INPSYCH Newsletter - Issue 1 oct 2014

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SUMMER 2014 EDITION

Welcome to the first edition of ‘InPsych’, Staffordshire University’s Psychology newsletter. We hope to keep you up to date with new and exciting developments; whether you’re a prospective student, current student or alumni. If you are a prospective student make sure you get along to one of our open days this term so you can get a feel for the living and learning experience of what it is to be a student here at Staffs. If you’re a current student then we hope you will be excited about all the new things going on and what’s on the horizon.

We start the semester with our BSc(Hons) Psychology degree achieving a fabulous 94% student satisfaction in the National Student Survey. This puts us in the top 10% of Psychology degrees in England.

INPSYCH PSYCHOLOGY NEWS, STORIES, AND EVENTS

As we continue to grow we also have some great new enthusiastic academic staff starting this term. Not only will these enhance your learning experience they will continue to make your degree academically stimulating. Over the summer we have been investing in lots of learning resources including “clickers” to help your learning and teaching, aid feedback and support your engagement in class. This is just a small part of the investment we have been putting into our learning and teaching.

Enjoy your semester, make sure you read lots, work hard, get involved and then read some more!

Dr Peter Jones Head of School

STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY PSYCHOLOGY SPORT AND EXERCISE STUDENTS ARE HIGHLY SATISFIED IN 2014 NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY Undergraduate students from the School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise have voted overwhelmingly that they are highly satisfied with their degrees at the Staffordshire University in this year’s National Student Survey (NSS).

The NSS is a nationwide annual survey completed by all final year students in UK Universities, so it gives a true reflection and insight of the student experience of studying at University. Two of our flagship awards received extremely high satisfaction rates; BSc Psychology received 94% student satisfaction while BSc Sport and Exercise Science 100% student satisfaction respectively. Both of these awards are in the top 10% of their degrees in all of England.

Find out more about our Psychology awards at: www.staffs.ac.uk/psychology

“This really shows that our students have a great experience of studying here at Staffs and benefit from inspiring teaching and great facilities.”

Judy David, Head of Undergraduate Psychology

UNIQUE 2nd Annual Conference for Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology Students The Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology held its 2nd Annual Conference at Staffordshire University on 26th June 2014 to showcase the research currently being conducted by postgraduate students studying for their Stage 2 Professional Doctorate Health Psychology qualification.

“The annual conference was a celebration of the hard-work our trainee health psychologists put into their research and also an opportunity for our students to showcase their work. All our trainees delivered high quality; innovative and motivating presentations shared good research practice and also baked some wonderful homemade cake which was enjoyed by all!”

Dr Rachel Povey, co-director of the Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology

The conference included four sessions of research papers presented by current Professional Doctorate students followed by a keynote talk by new Professor of Health Psychology Karen Rodham.

The first session consisted of papers focusing on applications of health psychology and was opened with a motivating and dynamic presentation from Christopher Tomkinson entitled “Singing, Sexuality and Social Support”. In the second session, our trainee health psychologists presented a series of talks on their systematic literature reviews.

This session included a very interesting and useful talk by Sarah Thurgood who shared some practical and useful tips for conducting systematic reviews which are a key research methodology in Health Psychology.

The afternoon session focused on the diversity and application of health psychology in different settings and was opened by Szilvia Vas who presented her research on developing an online intervention to deal with issues surrounding body image for people diagnosed with cancer. Finally Professor Rodham provided

an interesting and thought-provoking keynote speech on her research into how individuals manage and cope with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

More details about the BPS Accredited Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology and the MSc in Health Psychology can be found at www.staffs.ac.uk/psychology

NEW RESEARCH INTO APPEARANCE EVALUATION

AND CANCER RISK BEHAVIOURS Dr Alison Williams and Professor David Clark-Carter of Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology have recently published an article based on their research collaboration with Harvard Medical School. The article, titled “Negative Appearance Evaluation Is Associated With Skin Cancer Risk Behaviours Among American Men and Women” has recently been published in “Health Psychology”, an official journal of the American Psychological Society (APA) and one of the highest impact journals for health psychology research.

The research team found that skin cancer risk (i.e., number of hours spent outside for those with a history of severe sunburn and who were unlikely to use sunscreen) was significantly associated with participants’ gender, appearance evaluation (how important one’s appearance is to them), and the interaction between gender and appearance evaluation.

The results indicated that both men and women who negatively evaluated their appearance were at significantly increased skin cancer risk. Interestingly, this was particularly true for men, with men spending significantly more hours in the sun, compared to women. This research has some important implications for improving how individuals protect themselves from skin damage via sun exposure and helping individuals avoid long-term negative health and potential skin cancer. This study adds to the skin protection research conducted at the Centre for Health Psychology and suggests that interventions which tailor messages towards people’s level of appearance focus might help encourage these individuals to use more skin protection.

The research team submitted the paper for peer review by the Health Psychology journal and were thrilled to hear that it had been accepted for publication. The

Staffordshire team all enjoyed working collaboratively on this paper with Dr Aaron Blashill and are proud of the finished result.

SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY, SPORT AND EXERCISE

PROFESSOR KAREN RODHAM JOINS THE SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY, SPORT AND EXERCISE Karen has recently moved to the Midlands from the University of Bath.

She is busy making connections locally by serving on the West Midlands Research for Patient Benefit Regional Advisory Committee. She is also in the process of setting the Stoke branch of the West Midlands Psychology-in-thePub. This is a monthly event where a psychologist speaks about their work and its impact, and takes questions from the audience.

Karen’s Research Interests Karen’s research focuses on understanding how people cope with difficult healthrelated situations. Interviews, discussions and observations help her to learn what helps or hinders peoples’ ability to cope. As a researcher, she builds theory and shares her knowledge with fellow academics. As a practitioner, she makes sure that her research has practical application in the real world for practising health psychologists as well as policy-makers. As a teacher, she shares her learning from both academia and practice to ensure that tomorrow’s health psychologists (whom she is training) are informed about evidence-based practice.

Karen’s Interests In her free time, she is a keen hill-walker and has a professional mountain leader qualification. She often takes young people completing the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, or who are members of the scout and guide associations, to the hills to teach them navigation and camp craft skills. When she is not traipsing about the mountains, she is curled up with a good book and (depending on the time of day), a cup of jasmine tea or a glass of vino.

The training day covered issues associated with the difficulties of motivating patients to change their diets and equips nurses with useful strategies for encouraging patients to make and maintain dietary changes. It was based around a Resource Pack for practice nurses which has been developed by Dr Rachel Povey and colleagues.

RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIP

MODULE LAUNCHES

SEPTEMBER 2014 Psychology students at Staffordshire University will soon have the opportunity to be involved in cutting edge research conducted by their lecturers as part of the new Research Assistantship module.

This new module, launching in September 2014, gives Level 5 students a very valuable opportunity to help set-up, conduct and analyse brand new research working alongside research active staff in Psychology.

A wide range of projects, reflecting the Psychology academic staff’s wide range of research interests, will be available in the new module, with projects being conducted in diverse areas such as mental health, sports psychology, face recognition and personality.

MOTIVATING DIETARY CHANGE FOR PEOPLE WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES To help address the growing problems associated with type 2 diabetes, academics from Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology held a one day training day for practice nurses on how to motivate dietary change amongst their patients who have type 2 diabetes.

The event was held in July and led by Senior Lecturer Dr Rachel Povey and postgraduate researcher Lisa Cowap.

UNDERGRADUATE

Dr Povey stated “The Resource Pack contains a number of psychological “tools” which can be used in practice to help patients to make positive changes to their diet.”

“Type 2 diabetes is an increasingly growing problem in the UK, accounting for between 85 and 95 per cent of people with diabetes. This course is specifically designed to help nurses deal with issues associated with motivating their patients to change their diets.”

Lisa Cowap, Postgraduate Researcher added, “the pack has already been positively evaluated by health professionals: and we have had very impressive feedback on how good a resource it is.”

Judy David, Academic Lead for Psychology said “We are keen to give our Psychology Undergraduates a taste of what they might experience as a Psychology professional. This is a great way of enabling students to work with staff on small research projects so staff can get some help with their research and students gain experience in working in a research environment.”

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WELCOME In addition to Professor Karen Rodham, we have a number of great new staff joining us in September.

Dr Benjamin Dering, Benjamin joins us from a position as a Research Impact Fellow at the University of Stirling. Benjamin’s background is in cognitive neuroscience, with particular interests in language, bilingualism and face processing.

Dr Blerina Kellezi. Blerina joins us from a position as a Research Fellow at Nottingham University.

Blerina’s background is in social psychology, with particular interests in resilience, coping and identity in war survivors, refugees and survivors of torture.

Dr Joanne Lloyd. Joanne joins us from a position as a Researcher at the University of Oxford. Joanne’s background is in psychopathology, with particular interests in psychopathologies and in internet gambling.

Dr Sarah Rose. Sarah joins us from a position as a Teaching Fellow at Keele University. Her background is in Developmental psychology, with particular interests in childrens’ drawing.

It is such a pleasure and privilege to have these skilled and enthusiastic new staff joining our Psychology team.

CLASS OF 2014 CONGRATULATIONS

OPEN DAY DATES Open Days are a great way to find out more about the courses you are interested in and to see what university life will be like.

Come and see us at one of our next open days Sunday 12 October 2014 Saturday 15 November 2014 Saturday 6 December 2014

HAVE A STORY? We are always looking to share news from the School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise from students and staff. If you have a story you would like to share please email: psemarketing@staffs.ac.uk

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Whether you’re considering coming to study Psychology at Staffordshire University, already a proud enrolled student or just want to keep in the loop about our latest research and events, follow @StaffsPsych.