The Psychologist December 2020 by The Psychologist

the

psychologist december 2020

The allure of mysteries Elizabeth Michaelson Monaghan meets researchers to look behind the painting

www.thepsychologist.org.uk

the

psychologist december 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 allure of mysteries Elizabeth Michaelson Monaghan meets researchers to look behind the painting

the psychologist and research digest www.thepsychologist.org.uk www.bps.org.uk/digest www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk psychologist@bps.org.uk

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The Psychologist is the magazine of The British Psychological Society

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 Krishan Parmar 01223 378051 krishan.parmar@cpl.co.uk november 2020 issue 54,965 dispatched cover Behind the old painting, from Holly Andres’ ‘Sparrow Lane’ series: see www.hollyandres.com

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, or tweet us on @psychmag.

environment Printed by Warners Midlands plc on 100 per cent recycled paper. Please re-use and recycle. Mailing bag is potato starch-based and fully compostable. issn 0952-8229 (print) 2398-1598 (online) © Copyright for all published material is held by the British Psychological Society unless speciﬁcally stated otherwise. As the Society is a party to the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) agreement, articles in The Psychologist may be copied by libraries and other organisations under the terms of their own CLA licences (www.cla.co.uk). Permission must be obtained for any other use beyond fair dealing authorised by copyright legislation. For further information about copyright and obtaining permissions, e-mail permissions@bps.org.uk.

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 Culture Kate Johnstone Books Emily Hutchinson Voices in Psychology Madeleine Pownall Psychologist and Digest Editorial Advisory Committee Richard Stephens (Chair), Emma Beard, Harriet Gross, Kimberley Hill, Deborah Husbands, Peter Olusoga, Miles Thomas

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psychologist december 2020

Letters Race, cultural identity, From the President and more News Student mental health, honours, awards, event reports and more Digest Awe walks, astronauts and much more

‘Almost every area of psychology has something to contribute to addressing climate change’ Lorraine Whitmarsh

‘I took my turn on Friday to be arrested’ Rosie Jones on peaceful protest, the law and regulation

‘You build in, rather than tack on, change’ Ian Florance meets Helen Keyes, a cognitive psychologist and ‘trafﬁc psychologist at heart’ The allure of mysteries Elizabeth Michaelson Monaghan meets researchers Chronic pain acceptance does not equal accepting chronic pain Ute Liersch ‘You have to put your trust in the psychologist’ Dominic Barrett on his recovery, with Caroline Clare

Jobs in psychology Featured job, latest vacancies

‘Women ﬁght victim blaming every step of the way’ Jessica Taylor on her book

Books Mia Scotland and Michelle Cree in conversation on birth trauma; non-binary lives; and much more

‘We have a responsibility to go beyond sport’ Pete Olusoga and Hugh Gilmore chat about their podcast, Eighty Percent Mental

Culture Dick Johnson is Dead; I Made This For You; and more

Some months, I ﬁnd it relatively easy to plot a path through the issue. A clear theme or map emerges. Other times, it feels like I can only throw a mish-mash of mysteries at you and trust that some of it will stick. Sure, there’s a hattrick of interviews around climate change, but perhaps it’s the theme of change more broadly which continues throughout the issue, as we hear from several psychologists looking to change our understanding about people, the world, and the potential impact of our discipline. And there’s our cover feature, on the allure of mysteries. Elizabeth Michaelson Monaghan concludes that what she likes best about them is the ‘promise of more’. The magazine is increasingly just a snapshot of what we – what you – are producing on a daily basis. So throughout this edition you’ll ﬁnd that promise of much more on our website… I hope that proves to be alluring. Please do connect via email or Twitter, with ideas for topics and authors.

One on one Julie Turner-Cobb

Dr Jon Sutton Managing Editor @psychmag

Tim Sanders/www.timonline.info

The discomfort of institutional racism

I was intrigued by Lewis Mitchell’s letter ‘What does evidence look like?’ in the November issue, arguing that we need scientific proof of institutional racism. Such evidence would be hard to find in a field dominated by Western-Caucasian culture. There is some ‘scientific evidence’ showing that a majority of clinical trials in mental health took place on ‘white only’ wards (Metzl, 2010) and that BME healthcare professionals are more likely to have cases of fitness to practice raised to a full investigation (West et al., 2016). Intersectionality effects of fitness to practice investigations are not reported by the HCPC. If we do not collect the data to report these figures, then how can we find evidence for institutional racism? Does this not put BME colleagues within our profession in a difficult position? To speak of institutional racism, we must find evidence, but such evidence is not made possible. Perhaps we should be debating whether the lack of these figures is an unconscious bias – evidence itself of institutional racism. These recent arguments for evidence follow the Black Lives Matter movement which has rocked the world. Histories of the oppression of BME individuals have started to be uncovered and taught. I am fascinated that I have reached doctoral training without much study of the use of psychology in oppressing those from diverse backgrounds. Just the other day I came across Drapetomania; a diagnosis used in the 1850s to label black slaves who ran away from their white ‘owners’, and Drysatheshia Aethiopis; a label applied to black slaves who showed disrespect to their ‘owners’ and for which the prescribed ‘treatment’ was extensive whipping (Metzl, 2010). These events were highlighted ten years ago, but they are still not in undergraduate psychology programmes. These histories are shocking and difficult to talk about. They make us feel uncomfortable that psychology could be used in a harmful way. However, the fact that

these historical events make us feel uncomfortable is a good thing – it shows there has been significant progress within the field that such bad practices are recognised as both shocking and an abuse of power. Although this subject is difficult to speak of, without doing so we cannot see the progress made in mental health. We should continue to have these conversations, to challenge our unconscious biases and feel comforted that this builds on good practice within the profession. We should not hide behind a need for ‘scientific rigour’ before we make changes. Should we be cautious about the label of institutional racism? If we have some understanding that institutional racism exists, then its presence should not be doubted. A professional colleague should feel able to tell you how they feel and share their lived experience – who are we to question how they feel? In questioning their experiences we unconsciously squash voices of BME psychologists within the profession, so they do not speak out against malpractices. Understanding our own social GGRRAAACCEEESSSS [not a typo but an acronym] and how they influence our practice is needed more than ever to benefit not only our clients but also the people and systems we work with. Yes, psychology is a field of science. It is also about understanding the individuals we work with and not prescribing a one-size-fits-all approach. Psychology understands people – we appreciate their differences. We should not lose sight of this by claiming we need proof. Jasmin Kaur Gill Trainee Clinical Psychologist, Birmingham jasmin.gill3@nhs.net References Metzl, J.M. (2010). The protest psychosis: How schizophrenia became a black disease. Beacon Press. West, E., Nayar, S., Taskila, T. & Al-Haboubi, M. (2016). The progress and outcomes of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) nurses and midwives through the nursing and midwifery council’s fitness to practise process. University of Greenwich.

the psychologist december 2020 letters

Cultural identity on the journey to clinical psychology Psychology is increasingly aware of the reality that significantly lower proportions of individuals from Black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds access psychological services. There have been discussions regarding what the barriers might look like and how these may widen the gap (e.g. Memon et al., 2016). There is also greater understanding of the limited representation of individuals from BAME backgrounds completing professional psychology qualifications, and that a diverse workforce is key for improving access to mental health services (Turpin & Coleman, 2010). However, currently there is little consideration of an individual’s professional journey and how it may be impacted by their ethnic background. I note a need to develop awareness of how cultural identity may influence an individual’s performance, experience and professional development. Drawing on my own experience, there is limited understanding that Assistant Psychologists from minority ethnic backgrounds, like myself, may notice a culture ‘clash’ between work and home due to our jobs in mental health. I grew up surrounded by South Indian Tamil ideologies, including the belief that mental health difficulties do not exist or are not as important as other issues. Conversely, my professional journey

has focused on the detrimental impact of failing to address mental health needs. This has led to some difficult conversations with members of my cultural community in explaining my rationale for working in mental health, with no compassionate culturally sensitive space to discuss these issues during my professional development. Western society places an emphasis on the importance of taking care of your own mental health and wellbeing. This is at odds with the Tamil collectivist view of family wellbeing at the forefront and considering how your actions may impact your family/community. I have learnt to find a middle ground between these opposing ideologies, to thrive as a mental health professional and not lose aspects of my cultural identity. These issues have made me wonder whether professional development is stunted by having an extra layer of complexity to navigate through, whilst also managing general concerns and difficulties within these roles. There are likely several ways in which cultural identity may impact personal and professional development, depending on an individual’s cultural background and role within a service. It is important to pay attention to these differences not only to improve access, but to understand whether professional development is impacted negatively,

positively or just differently. I believe that we have yet to recognise the experiences of individuals from BAME backgrounds during their path to a professional psychology qualiﬁcation, both within our research and in further discussion. Cheryl Francis Assistant Psychologist Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services North East Surrey References Memon, A., Taylor, K., Mohebati, L.M. et al. (2016). Perceived barriers to accessing mental health services among black and minority ethnic (BME) communities: A qualitative study in Southeast England. BMJ Open, 6, e012337. Turpin, G. & Coleman, G. (2010). Clinical psychology and diversity: Progress and continuing challenges. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 9(2), 17–27.

See also online: Reﬂections of a prospective Black Psychologist Charity Kibathi on internal biases and systemic racism in psychology. Harsh truths on the clinical journey Franca Onyeama and Nadia YatesStephenson question whether the Clinical Psychology Doctorate is unattainable for people coming from BAME and lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

Prioritising the therapeutic alliance In the October issue, Jonathon Dawson asked how to address racism in therapy. Dawson mentioned that a key aim of therapy settings is to build therapeutic alliance, yet his proposed graded scale for dealing with implicit and explicit remarks may be damaging. Firstly, setting these boundaries prior to therapy risks assuming clients are (potentially) racist. Yet consideration of context is crucial. For instance, a client walking into a therapy session is most likely vulnerable and distressed. In this case, such boundary-setting can be overwhelming, inappropriate, and likely to damage the therapeutic

alliance irreparably. Clients should feel secure and accepted, with their thoughts and feelings sympathetically unpacked. Building rapport should be the top priority within therapy. As an exception, setting boundaries is appropriate if, upon arrival, the client’s ﬁrst reaction to the therapist is blatantly discriminatory. This would be a strong cue to set boundaries before commencing. When addressing repeated remarks, it is wiser to challenge behaviour rather than the person, in a nonconfrontational manner. This depersonalises the issue, and the client should recognise and perhaps change the

prejudice/stereotyping in their behaviour. But even this could cause discomfort depending on the terminology used. Considering the context is crucial. Challenging a client can come across as demeaning if responses are not friendly and respectful. After all, the therapeutic relationship is a collaborative effort. Dawson also suggests removing the client from the caseload if there are repeated comments. There are always exceptions, but this is clearly the last thing a therapist should do. Often the ﬁrst secure relationship a client has in their life is with their therapist, hence it can be difﬁcult to build a new relationship with a new therapist. Racism in therapy should be addressed with equality

and inclusivity at its core and should cut both ways. Just as we should not see the client (or ourselves) as the problem, we need an inclusive narrative when dealing with racial prejudice too. As Dawson points out, there is no speciﬁc guidance for therapists to deal with discrimination in practice. The BPS could provide guidelines speciﬁcally for psychology practitioners looking to address racism in therapy in more appropriate ways. More discussion and debate are needed in this complex domain. Simran Dhillon Honorary Research Assistant Nottingham Trent University simran.dhillon2015@my.ntu.ac.uk

from the president An opportunity to ignite learning BPS president Dr Hazel McLaughlin on encouraging talent and supporting learning in these challenging times. We recently saw the start of a new academic year like no other, as universities find new ways to welcome students and to protect them and their staff from the pandemic. The challenges are great for ‘Generation Covid’. Young people, in the 16-25 age range, are twice as likely to lose their jobs as older workers and 60 per cent have seen their earnings fall. Uncertainty has increased, with rules and restrictions changing and people less clear about their immediate, never mind their long-term, futures. Research led by Society member Professor Rory O’Connor and colleagues at the University of Glasgow, highlighted a small but significant rise in suicidal thoughts, especially amongst young adults aged 18-29. It is therefore incumbent on all of us within the profession to support the next generation in our psychology professions. The challenges are there for all, but the impact is unevenly spread, with minority and disadvantaged groups more adversely affected. Psychology has gained prominence as an undergraduate degree and many in early career stages are undertaking postgraduate and further studies. We need to think to the future in order to recognise, mentor and engage with the talented and committed young people who chose to study psychology and to follow a psychology career path. At the BPS we recognise that we must engage more and provide resources and support, all of which need to be fit for purpose for today’s graduates and postgraduates. We want to energise, to motivate and foster the researchers and practitioners of the future. This is particularly important this year. Psychology is about interaction, yet we recognise that university programmes are restricted in the amount of face-toface contact and support. In the current context, this cohort of students and postgraduates need their professional body more for support and guidance. Our student networks have a key role 04

to play, including the BPS student committee and the Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group. We can make a significant difference with clearer, better careers guidance for students. Indeed, this has emerged from our member journey project as one of the top three priorities that our members want from the BPS. Many branches, divisions, sections, and networks have mentoring schemes and provide guidance and advice to those early in their career. We want to strengthen these initiatives and support them with an overarching mentoring framework within the BPS. We have already started to make some early changes. We recently teamed up with the Association for the Teaching of Psychology to launch a toolkit of resources for psychology teachers. This will enable A-level students with a keen interest in psychology to have an excellent introduction to the subject and the future possibilities that it opens up for them, prior to commitment to university. Our online student community [bps.org.uk/communities] provides our student members with a platform to discuss their studies and to support each other through advice and tips, as well as peer-to-peer support at a time when it is so vital. On a personal level, I continue to explore ‘Building Psychological Capability’ with our member networks and encourage career development and mentoring throughout the society. Please engage with initiatives such as the member journey project, and encourage your friends and fellow students to join the BPS so that we can provide students with the additional support they want and need. If we can combine a wider awareness of BPS membership among psychology students with greatly improved resources, I know that together we can support the next generation of psychologists through this difficult period. As Plutarch said, ‘The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting’. Let us take this opportunity to ignite learning and make sure that psychology in the UK has a bright future. Dr Hazel McLaughlin is President of the British Psychological Society. Contact her at PresidentsOffice@bps.org.uk

the psychologist december 2020 letters

Optimistic about changing tides I am compelled to respond to Dr Khadija Rouf’s letter in the November issue regarding lived experience. As someone at the very start of their psychology career, the notion that my own traumatic experiences could cause me not to ‘ﬁt’ into the profession is alarming, but I am optimistic about the changing tides. It is truly a bizarre perspective – the notion that only an outsider can help, only the unbroken can help the broken. Rouf talks of the various ways that openness about his abuse acted as a barrier to his study and traineeship. Whilst we are starting to challenge this in the psychology profession – and the recent guidelines cited by Rouf are a good starting point – this survivor or trauma discrimination remains apparent in other public-facing roles. At present I work for the police service and am a postgraduate conversion student in psychology. I am diagnosed with depression, I am dyslexic, and I have come from a household in which domestic violence occurred. When I applied for my police role, I was asked to disclose any health issues and I disclosed my depression. An occupational health team member called me to discuss whether my depression would make me unsuitable for the role. My qualiﬁcations and experience were not

challenged, but the disclosure of a mental health issue became the tipping point in my new career. After a gruelling wait, I was given my position which I have been in for nearly three years. I have found myself opening up about my own experiences and mental health with other survivors, and they have felt more comfortable talking about their own issues. I have spoken about medication, therapy, and what worked and did not work for me, offering support to them. Of course, others are just as capable as me. In my opinion, openness about my lived experience offered survivors something they perhaps have not had before: relatability. I echo Rouf’s appreciation of clear guidance surrounding lived experience, but can we go further? Could the BPS and the psychology community do more, with proper guidance, to allow people to be authentic, to allow lived experience to beneﬁt our interactions in all occupations? Experiences should not be hidden away, but, to a degree, embraced. Daniel Davies MSc Student in Psychology Nottingham Trent University daniel.davies2019@my.ntu.ac.uk

Professional skill does not exist in a vacuum Getty Images

I am concerned by the letter in the October issue advocating for a regressive change in the BPS guidelines around the treatment of LGBTQ individuals (‘Freedom of expression around diversity guidelines’). I am particularly concerned that the letter offered no evidence in support of this proposed change, instead invoking a need for freedom to use ‘professional skill’. Thirty years ago homosexuality was considered a mental illness. Presumably professional skill would have suggested the ‘use of many core models (systemic, trauma-informed, developmental) in formulating the factors resulting in the clients’ presentation’, instead of professionals needing to integrate an afﬁrmative stance into their practice? Psychology and Psychiatry do not exist in a vacuum, and what is considered abnormal is partly a political decision. Regardless of a practitioner’s personal views, they must work in consensus with the populations they treat while

respecting the culturally acceptable life choices of their clients. This ethos is unquestioned in relation to a variety of religious and philosophical perspectives. It is well known that individuals from minorities – such as ethnic minorities – are disadvantaged in terms of mental health treatment (e.g. Royal College of Psychiatrists ‘Racism and mental health’, 2018). Perhaps this is in part because some clinicians feel that ‘professional skill’ can trump guidelines developed by experts in a ﬁeld after a robust consultation process.

LGBTQ rights, and the rights of every other minority, is a political question. Psychological expertise cannot deﬁnitively answer political debates with a moral component – such as the acceptability of homosexuality or transgender identity. Individuals may wish to campaign for changes in political and societal attitudes, but this should be distinct from their clinical work. There are other settings to discuss politics, before discussing changes to interventions. Psychologists may or may not share their patients’ beliefs, and psychologists may or may not live their lives in the same way as their patients, but psychologists should respect their patients’ choices unless there is good reason. Any ‘good reason’ must be decided by consensus and in consultation with minorities in order to avoid potential bias and prejudice – whether intentional or unintentional. Tris Smith Oxford

Accessing psychology I would like to congratulate the BPS for establishing the Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP) role and accrediting it through the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education as a level 6/7 qualification. During the course of my career I have felt that psychology as a profession has unfortunately become increasingly elitist and hierarchical and that this has often constituted a significant barrier for people accessing effective psychosocial interventions. It is rare to find a professional representative organisation which prioritises the interests of society above those of its more senior members. Often professional representative bodies seek to protect practice and demarcate boundaries of competence in a restrictive way, frequently resulting in reduced access

The voice of retirees I retired some years ago but have maintained my BPS membership. I continue to ﬁnd articles and letters interesting – perhaps more so now that time and energy allows a wider focus on the discipline – but my involvement is limited to The Psychologist especially now that Covid restrictions prevent face-to-face conferences. Could ‘the retired’ have more of a voice within The Psychologist and outside? For example, with articles dealing with planning for retirement [Editor’s note: Do see tinyurl.com/psychmagretire],

how lives have changed since giving up work and perhaps how one can ‘keep a hand in’. More importantly I wonder whether a sub-group or network for retirees can be formed to get together – virtually, face-to-face and/or through The Psychologist. There may be others who would be interested in such activity and it would represent a further incentive to continue membership after professional life has ceased. Stella Tickle Otford stellatickle6@gmail.com

Letters online: Find more letters at www.thepsychologist.org.uk/debates, including: ‘Every choice has been dictated by my health condition’ Liza Morton on ableism in Psychology, reﬂecting on her lived experience of navigating a career in Psychology whilst living with a serious lifelong heart condition. Ewart Hood 1949-2020 Read a tribute from his wife and fellow Psychologist, Denise Johnson, at https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/ewart-hood-1949-2020

Deadline for letters for the January print edition is Friday 20 November 2020. Letters received after this date will be considered for the following month and/ or for publication online. Email letters to psychologist@bps.org.uk with the subject line ‘Letter to the editor’.

to services. The PWP initiative provides competent practitioners who will increase access to services, because they can be provided at a lower cost. For those who recognise that access to psychological services is a right and that resources are ﬁnite, this is a very good thing. As a member working outside the UK, it is refreshing (especially in these Brexit times) to be able to point to a model of practice where the BPS is leading innovation that is necessary, urgent and evidence-informed. I very much hope that this model of practice will be more widely adopted throughout Europe and globally, building on the well-established principles of task sharing and task shifting, which psychologists should be embracing as key elements in job design and service provision. Mac MacLachlan Clinical Lead for Disability Services, HSE (Irish Health Service) & Professor of Psychology & Social Inclusion, Maynooth University, Ireland

An obsession with theory? Reading Michael Billig’s fabulous article (November issue), I was reminded of an incident a few years ago when submitting some work on attitudes to NATO to a political psychology journal. They repeatedly refused to review it on the grounds there was no theory there... this despite the obvious benefit that it involves the first random sample in post-war psychologist Bosnia since the war there. The mantra of no theory was again reeled out by another political psychology journal. I asked the editor who refused to review it what real world events of Marie Jahoda – the ultimate example any significance had theory predicted in political or social psychology for that matter. They declined to respond. We eventually got the piece accepted by a political science journal where it was praised by the US’s chief negotiator in Kosovo. The event did my career no good. My boss was similarly obsessed with theory and marked down an excellent postgraduate dissertation on the psychological needs of refugees, conducted in the trying conditions of an actual refugee camp, on the grounds that there was no theory. I wonder how many people have had their career adversely affected by the kind of nonsense Billig so aptly identifies. Ron Roberts Honorary Lecturer, Kingston University the

november 2020

Michael Billig turns to historical studies of writing psychology to argue for ‘more examples, less theory’

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the psychologist december 2020 letters

Intelligence and Development Scales – Second Edition The second edition of the highly successful German Intelligence and Development Scales (IDS-2) evaluates the ‘whole child’ by looking at intelligence, executive functions, and general development. IDS-2 is a global measure designed to assess children’s knowledge, strengths, and areas for development. It can be used by educational psychologists and qualiﬁed professionals to identify and diagnose intellectual disabilities and learning disorders, evaluate cognitive and motor skills, and to help understand emotional strengths and weaknesses. IDS-2 offers: • Convenient and cost-effective testing for children and adolescents aged 5;0 to 20;11 years • 2020 UK norms • Paper and online scoring Contact us directly at customersupport@hogrefe.co.uk or visit hgf.io/ids-2-uk for more information.

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Study in the time of Covid E

Eduard Daniel Margarit

Dr Anna Matthews

ven before Covid-19, research suggested the mental health of students at UK universities was on the decline. In the face of quarantine, uncertainty, and rapidly increasing numbers of Covid-19 cases in university cities, students this year have had an extraordinary autumn term – Ella Rhodes spoke to the BPS Student Committee Chair and one expert who has seen a huge increase in demand for specialist mental health mentoring. Tens of thousands of university students and members of staff contracted Covid-19 in the ﬁrst few weeks of autumn term. At the time of writing The University and College Union has tracked more than 31,000 Covid-19 cases at UK universities, leading many students to live in self-isolation or quarantine. The experience of university has been altered beyond recognition for students, with some institutions temporarily pausing face-to-face teaching to tackle increasing cases while others are still holding some in-person tutorials and seminars – albeit with social distancing measures in place. Third-year psychology and counselling student, and Chair of the BPS Student Committee, Eduard Daniel Margarit (Abertay University) said his experience of being a student during a global pandemic had been a ‘rollercoaster’. ‘We do have a teaching block one day per week which is face-to-face and in my view this is very helpful – especially for our mental health. A lot of us are international students or students who are not necessarily from Dundee, so to have the opportunity to even see someone from a distance can be quite beneﬁcial.’

Starting university can be an extremely difficult and vulnerable time for students – Margarit said for many this will be there first experience of living away from home, family and friends. ‘Having to stay in your room and not meet people from your course, not being able to socialise, not being able to benefit from all the freshers events that the university usually puts in place, is just horrible… and there’s no way an online Zoom event or an online meeting could compensate for that. I think it needs to be acknowledged that people have been robbed of a once-ina-lifetime experience.’ Margarit said the impact of all of these challenges and uncertainty on students’ mental health could not be denied. ‘I think students’ mental health can be affected whether you’re first year, last year or anywhere in between. The resources that are in place are sometimes hard to access or have very, very long waiting times.’ Margarit said universities could do more to better fund and promote on-campus counselling or peer-support services and encouraged students and lecturers to be kinder to themselves and with one another. UMO, a non-profit organisation which provides specialised mental health mentoring (SMHM) to students at UK universities and colleges, has seen a 100 per cent increase in demand for its services during the autumn term – in part thanks to Covid-19. Dr Anna Matthews, founder and CEO of UMO, said that coming to university was a time of significant transition for students, even in more normal times. ‘With Covid, students are faced with additional

the psychologist december 2020 news

To download a recent UMO White Paper – The role and impact of specialist mental health mentoring on students in UK higher education institutes – see: tinyurl.com/yyspk8uo

Prescribing debate A BPS discussion on whether psychologists should be allowed to prescribe medication is now available to watch online. Hosted by BBC Radio 4’s All in the Mind presenter Claudia Hammond, the discussion heard from those on both sides of the debate. The BPS Practice Board brought together a task and finish group to gather views on this topic after NHS England asked for its input into whether psychologists should be added to the list of non-medical prescribers. The discussion included Dr Rebecca Courtney-Walker, chair of the task and finish group, as well as group member Cheryl Blake, also an expert by experience, and former BPS president Professor Peter Kinderman, along with the first prescribing psychologist in New Mexico Elaine LeVine. ER

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challenges including the heightened anxiety amongst everyone. There is more concern about leaving university and the likely depressed job market. The financial strain will increase if a student was doing a part-time job which has disappeared, and there are also less opportunities for them to gain experience in terms of internships.’ The students currently being supported by specialist mentors, Matthews said, were feeling particularly isolated and lonely. ‘The usual options to go to union societies are limited, which impacts on their wellbeing. Furthermore, there are reports that students have become scared with rumours about Covid being spread in halls of residence. The more traditional ways of breaking the ice and making new friends via Freshers Fairs has changed, possibly creating greater obstacles to forming new friendships. ‘There is strong anecdotal evidence that Covid has exacerbated the mental ill health of some students, especially those who were already vulnerable. Ultimately it depends on the individual, their experiences, resilience and support network.’ While counselling provided at universities can be relatively short-term, SMHM usually consists of around 30 sessions per academic year and focuses on students in the context of their studies and life at university and provides advice, strategies and techniques. Matthews said UMO research had found that such mentoring had a significant impact on students’ progress at university, attainment, engagement with courses, and was useful in supporting students during the Covid-19 pandemic. ‘We have seen a significant increase in the demand for our service given that it is flexible, video-linked sessions have been available for 30 minutes twice a week rather than one-hour sessions and students who do not have privacy at home can walk and speak via their mobile etc. Students have managed to stay engaged in the intervention, have successfully completed coursework and exams, moved into the next academic year as well as finished their degrees – all during Covid.’ Throughout her 13 years working in this area Matthews said she had seen an increase in students disclosing mental health conditions each year – but one key challenge was reaching populations who are typically less likely to seek support. ‘It is clear that students who identify as Black or other minority ethnic groups are less likely to come forward for support. Subsequently UMO has developed various initiatives to encourage students from these groups to get support (specialist group coaching, wellbeing mentoring etc), distinct by having a diverse team of Specialist Mentors and matching them with a Mentor who can understand possible cultural differences and thus helping to build a more trusting relationship.’

To watch the full discussion on YouTube see: tinyurl.com/yyjkyqfm

Training for supervisors A training course for supervisors in psychology is set to be launched this month on the British Psychological Society’s virtual learning environment, BPS Learn. The new course will be one of the ﬁrst to be delivered via the new platform and has been developed with support from BPS members. The new training will become the route onto the Register of Applied Psychology Practice Supervisors and will include six e-learning modules followed by two half-day online interactive workshops. Trainees will have the opportunity to develop and practice skills including contracting, skilful questioning, and delivering and receiving feedback. Dr Gail Steptoe-Warren, Head of Psychology at Arden University, and Chair of the BPS Supervision Training Review Group, said the new course had been developed after lengthy consultation with members on learning outcomes, support from a learning designer in developing the e-learning modules, and focus groups. ‘The learning outcomes have been updated in terms of terminology and broadened to ensure they are up to date in terms of supervision knowledge and practice. For

example there is a stronger focus on supervisor health and wellbeing, as well as the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of a supervisor’s practice. ‘Based on the learning outcomes an evaluation of delivery methods was undertaken for a new supervision skills training programme. We were keen to utilise the new virtual learning environment that the BPS has recently procured in order to make the training as accessible as possible. Members have been a key part of this process, and we are immensely grateful for the time they have given and their useful feedback and insight.’ The BPS has also recently launched a toolkit for psychology teachers in schools and colleges, developed through a collaboration between the Education and Training Board with help from the Association for the Teaching of Psychology. It includes videos, ideas for virtual events, classroom posters, tips to promote positive wellbeing and activity packs for students, including Stroop Effect materials and brain models. More materials are set to be developed and added to the toolkit each term. ER

Psychologists honoured This year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours list includes five members of the British Psychological Society. Among them are an expert in cognitive neuroscience and laughter, an organisations expert working with the NHS, and a clinical psychologist who has helped to support children and young people growing up in care. Professor of Health Psychology, and member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, Lucy Yardley (University of Bristol and University of Southampton), was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire), for services to the Covid-19 response. She said: ‘At a time when so many people are making such a wonderful effort to help us all get through this difficult time I feel very grateful that I have been given the opportunity to try to make a positive contribution through SAGE and my research.’ Dr Kim Golding a Consultant Clinical Psychologist was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). Her work has taken a particular focus on supporting children who grew up in the care system, or who were adopted from the care system, Professor Michael West CBE as well as helping parents and families. She said that, while she viewed the term ‘British Empire’ to be outdated and not representative of her own experience of being British, she appreciated the valuing of British excellence which the honours represented. ‘This honour, while recognising my individual contribution, also recognises the hard work of many people. We want to ensure that our children and young people have the best support possible in order to recover from early trauma and develop towards improved mental health and emotional wellbeing.’ Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and laughter expert Sophie Scott (University College London), has received a CBE for services to neuroscience. She said

she had always felt truly lucky to have a career working in psychological research – a path she embarked on 30 years ago. ‘I love the science and I have had the chance to work with such wonderful Professor Sophie Scott CBE colleagues and collaborators. To be recognised in this way for my science feels honestly quite greedy of me, but I am really honoured.’ Professor of Work and Organisational Psychology, Michael West (Lancaster University), was also awarded a CBE for services to compassion and innovation in the NHS. He said, throughout his research career, he had the immense privilege of working with psychologists, those in other disciplines and wonderful people in the NHS. ‘We have shared a fundamental commitment to creating the conditions where health and care staff can effectively provide high quality, continually improving and compassionate care for those in the community and creating the conditions where staff themselves experience high quality, continually improving and compassionate support. This huge honour for me is also recognition for all of their inspiring contributions.’ Principal Lecturer in Psychology Dr Derek Farrell (University of Worcester) was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for services to psychology. Farrell is also an EMDR Therapy Europe Accredited Trainer and Consultant and an Accredited Psychotherapist with the British Association of Cognitive & Behavioural Psychotherapies.

Book award winners

This year’s BPS Book Award winners, chosen by the society’s Research Board, have been announced. This year’s winning books include an exploration of the teenage brain and a textbook on new psychological perspectives on health. Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain, by Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (University of Cambridge), won in this year’s Popular Science category. Blakemore outlines her own research into the adolescent brain and what we can learn from this about behaviour, the

ways we relate to one another and our environment in adolescence. This year’s textbook winner was The New Psychology of Health: Unlocking the Social Cure by Professor Alexander Haslam, Professor Catherine Haslam, Professor Jolanda Jetten (all at University of Queensland), Dr Tegan Cruwys (Australian National University) and Associate Professor Genevieve Dingle (University of Queensland). It explores the role of social identity in both understanding and managing health problems.

For a review of Inventing Ourselves see: tinyurl.com/ y4jl42yl and to read a transcript of our 2015 Latitude Festival session with Blakemore see: tinyurl. com/y7u73v32 To read our special issue based on The New Psychology of Health see: tinyurl.com/y4ymnmlb The 2021 awards will open for nominations on 1 April.

the psychologist december 2020 news

‘Where is my voice in this?’ Deputy Editor Annie Brookman-Byrne reports from the BPS webinar ‘Decolonising the Curriculum’. Getty Images

‘Decolonisation isn’t about just sprinkling some seasoning onto a European view of psychology.’ Educational psychologist Dr Michele Perry-Springer was talking about the need to think more broadly to decolonise psychology – ‘recognising that the Eurocentric view is just one worldview, and there are other worldviews that are just as relevant’. Perry-Springer referenced Sir Hilary Beckles, who said that the work needs to start in universities, as they have played a role in colonising and need to right some of those wrongs. Dr Udeni Salmon, research fellow at the University of Lincoln, spoke of the ongoing struggle of being within the system while trying to change it. ‘It’s an uncomfortable place to be.’ Salmon voiced concerns with the Race Equality Charter (REC), which aims to find solutions to barriers to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and students. Echoing similar concerns that the Athena Swan gender charter places the burden on women, Salmon called the REC a tool of White supremacy, in co-opting people of colour to work on diversity and inclusion initiatives. (Kalwant Bhopal and Clare Pitkin’s research on this concluded that ‘The REC becomes a smoke screen that excuses HEIs from addressing White privilege by camouflaging its very existence’.) For Dr Patrick Hylton, senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln, decolonising psychology is not about providing an academic reading list. It’s about asking awkward, searching questions, like ‘where did this come from?’, ‘who are you speaking for?’, ‘what implication does it have for us?’, and ‘where is my voice in this?’. It’s about probing where information has come from, understanding that ‘information is not manna from heaven’ – that it comes from a certain position, within a historical context that needs to be examined. ‘What does that position stand for, and how does that position marginalise, disempower, make invisible other positions?’ Both Perry-Springer and Salmon spoke about the importance of empowering and working with students. According to Salmon, ‘once you start bringing students to the table, institutions like universities suddenly find it much harder to say no’. There’s a paradox, according to Salmon, that universities becoming capitalist marketplaces has actually given students more power to start making demands. Perry-Springer spoke about her focus on giving Black students a space to incubate their thoughts and work with Black academics to bring together their vision of what decolonisation should look like. Salmon pointed to the Decolonise the Curriculum project by students at the University of Kent as an example of students working to diversify their curricula and promote inclusion throughout the university. Speaking in the panel session that followed the discussion between Perry-Springer, Salmon and Hylton, two students shared their own views on what needs to

change. Fabianna Dennis at the University of Cambridge said that since psychology GCSE, race has always been an afterthought – ‘it's always that last sentence in the textbook or that one chapter’. This lack of representation, Dennis thinks, is one reason Black students choose not to enter psychology. Layne Whittaker at the Open University was really excited when there was a section on race in her course, covering intersectionality, institutional racism and White privilege. But Whittaker was shocked to find that the other students on her course were angry that race was being covered, and they perceived covering race as showing a left-wing bias, even ‘race baiting’. Worse still, the staff on the course told those students, ‘just get through it, just ignore it, you don't have to bother with it once you're done’. Academics might want a readymade reading list to embed within their usual curriculum, but these discussions showed that decolonising is not that simple. Representation is just part of the solution. What came through loud and clear in the webinar is that we need to look at psychology in a different way – with critical thought and enquiry, with reflection, and within its historical context. Dr Nasreen Fazal-Short, Chair of the BPS Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce concluded, ‘it will take years, it’s not a five-minute job... please come and join with us’.

Layne Whittaker

Children becoming Socrates Deputy Editor Annie Brookman-Byrne reports from the BPS webinar ‘More thought in education’ led by Peter Worley, co-founder of the Philosophy Foundation.

Understanding depression

A new report from the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology, created with input from those with lived experience, explores why so many of us have depression and what may help. Understanding Depression suggests that depression may not always be best thought of as an illness but rather as an individual and complex human experience. Lead author Gillian Bowden MBE, also a member of the Division of Clinical Psychology, said that given increasing inequality and the impact of Covid-19 on mental health the report felt more important than ever. ‘People experience depression for different reasons. There is no one simple explanation that applies in all cases, but we do know a lot about the different things that can play a role.’ The authors argue that to tackle

depression we should not wait until people are in crisis and then offer them ‘treatment’ in health settings, but should instead aim to build an ‘antidepressant society’. This would involve addressing factors such as poverty, racism, inequality, unemployment and childhood stress and disadvantage which can lead people to become depressed. To read the report see: tinyurl.com/ y2byhcaj

Through these questions the ‘dialectical effect’ occurs. There is an initial response, a search for alternatives, the emergence of a paradox or problem (such as, ‘you both can and cannot step into the same river twice’), an attempt to resolve the paradox (for example a disambiguation such as, ‘for those who step in the same river, ever different waters flow’), and a continual navigation between the concrete and abstract (children may step back and think in more general terms, with statements like ‘the universe flows like a river’). Even nursery Can you step into same river children will engage twice? with this approach, Worley said. They will share their views on whether it’s fair that big ted gets more cake than little ted. Children who are exposed to these philosophy sessions (Worley recommends little and often) will start to engage in dialectical processes internally, without needing input from others. They will ‘become a Socrates to themselves’. The evidence around the impact of philosophy brings up an interesting paradox that Worley has tried to solve. On the one hand, there is evidence that philosophy increases confidence. But ‘on the other hand, if we’re doing philosophy properly, we should start to doubt ourselves’. Worley has proposed a model of two kinds of confidence to resolve this paradox. There is social confidence which allows children to speak up in front of peers, and there is cognitive confidence in beliefs and ideas. Worley suggested that philosophy builds confidence in the social sense, but brings doubt to our belief systems. Together this leads to a confidence to admit fallibility and ultimately this results in intellectual humility. While he is on a mission to show that philosophy is for everyone, Worley worries that if his approach with The Philosophy Foundation was rolled out to all schools it would become a tick box exercise with specific criteria for students to meet by the end of each lesson. What makes it so valuable is being outside of the centralised system, with no focus on the extrinsic reasons for doing philosophy. There is evidence that it can improve academic outcomes, but Worley stressed that these sessions have intrinsic value. ‘We want to give children a place and a space to think for the sake of thinking.’

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The alternative title for this webinar, taken from Worley’s book, was ‘Corrupting youth’ – which is also Worley’s aim when he holds philosophy sessions in schools. But it’s not as alarming as it sounds. The intention is to encourage children to question, teach, think and learn, to challenge and question authority in the interests of the group and society. How do we go about corrupting youth? Worley’s approach is to ‘question them to have them question’. If a child says, ‘birds fly’, we might be tempted to point out that penguins don’t. Instead, Worley said we should prompt the child to reflect on their statement by asking, ‘do birds fly?’ to which they are likely to respond, ‘well not all birds fly’. This is the essence of Worley’s approach. It works best in groups because if one child doesn’t respond, others will. Worley uses what he calls the philosophy triangle to guide group discussions – the three things that can be done in response to a question, which are think, speak and listen. They can be done in any order, though the first rule of philosophy club is ‘don’t think too much’. Children are encouraged to give their intuitive answer. The questions that are posed are grammatically closed but conceptually open, such as ‘can you step into the same river twice?’ or ‘is a Kindle a book?’ or ‘do statues do anything?’.

the psychologist december 2020 news

Game vs fake news A game developed by psychologists to ‘vaccinate’ people against fake news about Covid-19 has recently been released with backing from the Cabinet Office. Go Viral! – developed by Dr Sander van der Linden (University of Cambridge) and colleagues – puts players in the shoes of someone spreading misinformation online, introducing people to some of their common tactics, to help them better identify fake news in the future. In the face of what the World Health Organization (WHO) has described as a worldwide ‘infodemic’ van der Linden has been working for many years on ways to vaccinate the public against fake news in general and previously developed the game Bad News with Dr Jon Roozenbeek (University of Cambridge) which the Foreign Office had translated into 15 different languages. van der Linden said more recently the Cabinet Office was keen on using evidence-based communication campaigns to counter the spread of Covid-19 misinformation and helped to fund a professional and scalable version of the Go Viral! game. The game, which takes around five minutes to play, exposes players to weakened doses of the ‘virus’ – in this case misinformation – which should ‘vaccinate’ players or help them to develop intellectual antibodies against such misinformation. ‘We specifically focus on the techniques that are common and prevalent in the spread of misinformation about Covid-19. ‘The game is divided in three levels, the “fearmongerer” which is about exploiting emotions to manipulate people online, including outrage), “my imaginary expert” which tackles the use of fake experts, such as Doctors of Natural Medicine peddling fake coronavirus cures and the final level is “Master of Puppets” which deals with contagious conspiracy theories, particularly around vaccines.’ Since its release van der Linden said the reaction he had received had been very positive. ‘The WHO has included the game in its mailing list and on their website and we recorded a video with the United Nations which they posted on their feed as well. At the end of the day, we are trying to help governments and international institutions combat fake news more effectively so it’s been great to see a real appetite for more evidence-based communications.’ ER To try the Go Viral! game see: www.goviralgame.com and to read more on van der Linden’s inoculation work see: tinyurl.com/y3cgv6s8

News online: Find more news at www.thepsychologist.org.uk/reports For much more of the latest peer-reviewed research, digested, see www.bps.org.uk/digest Do you have a potential news story? Email us on psychologist@bps.org.uk or tweet @psychmag.

from the chief executive First oara Body textis the case with many of As I’m sure you, much of 2020 for the BPS has been spent reacting to thefor unprecedented and Dr Christian Jarrett unexpected thrown up by the the Researchchallenges Digest Covid-19 pandemic. www.bps.org.uk/digest That that the day-to-day Read thedoesn’t article:mean tinyurl. running of the society has taken a back seat, com/gpnpnal however, and with our previous strategic plan running from 2015-2020, it’s time for us to develop a new one. As with the development of any strategy, this will be an iterative process, and we want to ensure that the voices and views of our members are heard. We will be coming back to you with progress updates and seeking your views over the next few months. This process has begun with our Board of Trustees holding an initial virtual ‘away day’, looking at our fundamental purpose and how we articulate this as part of a strategic plan. We will be building on that initial work during November, before our Senate meets at the start of December. It’s vital that as many of you who are network representatives attend as possible, so that we can take on ideas from across the society to ensure that the strategy is relevant and fit for purpose. We will also be feeding back to Senate on progress with our member journey project and change programme, with detailed updates on these, and our new strategic plan, to come for all members following the Senate meeting. We anticipate that the new strategic plan will be ready by the summer of 2021, and it will help us to continue moving the BPS forward as the home of UK psychology. One element of strategy that we’ll be looking at is how, as an organisation and a discipline, we can have an influence on the defining issues in the world today. On this note, I’m pleased to see the pieces on climate change and the vital contribution that psychology has to make, featured in this month’s issue. I fully agree with Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh’s suggestion that ‘almost every area of psychology has something to contribute’. Professor Whitmarsh is a member of our newly formed environment and climate crisis steering group, which brings together members from across our networks to provide a coordinated approach to tackling this issue. I travelled to Portugal in 2019 to represent the BPS at the signing of the Lisbon Declaration on psychology and global health, and the lead that we’ve taken on this issue at international level is having an effect, with over 60 countries now represented at our monthly discussions. Our ethics committee formed the new steering group to really drive this work forward, and I’m sure that you’ll be seeing much more from them in these pages and across the society over the coming months. I know that it’s an area that many of you feel particularly strongly about – if you have any ideas on how the BPS can have a positive impact on tackling the climate crisis, I’d love to hear from you. Sarb Bajwa is Chief Executive of the British Psychological Society. Contact him at Sarb.Bajwa@bps.org.uk

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‘Awe walks’ can boost positive emotions among older adults Emma Young digests the research

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

fter the age of about 75, people tend to feel more anxiety, sadness and loneliness, and less in the way of positive emotion. Strategies to prevent or at least counteract these deteriorations are badly needed, and new research by a team in the US, published in the journal Emotion, has now identiﬁed one apparently promising strategy: so-called ‘awe walks’. As Virginia Strum at the University of California and her colleagues note, awe is a positive emotion felt by people ‘when they are in the presence of something vast that they cannot immediately understand’. A walk through a desert, a beautiful piece of art, a wedding – all of these things, and more, can lead to feelings of awe. Earlier work shows that when we feel awe, our focus shifts from our self to the wider world, leading us to perceive ourselves as less signiﬁcant, or ‘smaller’, and also making us feel more socially connected to our community. This could lead to a rise in positive, prosocial emotions, the team reasoned – and might help to combat typical age-related increases in negative emotions and loneliness. To investigate the potential of their awe walk idea, the team recruited 52 healthy adults aged 60 to 90, half of whom formed a control group. Both groups were told to take a 15 minute outdoor walk, ideally alone, every week for eight weeks, and to take three photographs of themselves each time – one before, one during and one after the walk.

Only the awe group was told that ‘with the right outlook, awe can be found almost anywhere, but it is most likely to occur in places that involve two key features: physical vastness and novelty’. This group were asked to tap into their ‘sense of wonder’ and to try to go somewhere new each week. The participants completed a battery of surveys before, during and after their walk programmes. And the team found some key differences between the two groups. Firstly, as the researchers had predicted, the awe group reported feeling more awe while walking. Over time, they also felt more socially connected, and reported bigger increases in positive emotions – including prosocial emotions such as gratitude and compassion, and also joy – while they were walking. The boost in prosocial emotions, specifically, carried through into everyday life. Daily distress also decreased more over time in the awe group. The team also analysed the participants’ photographs. They concluded that, with more walks under their belt, the smiles of those in the awe group became more intense. Whether you consider smiles to be expressions of happiness, as the team does, or social signals of a willingness to affiliate, this could potentially lead to more positive social interactions. Unlike the control group, over time, members of the awe group also came to occupy less physical space, relative to the background, in their selfies. The researchers interpret this as reflecting that the awe

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the psychologist december 2020 digest

Viewing images of injuries can enhance people’s sadistic tendencies

group were feeling ‘smaller’ over time. As the team cautions, most of the participants were White and highly educated, so the results may not generalise to other groups. However, the fact that they were mostly highly educated could be significant in itself. The participants did not complete personality tests. But educational achievement is associated with greater openness to experience, a personality trait that entails enjoying new things. If the awe group were particularly open to experience then presumably they enjoyed the novelty of walking somewhere new each time, and this may have led to an increase in positive emotions. What about the finding that, over time, the awe group took up less space in their selfies? Again, they were told to try to walk somewhere new each time – and that vast spaces are more likely to trigger awe. It certainly seems possible that, with growing confidence, they chose to travel to renowned beauty spots, rather than a local park, say, and selfies at those beauty spots may be more likely to contain large background features such as a mountain (which features in the paper as an example of a ‘big background’ constituent of one awe group selfie). Whatever the reasons behind the findings, the work does suggest that – for highly educated, healthy older people, at least – ‘awe walks’ are beneficial. And, despite the potential risks associated with encouraging older people to walk alone in vast, unfamiliar natural settings, there could clearly be physical health benefits, too.

There is debate around whether ‘dark’ traits like sadism are stable, or whether they can be induced. Now a new paper in Personality and Individual Differences has found that a simple intervention can indeed increase levels of sadism, particularly in people who already have some amount of sadistic interest – but it leaves a question mark over what that might mean for real world behaviour. The team asked 322 participants to complete the Varieties of Sadistic Tendencies measure, in which they rated themselves on various statements measuring enjoyment of partaking in or watching sadistic or cruel behaviour (e.g. ‘I enjoy mocking losers to their face’). Next, participants were split into two groups. One group saw 20 images of hands being given accidental or self-inflicted injuries (such as being cut while chopping vegetables), while a control group saw similar images without any depiction of injury. For each picture, participants completed an ‘empathy rating’, designed to make them think about how the person in the photograph might feel. Finally, participants filled in another scale designed to screen sadistic personalities, rating how much they agreed with statements like ‘hurting people would be exciting’. Among people with low sadism scores at the beginning of the study, those who viewed the images of harm showed very slightly higher levels of sadism at the end of the study compared to those who viewed the control images. But this effect was much more pronounced in those participants who had higher levels of sadism to begin with, supporting the hypothesis that images of harm can increase sadistic feelings. Why the images induced sadism is unclear. The team makes two suggestions: that viewing pain was simply enjoyable to those with sadistic traits, or that the pictures triggered an elaborate fantasy or recall process, increasing sadistic feeling. It’s important not to make too strong a conclusion about what the findings might say about sadistic behaviour. For one, the follow-up measure took place immediately after viewing images of harm, so the increase in feeling experienced by the participants may not endure over time. And the team only measured sadistic feelings and tendencies, so it’s unclear whether this kind of intervention actually produces changes in people’s behaviour. EMILY REYNOLDS

Astronauts need a good night’s sleep too Getty Images

As I write this post, I’m struggling a little to put words onto the page. I didn’t sleep well last night, and my tiredness has taken its toll on my ability to concentrate. But at least I’m sitting at my desk at home and not, say, in control of a massive hunk of metal filled with fuel and electronics, hurtling through space at thousands of kilometres an hour. Because a new study in Scientific Reports has found that astronauts need to get enough sleep too – and when they don’t, their performance suffers. Erin Flynn-Evans from NASA Ames Research Center and colleagues studied people taking part in a spaceflight simulation on Earth. They weren’t actually astronauts, but ‘astronaut-like’ participants, who all met NASA’s physical standards for space flight, as well as other criteria (such as having Master’s degree in a STEM subject). The participants lived in the Human Analog Research Exploration (HERA) habitat, a self-contained unit designed to mimic living and working conditions during space exploration. This paper included data from five separate ‘missions’, each of which involved four participants living together in the HERA habitat for 45 days (though one of the missions had to be cut short due to a hurricane). Throughout each mission, the participants had a variety of tasks to complete, such as ‘extravehicular activities’ and scientific work. Once every three days, at five points throughout the day, they also completed the psychomotor vigilance task, which simply involves watching a screen and pressing a button whenever a light randomly appears.

Importantly, each weekday participants were only allowed ﬁve hours of sleep; at the weekend they were allowed eight hours. They weren’t permitted to nap, and could only drink caffeine before 2pm. The researchers could therefore look at how performance on the psychomotor vigilance task changed across the course of the mission, as well as speciﬁcally on days when the ‘astronauts’ got more or less sleep. The team found that participants’ performance worsened as the mission went on, with reaction times on the task becoming slower. Interestingly, participants’

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Children’s performance on the classic marshmallow test improves considerably when they think that their reputation is at stake. Kids who were told to wait 15 minutes for a treat were much more likely to successfully do so if they thought that a peer or teacher would ﬁnd out about their performance. The study suggests that the test may be tapping into kids’ ‘social perceptiveness’. Psychological Science

the psychologist december 2020 digest self-reported fatigue didn’t decline across the course of the mission, suggesting that tests like this may provide a better measure of performance than simply asking astronauts how they’re feeling. Participants were also slower and missed more of the lights in the task on days when they got only ﬁve hours of sleep, compared to days when they got eight hours. Overall, the authors conclude, the ﬁndings ‘suggest that simply meeting the criteria required to be an astronaut is not in itself a determinant of resilience to chronic sleep restriction’. This isn’t entirely surprising – after all, astronauts are only human, and people in other professions with rigorous training requirements, such as pilots, are also adversely affected by lack of sleep. Of course, there are some obvious limitations to the study: although it simulated a space mission, it was still conducted on Earth; similarly, the psychomotor vigilance task isn’t necessarily a good representation of the complex jobs astronauts need to perform. It’s also worth noting that the changes in reaction times on the task were pretty small, in the region of tens of milliseconds difference between the beginning and end of the missions, and there was lots of variation between participants. It would be interesting to explore these in more detail: are there particular characteristics that make astronauts’ performance more or less likely to suffer after a lack of sleep? Still, the research does suggest that many days or weeks of poor sleep may build up to impair astronauts’ day-to-day functioning: an important insight given that this is the sort of time frame for future missions to the moon or beyond. And while NASA does allow crewmembers to sleep for eight hours per night on missions, astronauts themselves report actually sleeping for just six hours. So, the researchers say, it will be important to consider ways to promote better sleep while in space. MATTHEW WARREN

Leaders can feel licensed to behave badly when they have morally upstanding followers. The more that managers felt their employers engaged in positive behaviours towards their co-workers, the more ‘moral credit’ they felt they had personally accrued – and the more likely they were to engage in unethical behaviour themselves. This was particularly true of leaders high in narcissism. Journal of Applied Psychology Around the world, people seem to make similar associations between

How can you discourage kids from copying each other on tests? You could always use a simple frame to separate them, or even a ruler to draw an imaginary line between their desks. When these behavioural ‘nudge’ techniques were used in new research published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, they signiﬁcantly reduced cheating among 5- to 6-year-olds. In each study, led by Li Zhao at Hangzhou Normal University in China, a child was seated at a small table and given a set of counting problems, which were impossible to complete in the allotted time. A short distance away was another identical table, on which the experimenter put the answer sheet before leaving the room. Though all the children were instructed not to cheat, it was easy to do so: in the control conditions, about half did indeed look at the answers. However, a barrier of some sort made a difference. A metal frame ﬁtted with transparent plastic sheeting and placed between the tables cut the cheating rate to about 15 per cent. Even when the frame was left empty, cheating was reduced to just under 30 per cent. In another study, there was no physical barrier at all. Instead, before

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Digest digested…

Even imaginary barriers can prevent kids from cheating on tests

colours and emotions. That’s according to a study of people in 30 countries, who had to match colour terms to emotions displayed on a wheel. There were many commonalities – participants tended to match red with love or anger, for instance – but also a few intriguing differences between nations, which

leaving the room, the experimenter used a toy magic wand to outline an ‘invisible frame’ between the tables. This imaginary barrier was about as effective as the empty frame at reducing cheating. Why did a simple frame, and even an imaginary frame, reduce cheating? One possibility, the researchers say, is that from a very young age, children learn to use environmental cues to guide their movements. For example, they might learn that while it’s okay to play football in an open park, it’s not okay to pass through a gate in a neighbour’s fence, to play football in their garden. It’s possible that children generalised this type of learning, viewing the barriers as dividers between a permissible space and a prohibited space. As the team notes, although the experimenter didn’t even refer to the frame (except for when it was imaginary), the children may well have made the implicit assumption that someone had put it there for a reason – presumably to stop them from cheating. So kids’ ability to tap into this sort of social cue could also be part of the reason why they were less inclined to cheat. EMMA YOUNG

may relate to linguistic or cultural differences. Psychological Science Laypeople who read gruesome descriptions of crimes rated them as morally worse than those who read descriptions in plain language. However, the kind of language used didn’t make a difference to ratings by judges and lawyers. The research suggests that emotional language can bias people towards making more severe judgments – but that legal professionals seem to be immune to this bias. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

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‘Almost every area of psychology has something to contribute to addressing climate change’ Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh on our role, as told to Annie Brookman-Byrne.

At the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) we are addressing the question of how we as a society can change the way we live our lives to signiﬁcantly reduce our emissions in a rapid timeframe. It’s in light of the 1.5°C report that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in 2018, saying that we’ve got just over a decade in which to make radical cuts in our emissions. We’re really focusing on the people side of how we do that. Other centres are looking at the technological and engineering side of how we mitigate climate change, but we’re interested in what people can do. Our centre has psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, and one or two engineers and people from other backgrounds. We’ve been running for less than 18 months, but have already had some signiﬁcant outputs.

Lorraine Whitmarsh is Professor of Environmental Psychology at the University of Bath and Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST).

Four high emission areas We’re looking particularly at four areas: mobility, food, heating and cooling, and material consumption. Those are particularly high emission activities, and they’ve proven quite challenging to decarbonise historically. And importantly, as well as reducing emissions, we ideally want to address broader sustainability and wellbeing goals. We want to try and reduce emissions in a way that improves people’s health and wellbeing, improves equality in society, addresses poverty, and does so in a way that doesn’t exacerbate the impact of climate change. So we’re interested in decarbonisation that achieves ‘co-benefits’ as we call it, side benefits along those lines. These four areas are equally important. They all present different challenges and opportunities. I’ve done more in the area of mobility and transport, so I have a better grip on how we might achieve some of the changes required there. There are really important structural and physical barriers for people adopting low carbon travel habits. It’s definitely not easy to do. But we do know a reasonable amount about how we do it. And there are really important health co-benefits associated with active travel – so if you get people to walk and cycle there are obvious health benefits, both to the individual and urban areas in terms of clean air and so on. You could say the same about food, because a low carbon diet is also a healthy diet – if you cut down on red meat, that’s one of the best things you can do tackle climate change. A diet based more on plants than meat or dairy is also much healthier, cutting your risk of cancer and various other health problems. Talking about these side-benefits can help motivate a wider range of people. The other two areas might be a bit more challenging. Material consumption really comes down to challenging the assumption that

the psychologist december 2020 climate change

we need to consume our way out of environmental problems just by buying greener products or recycling. Actually it’s about reducing the amount that we consume – buying less stuff is one of the best things you can do as well. That’s politically and socially quite a difficult concept to grasp. The whole of our economy is geared towards consumption. At the household level, the biggest contribution of our energy use is heating our homes. Turning down the thermostat is one thing you can do, but we also need to change the technologies that keep our homes warm. Most of us use gas boilers. We need to transition towards lower carbon technologies like heat pumps, as well as insulating our homes. There’s a sense that people don’t want to give up their comfort, they don’t like the idea that they might have to freeze in their own homes. The flipside is cooling. Our temperatures are rising, and we’re getting more heatwaves and high temperatures in the summer. A lot of our buildings are not very well equipped to cope with the heat. There is already increasing demand for air conditioning in homes and offices. We’re going to see more energy demand to meet that need, so we need to think about how we can get people to ventilate their houses, for example – so the behavioural actions to reduce the risk of heat stress without resorting to high carbon options like air conditioning. All of these things will make a massive contribution to reducing carbon footprints. Not just environmental psychologists In 2015 we wrote a paper for Nature Climate Change. As a group of psychologists from the UK, North America and elsewhere in Europe we summarised what psychologists can do to contribute to tackling

climate change. The review article outlines the fact that psychologists know how to communicate the risks of climate change; in periods of heatwave we can help people to reduce the risk of heat stress, and we can help people prepare against flood risks and so on. We can inform interventions to encourage people to reduce their emissions. Almost every area of psychology has something to contribute to addressing climate change. We can contribute to policy design, information campaigns, and ways of engaging with the public to inform them about climate change and the role that they can play. There was a whole range of things that we outlined – it’s not just about individuals in the home. Organisational psychologists can get business leaders to think about organisational change to address climate change. Political psychologists working with policymaking organisations and politicians can contribute to the design of more effective policies and of political processes, like citizen’s assemblies on climate change. People aren’t just consumers or employees, they are also voters. Exercising this political power is at least as important as changing your own behaviour to reduce your carbon footprint. We can definitely do more than just raise awareness or communicate climate change more effectively, though this is still an important role for our field. Communicating both the risks of climate change and what people can do about it in a more evidence-based way is vital for informed decision-making. There is a risk in using fear-based approaches to communication that stress the worst-case scenario – they can disempower people and lead them to switch off. We need to build self-efficacy – the sense that people can actually reduce the risks of climate change, and make

a difference individually and collectively. The message that it might be ‘too late’ to tackle climate change is similarly likely to demotivate people. We need to show not only that change is possible but that action taken now will be effective and beneﬁcial to the climate, and often to people themselves too. Going further But we can go further than awareness raising and communication to help design interventions and policies that are based on an understanding of human behaviour and how to change it. This includes interventions to shape personal behaviours, like shopping, energy use, and travel choices, but also professional behaviours, like resource use in Getty Images

Academic flying Our research shows that academics do a lot of flying both professionally and personally, as they often have higher incomes. There’s a whole conference culture, so it’s expected that you will be flying all over the place, and it’s seen as a perk of the job. There’s a strongly established norm and people are quite resistant to change. The slight silver lining is that we are seeing a bit of a shift. Amongst the academics that I’m working with there does seem to be a lot more effort being made to put on virtual conferences, or at least conferences with an option for virtual attendance. For example, we co-organised a session at the ‘beyond oil conference’ hosted in Bergen in Norway, and we had a couple of speakers based in Cardiff, with a little audience in a seminar room. There were questions from both locations and it worked amazingly well. We didn’t even need high tech options – just video conferencing and a webcam. The more we raise awareness of that option, the more it will gradually become mainstream. Covid-19 has, of course, shown that a lot of our physical travel can be replaced by virtual alternatives. We’ve just published some research that shows that climate change academics and researchers are actually the worst in terms of flying – they fly more than people who don’t study climate change, which is quite damning. It just goes to show that knowledge itself is definitely not enough of a predictor of behaviour, it’s the structures. It may be that climate change being an international issue is driving some of the travel for fieldwork and meetings overseas. But we definitely need to do better at walking the talk. 26

the workplace or integrating sustainability into organisational policies. Similarly, psychology can shed light on what sort of policies will be acceptable, and how to provide a stronger voice for people in policymaking. For example, in CAST, we are involved in designing a range of interventions including encouraging low-carbon travel habits amongst new residents. We are working with City Councils to provide information (designed to resonate with values, such as highlighting health or wellbeing beneﬁts) and incentives to residents and employees when they relocate to encourage active travel, like walking and cycling, and public transport use. This will accompany infrastructure change, such as cycle paths, to enable change. By getting the timing right – targeting moments of change, such as relocation – we hope the interventions will be much more effective than when applied in stable contexts, when habits are a major barrier. We are also working with companies to reduce employees’ resource use. With employers, we will identify how to embed sustainable behaviour change within their procedures and practices, such as supply chain decision-making and promotion criteria, so that low-carbon choices are defaults or rewarded. Another thing we’re doing in CAST is helping design and evaluate deliberative processes such as the Climate Assembly UK, which was a large-scale citizen engagement process to bring public views into UK Parliament’s climate change policy-making. With other expert leads and facilitators, we ensured that the information provided was balanced and accessible, that deliberations were meaningful, and that participants’ decisions were useable by policy-makers in designing the UK’s ‘Net Zero’ policies. Without psychological – alongside other social science – insights, these interventions might not take account of important factors like habits or social norms that can act as barriers to changing lifestyles and wider society. The future I think in general I feel hopeful for the future. But that might just be a coping mechanism. I have young children and if I seriously think about what the world might be like when they’re growing up I do start to worry. I think I just have to assume that it probably is going to be okay otherwise I don’t know if I’d get out of bed in the morning. It is increasingly shown that what we need to tackle climate change is social and behavioural change. Analysis by the UK Committee on Climate Change recently showed that most of what we need to do to get to net zero is social and behavioural as opposed to technological. That suggests there’s a really important role that psychologists, but also other social scientists, can play in developing solutions. It’s about considering what we can do professionally as well as in our personal life to make a difference.

the psychologist december 2020 climate change

Rosie Jones ‘I took my turn on Friday to be arrested’ Dr Rosie Jones considers peaceful protests, the law and the Health and Care Professions Council: what are the lessons for psychologists? Questions from Dr Roger Paxton, Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Ethics Committee. Peaceful protests are often in the news. Black Lives Matter (BLM) is very prominent now, and in 2019 Extinction Rebellion (XR) made headlines. What are the legal and professional implications for psychologists who feel so passionately about moral and social issues like these that they are prepared to protest and even risk breaking the law? Dr Rosie Jones is a clinical psychologist committed to opposing climate change. As a member of XR she took part in a major peaceful protest in London in April 2019, and was one of more than a thousand people arrested. Here Rosie talks to Dr Roger Paxton, BPS Ethics Committee Chair, about her commitment, her thoughts about XR, the legal and professional consequences she faced after the protest, and the moral arguments around the climate crisis and XR.

Thank you very much for sharing your experiences and thoughts, Rosie. Would you begin by saying a bit about yourself as a psychologist? I gained my doctorate in clinical psychology in 2001 from Royal Holloway and I’ve worked in the adult ‘mental health’ field all of my career. I worked in community mental health teams in Devon and then in IAPT services in Bath, leaving the NHS in 2014 to work in independent practice. How did you develop your commitment to opposing climate change, and how did you become involved with XR? I first became aware of climate change when I was a teenager and as a result I joined Friends of the Earth. I remember being very disappointed that all they seemed to suggest was writing letters and donating money. In my late twenties I read James Lovelock’s book The Revenge of Gaia. I love Gaia Theory – it’s a paradigm shift to a systemic view of the Earth as a self regulating organism. That book made me acutely aware of dangerous feedback loops in the climate system. These mean human caused heating can be amplified by earth system processes, like methane release from melting permafrost, leading to runaway climate change. The science and risks are basically really scary and I must admit from then on the ecological problems of our planet felt more urgent and important to me than the clinical problems which I’d just trained to help people with. Trying to find a contribution that was sufficiently systemic to make a difference, I joined the Green Party, and even stood in our local council elections in 2015. Thankfully I didn’t win as I would make a terrible politician! I was also inspired by ‘Transition Towns’ – a grassroots movement to make practical shifts to create re-localised sustainable communities. I set up a local group in my suburb of Bath. I’ve always kept an eye on climate developments and by 2017 I became aware of the alarming acceleration of global heating, and the onset of feedback loops like polar melting and methane

the psychologist december 2020 climate change and protest

Dr Jones (centre) on Westminster Bridge as part of XR protest last year

release. I already knew, from reading Lovelock, of the enormous threat that these pose, and was deeply shocked they were happening so soon. I’d thought that these sorts of changes would not occur for decades. I’d already had children and was (am) facing the reality that catastrophe is likely to occur in my children’s lifetimes, and possibly my own. I went through a period of extreme grief and anxiety, helped by coming across the work of eco-philosopher Joanna Macy. She has developed a beautiful and deeply psychological set of experiential group practices to give people space to express their pain for the world, and also inspire and support them into action through deep connection with other humans and non-human beings. I did a weeklong retreat in these practices in a Buddhist context, and then over the next year trained to facilitate them myself. Another major inﬂuence was reviewing Professor Jem Bendell’s viral paper prior to its publication in 2018. It’s called ‘Deep adaptation: A map for navigating climate tragedy’. To give you a ﬂavour of how shocking his conclusions were about the coming decades, Jem wanted my opinion as a psychologist on whether he should publish it, as others had expressed concern it could make people suicidal. By the summer of 2018 I was so alarmed with the

state of the climate and ecological world, I was already thinking ‘this is now an emergency, it’s time for direct action, nothing else has worked’, and then I came across some early members of the Extinction Rebellion movement at a festival. At a workshop I learned about the principles and social theory behind non-violent civil disobedience, and, in a nutshell, it was pretty convincing. I was scared at ﬁrst to associate myself with a group that was planning illegal activities, but as more people joined, who all seemed very reasonable and sensible, I became more comfortable and more engaged with the movement, and I helped start Bath XR after supporting the blocking of four bridges in central London in November 2018. Do you see connections between your professional role and your work with XR? Ah, there are many different ways I could speak to that question… Firstly, I have found it has been very beneﬁcial to have a good understanding of the severity of the climate and ecological crises as a therapist. A few clients have brought their own grief and anxiety about it to sessions, for example not feeling they should have children. Being aware of the issues has meant I don’t fall into the trap of pathologising these

responses and assuming clients are catastrophising. We have then been able to disentangle how the issue might be triggering their maladaptive coping modes, and work on more helpful responses to the crisis, including giving space for grief. I think you do need, as a therapist, to have faced your own grief about the climate (thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an unending journey I think) to be able to hold space for others, otherwise itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just too painful, or defences kick in. Secondly, I think the climate crisis is as much a psychological crisis as it is an economic, political and practical one. There is much work to be done in helping birth and nurture a new, regenerative ideology for our societies. Psychologists have skills to offer here, like facilitation, teaching and public speaking, which are all a big part of XR and things I have been involved in. I also offer experiential group workshops to the public, as I mentioned, based on Joanna Macyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s methodology; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The work that reconnectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. This is really interesting work somewhere between community empowerment work and psychological therapy. Psychologists have also inďŹ&#x201A;uenced my activism: The brief teaching we had in clinical training on community psychology, and the writing of the Midlands Psychology Group, really helped me be aware of how painfully inadequate our roles as clinical psychologists are in addressing the systemic causes of emotional distress. My view is that this inadequacy is

almost inevitable, because a system is very unlikely to pay anyone to do anything that fundamentally challenges the system. Critiques of our profession have helped me appreciate the need to act at a social system level, and that to address the climate and ecological emergency Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d have to choose unpaid systemically focused activism, rather than have my good intentions co-opted back into the dominant destructive cultural system. Before the protest did you anticipate legal consequences, and consequences for your registration as a practitioner psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)? Yes. There is very thorough training in XR on the legal consequences, including what is likely to happen at arrest, your rights, and psychological preparation like seeing photos of police cells so you know what to expect. I fully anticipated that I could be prosecuted, and I chose actions that could not result in a custodial sentence, which, as a parent, is not something I can risk at the moment. Regarding my professional registration, I knew that there was a slight risk I could lose it, but I also knew I could count on my family for ďŹ nancial support if necessary, and it felt important to use that privilege. What happened to you during and after the protest?

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the psychologist december 2020 climate change and protest

I was part of the April 2019 rebellion, in the group that occupied Waterloo Bridge for a whole week leading up to Easter. The rebellion was planned, so I took a week’s leave from work and arranged for family to look after my children. The experience was extraordinary: a really beautiful self organising community developed on the bridge over the week. People had brought trees and plants to create an alternative ‘garden bridge’. Free food was cooked and provided by rebels in an onsite kitchen. Homeless people started to come at night to share the food offered. There was singing and solidarity, and strangers and friends looking after and supporting each other with the intense emotions that were sometimes released. The police said they had not experienced anything like it before: the loving peaceful atmosphere wasn’t like a normal protest. They made a few dozen arrests each day in an attempt to clear the occupation and reopen the bridge to traffic. But the number of protestors prepared to sit peacefully and accept arrest meant that they simply couldn’t clear the bridge until they finally brought in mass numbers of police at the end of the week. I took my turn on Friday to be arrested. I simply sat on the bridge in the front row and when asked by police officers to move to the approved protest site, I did not. And so I was arrested under the Public Order Act for ‘failing to comply with a condition placed on a public assembly’. This is legislation designed to limit protests where they are deemed by police to be causing disruption, in this instance ‘to the life of the community’. I was taken to a police station, had my fingerprints, photo and DNA taken, and held alone in a cell for 14 hours. Most of us, about 1000 in all in the April rebellion, who were only arrested once, were not initially charged but ‘released pending investigation’. Subsequently the police decided to prosecute everyone and so I was charged five months later and had my trial in December 2019 in the magistrates court. I pleaded not guilty and represented myself at court. I had the opportunity to give a 30-minute defence, in which I emphasised the defence of ‘necessity’. This is where an act is justified by the fact that it is intended to prevent significant harm or loss of life. I explained that scientists now predict irreversible tipping points in the climate system will be crossed with between 1 and 3 degrees of global heating. As we have already passed 1 degree this means catastrophic climate disruption is an imminent risk, and that without governmental policy change, mass loss of life is inevitable. The three magistrates were very respectful, and listened carefully to my arguments. They did not dispute anything I said nor condemn my actions but said that they had to find me guilty, because the dangers I described were not ‘imminent in the legal sense’. I received a nine-month conditional discharge and was ordered to pay court costs of about £350. I had reported myself to the HCPC at the point I was charged, and after conviction the HCPC drafted

allegations against me, on basically that information alone, that I was unfit to practise. An HCPC investigating panel met in April to decide whether further investigation was required. I was allowed to make any written submissions I wished to the panel. I provided an account of my actions and the reasons for them, support letters from colleagues and other practitioner psychologists in XR and a reference from my supervisor. The HCPC named all these submissions as factors in finding no case to answer. What do you think about the treatment you received at the hands of the law and the HCPC? I think our legal system reflects our culture’s dominant ideological system… it’s not really able to handle issues that go beyond simple, linear, short-term cause and effect. On the one hand it is understandable that the defence of necessity is limited, but when governments are being criminally negligent, should it not apply? If judges began to find in favour of those standing up peacefully against clearly extremely harmful policy, rather than supporting entrenched power, that could really have an impact on the system. Regarding the HCPC, I completely understand that they have to look at any case where there has been a conviction. However, personally I found it more upsetting to read professional allegations that I was ‘unfit to practise’, than to be prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service, who were part of the system I was rebelling against. It also hung over me for a year which was quite stressful. Given that (hopefully) more health practitioners may start to engage in civil disobedience, I do wonder if there is a way the HCPC could fast-track the process. The facts of my case were available nine months before their final decision, so couldn’t the HCPC have asked for these and made a decision on the case, even before criminal conviction? I also wonder if allegations concerning civil disobedience, that do not involve dishonesty or violence, are away from the workplace and are driven by moral convictions, could be treated differently from allegations like clinical negligence, or exploiting or abusing service users? Have these experiences changed your views on matters around climate change and XR? I don’t think my views have changed that much. XR managed to break the constructed silence around climate change and bring it more into public awareness and discourse. I’m definitely convinced that civil disobedience and direct action have a much bigger impact than anything else. The BLM movement has really demonstrated this recently. But XR is obviously nowhere near achieving its demands for net zero carbon by 2025, an end to biodiversity loss, and a citizens’ assembly to decide on how to address it. It’s disappointing that XR has only attracted tens of thousands of people so far. Change needs a much bigger mass movement.

I understand social movement theorists say that you can’t keep using the same tactics, you have to keep it fresh to gain attention and keep motivation, so I am not sure what will come next from XR. I do think we may need a broader-based disruptive movement uniting all the different groups concerned with the impact of capitalism (especially neoliberalism) and neocolonialism… including the antiracism and decolonisation movements, anti-austerity groups, and labour and green movements. I think we need to really start highlighting in the public discourse that these problems share the same underlying root cause: a dominating and extractive ideology, and that they affect the poor, the marginalised, and the global south first and hardest. Like many in the movement, objectively I’m not at all hopeful that we will turn things around in time (or as XR cofounder Roger Hallam puts it, ‘we’re fucked’). But I try to take the attitude of a therapist in ‘holding the hope for the client’ and trying to use my time in the most regenerative ways I can. It’s very life affirming. Would you suggest any changes in the way the law and the HCPC deal with actions like yours? I support the campaign to make ecocide a crime. We need overarching laws, like human rights legislation, that give rights to nature and to the wellbeing of future generations. Regarding the HCPC, I understand there is an ‘initial investigation’ stage prior to deciding to draft allegations and call an investigatory panel. I wonder if civil disobedience cases would be more appropriately dealt with at this earlier stage? Do you see a moral element in opposing climate change, and is there a moral basis for the approach taken by XR? Yes. I think if a system is highly destructive we have a duty to try and transform it. I know a lot of people care and are concerned about the ecological world, but I don’t think that is enough. It’s a bit like the concept of being ‘anti-racist’ rather than just ‘non-racist’. As with the BLM movement, I think privileged people have a duty to educate themselves about ecological issues (it’s still covered pretty poorly in the press), listen to and foreground the victims and their wishes and needs (this includes other species), and get out on the streets about it. Protest, and, if necessary, civil disobedience and direct action is just about the only way that significant positive social change has ever happened. Psychologists are respected and thereby hold power to influence the public discourse. I think morally we should use our privilege, speak out, and take action. It is certainly much easier to risk prosecution if you are white, middle class, and relatively well-off, as many psychologists are.

What about the moral rights of the people inconvenienced or otherwise adversely affected by protests like the one in April 2019?

I think this is a very important question. Actions have to be carefully thought through, and designed in an attempt to minimise impacts on people already marginalised or struggling with the system, and to cause maximum disruption to those holding power that we wish to pressure. It’s very difficult to fully achieve this, but I think road blockades around Westminster are pretty defensible by this criterion. Beyond that I think it’s about proportionality. Many things occur in life which cause some inconvenience to a community in exchange for some other benefit. We close roads to install utilities, or hold a running race, or a festival. Here we closed some roads for a week to try and prevent mass loss of life and potential extinction. I think that easily passes a proportionality test! What messages do your experiences provide for other psychologists? I urge people to educate themselves about the climate and ecological crisis. The mainstream media don’t really give you the full picture or the risks. George Monbiot in The Guardian is a notable exception. The ‘What lies beneath’ report is a good start, or watch Gail Bradbrook, XR cofounder, or others, giving the XR talk ‘Heading for Extinction and What to do about it’. If you want emotional support through your reactions to the information, workshops in ‘The Work That Reconnects’ are really supportive, and also Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone’s book Active Hope. Don’t discount that you could be someone who takes part in civil disobedience. It feels scary at first, but as psychologists we know all about graded exposure… you can put this into practice! For most people it ends up feeling liberating and empowering. Peaceful civil resistance has a long well-regarded history… think of Martin Luther King, the suffragettes, and the trade union movement. If you have imposter syndrome like I did, don’t think it is just something for professional or long-term activists, or that you are a hypocrite because, for example, you drive a car. All sorts of people have joined XR. And rebellions don’t happen every week, so you can participate during leave or in your spare time. The most important outcome from my case in particular is, I think, to be reassured that if you are convicted for engaging in peaceful respectful protest, you are very unlikely to lose your HCPC registration. If you want to be part of XR, you can join your local group, or join XR Psychologists. Contact xrpsychologists@gmail.com. If you would like to read my full submission to the HCPC panel, and/or the panel’s findings, please contact rosienjones@yahoo.co.uk for a copy. Thanks again for your openness Rosie. I’ve no doubt that your experiences and ideas will be of great interest and value to many psychologists. Find more on climate change, and XR, at https:// thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/action-climate-change

the psychologist december 2020 climate change and protest

‘You build in, rather than tack on, change’ Ian Florance meets Helen Keyes When Ian Florance interviewed Helen Keyes, a cognitive psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), the initial Covid lockdown measures were easing. The ‘new normal’ had surfaced a number of questions. Will car travel reduce? Will bike use continue to increase? How can we make cycling (and at times walking) safer? Helen is working on some of these issues and has views on how change can happen.

Might you have an interesting story to tell about your career path, the highs and lows of your current role or the professional challenges you are facing? If you would like to be considered for a ‘Careers’ interview in The Psychologist, get in touch with the editor Dr Jon Sutton (jon.sutton@bps.org.uk). Of course there are many other ways to contribute to The Psychologist, but this is one that many ﬁnd to be particularly quick, easy and enjoyable.

Helen Keyes has, she tells me, ‘always felt like a traffic psychologist at heart… my Dad and my brother are both civil engineers. I started to use the experimental methods I had developed in my face perception research to think about how I could make a difference in the wider community. I grew more interested in social issues and my work moved from purely studying how the brain works to the social implications of this.’ Helen started thinking about questions like: How can we make people better drivers? How can we alert people more effectively to what is going on around them when they are driving? How can we make cycling safer, and how can we allay fears that are preventing people from cycling? ‘Some of this comes down to ergonomics,’ she tells me. ‘I believe this is key in driving behaviour change on a societal level.’ Can you give me an example? ‘What’s the most effective way to give driving instructions on GPS? We have used experimental methods to find the best timing for providing instructions – right down to the millisecond – in order to help drivers to respond to the road environment quickly and accurately.’ ‘On a more societal level, I am currently looking at whether cyclists make better drivers – this would be a really good reason to increase uptake of cycling with road safety benefits all around. Obviously, there are infrastructural barriers to people taking up cycling – a lack of dedicated cycle lanes separate from car lanes, for example – but we also need to better understand what the internal barriers are to more people taking it up.’ In other people’s shoes But we’ve sped ahead here… let’s go back to the beginning of Helen’s journey. ‘As a teenager, I was always interested in gaining a better insight into human behaviour. I spent a lot of time reading novels, because I enjoyed putting myself in other people’s shoes and getting an understanding of their thought processes and behaviours. There was no option to study psychology at secondary school in Ireland, but I particularly loved science and maths, and my interest in these subjects would prove extremely useful in studying the mind and behaviour.’ Helen did a degree in psychology at University College Dublin, minoring in mathematical studies

the psychologist december 2020 careers Getty Images

and politics, ‘which suited my interests’, followed by a PhD in Cognitive Psychology looking at how the brain processes familiar faces. She is now an Associate Professor in Psychology at ARU, where she enjoys teaching about visual perception as well as statistics. ‘My mother was a teacher, and she has had a strong influence on my own teaching style. Teaching statistics is one of the real joys of my job. It is a true pleasure to teach students who might initially be intimidated by maths, and see them develop to the point where they are excited to see how they can use statistics to help to make changes in their workplaces and in the wider world.’ Helen tells me that when she came to ARU a decade ago, it was immediately obvious she would like the culture. ‘It is centred around providing opportunities – both for students and staff. It was really important to me that the university encourages student participation from a wider group than might traditionally come to higher education. In my ten years here, I have seen so many students flourish.’ Practical projects Helen’s research interests have changed in this environment. ‘I started thinking about issues like how we can encourage cycling in the population. This led to looking at some barriers to cycling, as well as ways to improve cyclist safety and increase the uptake of cycling. For example, consider driver aggression towards cyclists – there can be tension between road users when drivers and cyclists have different understandings of road safety rules. So, we are carrying out research looking at whether drivers have a good understanding of where cyclists should correctly position themselves on the road (e.g. ‘taking the lane’ in some situations), as well as closely examining situations that have lead to driver aggression towards cyclists. We then hope to tackle this in a targeted way, focusing on driver education interventions.’ Helen is working with two local authorities on very practical issues. ‘For Cambridgeshire, we’ve looked at how to make drivers more aware of motorcyclists, and in Essex, we’re looking at how cycling proficiency training in schools can affect cycling uptake for children and their families. In this community-driven project, we are asking parents what would make them more likely to encourage their children to cycle to school.’ Let’s talk about science Helen is very committed to publicising and applying her ideas. ‘It’s our job to step up and be excellent science communicators. There is no point in complaining about poor media reporting and public

understanding if we don’t do that. That is why I’m involved with the Naked Neuroscientist podcast. Each month we take a neuroscience paper and discuss it in a – hopefully – entertaining way. And I am also a founding member and Chair of the British Psychological Society’s East of England branch. We are really passionate about making science exciting, so we run Psychology in the Pub sessions and Psyfilm – where we discuss a film from a psychological viewpoint. Last Christmas we discussed It’s a Wonderful Life from a positive psychology perspective. The communication is two-way; we learn a lot from the very different questions people ask.’ Helen’s recent work has led her to think about the best ways to effect change within her own institution. She is Deputy Head of the School of Psychology and Sport Science as well as founder of the Ambitious Women’s Group in Psychology at ARU. ‘If you want to bring about change you have to do it through small everyday events. In institutions, tacked-on changes won’t work. It is similar to how buying a gym membership might not lead to better fitness – because you might not go – but designing your daily commute around walking or cycling will. Within higher education, this means embedding change within the curriculum. You build in, rather than tack on, change.’ She gives me the example of employability. ‘In all of our psychology modules, assignments have a reflection on how that work has made the student more employable. This has a big effect on students’ selfesteem, how they see themselves and how they talk about themselves. We can begin to do that with other areas like well-being. Small changes – when embedded properly – can have a real and positive impact within HE and within the wider community.’

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The allure of mysteries

Elizabeth Michaelson Monaghan meets researchers to look behind the painting…

n the photograph ‘Behind the Old Painting’ (on the cover of this issue), a teenage girl peers behind a portrait hanging on a wall. A taller friend has placed a protective hand on her shoulder. In the foreground, a third girl looks to the right, towards something just beyond the range of the lens. The girls’ clothes – calf length skirts, blouses, and ﬂats – belong to another era, adding to the eerie atmosphere and sense of distance from contemporary life. The photo depicts a moment of discovery, but the viewer can’t see what’s been revealed.

The photo is part of ﬁne art and commercial photographer Holly Andres’ Sparrow Lane series. This 2008 collection of 15 photographs features young women exploring colourful, highly decorated interiors and leafy landscapes in photos with titles like ‘Outside the Forbidden Bedroom’ (below) and ‘The Magic Elixir’. The photos tell a story, but I don’t know exactly what it is. The photos are captivating, and deeply mysterious. I can’t stop looking at them. ‘In the simplest sense, a mystery is something we don’t know the answer to. Mysteries are about trying to ﬁnd answers,’ says Les Lancaster, professor emeritus of transpersonal psychology at Liverpool John Moore Holly Andres images courtesy of the artist and Robert Mann Gallery, NYC

Outside the Forbidden Bedroom

the psychologist december 2020 mysteries

How the brain responds to mysteries University and the founding director of the Alef Trust, a Wirral-based online education non-profit. ‘If we didn’t ask questions about what is going on and why, we’d still be at the level of apes,’ Lancaster says. ‘Mysteries help us expand our horizons, and give us a greater repertoire for interacting with the world.’ Consider the mystery novel, which Lancaster says ‘is engaging in its own right. The plot is a microcosm of what’s going on in the mind all the time – discovering a question, gathering the pieces, or clues, and finding an answer.’ That’s my cue. What makes mysteries so alluring? Real or imaginary, mysteries have several uniquely enticing features. Mystery fiction, for instance, is mentally engaging in a way that other literary genres are not, argues Alan Goldman, philosophy professor emeritus at the College of William & Mary. Mysteries require readers use their cognitive abilities to interpret clues as well as their imaginations to identify with characters including the detective, and, in crime fiction, the culprit(s). Mysteries engage us emotionally, usually via vicarious excitement and fear. They also ask us to understand both the novel’s structure and the author’s style. Mysteries may also intrigue us because developing an understanding of characters is more important in this than in other genres, according to Ohio State University School of Communication professor Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick and her co-author, Caterina Keplinger. The urge to form impressions about others is intrinsic. Fan preferences also play a role in mysteries’ appeal, observes Dolf Zillmann, professor emeritus of communication and psychology at the University of Alabama. For instance, some fans enjoy mysteries because they like to have their deductions confirmed, while others appreciate being surprised by the solution. A third group enjoys the genre’s inherent uncertainty, Zillmann adds. While uncertainty is traditionally associated with anxiety and nervousness, investigators at University of Virginia and Harvard University demonstrated that people’s good moods last longer in uncertain conditions, provided they know the outcome will be positive – in this case, a solution to the mystery will be presented (Wilson et al., 2005). Moreover, the anticipation that accompanies the wait for a (presumably) satisfying resolution is itself often pleasurable (Loewenstein, 1987; Monfort et al., 2015; Luo et al., 2018). Finally, the structure of mysteries spurs interest. Unlike many other forms of entertainment, mysteries usually start with the outcome, such as the discovery of a murder victim; the initiating event (the murder) isn’t revealed until the end. The non-chronological order of the story triggers curiosity (Knobloch et al., 2004).

Exposure to certain stimuli activates the brain’s reward circuit, where the things we want and are motivated to obtain are evaluated and processed. These activated pathways encourage us to seek rewarding experiences, and reinforce the behaviours that allow us to attain them. ‘Rewards’ traditionally refer to necessities like food, shelter and warmth, or tangible items like money or goods. But a 2009 fMRI study found that trivia questions also prompted activity in subjects’ reward circuits. As the researchers noted, ‘curiosity is a form of reward anticipation’ (Kang et al., 2009). Others have also found that ‘the reward value of information is processed in the same way as conventional rewards, like food or money’ (Kobayashi & Hsu, 2019). While information is rewarding because it allows for better decision-making, ‘Information can also be traded (bragged about, compared with what friends think),’ observes Colin F. Camerer, director of the California Institute of Technology’s Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience, and an author of the fMRI study. ‘Even if information does not have any immediate value, the brain has a general hunger for just knowing for the sake of knowing.’ But isn’t trivia a little, well, trivial? Murayama suggests that the type of questions used in the fMRI study can trigger curiosity acutely, but it won’t last so long because there’s a lack of contextual knowledge. ‘Mysteries could be more compelling because readers have abundant knowledge about the context.’ Echoing Loewenstein’s ideas, he adds that ‘the more knowledge you have about the topic, the more compelling the missing information would be’.

The need to know Curiosity, along with surprise, interest, doubt, and other affective states, is an epistemic emotion (Vogl et al., 2020), or an emotion related to a desire for knowledge and understanding (Scarantino & de Sousa, 2018). Curiosity can be understood as ‘a form of cognitively-induced deprivation that arises from the perception of a gap in knowledge or understanding, or an information gap’, according to an inﬂuential 1994 paper by George Loewenstein, co-director of the Center for Behavioral Decision Research at Carnegie Mellon University. ‘The promise of knowledge is alluring,’ says psychology professor Kou Murayama of the University of Reading, and the head of its Motivation Science Lab. ‘We evolved in a way that makes us attracted to missing information, or to things that we do not know… knowing information is adaptive for animals’ survival… You need to know where the food is, who is reliable, etc.’ The curiosity that drives us to learn the solution to a detective story can be understood as ‘a generalization of the basic motivation to seek information’ (Kidd & Hayden, 2015). Obviously, not all of the things we don’t know intrigue us. Murayama explains that’s because ‘For the knowledge we don’t have to be attractive, we need to be aware of the information gap… mysteries are seductive because they make people

Elizabeth Michaelson Monaghan is a New York City based freelance writer and editor. https://elizabeth michaelson monaghan.com/

aware of that gap. Then, either consciously or subconsciously, you expect a rewarding experience for obtaining the missing information or knowledge’ (Murayama et al., 2019; FitzGibbon et al., 2020). Preventing access to information (like when the police refuse to let the protagonist view the crime scene), ‘also makes people aware of what they do not know,’ Murayama adds. ‘Mysteries have almost all the factors that we’ve identiﬁed as triggering curiosity,’ says Dr Russell Golman, a mathematician-turned-behavioural economist who works with Loewenstein (e.g. see Golman & Loewenstein, 2016). In addition to immediately alerting us to the information gap, mysteries often concern a naturally attention-grabbing subject: crime. ‘Crime makes any related unknown information feel important,’ Golman says. ‘Mysteries Key sources that deal with romance may be similarly interesting, because FitzGibbon, L., Lau, J.K.L., & Murayama, romance also naturally grabs K. (2020). The seductive lure of curiosity: attention… From an evolutionary Information as a motivationally salient psychology perspective, reward. Current Opinion in Behavioral people are naturally attuned to Sciences, 35, 21-27. information relevant for survival or Goldman, A.H. (2011). The appeal of the mystery. The Journal of Aesthetics and reproduction.’ Art Criticism, 69(3), 261-272. Moreover, ‘Mysteries are usually Golman, R. & Loewenstein, G. told as stories, and there’s a narrative (2016). Information gaps: A theory of ﬂow, with twists and turns,’ Golman preferences regarding the presence and notes. A well-designed mystery absence of information. Decision, 5(3), ‘sets you up to believe something. 143-164. Kang J.K., Hsu H., Krajbich I.M. et Subsequent surprises make you al. (2009). The wick in the candle of question these beliefs.’ Mysteries’ learning: Epistemic curiosity activates capacity to surprise us is integral to reward circuitry. Psychological Science, their appeal, he says. 20(8), 963-973. ‘One of the insights George Knobloch-Westerwick, S. & Keplinger, [Loewenstein] had about K. (2009). Mystery appeal: Effects of uncertainty and resolution on the information gaps was that as you enjoyment of mystery. Media Psychology, begin to get closer to the answer, the 8(3), 193-212. more interested you get. We think, Lancaster, B.L. (2018). Re-veiling the paradoxically, that uncertainty can revealed: Insights into the psychology draw in your attention, and that of ‘enlightenment’ from the Kabbalah. obtaining information also draws in International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 37(2), 73-87. attention. Things that are uncertain Loewenstein, G. (1994). The and keep giving us more pieces psychology of curiosity: A review and of information attract the most reinterpretation. Psychological Bulletin, attention from us,’ Golman explains. 116(1), 75-98. Finally, with mysteries, ‘You Wilson, T.D., Centerbar, D.B., Kermer, get the feeling that if you just get D.A. & Gilbert, D.T. (2005). The pleasures of uncertainty: Prolonging the right piece of information, you positive moods in ways people do not could make sense of the whole anticipate. Journal of Personality and thing,’ Golman says. ‘There’s the Social Science, 88(1), 5-21. potential for an epiphany.’ Zillmann, D. (1991). The logic of suspense and mystery. In D. Zillmann, & J. Bryant, (Eds.), Responding to the Screen: Reception and Reaction Processes. Routledge. Full list available in online/app version.

The mysteries that elude us But conundrums may also engage our interest on a deeper level. ‘There is a mystery at the core of our being’, Lancaster says. ‘What we call the unconscious is mysterious by definition, since we cannot consciously know distinctly what is there, though we gather hints, or clues, about the unconscious core. I would say that it’s this mystery that sets us up to be engaged with other mysteries.’ ‘All the great psychotherapists have shown us that whatever is going on at the surface is the tip of the iceberg,’ Lancaster continues. ‘There’s so much more going on unconsciously. The whole process of psychoanalysis is trying to get a handle on what we don’t know. The fact that everything about us is not transparent, even to ourselves, is an aspect of mystery.’ ‘There are pieces of us, of our psyches, that aren’t integrated,’ Lancaster continues. These pieces, which we might glimpse as Freudian slips, or remembered images from dreams, ‘do not readily fit into the narrative we construct about ourselves to explain things we don’t know or understand. And yet, at some level, we do recognise that these pieces of the psyche are little openings to the unconscious.’ The puzzles we enjoy mulling over can mirror our own inner mysteries: hard-to-decipher clues resemble the fragmented psyche pieces we encounter, and the detective can function as what Jung called a ‘psychopomp’, a kind of guide that allows the ego to connect with the unconscious. Just as the detective puts together the clues to reveal truths, the psychopomp helps us recognise the real meaning of these psyche fragments. Exploring mysteries isn’t just for people in therapy, or artists, Lancaster points out: ‘Most scientific discoveries come up by accident, on some level. It’s a myth to think we logically come up with answers. The answer’s not in the test tube, the answer is in our imaginations. And the way we work with imagination is through mystery. To the extent that we engage with the mystery, we gain insight and enrich our minds.’ Engaging with mystery My quest to understand mysteries now takes me back to the photographer we met at the outset, Holly Andres. ‘My creative process is probably similar to solving a mystery’, she says. The mystery begins when she is drawn to an idea, though she’s not always sure why, or what the finished artwork will look like. Sometimes, an experience, memory, or conversation ‘elicits images in the form of a mental filmstrip of sorts,’ Andres explains. ‘If the images are particularly vivid or surreal, they’ll trigger a physiological sensation. This feeling is unpredictable, but can’t be ignored. And then, sometimes I set out to recreate one of these mental filmstrips.’ The Sparrow Lane series was inspired in part by a conversation Andres had about the Nancy Drew

the psychologist december 2020 mysteries

Exploring the house of your mind

Kate Russell, Courtesy of Meow Wolf

novels. ‘I had read most of the books when I was a young girl, and although I couldn’t recall a single plot, I realised the provocative images from the book covers were still nestled somewhere in my mind,’ she says. ‘I became interested in making a series about the precarious transition to womanhood… when a female starts to feel simultaneously vulnerable and empowered.’ So Andres drew on the conventions of the Nancy Drew narratives and illustrations to create an elliptical narrative about domestic secrets and adolescent discoveries, in which ‘I could embed these psychosexual metaphors, and also show moments of awakening, discovery, and awareness of an outside threat.’ Sourcing props and wardrobe from a thrift store, Andres tells me she will ‘sink into this Zen-like space when I get really hyper aware and sensitive to all of these objects.’ Then on the day of the shoot, Andres refers to her shot list to realise speciﬁc moments she’s envisioned. ‘Then I try to couple this consciously prepared vision with an attempt to capture natural uncertainty… If I can be open to moments of serendipity and ways to deviate from my plan, then sometimes something really beautiful and interesting and better than what I planned will happen.’ This sounds like the moment of epiphany Golman mentions. When I ask Andres, ‘what is behind the old painting?’, she says she doesn’t know. Sparrow Lane’s narrative is open to interpretation, and even when

At the interactive art installation House of Eternal Return, visitors explore a purpose-built two-storey house and the dozens of rooms, tunnels, and zones that surround it. People come here to ﬁnd and interpret hundreds of clues about the family that lived at – and disappeared from – the house. The entire production is lodged in a 20,000 square foot former bowling alley, the creation of arts and entertainment non-proﬁt Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The House of Eternal Return provides an unusual experience: a truly immersive live encounter with mystery. Can this sense of mystery be accessed in real life, and if so, how? Joanna Garner, a playwright and Meow Wolf’s Senior Story Creative Director offers, ‘When developing new story experiences, we talk a lot about apophenia,’ or the tendency to see connections or meaningful patterns where none exist. At Meow Wolf, ‘We instil in participants a sense that connections and patterns can exist everywhere, and that they should look for them’. Exercising the imagination, looking for patterns, and meaning-making can help people approach mystery. ‘Constantly ask “What if?”, and “What else?”’ Garner adds. ‘Cultivate the practice of exploring the house of your mind. As a writer, I often try to chase the feelings of fear and excitement in my creative practice, as both signal me to go deeper or farther.’ And don’t dismiss your own ideas too quickly. After all, to create a mystery, or to recognize one when it appears, ‘You have to get weird,’ Garner concludes. So ‘Get weird!’

Andres knows her photos’ secrets, she doesn’t reveal them. She wants viewers to have the potential to fill in the blanks, and find their own solutions. From the mundane to the mysterious When Holly Andres told me she didn’t know what was behind the old painting, I was disappointed. Rationally, I knew that the painting was a prop, but the idea that Andres had extended her creation into reality was very appealing. I rarely encounter mysteries outside of novels; most of the time I’m fully occupied with straightforward questions, like how to get my four-year-old to eat something besides fish sticks. Compared with my daily routine, the idea of a mystery – something hidden that I might discover, and derive greater understanding from knowing about – is immensely romantic. An unexpected, and invaluable, gift. Mysteries, fictional or real, fully realised or merely hinted at, offer so much richness. They allow us to be absorbed by something other than our own concerns, satisfy our curiosity, and enjoy the sense of realisation and accomplishment that comes from turning bits of information into meaningful stories. But maybe what I like best about mysteries is the promise of more. I hope readers will respond to my article with more: more pieces to fit together, more layers of meaning, more to be discovered, more to wonder at.

Chronic pain acceptance does not equal accepting chronic pain Ute Liersch

Acceptance is in vogue. In mindfulness therapies, books and apps, acceptance is presented as a helpful attitude for anyone to have or to gain. For the speciﬁc population of people coping with chronic pain, research shows that accepting it can be nurturing. It can also be depleting. Could the key to capitalising on its positive qualities be differentiating between acceptance and accepting?

y awareness of acceptance came with my breast cancer diagnosis: how I accepted the cancer, the therapies, their effects, and my new life-context. Yet it took another three years, a doctorate in counselling psychology and working in a chronic pain clinic to journey into acceptance from the position of a scientistpractitioner. Whilst working with hundreds of people, I received many challenges to my contemporary yet naïve understanding of acceptance. Those critical thinkers, those pain-bearers, were instrumental in introducing a more differentiated concept in my understanding: chronic pain acceptance does not equal accepting chronic pain. What is acceptance? Jon Kabat-Zinn (1990) echoed Carl Rogers (1995) by saying that selfacceptance is the pre-condition for healing, growth and change. We are urged to perceive experiences as they are, rather than judging them as good or bad. We are informed that acceptance has a hierarchical structure (Hayes, 1999), with its highest form being ‘radical acceptance’, deﬁned as an ability to embrace the here-and-now fully with our mind, heart, body and soul (Linehan, 1993, 2015). Acceptance is also presented as a choice and something we should choose to alleviate the impact of chronic illness (Dougher, 1994). In other words acceptance, as presented today, has various implicit properties. It is beneﬁcial, hierarchical, and our choice to make. Acceptance of chronic pain: the researcher, the clinician, the pain-bearer …it’s 24 hours. 24/7. Everything I do is with pain, everything! Brushing my teeth, having sex, having err, drinking beer, wine! Going to the supermarket, study, everything. There is no way out! There is no way out! (Jenifer)

The International Association for the Study of Pain (2019) estimates that 20 per cent of humans, worldwide, experience such chronic pain. Suffering that persists after physical damage has healed or suffering that exists without apparent physical cause (Butler & Moseley, 2003):

…the tests keep on coming back and…this shows that there’s nothing… you haven’t got this, and you haven’t got that…it becomes frustrating…. it made me feel like a hypochondriac…there is a sense of, nobody

the psychologist december 2020 chronic pain Simon Furze, Community Artist

believes it is actually there…[clinicans] haven’t got a diagnosis…[clinicians] don’t know how to treat it. (Eunice)

In short, once pain-bearers reach the point of acceptance, they seem to live better with their chronic pain. …well, I don’t know about that…(Garen)

Once the bio-medical model is sunk, pain-bearers are often asked to grab hold onto psychology and to ﬁnd rescue in pain acceptance. Within chronic pain services, acceptance-based therapies are popular. The ‘acceptance of chronic pain’ is now a clinically relevant intervention, seen as empowering to the client – to live better with and beyond their persistent suffering, towards a life directed by values (Hayes et al., 1999), rather than a life controlled by pain. A lot of research is focused on generating evidence, often showing that higher levels of chronic pain acceptance show lower levels of chronic pain related mental and physical disability (McCracken et al., 2005; Wicksell et al., 2008).

Whilst we understand Garen’s scepticism, non-acceptance of chronic pain is, today, understood as a barrier to living well with pain (Cederberg et al., 2016) and a barrier to treatment. Hence chronic pain acceptance is offered to the pain-bearer as the required ‘bold step toward a valued life’ by pain-practitioners (Dahl & Lundgren, 2006, p.108). NHS pain services conceptualise pain-acceptance as the pain-bearer’s willingness to let go of pain control and to experience pain in the pursuit of an active and value-driven lifestyle (McCracken, 1998). However: …is this what acceptance means for you [the researcher] maybe? That [chronic pain] kind of stops

me getting where I want to go. If I just accepted it, where I thought I could never feel any better, to be honest, I think I would want to die because I just wouldn’t want to live like this…(Dorothy)

Garen and Dorothy raise the question of whether the ‘helpfulness of’ acceptance is a meaning given and used by those who treat and research it, rather than by those who are tasked to ‘accept’ it. So what – and what now? Of course, psychology does not seek to be arbitrary, and we pride ourselves on evidence-based working. The aforementioned deﬁnition of chronic pain acceptance rests upon a great deal of quantitative research (McCracken, 1999; McCracken & Eccleston, 2005, 2006; Vowles et al., 2008). Yet, we know that the nomothetic approach faces many challenges, including but not limited to dropout rate. In fact, chronic pain acceptance publications often report attrition rates of between 25 per cent and 50 per cent (Johnston et al., 2010; Veehof et al., 2011; Wetherell et al., 2011; McCracken et al., 2013). Curious. Might we, the clinical and research community, not yet have captured the perspective on ‘acceptance’ of those who voted with their feet? From a counselling psychologist’s position, this is problematic as it points towards a lack of inclusiveness of the theory and its therapeutic transforms. From a researcher’s position, it might be problematic as we could get stuck only researching a distinct dimension of chronic pain acceptance. From a clinician’s position, this can be problematic as we might use a theoretical construct of acceptance which is invalid for the client, albeit wellKey sources deﬁned and well-researched. All of the above could nurture dropout rates: Butler, D.S. & Moseley, L. (2003). Explain pain. Noigroup. Cederberg, J.T., Cernvall, M., Dahl, J. et al. (2016). Acceptance as a mediator for change in acceptance and commitment therapy for persons with chronic pain? International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 23, 21-29. Moran, J. (2018). First you write a sentence: The elements for reading, writing ... and life. Penguin. van Manen, M. (2016). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy (2nd edn). Routledge. Veehof, M.M., Oskam, M.-J.a., Schreurs, K.M.G. & Bohlmeijer, E.T. (2011). Acceptance-based interventions for the treatment of chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Pain, 152, 533-542. Wrathall, M.A. (2005). How to read Heidegger. Granta Books. Full list available in online/app version.

…I did feel when I came…even on the assessment day it felt a bit patronising… there was an element of “that’s stupid”, we don’t have to be spoken down to… (Eunice)

Researchers and clinicians must understand how acceptance is experienced by those who complete acceptance-based interventions and by those who don’t.

Talking to those who are not here In a London NHS-based pain management service, I interviewed ten people who did not conclude their acceptance-based pain management program. The interview data were analysed using van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenological thematic analysis (2016). This methodology captures the ideographic phenomenon, here chronic pain acceptance. It then introduces convergences and divergences of the participants’ lived experience. It is mindful of the context in which chronic pain acceptance occurs and transparently shows the researcher’s data interpretation. Lastly it enables readers to have their own lived experience of the phenomenon under investigation. The discoveries were surprising. Acceptance: you don’t have a choice This research highlighted that the words ‘acceptance’ and ‘accepting’ are used interchangeably in pain management. Moran (2018), however, points out that although we can describe our life with nouns, we must be aware that we are living it using verbs. In other words, clinicians must be aware that the psychological processes of change (accepting) are often presented to clients as static entities (acceptance), to clients and patients. Whilst jumbling up word classes might not be problematic in our day-to-day conversations, it makes a big difference in the clinical context. As the study’s participants pointed out: it changes the conveyed meaning. For example, participants did not experience acceptance of chronic pain as a choice. Nor as a hierarchical construct with radical acceptance as its highest and most valuable form. Acceptance was neither beneficent nor beneficial. Participants experienced acceptance as their acknowledgement of pain’s existence. Allow me to repeat this: acceptance is the acknowledgement that the pain exists in one’s life. Acceptance is a construct divorced from any indication of how the person is relating to, and dealing and living with, chronic pain. Accepting: many ways of relating Accepting walks hand in hand with acceptance, and yet is radically different. Acceptance is the acknowledgement of an experience’s existence. Accepting is how we are with this experience and was experienced as nurturing and depleting by the participants. To understand whether it is helping or hindering clinicians need to analyse the relationship between the pain-bearer and the chronic pain. Knowing that this relationship is also actively moderated by significant others such as families, friends, working-environment and health-care providers (not analysed here). Let us analyse the bi-directional relationship between the pain-bearer and the chronic pain. Firstly,

the psychologist december 2020 chronic pain

behavioural process, unique to the individual, where we develop: ‘… different patterns, different habits… different identity…’ (Sacks, 2012, p.xiii). This active responsiveness, this consistent development to adjust to the different demands of the persistent and perhaps everDr Ute Liersch is an HCPC changing pain is not targeted accredited Practitioner toward pain-eradication nor Psychologist and Founder of towards succumbing. It is a lived TheResilientMind.com responsive and relational style in ute@vonlerse.com which the pain-bearer is intimately familiar with how to sooth the pain’s impact. Over time, chronic pain is detached through the eyes of the pain, then from the stance of from the effect it has on the person’s life. This enables the research participants. the pain-bearer to take back their life-agency. And to Chronic pain imposes itself onto the pain-bearer’s regain (some) control over the pain’s impact. life. It becomes an unpredictable and oppressive entity. It exists independent of the pain-bearer’s stance …the pain has been there for over 20 years… you towards it. Pain invades and gradually pushes others would be silly not to know… what makes it worse… out of the person’s life: what makes it better… you realise eventually that I used to run for like 40 minutes… I stopped that one…used to go and play football… then I stopped that one… I used to work full time, I stopped that one … I lost a lot of people… so many people… (Anders)

With other words, chronic pain can become the most prevalent and consistent entity in a person’s life. Whilst the pain appears to relate to a person by overtaking their life, the pain-bearers experienced different ways of relating to the persistent pain. To be precise, the analysis showed three ways of accepting the chronic pain: resignating, automatic counteracting and behavioural adapting. The following introduces the characteristics of these ways of accepting. Accepting chronic pain with resignation. This means that the pain and its impact are experienced as one inseparable, penetrating and life-shattering entity. Lifeagency passes over to the pain for fear of being hurt even more. People are resigned to the fact that they should or must bear the pain, and eventually they become… …very, very tired, I used to get this, like, a giving-up sensation: I don’t know what it would feel like, I don’t know how to explain it, but I just thought “Oh, I’ll give up, oh sod it,” you know… (Chuck)

Accepting chronic pain with automatic counteracting. This is where the pain-bearer is on a reactive and automatic quest to ﬁnd pain-eradication. The pain and its impact are the enemy, which are to be defeated. So that the pain does: …not get to you! Don’t let it beat you! Don’t let life beat you…don’t end up whining and crying about how you feel… (Garen)

Accepting chronic pain with behavioural adapting. Behavioural adaptation describes our ability to change or transform our actions and behaviours accordingly to a given environment. We can imagine this also as a

you can actually do maybe all the things you want to do…like going to the gym… I can manage the swimming better, it doesn’t have that impact and… it’s a way of trying to make my body stronger… caring for my body and looking after it will reduce the pain too. (Eunice).

What I have learned, and what you might want to think about I, the scientist-practitioner and cancer survivor, have learned that acceptance and accepting shows an ‘essence of human existence… to find ourselves in between freedom from and submission to our world’ (Wrathall, 2005, p.32), and that living requires actively and persistently working with this paradox. We, the clinicians and researchers, might want to think about whether we are pushing a theoretical framework onto those seeking help when using ‘accepting chronic pain’ and ‘chronic pain acceptance’ interchangeably – proclaiming both to be intrinsically beneficial. Such behaviour could not only make it harder to find a common, supportive and therapeutic language with pain-bearers but could endorse methods of accepting that are unhelpful, even endangering pain-bearers’ wellbeing. After all, clients whose accepting resembles resignation or automatic counteracting could become more depleted. We, both researchers and research users, need to focus on the ideographic understanding of the phenomenon as well. What starts to transpire is that the character of the pain-relationship appears to play an important role in understanding accepting as a supportive process. I feel driven to further this research with pluralistic investigations, and am inviting researchers across the ontological spectrum and people who suffer persistently with pain to take part in deciphering acceptance and accepting further.

the psychologist december 2020 recovery

‘You have to put your trust in the psychologist’

Dominic Barrett shares his journey of mental health recovery, with comment from his psychologist Caroline Clare

t was a day I won’t forget in a hurry. I was an inpatient on an acute psychiatric ward, sectioned under the Mental Health Act. I was meant to be in a place of safety. But perched on the end of my unmade bed, with tears rolling down my face, I felt so alone. I wanted to scream out for help. You’d think it would be easy – just open your mouth, and talk. But that’s hard, if you are not used to it. I felt like my own family was ashamed of me, and had washed their hands of me, and abandoned me in my hour of need. Rock bottom. The only genuine family member to stick by me was my little sister, who did not judge me. One of my two true friends throughout my life… my sister, and my own deepest and sometimes troubled thoughts. There is only so much a person can take. We all have a breaking point, and I found mine. I had the perfect opportunity. I had unescorted Section 17 leave from the hospital, and my thought process went into overdrive. I had come to a hard and final decision – to end it. I wanted to take my own life, to end my pain and suffering. I plucked up the courage, got off my bed and began frantically rummaging around my hospital bedroom. My room was small, bare, just the basics. I found something that resembled a pen and paper; I wanted to pen a suicide note to my family, a kind of ‘thanks for nothing’. But the note I decided to leave to my younger sister was longer and heartfelt, and at the end, an apology. All of my built up emotions went into this note. I began to explain to my 12-year-old nephew, how I would dearly miss him, how proud I was of him, how I knew he will grow up to be a strong man with good principles. I finished by asking my nephew to look after his mum and to respect people, and then a P.S., ‘god bless’. Bugger knows why… I am not remotely religious. I calmly put both notes on my unmade bed, waited a few minutes, and finally plucked up the courage. I nervously asked the nurse in charge of the ward for unescorted leave to the local shop. The walk was only just over a mile and a half long, but it was the longest walk I have ever done in my life. A long

walk to goodbye. I lost track of time. I can remember walking past a motorway bridge and peering over, and thinking ‘just jump, do us all a big favour’… but no. The petrol station, the petrol station it is. The more negative the thoughts, the more I was determined; to end it in the most gruesome way imaginable. When I finally arrived at the petrol station, my thoughts were racing, my heart pounding. I felt sick as a parrot, but in a sick way excited… not long now. The pain will soon be over. I noticed the attendant behind the counter. She gave off an aura, a very polite woman. By the time she realised what was about to happen it was too late. She showed tremendous courage, and I sincerely hope that one day she will find it in her heart to forgive my actions on that day. I doused myself, head to toe in petrol. The old lady was pleading with me not to light the lighter, but I was trying frantically. It wouldn’t light. Looking back now, someone higher up was looking out for me that day. If it was not for that polite attendant and the professionalism of the emergency workers, I and half of Whiston would not be here today. I owe a special gratitude to the Police Officer, and his tremendous courage. He talked me round, and I was taken to the nearest mental health 136 suite, for emergency assessment. I subsequently spent seven months receiving treatment, before being transferred to Cygnet Oaks Hospital, in Barnsley for specialist treatment. Treatment 31 August 2018; I sat nervously in my room, on the acute assessment ward at Swallownest Court Hospital, in Rotherham. My thoughts were all over the place. The ward manager Sue and the rest of the team came to bid me farewell… ‘all the best for the future, keep out of trouble…’ Was that was even possible? I had spent the last seven months of my life on that ward. Was it beneficial? To be continued… The minibus journey went without any hitches, nearly a straight run. As we approached the main gate, at Cygnet Oaks, the cogs were going around like mad. Why am I here? For intense therapy, you idiot. My three kind escorts rang the doorbell to the main

reception. The automatic doors swung open, in we walked. The start of a long journey to recovery. The welcoming receptionist, Sharon, booked us in, and then directed us to the lodge: a 20-bed unit, which accommodates males with complex mental health issues. It was like walking into the abyss. I am six foot four inches, but I was still scared. It’s the unknown, an alien environment. I was not in control. I was on a downward spiral, with no goals or future aspirations in life. I was shown to my room. It looked warm and inviting, but at the same time, very clinical. You know how you can be surrounded by lots of people, but still feel very lonely inside? In walked two young looking support workers, Lauren and Kerry. ‘Is there anything we can get you?’ ‘Please miss, can I have a cup of tea?’ I replied. ‘Miss’… you’ve been in the system too long. I got a mini introduction to the ward. The lodge is a small unit, but it has ample opportunities and facilities. Before I knew it, my therapy program had commenced. I had an informal chat with Clodagh, who was to be my named Occupation Therapist, and eventually Caroline Clare, my Forensic Psychologist. I immersed myself in all the activities that the O.T. department offered me. Walks in the country, trips to the seaside, the list goes on. Psychology, well, that was a different kettle of fish. Some people, myself included, dissed psychology. In reality, I needed psychology. But for psychology to work, you have to put your trust in the psychologist, and then start to build a rapport. To benefit from any form of psychology, you have to be very open and honest. I found that extremely hard. I had grown up not trusting people, and especially those in authority. Trusting people was a sign of weakness; I was taught this from a very early age. My first impressions of Caroline were that she looked like she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. What does she know about life? How wrong I was. As therapy went on, I found a new respect for Caroline. The amount of complaints that I put in against her was off the scale. But in reality, deep down, I needed someone like Caroline in my corner. She had succeeded where many had tried and had failed. She persevered and eventually managed to chip away at my shell. The type of psychological treatment that I am receiving is called Schema therapy. Schema therapy is hard… you have to work through the pain, past emotions will be stirred up, the negative memories I had buried for many years came to the surface. When I was told about schema therapy, my initial thoughts were, what a load of gobbledegook. I had had different types of therapy before, but as I progressed through Schema therapy I began to realise I needed this type. It has not always been a labour of love, between me and Caroline; she took me out of my comfort zone. At times I just did not want to get out of bed. Caroline took the time and had the skill and patience to listen to me, and to work through my issues. We all experience negative thinking, and emotions

play an important part of this. Mine were ‘offline’, and this was having an impact on my life. Through Schema therapy, they have come back ‘online’. I was taught the different modes, and then we worked through them. When you have suppressed them expertly for so long, and then they come to the surface, it is hard to talk about your emotions and feelings. Working through them in a safe environment is good. The element I found hard was that ‘chair technique’. I did not like moving chairs. You get comfortable in one chair, and then you are asked to move to a different one. In the end, I found even that experience very beneficial. I hope to continue a form of Schema therapy when I am off my section, and back in the community. It has helped me enormously. A brighter future I am nearing the end of my journey with Cygnet Oaks. I have started to achieve many things, including studying for a BA (Honours) Law/Criminology with the Open University. I am the patient representative for the house, and with this comes a great deal of responsibility. Now I can achieve many of my goals in life, through my own hard work and especially the whole team at Cygnet Oaks. I would like to say a special thank you to my named nurse, Naomi, who has put up with me over the years. Clodagh and Caroline have taught me many things, but I will especially miss Caroline. She has been an important part of my life, and I will enjoy putting the lessons I have learned from her into practice. I know I will face many prejudices when back in society, but I will relish the challenges. I now see rejection not as a negative. You can always change or challenge negativity, and then turn it in to a positive. That person who first entered Cygnet Oaks a couple of years ago is now leaving with a positive outlook on life, looking forward to a brighter future. I will be forever indebted to the hard work and perseverance of all the staff at the Oaks. Dominic Barrett dominicjames@hotmail.co.uk

the psychologist december 2020 recovery

‘We have both learnt, developed and grown as part of this therapy journey’ I’m a forensic psychologist who joined the team at Cygnet Oaks in September 2016. I have worked in a psychological setting since 2008, seeing adults with a range of different needs including complex personality disorder, mental health issues, autism and learning disabilities. I enjoy working with people to develop a collaborative treatment plan that will meet their needs. I try to put individuals at the centre of the care; being creative and trying different ways to help people to improve their quality of life and progress in their recovery journey. Dom’s referral story felt very familiar. He was someone with a number of different diagnostic labels applied to him, someone who had previously been described as ‘untreatable’, and someone that was finding it difficult to find the right place. I took the opportunity to meet Dom at his current placement to get to know him better and was told ‘I will do whatever Psychology ask me to… I will stay as long as Psychology want me to.’ (This was one of the few times I met Dom’s ‘compliant surrenderer’ mode…). I also got to meet someone who was strong-willed, well educated, with a great sense of humour, and deserving of a rehabilitation placement to get the help he wanted. When Dom joined us there was understandable anxiety about starting therapy. There were mixed feelings for him as part of him wanted things to change but part of him was scared of what this could mean. I think the anxiety only increased when I introduced the idea of Schema therapy to him; he had stocked up on CBT textbooks to feel prepared for this and increase his sense of control over the situation. But I felt that Schema therapy would be helpful to start to develop a safer relationship over time, to address his unmet needs and to strengthen his ‘Healthy Adult’ mode. In Schema therapy the relationship between therapist and client is seen as a key vehicle for change. It is an integrative psychotherapy that makes sense of an individual’s experience by understanding their key needs such as connection, nurturance, safety and stability. For individuals who have not had these needs met consistently, they learn different coping responses based around avoidance, overcompensating or surrender. Schema therapy looks past the presenting behaviour and helps the individual to understand the key needs they are trying to meet, as well as the potential costs to other needs by meeting them in this way. Schema therapy introduces individuals to the experience of getting these needs met (using a limited re-parenting approach) and over time to develop confidence and autonomy in meeting these needs for themselves with the support of others. Dom had been offered a number of different therapies previously and been able to show an understanding of the main concepts, make apparent progress, and in his words ‘tell them what they wanted to hear’. His avoidant modes were well established and the Schema therapy model

provided a lovely framework for introducing that, making room for it in therapy, and softly being able to reduce Dom’s need for its presence in the room so that therapy, and psychological healing, could take place. I was lucky that Dom started to be able to show me parts of his vulnerable child side fairly early on. Staying connected to this part of him, and making sense of all the different and interesting ways he had learnt to mask this side of him, helped me to develop warmth and empathy. It also helped me not to take things personally when his complaining protector side kicked in! Exploring the coping modes with interest, compassion and gratefulness that they had helped Dom survive a number of difficult experiences in his life made a lot more sense to me. It also helped Dom to make sense of his experiences, rather than just being told what to do (or not to do) as part of therapy. Being able to be curious also started to slowly chip away at his feelings of shame that at times had been debilitating for him. Dom needed a lot of support to challenge his critical mode which often drove his need to be avoidant, his need to put others down to feel safer himself, or his thoughts of hurting himself or others. His resistance to the ‘musical chairs’ (chair work) was just one of the ways he used humour to push himself through the difficulties of therapy. But using visual cues and chair work helped understand the impact the critic had on him, how it was irrational or unreasonable at times, and the long-term effects of letting the critic drive his behaviour. We used visual prompt cards, a lot of repetition, and behavioural experiments to weaken the impact of the critic. Experiencing the imagery of limited re-parenting was also new and understandably triggering for him initially. We persisted, and the experience of seeing Dom experience and ultimately start to enjoy or benefit from these more nurturing and compassionate exercises was particularly inspiring. Over time Dom became less critical of himself and stopped blaming himself for his early experiences. He practised compassion for others and, eventually, himself (the latter took a lot more time and practise as is often the case). Strengthening his healthy adult mode to join us, and then to look after his little side on his own, is something that has given me a sense of both pride and admiration. Dom also helped me to challenge my own critic mode and avoid taking a Psychology textbook with me on holiday, so I can confidently say that we have both learnt, developed and grown as part of this therapy journey. He has particularly enjoyed that asking me to write this article has pushed me out of my comfort zone and required me to challenge my critic as well. I am grateful to Dom for sharing his story and experiences. I hope it helps inspire other people to seek the support they need, or to consider the different therapy models we can use with those that we care for. Caroline Clare

Careers 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 and promotion www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk Research Digest, please contact Krishan Parmar on 01223 378051 or email krishan.parmar@cpl.co.uk .

Senior Clinical Practitioner Sale, Greater Manchester Circa £35,000 p.a. G-map is a nationally recognised independent organisation providing therapeutic services for young people who display harmful sexual behaviours, many of whom have attachment and/or trauma induced difficulties. The post is based in Sale, Greater Manchester and will provide opportunities to be involved in individual and family work together with consultancy and training for other professionals. Whilst experience in working within the field of sexual abuse is essential we are particularly keen to appoint an individual who has experience and skills in direct work with children and adolescents who exhibit complex trauma presentations. Applicants should have an honours degree and a recognised qualification in psychology, social work, health or other relevant profession and a minimum of three years post qualification experience. Excellent written and verbal skills and an understanding of effective multi-agency working are essential. The applicant will be required to travel to some appointments and meetings so having own transport is essential. The service maintains high clinical standards and offers excellent opportunities for supervision and personal development. Conditions of employment include private pension and income protection schemes and 30 days annual leave. For enquiries regarding this post please contact Julie Morgan or Laura Wylie on the telephone number or email address below. For an application pack please contact: G-map, 1 Roebuck Lane, Sale, Cheshire, M33 7SY. Tel: 0161 976 4414, Email: office@g-map.org Closing date for applications is 25 November 2020

‘Open-mindedness and curiousity’ Job Title: Mental Health Specialist Support Workers, Specialist Deputy and Team Managers Employer: One Housing

Marta Banet, Head of Psychological Services at One Housing, commented on this flexible range of roles. ‘Open-mindedness and curiosity around working with psychosis are more important than any particular level of qualification. Similarly, experience of client work, rather than of working with any particular client group is important for the support roles.’ One Housing is a not-for-profit housing association which owns and manages over 17,000 homes, develops affordable homes, and provides care for the vulnerable. It runs two homeless hostels in Camden and Bedford and over 20 mental health services across London. Marta describes how the organisation came to provide these specialist support services. ‘For the past ten years austerity policies have caused support services to close and have stretched the third sector and NHS. This is why, a few years ago, we started recruiting people with a therapeutic background who could offer psychoeducation and work with our customers on developing therapeutic skills and coping strategies. The roles have developed since then: we’re looking for support workers as well as their managers.’ ‘The specialist support worker role suits people with different therapeutic backgrounds – counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, people trained in CBT among others; it particularly fits those who want to try out working with the adult mental health client group. What’s essential is experience of working with clients on therapeutic assessment, intervention planning and delivery. These workers experience a less acute and safer team environment than the hospital settings where many of them will have worked before. Our specialist managers come from a variety of backgrounds; psychologists, and psychotherapists as well as counsellors thrive in the role.’ Clients mostly live in supported housing, ‘though we do offer floating support services supporting clients in their own homes. Our NHS partnerships in Wandsworth and Camden involve our specialist workers in multidisciplinary teams.’ The organisation’s activities are largely based in London and the roles are full-time. ‘The client-facing specialists often work on a rota basis since our services need to be available 24/7. The managers work a more conventional working week.’ There is regular clinical supervision and ‘the programme for our own academy includes courses in management and leadership, among others.’ ‘There are opportunities to work organisation-wide to develop wider training, as well as to work in innovative ways and to create genuine long-term therapeutic relationships with clients. We are a diverse organisation so every day is a learning opportunity for someone who is open-minded and curious. We want to hear from people who think this sounds an interesting opportunity. Do get in contact and we’ll talk.’ See right for the vacancy…

Mental Health Support Services LONDON _ēēăĖĦĬúÝĦÝÄĝ §ĺ§Ýò§¶òÄ ÒăĖ ĕĬ§òÝŌÄ½ yĬēēăĖĦ ăĖïÄĖĝƕ ÄēĬĦŁ Ä§ù U§ú§ÓÄĖĝ §ú½ U§ú§ÓÄĖĝ Ħă ìăÝú ăĬĖ UÄúĦ§ò 7Ä§òĦÙ ĦÄ§ùƕ ĻăĖïÝúÓ §òăúÓĝÝ½Ä V7y ēĖăÒÄĝĝÝăú§òĝ ĻÝĦÙ full training and supervision provided. At One Housing, we don’t only believe that everyone deserves a safe, secure, affordable home. We also believe that everyone ½ÄĝÄĖĺÄĝ Ħă ĖÄ§òÝĝÄ ĦÙÄÝĖ ÒĬòò ēăĦÄúĦÝ§ò §ú½ òÄ§½ § ÒĬòŌòòÝúÓ òÝÒÄƚ Our Mental Health team is vital to helping us deliver on this vision.

Join our Mental Health team As part of our team you will provide care and support to our clients that will enable them to make informed decisions about their life, increasing their sense of wellbeing. Through regular clinical supervision, and within our inclusive and collaborative working environment, you will be offered the chance to develop your own skills and supported to have a real Ýùē§·Ħƚ ăĬ ĻÝòò ¶Ä ēĖăĺÝ½Ä½ ĻÝĦÙ ĖÄÓĬò§Ė ĖÄōÄ·ĦÝĺÄ ēĖ§·ĦÝ·Ä spaces to complete complex case formulations. We have spent the last 10 years designing our services to be fully psychologically-informed. This specialised approach makes us the ideal partner for NHS trusts across London with whom we deliver several integrated services. We’re an organisation with strong values. We keep our promises; we do a great job; we value diversity; we work together; and we look for ways to improve. These are what make us such a great team, working together as one to achieve our vision.

What you will need to succeed ăĬƴòò úÄÄ½ Ħă Ù§ĺÄ § ĖÄòÄĺ§úĦ ĦÙÄĖ§ēÄĬĦÝ· ĕĬ§òÝŌ·§ĦÝăú §ú½ Ù§ĺÄ or be working towards registration/accreditation. You will believe in working together as part of a team, share our values and are friendly, engaged and committed to achieving great outcomes for our customers.

The offer òăúÓĝÝ½Ä ·ăùēÄĦÝĦÝĺÄ ĝ§ò§ĖÝÄĝƕ ăĬĖ MÝÒÄǠ_úÄ ¶ÄúÄŌĦĝ ē§·ï§ÓÄ offers you an array of perks and services designed with your wellbeing in mind.

About us As an organisation with a strong social purpose, One Housing works in some of the most diverse communities in the UK and ăĬĖ ĻăĖïÒăĖ·Ä ĖÄōÄ·Ħĝ ĦÙ§Ħƚ Ä Ĭú½ÄĖĝĦ§ú½ ĦÙÄ ĝĦĖÄúÓĦÙ ĻÄ Ó§Ýú from having and supporting our diverse teams. The different skills and experiences that our colleagues from different backgrounds bring to us allow us to make better decisions, consider different views and be an altogether more interesting and cohesive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone.

Scan the QR code or visit our website today Ħă ĖÄÓÝĝĦÄĖ ŁăĬĖ ÝúĦÄĖÄĝĦ ÒăĖ § ÒĬòŌòòÝúÓ career in our Mental Health team

onehousing.co.uk/working-for-us

Together as One

Join us and help change young lives for the better Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for Educational / Clinical Psychologists ÂŁ44,150 - ÂŁ62,200 Đ&#x192;Ď°`Ĺ?Ĺ&#x160;Ĺ&#x201A;Ĺ&#x160;ÂžÄ&#x203A;Ă&#x;ĂżÄ&#x203A;ĂˇĎ°Ă&#x2DC;ĂŁÄ&#x203A;ĂŁĹźĹ&#x160;Ĺ&#x201A;Ď°ÄťÂžĂ&#x2122;Ä?ÂžĂˇĂŁĎ°Ď&#x2026;Ď°yÂžÄžĹ&#x160;Ď°Ĺ&#x160;ĂżÄ&#x2122;ĂŁĎ°Ď&#x2030;Ď°8Ĺ?Ä&#x201C;Ä&#x201C;Ď°Ĺ&#x160;ĂżÄ&#x2122;ĂŁĎ°Ď&#x2030;Ď°Â&#x2C6;ĂŁÄžÄ&#x2122;Ď°Ĺ&#x160;ĂżÄ&#x2122;ĂŁĎ°Ä˘Ä&#x203A;Ä&#x201C;ĹŠĎ°ÂžĹ˘ÂžĂżÄ&#x201C;ÂžĂ&#x2DC;Ä&#x201C;ĂŁ Are you a qualified Educational / Clinical Psychologist? ĹŠĎ°Ä&#x152;Ä˘ĂżÄ&#x203A;ĂżÄ&#x203A;ĂˇĎ°Ĺ?Ĺ&#x201A;Ď°ÂžĹ&#x201A;Ď°ÂžĎ°Ä&#x2122;ĂŁÄ&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC;ĂŁÄžĎ°Ä˘ĂśĎ°Ä˘Ĺ?ÄžĎ° Ä&#x201C;ĂżÄ&#x203A;ĂżĂ&#x2122;ÂžÄ&#x201C;Ď°Â&#x20AC;ĂŁÄžĹ˘ĂżĂ&#x2122;ĂŁĹ&#x201A;Ď°Â&#x2C6;ĂŁÂžÄ&#x2122;ÎźĎ°ĹŠÄ˘Ĺ?Ď&#x17E;Ä&#x201C;Ä&#x201C;Ď°Ă&#x2DC;ĂŁĎ°ĹŁÄ˘ÄžÄ?ĂżÄ&#x203A;ĂˇĎ°ĂśÄ˘ÄžĎ°ÂžÄ&#x203A;Ď° Ä˘ÄžĂˇÂžÄ&#x203A;ĂżĹ&#x201A;ÂžĹ&#x160;ĂżÄ˘Ä&#x203A;Ď°Ĺ&#x160;ĂźÂžĹ&#x160;Ď°ĂŁÄ&#x2122;Ă&#x2DC;ĂŁĂ&#x;Ĺ&#x201A;Ď°Ĺ&#x160;ĂźĂŁÄžÂžÄťĂŁĹ?Ĺ&#x160;ĂżĂ&#x2122;Ď°Ĺ&#x201A;Ĺ?ÄťÄťÄ˘ÄžĹ&#x160;ÎźĎ°ÂžÄ&#x203A;Ă&#x;Ď°ĂżĹ&#x160;Ĺ&#x201A;Ď°Ĺ˘ÂžÄ&#x201C;Ĺ?ĂŁĎ°ÂžÄ&#x203A;Ă&#x;Ď°ÂžĂ&#x2DC;ĂżÄ&#x201C;ĂżĹ&#x160;ĹŠĎ°Ĺ&#x160;Ä˘Ď°ÄťÄ˘Ĺ&#x201A;ĂżĹ&#x160;ĂżĹ˘ĂŁÄ&#x201C;ĹŠĎ° ĂżÄ&#x2122;ÄťÂžĂ&#x2122;Ĺ&#x160;ÎźĎ°ÂžĹ&#x160;Ď°Ĺ&#x160;ĂźĂŁĎ°Ĺ˘ĂŁÄžĹŠĎ°ĂźĂŁÂžÄžĹ&#x160;Ď°Ä˘ĂśĎ°ÂžÄ&#x201C;Ä&#x201C;Ď°ĹŁĂŁĎ°Ă&#x;Ä˘ÎťĎ°Â§Ä˘Ĺ?Ď&#x17E;Ä&#x201C;Ä&#x201C;Ď°Ă&#x2DC;ĂŁĎ°ĂˇĂżĹ˘ĂŁÄ&#x203A;Ď°Ĺ&#x160;ĂźĂŁĎ°ÄžĂŁĹ&#x201A;Ä˘Ĺ?ÄžĂ&#x2122;ĂŁÎźĎ°Ĺ&#x160;ÄžÂžĂżÄ&#x203A;ĂżÄ&#x203A;ĂˇĎ°ÂžÄ&#x203A;Ă&#x;Ď° ÂžĂ&#x2DC;ĂżÄ&#x201C;ĂżĹ&#x160;ĹŠĎ°Ĺ&#x160;Ä˘Ď°Ä˘ĂśĂśĂŁÄžĎ°Ä˘Ĺ?ÄžĎ°ĹŠÄ˘Ĺ?Ä&#x203A;ĂˇĎ°ÄťĂŁÄ˘ÄťÄ&#x201C;ĂŁĎ°ĹŁĂżĹ&#x160;ĂźĂżÄ&#x203A;Ď°Ä˘Ĺ?ÄžĎ°Ĺ&#x201A;Ă&#x2122;ĂźÄ˘Ä˘Ä&#x201C;Ĺ&#x201A;Ď°ÂžÄ&#x203A;Ă&#x;Ď°Ă&#x2122;ĂźĂżÄ&#x201C;Ă&#x;ÄžĂŁÄ&#x203A;Ď&#x17E;Ĺ&#x201A;Ď°ĂźÄ˘Ä&#x2122;ĂŁĹ&#x201A;Ď°ÂžĎ°Ĺ&#x160;ÄžĹ?Ä&#x201C;ĹŠĎ° ÄťĂŁÄžĹ&#x201A;Ä˘Ä&#x203A;ÂžÄ&#x201C;ĂżĹ&#x201A;ĂŁĂ&#x;Ď°ÂžÄ&#x203A;Ă&#x;Ď°Ă&#x2122;Ä˘Ä&#x2122;ÄťÄžĂŁĂźĂŁÄ&#x203A;Ĺ&#x201A;ĂżĹ˘ĂŁĎ°ÄťÂžĂ&#x2122;Ä?ÂžĂˇĂŁĎ°Ä˘ĂśĎ°Ĺ&#x201A;Ĺ?ÄťÄťÄ˘ÄžĹ&#x160;Îť

We are seeking psychologists to cover:

Chorley and Rivington, Lancashire Shelf nr Halifax and Wakefield, West Yorkshire Ormskirk and Liverpool, Merseyside For full details or to apply visit www.witherslackgroupjobs.co.uk For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Nicola Morris Principal Psychologist on 0783 481 6864 Closing Date: Monday 30th November 2020 Â&#x2C6;ĂźĂŁĎ°ÂĄĂżĹ&#x160;ĂźĂŁÄžĹ&#x201A;Ä&#x201C;ÂžĂ&#x2122;Ä?Ď°9ÄžÄ˘Ĺ?ÄťĎ°ĂżĹ&#x201A;Ď°Ă&#x2122;Ä˘Ä&#x2122;Ä&#x2122;ĂżĹ&#x160;Ĺ&#x160;ĂŁĂ&#x;Ď°Ĺ&#x160;Ä˘Ď°Ĺ&#x201A;ÂžĂśĂŁĂˇĹ?ÂžÄžĂ&#x;ĂżÄ&#x203A;ĂˇĎ°ÂžÄ&#x203A;Ă&#x;Ď°ÄťÄžÄ˘Ä&#x2122;Ä˘Ĺ&#x160;ĂżÄ&#x203A;ĂˇĎ°Ĺ&#x160;ĂźĂŁĎ°ĹŁĂŁÄ&#x201C;ĂśÂžÄžĂŁĎ°Ä˘ĂśĎ°ĂżĹ&#x160;Ĺ&#x201A;Ď°ĹŠÄ˘Ĺ?Ä&#x203A;ĂˇĎ°ÄťĂŁÄ˘ÄťÄ&#x201C;ĂŁÎťĎ°Â&#x2C6;ĂźĂżĹ&#x201A;Ď°ÄťÄ˘Ĺ&#x201A;Ĺ&#x160;Ď°ĂżĹ&#x201A;Ď°Ĺ&#x201A;Ĺ?Ă&#x2DC;Ä&#x152;ĂŁĂ&#x2122;Ĺ&#x160;Ď°Ĺ&#x160;Ä˘Ď°ÂžÄ&#x203A;Ď° ĂŁÄ&#x203A;ĂźÂžÄ&#x203A;Ă&#x2122;ĂŁĂ&#x;Ď°" Â&#x20AC;Ď°Ă&#x2122;ĂźĂŁĂ&#x2122;Ä?ÎťĎ°ÂĄĂŁĎ°ÂžÄžĂŁĎ°ÂžÄ&#x203A;Ď°ĂŁÄ˝Ĺ?ÂžÄ&#x201C;Ď°Ä˘ÄťÄťÄ˘ÄžĹ&#x160;Ĺ?Ä&#x203A;ĂżĹ&#x160;ĂżĂŁĹ&#x201A;Ď°ĂŁÄ&#x2122;ÄťÄ&#x201C;Ä˘ĹŠĂŁÄžĎ°ĹŁĂŁÄ&#x201C;Ă&#x2122;Ä˘Ä&#x2122;ĂżÄ&#x203A;ĂˇĎ°ÂžÄťÄťÄ&#x201C;ĂżĂ&#x2122;ÂžĹ&#x160;ĂżÄ˘Ä&#x203A;Ĺ&#x201A;Ď°ĂśÄžÄ˘Ä&#x2122;Ď°ÂžÄ&#x201C;Ä&#x201C;Ď°Ĺ&#x201A;ĂŁĂ&#x2122;Ĺ&#x160;ĂżÄ˘Ä&#x203A;Ĺ&#x201A;Ď°Ä˘ĂśĎ°Ĺ&#x160;ĂźĂŁĎ°Ă&#x2122;Ä˘Ä&#x2122;Ä&#x2122;Ĺ?Ä&#x203A;ĂżĹ&#x160;ĹŠÎť

Jobs of the month on www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk

Clinical Psychologist Kooth United Kingdom Competitive salary, equivalent to 8a/8b NHS Agenda for Change (dependent on experience)

8a Clinical Psychologist Attachment and Developmental Trauma Specialist post Beyond Psychology Greater Manchester ÂŁ45,753-ÂŁ51,668 pro rata

To view these jobs and more, please visit the BPS job site www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk 52

Functional Family Therapy Child Welfare (FFT-CW) Worker Family Psychology Mutual Norfolk ÂŁ33,470 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 47,678

Forensic and Clinical Psychologists - PSUK Psychological Service UK Ltd (PSUK) are looking to recruit HCPC Registered Forensic and Clinical Psychologists to join our successful team of self-employed associates. As a PSUK associate, you will be working on either a full or part-time basis, undertaking psychological risk assessments of prison residents who are eligible for parole. You will also have an opportunity to undertake psychological assessments of parents in family cases, along with occasional capacity assessments of criminal defendants pre-trial. Whilst experience in each of these areas is desirable, our team of case mentors will ensure that you are fully supported as you build up your knowledge of the various processes adopted and the interventions and options available for the clients you assess. Established in 2007, PSUK has continued to expand its team of associates over the past decade in order to meet the demands of several longstanding contracts we have in place with HMPPS, the NHS, G4S and Sodexo Justice Services. As a result of the reputation we have built over time and our capacity to deliver a large volume of work, we are currently working with commercial teams of large organisations to secure new contracts over the coming months, hence the planned further expansion of our team. čÃ > >ÃÃ V >Ìi v *-1 ] Þ Õ Ü i Þ > Üi> Ì v Li iw ÌÃ] to include access to regular work that can be undertaken

around your existing employment and family commitments. You will also have the support of an experienced team of case mentors and an opportunity to engage in regular CPD (currently provided virtually). You will have opportunities to travel and work in prison locations throughout the UK, with travel and overnight expenses covered. Alternatively, you may wish to work closer to home so you’re still able to attend to important family and childcare commitments. All assessment kits and materials are provided and shipped to you at no cost, so you won’t have to make these expensive purchases in order to work with us. čÃ > *-1 >ÃÃ V >Ìi] Þ Õ Ü Li iw Ì vÀ Ü À } > }Ã `i and learning from experienced colleagues, both within our team but also across the public and private prison estates. You will also enjoy being a part of our PSUK community, where we use a range of communication forums to make sure each of our associates feels valued, empowered, resilient and supported at all times. PSUK is not an agency. Instead, we adopt a very different model which places associate support and wellbeing at the forefront of our approach to service delivery. Our team of friendly and knowledgeable administrators are also on hand to manage all your invoicing and administration needs, leaving you to focus on your important role in helping to rehabilitate offenders, improving the lives of families and protecting the public.

If you would like to be a part of our team, please contact kathryn@psuk.co in our administration team, who will be able to provide you with an application pack containing information on our fee structure (upon receipt of your CV). Alternatively, you can contact kerry@psuk.co if you have any questions about the role or wish to know more about our company, the services we provide and how we work to support and develop our associates. You might also want to take a look at our website for further information - www.psuk.co

‘Women ﬁght victim blaming every step of the way’ Why women are blamed for everything: Exploring victim blaming of women subjected to violence and trauma by Dr Jessica Taylor is published by VictimFocus. We asked Jessica about her book.

Why are women ‘victim blamed’ for being subjected to male violence? There are hundreds of reasons. In the book, I present my integrated model of victim blaming of women which shows, from over 60 years of literature, that there are several key theories that interlink to form a powerful woman-blaming culture that will be very hard to break down. Women are blamed due to sexism and misogyny, absolutely, but this is only cemented by other factors such as rape myths and stereotypes, belief in a just world, individualism and collectivism, attribution bias, our own self-preservation, denial of personal vulnerability and even counterfactual thinking. Rather than seeing these theories of victim blaming as standalone, we should see them as all working together simultaneously to support victim blaming and encourage women and girls to not only blame themselves, but to blame other women and girls too. Women will have literally anything and everything thrown at them to blame them for being subjected

Jessica’s book is available via victimfocusresources.com

to male violence. For example, in the literature there is evidence that if a woman is overweight, for example, she is likely to be blamed for being raped – but similarly if a woman is slim, she is as likely to be blamed for being raped. It is suggested that this is because a woman who is seen as unattractive will be blamed for being raped because she must have done something to deserve it, because of the assumption that rapists only attack attractive, sexy women; and the slimmer woman will be blamed because she is assumed to have been asking for it by the way she looks. This is why I titled the book ‘Why women are blamed for everything’. The book presents hundreds of studies that have consistently shown that we will pick at women and girls until we find something wrong with them, or something they did wrong – to ‘explain’ why they were raped or abused or even murdered. You’re clearly focusing on men as perpetrators here, even though women can be perpetrators and men can be victims (of both other men and women). Yes I am. I shouldn’t have to constantly make space for men in my work – the history of psychology was majorly focused on men, most of medicine, most of science in general. History is chiefly the stories of men, as is religion. Men are the majority perpetrators of violence worldwide, especially when committed against women and girls. Researchers and academics should be able to focus on violence committed against women and girls without being seen to be ‘excluding men’, who are usually and historically, the central topic of plenty of disciplines. You show that sex and relationships education in schools is inadequate, often encouraging victim blaming of girls who are assaulted. How can schools do better? All schools need to stop and rethink their strategies, including using so-called ‘hard hitting’ materials to ‘shock’ girls into understanding rape and abuse. I successfully campaigned against the use of CSE films in which hundreds of thousands of children in the UK in the last 12 years have been shown videos of girls being raped and abused in schools and colleges as an

the psychologist december 2020 victim blaming

‘educative approach’ or ‘psycho-educative intervention’. Schools need to stop using materials which encourage children to look for what the child in the case study or video did wrong or what they should have done differently – by doing this, we only raise another generation of victim blamers. By all means, educate, but teach children that 100 per cent of the blame lies with the perpetrator and the victim is innocent. I also cite the Women and Equalities Committee report on sexism and sexual violence in schools, which is horrifying reading. We have to address the systemic misogyny in school systems. Girls and boys are being educated and socialised to blame women and girls for violence committed against them. Tell us about your own journey. You know when people say to you, ‘The journey to success is never a straight line’? Well, that would be me. I left school (and home) before my GCSEs. I worked in pubs and hotels at 16 years old but I was determined to do my GCSEs, despite not attending school for months. I turned up to do them inbetween shifts at the hotels and achieved 13 B grades. I was so angry that I didn’t get a single A! I was always a high achiever at school, but I was disadvantaged, abused and started drinking and taking

drugs when I was 13 years old. I become pregnant from rape just after that, too. I then had to escape abuse and exploitation, protect my baby and leave the area I grew up in, in order to stay safe during police investigations. I didn’t decide to go back to education until I was 19. I was a mum of two by then. I sat in the middle of the night feeding my second child and thought, ‘I have to do something with my life’. I decided to apply for the Open University, which I had seen on the TV, because it said they would accept anyone and I could study around my children and my jobs (I was working in a factory and a shop). I chose to do a degree in Psychology because I thought it might be interesting. I didn’t really have any grand plans at that point. I had had a stroke a few months earlier which had left me physically disabled and had damaged the vision in one eye – so I had an interest in neuropsychology, especially as the consultants had found little lasting damage and told me I would likely recover because I was so young. My aim then, was to become a neuropsychologist and to specialise in understanding plasticity and brain injury in young people. How did this lead to an interest in victims? I had a free day on a Friday and offered my time to

charitable organisations in my local area. The first one to offer me an interview was Victim Support. I had never heard of them, despite being a victim of crime who had been through a 16-month police investigation. I trained with them to support victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence in courtrooms once per week. I remember thinking, ‘I’ll be great at this, because I’ve lived it! I have all the experience I need!’ I cannot tell you how wrong that assumption was. Every woman and girl I met was different, the impact was different, the trauma was different, the story was different, the personalities, the age, the background, the class, the ethnicity – everything. It was a steep learning curve and taught me very early on that women are not homogeneous and I cannot transfer my experiences on to others. I still think that was one of my most valuable lessons as a psychologist. However, one common theme was that all of these women and girls were being picked apart in courtrooms. They were discredited, bullied, mocked and blamed. It was soul destroying. I started working in the criminal justice system, within the witness services – all the while, still working on my degree. I was promoted a few times until I was 21, and I was the Area Manager for Witness Services for two crown courts and five magistrates courts. I had about 51 staff and volunteers. We supported victims/witnesses of homicide, trafficking, child abuse, sexual and domestic violence and other serious offences. Even in the most serious of cases, women and girls were blamed and criticised for everything from their clothing to their internet history. I became jaded and annoyed. I started to wonder why we encouraged women and girls to come forward at all. I began to read books and extra literature around my degree assignments, so I could try to understand the psychology of blaming victims. Then I moved to manage a rape centre which provided psychological support for women, men and children who had been raped or sexually abused. The majority of our clients were women and girls. Whilst the environment was anti-blaming, the women and girls were being blamed by others. Their parents, partners, doctors, therapists, psychiatrists, employers, friends – everyone. They would sit with us for months of therapy and talk about their self-blame and guilt. They would frequently tell us that their community psychiatric nurse had told them they had personality disorders after being raped. I started to become suspicious of the victim blaming of women and girls, and wondered if I should do my own research on the topic. I was almost at the end of my degree by this point and looked into PhD programmes where I could control the topic myself – so I could pitch to a university what I wanted to do. I was offered a place on the PhD programme at the University of Birmingham in 2015, before I had completed my degree. I submitted a 5000-word research proposal and literature review to state my case. I was aware I was up against strong competition.

I had no A-levels, a degree from the OU – which is still looked down upon by some – and I had no MSc. I decided to use the proposal to demonstrate my knowledge, having been in the field for six years by this point. I started to get more involved in radical feminist activism, and spent a significant amount of time reading and meeting radical feminists so I could understand more about the theories of systemic global oppression of women and girls. This is vital to my psychological work and as a feminist psychologist: I work from the position that women and girls are an oppressed class in a global community. Sounds like a busy time! Yes, at the time I started my PhD, I had also moved to manage a large programme in child sexual exploitation (CSE) and anti-human trafficking. I had a national team to manage and I wrote materials, research and training for many of the police forces and local authorities in the country. The victim blaming of children shocked me. I expected that professionals would treat children better than the adults who were subjected to sexual violence, but I was wrong. This strongly influenced all of my work. I found myself frequently getting in trouble for criticising the practice around CSE – the way we blame children for being raped and abused by adults, and expect those children to ‘spot the signs’ and ‘keep themselves safe’. Years of practice had shown me that even adults (even professionals) couldn’t spot a sex offender or protect themselves from one, so why were we expecting children to do so? In 2017, I quit my job and set up my own company, VictimFocus. VictimFocus provides challenging, critical and influential training, resources and research to the public and to professionals to challenge the victim blaming of trauma, abuse and violence victims all over the world. It has been more successful than I ever thought possible. In 2018, I launched VictimFocus Resources which is my international store providing resources, flashcards, journals and research books in forensic psychology and victim psychology. In 2019, I launched VictimFocus Academy which provides international e-learning for professionals at the lowest price possible (and in some cases, free) to encourage professionals to upskill. VictimFocus has trained over 20,000 professionals, provided resources to close to 100,000 professionals and has a blog with 1.4 million readers per year. My book sold more than 3000 copies in the first week, and is still selling well. I am blown away by the impact it is having. What role do psychologists have in helping to reduce victim blaming? We need to stop asking, ‘what is wrong with the victim?’ So much psychological literature attempts to pinpoint which women will be subjected to sexual or domestic violence based on their lives, their backgrounds, their childhoods, their education level,

the psychologist december 2020 victim blaming

medical and psychiatric terms for the people we work their sexuality or identities. I teach victimology and with. Many psychologists I have worked with have victim psychology and one of the most interesting origins of this issue is positivist theories of victimology never been taught the oppressive, racist, homophobic and sexist history of psychiatry and how it still informs and victim precipitation theory which is almost 80 our psychological work. I am therefore staunchly years old now. The theories suggest that victims of trauma-informed in my psychological practice, crime do something to precipitate the offence by teaching and research. My book has two chapters on causing the offender to act. Whilst this might seem the way mental health and personality disorders are crude to us now, so much of our work is based used to blame women for being traumatised by male on looking for characteristics that ‘make women violence. vulnerable to rape and sexual violence’. I reject this I have also changed the way I think about selfnotion totally. blame and victim blaming. The previous psychological Male violence is so common… millions of women literature suggested that women absorb victim blaming are subjected to it, several times throughout their beliefs from society in a non-critical, naïve way – as if lives. I suspect that if we were upfront about how women are just not very bright and do not challenge common male violence was and how many women misogynistic values. I used to believe that too. I used and girls are regularly catcalled, harassed, abused, phrases like ‘absorbed’. Women are not sponges. raped, assaulted and attacked, we would find only My research showed that whilst influenced by the one thing in common with all of those women – that messages, women fight victim they are women. I do not believe blaming every step of the way and that our aims as psychologists “As psychologists, we this causes significant internal should be to find what is wrong conflict and dissonance. They often with all of those women and get have a duty to call out feel that they know they were not them to modify their behaviour or oppression, systemic really to blame for being raped or lifestyles. We should be working violence and misogyny” abused, but that society is telling with women and girls to ensure them that they should feel to they never blame themselves and blame. This causes a disconnect that they do not feel they need to between what they know and what they are being made change themselves to protect themselves from male to feel. My research considers this in great detail and violence. As psychologists, we have a duty to call out has changed the way I think and theorise. oppression, systemic violence and misogyny. There are small things we can do – such as stop perpetuating rape myths in our own work and studies. Where will you take this work next? I have been offered deals to translate by book into four Stop using vignettes in which women are attacked by strangers in a dark alleyway. Challenge ethical approval languages and have a lot of other projects planned, including more books. I use a lot of my work to create of studies that seek to blame women and girls or make training and conference materials. I recently did my them responsible for male violence. first voiceover narration work on a research cartoon. I like to make all of my work as accessible as possible. Has your research changed how you think about or I retain my voice as a young working class feminist interact with women who have been subjected to psychologist and I hold Facebook live discussions, violence and trauma? webinars, Q&As and I used this research to build a free Yes, the entire journey has informed the way I think online course for anyone subjected to sexual violence and interact. I stopped using language that erases and abuse which has already been taken by over 20,000 the perpetrator, for one. I never use ‘women who people in 10 months. have experienced rape’, I say, ‘women who have been I have much more research to publish over the subjected to rape by a man’. I am tired of language coming years. I recently completed two large studies on positioning domestic and sexual violence as an the experiences of women who have kept babies from invisible metaphor. Women do not ‘experience’ abuse rape and trafficking as there is no literature on this or rape, they are forced or subjected to it by someone topic. I also completed a large study on the sex lives else. We need to position the offender in the language. of men and women who have been raped or abused, I also do not call women ‘victims’ or ‘survivors’. and how we can help them to talk about their sexuality According to the literature, neither label is suitable, and sexual pleasure after rape and abuse. Soon, I am and women often do not identify with either – also releasing a report on the way we exploit survivor or sometimes feel they are both. speakers and ‘experts by experience’ by encouraging I have become increasingly critical of psychiatry them to retell their traumas to our students and and the way we convince women they are mentally ill when they disclose abuse and violence. I was so happy professionals. I will continue to run VictimFocus as a traumato see British Psychological Society endorse the Power informed, anti-blaming, feminist psychological research Threat Meaning Framework and think it is the best and consultancy organisation which has the aim of way forward to work in trauma and mental health. changing our victim blaming narratives. Far too much of psychology has been overrun with

‘There is not enough research, understanding, respect or admiration…’ Birth Shock: How to Recover from Birth Trauma (Pinter & Martin, 2020) by perinatal clinical psychologist Mia Scotland is out now. Michelle Cree, consultant clinical psychologist and author of The Compassionate Mind Approach to Postnatal Depression: Using Compassion Focussed Therapy to Enhance Mood, Conﬁdence and Bonding (Robinson, 2015) spoke to Mia about the book.

Michelle Cree

Mia Scotland

Michelle: I felt all sorts of emotions as I read your book, from angry, sad to feeling alive, excited and empowered. In my opinion this is an incredibly important book. I was struck by your comment right in the preface where you said: ‘It was not your fault. You did nothing wrong. Read on to see why I can emphatically say that to you, even though I don’t know you’. I can imagine people being surprised by that, yet in my work too, this is what breaks my heart the most – that women believe it is their fault. Why do you think that women do blame themselves? Mia: It’s a strange thing isn’t it? I guess its similar with other mental health problems too – people think it’s their fault that they are depressed, or anxious. I think a lot of it is based in a basic misunderstanding of what mental health problems are, coupled with a basic misunderstanding of what birth is. In the book, I talk about the fact that you can’t ‘try harder’ to birth a baby any more than you can ‘try harder’ to digest your food, and yet our society seems to have missed this basic principle of birth. It is also, in my opinion, a feminist issue. There is not enough research, understanding, respect or admiration towards women as birthing beings, and the transformation involved. I also talk in the book about how institutionalised attitudes towards birthing women have a part to play. Michelle: Yes, I agree, this issue seems deep and broad, running through many different aspects of our lives. I was really interested in your discussion about our attitudes towards sexual violence and how you have connected this with our attitudes towards birth. I must say I had a strong visceral reaction when I was looking through the contents page and saw the section on ‘obstetric violence and birth rape’. I can imagine there will be some strong responses to this. What was important to you in including these terms?

Mia: I absolutely witness ‘obstetric violence’ in my birth doula work regularly, and I see midwives and doulas traumatised by witnessing it too. It is very important to include these terms, because language is power and influence. If we don’t label it, we can’t communicate it. I get what you mean about the words eliciting strong responses. I have to admit, I did do an internet search on the word ‘violence’ before writing it, to double check that it includes verbal assault as well as physical! People will object, I’m sure. However, I believe that objections are based on not knowing enough about what is actually happening in birthing rooms and postnatal wards. I’m afraid they can be very brutal places indeed. And that’s not to say that they can’t also be very caring and compassionate places too. Michelle: That is just so hard to hear, the use of the words ‘brutal’ and ‘violence’ in the context of a baby coming into the world from a woman’s body. I imagine that the vast majority of healthcare professionals would be horrified and devastated that a birth was experienced as ‘brutal’ as this is not why they came into the job. Some of the biggest struggles in the women I work with are where they feel ashamed of the strength of the words they are wanting to say. As humans we are incredibly vulnerable compared to many other animals. We don’t even have much hair on our bodies, let alone scales, or horns or sharp teeth. We depend instead on our incredible ability to communicate and to manage the complexity of social groups. When physical contact occurs, it can affect us at a very profound, unconscious level, which can be perturbing. Even uncertainty that we will be safe such as having an unfamiliar doctor or midwife enter the room, or not being sure why something is being done, is enough to move us into threat, without anything obviously threatening happening. So, we need to really listen to the words a woman is trying to find as she knows at some level that

the psychologist december 2020 books More online: Painfully precious moments Dr Petra Boynton on her book Coping With Pregnancy Loss, for Babyloss Awareness Week 2020. https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/painfully-precious-moments

her life, or her baby’s life, might depend on them. You talked a great deal about how crucial listening is. I am aware that it is often seen as a ‘soft skill’, yet as you explained, it is one of the most important interventions going on in the room. What message would you like people to take away from your book about this? Mia: I completely agree with you about how easy a labouring woman can have her threat system activated, by something which we would not consider threatening, such as an unfamiliar person coming into the room. As you say, we rely on others to help us feel safe – rather than horns or scales. And that must be even more so for a woman in labour, who has no physical defences at all to draw on! That’s why being listened to is so key – it has the power to move a woman from her threat system (I don’t feel safe, I’m not sure this person has my back) into her calm mode (I’m in safe hands here). Doctors and midwives may know this intuitively, but I’d love to see it taught more widely and explicitly as a part of their training. Hopefully this book will help move forward the value that this is given in maternity care. Michelle: So, that old ‘magic wand question’; if you could transform maternity care overnight, with nothing to hold you back, how would you have it be?

Mia: Haha you go first! Maybe with regards perinatal mental health services… Michelle: Ah, that’s not fair! Well I must say I have been very pleased to see the recent investment in perinatal mental health services and now into psychological services connected more specifically to maternity. This is beyond anything I had ever imagined. I think if I could do anything then it might include mental health practitioners having placements with doulas, midwives and obstetricians. I would want practitioners to be able have some sense of the words that new parents might be trying to find. Over the years in my work I have become more and more aware of things that are hard to say and are kept tucked away by a sense of shame and a fear of disconnection, or even that their baby may be taken away. These can be difficult places for mental health practitioners to be able to venture, let alone parents so I would want experiences and training available which go to this deeper level. But more than anything I would like this potential for shame and trauma to be addressed at a cultural level, and certainly in the antenatal period, as well as of course, the experience of the birth itself, so that it doesn’t occur in the first place. Over to you! Mia: Haha not sure I can follow that! I would want the psychology of postnatal wards to be considered as critical. Lots of thought and money has gone into making midwifery led units psychologically safe places, with birth pools, mood lighting etc. It’s now time to step that up for postnatal wards too, to prevent trauma there. Women need the right hormones to bond with their babies, and to establish breastfeeding. They need stress free environments, they need to feel safe. Giving mother and baby the right start in life, sets them up for life. Let’s invest in those wards, with compassionate staff who have time to care, and with privacy, dignity, and respect. I live near a wonderful NHS midwifery unit with 6 postnatal beds, and in the 20 years I’ve known about it, I’ve only ever heard women say good things about it. They remember those special days for the rest of their lives. I would like to see many more of those.

‘I would like this potential for shame and trauma to be addressed at a cultural level, and certainly in the antenatal period…’

Michelle: Yes these can indeed be precious and wonderful times. I sincerely hope your book will become part of the conversation around transforming maternity care so that the experiences will be ones that parents will wish for their children. I certainly want my children to read your book before they have children.

Beyond the binary Non-Binary Lives: An Anthology of Intersecting Identities Edited by Jos Twist, Ben Vincent, MegJohn Barker and Kat Gupta Jessica Kingsley Publishers £14.99

‘What does it mean to be non-binary in the 21st Century?’ That’s the key question of this compelling and in-depth anthology. The answer: It means lots of different things to lots of different people. At the heart of this book is the recognition of multiple factors which intersect with gender to shape experiences of being non-binary. It is these personal and nuanced perspectives which make this book so significant. Each and every chapter shares a narrative which is alive with idiosyncratic personality. The editors provide a full backdrop to the book highlighting the importance of intersections, stories and language. They explain how ‘non-binary’ is used in the book as an umbrella term for people who do not identify with being exclusively female or male and this often (within a current UK context) encompasses those who are genderqueer, genderfluid, trans feminine, trans masculine, among others. They untangle some of the complexities around terminology to describe people who are not the gender they were assigned at birth. Unsurprisingly, the concept of binaries is critiqued by many contributors and subsequently, the very idea that non-binary is defined by what it is not. This goes to show the impact of language and its ability to include/ exclude or make in/visible, and how this is crucial to understanding possible ways of being. For this reason alone, this book is vital in sharing the stories of nonbinary people to show how the binary way, isn’t the only way. Chapters are sectioned into four main parts: Cultural Context, Communities, The Lifecourse, and Bodies,

Artificial Intelligence and the brain As a psychologist, do you embrace artificial intelligence (AI) technology or do you shy away from it? In Big Brain Revolution: Artificial Intelligence – Spy or Saviour? (Austin Macauley Publishers), Michelle Tempest says that now is the time to be curious about big data collected through the AI technology. We should question what it can do to help us progress through the information age while our

data is being mined in different ways – from games we play to our social media proﬁles. But most importantly, Tempest says the technology we employ is about people. This book can help psychologists in their goal to help humans explore, understand themselves and enable everlasting change. Read Dr Joshua Bourne’s full review at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk

More online: Find extracts and more at thepsychologist.org.uk including four exclusive chapters from the Routledge Psychology ‘Psychology of Everything’ series:

What makes great art? – George Mather The psychology of exercise in retirees – Josephine Perry Self-Help and Wellbeing: Ifs, nots, myths, and knots – Gary W. Wood Dreamwork in dream groups and psychotherapy – Josie Malinowski

Health and Well-Being, with each introduced by a drawing from artist LeeAnne Lawrence. These sections group the diversity of stories excellently but still allow for commonalities to emerge across the chapters. One particular point which stood out to me, as a cisgender woman, was the sheer quantity of tools that non-binary people have to acquire to navigate a world based on binaried ideas of gender. Such navigation was particularly apparent in chapters which touch upon healthcare (see chapters by Chai-Yoel Korn, Karen Pollock, Igi Moon, Drew Simms and others). In thinking about health, Francis Ray White reminds us: ‘There are of course infinite ways to be non-binary, and whether we describe it as an identity, a feeling, or a general sense of who we are, we can’t get away from the fact that we also have to live it, in a body.’ (p. 223) Such embodied experiences and reflections throughout the book were incredibly mindful of intersections with dis/ ability, as well as cultural context, class and sexuality. In the conclusion editors are explicit about the cultural context in which the book was written and the impact it has had on them as editors and authors. They acknowledge that some potential contributors were not able to write (even under a pseudonym) for fear it may risk their personal safety or because their mental health has been so impacted by a societal transphobia and recent moral panics. Indeed, at the point of writing the conclusion they indicate that they were awaiting the outcome of the government’s consultation on the Gender Recognition Act. While I was reading the book, the outcome was published and it became apparent that the government intends to ignore that the majority of respondents were in favour of easing the burdens associated with gaining legal gender recognition for trans people in the UK. The fight for trans rights therefore once again has to resist rollbacks of rights whilst simultaneously fighting for those they don’t have. Such an exhausting situation clearly demonstrates just how right the editors were to highlight the importance of self-care in such times. Challenges therefore continue and challenging the binary is just one of them. As mud howard explained: ‘It’s hard to re-wire your brain to unlearn something as sticky and stubborn as gender. Gender gets on everything, and requires a large amount of skill to unstick’ (p. 177). But if you too wish to become unstuck, this book (alongside the others advertised at the back), is a great place to start. Reviewed by Dr Katherine Hubbard, Lecturer, University of Surrey

the psychologist december 2020 books

Living with pain Work and pain is a very welcome addition to the ofﬁce bookcase. The book takes a very engaging and readable meander through the life chapters of living with chronic pain; childhood through adolescence, emerging adulthood and older adult life. However, it goes further in terms of embedding this within the socio-cultural context of schooling and occupation. Despite having worked for many years as a Clinical Psychologist in chronic pain services this book has much novelty to offer in terms of how we can apply the knowledge that we already have and the demand for further investigation into the systems and social policy that shape an individual’s experience in living with pain. Two chapters that stood out for me were ‘Emerging adulthood: Millennials, work and pain’ and ‘The psychology of pain-related

Work and pain: A lifespan development approach Edited by Elaine Wainwright and Christopher Eccleston Oxford University Press, £29.99

disability: Implications for intervention’. The former focuses on generationally relevant behaviours in the context of medical illness and pain, touching on the growing relevance of social media and technology in the lives of emerging and young adults. The latter clearly outlines psychological variables and mental health factors that impact on optimal management of chronic pain with particular attention to a return to occupational settings. The chapters all harbour meaty reference sections and you really feel you have been taken through an excellent summary of each area without being plunged into a heavy academic tome. This book will be

of particular relevance to psychologists with an interest in the psychological and social consequences of living with chronic physical illness as well as the reciprocal relationship of the working environment. It would also engage psychologists who work in civil litigation and are routinely asked to comment upon the role of occupation and the management of pain in work environments. This book will deﬁnitely take place as a handy reference manual to the context of employment in chronic pain. Reviewed by Dr Hannah Twiddy, Clinical Psychologist, The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust

The Ickabog in lockdown Inspired by ‘The Ickabog’, J.K. Rowling’s online story that arrived in daily instalments throughout lockdown, Hannah S. Gilson reﬂects on the psychological power of literature and imagination in limiting isolation. See thepsychologist. bps.org.uk/ickabog-lockdown/

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Do you work in a Physical Health Setting? The Society’s Practice Board is seeking to appoint a group of expert psychologists with experience of working in physical health to write guidance to show what good psychological input looks like in physical health settings. The Society welcomes and encourages applications from people of all backgrounds particularly applications from people with a disability, BAME and LGBT+ who are currently under-represented across the Society. 62

To request a statement of interest form or for more information please contact Sunarika.sahota@bps.org.uk Statements of Interest should reach the Society’s ofﬁce no later than Monday 18 January 2021.

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‘We have a responsibility to go beyond sport’ Dr Peter Olusoga is a senior lecturer in psychology and a sport psychology practitioner, working with athletes and teams on the mental side of performance. Hugh Gilmore is a BASES performance psychologist working with British Athletics, Para-Powerlifting and the English Institute of Sport, among other things. Our editor Dr Jon Sutton chatted with them about their podcast, Eighty Percent Mental.

How did the podcast come about? Pete: Well, Hugh and I, along with, Rory Mack, a PhD researcher and Motivational Interviewing trainer, have a WhatsApp group. We have some pretty honest conversations about sports psychology, about our training, about methods and approaches. And I had this idea of bringing some of those conversations to life, to bring sport psychology to a wider audience. Until about two months ago, I never listened to podcasts, I just couldn’t get into them. A lot of them are just interviews with a single person, and unless you’re really invested in that person and their research, it’s easy to switch off from that. So I wanted to create something for sports psychologists, but also for anybody who’s interested in sports… coaches, parents, people who just watch the football on a Saturday night. I wanted it to be accessible, relevant, not too serious. It’s the first really creative thing I’ve ever done in my life, so I sat down and wrote down about 50 ideas for episodes based around different topics rather than different people. Hugh: Within the sport and fitness industry, there’s an emphasis on podcasts being used to disseminate information, but the quality often isn’t good. It can be anyone from a complete neophyte giving it the big sell, competing for space with somebody who has a 10-year academic track record. It can be difficult to discriminate which message has more of an evidence base for the general population. But I do think that blogs and social media come with a short attention span… with a podcast you can sit down and listen to somebody in detail, get an insight into who they are. It’s more of an honest format.

What’s your advice to psychologists who might be looking to produce a podcast? Pete: Really ﬁgure out who you’re aiming the podcast at. I spent two weeks solid just reading and researching and thinking about that. We’ve tried to be interactive, honest, and the research is in there but it’s fairly light touch.

All of the advice we had was you have to make it sound good, so we spent a good deal of time testing things out, testing different software, hardware. And there is a bit of a masterplan, a structure there in the background that we are working through. The final thing, though, is just start doing it. If you sit and plan it for ages, you will never do it. Hugh: One of the things that I’ve done to develop myself is going to improv comedy course to be able to actually command a stage better. I do think we need to consider the future of how sports psychology is going to be done, the skills required. I’ve been asked to produce infographics and I don’t have that skill. Technology needs to be advanced and used for the betterment of the field. Your podcast is called Eighty Percent Mental , but to what extent do you think the physical and mental are intrinsically linked? When I play football, if I feel physically fit, I feel mentally sharp. Hugh: The mind is part of the body. Your physical competence and success is most likely going to impact positively on your confidence. Pete: We don’t really know that sport is Eighty Percent mental. When I was searching domain names, Ninety Percent was taken, and Seventy Percent is too many syllables to say over and over again! But like Jonathan Fader said in Episode One, people are awakening to the fact that there is this huge mental component. If the balance seems off in terms of time and resource devoted to it, that’s because we’re dealing with tangibles versus intangibles. If you follow a programme, I can measure how much stronger you are, how much faster, how much higher you can jump, and that translates directly into performance for a lot of people. But with sports psychology, can we measure whether or not you feeling a bit more confident has a direct impact on performance, whether your ability to manage emotions means that you can run faster? Some people will argue that you can, but it’s more complicated than ‘strong legs run fast’.

the psychologist december 2020 culture Yes: in one of your episodes, Dr Joe Mannion speaks about how sport psychology is perhaps uniquely challenging in terms of gathering good quality data to assess interventions. Hugh: If I’m working with an professional athlete it’s how they put food on the table, I have to take seriously whether or not we can add in something and what the systemic effect would be throughout the performance. That makes randomised control trials at elite level inherently risky. The athlete’s success is always the priority, never advancing research… therefore researchers in sports psychology end up doing research with lower level athletes, and then hoping that it translates into higher level athletes. I think one of the things that is critical for the development of practitioners is understanding synergistic effects, complexity and systemic therapies… understanding interactions between groups and second order effects of interventions, and how that plays out. Every action has both helpful and unhelpful consequences and then those consequences have further cascading consequences. The best example I use is if you set a world record it has the effect of making you feel good, but unhelpfully it also is difﬁcult to set multiple world records, so suddenly your job just got a lot tougher and the expectations and pressure just has gone up. Pete: Maybe we rely a little bit too heavily on experimental designs, randomised controlled control trials. We may underestimate the importance of case studies, single subject designs in our ﬁeld. I don’t think it’s particularly challenging to collect that type of data. I just don’t think we do it enough, perhaps because we lean on those experiments and RCTs to prove that what we’re doing has value.

that was considered more of an issue. Coaches, managers, players, maybe had less of an understanding of what sport psychology was. Hugh: If you look at clinical psychology or educational psychology, these mainstream psychologists have a Hugh, in one episode you quite damningly said, ‘It’s typical clear, defined role. It matters if of sports psychology to jump in you can deliver an evidence-based before the evidence base’… intervention, but in sports psychology Hugh: Well, I pride myself in having “…people are awakening it also matters if you are marketable, an evidence-based approach. I grew to the fact that there is this if you are trusted. up on a farm; I know what bullshit smells like. But within sports huge mental component” I guess access is key… a lot of these psychology you’ll find unfounded sporting environments are quite pseudoscience that has gained closed, almost secretive structures. popularity, like the chimp paradox, In the first episode, Dr Jonathan Fader tells an anecdote which can act as a metaphor distorting reasoning or about a sports psychologist who was asked by the team reducing autonomy and consequentially have negative he was working with to pretend to be the hot dog vendor, effects on performance. NLP is really prevalent… there such was the stigma of him working with them. Has that are BPS supervisors advertising it and they should be changed? struck off the HCPC register for it. Sport psychology Pete: It has and it hasn’t. There are always going to suffers from the same things that psychology suffers be people who look at you as a psychologist in sport from… growth mindset, grit, MBTI, these terms are and think, ‘OK, what can you do for me?’ I remember adopted too rapidly without sufficient critical thought. doing a session with a group of quite young athletes, Pete: I’m glad that you finished by saying that this is a on the psychological characteristics needed for elite problem for other disciplines as well, not just sports performance. One of them turned around and just said, psychology, because I feel like I need to defend sport ‘Look mate, you’ve either got it or you haven’t’. And that psychology a little bit… we don’t want to paint it as this was his take on it, you’re either born mentally ‘tough’ or undisciplined discipline I guess. not. Sport is this environment where we focus on strength, Links with the fringes, the pseudoscience, perhaps with grit, toughness, resilience, and I think they are words sports psychology if we go back probably 20 years now,

thrown around far too much. So there’s still this idea that if you’re working with a psychologist, it’s because there’s something wrong. But there are plenty of organisations, coaches and athletes who are fully on board with sport psychology… we say the kudos given to Dr Pippa Grange with her work around the World Cup, and you have athletes coming back from Rio talking openly about using mindfulness. Sometimes there just needs to be a bit of ‘hanging out’… we always get taught that, as a new sports psychologist going into a team, you’re going to spend the first six months helping to put out cones… you need the athletes to get used to the fact that you’re there and you’re a person, like any other person they could just have a normal conversation with. Psychology isn’t this weird, wonderful, magical, mystical thing where you’re going to make them lie on the couch and talk about their parents. Our Deputy Editor, Dr Annie Brookman-Byrne, who came up with some of the questions for this chat, said she listened to your podcast initially feeling that she is not a ‘sporty person’. From your discussions, she realised that there’s quite a few things that she does that are, in fact, sporty, such as climbing. That made me wonder whether ‘being sporty’ is a mentality? And if so, can we boost that, and transfer it to other areas? Hugh: If we were to sit down and define and conceptualise what ‘sporty’ is, there’s two elements – the physical aspect of learning and developing the self and the body, but then also the competitive aspect of trying to improve something at a rate, either against ourselves, or against the competitor. That’s different from somebody who’s just ‘movey’, they’re doing physical activity. Within climbing, for example, there’s managing emotions, making decisions under pressure, selfregulation, pushing yourself a little bit harder to try and get something. All of those things are acutely transferable into academia, and any other business where there’s competition. Ultimately the place of work is a place of competition… that’s how you got your job and then you have to continually perform to keep it. The skills in sports psychology are massively transferable into that. But what me and Pete probably see more value in is seeing people transfer into other aspects of their life, such as their health. GPS systems such as Strava are widely used within health interventions. But it’s interesting that some of the long-term data doesn’t actually show it’s beneficial to overly track your performance. When we’re ‘being sporty’, there’s the ‘Goldilocks’ place of just right, not too much, not too little… you can be over competitive with these things.

Yes… there’s a study we covered recently on the Research Digest by Herman Szymczak from the University of Konstanz and colleagues. They found in a longitudinal study that people only notice they’ve become more active after more frequent vigorous physical activity… doing more frequent moderate physical activity didn’t make people feel that they changed their behaviour. The danger with that is you need to keep pushing yourself to extremes

to feel like you’re actually doing things and having the benefit. That probably links in with some of your research Pete, on burnout, the dangers of trying to push too far in that competitive sense against yourself. Pete: Yeah, absolutely. For me, it comes back again to this idea of what sport is. All of those ‘toughness’ type words, it’s the ‘Rocky’ syndrome, isn’t it? If you’re not training the same way that Rocky does, out in the freezing cold and the snow pulling ploughs around, pushing yourself to the limits, then you’re not really an athlete, because that’s what athletes do. Absolutely, there is a danger with that mentality. That push towards being tough, gritty, resilient… they are traits that are often portrayed as very positive things. But there’s a dark side to that. We can burn out, we can overreach, if we’re constantly pushing, when actually what we need to do is sit down and have a nice cup of tea. Do you think people’s appreciation of the ‘move around and feel good’ side of it as changed in recent months, with Covid? Hugh: There has been a group of people walking in my area much more vigorously and much more widely than before, and people are discovering new ways and places to exercise and to do things. The constraints have forced adaptation. You might find there’s a lot of people who pick up new habits here that are very useful, and maybe get rid of some old ones as well. Pete: I started skipping at the start of lockdown… it didn’t last very long, because my knees are about 80 years old. I guess the other aspect of Covid times has been that sport seems to be required to take quite a lot on its shoulders… to ‘give the nation a boost’, to perhaps become something more than it was before? Hugh: I don’t think that there’s a changing zeitgeist around sport. The Romans used to have ‘bread and circuses’, as they called it, to control the population, sport as a social method of control. It’s been used by every government… in Northern Ireland, because of The Troubles there’s a greater number of leisure centres, to get people to be more physically active as opposed to diverted into other things. But because gyms have been closed down for quite a long while, people have been restricted in how they can train, sport is perhaps losing its power to control people. And I know of people who are thinking, Well, look, I’ve gone without watching televised sport for quite a while now, I don’t need it anymore. So my experience is that sport can be used for social control, but also at the same time, unless you’re actually doing it and enjoying it yourself physically, it has very little benefit. Do you think the ultimate goal of sport psychology, and perhaps of any applied branch of psychology in a way, is to render ourselves obsolete? To instil a psychological approach and basic techniques amongst all coaches, players, staff? Hugh: I would say it’s not… I think that is a hang up

the psychologist december 2020 culture through accreditation, and don’t make it. I think it can from sports psychology evolving out of clinical or health be over-marketed. Look at the amount of supervisors psychology. The example I would use is that a physio within the BPS and BASES who are academics only, should be trying to make themselves obsolete from a and not actually applied practitioners. That, to me, patient. Whereas a strength and conditioning coach indicates that there’s a poor health in the job market is always with an athlete… while the relationship may of Applied Psychology. That’s not through any fault of change, it’s continually being pushed and evolved and the organisation. That’s the constraints of society and monitored. I think the sport psychologist, performance financial indications of where people need to spend their psychologist, is comparable with the strength and conditioning coach the clinical psychologist is comparable money. Pete, what do you think about that? Pete: There are a lot more important things than throwing with the physio. So you’re not there to become obsolete. a ball through a hoop or throwing a stick or jumping in a Equally, it’s definitely not OK to build a dependency. Pete: Coming up, doing my MSc and training, I was taught sandpit. I don’t want to take anything away from people who have lives invested in that, it’s absolutely fine. But exactly what you said Jon: our goal is to make ourselves I do think that in our role as sports psychologists, we redundant, to build a self-regulating athlete who is maybe have a responsibility to go beyond sport, and take aware of their own areas for improvement, aware of their opportunities to make a difference to people’s lives in psychological strength and ability to regulate themselves ways that might crop up. and navigate their way through that environment. So we teach them the skills to be able to Maybe sports people, athletes, don’t do that. But I think we’ve moved on necessarily have a responsibility from sports psychology being about, “When we’re ‘being to go beyond sport, but they’ve ‘here’s how you set goals, here’s how sporty’, there’s the got an opportunity, as you say. We you do relaxation, here’s how you do ‘Goldilocks’ place of just shouldn’t be surprised when people imagery’. We’ve moved on to seeing like Marcus Rashford, or Raheem a lot more complex, clinical and right, not too much, Sterling, take that opportunity, grasp subclinical issues among athletes as not too little, you can be it and do something more something well. It’s become more acceptable over competitive with more than the game with it. to show that vulnerability. And we’re Pete: Sport is not in a bubble, seeing a lot more mental health these things” it’s not isolated. Things that are issues. So the role of the psychologist happening in the real world have has perhaps evolved. If I could start an impact on those athletes, and again, I would probably train as a just the same way as they do everybody else. So it would clinical psychologist and then go and work in sport. I’m be unreasonable to think that world events don’t impact doing myself out of a job by saying that! But then you have on them and therefore their performances. We have to the skills to deal with the ever-widening range of issues address that. We have to look at what’s happening in the that we are seeing in sport. wider world, and how that has an impact on the people that we serve. Otherwise we’re doing a disservice to them. The podcast is full of interesting insight into what it It would be remiss of us to say, let’s ignore Black Lives means to be a sports psychologist. Sports psychologists Matter, Covid, all of that, and focus on how we can get you are described as ‘frontier people’, and we hear that to run a little bit faster. It doesn’t make sense to me. We psychologists in general have a high rate of satisfaction have to look at the athlete as a person first, and work on with their lives, because it means so many different things that. to be a psychologist. Is that how it feels to you? Hugh: It would be great one day if we lived in a society Pete: Certainly for me, being able to do so many different where athletes weren’t judged solely by the performance, things… to be a lecturer, an academic, now a top quality and people respected them for having their own diverse podcaster! But Hugh is the applied practitioner… political views as we should respect all people’s views. Hugh: There’s a paper by Jeffrey Martin called ‘Is the One of the issues I’ve dealt with was an Olympian profession of sports psychology an illusion?’. I send that who was relatively famous, said ‘I wish people would out to people, whenever they ask me about becoming a stop putting me up on a pedestal, and just treat me as a sports psychologist, to try and talk them out of it! human being’. We need to give human beings and athletes Sports psychology gives me a massive degree of the freedom to be wrong and the freedom to make satisfaction. I really love helping people and making a mistakes. Hopefully they won’t be pilloried in the public difference and, it can just be that little insight or curious eye whenever they do. That’s something that’s incredibly question that makes a big difference. And when you do wrong with society at the moment… we put these people hit a home run with somebody with an intervention or an on a really big pedestal and then the media and public try interaction, it makes you feel good regardless of whether and knock them off. or not they win, because you’ve made that person’s day. But I think there’s a serious falling short, in terms Listen to the podcast at www.eightypercentmental.com of how sports psychology is marketed as a job. I’ve had Read the extended version of this interview via friends of mine say, ‘you’re the one person who’s made it out of our cohort’. A massive amount of people go partway thepsychologist.bps.org.uk

‘A person with dementia becomes untethered from time’ Dick Johnson is Dead is a Netflix original; filmed, produced and directed by Kirsten Johnson, about her Dad’s dementia. Our editor Jon Sutton asked her about it. A lifetime of making documentaries has convinced award-winning filmmaker Kirsten Johnson of the power of the real. But now she’s ready to use every escapist movie-making trick in the book – staging inventive and fantastical ways for her 86-year-old psychiatrist father to die while hoping that cinema might help her bend time, laugh at pain and keep her father alive forever. Dick Johnson is Dead is a love letter from a daughter to a father, creatively blending fact and fiction to create a celebratory exploration of how movies give us the tools to grapple with life’s profundity.

Why set out to make a comedy about something so potentially sombre? In the ﬁlm you mention being scandalised by a Mel Brooks ﬁlm as a 12-year-old, and loving it at the same time. By the way, I do think you succeeded… ‘Let’s all only use the words “fake blood”’ was a personal favourite even though, in terms of how Dick seemed

at the time, it was probably one of the saddest moments of the film. My previous film, Cameraperson, is made of footage I had shot over 25 years of being a documentary cinematographer for other directors. It’s an intense movie in which I wrestle with the ethical conundrums of filming. There’s only one laugh in it! As I watched the film over and over when it was on the festival circuit, I kept saying to myself, ‘My next movie has to be funny!’ Little did I know I would be making my next film with my Dad in order to cope with his dementia! Throughout my life as a cameraperson, I have filmed in many post-conflict zones and witnessed how profoundly trauma and social injustice affects people. But one thing I have marvelled at, and learned from many of the survivors of violence around the world I have spent time with, is that many of the people who suffer the most in this world really know how to laugh. They have faced so much

the psychologist december 2020 culture

difficulty that somehow they have found their way to humour as a survival mechanism. I have laughed hardest in some of the most difficult places that exist in the world. Having grieved my mother’s Alzheimer’s for the seven years of her illness and then for all of the years since her death in 2007, when I woke up to the fact that my beloved father was facing dementia, I knew I wanted to turn to cinema and to humour to help me face the pain. Could you have made the film without the ‘imaginary death scenes’, or was this ultimately about not turning away from things that are difficult to see, about facing the fear of losing each other and ‘defiantly celebrating our brief moments of joy’? The idea of ‘facing the pain’ runs throughout my filmmaking life. But its source is love of other people. So many people have suffered in such difficult ways through no fault of their own and yet still feel unseen and unrecognised in their struggle. Given my wish to be a part of a documentary tradition which looks at the roots and consequences of social injustice, I have thought a lot about how images might have power. The concept of ‘the indelible image’ and how such unforgettable images are filmed is often on my mind when I work. The thought of seeing images of my own father ‘dead’ (even though they are staged by me) felt remarkably frightening and strangely empowering. If we could create an image of him ‘dead’, then we could also bring him back to life. The one thing I wished after my mother’s funeral was to hug her. By filming my father’s ‘funeral’, I was able to experience just that ‘post-funeral hug’ with him! It is not uncomplicated to ‘not turn away from things that are difficult to see’ – in fact, it’s very ethically, emotionally and psychologically complicated! On a societal level, I believe we really bear the terrible consequences of not facing the violence of discrimination and neglect when we deny that such things are happening. We are really at a moment in human history when we desperately need to face things that are difficult to acknowledge. ‘He’s happy, he’s laughing no matter what.’ That must be so rare in dementia. I thought the scene about your Dad not being able to have his car anymore was just jaw-dropping, in terms of how calm and reasonable your Dad was despite the fact that he clearly suspected there was more to it than you were letting on, and that this was a big deal to him. Was this a sanitised view of dementia, or have you just been very lucky? It wasn’t sanitised. I am incredibly lucky! My father remains strangely lucid about his own dementia, incredibly open about his fate and truly trusting of me as a person. I have seen how dementia can transform lovely people into intransigent, angry, terrifying

people. That hasn’t happened with my father. He can be incredibly emotionally vulnerable, I have seen his unabashed fear, I have also seen him be pouty and stubborn, but he always remains gentle. I imagine the car was a big deal because it represented independence, and identity. I noticed that one of Dick’s books was The Challenge of Youth by Erik Erikson, the developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst probably best known for coining the phrase ‘identity crisis’. It stood out to me because if anyone seems secure in his identity it’s Dick. Do you think he managed to hold on to that despite the dementia? I am deeply fascinated by the question ‘What is a self?’ My father, at age 88, now deep into his dementia, is still utterly himself. Parts of him have been lost – his capacity to know where he is, what time it is, what question I just asked him, but he can still express his delight in me, his love for me and his extraordinary compassion, self-awareness and sense of humour. When we were making the film, I was terrified that I had started too late, and that the dementia had already robbed him of too much of himself, but as the film began to come together, I was thrilled when I realised we had ‘captured’ the essence of him! The film is an act of trying to help him hold on to his identity. Do you think the fact that your Dad was a Psychiatrist has had any bearing on how he faces up to dementia? When my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, I really struggled with the feelings of being betrayed by her – as if she had control over what was happening to her. I remember many conversations with my father, in those early days of grappling with my loss and fear, in which he steered me towards the recognition that Alzheimer’s was a disease and that we must love my mother with patience instead of blaming her for what was happening to her. I remember thinking how utterly remarkable it was that he had the capacity to do that even as he was losing the wife he loved. My sense is that my Dad’s experience as a psychiatrist taught him a lot about how to have compassion for humans who suffer from the many forms of mental illness and degenerative disease. It seems it also taught him how to compartmentalise and how to enjoy life despite the terrible suffering of the world – my Dad would go to work every day and then come home and enjoy his family every day. He’s always looking for a laugh. An interesting tension in the film is between your Dad’s ability to live in the moment, the here and now, and your own focus on what is coming… that you will have to leave him, ‘somewhere, someday, somehow’. Did that change at all, did you ‘meet in the middle’ more than viewers might have appreciated?

Thanks for this question. I think a lot about Time with a capital T. In my role as a cameraperson, I really have to live in the moment. It’s the job of the director and the producers to worry about getting me to the place where I will ﬁlm and getting me on to the next place. I am tasked with being fully focused on the now that is unfolding in front of my lens. In this way it is strangely connected to the ways in which dementia changes one’s relationship to the present. In the edit room of a movie, we play with time – we can put moments out of order, we can stretch moments and distill them. With Dick Johnson is Dead, we were really interested in the present time of aliveness and the unknowable future time of death. How could cinema language help us express the relationship between the known and the unknown, the present and the future, the documentary evidence and the imagined fantasy? It is in some way an attempt to engage with the structure of dementia and the way a person who experiences dementia becomes untethered from time itself.

You talked of the ‘long goodbye’, the ‘beginning of his disappearance’, and that you are ‘not accepting it’. Yet in ‘holding each other close as it gets messy’, in understanding that ‘we all carry our parents in us’, there are glimpses of that acceptance in the film. In those terms, what’s your advice to others who have relatives with dementia? I send epic amounts of love to anyone who has a relative with dementia. I think each person’s dementia is specific to them and that each person who loves a person with dementia will have their own experience of it. Value what is specific about the person you love and notice how the form their dementia takes is related to who they are as a person in mysterious, heartbreaking and beautiful ways. It is such a baffling and often emotionally brutal experience to love someone with dementia. And when I say ‘often’ I mean often because a person with dementia may tell you the same thing over and over again hundreds of times over the course of a few hours. It is inevitably wounding – because it means facing over and over again that the person you love is shapeshifting and that their relationship to you is becoming increasingly endangered. Accept that they cannot control what is happening to them. Marvel at all the things that are revealed to you about the mysteries of memory, self, time, and love. Laugh as often as you can. Maybe record something with them – whether it’s audio or video. This record will help you remember who they were after they have changed more than you ever dreamed possible. Be kind to yourself. Being the caregiver and the beloved of a person with dementia is a long haul. I’ve recently decided that I think grief never ends but if you allow it to be full of love, creative stimulation, intellectual curiosity, tenderness and accept all of its possibilities for absurdist humour, it will be a remarkable companion through your life and the person you love will live forever.

‘Recent times have brought us a global pandemic and political, societal and cultural movements. What might feel like a time of turbulence and change has also revealed itself as a time of creativity and opportunities to pause and rethink from new perspectives. Against that backdrop, I shared my experience of working with artist Aida Silvestri, gallery and a paediatric medical team to offer a culturally acceptable therapeutic space for young people living and growing up with a HIV diagnosis. This photography and exhibition project focused on engaging young people in reﬂections on self and identity in the context of having grown up facing multiple levels of stigma and discrimination related to their health, ethnicity and social identities…’ Dr Anita Freeman is a Clinical Psychologist with Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust London. Read her piece at https:// thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/what-stories-canphotography-workshop-tell-us Photo: ‘Behind us’, anonymous young person

the psychologist december 2020 culture

What do you say? ﬁlm I made this for you Dir: Cristian Solimeno

What would you say to someone who you cared about, who had withdrawn from life and may be at risk of suicide? That is the question that I made this for you, a poignant and moving film, attempts to portray in the context of Al, a young man who has isolated himself from friends and family, the very people in his life who are trying to help him see the light. The film uses a simple talking heads format to touch upon some complex and difficult themes surrounding mental health and suicide. In his self-enforced withdrawal, Al is slipped a DVD under his door, made by a close friend, that he watches in a moment of crisis. The video turns out to be a compilation of clips of people from throughout his life recounting what he means to them; the good, the bad and the amusing. The film manages not to be overly sentimental, as often the stories focus on his own failures and include people in his life who have caused him distress. Overall, they paint a picture of a life full of love but not without trouble. The film highlights the complex interplay of events and past trauma that can lead to a person feeling trapped by life, and that suicide is their only option. As is the case with the protagonist here, often it is not just one thing that will lead to suicidal thinking developing, as we explore his troubled childhood, possible vulnerabilities, failed relationships and difficulty dealing with emotions. The film also does well to characterise the mental state of a person in suicidal crisis, as one friend accurately suggests, people make the decision to end their lives as they believe that their death will stop the pain – the psychological pain that often feels like it will never end. Although his friends are frustrated and some are angry

Reviews online: Find much more at www.thepsychologist.org.uk/reviews: Wendy Lloyd watches ‘Herself’, a new ﬁlm directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Poppy Harding, Trainee Clinical Psychologist, watches Netﬂix’s new series Ratched. Students from the Centre for Research in Autism and Education watch ‘I Am Greta’. Dr Adrian Needs watches ‘Des’, about killer Dennis Nilsen.

about his suicide attempt, ultimately they are saddened that he was so depressed that he felt so overwhelmed, that suicide was for him the only way out. The themes that are presented within the film reflect central aspects of psychological models developed by researchers to understand suicide, for example the Integrated Motivational-Volitional (IMV) Model of suicidal behaviour developed by Professor Rory O’Connor. This model suggests that people can be vulnerable to the development of suicidal thinking due a combination of environmental stressors, predisposition and personality factors. These vulnerability factors may contribute to an individual more likely to feel defeated by life, and a sense of entrapment may emerge. It is this entrapment that is proposed to be a key driver for the development of suicidal thinking, with feeling trapped and wanting to escape, from both external and internal forces, shown to be associated with suicidal thoughts. At the Suicidal Behaviour Research Lab (SBRL), we have been investigating the development of entrapment and its relationship with suicidal thinking. For example, in a study from the SBRL we found that entrapment was associated with suicidal ideation, and is a key mechanism for feelings of defeat to be related to suicidal thinking. Recent research at SBRL has also explored how to help people who feel trapped and in suicidal crisis, and one such study uses a safety planning intervention that aims to help people recognise and better cope with their triggers for suicidal thinking, by providing alternative behaviours to help get them through that moment of crisis. The hopeful message of the film is that reaching out to people in their moment of crisis can make a real difference. It encourages all of us to self-reflect on how what we do can impact upon others, and that although life’s challenges can pile up there are people out there who care and crucially, that the mental pain will subside. Reviewed by Dr Karen Wetherall, Suicidal Behaviour Research Lab, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow. www.suicideresearch.info

We dip into the Society member database and pick out… Professor Julie Turner-Cobb at Bournemouth University

One moment that changed the course of my career Attending the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) conference in San Francisco in 1993, to give my very ﬁrst presentation at an international meeting as a PhD student. Aside from confronting my abject fear of presenting, I heard two incredible yet very different talks. One was by Professor David Spiegel on psychosocial interventions in women with breast cancer, and the other by Professor Robert Sapolsky on cortisol and the stress response in baboons. I was too shy to introduce myself to either of them(!) but the whole conference was a pivotal point in my career. When I found myself living in California a year or so later (long story), I contacted David Spiegel and had the good fortune of joining his lab at Stanford University. One psychological superpower Aside from acknowledging that superpowers don’t exist, which is empowering in itself...! Psychology is by its nature a superpower, since psychological knowledge and understanding bring with it empathy, compassion and understanding of each other and ourselves. As with all superpowers it needs to be used wisely and unselﬁshly, sharing it with others for good.

One thing psychologists could do better Being more generous with our praise and appreciation of each other’s work. Whilst critique is important, in Psychology I notice people are often more negative of one another’s work than in many other academic ﬁelds including medicine. We are slow to acknowledge the many good points and often far too scathing in our reviews. I frequently catch myself being guilty of this and make a

one on one

point of looking beyond the negative to capture positive aspects and the bigger picture; even if the work has a way to go to be up to standard there are positive ways of communicating that can make such a difference to how that person receives the information and is enabled to respond to the challenge. It’s all too easy to be over critical and this can have a really negative impact, especially on those earlier in their career. One thing I couldn’t do without Nature, all things gardening and the dream that one day I will own a herd of alpacas! One ﬁlm Educating Rita based on the stage play by Willy Russell. The unfolding of this story is inspirational and a reminder that given the right opportunities and support, people can be capable of so much more than they thought possible. Rita’s realisation that there surely must be a different song to sing in life captures for me the thrill of learning. One proud moment Winning the BPS book award in 2017 for my textbook Child Health Psychology and being presented with the prize at the BPS Annual meeting in Nottingham.

One nugget of advice for aspiring psychologists Follow what you enjoy and ask the research questions that you think are important; don’t be deterred by others’ scepticism and embrace interdisciplinary topics. I conducted my PhD looking at the effect of psychosocial aspects (in particular, stress) on the common cold and ﬂu, after my supervisor cleverly pointed me in that direction. It’s such a fascinating area and hijacked my attention and passion in research. I have lectured on the topic of infection for over 20 years and often receive less than enthusiastic responses when I refer to infection as one of the most important areas to consider in health psychology; given recent events, responses might be different this year. More online at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk

coming soon… a special collection on veganism; plus all our usual news, views, reviews, interviews, and much more... 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 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 maybe you missed… …December 2009, Adrian North and David Hargreaves on ‘the power of music’ …Search it and so much more via www.bps.org.uk/thepsychologist the

psychologist vol 22 no 12

december 2009

The power of music Adrian North and David Hargreaves introduce a special issue

Incorporating Psychologist Appointments £5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society

forum 994 news 1002 careers 1058 looking back 1076

music – shelter for the frazzled mind? 1018 in search of the language of music 1022 motivating musical learning 1026 eye on fiction: Anna Karenina 1034

Society Trustees www.bps.org.uk/about-us/ who-we-are

Find out more online at www.bps.org.uk

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 Vacant Chair, Practice Board Alison Clarke Chair, Membership Board Professor Carol McGuinness Chair, Research Board Professor Daryl O’Connor Trustees Chris Lynch, Dr Ester Cohen-Tovee, Christina Buxton, Dr Adam Jowett

Chief Executive Sarb Bajwa

society notices

society vacancies

BPS Learn: How to become a successful supervisor See p.16 BPS events See p.37

Society Practice Board expert psychologists with experience of working in physical health See p.62

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 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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KŶůŝŶĞ ŶǇƟŵĞ ŽƵƌƐĞƐ dŚĞ Wd͛Ɛ ͚ŽŶůŝŶĞ ĂŶǇƟŵĞ͛ ĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ ŵĞĂŶ ǇŽƵ ĐĂŶ ŽďƚĂŝŶ WdͲƋƵĂůŝƚǇ ŝŶƉƵƚ Ăƚ Ă ƟŵĞ ƚŚĂƚ ŝƐ ĐŽŶǀĞŶŝĞŶƚ ƚŽ ǇŽƵ ĂŶĚ ǇŽƵƌ ŽƌŐĂŶŝƐĂƟŽŶ͘

ϭϴ ŚŽƵƌ ĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ ŐŝǀŝŶŐ >ĞǀĞů Ϯ Wd ĐĐƌĞĚŝƚĂƟŽŶ͗ • • • • • • • •

d ƐƐĞŶƟĂůƐ ; ĐĐĞƉƚĂŶĐĞ Θ ŽŵŵŝƚŵĞŶƚ dŚĞƌĂƉǇͿ d ƐƐĞŶƟĂůƐ ; ŝĂůĞĐƟĐĂů ĞŚĂǀŝŽƵƌ dŚĞƌĂƉǇͿ͘ d ƐƐĞŶƟĂůƐ ; ŽŐŶŝƟǀĞ ĞŚĂǀŝŽƵƌĂů dŚĞƌĂƉǇͿ͘ DŽƟǀĂƟŽŶĂů /ŶƚĞƌǀŝĞǁŝŶŐ͕ ĂŶĚ ŚŽǁ ƚŽ ƵƐĞ ŝƚ ĞīĞĐƟǀĞůǇ͘ ^&d ƐƐĞŶƟĂůƐ ;^ŽůƵƟŽŶͲ&ŽĐƵƐĞĚ dŚĞƌĂƉǇͿ͘ dŚĞ Z / Π ŽƵƌƐĞ ĨŽƌ ǁŽƌŬŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ŚĂůůĞŶŐŝŶŐ ĞŚĂǀŝŽƵƌ͘ dŚĞ / ^Π ZŝƐŬ ƐƐĞƐƐŵĞŶƚ ĂŶĚ DĂŶĂŐĞŵĞŶƚ ^ǇƐƚĞŵ͘ d ĨŽƌ EŽŶͲ^ƵŝĐŝĚĂů ^ĞůĨͲ/ŶũƵƌǇ͘

tĞ ĂůƐŽ ŽīĞƌ͕ dŚĞ Wd ŝƉůŽŵĂ ŝŶ WƐǇĐŚŽůŽŐŝĐĂů dŚĞƌĂƉŝĞƐ ĐŽŵƉƌŝƐŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ĮƌƐƚ ϱ ĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ ĂďŽǀĞ͕ ĂŶĚ Ă ƐĞƌŝĞƐ ŽĨ ϭͲŚŽƵƌ W ĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ͕ ŝŶĐůƵĚŝŶŐ͗ ƐƐĞƐƐŵĞŶƚ͕ ĂƐĞ &ŽƌŵƵůĂƟŽŶ͕ ,Žǁ ƚŽ ĐŽŶƐƚƌƵĐƚ Ă WůĂŶ ƚŚĂƚ ǁŝůů ŚĞůƉ ƚŚĞ ƉĂƟĞŶƚ͕ &ƵŶĐƟŽŶĂů ŶĂůǇƐŝƐ͕ ĂŶĚ ,Žǁ ƚŽ ^ƚƌƵĐƚƵƌĞ Ă dŚĞƌĂƉǇ ^ĞƐƐŝŽŶ͘

KŶůŝŶĞ >ŝǀĞ ŽƵƌƐĞƐ “ZĞĂůůǇ ĞŶũŽǇĂďůĞ ĂŶĚ ŝŶƚĞƌĞƐƟŶŐ ƚŚƌĞĞ ĚĂǇƐ ͘͘͘ / ǁĂƐ ƵŶƐƵƌĞ ĂƐ ƚŽ ŚŽǁ ƚŚĞ ŽŶůŝŶĞ ĨŽƌŵĂƚ ǁŽƵůĚ ǁŽƌŬ ďƵƚ ƚŚĞ ƚƵƚŽƌ͛Ɛ ĐĂůŵ ƚƌĂŝŶŝŶŐ ƐƚǇůĞ͕ ƉůƵƐ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŵďŝŶĂƟŽŶ ŽĨ ƚĂƵŐŚƚ ĞůĞŵĞŶƚƐ͕ ĞǆĞƌĐŝƐĞƐ ĂŶĚ ǀŝĚĞŽƐ͕ ƉůƵƐ ǀĂƌŝŽƵƐ ŵĞĂŶƐ ƚŽ ĐŽŵŵƵŶŝĐĂƚĞ͕ ǁŽƌŬĞĚ ƌĞĂůůǇ ǁĞůů͊͟ &ĞĞĚďĂĐŬ ĨƌŽŵ Ă ĚĞůĞŐĂƚĞ ĂŌĞƌ ĂƩĞŶĚŝŶŐ ĂŶ ŽŶůŝŶĞ ůŝǀĞ ĐŽƵƌƐĞ͘

KŶůŝŶĞ >ŝǀĞ Open Courses: tĞ ŽīĞƌ Ă ƌĂŶŐĞ ŽĨ ͚ŽŶůŝŶĞ ůŝǀĞ͛ ĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ ŽƉĞŶ ƚŽ ŝŶĚŝǀŝĚƵĂůƐ ĂŶĚ ƐŵĂůů ŐƌŽƵƉƐ ƚŽ ĂƩĞŶĚ͘ dŽ ƐĞĞ ŽƵƌ ƉƌŽŐƌĂŵŵĞ ŽĨ ŽƉĞŶ ĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ͕ ǀŝƐŝƚ www.apt.ac/open

KŶůŝŶĞ >ŝǀĞ ǆĐůƵƐŝǀĞ Courses: KŶůŝŶĞ ůŝǀĞ ĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ ĐŽŵŵŝƐƐŝŽŶĞĚ ďǇ ĂŶ ŽƌŐĂŶŝƐĂƟŽŶ ĞǆĐůƵƐŝǀĞůǇ ĨŽƌ ŝƚƐ ƉĞŽƉůĞ͘ dŽ ƐĞĞ ƚŚĞ ĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ ĂǀĂŝůĂďůĞ ƐŝŵƉůǇ ƐĞĞ ŽƵƌ ĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ Ăƚ ǁǁǁ͘ĂƉƚ͘ĂĐͬĐŽƵƌƐĞƐ

Find out more and book online at www.apt.ac/online dŚĞ ƐƐŽĐŝĂƟŽŶ ĨŽƌ WƐǇĐŚŽůŽŐŝĐĂů dŚĞƌĂƉŝĞƐ͕ dŚĞ ŽǁĞƌ ,ŽƵƐĞ͕ dŚƵƌŶďǇ͕ >ĞŝĐĞƐƚĞƌƐŚŝƌĞ > ϳ ϵW,͘

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