In this episode, Dr. Lee Shepherd tells us about his work on emotions and sexual objectification. He discusses how it feels to be objectified and why it’s so important to study this issue to prevent objectification from occuring and to help support victims. We also discuss a funded PhD opportunity to study the causes and consequences of online misogyny.
Show notes:
To find out more about his work, Lee’s staff profile is here.
For more information on the PhD project, you can watch this video or check out this advertisement.
You can also find all of the PhD projects offered by Northumbria Psychology department on this blog. Applications are due February 18, 2022 for a start date of October 2022.
On this episode of The Big 5, Dr. Nicki O’Brien tells us about her innovative work using animated GIFs to teach people about COVID-19 health behaviors like mask wearing and hand washing in Guatemala. She also discusses a funded PhD project starting October 2022. Applications due February 18, 2022.
Show notes:
To follow Nicki on Twitter: @NickijObrien
Check out the GIFs here. And an article about the GIFs can be found here.
Interested in the PhD opportunity? The advert can be found here.
You can find the transcript for this episode here.
On this episode, Alyson tells us about her research on student well-being and what students struggle with during their transition to university. She also tells us about a funded PhD studentship opportunity! (See link below.)
Shownotes:
Find Dr. Alyson Dodd: on Twitter @alysondodd and on her staff profile.
You can learn more about SMaRteN and read the report Alyson references here.
Interested in this PhD opportunity? Check out the advert here.
The field of health communication tends to centre on analysing the effectiveness of specific information contexts and less on relationships between message framing, intentions and behaviour (Nabi & Green, 2015; Joyce & Harwood, 2014). People’s health-related decision-making is not completely rational (Witteman, van den Bercken, Claes & Godoy, 2009). Framing effect theory suggests that different presentations of health-related information can affect individuals’ decision-making preferences (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981). Research suggests that messages presenting gains are more persuasive in encouraging prevention behaviours (Noar, Harrington & Aldrich, 2009); Rothman, Bartels, Wlaschin & Salovey, 2006). Gain framing messaging may be more effective in promoting vaccination – a type of health preventive behaviour (Park, 2012).
Persuading young adults to get vaccinated is critical for the national vaccination programme as a whole and is also arguably the key to achieving herd immunity. Within the national vaccination programme for young adults, the following vaccinations are available: Human papillomavirus (HPV), meningitis, seasonal influenza, and COVID-19.
According to the latest figures, HPV vaccine coverage for the first dose in 2019/20 was 59.2% in Year 8 (aged 12-13) females (compared with 88.0% in 2018/19) and 54.4% in Year 8 males (Public Health England, 2020). From September 2019 the national HPV vaccination programme became universal with 12- to 13-year-old males becoming eligible alongside females (Public Health England, 2020). For females that missed or chose not to get the HPV vaccine offered in school, they can get the vaccine up until their 25th birthday; males can take up the vaccine until they are 45 years old (NHS, 2021).
Research has found low seasonal flu vaccine uptake and low vaccine knowledge among university-aged students (Ryan, Filipp, Gurka, Zirulnik, & Thompson, 2019). In the US – where influenza vaccination is recommended for everyone aged ≥6 months – data show that vaccination rates range from 9-30% in university students (Ryan, Filipp, Gurka, Zirulnik, & Thompson, 2019). Recent evidence suggests that making the flu vaccine part of the national vaccination programme for young adults (<20 years old) might be cost-effective (Hill et al., 2020).
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the urgency to vaccinate young adults and promote COVID-19 vaccination uptake in this population is particularly pronounced (Lucia, Kelekar & Afonso, 2021). Recent NHS England figures show that approximately 75% of 18-24 years olds have had one COVID-19 vaccination; but only approximately 60% have had two vaccinations (NHS England COVID-19 Dashboard 21 Oct. , 2021). Together, these figures highlight that a proportion of young adults is left unvaccinated. Vaccination of young adults can potentially provide direct protection for the recipients and indirect (herd) protection for the community (Pebody et al., 2018).
In the transition period of attending university, for many away from home, there might be an opportunity to promote a range of vaccinations to young adults, and shape these emerging adults’ vaccination habits for other vaccines, such as the COVID-19 vaccines. As settings within which students become independent, universities have both a responsibility and the potential to enable healthy development (Tsouros, Dowding, Thompson & Dooris, 1998). Accordingly, ‘health-promoting universities’ are being called upon to embed health into all aspects of campus culture and of providing health-promoting activities for students (Bachert et al., 2021).
Understanding underlying mechanisms that drive young adults’ preferences for and engagement with vaccination campaigns could inform the design of effective messaging to influence their decision-making processes when communicating during a public health crisis.
What is the aim of this PhD project?
This PhD project will develop and test, evidence-based vaccination messages targeted at young adults, using framing theory as theoretical approach.
Objectives
Appraise existing vaccination campaigns directed at young adults by exploring effective behaviour change strategies and mechanisms of change associated with vaccination uptake;
With young adults, co-design and develop a suite of health messages aimed at promoting vaccination uptake (such as influenza, COVID-19, HPV, meningitis);
Conduct experimental and longitudinal studies to explore young adults’ preferences for and impact of the co-produced vaccination messages.
What skills and knowledge does the PhD candidate need?
We would love to work with someone who feels passionate about health-related behaviour change, and is keen to further our understanding.
You should possess a sound grounding in quantitative and qualitative research methods but have ambition to extend your skills into other research design methods
Applicants will normally have a track record of academic achievement in psychology or a related discipline, demonstrated by a first class or upper second undergraduate honours degree and/or a master’s degree (or equivalent)
About the supervisors
Angela is a Senior Lecturer in the psychology department and has experience in the area of developing and evaluating complex interventions for behaviour change, with a specific focus on theory- and evidence-based interventions. Angela co-Leads the Behaviour Change Research Programme of Fuse (the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health).
Nicki is a Health Psychologist and an Associate Professor in the Psychology department. She has expertise in health behaviour and behaviour change interventions, and a particular interest in the application of co-design techniques for intervention development with stakeholders.
The supervisory team works alongside other behaviour change experts in the north east of England and the North East North Cumbria NHIR ARC
More information and how to apply
If you’d like to discuss the opportunity, please contact the principal supervisor, Angela Rodrigues (angela.rodrigues@northumbria.ac.uk). Details on how to submit an application are below. We’ve added some useful reading for prospective candidates at the end of the post
Details on how to submit an application are below. We’ve added some useful reading for prospective candidates at the end of the post
The advert for the post can be found here, this includes full eligibility requirements. As part of the application process you will need to submit a 1000 word proposal of how you would approach the project by 18th February 2022
Full details of the application process can be found here
Further Reading
Ruddy, E., Moor, J., Idowu, O., Araujo Soares, V., Rodrigues, A., & Birch-Machin, M. The Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on health behaviours of the UK population: a cross-sectional study. European Journal of Cancer Prevention. [Manuscript in preparation].
O’Brien N, Vijaykumar S, Craig M, Land E, Aguilar S, Bedoya X, De la Cruz R, Najera E, Nicolau L (Under Review). A before-after cross-sectional survey of the effect of exposure to GIFs communicating Covid-19 preventive behaviours on behavioural cognitions of Guatemalan adults. Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
O’Brien N, Land E, Vijaykumar S, et al. (2021) Languageless animated gifs to communicate COVID-19 preventive behaviours to adults in Guatemala: Development and evaluation of efficacy. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 28:S11-S12.
Araújo-Soares, V., Hankonen, N., Presseau, J., Rodrigues, A., & Sniehotta, F. F. (2019). Developing behavior change interventions for self-management in chronic illness. European Psychologist, 24(1), 7-25.
Rodrigues, A., Sniehotta, F. F., Birch-Machin, M. A., Olivier, P., & Araújo-Soares, V. (2017). Systematic and iterative development of a smartphone app to promote sun-protection among holidaymakers: design of a prototype and results of usability and acceptability testing. JMIR Research Protocols, 6(6), e112.
O’Brien N, Heaven B, Teal G, Evans E, Cleland C, Moffatt S, Sniehotta FF, White M, Mathers J, Moynihan P (2016). Integrating evidence from systematic reviews, qualitative research, and expert knowledge using co-design techniques to develop a web-based intervention for people in the retirement transition. Journal of Medical Internet Research,18(8):e210; doi: 10.2196/jmir.5790
Dancing, singing, and being merry with your friends at a wedding.
Building an aeroplane that reduces carbon emissions.
Navigating a roundabout.
Performing life-saving medical assistance.
Humans face coordinative challenges every day. Some are mundane, some propel society toward new innovations, and others may be life or death situations. The human species has survived and thrived because of the strong drive toward collaboration (Boyd & Richerson, 2009; Tomasello, 2014).
Nevertheless, collaborating, coordinating and cooperating is not necessarily simple. Coordinative failures are common: Sometimes doors are closed in people’s faces, dance steps are missed and car crashes occur.
So, how do humans adapt to each other to achieve the best possible outcome? How do humans coordinate in a variety of situations? How can the frequency of coordinative failures be minimized?
This is the study of Joint Action!
Researchers who are interested in how human cognition supports collaboration, coordination and cooperation study what is called Joint Action (Sebanz & Knoblich, 2021).
To collaborate humans must develop a representation of the task. This representation will often include a predicted representation of the actions that each person will take to do the task. Establishing such a representation might not require much effort. In fact, the required representation sometimes already exists, as in understanding the rules that one must abide by to navigate a roundabout.
If rules or conventions do not exist, the representation will be developed by more complex routes. Communication and negotiation are obvious means of aligning task representations, however, humans also use variety of ‘mindreading’ processes to align representations without direct communication.
To illustrate: Around the roundabout we go….
Roundabouts are designed such that the cognitive resources of coordination are minimized. And in fact, the installation of roundabouts does tend to reduce car crashes that result in injuries and fatalities for those in cars (Elvik, 2003). This coordinative event relies upon road users (1) having knowledge of the rules and conventions associated with roundabout use, (2) abiding by those rules and conventions, and (3) trust in other road users to abide by those rules and conventions. Without trust, the traffic through the roundabout would not proceed smoothly.
Most often, traffic proceeds smoothly. Each individual aims to proceed past the roundabout, and can reach their goal by following the rules. They must monitor the progress of other cars in the roundabout but they can do so at a minimal level. Coordination manifests with little effort.
When it goes wrong….
Consider a rogue American driver on a British roundabout. They went anti-clockwise instead of clockwise! How can a crash be avoided?
Other drivers may begin to beep to communicate the error and (hopefully) get the rogue driver back on the right track. But the driver is oblivious and bopping away to some loud music; the communication has failed. Other drivers must begin to engage in more effortful action monitoring and prediction processes so they can adapt and avoid collision.
What is the goal of the proposed PhD Project?
Using human movement analysis this project will explore the cognitive strategies that coordinative partners use to adapt to different task constraints. For example, task difficulty and task uncertainty.
This fundamental research aim will then be explored in terms of environmental context. Specifically, ‘How do factors present in the physical and social environment (e.g., physical constraints, hierarchical structures, partner familiarity) shape the coordinative strategy employed during a joint task?’ Answering these fundamental questions about how the human cognitive system works will provide theoretical direction to tackle the collaborative and coordinative challenges that humans face. From designing urban environments that promote free-flowing pedestrian and vehicular traffic, to implementing policies and workflows to optimise coordination within hospitals, the theory of joint action can assist.
What skills and knowledge does the PhD candidate need?
We would love to work with someone who is enthusiastic about working across disciplines to contribute to the cumulative pursuit of knowledge within cognition and joint action.
You should be confident in quantitative research methods and have ambition to develop skills in human movement analysis. The applicant will be expected to engage with a wider group of academics interested in both fundamental and applied research aligned with the themes of coordination and teamwork.
Applicants should have a background in psychology, kinesiology (sports science) or a related discipline. The successful applicant will have a history of academic achievement as demonstrated by first-class, or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree and/or a masters degree (or equivalent).
About the supervisors
Merryn is a Senior Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow within the psychology department. She is committed to advancing the research profile of Northumbria and passionate about supporting young researchers. As such, she sits on the University’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee advocating for the interests of Early Career Researchers. Prior to the UK, she has held academic posts in Australia, Canada and Hungary, with her research networks extending to Austria and Italy. Her research takes an interdisciplinary perspective as a result of her background in psychology, kinesiology, cognitive science and business communications. Most recently, Merryn has been translating her work on social cognition and joint action to comparative psychology, healthcare and robotics. Merryn also has a strong technical background, with a particular interest in using motion capture technologies to answer fundamental questions about human cognition.
Kris is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology. He is also the department’s technical lead and as a part of that role oversees the use of the specialist hardware and software that researchers use to conduct their research. With his expertise in Motion Capture, Eye-tracking, Body Scanning, virtual reality, and a variety of programming languages he provides assistance and training to staff and students in the technical aspects of experimental psychology. Kris has worked on an array of applied projects using motion capture including a collaboration with the European Space Agency and NASA investigating the effect of reduced gravity on muscle function and postural control.
Nick is a Professor within the Department of Psychology. He is the Director of the Hoarding Research Group, Faculty Director of Ethics, and Chair of the Faculty Research Ethics Committee. He has extensive experience of conducting high quality research and in managing research teams and supervising research students. He has a keen interest in motion capture technology and has conducted research using motion capture to explore human dance movements and how such movements may serve as ‘honest’ signals to reproductive quality.
More information and how to apply
If you’d like to discuss the opportunity, please contact the principal supervisor, Merryn Constable (merryn.constable@northumbria.ac.uk). Details on how to submit an application are below. We’ve added some useful reading for prospective candidates at the end of the post.
Northumbria University takes pride in, and values, the quality and diversity of our staff and students. We welcome applications from all members of the community.
Details on how to submit an application are below. We’ve added some useful reading for prospective candidates at the end of the post
The advert for the post can be found here, this includes full eligibility requirements. As part of the application process you will need to submit a 1000 word proposal of how you would approach the project by 18th February 2022
Full details of the application process can be found here
Sebanz, N., & Knoblich, G. (2021). Progress in Joint-Action Research. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 0963721420984425. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721420984425
Effective public health communications are critical to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Internationally, government guidance and legislation have advocated and coerced evidence-based transmission preventive behaviours, such as physical distancing, good hygiene practices such as handwashing, and mask-wearing. Encouraging individual adherence to these behaviours is challenging, requiring input and evidence from psychology and behavioural science.
Research on the individual determinants of transmission preventive behaviours provides evidence of potentially modifiable targets for behaviour change interventions to help during the Covid-19 pandemic. Intention, self-efficacy and outcome expectancies have been shown to predict preventive behaviours of physical, handwashing and mask-wearing.
Information is better retained when health communications include visuals rather than text alone. Visual communications do not rely on language but use images and animations to tell the message narrative. In countries with multiple official languages, visual languageless communications can disseminate messages to the entire population.
The languageless visual messages (GIFs) that have been developed
The proposed project will extend previous work of a collaboration between the supervisory team at Northumbria University and the Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala, Guatemala (http://www.odhag.org.gt/). The collaboration developed evidence-based, languageless, animated messages, in the form of GIFs, which have been disseminated via social media across Guatemala and on the national catholic TV channel. The GIFs can be seen here. Guatemala is an exemplar multilingual country with 25 official languages spoken (24 indigenous and Spanish).
The effect of exposure to the GIFs on behavioural beliefs about performing the preventive behaviours has been examined through an online experimental study of Guatemalan adults. The data demonstrated that exposure to the GIFs resulted in significant improvements in key determinants of preventive behaviours, namely intention, self-efficacy and outcome expectancies. These preliminary data suggest promise of the GIFs to have a positive impact on adherence to behaviours, however, this is yet to be determined.
The aim of this PhD project
To identify and explore how different features and potential mechanisms of action of languageless health messages (GIFs), promoting Covid-19 preventive behaviours, impact on their potential effectiveness. The project will include a consensus study to identify the behavioural science evidence base (including the behaviour change features) of the GIFs and a series of experimental studies to explore the effects of exposure to the existing GIFs and modified GIFs (i.e., with varying message features and mechanisms of action) on adherence to preventive behaviours in different Latin American and UK populations.
The supervisory team
This PhD project will be supervised by Dr Nicki O’Brien, Dr Santosh Vijaykumar, Dr Michael Craig (Department of Psychology), and Ellie Land(Department of Arts). The supervisory team combines the complementary disciplinary, methodological and topic expertise required to fully support this research: Dr O’Brien is a Health Psychologist with expertise in health behaviour and behaviour change interventions. Dr Vijaykumar is a health and risk communication scientist with expertise in public health, behavioural science and new media technologies. Dr Michael Craig is an experimental psychologist with expertise in the investigation of human cognition and the effects of behavioural interventions. Ellie Land is an award-winning factual animation maker, director, educator and researcher with expertise in animated short, feature-length and interactive films.
The skills and experience a candidate needs
We are looking for someone who is keen to develop the science of behaviour change within the context of languageless visual health messages. Candidates would be expected to have a background in psychology, public health, health communication or a related discipline, demonstrated by a first class or upper second undergraduate honours degree and/or a master’s degree (or equivalent). An interest in design is desirable but not essential. Knowledge and experience of quantitative research methods are needed.
More information and how to apply
If you’d like to discuss the opportunity, please contact the principal supervisor, Nicki O’Brien (nicki.obrien@northumbria.ac.uk).
The advert for the post can be found here, this includes full eligibility requirements. As part of the application process you will need to submit a 1000 word proposal of how you would approach the project by 18th February 2022
Full details of the application process can be found here
Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common type of dementia. DLB is a complex and heterogenous disorder, which is characterised by a range of symptoms, including neuropsychiatric symptoms, visuoperceptual difficulties and visual hallucinations.
The challenging, complex and symptom profile of people with DLB can have a significant impact upon their caregivers. DLB places a significant level of burden upon caregivers, and DLB caregivers typically report greater levels of distress than the caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s dementia (AD), or other types of dementia, even when DLB patients have a similar level of cognitive impairment. This has been shown to relate to the presence and severity of patient symptoms.
Caregiver distress is extremely likely to result in DLB caregivers developing sleep disturbances and disorders. A wide range of studies have indicated that stress is associated with subjective and objective sleep disturbances, and that stressful events can predict future sleep disturbances. Indeed, work from dementia caregivers, considered as a whole, demonstrates this: relative to age-matched control non-caregiver adults, caregivers have significant reductions in sleep duration (equivalent to losing up to 3.5 hours of sleep per week) and sleep quality. Additionally, even professional dementia caregivers demonstrate increased levels of stress hormones.
To date, no studies have specifically assessed sleep in DLB caregivers, or the relationship with stress and patient neuropsychiatric symptoms. This is extremely important as given the complex and challenging symptom profile of DLB, DLB caregivers are likely to be at a high risk of developing sleep disturbances and disorders. This is likely to have a direct negative impact upon their health.
Taken together, it is important to understand the nature of sleep disturbances in DLB caregivers. In particular, it is necessary to identify patient events or stressors which may negatively impact upon specific aspects of caregiver subjective and objective sleep. This will allow for the development and testing of bespoke DLB caregiver sleep interventions. This is important as techniques which optimise sleep in this population will benefit individual caregivers, as well as potentially having wider economic and societal benefits.
What is the goal of the proposed PhD Project?
The goals of this PhD project are to:
to examine, quantify, and compare the nature of subjective and objective sleep disturbances in DLB and AD caregivers
to examine the association between specific patient neuropsychiatric symptoms and DLB caregivers
design a bespoke DLB-specific caregiver intervention to improve sleep, and pilot and test its feasibility and effectiveness
This proposed studentship is very closely aligned with Dr. Elder’s current research programme, which is primarily focussed on subjective and objective sleep in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies.
What skills and knowledge does the PhD candidate need?
We are looking for an applicant who is passionate about clinically-applied sleep research. Given the novel nature of the project, you should demonstrate a high degree of professionalism and independence. You should possess a solid understanding of quantitative research methods and be willing to be trained in a variety of advanced sleep research methodologies (e.g. actigraphy, polysomnography).
Applicants will normally have a track record of academic achievement in psychology or a related discipline, demonstrated by a first class or upper second undergraduate honours degree and/or a master’s degree (or equivalent)
About the supervisors
Dr. Greg Elder is Associate Director of Northumbria Sleep Research and is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology. He is an experienced sleep researcher with expertise in the design, conduct and management of sleep research studies, including overnight polysomnography. Dr. Elder also has a wide range of expertise in designing and managing research studies involving patients with dementia with Lewy bodies, including interventional studies and clinical trials; additionally, he has expertise in the role of stress in sleep disturbances and insomnia, and behavioural interventions in this context. Dr. Elder is a Chartered Psychologist.
Dr. Daniel Rippon is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology. He has expertise in the design and conduct of research studies involving dementia caregivers. Dr. Rippon also has relevant clinical and research links with the Campus of Ageing and Vitality (Newcastle University), where he has developed a home-based service for supporting caregivers, and has clinical experience working within the NHS.
Professor Jason Ellis is Director of Northumbria Sleep Research and is a Professor of Sleep Science in the Department of Psychology. Professor Ellis has a wide range of expertise in the development and testing of behavioural interventions for insomnia.
More information and how to apply
If you would like to discuss the opportunity, please contact the principal supervisor by email (Dr. Greg Elder: g.elder@northumbria.ac.uk).
Details on how to submit an application are below. We’ve added some useful reading for prospective candidates at the end of the post
The advert for the post can be found here, this includes full eligibility requirements. As part of the application process you will need to submit a 1000 word proposal of how you would approach the project by 18th February 2022
Full details of the application process can be found here
In a 2021 BBC News Panorama report, Marianna Spring details the online abuse, including threats of violence, she receives daily on social media simply because she’s doing her job investigating online disinformation. She’s not the only one receiving abuse online. In fact, research shows that women are more than twice as likely as men to receive online abuse and it often targets their intersectional identities (gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation) (Sunden & Paasonen, 2018). Beyond being psychologically upsetting, online misogyny can silence women’s voices and create major barriers to women’s equal participation in public and political spheres by forcing women to leave the online sphere because of the threat posed to their emotional or physical safety. For example, in a recent poll 1/3 of women MPs said that they had considered leaving political office due to online abuse.
What is online misogyny?
Online misogyny is online media (e.g., videos, blogs, posts) that target and harm women due to the posters’ hatred of women. It can take many forms and range from insulting or belittling comments to doxing to threats of rape and death. One example, doxing, occurs when an internet user’s offline personal information is shared online. For example, some prominent activists have had their home addresses or telephone numbers shared. Experiencing online misogyny can result in feelings of emotional distress and some women even leave online platforms like Twitter to avoid receiving online abuse. Thus, online misogyny can lead to women’s voices being silenced. In some rare cases it has also led to real world violence. For example, several men who later engaged in mass shootings posted online manifestos which evoked misogynistic ideas that spurred them to real-world violence against women (Hoffman, Ware, & Shapiro, 2020).
What is the goal of the proposed PhD project?
Recent calls have been made for social psychologists to address the issue of online misogyny (Tileaga, 2019). In this PhD, we’ll be examining online misogyny through a social psychology lens. Research in social psychology shows that social media provides a unique environment in which misogyny can occur. First, the internet conveys some sense of anonymity, and this has been associated with a willingness to engage in online misogyny (Fox, Cruz, & Lee, 2015). Second, social media platforms allow users to garner large audiences which can result in feeling powerful (Brown & Merritt, 2020). Power has been associated with a wide range of anti-social behaviours because being powerful prevents taking the perspective of others. This is especially true for people who have a dominant personality (Kim & Guinote, 2021).
In this PhD project we’ll be examining the consequences for women who receive misogynistic comments online as research in this area is lacking. We’ll also examine the profiles of the men who engage in online misogyny, specifically examining their power and dominance. By determining who the most likely perpetrators are, we can try to intervene and reduce online misogyny.
What skills and knowledge does the PhD candidate need?
Successful candidates should have experience in psychology research including strong research methods and statistics knowledge. Independent and critical thinking and writing skills, passion for research, and self-motivation will also be necessary.
About the supervisors
Dr. Genavee Brown is a Lecturer and social psychology researcher at Northumbria University. She studies how technology intervenes in our relationships. Her previous work has focused on cultural differences in social media use, social capital online, and how mobile phones influence face-to-face relationships. Recent projects centre on the concept of online power and how this can help us understand antisocial behaviours online. She teaches Psychology of Intimacy and Quantitative Research Methods. She is also the host of The Big 5 podcast where she speaks to staff and students at Northumbria about their experience of studying psychology at Northumbria University.
Dr Jenny Paterson is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and has published widely on the impacts of hate crimes in which perpetrators target individuals because of a hatred towards the person’s characteristic, including gender. Within this research, she has worked closely with victims of prejudice to reveal the substantial and wide-ranging impacts that such prejudice can cause both in the online and offline realms. In addition to examining the impacts of hate, Jenny has a keen interest in developing and utilising prejudice reduction strategies to identify and nullify perpetrators of prejudice.
Dr. Lee Shepherd is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Northumbria University. He undertakes research on the role of emotions on behaviour. These behaviours range from different health behaviours (e.g., health screenings) to people’s responses to discrimination.
More information and how to apply
If you’d like to discuss the opportunity, please contact the principal supervisor, Genavee Brown (genavee.brown@northumbria.ac.uk). Details on how to submit an application are below. We’ve added some useful reading for prospective candidates at the end of the post
The advert for the post can be found here, this includes full eligibility requirements. As part of the application process you will need to submit a 1000 word proposal of how you would approach the project by 18th February 2022
Full details of the application process can be found here
In this post, you’ll be able to read a bit about the PhD programe we have advertised. We’ve included a brief video to introduce the project and the supervision team too
Several leading organisations in the UK Higher Education sector (Hughes & Spanner, 2019; Thorley, 2017; Universities UK, 2020) advocate a ‘whole university approach’ that promotes student and staff mental health and well-being via facilitating healthy settings, learning approaches, and support provision.
The problem of the whole university approach
Existing research has not captured well-being from a whole-university perspective. For example, our own research discusses how student well-being is typically measured by self-report questionnaires asking about subjective or psychological well-being completed by individuals. There is relatively scant research on the well-being of university staff (particularly in non-academic roles) compared to students, but a similar individual approach to conceptualising and measuring well-being is used in research on university staff well-being.
Research has looked at student and staff well-being separately, often focusing on specific roles and factors underpinning well-being linked to these. While this is important, the sector also needs to develop an understanding of what ‘being well together’ means in universities. In addition, the notion of what community means in universities is not well-understood. For example, the National Student Survey asks students if they ‘feel part of a community of staff and students’, but this is not clearly defined.
Understanding what community is to students and staff in universities can help shape an understanding of how to facilitate well-being in a university community.
What is community well-being?
Community well-being is not the same as the sum of individual subjective or psychological well-being in a given community. In a conceptual review, What Works Well-beingused the following working definition of community well-being as “the combination of social, economic, environmental, cultural, and political conditions identified by individuals and their communities as essential for them to flourish and fulfil their potential.”
In order for universities to facilitate a sense of community well-being, first we have to understand what community means to students and staff in Higher Education. Then we can develop a framework for conceptualising and defining universitycommunity well-being, that will inform how we measure whole-university well-being from a whole-university perspective, and evaluate initiatives developed to improve this.
What is the goal of the proposed PhD Project?
In line with the What Works Well-being guidance for developing a framework of community well-being, this project aims to
develop a model of university community well-being, and
develop an initial measure of university community well-being.
We hope to do this through a combination of methods, such as qualitative interviews, Delphi surveys, psychometric research and online surveys
What skills and knowledge does the PhD candidate need?
We would love to work with someone who feels passionate about well-being in universities, and is keen to further our understanding.
You should possess a sound grounding in quantitative and qualitative research methods but have ambition to extend your skills into other research design methods
Applicants will normally have a track record of academic achievement in psychology or a related discipline, demonstrated by a first class or upper second undergraduate honours degree and/or a master’s degree (or equivalent)
About the supervisors
Alyson is an Associate Professor in the psychology department and is on the leadership team of the UKRI-funded network SMaRteN, which focuses on student mental health and well-being. Alyson has led a published scoping review (see further reading), UK-wide stakeholder consultation, and a forthcoming SMaRteN report on measuring well-being in a student population. She chairs a Special Interest Group on this topic. Alyson is also a partner on the Office for Students Challenge Competition project Brighter, which is evaluating student well-being interventions.
Libby is an Associate Professor of learning and teaching and the deputy head of the psychology department at Northumbria. She has a strong interest in student community and well-being, the transition to university, the use of technology in Higher Education and academic staff development. Libby works across disciplines on projects related to student well-being, what community means, and how these feed into university strategy.
Lisa is a Senior Lecturer in the psychology department, Associate Director of the Psychology and Communication Technology (PaCT) Research Group, chair of the Psychology Department’s Athena Swan team, and Fellow of the HEA. Prior to her lectureship appointment, she was a Senior Researcher for three successive multidisciplinary EPSRC projects- one in particular, ReelLives, explored the ways in which individuals could take ownership of their digital identity. Her research interests lie within Psychology and Human Computer Interaction (HCI)- the role of technologies in life transitions, student community and well-being, self-presentation online and authenticity.
More information and how to apply
If you’d like to discuss the opportunity, please contact the principal supervisor, Alyson Dodd (Alyson.dodd@northumbria.ac.uk). Details on how to submit an application are below. We’ve added some useful reading for prospective candidates at the end of the post
The advert for the post can be found here, this includes full eligibility requirements. As part of the application process you will need to submit a 1000 word proposal of how you would approach the project by 18th February 2022
Full details of the application process can be found here
Northumbria University Psychology Department 