooney, G. (2013). “Welfare in communities the country over.

Ghettos” and the “Broken Society”: It’s the very agility and embedded Territorial Stigmatization in the nature of the relations in local Contemporary UK. Housing, Theory & communities that makes it so Society, 30(1).

Mezzina, R, Davidson, L, Borg, M. et al. responsive – probably more so than (2006). The social natures of recovery: professional services whose more discussion and implications for rigid protocols and procedures make practice. American Journal of Psychiatric it more difficult to respond to very Rehabilitation, 9, 63-80. different, complex needs at very PAA. (2015). The psychological impacts short notice. of austerity.

Tierney, K. (2003). Disaster beliefs and Moreover, it provides a institutional interests: recycling disaster community-building space where myths in the aftermath of 9–11. people feel that they belong to a Clarke, L. (Ed.) Terrorism and Disaster. group through mutually supportive Emerald Group Publishing Limited, relationships (Walker et al., 2017).

Bingley, pp. 33-51.

Mutual aid groups move from Walker, C., Hart, A. & Hanna, P. (2017).

Building a new community psychology of care practices oriented to passive mental health. Palgrave, UK. individuals to care practices oriented around solidarity that allow

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for the amplification of forms of active citizenship that some people are experiencing for the first time in their lives. The sense of empathy, recognition and practical assistance offered through mutual aid is an entirely voluntary exchange among equals. From our group and others I’ve observed, people take great care to avoid setting up a paternalistic or hierarchical relationship between them.

Sustaining mutual aid and a psychology of public health Are these new forms of relating sustainable beyond the current crisis? That probably depends on how the political, economic and communicative lessons of this crisis are absorbed.

A profoundly unequal society needs accompanying myths to justify and enable the consensus for this inequality. These myths ferment division, blame and scapegoating, which wrecks the common identities that have allowed so much progress so quickly. We know from social psychology that these blaming impulses, so useful to mainstream politicians and media, distort the notion of a common unity and shared fate. In essence, institutionalised inequality demands justification for division. That means constant political labour to break notions of common identity and institute and maintain discursive and symbolic differences in value between groups of people in society. It’s one of the reasons the response to the public health crises of austerity was largely absent.

The suddenness and sheer savagery of coronavirus was not free from the grasp of inequality – just look at the respective salaries of the shop workers, hospital workers and care workers forced to put themselves at increased risk on a daily basis. However, the divisive forms of communication that typically accompany the politics of inequality and that attenuate the sense of collective identity were absent. Instead there was a meaningful sense of collectiveness and solidarity that allowed a concerted mutual aid response. Appealing to people’s cooperative and collective identity should be encouraged in public spaces and public discourse on an everyday basis; to make more stark the injustices of inequality, but also to increase citizen participation and support our public services in preventing distress and improving citizen participation.

Picking up the pieces of social fabric For too many years psychologists have been trapped in the invidious position of trying to pick up the pieces of the social fabric ruptured by prolonged austerity and inequality… and to do so with decreased resource and increased clinical caseloads (PAA, 2015).

As a discipline we now to need to seriously orientate ourselves to support our public services in preventing distress and improving citizen participation. The long term fall-out of this virus will require psychologists to develop public health

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the psychologist july/august 2020 mutual aid

research and practice that focuses on preventative, community-led approaches to mental health and emotional wellbeing that continue to build collective responses to individual needs and by doing so strengthen communities. margins will be immense. In The adoption of a community response, our social justice agenda psychology of wellbeing in the now needs to be front and central public health agenda means and psychologists will need to be Carl Walker is a Reader in recognising not only the personal involved in difficult conversations Psychology and Psychology but the social, political, economic around inequality and its impacts Subject Lead at the University of drivers of wellbeing and ensuring if we are to help address the postBrighton. that meaningful prevention virus drivers of poor wellbeing in C.J.Walker@brighton.ac.uk programmes address income, the UK. This will require a much health and social inequalities as more serious focus on policy, well as social inclusion and community integration partnerships and tools which assess the psychological (Mezzina et al., 2006). As mutual aid shows, we need impacts of the fallout of the virus. to acknowledge the importance of co-production Dissolving into a mass of antagonisms over with people and communities and privilege their Brexit evidenced the worst of the British people in rich expertise and experience. As a psychologist and 2019. However, the selfless solidarity and sacrifice in local authority councillor, I see immediate value in a the face of a life-threatening national emergency in programme of work to embed psychologists in local 2020 showed the very best we are capable of being. authorities to develop, with local communities, the Mutual aid has shown us that a ‘public’ public health evidence base for preventative interventions to improve is possible if we nurture the conditions that support public health. the people who are looking around, seeing a tragedy Finally, the post-virus pressure on governments unfolding before them, and yearning to help their from financial markets seeking to recalibrate profit fellow human beings in any way they can.

‘Do not be silent in defending the social safety net’

Danielle Watson

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Find more on community psychology at tinyurl.com/psychmagcorona – including from Rebecca Graber, who warned we are entering a potentially dangerous period of change. She urged psychologists to consider the social and political implications of their research. ‘Whether you identify as a community psychologist or not, chances are your research can be enriched by considering the “whys” of a community oriented approach (understanding lived experiences, constructions and processes of marginalisation, disempowerment, and collective aspects of mental distress and well-being) and the “hows” (participatory knowledge-creation, empowering methods, and commitment to social change)…’

Danielle Watson, one of our 2019 ‘Voices in Psychology’, similarly put the onus on psychologists, asking ‘how will you help to sustain collective efficacy?’ Watson hopes that the collective response to Covid-19 will be a model for psychologists working together in other areas such as climate change and supporting those who are homeless. ‘I would like to think that this may change the way our discipline operates in the future, encouraging us to move away from working in parallel towards working together.’ She concluded: ‘As psychologists, we are instrumental to sustaining collective efficacy. We could support the formation of social norms delivered by public messaging and social networks. We can enhance community participation through building and nurturing meaningful relationships with and between communities, authorities and organisations over time. Finally, a collective efficacy centred mentality could be adopted and modelled by psychologists to professional and social networks.’

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‘I am an art psychotherapist working in adult mental health.

This digital drawing is a visual response to the current circumstances, reflecting on new ways of being ‘together’’ and caring for each other through isolation and social distancing.’

Nikoletta Koucharska

‘Nothing could be worse than a return to normality’ Can psychology save the world in a ‘new normal’?

Lee Rowland curates 10 quotes…

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his global pandemic began and spread because of human behaviours.

How we behave now will determine how it ends. It’s an unsettling jolt to normality, which may be a dress rehearsal for a tumultuous 21st century:

‘…safeguarding humanity’s future is the defining challenge of our time. For we stand at a crucial moment in the history of our species. Fuelled by technological progress, our power has grown so great that for the first time in humanity’s long history, we have the capacity to destroy ourselves – severing our entire future and everything we could become.’

(Oxford philosopher, Toby Ord, 2020)

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Having enjoyed immense success as a species, we have become our own worst enemy.

Traditionally, the big things such as politics, religion, technology – and superheroes – have had the monopoly on salvation. Should psychologists now assume the mantle?

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‘I believe that the world will either be saved by the psychologists or it won’t be saved at all. I think psychologists are the most important people living today. I think the fate of the human species and the future of the human species rest more upon their shoulders than upon any group of people now living.’

(Psychologist, Abraham Maslow, 1958)

Maslow believed that a better understanding of human nature could help us create a world that we can thrive in.

Addressing the American Psychological Association, the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ saw that psychology also held immense malign power: ‘In the last ten years the physicists have been extraordinarily noisy about the immense powers which…have come into the possession of man, [but] the psychologist can hardly do anything without realizing that for him the acquisition of knowledge opens up the most terrifying prospects of controlling what people do and how they think and how they behave and how they feel… the physicist’s pleas

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the psychologist july/august 2020 new normal that what he discovers be used with humanity and be used wisely will seem rather trivial compared to those pleas which you will have to make and for which you will have to be responsible.’

(Physicist, Robert Oppenheimer, 1956)

And in recent years, those terrifying prospects are being realised:

‘It is crucial to remember that anger, joy, boredom and love are biological phenomena just like fever and a cough. The same technology that identifies coughs could also identify laughs. If corporations and governments start harvesting our biometric data en masse, they can get to know us far better than we know ourselves, and they can then not just predict our feelings but also manipulate our feelings and sell us anything they want – be it a product or a politician.

Biometric monitoring would make Cambridge Analytica’s data hacking tactics look like something from the Stone Age.’ (Historian, Yuval Noah Harari, 2020)

The knowledge that psychologists are generating is applied in ways most of us would balk at (but not all… vice-chairman Rory Sutherland says, ‘I would rather be thought of as evil than useless’).

Perhaps now we should take the opportunity to rethink psychology for the tough times ahead:

‘A psychological Enlightenment would be a moral as well as an intellectual event. The psychology of the future can contribute more to the evolution of a just world than any psychology envisionable to the great scholars of the past whose views of their neighbours around planet Earth had not yet been opened up by modern communications technology.

Such a psychology would start with the observation that there are no subhuman races or cultures among us. There are only people like ourselves who struggle to satisfy their needs and the needs of those they care about on an overcrowded, battered planet.’

(Psychologists, Bruce Alexander & Curtis Shelton, 2014)

Our subject’s best ideas could perhaps help humanity weather the storm:

‘In times of crisis, seemingly impossible ideas suddenly become possible. But whose ideas?

Sensible, fair ones – designed to keep as many people as possible safe, secure, and healthy – or, predatory ideas, designed to further enrich the already unimaginably wealthy while leaving the most vulnerable further exposed?’

(Author & activist, Naomi Klein, 2020)

Elements in our government may think people can be solved like equations, but psychologists can play a vital role in directing better policy:

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‘People are not planets or solar systems; there isn’t some secret Dr Lee Rowland is is underlying equation that, if a chartered research we can only find it, holds the psychologist and consultant. solution to all our problems.

He is currently writing his first The real world is messy, full of book, Psychofuture, about how uncertainty and impossible to psychology is responding to predict. Applying maths to the the social problems of the 21st real world requires much more century. than mathematicians. It requires leearowland@gmail.com people who understand human society and culture – people, in short, who actually understand people.’

(Mathematician & broadcaster, Hannah Fry, 2020)

Behavioural science has come to the fore in this crisis.

Maybe it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship:

‘What I hope might happen is that just as the field of economics is suddenly catching on to the decades of psychological research on decisionmaking, that other fields might start to do the same and to realise that there’s all this research out there which could be put into practice. Expert panels and commissions wouldn’t dream of not including an economist.

I’d like to see a day when they all have a psychologist too.’

(Broadcaster & psychologist, Claudia Hammond, 2009)

Impelled by catastrophe we can tunnel to new vistas for psychology:

‘We live trapped, between the churned-up and examined past and a future that waits for our work.

As we crawl gropingly through a dark piece of the present, our eyes are blinded to the brightness of the timeless world above.’

(Psychologist, Anna Freud, 1920)

Shaken from routine, this is an opportunity for growth.

Psychologists of all flavours know that we have more to offer the world than had hitherto been embraced.

‘Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves.

Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.’

(Writer, Arundhati Roy, 2020)

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SIGN UP BY LOGGING IN AT: BPS.ORG.UK/LOGIN AND GO TO THE PREFERENCES SECTION. 56

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‘We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world’

2040 visions…

New British Psychological Society President Dr Hazel McLaughlin follows up last month’s interview with a focus on change and the future

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When you were voted in as President Elect, you said: ‘Now is a time of change, not only within the BPS and psychology, but in our country and globally.’

We are entering a new normal and a period of economic uncertainty. Crisis is not new, but the scope and scale of Covid-19 will have profound impact.

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Over 50 per cent of the world GDP is in lockdown and the recovery plans are uncertain. Different countries have reacted in different ways. Some organisations are making the most of the crisis and seeking out competitive advantage, whilst others find it challenging to see a way forward and may collapse.

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the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes

‘Reformation of touch’, by Imogen Matthews

‘I interpreted the Covid response in stages, starting with the initial reaction, to transition, to the new norm, with symbolisms and collage of articles from The Psychologist.

I’ve included flashes of memories within the brain, formation of new connections (neurons/synapse), and our new norms of tech interface and lack of physical connection. Daffodils represent new beginnings… the anterior cingulate cortex expresses our social pain, and hints at how we find new ways of reforming touch into the uncertain future.’

For more artwork from Imogen, and discussion of the themes and evidence underlying it, see thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/ambiguous-crossroad

This process will accelerate changes that are already underway. These include technological advances, multi-generational workforce, the rise of the gig economy and the need for new and innovative ways of working.

The NHS is vital and are the heroes of the current crisis. With many of our members in the NHS it is important that the BPS informs government policy and is at the forefront in lobbying and enabling our members in terms of provision of services and the expectations on staff. Equally the BPS has a significant role to play in the changes in education and encouraging research, open access and quality information for decision-makers. Neuroscience helps us to explain what is under the bonnet, to explore the workings of the mind. This is another growth area where psychology should be at the forefront. The BPS should be ahead of the curve, drive the agenda rather than respond to it.

What will success look like at the end of your Presidential term, and 10 years down the line?

Psychology can add significant value in many areas of our daily lives and in how we understand the human condition. For me, a long-term goal is to develop and encouraged talent and to enable innovation in psychology. Over my career, I have mentored many psychologists and it is gratifying to see them succeed and excel in their chosen field. Developing talent and enabling others to succeed is a hallmark of my career.

This will continue to be a key focus in my Presidential year.

We should also look to collaborate and work with other liked-minded organisations. My focus is around how best to develop talent and how to enhance quality research and innovation. In addition, I want to ensure that we pay more than lip service to diversity and inclusion. The Presidential Taskforce has been established but the next stage is to expand this and to have a wider impact internally within the BPS and externally in terms of psychological professions.

We need to communicate well, to influence policy and to focus on an evidence-based approach.

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How do you think Psychology might have changed by the year 2040?

This is a hard question because we simply do not know. Who would have predicted the current Covid-19 situation back in 2000? We certainly live in a VUVA world; Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.

Having said this, I think there are trends that will help to shape our world for 2040.

A critical factor is the implications of technological change, both in terms of rapid change and in terms of impact on our lives. Undoubtedly our world is becoming increasingly digital and there is a blurring between the digital and non-digital world. The question becomes how we use the technology; how AI can enhance our lives and avoidance of pitfalls and risks. For me, this digital and data analytical world emphasises the important of social connections and networks. There will be a need for collaboration and for different ways of working.

Part of this will be reflected in the changing power dynamics. Organisations may operate in different ways.

Expertise and ideas will be valued but so too will be the ability to build relationships and to use inform power. Flexible working and different contracts will be the norm. We know from research, that people increasingly want a sense of purpose and what to take account of metrics beyond the financial. This includes social change, climate, and the balance that we want in our lives between work and non-work. We now have more dialogue about mental health and wellbeing.

Increasingly there is a need to provide support and to enable people to achieve balance. The excesses of social media and the impact that this has on people’s psychological wellbeing needs to be addressed.

I think that psychology; understanding of people, their behaviour and how the mind functions, will be increasingly important. Psychology and the BPS need to have a strong voice and to help to shape the agenda. To sum up, as Albert Einstein said ‘learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new.’

23/06/2020 15:29

2040 visions…

‘The levers that government are pulling are psychological’ Our editor Jon Sutton hears from Kathryn Scott, Director of Policy for the British Psychological Society

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It’s 2040. Imagine you’re still the British particular behaviour will be impossible to achieve or Psychological Society’s Director of Policy. maintain, or if there is a risk of significant unintended How would you hope psychology had changed? consequences, then the approach needs to be adapted.

That we had realised our potential, and been proactive There’s less hierarchy and more of an interplay, and about it. I’d hope that psychologists’ confidence in our that’s a better place for science to be. science, and what it can bring to the world, has grown and solidified. And that confidence was mirrored in I suppose we’ll only know a long way down the line terms of changes in external perception and impact. with enquiries exactly what’s gone on in the political In the policy work I do there seems to be a and scientific response to Covid, but from bits I’ve ‘hierarchy’ of science. My question is, is it imagined or seen, it does seem like there’s some debate over is it real? human nature in terms of ‘will people do this’, and My recent work with the Scientific Pandemic ‘how might we get people to do this’… Some of it Influenza Group on Behaviour [SPI-B] brought this based on quite a pessimistic view of human nature, into focus; there’s the virologists, there’s the modellers, scepticism that people will step up and respond in and there’s the behavioural scientists and psychologists. the way that they need to. Yet some of the individual I’ve heard members of the behavioural science group psychologists who I know have been involved, say we need to ‘defer’ to one of the others. Do we they actually have a much more optimistic view. actually mean ‘defer’? Have we been told there is a Psychology brings that sense of light and shade. hierarchy or is it internalised?

Yes, some people behave that way.

As psychologists I think we can Some people will be antisocial, operate in a space where we believe some people will be prosocial, “A blunt policy tool, a one and that we are at the bottom of the pile and then there will be everything size fits all, doesn’t give when it comes to science. Rather inbetween. Government may want than defer, it should be collaborate, a straightforward answer, and there the best outcomes” consult – or even challenge. isn’t one. As psychologists, we Everyone valuing each other’s piece can be comfortable saying, ‘that of the jigsaw puzzle. behaviour is on a continuum’.

Psychologists are comfortable in saying ‘everyone is Do you think that perceived hierarchy is there different’, including individuals from one day to the with the virologists, the epidemiologists and other next. Am I going to panic buy? Probably not, but if my disciplines? kid gets sick, maybe I would.

I think it’s changing for the better – there’s moves in policy making that are opening up space for It’s interesting that you say we’re comfortable with psychology and I’d like to see that continue. Covid is that… in terms of policy pronouncements and offering us an opportunity for us to see that unfolding media work, it’s perhaps just in the last few years in real time.

I’ve seen psychologists seem more willing to accept So the virologists and the epidemiologists have uncertainty and communicate that… ‘there isn’t a outlined the various things people need to do to straightforward answer: people are complex, and this minimise transmission and reduce risk – physical is why they’re complex’. distancing, hand-washing, as the most straightforward It comes back to self-confidence. As a discipline we examples - then traditionally it’s been the behavioural can be a bit deferential, a bit ‘we can’t talk about that scientists and the psychologists’ role to get everyone to because people want straightforward answers and do those things. But there is a growing understanding we can’t give them that’. But we’re now growing in that if there are psychological reasons why a confidence to be able to say, ‘It’s not that simple,

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the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes

and here’s our science to tell you why’.

But what happens when you do that? People do still want straightforward answers. And if they don’t get it from us as psychologists, will they go to places where they get them?

It’s a journey for policymakers. If you only listen to science that gives you black and white answers, you’re only going to get policy solutions that are black and white. A blunt policy tool, a one size fits all, doesn’t give the best outcomes. The science of policymaking is developing as well. The more tools that government have, and the more they understand that, the better the policy that comes out at the other end.

The more different approaches you can think about, the more you can prepare for unintended consequences. In this work around Covid, I’ve seen that psychology is quite good at thinking about unintended consequences in a way that more rigid sciences might not be. It’s like systems thinking… if the only thing affecting the science of whether or not to wear a face mask was the virus itself, that would be simple, but there’s a whole systemic response, all sorts of different influences, and that’s what we’re pretty good at.

And I guess your Psychological Government programme is about trying to embed that thinking in a wider population. Psychologists are perhaps becoming less protective over specialist professional training, and the goal is to get people other than psychologists thinking psychologically.

Yes. There’s a bit of an identity issue as well. How much of psychology are we willing to give away?

There are people who can’t bring themselves to say ‘behavioural economics’ without adding ‘that’s Psychology, actually…’ And I include myself in that, at one point. But to what extent is the semantic argument the place we want to expend our energy?

Better to acknowledge the impact of behavioural economics and use it to leverage the wider impact of psychology.

So if, in 2040, Psychology has, in effect, scattered itself to the winds, you’ll be quite comfortable with that because it would at least be growing in other places?

Yes and no. It’s about bringing the rest of psychology to bear… the theoretical models, ways of thinking, introducing uncertainty and emotion and complexity and systems thinking. We have a whole other way of thinking, and of improving outcomes for policy and for general public. That hasn’t yet been embraced in the same way. So let’s work on cementing that bit of psychology in the public and political psyche.

It comes back to the quality of the evidence base as well. One of the criticisms of the behavioural economics side of things, and the Behavioural Insights Team in government, has been a perceived

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tendency cherry pick suitable evidence or to overplay the quality of studies that backup things they’ve done. Ideally, we would trace a ‘golden thread’ back from a policy pronouncement or position to actual published pieces of quality scientific evidence.

To what extent do you think that’s important, the golden thread, as opposed to another way of influencing policy – having very smart people involved in the right groups, saying sensible things?

It’s both. Let’s be honest, the evidence base isn’t always there. Sometimes we stand by substandard bits of research, and there’s a ‘pop’ element of psychology that is not massively helpful in terms of our reputation.

But we know what research we need to do: what kind of questions and how to answer them. And partly that’s a chicken and egg thing with funding priorities… there’s been money invested in the medical research so they have the evidence base to justify further investment. But more and more we’re identifying really important research priorities that will help create that virtuous circle for psychology.

The Covid work is shining a light on this. There are places where the existing evidence base can’t provide all the answers and having some of those questions answered by psychology would have been really useful.

We can’t go back in time and fund all the research that

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we need for now, but we can systematically map the gaps and work to fill them.

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ambition shown in those statements?

It’s gradual If you gave me two-year timescale, probably not. If you give me a 20-year timescale, I’m quite hopeful. If we can lose some of the selfinterest and promote the public good bit of our mission statement… These are highly unusual times: the Prime Minister is sick, he’s a human, and Psychology has ways of understanding and explaining that and how it makes us feel… to discuss how people are human, emotional, complex in a way that classical economists or town planners perhaps can’t. It’s not about saying that we’re better, it’s saying that we’re part of the puzzle.

There are so many research studies starting up now.

The obvious danger is that it ends up being hasty or only really tells us something about responses in an unprecedented situation, rather than anything more fundamental. In 20 years, will we look back on this time as a shot in the arm for psychological research, a golden age when psychology stepped up, or as a missed opportunity and a scramble to respond?

But to what extent is that a weakness of our discipline, or more a structural issue around the funding? Psychologists are everywhere at the minute commenting on all the different elements of Covid.

Not all members are happy with the Society’s clear That’s a strength and weakness of our discipline – swing to more ‘political activity’. We’re regularly we can talk about everything, but we can lack told on The Psychologist to ‘stick to the science’. focus. Covid is affecting everything What do you say to those we think, feel and do and members? psychologists study everything That’s a very good question. I don’t “The levers that we think, feel and do. We can understand what science is for if government are pulling offer opinions on issues that we it’s not to try and improve things. are psychological: they don’t have a solid evidence base Progress is not left wing or right for, because we see the world in a wing – and anyway, we’re not in affect the way people different way. the world of right wing / left wing think, feel and behave” So we can help understand that politics at the minute. Look at what complexity. But policymakers don’t has just happened with public necessarily want more things on the spending. ‘too difficult’ pile. It becomes about framing, Call me naïve, but I don’t think anybody gets into and trying to take policymakers on a journey with us. politics, right or left, to not try to make the world a To say ‘you don’t have to go out to the most radical, better place. My experience of working closely with theoretical versions of our science… there are real steps MPs and policymakers, is different to the stereotypes. that we can take you on that will help you improve Many of them could get more powerful, better paid the outcomes of your policymaking.’ That might jobs without having to be elected by constituents, involve gently introducing some more complexity and to be accountable and responsible. Genuinely, emotion, some humanity. the vast majority of people who get into politics Covid has made everybody really human. are doing it because they want to improve things.

We’re in the age of authenticity. I can say to my team So why would only one side of politics be wanting to on a Zoom meeting ‘Look, guys, I just can’t talk use science to make the world a better place? Sure, anymore. I’ve run out of words for today.’ Everyone – maybe they want to use it in different ways, maybe government and parliamentarians included – can relate the way a piece of evidence might be interpreted will to that, and I’d like to see us capitalise on what that be different, but that’s why it’s for science to be there, ‘humanness’ means for policy. One of the strands of the making recommendations from the evidence base that Psychological Government work is on people as the are stronger, clearer, more usable and less able to be units of policymaking. The levers that government are co-opted for one argument or the other. pulling are psychological: they affect the way people think, feel and behave.

So what do you need from members to truly embed psychology in policy, to make the world a better That speaks to the importance of psychological input, place? but that’s not a new thing. Nobel Prize winner Albert I need them to be self-confident. I need them to Camus, in 1937: ‘Psychology is action, not thinking understand the uniqueness of the skill set that they’re about oneself’. Abraham Maslow’s 1958 paper, ‘The bringing. I need them to keep arguing for specific mission of the psychologist’: ‘I believe that the world questions that need to be answered. will either be saved by the psychologists or it won’t I’ve had some great expert reference group be saved at all. I think psychologists are the most meetings recently… we will have this wide-ranging important people living today. I think the fate of the conversation, and then someone will just go, ‘oh, human species and the future of the human species I’ve thought of a framework for this’, and it helps to rests more upon their shoulders than upon any group clarify everybody’s thinking. Yes, there are gaps in the of people now living.’ What gives you hope that in evidence base, and they’re not all going to get filled 2040, we’ll be starting to finally realise some of the immediately. But that’s the skill we bring.

23/06/2020 15:44

the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes

Stay connected It’s important for us all to keep in touch, now more than ever.

So we wanted to let you know about Member Connect. Our new online community where you can share ideas, comment on ours and stay connected.

Just log in using your existing BPS account details.

Let’s stay in touch bps.org.uk/communities

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23/06/2020 15:44

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2040 visions‌

What could psychology look like?

Alison Clarke with a call to action

W

Illustration by Nick Taylor nicktaylorillustration.co.uk

hile there may be a range of theoretical definitions of what psychology is, the most useful is perhaps the one around where people are actually using it, what it does and how its practitioners work. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that psychology is what is done

to people when they engage with the NHS about their poor mental health. In the world of education it is deployed in support of the children and people whose performance has been moved from the shadow of substandard to the different shadow of non-standard.

In the criminal justice system it has been used to design and implement interventions to fix broken people and stop them breaking other people and things. In the world of business it is used to generate greater performance to make a bigger contribution

One way to look at the future is with an intention to create it; to be the person whose actions and speaking inuences others in pursuit of a better set of outcomes for all.

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the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes

To tie in with the theme of the Society’s planned 2020 Conference, ‘Changing landscapes’, we asked contributors: ‘It’s 2040. You’re still working in Psychology, but it has changed. How?’ Over the coming pages we present a selection of their imaginative responses.

either are in care or have been (according to the to the bottom line, and sometimes to make the Prison Reform Trust). The World Economic Forum organisation look better while managing out the poor estimates that the 2007 economic crisis in Europe and performers or those whose faces don’t fit.

North America led to more than 10,000 extra suicides.

In short, psychology is used to fit we, the people, Figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest into the system we were born into. over three quarters of people who kill themselves are And yet the very context in which the parameters men. of what we call normal, and against which we define We say there is something to be fixed in those the users of psychology, is not called into question. We people we have counted in our have, in my lifetime, condemned statistics. But we appear to be administrations who have sent on only one part of the their ‘nonconformist’ citizens to the “psychology is used to fit focusing definition, the mental factors, Russian gulag or its equivalent we, the people, into the and paying little attention to the in other administrations we disapprove of in China or Iran. system we were born into” context. One of governments moving to the right, the economy Meanwhile we have set our own being driven by neoliberal rules for what it takes to ‘win’ principles where, harking back in this hierarchically organised, to Michael Douglas’s Wall Street, ‘greed is good’, and competitively driven capitalist race up the greasy relaxed controls in the financial sector causing the pole. We have taken no responsibility for the effect economic engine to blow out in the 2008 ‘banking that has on those who, for whatever reason, are less crisis’. able to climb or who are not interested in winning.

Yet the banks were saved, barely a banker We reward the winners for their success and was brought to book. A decade of austerity then blame the losers for their failure. And this system widened the gap farther between the haves and have is comfortably self-sustaining – the winners make nots, the north and the south and the people who the rules, and shape them to ensure that they keep dealt in money and those who, cut adrift from the winning. manufacturing base they relied on, now feared for We have been guilty of condemning generations the future of their families. This was a crisis for the of hurt and wounded people to a life on the fringes security felt by the people whose lives, expectations by rewarding behaviours that fit comfortably within and hopes were subject to the chill winds of homes plus or minus two standard deviations of the norms and jobs lost or precarious. we set, and ‘othering’ the outliers who we then offer to help by applying some sort of sticking plaster to their psyche. In so doing we have obliged many to Finger in the dyke live lives of quiet desperation and pretence, while A GP I know in Northern Ireland tells me that 70 per trying – against their different or damaged view of cent of the regular caseload in his surgery in a working themselves – to fit the mould. They become the class area carry the additional burden of the ‘Troubles ‘one in four’ (the number of people in the UK who legacy’, and pockets of real poverty and emotional will experience a mental health problem each year, distress. All he has to offer is seven minutes of human according to Mind). kindness and antidepressants. It’s not a solution.

We count those statistics generated by social The way we do psychology in this country doesn’t pressures and call it psychological distress. In make much of a difference. Great people go to work England, the Mental Health Foundation reports that and make the difference they are able to within their 19 per cent of women and 12 per cent of men have services, but it’s a bit like trying to stop the water a common mental health problem and women are leaking out of the dyke one finger at a time. It would almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety be more effective to take the pressure off. You cannot disorders. Fewer than 1 per cent of children and begin to solve a problem until you have correctly young people are in the care of local authorities, but identified it. I believe that our collective willingness a third of boys and 61 per cent of girls in custody

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to, in effect, blame the victims and subscribe to the idea that we have to fix them or teach them to fix themselves, means we will be forever facing a flood.

But there is a possibility of radical change opening up before us. In the face of the threat to our population’s health from CovidAlison Clarke is Chair of the 19, troubled by the anticipated British Psychological Society’s Psychological knowledge front suffering of our people and those Practice Board and centre who deliver our health system, the So what does that say about Chancellor Rishi Sunak, announced PBChair@bps.org.uk psychology in 2040? It certainly on 17 March that the government cannot be a simple linear projection would find the funds for ‘whatever from the past, imagining more fingers stuck in more it takes’ to support the people of this country in social distancing. Wages for the majority of working and self- dykes. In continuing with business as usual, projecting employed people were protected to 80 per cent, welfare the past into the future, we are colluding in propping up a system that is failing the people it is supposed benefits that had become miserly are being increased, to be serving. It is asking people to serve the system homes found for the homeless. All of a sudden the rather than making a better system that serves its people matter more than the numbers. people.

We are discovering which workers really matter.

As the British Psychological Society, we have It is the doctors, nurses and ancillary staff throughout thousands of active members, supported by our skilled the NHS. It is the suppliers of energy, the food professionals in communication and policy making. producers and distributors, waste and recycling, the Together, let us courageously put our psychological postal workers and delivery drivers, the bus drivers knowledge at the front and centre of a committed who continue to go out on the streets daily to keep breakthrough into the heart of government. Let essential services going, the teachers who remain on us urgently educate the policy makers who will be the front line. Armies of people from organisations of shaping our post Covid-19 lives, around the high all descriptions are pioneering new distributed ways of long-term cost, social and financial, of exclusion, working, refocusing the age-old question ‘do we work poverty and adversity. Let us foster a psychologicallyto live, or live to work?’ informed government, and have them use us to teach While we sit out this pandemic and deal with its human consequences, which will be hard for too many, others about the high cost to individuals in suffering anxiety around the narrow monetised measures of we can also start to plan how we will be instrumental success that we have relied upon for too long. Let in making the world a better place afterwards. There us teach our leaders what we know about the extent are many reasons why we can dare to expect that to which people falsely attribute their successes to there will not be a complete return to the status quo. their own endeavours while attributing their failures Professor Danny Dorling tells us in his forthcoming to the actions of others. Let us show them how the book, Slowdown, that the growth that characterised luck or good fortune of the accidents of our birth the 20th century has already been slowing down heavily influence the advantaged at the expense of for decades. There cannot be a return to neoliberal capitalism as we have known it, as the constant growth the disadvantaged and let us challenge them to level up the playing field. Let us take psychology into the on which it depends will not be there. Birth rates are slowing and populations are set to plateau globally this mainstream of education and work and teach people how human beings function and how to help them century. The Conservative government has, in the face to function better rather than waiting until they are of Covid-19, made a left turn back to the policies and values of the one nation Tories of the past. Community broken. Let us educate government in the importance of designing an economy that serves the people who is at the heart of the motivation of most of the country live in it rather than patching up the people who, to ‘do their bit’ by being socially distant. The ‘Blitz like ants, have been obliged to serve the economy. spirit’ has been evoked, with the public rallying to The task is urgent and important. If we are looking meet the call for volunteers to help the NHS in huge at 2040 we have only 20 years to achieve it, so we’d numbers. On the turn of a sixpence ‘we’ has trumped better start now. What will this call to action look ‘I’. like in real life, if we are going to take this opportunity to reshape the conversation for a different world?

What might we stop doing? What might we do more of? And what might we consider starting to do?

Over to you, fellow members… I for one am very keen to hear what you have to say.

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Amade scholarly who have already made a substantial contribution to a substantial The DPsych (Prof) isquality renowned for its innovation and quality d of ps yc hological contribution to the field of psychological therapyther community of more than 120 graduates have made in practice-based research.

A scholarly community of more ublications and/or public through a range of such publications and/or public works signification contributions to the development of the publications and/or public works as: the development ment of innovative ther such as: the development of innovative therapy psychological therapies. the development of the psychological therapies. of innovative therapy services; major organisational change; nisational change; estab services; major organisational change; establishment establishment of successful training programmes. programmes. of successful training programmes.

The Programme is aimed at re-vitalising and The Programme is aimed at re-vitalising and nourishing nourishing senior qualified practitioners. It offers an orted to undertake an in are supportedare to undertake Candidates supportedan to intensive, undertake an intensive, alternative to traditional research based PhDCandidates or h audit of their e xisting traditional research based PhD or academic, taught reflexive, 12-18 month audit of their existing academic, taught doctoral programmes and can be doctoral programmescompleted and can bewithin completed within threeyears. During the achievements. three and a half first year of the Programme taught modules take taught modules take place place approximately approximately once onceaamonth. month. Candidates are Candidates are then then supported to develop a research supported to develop a research submission submission which is project rather than thesis – based. which is– project – rather than thesis – based.

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For full details please contact: 08 832 3073 For full details please contact: Sonia Walter, Senior Academic Co-ordinator, on 0208 832 3073 uk Sonia Walter, Senior Academic Co-ordinator, on 0208 832 3073 or email her at sonia.walter@metanoia.ac.uk or email her at sonia.walter@metanoia.ac.uk nd on, W5 2QB Metanoia Institute, 13 North Common Road, Ealing,Road, London, W5 London, 2QB Metanoia Institute, 13 North Common Ealing, W5 2QB egistered Charity 100 www.metanoia.ac.uk RegisteredCharity Charity10050175 10050175 www.metanoia.ac.uk Registered

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23/06/2020 16:11

2040 visions…

‘It’s 2040. You’re still working in Psychology, but it has changed.

How?’

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Psychology as a thing of the past Prof-bots or a psychologically informed future?

You decide, says Angel Chater

he pandemic changed things.

Humans began to isolate themselves.

First by country, then by city, then by family. Some were left alone, with Alexa or Siri as their only companions. Human touch became a thing of the past, with people not knowing what was safe and what would put them at risk. They became driven by fear and emotion, with just a small number of psychologists to provide behavioural insight. Daily essentials to fight the spread of the virus were wiped out of the marketplace. Hospitals were stripped of products needed to protect the ill.

Many died, and not just from the virus. Health care for those with long-term conditions dwindled. Mental ill health was rife. Decades of lack of investment in psychology was catching up with the world. People missed the human connection. Microsoft Teams and Zoom shone brightly from floor to ceiling in every home, organisation and public space.

While the surviving human race retreated, artificial intelligence and robotics advanced rapidly. The Human Behaviour Change Project had highlighted, from the research evidence, what works in the prevention and treatment of ill health and computing experts had taken this to produce a stronger population. Without an investment in psychology to support behaviour change and strategic policy making, science created an alternative solution to the vulnerability of human contagion. The weakness of human behaviour was attributed to the many ‘lifestyle’ diseases. Research labs and hospital departments were now commonly led by Professors – but machine, not human. These ‘Prof-bots’ were virtually indestructible. Not vulnerable to communicable contagion, air pollution or the behaviours that put the human race at risk such as smoking, excess alcohol, poor diet or lack of activity.

They didn’t need to engage with a health care system, yet they could deliver structured services.

To keep up, the humans who survived evolved.

Working with the Prof-bots, they programmed themselves with technology that extended the wristworn trackers to a micro-chip embedded into their arm. These chips monitored heart rate, blood pressure and temperature. They now controlled behaviours that

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were once high priority for public health, removing the need to eat, and the desire to smoke or drink alcohol.

They needed just one hour to charge, seen as ‘sleep’ in the human world. ‘Me time’ away from work was issued to all humans, and was limited to 30 minutes per day, which included social and physical activities.

Prof-bots mapped these restrictions to pre-virus behaviour, whereby many humans were engaging in minimal sleep and found it difficult to allocate even 30 minutes each day for behaviours such as physical activity or eating with their family and friends.

This way of life had emotional ramifications.

The humans were isolated and lonely. Fearful and sad.

Benefits of social interaction, friendship, relationships and love were a thing of the past. Time filled instead with working to produce the ‘next big thing’… to add to all the other next next big things. Chasing the dream that one day, it would all slow down. That one day, they would have that ‘me time’, to spend with friends and family. In reality, this was a dream that few would experience.

For decades, the authoritarian government had restricted the resource given to psychological support.

So the humans learned to switch off their emotions and to ignore their exhaustion. This helped them to stay focused and driven on the achievements of the next big thing, and made them more robotic and able to function to a similar level as their peer Prof-bots.

While the humans and Prof-bots acknowledged that psychology could provide sensible solutions, death of the weak, and suffering of those who remain was the chosen option. Commonly you would hear echos of this dis-investment. ‘But psychological intervention is so expensive’, ‘We haven’t got the time to give to psychology’, ‘Can’t we find a cheaper solution’, were words that chimed from the Prof-bots who now had majority control of the mechanical government. The lack of investment in psychology rippled to the closure of psychology departments. Psychological training courses ceased to exist. The role of psychology was replaced in health care, academia, business and so on by digital AI and by those who think they know what psychology is and what it can offer, based on one book they read or a two-hour workshop they went to.

But let’s stop for a moment… Imagine, everything you have read until here was a nightmare. The rapid

Professor Angel Chater is a Health Psychologist at the University of Bedfordshire angel.chater@ beds.ac.uk

24/06/2020 20:05

the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscape

The moon shines bright on planet Earth… an unusual sight given the amount of toxicity now in the air. As Professor Zorb draws the virtual meeting to a close, the digital clock embedded in every attendees’ arm flashes 3.55am.

An early end to the working day, and there is still time to check the digital communications before the mandatory hour of sleep at 05.00 hours. This checking is recognised as an important daily task.

Long ago, there were just 10-20 accounts to check; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, YouTube, Whatsapp, Messenger, Tumblr, Tik Tok, Reddit, LinkedIn, Viber, Pinterest, email accounts and of course the international news pages. But now, in 2040, there are over 200. The fear of missing out is too much for many to ignore. changes in technology, the sheer speed of living, while assisting our lives, is also destroying us.

The world has moved quickly. We have lived through the advancements we once thought would be beyond the realms of our existence. So how do we redraw the bleak picture of Prof-bots and a disconnected society? Of humankind facing premature death or an emotionless life, fuelled with work?

The answer… Psychology. From top-down to bottom-up, we need to be psychologically informed.

But people outside of psychology don’t know what they don’t know. We need a psychologically-informed society. One led by a functional psychologicallyinformed government, that invests in training and career opportunities to see psychological

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professionals as important as doctors as nurses within a multidisciplinary team. To help inform policy and practice, training and service development.

The leading causes of illness and death in society today can be supported by psychology. That may be through direct psychological support, to enhance mental wellness. Or through the psychological understanding and intervention with a multitude of detrimental behaviours, engagement with the health care system and professional communication. We are the voice of psychology and we need to shout louder than ever before, with gravitas. Let’s not sleepwalk our way into a world led by Professor Zorb, where psychology becomes a thing of the past.

24/06/2020 20:05

2040 visions…

‘It’s 2040. You’re still working in Psychology, but it has changed.

How?’

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Work, workers and workplaces Roxane Gervais on flexibility and leadership

he 21st century’s persistent focus on flexible work practices has challenged the perception that work has to be static to be valuable. Back in 2020 – in the midst of a global pandemic – we psychologists were starting to appreciate the growing flexibility of what work is, what it represents, who carries it out, when, where and how.

During this time the worth of skilled, competent and experienced workers was more fully recognised, especially when they could transition easily to a new role to better support society and the economy.

These rapid ‘career’ changes saw individuals reflecting on where they were career-wise, and the benefits of adjusting to a different role, especially as it was opportune to do so. The aftermath of the virus allowed occupational psychologists to support organisations and workers through redeploying or reskilling workers to shift direction and refocus their career.

The rapid, seemingly never-ending development of technology since the 19th century has meant that workers are free (mainly) of dangerous and debilitating work practices, such as the repetitive and monotonous tasks which existed previously. Coronavirus was a timely reminder that some of the least rewarded professions should also be the most vital and valued, and that all staff need the equipment to do their job safely – in both physical and mental terms.

Close to full employment has now been achieved in the West, with AI supporting the workability of older workers, thereby ensuring that organisations remain productive, efficient and effective. Many countries have also had to address the shrinkage of their populations with declining fertility rates; while this has benefits for overall sustainability in terms of resources, the impact on the workplace has not been as favourable.

Competition for skilled and competent workers has meant that organisations do not always get the specific workers they need.

A competitive work environment provides workers with stronger bargaining positions, including where they choose to locate. In this fourth industrial revolution, as with the previous three, the majority of workers congregate to the central larger cities, rather than to smaller and less urbanised regions. The skew

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in where large or global companies have offices is to the detriment of those skilled workers, who may not wish to work in large cities. Fortunately, technology has helped those who wish to remain as independent workers, the entrepreneurs and the self-employed, to pursue business ventures, regardless of their location.

The shift to an almost full service-based economy has driven an increased rate of remote working practices, regardless of their nature. This has not been without unintended consequences. As humans, the need to connect – not with AI, but with each other – is a core component of being human and wanting to experience humanity. ‘Work’, in itself, provides a purpose for an individual. But this purpose reduces in value if it cannot be shared and undertaken with others. A more flexible working style has not reduced the need for a connectivity that comes from having supportive colleagues to interact with on a daily basis.

Occupational psychologists continue to promote the necessity of face-to-face communication, and the undeniable benefits that collaborating with colleagues on projects and tasks bring to the workplace.

The fluidity of work in 2040 has resulted in a workforce that continues to be comfortable in terms of how and where it works, with the industrial and digital revolutions influencing this globalised and fluid approach to work. This way of working suits especially the ‘Z’ and ‘alpha’ generations who, having been raised in fully digital homes, expected this way of working on joining the workforce. Online meetings are now standard, supported by shared platforms to support co-working. A global workforce does not require a physical presence in any single office. These methods have boosted commitments to provide more ecological ways of working.

However, even with the many benefits that flexible working has contributed to workplace systems, the work-life interface continues to influence how individuals choose to work. Some customs take longer to change than others, and the burden of domestic tasks remains – falling, more frequently, on women.

This is notwithstanding that more women than ever before are in the workforce, due to the political support in providing appropriate and inexpensive child and elder care options (put in place to ensure more productive and competitive economies). The blurring

Dr Roxane L. Gervais is a Chartered Psychologist, and Honorary Treasurer of the British Psychological Society. roxane_gervais@ alumni.fdu.edu

24/06/2020 09:13

the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes Illustration by Nick Taylor nicktaylorillustration.co.uk

between work and life continues to be a pervasive element of the work environment.

Interestingly, the onus remains on workers to determine how best to work to ensure that they can maintain their overall well-being, inclusive of their mental health. Most organisations offer flexible working patterns, but it is left to the worker to manage its effectiveness. Part-time, ‘gig’ and other forms of precarious work persist in the service-based economy, as a notional ‘choice’ for individuals. Some workplaces have introduced more efficient ways of working in order to shorten the work week, but the perception that ‘visibility = productivity and performance’ remains. For those organisations that have transitioned to a permanent four-day week, psychologists have been key in assessing the impact upon performance, productivity and well-being of workers… including the sustainability of such effects.

What lies at the heart of the differences between those organisations that continue to explore, and then adopt, different work patterns? Effective and

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progressive leadership. In 2040 this is a strong determinant in facilitating a supportive workplace culture, which in turn realises a productive organisation. Occupational psychologists continue to be instrumental in developing leaders and recommending how best to provide workers and organisations with the resources they need to enhance their functionality in a continuously changing landscape.

So what has changed in the world of work in the past 20 years? Not much. The technology has supported greater connectivity, while enhancing functionality; but IT, systems, procedures, processes and physical structures are all just adjuncts to the workers, and to those who lead them. The world will continue to change, it is inevitable, and the dynamism needed for addressing these changes in workplaces requires transformational leaders who inspire, empower and influence their workforce, thereby allowing creativity, innovation and very motivated workers.

24/06/2020 09:13

Getty images

2040 visions‌

A green perspective Jan Maskell with two visions from a warming planet

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24/06/2020 10:02

the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes

‘It’s 2040. You’re still working in Psychology, but it has changed.

How?’

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he landscape of work in 2040 will be dictated to a large extent by what we achieve in relation to climate change in the interim. Did we, as humans and as psychologists, manage to control the impacts and keep the average global temperature rise to within the 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?

Or did it rise by 4 degrees or beyond?

In either case there will be changes to energy supply and use, resource consumption, travel to and for work, and the supply chain. In order to look back from 2040, I need to split myself into two modes of thought… I begin with the more pessimistic perspective.

areas, for example where there are rare and valuable minerals needed for technology.

The impact on infrastructure and transport affected access to work, resources and food, all ultimately affecting vulnerable people increasing inequalities.

Transport difficulties impinged on supply chains for organisations.

So, this level of temperature rise impacted on work and psychologists in two main ways: anxiety about these effects at an individual level for those affected directly through, e.g. floods and heat stress; and work related stress due to threats to employment and organisations’ ability to deal with the growing pressures from climate change, such as infrastructure damage, food insecurity, and climate conflicts.

1.5 degree rise (or less) In this more positive world, professionals, scientists and psychologists managed – through the application 2-4 degree rise (or more) of governance, technology and behaviour change – Extreme weather events became more frequent, with to keep the global average temperature rise to below heatwaves the deadliest global weather hazard. In 1.5 degrees. This has happened because those in power countries that were already hot, the human heat stress – in government and organisations, big and small – limits are exceeded more often, often proving fatal. As have taken action. climatic zones moved north, the range of infectious We have recognised that we could not continue diseases such as malaria changed too. In some places, with ‘business as usual’ in terms of our energy rainfall became more intense, but some areas received supply and use; resource consumption and disposal, less rain because of changes in wind patterns… procurement and supply chains; and travel to and for droughts became more common. work.

Rising sea levels caused problems for people Buildings and infrastructure around the world. Back in 2020, have been adapted to cope with nearly 4 in 10 people lived within the new conditions. Organisations 100 kilometres of a shoreline, and “Changes to our ways of have planned around a changing many more lived in fear of heavy living occurred quickly climate. A key element was rainfall bursting riverbanks or and related to our shared an increasing commitment to overwhelming drainage systems. renewable energy (and on-site Climate change also affected values.” generation) and continuing to farming in the UK. Hotter weather review and reduce energy use. Our and higher levels of CO2 made consumption of resources moved to growing some crops easier, even a circular economy, where we considered the life cycle allowing the production of new ones. However, water of a product and how it will be re-used, re-purposed, became harder to access, making it more difficult for repaired or recycled rather than just thrown away. farmers to plan the growing season. Climate change ‘Almost zero to landfill’ became a mantra. The buying plus the growing population led to resource scarcity – power of organisations rippled through supply chains of energy and materials. This caused conflict in some

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as requirements for organisations to demonstrate their sustainability credentials become a greater part of the procurement process.

Emissions from work related travel have reduced as more people worked a shorter week and from home more often. There is more active travel – walking, cycling and Dr Jan Maskell is a Chartered using public transport. Personal Psychologist and Going Green car ownership has been, at least in Working Group Convenor part, replaced with car sharing, lift for the British Psychological sharing and different rental models.

Society’s Division of Occupational Travel to meetings is much reduced Psychology. through the use of alternative jnmskll@gmail.com What did we learn to get virtual communication methods us here? becoming the new normal.

Gifford also noted that it is very Psychologists working with politicians, difficult for humans to grasp threats that are sometimes organisations and individuals demonstrated the perceived as invisible, gradual, distributed and longreasons why people resist the changes that are term. In addition, Daniel Gilbert asserted, through our needed, drawing on Robert Gifford’s 2011 ‘Dragons of long psychological evolution we respond to four key Inaction’ as false justifications and excuses. Many of triggers: these barriers are also transferable to organisations as • Personal – we are best prepared to identify threats reasons given for not taking action on climate change. from other humans For example, our ‘Limited Cognitions’ dragons of • Abrupt – sudden changes ignorance about climate change – temporal and spatial • Immoral – indecent, repulsive discounting, and lack of perceived behavioural control • Now – at the present time – have been countered with actions such as education and training.

It was recognised that climate change did not spark The ‘Social Comparison’ dragons explained any of these. While we were aware of climate change, the tendency to be influenced by individuals and it was not a threat caused by a person, it happened organisations that are admired. Perceived inequity and gradually, it did not make us feel disgusted, and was the rule of authority can be altered through the use of not in the present. goals, organisations leading by example and modelling, Psychologists looked at what worked in terms plus the use of injunctive and descriptive norms. of communication, behaviour change and rapid ‘Sunk Costs’ dragons are investment choices transition. The actions of Attenborough and Thunberg (not necessarily monetary) that limit alternatives, were particularly effective at getting the message specifically climate-friendly choices. The behavioural across to the mainstream in ways that activists and momentum of habits can be difficult to change, e.g.

NGOs had not been able to for decades. Their ideas travel habits can have strong negative effects on the appealed because they focused on what we as humans environment, but can be challenged with policies, had caused (plastic in the oceans) which was seen to incentives, disincentives, default options and goals. be distasteful, and how one person was not ‘too small ‘Limited Behaviour’ dragons showed why to make a difference’ – making the issue Personal, organisations try to do something to help the Immoral and Now. environment but sometimes these efforts fall short.

George Marshall’s work also highlighted the The rebound effect is when a positive environmental benefits of building narratives (a strength of behaviour is followed by one that cancels it out, e.g.

Attenborough) of cooperation accepting a range of people with fuel-efficient vehicles sometimes drive approaches. Psychologists worked closely with those more than those without them, to the point where in power and those communicating actions with the net damage is greater. This is also known as the businesses, to emphasise the active values we have Jevons Paradox or the Khazzoom-Brookes postulate. in common – such as a better life for all, health and Education, training and communication are key ways thriving communities. that this dragon can be challenged.

The pandemic showed us how we are linked in This wasn’t just about psychologists helping the a global system and that we could change to try to planet. Engaging employees in the rapid transition overcome an issue that was clearly Personal, Abrupt, needed for organisations to become more sustainable Immoral and Now. Changes to our ways of living workplaces also had benefits related to hedonic occurred quickly and related to our shared values. wellbeing. We’re living a more ‘meaningful life’ – The lessons learned from this were the need to growth through goal achievement and the achievement affirm wider values first and then develop ways that of eudaimonic wellbeing. successfully tackled climate change.

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24/06/2020 10:03

the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes

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the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes Illustration by Nick Taylor nicktaylorillustration.co.uk

2040 visions…

‘It’s 2040.

You’re still working in Psychology, but it has changed.

How?’

When the job hunts you Linda Kaye on putting our online data to work

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How it works wenty years ago, in 2020, we were AGPP supports both potential job candidates and starting to understand that the employers, and has been fruitful for the capacityinformation we were posting online building of recruitment agencies. A potential job may have consequences. In fact, candidate or job seeker signs up to an AGPPmany of us felt we were revealing compliant recruitment agency. The agency has access too much about ourselves, and as a to their psychometric profile which is updated in result putting ourselves and others real-time, garnered from their online data. When at risk. Although we recognised new jobs are advertised anywhere online, the agency that different types of information were better suited automatically corroborates this information, and the to be communicated either publicly or privately in potential candidate is notified of a ‘match-fit’ to a given these online spaces, what we didn’t fully appreciate opportunity. was that any information posted online was privy to a Back in 2020 this matching might have happened third-party audience. ‘Big tech’ was always watching, on the basis of skills and experience, but this delves using our online data to learn more about us. It came deeper. The match-fit is based on an automaticallyto know as much about us as our friends, family and generated similarity fit score colleagues. It mined our internet between the candidate and the search histories, ‘Likes’ and ‘Shares’ desired psychometric profile of the of content from social networking “… we can understand role. All employers are required sites, friendship connections, a potential candidate’s to provide the recruitment agency membership of group pages, and personality via their data with a psychometric competencies commercial purchasing behaviours. framework for any given job advert.

For psychologists, however, from ‘big tech’, which A potential candidate can then big tech’s data gathering mission allows us a much more choose to accept or decline the bore fruit in the advancement of efficient and accurate match. If accepted, the employer psychometric assessment testing in the recruitment process. This has means of garnering their is then sent a summary of the candidate’s psychometric profile become widely-known as ‘autopsychological profile…” and similarity fit score. They can generated psychometric profiling’ then choose to proceed or reject (AGPP). We are no longer reliant any subsequent action, which may on time- and resource-heavy or may not include inviting a candidate to submit a processes of organising recruitment assessment days formal application. and having to administer and analyse psychometric This has supported the recruitment process tests (which we recognised were often subject to social in a number of ways to assist both employers and desirability). Instead, we can understand a potential candidates. It has reduced the need for time and candidate’s personality via their data from ‘big tech’, resource-intensive assessment days for psychometric which allows us a much more efficient and accurate testing. The AGPP process is generated prior to a means of garnering their psychological profile to candidate even applying for a job. Only the most support the ‘matching and suitability’ process for a psychometrically-suitable people will be personally given job opportunity.

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invited to apply, and any rejected candidates will not have to waste anyone’s time, including their own, on formally applying.

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behaviours are corresponded and Contributions from verified to ensure they are accurate cyberpsychology of an individual. This includes The field of cyberpsychology Dr Linda K. Kaye is a Senior personal identification criteria (e.g. has pioneered the evidence base Lecturer in the Department fingerprint, facial recognition) to underpinning this advancement. of Psychology at Edge Hill ensure that these are a true record We know that our online University. She is currently Chair of that individual and not someone behaviour reveals insights into of the British Psychological fraudulently posing as them; our personalities, and that use Society’s Cyberpsychology and social verification via peer of language online impacts Section. endorsement ratings on platforms judgements of others’ personalities.

Kayel@edgehill.ac.uk such as social networking sites, Specifically, language behaviours to ensure that content is deemed such as the use of text-speak, vocabulary usage, writing errors, spelling, and pronoun representative of them. These recognition criteria and usage have been found to affect impressions of people’s ratings provide a confidence metric to corroborate an individual’s auto-generated psychometric profile. personalities (Boland & Queen, 2016; Darbyshire et al., 2016; Ellison et al., 2006; Fullwood et al., 2015; Kaye et al., in press; Queen & Boland, 2015; Vignovic Reflecting back & Thompson, 2010; Wall et al., 2016). Even more The role of psychologists in these advancements so, symbols such as emoji, which can really only be has been critical. We were vocal on the ethical gathered from naturalistic online behaviours such as on online social networking sites, relate to impressions assurances needed to align with personal privacy while serving a purpose for the public good. Two of a target’s personality, and importantly, in respect main motivations convinced us of that. First was of some personality traits such as openness, these the termination of physical Job Centre provision are indeed accurate judgements based on the political agenda that ‘unemployment’ (Wall et al., 2016). Other online Key sources was not a discrete identifiable description, but behaviours which also relate to instead a transitory experience which was better personalities are photo-related content and behaviours (Darbyshire supported proactively through recruitment agencies.

Boland, J.E. & Queen, R. (2016). If you’re house is still available, send me an Occupational psychologists therefore highlighted et al., 2016; Eftekhar et al., 2014; email: Personality influences reactions the need for better systems to support those out Hancock & Toma, 2009). For to written errors in email messages. of work to find suitable job opportunities, hence example, personality judgements PloS One, 11(3), e0149885. are based on how users self-generate the introduction of AGPP. Secondly, the ‘open data’ Darbyshire, D., Kirk, C., Wall, H.J. & movement helped us recognise that ‘data’ included online albums and the amount of Kaye, L. K. (2016). Don’t judge a (Face) that of ourselves, and fuller transparency was required photos they upload (Eftekhar et book by its cover: Exploring judgement accuracy of others’ personality on for the purposes of supporting the public good. This al., 2014). All this has helped us Facebook. Computers in Human required us to reconceptualise what we understood as understand that aspects of human Behavior, 58, 380-387. personality are evident in our online ‘private’; instead, big tech classified our online data as Eftekhar, A., Fullwood, C. & Morris, ‘unrestricted’ or ‘restricted’, in collaboration with the behaviours, and importantly that N. (2014). Capturing personality from security and defence sector. these enable us to make accurate Facebook photo and photo-related However, reservations remain. Even in 2040, we impressions of others. activities: How much exposure do you need? Computers in Human Behavior, 37, live in a world which includes poverty and there is still We have come a long way 162-170. a minority of individuals who do not have access to since the old days of employers Fullwood, C., Quinn, S., Chenthe latest smartphone technology or regular internet using their own initiative to do Wilson, J., Chadwick, D. & Reynolds, connectivity. These are people who remain largely random screenings of candidates’ K. (2015). Put on a smiley face: private yet restricted in the traditional meaning of the social networking information as Textspeak and personality perceptions. term, by the fact that AGPP is not yet fully inclusive. an indication of their suitability Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(3), 147-151.

Despite this, AGPP has remained widely popular for jobs. Not only was this Wall, H.J, Kaye, L.K. & Malone, S.A. and successful in the recruitment and employment non-standardised, it was also (2016). An exploration of psychological sector. Employment retention has increased threefold largely subject to human biases. factors on emoticon usage and in the last five years, highlighting that this use of our Our auto-generated techniques implications for judgement accuracy. data may be one of a number of factors which helps eradicate these issues, and provide Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 70-78. people find jobs which are more suitable to their an objective, bias-free, standardised Full list available in online/app version. psychological profile, therefore increasing their job alternative. Verification metrics are (and, indeed, life) satisfaction. an important part of that, whereby

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2040 visions…

‘We now fit the system to the person’

‘It’s 2040.

You’re still working in Psychology, but it has changed.

How?’

As psychologists working clinical health, we have been close to the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic and the lessons that are ours to seize and hold on to. We have dared to imagine a progressive (perhaps utopian?) future, written from the perspective of a new graduate, and we invite you come along with us…

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graduated in 2020, the first of the Covid-19 generation of young people in the UK whose education and futures were shaped by experience of the pandemic. Whilst that time was bleak, looking back it’s possible to see the start of important change. I’m not talking about the sort of dramatic changes that happen in a crisis, then fade when it passes. I’m talking about sustainable shifts that have momentum and grow. Here are some of the most positive and important changes to affect clinical health psychology in the last 20 years.

Collage by Andrea Watts (City University, London) Using collage as a creative coaching tool had always meant working with clients face to face with the materials. So, the challenge for Andréa during Covid-19 was to transition her arts-based methodology online, without losing the power of images to unlock unconscious thinking. Discover how she accomplished it at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/rich-visual-language 82

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Preventative behavioural health services From the perspective of 2040, the expense and loss of quality of life resulting from treating ill health mainly after it has occurred seems absurd. It took a pandemic with very uneven effects to make health inequality a hot political issue. The power of public favour for the NHS helped immeasurably. Politicians saw the value of shifting to invest in the health promotion and prevention approach we have today. Waiting for the vaccine forced us to address issues that contributed to poor Covid-19 outcomes, including obesity and long-term health conditions. It also challenged us to reconsider and address cultural diversity and lifespan issues in relation to health, as older adults and citizens from BAME backgrounds were disproportionately affected.

Now, enjoying the fruits of investment, we have early years support for children, and preventative behavioural health services co-led by psychologists and other health professionals. Life expectancy is increasing again, due to reduced health inequality.

In hospitals, we see fewer people of working age with complex multi-morbidities. The physical and psychological burden of living with chronic disease linked to lifestyle is reducing. With an expanded psychological professions resource, we actually aspire to meet psychological need for everybody with physical health problems, rather than just tackling the tip of the iceberg.

Psychology became everyone’s business The concern for the mental health of frontline workers during the pandemic assisted the gradual de-stigmatisation of mental health in society. As the world recovered from Covid-19, the impact of trauma was brought into the general consciousness, and appreciation of this influenced a redesign of certain services. Distress is now understood as an expected response to adverse events, with recognition

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the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes

that healthcare professionals (HCP’s) are regularly exposed to situations that can be traumatising.

Psychologists took a lead in embedding trauma theory into healthcare delivery. Reflective practice is now considered integral to staff wellbeing, and therefore optimum care provision, and there are cascade models of support (psychologists supporting team leaders to support their teams) across healthcare. Traumainformed approaches became a reality for long-term health conditions where there are high levels of adversity and distress; historical and current. Within this, there is the acknowledgement of complex dynamics that can manifest in service user and HCP relationships and the association with health outcomes.

Psychological consultation is now commonplace in relation to these issues.

Post-qualification training in psychological skills is essential for the continued registration of all HCP’s.

Psychology has become everyone’s business, and is so well-rooted that stepped care models are rarely explicitly referenced. The revised post-Covid-19 NHS Long term plan (2020) required employment of psychologists in every hospital and community setting. The BPS worked across divisions and networks to achieve strategic influence and assessment and intervention became meaningfully bio-psychosocial.

In mental health services, physical health is given appropriate attention and we have seen morbidity and mortality rates significantly improve. As a trainee, prior to 2020, I noted psychology was often an afterthought in care discussions. Half remembered, fading in and out of the awareness of my hospital colleagues. Unlike my supervisor then, I don’t need to campaign to keep psychological wellbeing of patients and staff in the spotlight – it’s part of the fabric of everything we do.

There is much less reactive involvement with the expectation that a crisis can be fixed. We no longer require that ‘magic wand’ to prove our worth.

Training changed Training for psychologists now is unrecognisable.

Back then there was talk of developing skills and competencies across specialties, and inter-professional learning, yet it seemed that clinical health psychology was an optional extra; sporadic and inconsistent.

Physical health placements are now mandatory. Did we really claim to have expertise in a bio-psychosocial approach without experience in physical health settings?

Now, my trainees come on placement already wellversed in clinical health psychology. They are much more knowledgeable than me regarding responding to psychological and physical health interactions and apply this across a range of needs (e.g. intellectual disabilities, complex mental health problems).

Additionally, when working within specialist physical health services, their enhanced understanding of health encompasses reciprocal associations between a whole range of factors. This means that MDT understandings

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consistently include broader factors such as early trauma, quality of relationships and support networks (personal and healthcare) and sexual health, function and satisfaction.

Dr Sarah Rutter is Chair of the British Psychological Society’s HIV and Sexual Health Faculty, and a clinical psychologist in HIV at North Manchester General Hospital.

Sarah.Rutter@mft.nhs.uk Dr Angela Busuttil is Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Health Psychology Services Clinical Lead, Primary Care and Wellbeing, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; and BPS DCP Chair Faculty of Clinical Health Psychology. angelabusuttil@yahoo.co.uk

Personalised healthcare I remember the 2020s as a time of talk and excitement about personalised medicine, but not much change. People were still Mike Rennoldson is a Senior treated by the category that seemed Lecturer at Nottingham Trent to fit them best (or not) as far as University I could tell. With personalised mike.rennoldson@ntu.ac.uk care developments, you could say that medicine caught up with psychology, as we prided ourselves on individual formulations. However, the kind of psychology we do today is qualitatively different. We’re using and actively contributing to research from areas which integrate physical and mental health, such as psychoneuroimmunology, and the gut micobiome, which informs our work. We are becoming truly inter-disciplinary and in 2040 we balance ‘No Health without Mental health’ equally with ‘No Mental Health without Health’.

Covid-19 also taught us about our ability to adapt when necessary, and we offer flexible services to all who use them. Technology continues to be a central feature to healthcare delivery, particularly for those with busy lives. This has freed up space for teams to provide more traditional face-to-face care for those who require in the room connection, and might need extra time due to complex needs. We now fit the system to the person.

Final thoughts Looking back, it remains important to remember the devastation that Covid-19 brought to so many. Perhaps the way we pay tribute to those who are bereaved or forever affected is to balance this with development for the greater good, including our health system.

Covid-19 highlighted the importance of relationships, human connection and created some perspective shifts. It made us aware of vulnerability; our own, that of people we care about and of our planet. Our shared understanding of loss, self-sacrifice and celebrating the small stuff bonded communities and seemed to alter the general conscience. Ultimately, it helped us take better care of our world and of each other.

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2040 visions‌

Restoring and honouring community

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Illustration by Nick Taylor nicktaylorillustration.co.uk

Sally Zlotowitz, with thanks to Ebinehita Iyere and Rachel McKail from MAC-UK

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the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes

‘It’s 2040.

You’re still working in Psychology, but it has changed.

How?’

W

hen we look back from 2040, we remember the Covid-19 pandemic as a turning point for psychology and for wider society. The importance of community – of solidarity and of collective action that looked beyond our own self and family interest – was brought back into sharp focus.

We were thrown back to our ‘community’ being our neighbourhood, our place. Locked into our homes, people didn’t wait for formal public services to look after their neighbours.

Instead mutual aid groups sprung into action, creating a hyper-local system to ensure all neighbours had access to food, medicine, social connection, emotional support and anything else that could be shared or donated across households. Communities had become more selfdetermined, not waiting for permission from formal agencies to look after each other in whatever way was needed. As Rebecca Solnit explained in her incredible 2010 book, A Paradise Built in Hell, ‘the conundrum we call human nature readily rises to the occasion of a crisis and as readily slacks off when the living is easy.’

Of course, for many people this was not a ‘new’ experience. For some marginalised communities in the UK this informal mutual support (albeit not in mutual aid groups) was their status quo so as to survive and thrive in ‘normal’ times. ‘Normal’ times were not easy in the first place: full of adversity, inequities and injustices generated by years of social and economic systems that seemed to forget people are people. It treated them, and our natural world, as Key sources commodities or as less important than profits. Yet despite this, Afuape, T., & Hughes, G. (Eds.). (2015). marginalised communities took care Liberation practices: Towards emotional of each other and took pride in their wellbeing through dialogue. Routledge self-determination.

Kagan. C. Burton, M., Duckett, P., et al (2019). Critical community psychology: Critical action and social change.

Routledge.

Browne, N., Zlotowitz, S., Alcock, K., & Barker, C. (2020). Practice to policy: Clinical psychologists’ experiences of macrolevel work. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.

Lazarus, S., Taliep, N., Bulbulia, A., et al (2012). Community-based participatory research a low-income setting: An illustrative case of study. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 22(4), 509-516.

Pain, R., Askins, K., Banks, S., et al (2016). Mapping Alternative Impact: Alternative approaches to impact from co-produced research.

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Pause, pain and opportunity The pandemic created pain, loss and grief. But it also created reflection, humility and a deep wish to #buildbackbetter (see www. buildbackbetteruk.org). After 10 years of ruthless austerity – which had impacted disproportionately on marginalised communities and those who had least to do with creating the financial crisis of 2008 – the importance of bringing about a more equitable, just and humane society was critical.

The pause..

Whilst recognising the value that psychological research and application had brought to society, the pause also created a moment to stop and assess the ways in which psychological research and its applications had contributed to generating inequalities, injustice and maintaining the status quo of power structures.

The pain...

We considered psychology’s historical role in the hyper-individualisation of experience – putting the bulk of responsibility on individuals to change and neglecting structural factors. We reflected on the ways our practices created support that for many was inaccessible and de-contextualised from their cultural, economic, political, spiritual and social realities (see Deanne Bell in the March 2020 issue). We recognised that the model of public services offering mostly one-to-one psychological interventions for people in distress, though valuable, were mostly ameliorative and not transformative – often sending people back to the conditions causing the toxic stress. These psychological interventions did not adequately learn from the people and communities they served and were too separate from them, often relying on evidence produced by academic institutions and methods that felt alien and removed from many communities. We knew these interventions would not suffice in the recovery.

Moreover, we had to face up to the problematic use of psychology for marketing, advertising and behaviour change as utilised by corporations, and to some extent, governments (including the military; see Ron Roberts’ 2015 book Psychology and Capitalism). These industries fed into the wider systems that produced a psychologically and ecologically unhealthy culture of consumption, materialism, extraction, exclusion and status-driven societies.

The opportunity..

Ecological and spiritual activist Joanna Macy had long spoken about the ‘great turning’ – the transition into a new way of being and organising society. Similarly, indigenous communities from across South America had established and long been calling for a ‘Buen Vivir’ (‘good living’) movement, which understands health and wellbeing in the context of harmony with

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community, the natural world and living well together (see tinyurl. com/juu2o4u).

So as psychologists we began to understand our role in the context of this great turning, becoming part of a broader movement for social and ecological justice. For many psychologists this meant moving towards communities and placebased working.

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Sally Zlotowitz is a Clinical and Community Psychologist, Past Chair of the British Psychological Society Community Psychology Section, and Psychologists for Social Change campaigner: www.psychchange.org Let’s bring society into psychology: Please join http:// communitypsychologyuk.ning. com/

Communities, places, people, histories Psychology researchers and applied psychologists began to spend more time embedded in local places, people and organisations, coming to know their unique histories, ways of knowing and understanding the world. Now accessible to or embedded in local agencies, such as schools, local authorities, the evolving mutual aid groups plus grassroots, voluntary and community organisations, the field finally stepped wholeheartedly into the community.

Psychologists offered their knowledge and skills to explore the issues most important to local people.

Consequently, they became more aware of their own biases and diversified their practices, which was especially important to marginalised communities.

For instance, community-based participatory research, like that so well role modelled in South Africa, became increasingly important (e.g. see Lazarus et al., 2012). These participatory approaches do not privilege quantitative conceptions, short term ‘targets’ or prescribed goals, instead they have different types of impact (Pain et al., 2016) generating long term knowledge exchange, long term employment and transformative change. It wasn’t always easy to be in these places and other psychological research, skills and experience were invited in and shared, such as understanding group dynamics, the effects of living in adversity, the role of different identities and intersecting identities in places, individual and collective trauma, meaning-making, restorative justice, advocacy and conflict resolution.

Other psychologists became involved in developing and scaling up innovative examples of local inclusive economic projects that had been emerging in response to the great levels of inequality growing in the UK, such as Community Wealth Building in Preston, Participatory City in Barking and Dagenham and the ‘Big Local’ programme across the many ‘kept behind’ communities of the UK. These place-based, economic and social development projects created opportunities for citizens to participate in local decision-making, engage in new forms of democracy and initiate community- and cooperatively-owned businesses and activities and paving the way for a wellbeing economy

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(see the Wellbeing Economy Alliance). We embraced localism and built back the local social infrastructure so crucial to our collective health and resilience.

These systems change projects had to fight for their place in the context of an ongoing attempt by vested powers to maintain business as usual neoliberalism.

Psychologists had to work hard to support the building of grassroots movements (e.g. see Social Movements for Health, NESTA), along with policy work and lobbying (see Browne et al., 2020), to challenge inequalities to ensure society moved in a more hopeful direction.

Preventing further distress More generally, psychologists (now more representative of the communities they served) shifted the balance towards making sense of the wider determinants of psychological health and wellbeing and preventing economic, ecological and social adversity rather than just reacting to it. This provoked more co-produced, multi-level interventions and practices from liberation and community psychologies (Afuape et al., 2015; Kagan et al., 2019); inspired by examples such as the Advocacy Academy, User Voice, The Reframe Collective, MAC-UK, Resistance Lab and many other collectives and groups working for personal, group and social change. Research funding was released to understand these different interventions as implemented in the real world. Additionally, supporting citizens to use place-based datasets, such as the Thriving Places Index, to guide decisions and enable community-owned data usage, challenging the corporate control of data and learning with people the changing impact of technology in their lives.

Applying ideas such as the ‘community capitals’ framework, psychosocial accompaniment, harnessing people’s creativity, use of the arts, peer support, social action and political education, as well as strengthening culturally and spiritually-led projects meant psychologists’ theories and methods were significantly diversified.

Now in 2040, we are proud of the role psychology and psychologists have had in strengthening communities and playing our part in moving us towards a psychologically healthier society, one which is more just, equitable and participatory.

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the psychologist july/august 2020 changing landscapes

‘What we feel within and dare make real…’

Alex Sayers on her social enterprise working with young care leavers In 2016, I co-founded Element [www.elementproject.org], a social enterprise that produces creative arts projects with young people leaving the care system, and at-risk school students. Our work is heavily based on group delivery in physical spaces. As soon as lockdown was announced, we consulted our network and set up daily creative challenges, to be shared within a group of peers and co-creators. We have switched our creative drop-in to a weekly online session filled with games and collective art making. We have introduced a culture club, where we e-meet to discuss pieces of culture that have been made available online.

What I’ve seen, in running this adapted service, is that the process of making art is a way to take notice of what is One Love by Dani, Element Young Creative going on both externally and internally. It instils a sense of personal agency, gently encourages self-expression, and de-escalates noisy thoughts. As Elliot Could a possible side-effect of Covid-19 be that creative support begins to sit Eisner has said, ‘Art helps us connect proudly alongside other forms of support, with personal, subjective emotions, and complementing the essential work of our through such a process, it enables us public services? For one thing is certain: to discover our own interior landscape’. if inclusive creativity has been valuable in Hearing the young people we work with this current crisis, it is going to be utterly describe the incredible artwork they have invaluable during the transition phase made also reminds me of writer Audre into ‘normality’.

Lorde’s definition of poetry as a means to Nowhere will this be more apparent ‘formulate the implications of ourselves, than with vulnerable children and what we feel within and dare make real’. young people, whose experiences of I would like to suggest that ‘poetry’ might transitions – through multiple placement be replaced with ‘art’ more generally. moves, rapid changing of involved When I talk to friends, family, organisations and clients about Element’s professionals, and abrupt switches from child to adult services – may already work during this time, it is immediately differ radically from those of their peers. seen as logical, rational, needed.

For these young people, lockdown has Where previously – and particularly in been one new challenge to add to the professional settings – my colleagues pile, a challenge that may well serve to and I have had to push for the importance exacerbate their pre-lockdown realities, of the arts in boosting wellbeing and that already for care leavers mean increasing engagement, now these significantly higher likelihood of mental statements are more easily welcomed.

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health issues and conduct disorders than young people more generally.

How they progress into post-lockdown will depend on the support that they have been given, and the resources they have to lean on. If creative practice is part of this wider support package, the benefits may be seen not only for these artistic, opinionated and imaginative young people, but also for society at large. For who loses out in a creative community?

Alex Sayers is a member of the British Psychological Society. ‘My Psychology journey is near to its very beginning: I completed an MSc in the Psychology of Education last year and have ambitions to train as an Educational Psychologist one day.’

Read more… https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/whatwe-feel-within-and-dare-make-real

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Jobs in Psychology Whether you are a recent graduate, or a Psychologist looking for a change in career, you can view current vacancies for a range of Psychology roles here, or view the latest roles on the new appointments site www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk The job site is still the number one online resource for psychology jobs. Fully accessible on mobile and desktop computers, the site features increased search functionality, superb ease of use and navigation. For recruiters, there are many more targeting options for you to promote your vacancies to potential candidates. All adverts placed in The Psychologist will have their adverts included on the job site.

To discuss the opportunities for advertising www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk Research Digest, please contact Kai Theriault on 01223 378051 or email kai.theriault@cpl.co.uk.

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Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership Learning Disability Service

Clinical Psychologist

Band 7 / 8a (£39,300 - £46,006 / £49,480 - £53,414) per annum Full-time 37.5 hours per week Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates or from those about to qualify in September this year, for this full time, permanent Band 7/8A post in the Psychology Service for Adults with a Learning Disability.

This post is to provide a highly specialist psychology service to people with a learning disability in Aberdeen City and to support the work of the multidisciplinary and multiagency teams with such cases.

The postholder will be based at Elmwood/Len Ironside Centre with flexibility to accommodate new ways of working remotely.

There are 6 other qualified staff working in this service. There are close links with the D Clin Psych/ Edinburgh University and the service routinely provides core and specialist placements for trainees completing this course. The service actively supports practitioners’ clinical and research interests. NHS Grampian offers fantastic opportunities for career advancement.

Grampian is an area of outstanding natural beauty with a stunning coastline populated by dolphins. For those with family, Aberdeen boasts some of the best schools in Scotland whilst the vibrant local economy provides a range of job opportunities for partners. The area also offers a chance to pursue a wide range of outdoor activities and sports.

Interview expenses are available to all candidates and an attractive relocation allowance of up to £8,000 is available to successful candidates.

For further information contact Dr Judith Wishart, Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist on: 01224 557142.

To apply please visit: https://apply.jobs.scot.nhs.uk and search for Ref No JT018158. Closing date: 5th August 2020.

Aberdeen is situated in the North East of Scotland with an easily accessible airport just 15 minutes from the City Centre so staying connected to the whole of the UK and beyond is not a problem, eg fly to London in just over an hour at reasonable prices.

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EMPLOYER

Join our team... for more information: apply.jobs.scot.nhs.uk

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Behavioural Consultant Mayfair, London Competitive salary and benefits package Full Time (includes international travel) We are looking for a qualified psychologist to make a meaningful contribution to our manager assessment and monitoring work. The role of the psychologist is to provide a qualitative assessment of investment professionals from a psychological, organisational and behavioural perspective.

Their work will entail a robust qualitative analysis of a range of cognitive and behavioural factors associated with decision making in environments of uncertainty. We believe that this analysis and understanding of human behaviour and individuals’ biases, combined with our investment analysis, yields profound insights enabling us to make better decisions than other market participants who ignore such behavioural aspects.

The individual occupying this position will be part of the Investment Team and will ultimately report to the CIO under the supervision of the Principle, Behavioural Consultant. They will be one of a small team of psychologists who will be responsible for a number of Investment managers in different locations

Established in 1984, Stamford is a marketleading investment consulting firm. We aim to achieve our clients’ objectives by identifying and recommending superior investment professionals to them on a global basis. We identify them by using a multi-faceted assessment process that has been carefully honed over the past 30+ years.

The minimum requirements to apply for this role are:

• • • •

Qualified Chartered Psychologist / Post Graduate Degree A minimum of 3 years commercial work experience Some understanding or knowledge of finance / investment is beneficial though not a prerequisite Permitted to work in the UK on a permanent basis

Stamford Associates Limited is an equal opportunities employer and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Engagement will be subject to satisfactory references and a DBS check.

To apply, please email a copy of your CV and covering letter to Karling Wan, HR & Office Manager: kwan@stamfordassociates.com

Jobs of the month on www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk

Clinical/ Counselling/ Forensic Psychologist Priory Healthcare Hampshire £45,000 per annum Closing date: 15 July

Psychologist Single Homeless Project London £46,823 per annum Closing date: 12 July

To view these jobs and more, please visit the BPS job site www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk

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Project Lead (Psychologist/ Psychotherapist/ Mental Health Practitioner) Just Psychology Manchester £35,500 Closing date 31 July

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‘I think mental health is the hidden harm from Covid-19’ Job Title: IAPT Practitioners Employer: The Forward Trust ‘These are really exciting opportunities,’ says Emma Coulson, Service Development Manager at The Forward Trust.

‘In April, we won the contract to run IAPT services in five new prisons: they are quite different, ranging from Category B to Category D. Some services will be built from scratch and some will be expanding existing provision; there are real opportunities to shape and extend them. We genuinely co-design services with front line staff and service users so this is a great opportunity to develop.’

Forward was founded in 1991 to support people in prison with drug problems. Its core services still address addictions but it has extended into areas such as employment. ‘We work in 21 prisons in total and also have two community and one residential service.’

Are you looking for people with experience of delivering IAPT in prisons? ‘That would be desirable but if we see the right candidate without that experience, we will offer training.

In fact we are quite flexible about experience and where someone is in their career. The critical issue is someone’s personal qualities. To work in prisons you must be adaptable, flexible, passionate about clients and resilient. IAPT in prison environments is different from delivering it in the community.’

I asked Emma to amplify this point. ‘We have to adapt both client criteria and delivery methods. Many of our clients present with complex issues that would preclude them from community IAPT. And we do not have the communication infrastructure and opportunity to deliver services at a distance, so we have to innovate in how we deliver. Working in prisons is all about relationships. They are their own systems and you have to embed yourself in them, creating relationships with others: prison officers and secondary mental health teams for instance. Then there are specific issues you have to take into account: risk and security are two obvious examples.’

How do you support these roles? ‘A lot of our staff possess lived experience and are incredibly supportive. But we have a particularly good system in place. There is clinical weekly supervision, monthly clinical skills training and line manager and regional manager supervision. Every quarter there is a meeting to discuss training needs. Front line workers do train and develop into other roles in the organisation. We also provide staff with not only a health package and a salary matching NHS Agenda for Change pay scales, but a personal therapy allowance, which is unusual.’

The roles work in teams. ‘They mirror community teams and comprise Psychological Health and Wellbeing Practitioners and High Intensity Therapists, working very closely with the secondary mental health team.’

I suggested to Emma that she sounded hugely

enthusiastic about these jobs. ‘I think you find you either love or hate working in prisons. I love it because I really enjoy the challenges it sets.’

Talking of challenges, Emma goes on to talk about the challenges of Covid-19: ‘We have had to adapt our ways of working due to limited access to our client group and social distancing. Staff have adjusted their working hours to reduce numbers in the office so that we are able to socially distance. We recognised that Covid-19 was having a real impact on the prisoners’ Mental Health as they were more anxious and their mood generally lower. We designed a self-help leaflet on how to keep safe and manage anxiety and self-isolation during Covid. The leaflet was given to every prisoner. We also recognised that prisoners coming up for release were extra anxious, as the world has changed… so we developed materials to support them explaining how things had changed and how they can access support. We noticed that prisoners were finding it hard to stay in touch with loved ones due to no visits, so we developed family packs so the men could write to their loved ones, children, make cards… we gave tips on how to write letters and engage with their children from afar.

Face-to-face contact had to stop for a while but we still maintained regular contact with our caseload delivering self-help material, in-cell activities and distraction packs to their cell door. Some cells have telephones installed so we were able to keep in touch with some people by phone, still completing assessments and sessions. Communication has been really important we are in regular contact with the men so that we can keep them updated and monitor their Mental Health. We are also in regular contact with officers to make sure that we are offering support to those that need it.

We are now starting to deliver face to face interventions in some of our prisons, but these are socially distanced sessions, the men are sent letters beforehand to prepare them so they know what to expect. If we can’t socially distance then staff wear PPE… again, we speak to the men before the session so they know what to expect and are not alarmed. The men complete part of the assessment in their cell before the session to avoid passing to much paper around.

In the future I think we will start to see a greater demand for our service. I think Mental Health is the hidden harm from Covid-19… it has triggered a lot of trauma and anxiety for people. We may have to continue to adapt our service to meet an increase in demand. I think we will make more use of telephone facilities at those prisons that have these facilities.

The men have responded well to the distraction packs and family packs, so these interventions would be something we would consider keeping when things return to normal.’

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Rx_Forward Trust REVISED_FP.pdf

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

Find the real story inside Join Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service “We work with individuals to make their experience of the prison service the best it can be. How do we maintain family links? How do we maintain people’s interests? How do we motivate people to want to go back into the community? And, for some people, that’s not going to happen. So how do we keep them motivated and purposeful? What goals can they achieve?”

Debbie Marsh joined HMPPS as a psychologist 19 years ago. Since then she has worked across a range of prisons with all kinds of prisoners. She is currently the Clinical Lead for Close Supervision Centres (small units for the most challenging and dangerous prisoners) and Separation Centres (specialist units for extremists). This is her inside story.

Like many people, Debbie didn’t know a lot about the prison service when she went to study Criminology at university, and thought she wanted to work in the police. But after visiting prisons and doing a conversion to Psychology, she started working for HMPPS and hasn’t looked back since.

“HMPPS is such a massive organisation which brings with it a lot of freedom for psychologists. You can work with a wide range of client groups – whether that’s young people, women, adult males, people with learning difficulties or specific personality disorders. You’re able to pick a specialism and then work with those people. For example, if you have an interest in something like stalking you can explore that, both as a practitioner or in an academic setting.”

What makes HMPPS unique is the freedom psychologists have to find their niche or to transfer their skills across different kinds of work. “It’s completely down to personal choice,” Debbie stresses, “so if you’re more interested in programme development than research we have intervention services who are world class at that. Career path options are really flexible.”

As a practitioner, Debbie has spent a lot of time working in the high-security estate with those serving lengthy life sentences and has seen first-hand the opportunity in this environment to make a real difference over time: “It’s great when you see people start to move towards where they want to be. Recently I bumped into a man I worked with about 4 years ago and he’s made such significant steps forward. What we did back then laid the foundations for what he’s achieved and now he’s got parole coming up in about 5 years.”

Recently, Debbie has worked as part of a team helping to set HMPPS’s response to the government’s counterterrorism strategy, consulting with experts to establish a process that will be implemented across the whole prison estate. Her role now involves more policy work and clinical oversight, but that doesn’t mean she no longer works as a practitioner: “Contact with prisoners and those on license is why I went into this career. I like the face to face, I like the conversations, spending time with people to try to help them move forward.”

Since she started working in the prison service, Debbie has noticed a significant shift in high-security prison populations, posing new challenges for psychologists.

“We have an increasing number of younger people coming in with longer sentences… especially young men in their late teens and early twenties.

As psychologists we have to work to engage them and give them hope that they can progress when the chances are that they’re going to spend more time in custody than they’ve currently been alive. Helping them process that reality and settle them into some sort of routine.”

Giving prisoners more autonomy to make certain decisions has been one of the biggest changes in how high-security prisons have been run over the past 20 years. This enabling approach allows skills to be gained, practised and maintained, which will eventually help reintegration into the community.

Of course, for some, release isn’t something they can look forward to.

Psychologists are always putting things in perspective: “How we define hope is really important because it’s different for different people,” Debbie points out.

“Just because someone’s going to be in prison for life doesn’t mean they can’t achieve things – a qualification, a trusted position or job, skills in something they’re passionate about. There are ways for every person to make their life meaningful.”

About HMPPS • HMPPS delivers the orders and sentences of the courts. Its two-fold duty is to protect the public and help offenders reform.

• Psychology teams operate throughout England and Wales. Teams are organised in different ways; this can mean you will be mainly single site based or you might cover several types of prison and prisoner within your role.

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Nisha Haq

‘Trying to keep up the illusion of authority is decreasing trust’ Gemma Milne looks at how hype can blinker understanding of what’s going on

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In what way does hype ‘obscure the future’?

We all know the phrase ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ and it’s this idea which I think is key in understanding why hype matters: it influences flow of funding, policy-making, voting, consumer behaviour, all sorts.

Advertising agencies spend a great deal of time and money telling clients how important it is to sway people with narratives - their business makes no sense if words have no impact, right? And so when technological terminology prods and nudges and pushes people along paths which are ultimately detrimental - whether it’s done deliberately or not - the end result is a worse-off world. Hype obscures the future by distracting the masses,

by nudging progress off course, and by blinkering people from understanding ‘what’s actually going on’.

How can psychologists talking to the media avoid hype?

Avoiding overly-simplified absolutist narratives is key.

It’s crucial to make clear to the public that most societal systems are complex, and boiling answers to questions down to one-liners or a siloed ‘angle’ means almost always missing parts outs. Reinforcing the truth – that there’s rarely a simple answer – and presenting issues with nuance, is how psychologists talking to the media can avoid hype.

Can hype ever be used for good?

Hype is a tool at the end of the day – a tool for spreading messages, cutting through information overload and

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the psychologist july/august 2020 books

Close to home in the time of Covid-19

simplifying the complex. This can be crucial to get key messages across to the masses, who may not have the time, access or inclination to understand every key issue at depth. So yes – hype can be used for good, but only when those who employ it understand how it can push things in problematic directions and thus use it responsibly.

Do you think that hype has played a role in the current pandemic?

I think in some sense hype hasn’t been utilised (responsibly) enough – there is much confusion in the mainstream narratives, particularly in the UK, so there could be an argument for the government and key information agencies to have used it for good to reassure, provide clarity and bring the masses along in a trusted manner. For example, I’d have loved to have seen more ‘hype’ around the reality that ‘we don’t know, this is new and difficult’ as opposed to absolutist ‘answers’ which seem to be discounted after only a few days. Science is not something that updates every couple of hours in line with the news cycle, and public desire for simple answers and demands for clarity should be answered with honesty: ‘it’s difficult to give a straight answer’ as opposed to a fudged overly-simplified and ultimately dissatisfying or dangerous response from government. Trying to keep up the illusion of authority and ‘we know what we’re doing’ is decreasing trust every time that’s proven wrong, and it’s this that I think is the most worrying point. It would be far more sensible to be honest about the difficulty in giving straight answers as opposed to getting them wrong.

What are your top tips for seeing beyond hype?

When you read something, hear something, see something: pause. Remember that every message has context around it, and that it’s key to interpret messages accordingly. If it is prompting an emotional reaction, remember that narratives are designed to do that; ask questions about who is saying it, why they’re saying it, in what way are they saying it; try to interpret the narrative through a few different people’s perspectives – your parents’, someone in another country, you in 50 years’ time.

It’s not about not believing anything, but rather to approach information with critical thinking and healthy scepticism, and allow yourself to ask questions to start to see through the hype.

Smoke & Mirrors: How hype obscures the future and how to see past it by Gemma Milne, published

by Robinson, is out now. Find an extract on our website.

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The second edition of Social Psychology and Everyday Life, by Darrin Hodgetts, Ottilie Stolte, Christopher Sonn, Neil Drew, Stuart Carr and Linda Waimarie Nikora, published by Red Globe Press/Macmillan Education, is out now.

Ottilie (University of Waikato) and Darrin (Massey University Albany) reflect on aspects of the book that speak to the role of home in response to Covid-19.

Lockdown and other social distancing measures have brought aspects of home-making that we take for granted into perspective. There have been reduced opportunities to engage in home-making practices beyond our domestic dwellings, including the cultivation of a sense of belonging that can come with gathering in larger groups or in communal venues such as football stadia. Our intimate home spaces can ordinarily provide retreats from the outside world and anchor points for self-reflection and development. Ideally, home is a space where we can let down our guard, feel restored and gain a sense of control. Aspects of who we are come to life within and around our domestic dwellings. Home places are where much of who we are takes shape and is nurtured over time.

Evidently, daily routines end up much more focused when they are restricted to homes and essential expeditions outside to garner supplies. Fleeting and socially distanced acts of kindness, such as a wave during a walk, may seem insignificant on the surface, but can reconnect people during a time of uncertainty, fear and dislocation.

Even whilst largely confined to our houses, we have reached out to others through community-focused actions such as doorway applause for essential workers, musical recitals from balconies, placing soft toys in street-facing windows, issuing street newsletters, and writing inspiring chalk messages on the pavement.

The numerous and creative ways we communicate messages of care, solidarity and a sense of community are a timely reminder that we are not alone and that the challenges of Covid-19 require both personal and collective actions.

Despite our efforts to connect and maintain some sense of belonging, which is foundational to a healthy mind, the narrowing of our

lifeworlds provides opportunities for us to more fully immerse ourselves in our immediate environments, and to perhaps notice aspects that may have previously escaped our attention. This includes how our homes are no longer closed to the outside world as self-isolating enclaves of everyday life under lockdown. With advances in digital technology, the world still comes into the home via streaming, gaming and e-meeting. When restricted to one’s dwelling, the pervasiveness of media technologies in everyday settings provides various means to connect with other people and events at a distance. The notion of the double articulation of space, initially coined by the media geographer Roger Silverstone in his 1999 book Why Study the Media? refers to the ways in which people conduct their lives and wider social engagements across online and offline spaces using media technologies. Hence, a person can be physically located at their dining table whilst being psychologically located in a Zoom meeting. As recent psychological scholarship on migration illustrates, many homemaking practices can occur across considerable physical distances, whereby migrants in new locations can still experience psychological closeness to their countries of origin.

Much has been written on the ways in which Covid-19 has accentuated existing inequities.

There are stark distinctions between groups in terms of their everyday experiences of lockdown. These are the very issues and concerns that we spend considerable time deliberating upon and offering responses to in Social Psychology and Everyday Life.

We need to work together to create more inclusive societies within which everyone has opportunities to feel at home.

Read the full piece online.

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Boo Au Publis

‘We need to have a certain amount of humility’ Our editor Jon Sutton talks to Stuart Ritchie, a psychologist and a Lecturer in the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at King’s College London, about concerns over coronavirus coverage and his new book Science Fictions At the end of March, you published an article on the Unherd website. Can you summarise the main points?

I had been reading a slew of articles by psychologists, or people writing about psychology, making the same kind of point – that people were overestimating the risk of Coronavirus. The articles were based on results from decision-making, risk psychology, which is interesting and all very well in a lab situation and for many other situations. But here, a genuinely scary world catastrophe was happening, and yet all these psychologists were saying, ‘Oh, no, don’t worry about it – you’re biased towards overestimating the risk’, making analogies to terrorism and the like.

So I wrote an article saying: ‘this is clearly psychology overstepping its boundaries’. Psychology is very good when it stays in its lane. Psychologists will be required to help people deal with the mental health consequences of things like isolation and losing family members, but that’s a secondary effect. The really immediate things, the scientific priorities, are things like developing a vaccine, modelling the outcomes, trying to work out which drugs are effective. I just don’t really see a role for psychology in the first response.

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What needs to change in the ‘new normal’, if the pandemic does change things? Do you think that this situation could lead to differences in the way psychologists seek to reach out and influence policy?

There’s eventually going to be loads of good research on this, but I don’t think people should be rushing it out.

Anne Scheel wrote a good blog on this. Ask yourself, is psychology really the most urgent thing we need to focus on here? Someday that research can be done (in ways that are transparent and open), and the results can hopefully inform the next pandemic.

But I also think we can look back at some of these clear failures to communicate accurately. Does the research we link to in popular articles hold up? Cass Sunstein cited a Psychological Science paper from 2001 as his only evidence to say that people were taking the virus too seriously. We need to do better than that. We need to have a certain amount of humility. We need to have more generalisable studies that we base our predictions or advice on. And if the evidence isn’t there, we just have to hold our hands up and say we don’t know.

Of course, there’s a real pressure on psychologists to come up with these cool, innovative, sometimes counterintuitive ideas: it’s one of the major problems we have in our field. When those ideas are around whether people should worry about global pandemic, it’s even more of an issue.

I agree there’s a need for psychologists to remind other psychologists about that intellectual humility, and to be cautious and evidence-based. But is there a danger that self-policing, that self-flagellation, spills over into something else? ‘Stick to the science’, ‘stay in line’, ‘know your limits’, when there is loads of good work that psychologists are doing to try to make our messy and complex world a better place.

Sure. I agree. We can be too quick to write things off.

I don’t want to write off psychology. I think psychology has got lots to say. But in this specific situation, this is probably the most serious thing we’re all going to encounter in our lifetimes. So there’s a much stronger argument for saying ‘we’re not 100% sure that the research backs this up’. There’s research we can be doing, but do we need to be publishing it right now?

Do we need to be wary of the same set of incentives that push us towards writing tonnes of low-quality articles in the first place? Do we need to be a bit more humble?

Is this research really on solid foundations?

I think you use the phrase ‘ready for primetime’.

Yes. Angela Duckworth, talking about an area she has made famous, ‘grit’, said at one point that the hype was overtaking the science, and that her ideas might

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the psychologist july/august 2020 books not be ready to be implemented in classrooms. I’ve got enormous respect for that (although by that point, the hype train for grit really had set off). But the idea of grit is far less damaging than the idea of ‘Don’t worry too much about the Coronavirus’. In this case, all of these arguments are so much more acute because of the danger of saying incorrect things.

What areas of psychology / specific psychologists do you think are ‘ready for primetime’?

This is just one example among many I could think of, but perhaps the area of psychology that has one of the best claims to be truly useful in ‘the real world’ is one that tends to get forgotten about: occupational psychology, or I/O psychology as Americans call it. In that field they have enormously massive datasets, solid evidence for prediction over time (e.g. of personality or aptitude tests and job performance), replication across many studies, and the thing that the studies are looking at is the realworld thing the area is trying to impact: that is, helping employers predicting who’ll do best, be most efficient, be happiest at which kind of job or in which position, which is the best set of psychometric variables that can help us predict that, etc.

Other areas – clinical psychology with therapy for at least some psychiatric disorders, for example – are more relevant at least to the knock-on, secondary or tertiary effects of the pandemic… though we shouldn’t underestimate some of the replication issues that my clinical colleagues tell me they’re having, too.

How can psychologists best make that judgement, on whether they’re risking straying into ‘science fictions’?

I think that’s where our suggested ‘Evidence Readiness Levels’ framework comes in, from our recent preprint [https://psyarxiv.com/whds4]. We suggest that, just like NASA does, we rate each piece of psychological scientific evidence as to how rigorously it has been tested, how replicable it is, how much we know it’s been used in contexts that are very close to the one we want to use it in now, and so on. Having read through the best current attempt from lots of experts to link up psychological research to the coronavirus pandemic, our judgement is that a great deal of the evidence we have is at the low end of our ‘Evidence Readiness Levels’ scale. Small-n studies, lab-based research from a small number of countries, unclear replicability, leaps from neuroscientific findings to psychological principles: often generally pretty weak evidence.

All of those studies might be fine starting points for a line of research. But they’re not, we’d argue, the sort of thing you’d rely on with a metaphorical gun to your head – and that, with the pandemic, is the situation policymakers find themselves in right now.

Stuart Ritchie’s book, Science Fictions: The Epidemic of Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype is published by Penguin in July. Read our full conversation with him via https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/we-need-certainamount-humility

Your #PsyShelfie During lockdown, bookshelves seen over video calls have been a source of fascination.

On Twitter we asked to see your #PsyShelfie. Here are just a few. Search the hashtag for more, and share yours! Find past ones at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/whats-your-shelf …

@KitaShepherdson First year undergrad – a rookie #PsyShelfie !

@SarahAllen1986 Also no fancy bookcase from me, having recently moved house...

Just a rather unimpressive pile of books in my spare room.

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@DrMattWatson Some of my favourite books given to be an old friend and mentor.

A 140-year-old copy of Spencer’s Principles of Psychology and a 100-year-old copy of William James’ Principles of Psychology.

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Arts and culture in a ‘new normal’

Meditation in colour Artwork

by Praveetha Patalay

Helen Johnson considers how psychologists can foster a relationship with the arts that nourishes all

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wealth of evidence underscores the positive impact that arts and culture can have on our health, our individual and collective wellbeing, and our ability to live rich, meaningful lives. These affordances have come to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic, with myriad arts and culture interventions that speak to wide-ranging aims, including helping children and adults respond adaptively to trauma, enhancing community cohesion, and supporting children’s home school education. These offerings range from the grassroots to the commercial – everything from virtual museum tours, to live-streamed music sets, to online resources for home-based arts activities.

But are these interventions really accessible to all?

Do they reach those who are marginalised and thus most at risk from the pandemic and its effects? To what extent do arts and culture provision during the pandemic replicate the ‘participation gap,’ which describes how arts engagement is concentrated within a small sector of the population, and to what extent do they challenge this?

How can we use our position as psychologists to ensure that arts provision in and beyond the pandemic nourishes all, and not just a select few?

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Supporting health and wellbeing across the lifespan Meta-analyses and reviews, including a recent scoping review for the World Health Organisation by psychologists Daisy Fancourt and Saoirse Finn, have assembled a wealth of evidence that the arts and culture impact wellbeing and healthy development throughout the lifespan. Artistic and cultural engagement can reduce medication use and GP visits; moderate symptoms in chronic health conditions, including diabetes, dementia, stroke and respiratory disease; decrease mortality rates; reduce pain and fatigue; and increase healthy behaviours. Arts and culture can improve our sense of self-worth, self-confidence, self-esteem and positive emotional expression/regulation, and reduce incidences/ severity of depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness and suicidal ideation, enhancing wellbeing across a range of dimensions. The arts can thus be considered to be a social determinant of health.

Beyond basic mental and physical health, arts and culture can enable us to flourish, providing meaning, purpose and joy (see the 2015 report Enriching Britain: Culture, Creativity and Growth). In the introduction to a 2017 report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Creative Health: The Arts for Health

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the psychologist july/august 2020 culture

and Wellbeing, the artist Grayson Perry declares: ‘Art helps us access and express parts of ourselves that are often unavailable to other forms of human interaction. It flies below the radar, delivering nourishment for our soul and returning with stories from the unconscious. A world without art is an inhuman world. Making and consuming art lifts our spirits and keeps us sane. Art, like science and religion, helps us make meaning from our lives, and to make meaning is to make us feel better.’

Research from youth music theatre, youth slam and spoken word, group music, art therapy and beyond also shows that arts and culture can promote health and wellbeing in the context of trauma. In the words of Fancourt and Finn, art engagement has been found to promote social cohesion and conflict resolution ‘through developing cognitive, emotional and social skills for constructive engagement with conflict, and by supporting empathy, trust, social engagement, collaboration and transformative learning’. The arts have been used to support children and adults experiencing trauma and persecution in the face of war, to help prevent the development of depression, withdrawal and attention deficits in children dealing with maltreatment and poverty, and to help grieving families come to terms with death.

This indicates that the arts have an important role to play in supporting us to deal with trauma and disruption around the pandemic, and to adjust to a ‘new normal’ once this crisis has passed.

Inequalities in access to the arts Access to the arts is not equal across all social groups, however. Instead there is a widely acknowledged ‘participation gap,’ where people in lower socio-economic status groups, living in economically deprived areas, with lower educational levels, with disabilities, and from minority ethnic backgrounds are reported to be less likely to engage in arts and cultural activities. The 2015 Report by the Warwick Commission for the Future of Cultural Value throws this disparity into stark relief, noting that between 2012 and 2015 the most wealthy, most highly educated and least ethnically diverse 8 per cent of the population accounted for at least 28 per cent of theatre visits, 44 per cent of attendance at live music events and 28 per cent of visits to visual art exhibits. This gap is only increasing with the impact of austerity measures.

This participation gap is particularly poignant since those groups who engage with the arts and culture least are also those who stand to gain most from their health and wellbeing impacts. As well as being underserved by psychological services, these groups are also disproportionately affected by poor mental and physical health. Children from lower socio-economic status

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groups, for example, have reduced life expectancy, and greater incidences of mental health diagnoses, respiratory diseases, stroke, obesity and heart disease.

Indeed, the 2010 Marmot Review, commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health, noted gaps between rich and poor of an average of 7 years in life expectancy and 17 years disability-free life expectancy.

Evidence suggests that these health inequalities have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. These impacts are both direct, with data indicating that people from deprived areas and many marginalised communities show greater incidences of the disease and greater symptom severity than those from more privileged groups, and indirect, with greater risk to mental and physical health resulting from over-work, cramped conditions, income insecurity and other factors, many of which (according to the ONS, Institute for Fiscal Studies and more) seem likely to outlast the pandemic itself. In the face of these inequalities, it seems more than justified to follow the Warwick Commission in arguing that access to arts and culture should be considered a universal human right.

The arts and Covid-19 Community arts thrive in times of social upheaval, and the present situation is no exception. Arts innovation and participation have been flourishing during the pandemic.

Many of these innovations have an explicit focus on health, wellbeing and/or community cohesion. Te Rito Toi, for example, is a New Zealand-based organisation that helps children return to school after experiencing trauma.

They have created extensive online, arts-based resources (see www.teritotoi.org) which are being used by teachers around the world to help children settle back into school in the pandemic’s aftermath. This work is grounded in research which demonstrates that the arts can help children heal after trauma by reducing stress, enabling children to make meaning from their experiences and rebuilding hope for the future.

Other offerings, less explicitly embedded in academic research, nonetheless speak to this same belief that the arts can help us to heal and rebuild.

The international rainbow movement, for example, supported by hashtags (#chasetherainbow #rainbowtrail #rainbowsfornightingale) and Facebook pages (e.g.

Rainbow Trail), has inspired thousands of families around the world to create rainbows to display from their homes.

These rainbows are often adorned with messages of hope, togetherness, and support for core workers like doctors and nurses.

Movements such as this speak to research indicating that arts engagement can support community

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wellbeing, cohesion and development, reducing isolation, strengthening social relationships, and forging a sense of belonging. This is particularly poignant given the increased isolation, separation, uncertainty and fragmentation, and decreased sense of self-efficacy, which is characteristic of so many of our experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.

What does this mean for the arts ‘Participation Gap’?

On the one hand, examples like the rainbow movement seem to contradict claims that arts engagement is an elite pursuit, indicating that people from a wide spectrum of different backgrounds, abilities, incomes and educational levels do engage with and appreciate the arts.

These chalked, coloured and collaged rainbows might not be lauded by cultural institutions, funders or authoritative arts experts, but they do appear to be greatly valued by those who produce and consume them. Similarly, television programmes like Grayson’s Art Club and Countryfile have responded to the lockdown by soliciting artworks from their audiences, and these segments have fast become viewer favourites.

This suggestion of more widespread engagement in the arts is supported by evidence from community arts work and research on health/wellbeing interventions and by my own research in arts inclusivity. In a recent study conducted with residents in the Hangleton and Knoll area of Brighton, for example, I found that people in this economically deprived neighbourhood engaged in a

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wide range of different arts activities, from rock painting, to comic drawing, to amateur dramatics (see https:// tinyurl.com/IgniteHKP). This study also found, however, a thirst to engage in higher status (often publicly-funded) provision, which was thwarted by a lack of resources, including money and childcare.

There are thus two key issues behind the participation gap. The first is a failure to acknowledge the widespread engagement amongst marginalised and deprived communities with under-valued, low status arts (and crafts). The second is that social and structural inequalities prevent many people from accessing the arts. As argued earlier, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated many of these inequities. Inequalities, such as the ‘digital divide,’ for example, which challenge the idea that online resources (arts-based and otherwise) are readily available to all, have become ever more salient during the pandemic (e.g. see www.cam.ac.uk/stories/ digitaldivide).

It is thus arguable that, despite the increase in arts visibility and grassroots-led arts movements during the pandemic, the arts have become more, not less, inaccessible to many of those who are most in need of them. There are kernels of hope here too, however, with community initiatives like the rainbow movement, and shows like ‘Grayson’s Art Club,’ going someway towards enabling and validating artistic creation that falls outside the bounds of elite, high status provision.

Grayson Perry

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the psychologist july/august 2020 culture What can psychologists do?

There is room for research that explores the extent to which these pandemic-provoked arts offerings are successful in closing the participation gap, changing perspectives on what art is and who art is for. More fundamentally, however, it’s vital for psychologists to draw on the robust evidence available to facilitate arts provision that reaches marginalised and deprived communities.

This includes community arts, art therapies, and health/ wellbeing interventions that typically show much greater representation from these groups than ‘high status’ arts offerings. It includes too arts education in schools, which has been repeatedly pushed to the margins in recent years. We should agitate for funding and local government policy/action that supports this provision.

It is important, however, that we do not seek to use the arts as a mere ‘sticking plaster’ for trauma and inequality. Art can be disruptive and unsettling, and should not always or only be about improving shortterm wellbeing. Instead, we should harness the power of the arts to promote a ‘critical’ or ‘social justice-based’

resilience, which works towards systemic social change, targeting the underlying inequalities that limit both the health and art access of marginalised groups. We can incorporate this into our research through participatory and arts-based methods that work with and for local communities, such as the ‘collaborative poetics’ approach I have used in previous work.

Let us take this moment, then, as an opportunity to push for a new normal, which places the arts and culture at its centre; where we can all – regardless of socioeconomic status, wealth, educational level, gender, ethnic background or disability – flourish spiritually, emotionally, cognitively and socially; one where inequalities in both arts engagement and in health/wellbeing are rendered the arcane artefacts of a less-enlightened era.

Helen Johnson is a Principal Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Brighton, specialising in arts-based research methods, creativity, and critical community psychology.

H.f.johnson@brighton.ac.uk Find references in the online / app version.

Global states of uncertainty The annual Scottish Mental Health and Arts festival (SMAF) 2020, led by the Mental Health Foundation, announced a special programme of online art for audiences in a time of uncertainty. There were opportunities for creative discussion and expression in the form of film screenings, livestreamed events and five new artistic commissions responding to the theme ‘my experience of isolation’.

SMAF’s online film programme opened with two experimental shorts; first, ‘Solastalgia’, a lyrical film exploring one woman’s obstructive confrontation with ecoanxiety, featuring poet Tanya Davis, directed by SMAF 2019 award-winner Millefiore Clarkes.

‘Solastalgia’ follows Ava, a mother of two children, steering her way through the humdrum of life, seemingly comfortable on the exterior. The sounds of the radio reporting climate crises force their way into Ava’s thoughts, leaving no doubt as to what the reality of the world is right now. Newspaper front pages display images of forest fires and breaking news articles are all that we can read about on our smartphones. Ava’s anxiety over the future of our planet match our current anxieties, but they’re quickly draped over with other, more

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ordinary radio announcements, the dishes in the sink that need to be washed, beaming children too young to understand, and the same-old trips to the supermarket. A laboured normality.

Although ‘Solastalgia’ is about the global climate emergency, its broader philosophy explores themes all too familiar with the current pandemic we find ourselves in. Both are global states of uncertainty. Our rapid adjustment to new ways of working, whether that is at home, a temporary home away from home, or exactly where we always were (with a dash of overwhelming fear of contracting a deadly virus) – we’re finding a way to exist in swift change.

Some of us are only just realising the fragility of our lives, an angst that burns in the back of our minds whilst we, nonchalantly, join the next Zoom call. In the same way, Ava is searching for and upholding normality, but acknowledging the fear of what lies ahead.

The second film, ‘Knock, Knock, Knock’ inspired and directed by Arom Choi, is a dialogue-free drama about the psychological effects of isolation through the lens of Hana, a young woman confined to a Goshiwon room, a type of Korean housing; small and box-like.

‘Knock, Knock, Knock’ utilises the power of sound; a slow buzz, becoming increasingly intense.

Hana is not only surrounded by her belongings, too many with no real place, but her own sighs and her own breath. It is a film that resonates with the combat we all have with our internal selves, especially in a time of isolation. The neighbour’s television, harmless echoes, thuds and coughs bleeding through the thin walls may, for a moment, dissuade Hana from feeling alone. Her ability to move, dance and imagine may take this even further. But this euphoria is short-lived; the sounds and actions that have the power to bring peace can also turn and feel destructive, inducing anxiety and panic. The film reminds us that hearing, or even imagining and seeing life go on, isn’t a remedy for the deeply conflicting feelings we are facing during this pandemic.

Both films illustrate the consuming weight of psychological burden, but also the ultimate strength, spirit and resilience we all have when facing each day, knowing things could dramatically change, for better or for worse.

For further details, see www.mhfestival.com/news/591smhaf-2020-is-live

Tanya Bhavani is postgraduate student at UCL. Twitter: @tanyabhayani

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kwestfotos Just staring at the sky

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Dr Keon West (Goldsmiths University of London) is a Reader in Social Psychology, the Director of Equalab, the President-Elect of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and an editorial board member for the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Keon has received numerous international awards for his research, teaching, media engagement, and social activism. He is especially well known for his research on prejudice, sexual orientation, and sexual health.

Keon describes himself on Instagram at kwestfotos as ‘a hobby photographer. Not my day job but I really love it and I sometimes get great photos’.

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the psychologist july/august 2020 lockdown photography

‘We have to remember to find the beauty in what’s already at home with us’ Keon West’s photography from Instagram kwestfotos My son looking out of a window.

When in #COVID lockdown we have to remember to find the beauty in what’s already at home with us

kwestfotos In homeschooling today I taught my boys about light. I like this photo I took with a prisms at home.

But I think my son took one that was even better.

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24/06/2020 10:59

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24/06/2020 10:49

As you will know, we have had to cancel or postpone all face-to-face BPS events until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic. If you had already booked onto an event and we’re not able to reschedule, you will receive a refund.

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Modern psychology begins in the late 19th century, with the work of Wilhelm Wundt and William James. The same period also sees the origins of modern science fiction: James’s The Principles of Psychology (1890) precedes by only a few years H.G. Wells’ pioneering science fiction novels (or ‘scientific romances’ as they were known), The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898). This common point of origin is no coincidence…

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the psychologist july/august 2020 eye on fiction

Which utopia, whose future?

Gavin Miller considers science fiction and psychology

P

sychology promised to bring the human soul within the sphere of the sciences, where it could be observed, understood, and – ultimately – controlled for the benefit of society.

Science fiction was stimulated by the rhetoric and ambition of the human sciences – which occasionally blossomed into explicit utopian manifestos, such as the behaviourist John B. Watson’s ‘Should a Child Have More than One Mother?’ (1929), which proposed that children should rotate to a different family every four weeks (Morawski, 1982). As science fiction flourished between the wars, such societal visions were critiqued by two now-canonical dystopian novels. Aldous Huxley’s satirical Brave New World (1932) offers a heady cocktail of behaviourism, psychoanalysis, and functionalism, in its vision of a global caste society in which hedonism and consumerism have become technologies of non-violent control. George Orwell’s 1984 (1949) presents a more brutal world of surveillance and control, to which again both psychoanalytic and behaviourist ideas are central: when sexual repression and neurosis prove ineffective in promoting fanaticism, then the Pavlovian conditioning of Room 101 steps in.

The prominence of 1984 and Brave New World obscures later science fiction utopias which promote, contest, satirise and bend to literary ends the claims and ambitions of psychology. These successors deserve attention because they were written in the post-war era of psychologisation, in which the discipline decisively permeated all nooks and crannies of Western life, from birth to death. Moreover, this is the period in which science fiction grew in literary respectability – partly by responding to psychological critiques of its pulpiest stories (Miller, 2020). Science fiction is now the genre through which utopias and dystopias are most clearly imagined – and its techniques shed light on psychology’s ongoing attempts to take charge of ‘the future’.

Psychological utopias and dystopias The renowned behaviourist B.F. Skinner’s literary ambitions were fulfilled in his novel-cum-manifesto,

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Walden Two (1948), published in the same year as 1984, and written also in response to World War Two. A small group visit a rural utopian community which thrives through co-operation, sharing, and the careful allocation of individual members to necessary roles.

The community’s leader is psychological expert T.E. Frazier – a mouthpiece for Skinner’s behaviourist theories and agendas. Frazier explains, for example, how the community’s children learn self-control through positive reinforcement: after a long walk, hungry children stand by bowls of steaming soup and must wait for five minutes before consuming it. In this way, they are psychologically immunised against the desires which fuel consumer capitalism: Walden Two ignores manufactured needs such as changes in clothing fashion, and only the most essential service industries remain. Skinner elaborates in a later 1970s foreword: ‘by reducing the amount of goods we consume, we can reduce the amount of time we spend in unpleasant labor’ (Skinner, 1976, p. xiv).

Walden Two reworks literary conventions from utopian writing, such as guided tours through the model society, lengthy Socratic dialogues, and an opportunity for the visitor (and by extension the reader) to join up (Roemer, 1983, p.128). Skinner, though, presents a high-handed ‘blueprint’: objections are dismissed, and problems diminished. Frazier argues that Walden Two has no need for democracy: in behaviourist terms, the operation (voting) has no secure relationship to the reinforcer (the candidate’s victory), so voting is either for the wrong reasons, or irrational (Skinner, 1976, pp.249-250). The unstated comparison is with Skinner’s account of ‘superstition’ in pigeons whose operant behaviour is reinforced by accidental environmental contingencies (Skinner, 1948, p.171). There are further sinister asides and silences. Frazier thinks women should bear children at 15 or 16 (a euphemism for puberty). And nobody in Walden Two has significant dependency needs apart from infants and small children; the elderly, disabled, and chronically ill are conspicuously absent.

Skinner’s technocratic approach assumes that government is best left to specialists who relieve citizens of their unwanted, unneeded and unreasonable democratic burden. William Sleator’s House of Stairs (1974) pursues this line of thought to its dystopian

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conclusion. This short novel for young adults, set in a near-future authoritarian USA, concerns five teenage orphans who wake up in a mysterious featureless building composed largely of staircases and landings. Apart from rudimentary facilities for sleep, sanitation, and water, the only feature is a plastic hemisphere which dispenses food pellets as a reward.

The teenagers are conditioned within this humansized Skinner Box, at first learning a group dance, and then increasingly deceitful and humiliating aggression toward each other – while still maintaining enough co-operation to dance for their food. When the group are released, they encounter their experimenter, Key sources Dr Lawrence, a government psychologist who spouts Skinnerian Bem, S.L. (1983). Gender schema rhetoric: theory and its implications for child development: Raising genderaschematic children in a genderschematic society. Signs, 8(4), 598-616.

Borup, M., Brown, N., Konrad, K. & Van Lente, H. (2006). The sociology of expectations in science and technology.

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 18(3-4), 285-298.

Hilgartner, S. (1990). The dominant view of popularization: Conceptual problems, political uses. Social Studies of Science, 20(3), 519-539.

Lips, H.M. (1990). Using science fiction to teach the psychology of sex and gender. Teaching of Psychology, 17(3), 197-198.

Miller, G. (2020, 18 Feb 2020). Fan of sci-fi? Psychologists have you in their sights. Retrieved from https:// theconversation.com/fan-of-sci-fipsychologists-have-you-in-theirsights-131342 Mitchison, N. (1995). Solution Three.

Feminist Press at City University of New York.

Morawski, J.G. (1982). Assessing psychology’s moral heritage through our neglected utopias. American Psychologist, 37(10), 1082-1095.

Roemer, K.M. (1983). Mixing behaviorism and utopia: The transformations of Walden Two. In E. S. Rabkin, M.H. Greenberg & J.D. Olander (Eds.) No place else: Explorations in utopian and dystopian fiction (pp.125146). Southern Illinois University Press.

Skinner, B.F. (1948). “Superstition” in the pigeon. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38(2), 168-172.

Skinner, B.F. (1976). Walden Two. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.

Sleator, W. (2004). House of stairs.

Penguin.

Thornhill, R. & Palmer, C.T. (2000). A natural history of rape: Biological bases of sexual coercion. MIT Press.

Travis, C.B. (Ed.) (2003). Evolution, gender, and rape. MIT Press.

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the conditioning most people receive from life, from the real world, is unplanned – haphazard and accidental. Is it surprising then that people are only rarely well adjusted? That only rarely do they find themselves in a life situation for which their conditioning has prepared them? No wonder that so many people are frustrated and dissatisfied (if not worse), and therefore do not perform with maximum efficiency.

(Sleator, 2004, p.162)

Lawrence wants the teenagers to find maximal efficiency in their life situation as ‘a group of young people, an elite corps, who would be able to follow unquestioningly any order given to them’ (Sleator, 2004, p.162). Three of the group – Blossom, Abigail, and Oliver – are successfully trained, but two – Peter and Lola – are rejected, and sent back to the outside world.

Sleator represents behaviourism as a dehumanising technology: the three who co-operate ‘no longer saw one another as people, but only as things to make use of’ (Sleator, 2004, p.140). This reduction of the person to an automaton is elaborated in the rebellious Lola’s perceptions of Blossom feasting at the pellet dispenser: she ‘leaned forward and stuck out her little red tongue automatically, reaching out her hand to catch the food without even looking at it’ (Sleator, 2004, p.23).

Sleator also challenges behaviourism with rival psychological schools, such as psychoanalysis, which is invoked by his depiction of Peter

as a fantasy-prone repressed gay youth. The reader, in making sense of Peter’s daydreams of unconscious sexual attraction, enters a meaningful interiority which behaviourism can’t access – and indeed the reader is thereby encouraged to practice an everyday form of psychoanalytic interpretation.

Despite their disagreement, Walden Two and House of Stairs take psychology seriously. However, Naomi Mitchison’s semi-utopian Solution Three (1975) shows that science fiction may use psychology as simply a convenient stockpile of ideas, or even just jargon, with which to prop up the pasteboard set of a makebelieve society. Solution Three imagines a future Earth in which war and population growth have been curbed by the institution of normative homosexuality and by the use of cloning for human reproduction. Alongside hormone conditioning, various ‘hidden persuaders’ direct sexual desires away from reproductive heterosexuality: ‘social changes could be made through the ordinary advertisement channels, once one got hold of them. Persuasion was, after all, such an expert business; it had only to be applied, both subliminally and overtly, through the many media’ (Mitchison, 1995, p.23). Solution Three inverts real-world pseudotechnologies for the purported sexual reconditioning of gay men and women in order to distance and make strange our own world of majority heterosexual identity. The rhetoric and jargon of psychology are borrowed in order to position a topsy-turvy world within the genre of science fiction: science made all this happen… rather than a spell cast over the kingdom by a mischievous wizard. In a world where gay vegan politicians smoke cannabis at summits, the residual straight population are a legally tolerated but disreputable minority of ‘social misfits’ (Mitchison, 1995, p.13) and ‘deviants’ (Mitchison, 1995, p.118).

They can openly express their sexual love only in a

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the psychologist july/august 2020 eye on fiction

few straight-friendly locations; they are discriminated against in access to work and housing; and they are written out of culture and historiography. Solution Three, in giving the straights a taste of their own medicine, make strange the world of its 1970s readership – a world in which homosexuality is legally permitted, but where gay identity is marginalised and denigrated.

investigate the scientific construction of ‘the future’ as a persuasive device in the hereand-now:

Gavin Miller, Senior Lecturer in Medical Humanities, University of Glasgow.

Author of Science Fiction and Psychology (Liverpool University Press, 2020).

Gavin.Miller@glasgow.ac.uk

Psychology’s utopian projects Science fiction can draw on psychology for its utopian scenarios, whether the psychology is taken seriously or not. But the cultural traffic may run from science fiction into psychology, where writers can state or imply extrapolated futures, such as that found in Randy Thornhill and Craig Palmer’s contentious A Natural History of Rape (2000), which received withering scrutiny from within psychology and the human sciences (Travis, 2003). Thornhill and Palmer envisage a future society modelled in light of their evolutionary-cognitive account of a supposed ‘rape module’ in the human male. This society will revive ‘patterns of movement that keep females – especially at the ages when they are most sexually attractive – out of isolated areas’ (Thornhill & Palmer, 2000, p.185).

Young women will be educated in the male’s natural disposition to rape them, alongside ‘some instruction in self-defence’ (Thornhill & Palmer, 2000, p.180), supplemented by a further sex-specific program that address[es] how other elements of attractiveness (including health, symmetry, and hormone markers such as waist size), and clothing and makeup that enhance them, may influence the likelihood of rape […]. This is not to say that young women should constantly attempt to look ill and infertile; it is simply to say that they should be made aware of the costs associated with attractiveness. (Thornhill & Palmer, 2000, p.181)

Even if Thornhill and Palmer were correct, one could imagine an entirely different societal response: young males might be chemically castrated at puberty, with their sexual desires gradually restored if they show compliance to a programme of respect for women – with full sexual rights restored to those whose supposed ‘rape module’ is most effectively curbed. This extrapolation may sound like a dystopian matriarchy, but then what do we make of Thornhill and Palmer’s alternative vision, and the interests which underpin it?

Such narrative constructions of the future within psychology is theorised by the so-called ‘sociology of expectations’, which proceeds from ‘the difference between looking into the future and looking at the future’ (Borup et al., 2006, p.206). Researchers

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[n]ovel technologies and fundamental changes in scientific principle do not substantively pre-exist themselves, except and only in terms of the imaginings, expectations and visions that have shaped their potential. […] Such expectations can be seen to be fundamentally ‘generative’, they guide activities, provide structure and legitimation, attract interest and foster investment. (Borup et al., 2006, pp.285-286)

Feminist psychology has perhaps been most willing to talk frankly about the generation of its research programme within concrete visions for a better future.

Hilary M. Lips remarks that ‘[w]hen teaching about the psychology of sex and gender, I use science fiction to increase students’ awareness of this nonconscious ideology’; in this way, she can ‘jolt’ her students ‘into thinking about how much they take gender for granted and to help them imagine how things could be different’ (Lips, 1990, p.197). Sandra L. Bem shares this explicit commitment to a political programme as she elaborates potential strategies for ‘raising a genderaschematic child in the midst of a gender-schematic society’ (Bem, 1983, p.609). As with Walden Two, this utopian aspiration requires the psychological immunisation of children against the snares of the wider world, via ‘alternative schemata [that] “build up one’s resistance” to the lessons of the dominant culture and thereby enable one to remain gender-aschematic’ (Bem, 1983, p.610).

Beyond accuracy and distortion The examples above, from both science fiction and psychology, challenge any simplistic model of the relationship between the two. It may be tempting to think in terms of a tightly-patrolled one-way border from psychology into science fiction – where the expert’s job is to check for ‘accurate’ rather than ‘distorted’ representation of the scientific content.

Indeed, this model is a popular professional mythology in the public understanding of science (Hilgartner, 1990).

The reality is far more complex: both psychology and science fiction engage in utopian and dystopian storytelling, and the validity of the science may be questionable (clearly so in science fiction – and even in psychology). But science fiction asks us to consciously address questions that may be only implicit in psychology’s utopian forecasts: whose make-believe future is this, what does it presume, and should I agree?

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For this edition, in place of our usual ‘Member of the month’, we thought we would put out a question on Twitter via @psychmag…

One thing I’ve learned about myself, or Psychology, during the pandemic…

Dr Mary Stanley-Duke @DrMarySD That I can be flexible and adjust and can embrace new working challenges.

Joh Foster @TheWiseFoster That it is ok to do nothing. As a self-confessed control freak and round-bottomed sort, my usual stance is to do all the things all the time.

In this time of lockdowns and furloughs, I’ve no choice but to let go of the norm.

Peter Forster @petermforster I enjoy a quiet life and solitary lifestyle even more than I thought I would. I’ve been keeping a meditation diary for an n=1 study of meditation experiences and may even write it up one day!

thoughts, or sparking new ideas. I miss my ‘well that was weird’ ahuh moments.

Angela Wilcock @AngelaPsyched To adjust my perspective and find the meaning in my new reality. ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so’ – Hamlet.

Covid has challenged me!

comment… email the editor, the Leicester office, or tweet @psychmag to advertise… reach a large and professional audience at bargain rates: see details on inside front cover

Jane Ogden @Jane1Ogden The importance of change. I need to go out of the house to enjoy coming back in. And if I’m allowed two things – I just need to laugh!

Virtual Psychologist Trainee @ProfessrCelestr The preventative power of listening to and interpreting personal cues. Like my patients, I have a toolbox of skills that have all come to fore with building my ‘pandemic bunker’.

Know better do better @Nikki_A_Moore I’ve learnt, simply that I can. Whatever that may be. I just finished a psychology degree with three children in tow whilst working in a homeless shelter. I can do anything I want to.

the

psychologist july 2018

july 2018

Maxine Caine @CaineMaxine There is a place for all emotions; I can experience many in one day. There is a time for sadness, anger and disappointment and allowing myself to feel this is ok.

maybe you missed… …July 2018, ‘Windows on our inner and outer worlds’ – psychologists and their artistic endeavours. …Search it and so much more via www.bps.org.uk/thepsychologist the psychologist

Gary Nixon FRSA @psychologisted Being both an Educational Psychologist and a Headteacher of two schools, remaining open in the pandemic, I have been able to apply psychology in a novel way. A new paradigm is being born. Complexities at different levels require novel solutions.

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contribute… reach 50,000 colleagues, with something to suit all. See www.thepsychologist.org.uk/ contribute or talk to the editor, Dr Jon Sutton, jon.sutton@bps.org.uk, +44 116 252 9573

Dr Linda K. Kaye @LindaKKaye I have learnt what my limitations are, and that these aren’t defined by what I am competent at doing (or not doing) but what I care about doing and who I can help as a result.

Adrian Coyle @AdrianCoyle5 That what I often told myself I’d do if only I’d had the time was simply a personal mythology.

Observing what I’ve actually been doing during the confinement rather than what I’d aspired to do has been a source of self-insight.

Steve King @steveathon That even as an ‘introvert’ I get so much value out of casual interaction or observation of folks, like idea generation, troubleshooting my

coming soon… who knows? A standard edition, hopefully… see you in the new normal!

Monia Brizzi @BrizziMonia That distance is more than a spatial attribute; it is also experiential and emotional and so we can be close when apart, touch and be touched by each other across time and space.

Muhamad Alif Bin Ibrahim (Alif) @alifpsych The need for evidence-based guidelines and policies, as well as clear, unambiguous public messaging. These will help organisations, the community, and individuals to act decisively, which in turn, can help save lives…

Bethan Edwards @BethanEdwards03 That I don’t need to be doing something seismic to make a difference. Small droplets still make ripples in the ocean. :)

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one on one

Windows on our inner and outer worlds Christina Richards introduces psychologists’ musings on their own art, in a variety of media

www.thepsychologist.org.uk

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Find out more online at Canwww.bps.org.uk you deliver excellent professional training?

We need more people to provide professional training for our members.

They need access to good quality training sessions to maintain and enhance their skills and knowledge.

Webinars: These are interactive and recorded online presentations and, usually around two hours. You can share delivery with other presenters, respond to audience questions and incorporate activities for delegates. The webinars society allow notices society vacancies participants to access CPD regardless of their location.

Cognitive & Developmental Psychology Sections Committee/Board Joint Conference Stoke-on-Trent, 4-6 September See p.31 Deadline: Monday 3 August 2020.

Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference Manchester, 10-11 September See p.31 BPS Annual Conference Harrogate, 1–2 May See p.45 W E W EL COME P R OP O SA L S ON A L L BPS conferences and events See p.61

A R E A S OF P SYCHOL OGY

Read our guidelines for submissions and submit your proposal online now

www.bps.org.uk/delivercpd

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Post See p.00

Society Trustees www.bps.org.uk/about-us/ who-we-are President Dr Hazel McLaughlin President Elect Dr Nigel MacLennan Vice President David Murphy Honorary General Secretary Dr Carole Allan Honorary Treasurer Dr Roxane Gervais Chair, Education and Training Board Dr Juliet Foster Chair, Practice Board Alison Clarke Chair, Membership Board Professor Carol McGuinness Chair, Research Board Professor Daryl O’Connor Trustees Chris Lynch, Professor Clifford Stott, Dr Ester Cohen-Tovee, Christina Buxton, Dr Adam Jowett Chief Executive Sarb Bajwa Change Programme Director Diane Ashby Director of Communications and Engagement Rachel Dufton Director of Finance and Resources Harnish Hadani Director of IT Mike Laffan Director of Knowledge and Insight Dr Debra Malpass Director of Membership and Professional Development Karen Beamish Director of Policy Kathryn Scott Head of Legal and Governance Christine Attfield

The Society has offices in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow and London, as well as the main office in Leicester (St Andrews House, 48 Princess Road East, Leicester, LE1 7DR).

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Ax_British Isles DBT_OBC.pdf

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