The Psychologist January 2022 by The Psychologist

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psychologist january 2022

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psychologist january 2022

contact The British Psychological Society 48 Princess Road East Leicester LE1 7DR 0116 254 9568 info@bps.org.uk www.bps.org.uk the psychologist and research digest www.thepsychologist.org.uk www.bps.org.uk/digest www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk psychologist@bps.org.uk Twitter: @psychmag Download our iOS/Android apps advertising Display: Engage with 50,000+ psychologists across BPS communication channels 020 7880 6213 bps-sales@redactive.co.uk Recruitment: Promote your campaign to the largest audience of qualiﬁed psychologists 020 7880 6224 jobsinpsychology@redactive.co.uk december 2021 issue 56,928 dispatched cover Getty Images environment Printed by PCPLtd

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.

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www.thepsychologist.org.uk

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

The Psychologist needs you! We rely on your submissions throughout the publication, and in return we help you to get your message across to a large and diverse audience. For details of all the available options, plus our policies and what to do if you feel these have not been followed, see www.thepsychologist.org.uk/contribute The main message, though, is simply to engage with us. Contact the editor Dr Jon Sutton on jon.sutton@bps.org.uk, or tweet us on @psychmag.

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

Associate Editors Articles Paul Curran, Michelle Hunter, Rebecca Knibb, Adrian Needs, Peter Olusoga, Blanca Poveda, Paul Redford, Sophie Scott, Mark Wetherell, Jill Wilkinson History of Psychology Alison Torn Culture Kate Johnstone, Chrissie Fitch Books Emily Hutchinson Voices in Psychology Madeleine Pownall Psychologist and Digest Editorial Advisory Committee Richard Stephens (Chair), Dawn Branley-Bell, Kimberley Hill, Sue Holttum, Deborah Husbands, Miles Thomas, Layne Whittaker

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psychologist january 2022

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02 Letters Pathocracy, continued; diversity; and we hear from the President and Chief Executive 10 News Senate theme; and Adam Jowett talks conversion therapy 18 Digest Towards a ‘rich’ 2022; gaming; race; and more

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26 The Psychologist Guide to… finding meaning Ella Rhodes hears from psychologists with evidencebased tips

32 So you survived a brain tumour… what next? Rachael Simms-Moore was one of the lucky few. So why didn’t she feel it?

36 New Year’s expectations Our beliefs can powerfully shape our reality, says David Robson. Here’s how to make a positive self-fulfilling prophecy in 2022…

52 ‘Asking the provocative questions is the real value we add’ We meet Jonathan Passmore, Chair of the new Division of Coaching Psychology

58 A glimpse of our potential We meet Steve Taylor, past Chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section

40 ‘It’s a process that starts with simmering dissatisfaction’ Identity and transition in our working lives, with Herminia Ibarra

60 Jobs in psychology Featured job, latest vacancies

62 Books Hugh Koch on thinking back positively; reviews; extracts

44 Talent liberation Maggi Evans on a way to tackle the ‘Great Resignation’ and record vacancies

68 Culture Pete Olusoga is joined on his podcast by John Amaechi; plus Pig and Maid

48 Personality – a question of habit Peter Warr

72 One on one Judith Eberhardt

‘The neurotic sets to work to mold himself into a supreme being of his own making. He holds before his soul his image of perfection and unconsciously tells himself: “Forget about the disgraceful creature you actually are; this is how you should be; and to be this idealized self is all that matters. You should be able to endure everything, to understand everything, to like everybody, to be always productive”.’ That’s German Psycholanalyst Karen Horney on what she called ‘the tyranny of the should’. I would wager many of us feel the weight of that tyranny more around New Year. So a theme I see in this issue is that while there are plenty of goals you could set yourself for 2022, maybe don’t lose too much sleep feeling you should. How we view a ‘psychologically rich’, meaningful life, and the expectations we have around targets, are crucial elements of change in our personal and work lives. Here’s to another year of being disgraceful creatures, liberated from the tyranny of the shoulds. Dr Jon Sutton Managing Editor @psychmag

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The idiot’s lantern, march of hierarchy and a ‘necessary evil’?

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Steve Taylor’s brilliant piece ‘The Problem of Pathocracy’ (November issue) raised a number of important and relevant issues not only relevant to contemporary politics but also that of the last five decades. While it is important to understand the symptoms of pathocracy at the individual level (of those who seek to gain power at any cost), it is equally important to consider the wider social and cultural factors which may, or may not, contribute to the rise of pathocracy. Taylor does not mention the role of traditional and modern media, both essential to our understanding of how those with ‘dark triad’ traits not only get close to power but even gain power in the first place. After the Second World War, the age of television began to emerge. While many politicians embraced the medium, the post-war Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee disliked it, describing it as ‘an idiot’s lantern’ and he wanted as little to do with it as possible. Attlee may have foreseen the consequences of the television age, possibly based on other world leaders’ use of the big screen, such as the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, when Goebbels used it for Nazi Propaganda (Sigman, 2007). Attlee would now be turning in his grave. Since then, more and more politicians have used television, and recently, social media, for election campaigns, mass appeal, publicity and PR stunts. Examples include Thatcher’s 1979 election campaign videos showing her purchasing fruit and vegetables and doing light housework in the kitchen, a bit of gardening and even using a feather duster during a speech to the Tory Party Conference; Boris Johnson riding on a zipwire carrying two Union Jack flags; Bill Clinton playing the saxophone and drilling a hole in a wall during the Presidential election campaigns; and David Cameron’s famous ‘hugging huskies’. Publicity stunts are more for

political gain than for any meaningful purpose. Taylor rightly mentions Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’, and along with ‘Get Brexit Done’ and ‘Take Back Control’ in the UK, this ‘sloganising’ is a symptom as well as a cause of pathocractic government. The emergence of soundbite culture, which television was frequently criticised for, plays to people’s emotions and not their intellect. As Psychologists, we need to be concerned about the culpability of much of the media in helping such leaders get into power. It has become progressively easier to manipulate the public into going against their own best interests. But as Frances (2017) mentions, it says a lot about a society that elects someone who is not fit or prepared for public office. Trump is a symptom of a distressed world, not only the cause. Blaming the likes of Trump, Johnson or Thatcher overlooks the underlying societal sickness that resulted in their triumphs. All political systems are susceptible in one way or another to pathocracy, and as Taylor points out, the checks and balances do little, if anything to prevent ruthless and amoral people attaining power. In the UK, the boarding schools have a lot to answer for and extensive research by Schaverian (2015), Duffell (2014) and Renton (2018) found that those who went to such schools suffered great psychological trauma, even though some prefer to repress it, with implications for later adult life and occupational settings. Without understanding the role of social and cultural conditions, it will become harder to reduce the risk of a pathocracy developing in the first place. Daniel MacInerney BSc (Hons) MSc MBPsS Working in management in a logistics company Wimbledon

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the psychologist january 2022 letters

Tim Sanders

I am sure that many of us, like Steve Taylor, have been deeply troubled by the rise of apparently malevolent dictators in recent years and wondered what could be done about it. But I am extremely uneasy about the suggestion that we resort to psychological assessment. I fear that such thoughtways perpetuate the very hierarchical structures that are the ‘cause’ of the problem (e.g. Raven, 2008). What is more, I fear that the figures Taylor cites re the prevalence of the problem within organisations greatly underestimate the true situation. I suspect that Hogan’s (1990) estimate that 70 per cent of us have found ourselves working for ‘an impossible boss’ provides a better index of the extent of the problem posed by ‘snakes in suits’. Furthermore, I fear that our social services, ‘educational’ services, and police employ a huge number of people who behave in autocratic and destructive fashions which destroy the lives and livelihoods of many of those they are intended to serve (witness the film I, Daniel Blake.) Beyond that, our society seems pervaded by a form of fascism wherein many people believe that they have a right to impose, by force if necessary, what they believe to be good or right on others regardless of the wishes of those others or the long-term effects on society. Conversely, huge numbers of people seem willing, almost instantly, to genuflect to (only partly

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apocryphal) leaders who ride up on white horses, kick out the king of the castle, and announce that they will now be our leader. Thousands then commit to following that leader to the end of time. In short, given the (apparently pervasive) disposition to behave in ‘dark triad’ type ways on the one hand and applaud such behaviour on the other, it does not seem to me that a way forward is to be found via assessment. Instead, we have to ask ourselves what are the social forces which promote what Bookchin (2005) has called the ‘inexorable onward march of hierarchy’. Such an enquiry suggests that we need to dismantle our hierarchical management structures and replace them by what are best termed ‘organic’ arrangements. These, as in the internal management of organisms, depend on multiple feedback loops and sensors gaining feedback from the environment (see e.g. Raven, 1995). Such arrangements largely eliminate the need for the cadre of people we currently refer to as politicians. We would not be the first to have addressed our minds to this question. Adam Smith was appalled by what he viewed as errors (necessarily) committed by the ‘committees of ignoramuses’ constituting centralised government. He suggested that these could be ameliorated by embracing the self-organising properties of the ‘marketplace’. This way, one could create a society which would innovate and learn without central direction (hierarchy). Smith’s solution does not, and cannot, work. Yet his question is vitally important. And it is surely up to organisational psychologists to come up with an alternative answer. It is vital to the survival of our species and it would certainly provide an alternative way of ameliorating the problems highlighted by Taylor. John Raven Edinburgh www.eyeonsociety.co.uk Find references, the full version of Daniel MacInerney’s piece and Steve Taylor’s response to December letters online.

Calling 1972 Glasgow alumni Did you graduate with honours in psychology from the University of Glasgow in 1972? If so, read on. In 2022 we celebrate our 50th anniversary and we are planning to have a reunion at the university on Saturday 14 May. The Alumni Association have offered to give us a tour in the afternoon, and we will have an informal dinner in the evening. There have been so many major changes since ‘our day’. We will have lots

of memories to share. We had no mobile phones, no internet and used a computer the size of an office to scramble the data for our undergraduate projects. In an era when seven per cent of school leavers went to university, we enjoyed a class of 27 so we all knew one another and had good relationships with the staff, aided by the annual reading parties in Crieff. We were lucky enough to have a heterogeneous group of students thanks to the joint honours system and the fact that psychology could be studied in the arts and the science faculties. It was a bonus that a sense of humour was ever-present, often borrowed from the themes of the time, in particular Monty Python. If you have a vague recollection of participating in a homemade movie focusing on ‘Silliness in Britain’ and performing silly walks on the roof of the Adam Smith building you are in danger of being one of our number! If you require further jogging of the memory trace, the above photo may help… Please make contact on: GUpsych72@gmail.com

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Closing the door on labels? I was impressed by Lauren McGregor’s piece on neurodevelopmental diagnosis and the problem of satisfying the parents’ need to have a label when their child is experiencing difficulties (December issue). As a special needs teacher with 30 years’ experience of supporting children with specific learning difficulties I, too, found a diagnosis or label was what most families wanted. In some cases, where both parents work long hours and there is little time for anything more than organising their children, I was struck by the relief that they experienced on getting a label, and felt that it allowed them to abdicate responsibility for their child’s behaviour. A kind of, ‘it’s not our fault then, that he’s difficult in social situations, he’s on the spectrum so there’s nothing that can be done’. Strategies for supporting the child should be part and parcel of the diagnosis, as in my experience, these children need more parenting not less. When a child of seven is given an IQ score, psychologists tell the parents that this represents what the

child is capable of for a six-month period. Why, then, does a diagnosis of ADHD at the same age become a permanent fixture of that child’s learning profile? Surely the same time frame should be allocated to specific difficulties as, often, they represent an immaturity in specific areas of function, rather than a permanent state. This is especially true if interventions are put in place at home and in school to support the child in reframing their behaviour. It would be better for psychologists to describe the child’s individual difficulties such as: ‘Bertie is having difficulty making risk assessments at the moment and this is preventing him from making

from the president and the chief executive Dear Members, It is a pleasure to write to you at the beginning of a new year. One which, we hope, will be filled with new energy. With the continued challenges of Covid-19, the last 12 months have been, without a doubt, turbulent ones for us all as they have been for the BPS. For all of us, this has meant adjusting to new ways of

age-appropriate decisions regarding danger. We will need to talk through the consequences of running on the road, climbing on the roof etc. so that he can make better judgements about his physical safety in the future.’ Breaking down a child’s difficulties into bite-sized chunks and offering strategies for supporting them would surely provide parents with hope for a better outcome (and engage them in the process) rather than giving them a label and closing the door on progress. What are your views? Katina Offord Special needs teacher

working, managing increased workloads, and coping with some of the unanticipated, as well as anticipated, attendant anxieties thrown up by the pandemic. Navigating the contours of this new, and rapidly changing, landscape has undoubtedly been challenging, but it has also provided us with the opportunity here at the Society to be active in our reflection. We believe such a large organisation as ours, which strives to protect and promote the interests of members representing so many different domains of Psychology, needs to stand united in the face of the multiple global challenges of our era. Above all, these difficult times have reminded us of the importance of placing listening and sharing at the heart of everything we do. 2021 saw the development of a new interim strategy that sought to positively articulate our many commonalities and shared raison d’être. As a professional body and a learned Society, we remain committed to advancing evidence-based Psychology to make a profound and lasting impact for all our members and for society at large. In several new ways, however, we have also broadened our intentions; or at least found ways to articulate our goals more inclusively, precisely, and purposefully. Most importantly, we now, for the first time, explicitly recognise

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the psychologist january 2022 letters

The benefits of online teaching

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I read with interest Ella Rhodes’ article ‘Preparing for the new teaching term’, outlining the experiences of academics in finding innovative ways of supporting students in their learning during the pandemic (October issue). I can give equally positive feedback from the school experience of teaching and learning online. I was approached in November 2020 by a former colleague who had become the Headteacher of a secondary school in the Midlands. She related to me the difficulties the school had encountered in recruiting a maternity cover teacher for A level Psychology for January to December 2021. The usual avenues had proved unfruitful, people being naturally unwilling to relocate mid-pandemic for a position which would finish halfway through the academic year, with

the successful candidate potentially facing six months of unemployment afterwards. I now live in Portugal, having relocated here after teaching Psychology for 25 years in UK schools, and together we worked out a way of making the online teaching both practical and enriching. Using GoogleMeet, I was able to teach large classes even during lockdown. I found that students, working in the comfort and privacy of their own bedrooms, without the distractions of others in a classroom environment, were able to focus much more effectively. It also became apparent that, for some of the more reticent and shy students, contributing verbally on screen was much less daunting than speaking in front of the whole group in a classroom. I would also endorse Dr Nordmann’s view in the article that online chat boxes provide a very comfortable way for students to interact with me and each other. Inclusivity and flexibility increased using online methods, and greater responsibility was taken by students for independent learning. The lack of social contact was without doubt a major burden for the students, but breakout rooms and small group activities made it possible to build a sense of community and belonging. It is the school’s intention to make this innovative solution to its recruitment difficulties more widely known. After all, there is a great wealth of expertise amongst retired teachers and other academic staff who may have moved on to other things. Using technology creatively in this way enables everyone to benefit. Sheila Thomas Obidos

the centrality of our members as the beating heart of the Society. We know from our member research that we are a broad church, from a wide range of professional and personal backgrounds, facing disparate challenges, working at different stages of our individual and collective journeys. This rainbow spectrum of experiences and knowledge bases is, we believe, our strength and should be celebrated. Accordingly, our new strategy centralises our commitment to inclusivity: acknowledging, reflecting and championing our differences. Our strategy also reflects the necessity for collective working. Indeed, the impact we achieved together – bridging disciplines – at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, powerfully demonstrated the important role Psychology as a unified discipline can play in shaping attitudes and responses. Many of you participated in our work undertaken by Korn Ferry and we heard your concerns around an ‘us’ and ‘them’ dynamic between different areas of our collective. We also heard the calls you made for us to lead in encouraging intra- and inter-disciplinary integration. At the Senate meeting in November 2021, we tackled these concerns ‘head on’ and confirmed our united mission to work together as one meta discipline. To be clear, this does not mean we will champion a ‘one-size

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fits all’ approach. We do not want to stifle the amazing productivity and inspiration achieved within disciplines and domains of practice. But we do nevertheless want to acknowledge that, in certain situations, standing together we can be stronger and have greater impact. We have listened to you our members and are committed to building a culture of togetherness. These are ambitious goals, and we recognise that any new strategic commitment presents new challenges. Progressive and purposeful change is rarely plain sailing. The changes we have outlined will mean new ways of working, and new lessons to be learned. For them to work we will need to be open, flexible, and reflective to meet these challenges. We can commit from the outset, however, always to do our best to communicate openly and transparently, and to be the sharer of good news and bad. This will take courage, but we both believe that by pledging our full accountability to our members we can only strengthen the trust between us. This is our commitment – please join us! Katherine Carpenter President, the British Psychological Society Sarb Bajwa Chief Executive

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Campaign to level up T

he British Psychological Society’s Senate has voted take on a campaign which will aim to tackle social and class-based inequalities. Put forward by the Psychology of Women and Equalities, Community Psychology and Social Psychology sections of the BPS, the campaign will look at ways social class could be included as a protected characteristic in the UK Equality Act.

Agency and empowerment to ‘level up’ People in poverty should be helped to overcome a ‘psychologically based poverty trap’, according to a new briefing paper published by the Society. It urges policymakers to develop policies that will help ‘level up’ the ability of those living in poverty to change their situation, namely by empowering people and giving them agency. This means backing a real living wage, say psychologists with the publication of From poverty to flourishing: Agency and empowerment. The paper – which you can read via tinyurl.com/y83k4c8h – also highlights the link between children going hungry, poor educational attainment and subsequent life chances. It adds that as well as individuals benefiting, this approach is a ‘constructive and beneficial response for society as a whole’. 10

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Each year the BPS Senate, formed of chairs of the society’s board of trustees and the chairs of its branches, divisions, sections and special groups, are presented with a choice of three policy themes to focus on for the upcoming year. Last year’s campaign From Poverty to Flourishing, ran for two years in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic (see our special summer 2021 edition). This year, the sections argued, a campaign to tackle social and class-based inequalities was timely. The 2021 Queen’s Speech highlighted a need to ‘level up’ opportunities across social classes and evidence has shown the role of social class in exacerbating the effects of the pandemic – including on infection rates, illness and deaths. ‘The disjoint between policymakers blaming people, primarily in low-income areas, for not following social distancing and self-isolation rules, and evidence showing that a lack of economic support constrains the ability to adhere to such rules… shows policy lags research,’ the proposal’s authors wrote. They also pointed out that the Equality Act 2010, which protects characteristics including sex, race and disability, does not provide the same protection for social class or socioeconomic status

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the psychologist january 2022 news

Wellbeing and social support

See also: tinyurl.com/barrierstopsych tinyurl.com/classconvers tinyurl.com/classprotect

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– potentially leading to discrimination. They wrote that companies may still not employ a person due to a regional accent or school background, councils and health authorities can give more money and healthcare resources to certain areas, and teachers may be biased against children due to their socio-economic status. ‘All of these practices are legitimated within the current law and legislation. In addition, reporting of class-based inequalities, such as education gaps, health care gaps, and pay gaps is not mandatory. Therefore, organisations and institutions are not motivated to collect data or implement training and recruitment practices that acknowledge social class-based discrimination, which inhibits the ability of working class people to legally challenge such discrimination.’ There is some psychological research which has explored the impact of class-based discrimination and its negative impacts. This evidence, the authors of the proposal suggested, could be used to argue for the inclusion of social class into the Equality Act. The campaign will aim to focus on four main areas, where there is evidence for revising the Equality Act to include social class – education, health and healthcare, business and industry, and communities and housing. BPS President Katherine Carpenter said in a statement that the time for this campaign was now. ‘By including social class as a protected characteristic within the UK Equalities Act people are afforded the same legal protection as with other protected characteristics. This is an important step in eliminating those invisible barriers that get in the way of people achieving their potential. If we really want a country that is truly ‘levelled up’, eliminating the discrimination associated with social class is a great step forward.’ The campaign team will include many academics with working class backgrounds, and among other things plan to consider evidence of intersectionality in their work – or the extra pressures faced by working class people who are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and LGBT+ people. They have an aim to publish two position papers which will include a review of the psychological literature on class-based discrimination and recommendations on including class in the Equality Act. er

A study of more than 10,000 teenagers has explored the links between perceived social support and wellbeing. The study, from UCL and the Anna Freud Centre’s Evidence Based Practice Unit, used data from the National-Lottery funded HeadStart programme to find out whether perceived social support changes over time and its impact on wellbeing. An earlier evidence briefing, which also used data from HeadStart, found that between early and midadolescence girls showed an increase in mental health difficulties alongside decreases in subjective wellbeing – a pattern which was not seen in boys overall. In this work researchers analysed longitudinal data from 10,888 young people who completed a HeadStart wellbeing measure annually from 2017 until 2019 – between year seven (when aged 11 or 12) and year nine (aged 13 or 14). They found that during adolescence levels of perceived support from school and the community declined, while support at home and from peers was more stable. Looking at differences between boys and girls, the researchers found that girls in year seven felt they had more support from home, school, peers and the community than boys and in year nine girls also reported more support from their peers compared to boys, however boys felt they had more support from school than girls. By year 9 there were no significant differences between levels of perceived support from home or the community. The researchers said their evidence suggested that wellbeing and perceived social support were related – in years seven and year nine more support from home, school, peers, and the community was correlated with better wellbeing. er To read the full evidence briefing see: tinyurl. com/2y6fthf5

Psychologists make impact Lorraine Sherr, Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology at University College London, is part of the team that scooped the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC’s) prestigious Panel’s Choice prize for 2021. The £10,000 award – part of the Celebrating Impact Prize for ESRC-funded work – was given to the ‘COVID-19 Parenting Emergency Response’ team, led by Professor Lucie Cluver at the University of

Oxford. The team’s multi-agency initiative has supported families in 198 countries to cope with challenges raised by the pandemic, reaching 196.4 million people. Academic psychologist Professor Celia Kitzinger and her sister Jenny, both at Cardiff University, won the Outstanding Public Policy Impact for their project: ‘Changing the law to promote person-centred decisionmaking for “coma” patients’. sb

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Inquiry into reproducible science The UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) has responded to a government inquiry into reproducibility and research integrity. The UKRN, who are supported by the BPS as an affiliate stakeholder, submitted evidence to the inquiry from its steering group (chaired by Professor Marcus Munafò at the University of Bristol), member universities, local networks of researchers and university staff, and external stakeholders. The Science and Technology Committee launched its Inquiry on Reproducibility and Research Integrity in July last year (2021) and pointed to the risks that the reproducibility crisis, particularly in medical and social science research, posed to the reliability of evidence. It asked for evidence on the breadth of the crisis and areas of science where it is most prevalent, the causes, the roles of funders, institutions, groups and individual researchers, publishers, and governments in addressing this problem. Also considered was how the creation of a UKRI National Committee on Research Integrity could help. In their written evidence to the committee the UKRN’s institutional leads pointed out a need for training and funding to embrace transparent research practices and incentives for individuals and institutions to adopt them. The authors also said that practising research transparency would be different depending on discipline, and that a one-size fits all approach would not work.

The UKRN’s 57 local networks suggested that all parts of the research ecosystem should be coordinated and innovative, and promote a more positive incentive culture within research. They suggested four key areas for change, ‘Coordinating a positive culture, coordinating a unified stance, coordinating the foundations for open and transparent research practice, and coordinating the routinisation of open and transparent research practice.’ The 37 organisations which form the network’s stakeholders and includes funders, publishers, learned societies and professional organisations, pointed to the role of organisations in refining incentives and rewards, promoting behaviours including open research practices, and exploring innovations in funding and publishing as well as a coordination of such efforts. ‘Efforts to improve research quality will require investment, in infrastructure, training, and research on research to ensure that innovative solutions are evidence-based, and potential unintended consequences are explored (and avoided).’ Munafò and his colleagues on the steering group suggested that a UK Committee on Research Integrity could help to coordinate attempts to make science more reproducible and reliable across the whole ecosystem. ‘We recommend continued and widening support for collaborative approaches to addressing reproducibility by funding initiatives that enable the sharing of resources and best practices across discipline and institutions.’ Browse and search submissions from other collectives and psychologists such as Dorothy Bishop, via tinyurl.com/fhd8e8c er

Inaugural awards from student committee

Find more online, including: Creating safer night-time economies Kimberley Hill and Graham Towl argue that we must work together to change the culture. thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/creating-safer-night-timeeconomies

Virginia Lam reports from the first in a BPS-funded seminar series, ‘Growing Up Bilingual: Research and practitioner synergies’. thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/beginnings-bilingualbridges

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The BPS Student Committee has announced the first ever winners of two awards to celebrate the achievements of its members and the professionals who support them. Professor Niamh Stack (University of Glasgow) won the Professional Award for Outstanding Support, and recent Teeside University graduate Tracy Bushnall won the Undergraduate Award for Outstanding Contribution. The professional award was created to honour professionals in psychology who have supported the Student Committee or advocated for students at a national level. Stack, also chair of the BPS Education and Training Board, said in an interview for the student newsletter, ‘This

award means so much, particularly after the last 18 months. It has been the most challenging of times to work within psychology education and training at all levels, from secondary schools to undergraduates, to professional training qualifications through to maintaining professional development for established psychologists. ‘I am in awe of what students achieved in these circumstances but even more impressed by how students supported each other and supported us as staff… so to receive this acknowledgement from students at this time means so much.’ The undergraduate award aims to celebrate the work of undergraduate

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the psychologist january 2022 news

Big book review survey What is it about contemporary fiction that makes readers tick? This is the question a multidisciplinary team of researchers, including psychologist Dr Tom Mercer, have tried to answer with the largest survey of attitudes to fiction in English. The AHRC-funded team from the University of Wolverhampton, led by Chair of English Literature Professor Sebastian Groes, launched the Big Book Review survey with a UK tour including Belfast, Exeter, Glasgow, Swansea and the Birmingham Literary Festival. They asked members of the public to complete their survey as well as asking readers about their guilty pleasure reads Tom Mercer and book-related secrets using a literary confessions box. An experimental cognitive psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Mercer had previously worked with Groes on the ‘Snidge Scrumpin’ project – which explored regional differences in the Proust phenomenon, where certain smells trigger childhood memories. Mercer said this experience had shown him the value of multidisciplinary work and was pleased to get involved with Novel Perceptions, which includes specialists in English literature, computational linguistics, social science, and psychology. The Novel Perceptions project has several strands and its main aim, Mercer said, is to gain an understanding of literary quality in two ways – through the Big Book Review Survey, and a computational analysis of the novels themselves. ‘We want to understand how readers evaluate contemporary and classic fiction and examine how this is connected to the characteristics of the novels, for example, aspects of the psychology students, or those who graduated within the last academic year, to students who have made a positive contribution to psychology, their local community, or who promoted student wellbeing. Recent psychology and counselling graduate Bushnall, also speaking to the student newsletter, said she thought the award was a mistake at first but felt happy and humble to have won. ‘The time I spent as a psychology student was intense and interesting. I met some fantastic student role models, who worked extremely hard to be at university in really difficult circumstances battling illness, working full time and managing a home and children, who kept me motivated and positive and I will always be grateful to them.’ er The student committee awards will return in 2022. For more information see www.bps.org.uk/ student-members/awards

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writing style such as sentence length. ‘Overall, the project aims to provide a reconsideration of the literary canon – the novels generally considered to be significant, high quality and worthy of academic study – as it is biased. By considering and addressing these biases, this project will encourage the creation of a more diverse and socially inclusive canon.’ This is not the first time that Mercer has explored the impacts of literature – some of his other research, Novel Memories, uses surveys to look into how people remember novels as well as the individual autobiographical memories that certain novels trigger. ‘As people think about their favourite novels, they are reminded about their life at the time of reading. This might include the people, places, and events from that period. This has made a nice link with our earlier “Snidge Scrumpin’” project – just as smells can trigger old memories, novels can work in the same way. Readers also seem to clearly remember the emotions they felt at the time of reading.’ Mercer said that, along with cognitive psychology, psychological research into stereotypes and biases is key in this work. ‘For instance, we will be able to explore how variables such as age, gender and social class may influence reading preferences. Finally, as much of the project uses surveys, the quantitative data analysis techniques commonly used in psychology are proving a real asset as we assess responses from our readers.’ The Big Book Review survey, which closes on Monday 31 January, is available here: survey.bigbookreview.co.uk/ To find out more about the work of the Novel Perceptions team, see: tinyurl.com/kaxdrvxc

Dr Ramesh Pattni has recently been presented with an OBE for services to interfaith relations and the Hindu community in the UK. A BPS member and trainee counselling psychologist, who previously studied yoga psychology for his PhD at Oxford University, Pattni was named in the Queen’s New Year Honours list in 2020 but his ceremony was delayed in the face of the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Pattni received his award from the Duke of Cambridge Prince William at Windsor Palace for his 20 years of work in interfaith relations. He founded the Hindu Christian Forum UK and is a former trustee of the Interfaith Network UK. Pattni has also worked as an advisor for the Hindu Help Hub, which he said was particularly active during the pandemic and provided services to vulnerable and isolated people. ‘I believe this honour is for the whole of the Hindu community. I proudly acknowledge the support of my entire family in the work I have been involved and thank them for their continued support and encouragement for this work. I dedicate this honour to all those who have supported me and my guides and mentors who have helped me in interfaith and community work.’

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‘They were told there was something wrong with them that could be healed’ Ella Rhodes spoke to Dr Adam Jowett (Coventry University), Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Psychology of Sexualities Section, about his recent government report on conversion therapy, and the ongoing consultation. How did you come to carry out the research on conversion therapy? Much of my research and teaching has focused on gender and sexuality and I’m currently Chair of the Sexualities Section, which provides a forum for psychologists whose work is relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT+) issues. I had already started to take a scholarly interest in the topic of conversion therapy in the UK and had presented at a conference some preliminary work looking at UK-based ‘ex-gay’ literature. In 2018, I heard that the Government was inviting expressions of interest to tender for a research project to conduct a rapid evidence assessment and a qualitative study into people’s experiences of conversion therapy in the UK. Together with a group of colleagues (including Dr Simon Goodman – now Chair of the BPS Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section) we submitted a bid and won the contract.

Dr Adam Jowett

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What types of ‘therapy’ does the term ‘conversion therapy’ encompass? ‘Conversion therapy’ is a colloquial term to describe any efforts to change, modify or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, irrespective of whether it takes place in healthcare, religious or other settings. The term ‘therapy’ may not accurately reflect the nature of all these practices. For this reason, the term ‘sexual orientation change efforts’ and ‘gender identity change efforts’ is often preferred in the scientific literature. When people hear the term conversion therapy, electric shock, and other aversive behavioural treatments conducted in the mid-20th century, is probably what springs to mind. But the most commonly documented forms of conversion therapy today take the form of spiritual and talking therapy approaches. It’s typically premised on the idea that being LGBT+ is some form of mental illness, addiction or a spiritual problem to be healed. So the methods often include things like ‘prayer healing’ or exorcisms, forms of psychotherapy that loosely draw on out-dated psychological approaches that pathologise gender and sexual minorities. Some providers of conversion therapy will often draw on a combination of spiritual and pseudoscientific ideas. Those who undergo conversion therapy are also often provided with materials such as books, videos or attend talks by conversion therapists that reinforce negative social stereotypes about LGBT+ people and characterise LGBT+ identities as disordered or a problem to be overcome. Who are the ‘therapists’ in conversion therapy? The Government’s national LGBT survey found over half of people who had undergone conversion therapy had it via a faith group organisation, although 19 per cent said it had been provided by a health professional and some experienced it from family members or people in their community. Most of the people we spoke to had experienced it within religious contexts. Some people described some quite traumatic experiences of exorcisms or humiliating experiences of being made to confess their sexual thoughts and behaviours publicly. But conversion efforts conducted by faith groups weren’t restricted to prayer. For example, many attended religious organisations offering pastoral ministry for people with same-sex attraction or gender incongruence. These organisations essentially provided non-professional forms of counselling, drawing on out-dated or pseudoscientific psychological ideas. Some also attended retreats or courses by organisations that presented themselves as secular, but often had links to religious groups. Others did describe being offered conversion therapy

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the psychologist january 2022 news by a professional therapist, but these were sometimes also described as being religious and would bring ‘healing’ prayer into the therapy session. In some cases, mental health professionals appeared to have assumed that the individual’s sexuality or gender identity was a symptom of a co-existing mental health condition (e.g. schizophrenia) and/or had heteronormative and cisnormative expectations for what returning to ‘normal’ should look like for these patients’ mental health recovery. This might suggest that mental health professionals really need more training on gender, sexuality and relationship diversity.

Some people do report some secondary benefits of conversion therapy, such as having the opportunity to talk about feelings they had previously kept secret and an opportunity to meet people in a similar situation to themselves who they could identify with. But such benefits aren’t unique to conversion therapy: they could be gained from approaches that provide support without the premise that being LGBT+ is a defect or deficiency. Ethical forms of support for LGBT+ people engage in open and explorative discussions in a non-directive way and provide non-judgemental support.

Did anything surprise you during the course of your research? I perhaps expected that more of the people we spoke to would have lost their faith as a result of what they’d been through. Most had left their previous faith community at great personal cost and some had lost their faith entirely. But many had gone on to achieve self-acceptance, reconciled their faith with being LGBT+ and found a faith community accepting of their LGBT+ identity. Debates over conversion therapy are often framed as a clash of LGBT rights and the rights of religious freedom, but the victims are often both LGBT and people of faith. Those we spoke to framed this issue in terms of “Some people described often safeguarding LGBT+ people within some quite traumatic faith communities and preventing experiences of exorcisms what they saw as forms of spiritual psychological abuse by people in or humiliating experiences and positions of trust and authority.

Are certain groups more likely to undergo conversion therapy? As you might expect from what I’ve just said, LGBT+ people of faith appear to be more likely to be offered or undergo conversion therapy. There is also some indicative evidence from the national LGBT survey and similar evidence from a Canadian study that transgender people and people of colour may be more likely to be offered or undergo conversion therapy.

Do people choose to undergo conversion therapy? Not always. Some people are coerced into it. For example, one young lesbian told us she was locked in a room for days by her parents until she agreed to undergo conversion efforts, and her father threatened to of being made to confess kill himself if she didn’t comply. Most, however, told us they had undergone their sexual thoughts and What about the public reaction to your report? conversion therapy ‘voluntarily’ but in behaviours publicly” The report has been well received by the face of powerful social pressures. most, particularly from conversion Many believed that being LGBT+ was therapy survivors and other incompatible with their faith and psychologists. I was, of course, expecting some criticism, religious identity: they had internalised stigma regarding particularly from those involved in the ‘ex-gay’ movement. their sexual orientation or gender identity or feared What I perhaps hadn’t anticipated at the outset was that being rejected by their families or whole communities. the most vocal critics would be people who describe They were also often following the guidance of people themselves as having ‘gender critical’ views. I’ve been at in positions of authority who told them that there was the sharp end of some abuse on Twitter due to the ferocity something wrong with them that could be healed, and of debate when it comes to anything related to gender that undergoing conversion therapy was the right thing to identity. Criticism from both ex-gay and gender critical do. movements have been broadly the same and largely focused on me. They’ve claimed that I’m biased because What kinds of outcomes of conversion therapy did you find I’m Chair of the Sexualities Section (for psychologists in this research? whose work focuses on LGBT+ issues) and because I’ve We found no robust evidence that conversion therapy can consistently opposed homophobia and transphobia. I’d change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, encourage people to judge the report on its own merits. but there is a growing body of evidence that undergoing it There’s been quite a lot of misinformation circulated is associated with poor mental health such as depression about the Memorandum of Understanding on conversion and suicidal thoughts. Most of the people we spoke to therapy, signed by over 20 professional bodies including had found it a harmful experience. It had generally made the BPS, and scaremongering that a ban on conversion them feel worse about themselves, resulting in feelings therapy might prevent therapists from engaging in of shame, low self-esteem and hopelessness when they exploratory discussions with clients about gender identity. experienced no change. The messages they were being I can understand why some people might be concerned given also appeared to exacerbate the internal conflicts when they read such suggestions. But this isn’t what the they were experiencing, rather than helping to resolve government are proposing, it isn’t what the MoU calls for them.

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to ensure that people are aware of what our findings were and what the government’s proposals are. The government have said they will How did the government respond to bring forward legislation by spring your report? 2022, when it will then be debated in Our job was to conduct independent “The UK government parliament. We’re engaging with the research to help inform the is not proposing to go Parliamentary Office of Science and government’s policy. But as we’ve Technology to ensure that MPs are seen throughout the pandemic, as far as some other aware of the report’s findings. The things are rarely as simple as countries and its plan issue of conversion therapy is also ministers ‘following the science’; a to not ban conversion a devolved matter in Scotland and range of political, legal and other Northern Ireland, and we’re already considerations influence government therapy for consenting starting to engage with the devolved policy. As part of our report, we adults is proving to be administrations. Of course, the law identified a range of measures controversial among is a blunt instrument and I think different jurisdictions have used real change will come from winning to address conversion therapy LGBT+ campaigners” hearts and minds, so I’m also keen which vary widely in scope. The UK to share our findings and engage government is not proposing to go as with practitioners and faith leaders far as some other countries and its around how they might better support the wellbeing of plan to not ban conversion therapy for consenting adults LGBT+ people. is proving to be controversial among LGBT+ campaigners. The government has published our report alongside their You can read the full report via tinyurl.com/govconv proposals so people can read the proposals in light of The public consultation closes at 11.45pm on Friday 10 the evidence, form their view and respond to the public December. See tinyurl.com/ybx64pjt consultation accordingly. The society will continue to engage with its coalition partners on the Memorandum of Understanding on What happens next? Conversion Therapy, as well as the BPS Sexualities Part of the reason the government has published our Section, Practice Board and Diversity Taskforce to report alongside the public consultation is for people to produce a response to the public consultation. form their own view of their proposals. So we’re trying and there is nothing in our report suggesting this.

Psychologists question ‘gaming disorder’

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With the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11) officially coming into effect on 1 January 2022, Professor Andrew Przybylski – Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute – reached out to them to understand how it came to classify ‘gaming disorder’ within it. The response stated that: ‘It is challenging if not impossible, to document and communicate the rationale and justification for [the gaming disorder] decision.’ Przybylski told us: ‘To create a brand new psychiatric disorder around a very popular activity… there are potentially human rights implications about play and communication, the right of children play… and the evidence isn’t particularly strong.’ Calling for ‘anyone taking money from governments to study gaming disorder’ to start sharing their data, Przybylski said: ‘Nobody just has gaming disorder. If 90 per cent of the population of teenage boys play video games, and some percentage of them have serious psychological problems, because of ‘the world’, a lot of them are going to also have a problem

playing video games. If there’s open data, we can unpick the causality question.’ He’s not optimistic. ‘If we don’t know what games are, we don’t know what the disorder is, and we just leave it up to national governments to define it and study it… there are other disorders that we’ve taken that have been politically questionable, that the evidence wasn’t great for, that we had to walk back from. They are some of the worst chapters in psychiatry.’ Asked if he had a message for other psychologists, Przybylski replied: ‘Psychologists are seeing this in practice. Nothing that’s happened has convinced me that games aren’t an important way to understand the interior and social lives of clients. People spend a lot of their time playing video games; we can ‘judge’ that if we’re a therapist or a counsellor, or we can try to understand it. As a characteristic, a passion like any other – like running, or playing the bass – it offers a road into understanding the interior life of a client. That doesn’t mean games are good for you, it means that for therapeutic alliances it’s a shared interest, you want to know about that. Read the full interview at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/ imagine-having-debate-about-addiction-glass-bottlesand-no-one-cared-what-was-inside-bottle

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the psychologist january 2022 news

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Resolving to have a ‘psychologically rich’ 2022? Emma Young digests the research

Editor: Dr Matthew Warren Writers: Emily Reynolds and Emma Young Reports, links and more on the Digest website

t’s natural to start a new year with plans to make this one better than the last. But if you are thinking about how to boost your wellbeing, it’s worth knowing that some ‘good’ ways of living have dark sides, too…

Happiness

People who are happy – who enjoy ‘hedonistic wellbeing’ – experience plenty of positive emotions and are generally pretty satisfied with life. If this sounds like something worth aiming for, then a word of caution: there’s plenty of evidence that striving to be happier can backfire. June Gruber and other authors of an influential review article published in Perspectives on Psychological Science back in 2011 concluded that while some of the strategies recommended for boosting happiness – such as taking time in the day to reflect on what you are grateful for – are far from bad in themselves, if you expect that they will make you feel noticeably happier, but find that they don’t, you can be left worse off than when you started. More recently, Aekyoung Kim and Sam Maglio from Rutgers concluded that people who pursue happiness can end up feeling that the time in the day to do what’s needed to achieve this is vanishing – which makes them more unhappy. Two of the lessons from research in this area: don’t start out with high expectations of how much happier you might become, and don’t feel that you should be devoting a lot of time to becoming happier. You might also want to look beyond happiness…

‘Meaning’

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Find our Research Digest at www.bps. org.uk/ digest

Happiness is one dimension of wellbeing. But there’s also ‘eudaimonia’ – the feeling that your life has meaning, and that you are reaching your potential. No end of studies have highlighted the importance of meaning. In 2019, for example, Andrew Steptoe and Daisy Fancourt at UCL published a study in PNAS finding that people who felt more strongly that the things they did in their life were worthwhile – in other words, that their lives had meaning – were better off in all kinds of ways: socially, physically and emotionally. However, a recent study by David Lane and Eugene Mathes in Personality and Individual Differences revealed that there can be downsides to meaning, too. The team’s study of university students found that those who perceived education and relationships as being meaningful reported more positive emotion – but also a greater fear of failure. ‘These

findings suggest that meaning in life may be associated with not only happiness, but also stress because of the worry over losing the meaningful experience,’ the researchers write. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pursue meaningful experiences, of course. But it does suggest that it’s sensible to prepare for the possibility that doing so may cause you some anxiety, as well. Still, that might not be a bad thing…

What is a good life, anyway?

Research into what makes some people feel that theirs is a ‘good life’ tends to focus on happiness and meaning. But last year, US-based psychologists Shigehiro Oshi and Erin Westgate argued that we’ve been missing a crucial third dimension: ‘psychological richness’ [see tinyurl.com/ digest140921]. A psychologically rich life is characterised

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by plenty of interesting and perspective-changing experiences. These need not be uniformly positive experiences. At their worst, they may even be traumatic at the time. When the researchers asked participants from nine different countries which type of life they would go for if they could only choose one, most chose ‘happy’, and ‘meaningful’ came second, but there was a ‘substantial minority’ of participants – ranging from 7 per cent in Singapore to 17 per cent in Germany – who said they would opt for a psychologically rich life above a happy or a meaningful one. For this group, at least, this most defines a ‘good life’ for them. And anyone wanting to pursue this type of life should be prepared for difficulties, as well as great times, along the way.

Mental calm

Maybe you’re starting to wonder whether it would be better to set aside the grand pursuit of a good life, and aim for something else instead. Like feeling calmer, perhaps? Mindfulness is often promoted as a way to achieve this. Indeed, there are plenty of studies finding that mindfulness can help even with mental health problems. However, as we first reported back in 2015 [see tinyurl. com/digmindful], and later explored in episode 15 of our PsychCrunch podcast in 2019, there are also reasons to be cautious. Mindfulness is not risk-free. For example, it doesn’t necessarily foster empathy and can even make narcissists worse, and while there is some work finding that it can improve decision-making, say, there’s also research concluding that it increases people’s susceptibility to false memories. Perhaps it was inevitable that something once so incredibly popular should experience a backlash. But if you haven’t tried mindfulness training before and are considering it for 2022, it’s worth knowing about the potential downsides, too.

If all fails…

If you do set yourself some goals for this year, and find that you don’t quite achieve your hoped-for levels of happiness, meaning, psychological richness, calmness – or even ‘just’ eating more healthily and exercising more – there is a way to mitigate the anxiety that might result. Last year, we looked at the latest research on how best to cope with failure [see tinyurl.com/digfailure]. The key recommendations included: • Be kind to yourself • Resist socially prescribed perfectionism • Don’t worry too much if you were over-confident – and wrong • Try not to take evidence of failure too personally In fact, if you are looking for some evidence-based ways of going about boosting your wellbeing in 2022, maybe this is the place to start. Because all of us, at some point, set ourselves goals that we don’t quite meet. One option is to stop setting goals. Another is to learn how to cope when not all work out – so you can reap the benefits of those that do.

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Massive study suggests gaming no threat to wellbeing Video games are perhaps one of the most politicised forms of entertainment media out there. In the decades since they were first created, governments, politicians, health bodies and beyond have voiced concerns that the amount of time some players spend in these virtual worlds could be detrimental to their mental health (see also p.16). Despite all this concern, there’s been a lack of highquality research into the effect of video games on player wellbeing. To remedy this situation, Matti Vuorre and colleagues at the University of Oxford, in collaboration with several large game publishers such as Nintendo and Square Enix, conducted an ambitious longitudinal study. These fears, they conclude in their recent preprint on PsyArXiv, are unfounded. In order to investigate whether longer play times had an impact on player wellbeing, the team recruited a massive 38,935 players of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Apex Legends, Eve Online, Forza, Gran Turismo, Outriders, and The Crew 2. Recruitment emails for this study targeted specifically English-speaking players from several countries. Over the course of six weeks, players were asked to answer three ‘waves’ of a survey, sent two weeks apart, containing measures of wellbeing and motivation. The first measure of wellbeing, a 13-point scale of positive and negative experiences (SPANE), asked participants how they had been feeling in the previous two weeks, and to rate how often they had experienced six positive and six negative feelings. The Cantril self-anchoring scale, in which participants rate their level of life satisfaction between 0 and 10, was also used to assess wellbeing. Players were also asked to reflect on their experiences playing the game over the past two weeks,

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by filling in the player experience and need satisfaction scale (PENS), which included questions on feelings of autonomy, competence, relatedness (for example, with other players), as well as motivation. Finally, participants were asked to give an estimate of the time they’d spent playing the video game they were recruited through for the previous two weeks (the games’ publishers also provided the research team with each participant’s actual total playtimes for these two weeks). Analyses looked at the relationship between hours played in one wave and wellbeing scores in the subsequent wave. Sifting through the data like this revealed that time spent playing these games had little to no apparent causal effect on wellbeing or life satisfaction. The effect was so small, the authors say, that if players went from their minimum play time to their maximum play time, their wellbeing scores would only shift by around 0.013 points on the SPANE scale. The impact on life satisfaction scores would be similarly tiny, shifting by just 0.02 points. These kinds of numbers are not indicative of any meaningful impact on wellbeing. Switching these two factors around to look at the effect of feelings and life satisfaction on play time, the team found that a one-point increase on the SPANE scale of wellbeing would lead to a 0.01 hour per week increase in play time. Similarly, life satisfaction had essentially no impact on duration of play, suggesting that there is no causal relationship between wellbeing and time spent gaming. In contrast, however, motivation to game was causally linked to wellbeing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when players wanted to engage with video games, they got a subsequent boost in feelings of wellbeing, whereas when

they felt like they were playing through compulsion, those feelings dropped. The span of game genres used in this study is rather wide – Animal Crossing: New Horizons, for example, is a pastoral experience, which differs significantly from the high commitment, often high-pressure experience of Eve Online. Even so, there are many other genres which also merit investigation. Time spent playing mobile games, as well as those with microtransactions or addictive elements, may have different impacts on player wellbeing. Sampling in this study, the authors say, may also have somewhat limited the validity of this result. Because participants were recruited through self-selection, people with particular traits or dispositions that made them more likely to be unaffected by lengthy gaming sessions may have been more likely to provide data. The age of participants – on average, 34 years old – may also limit the generalisability of these findings. It’s possible that as adults, these gamers have developed gaming habits that specifically do not affect their wellbeing, which may not be the case for younger players. And of course, these players were all English speakers, so it remains unclear whether there may be cultural differences in the strength of the relationship between gaming and wellbeing. Despite these limitations, the results of this study stand as much needed preliminary evidence that time spent playing video games is not a threat to wellbeing. In the future, similarly robust research to confirm these findings in other age groups, as well as investigating the impact of specific gameplay features, will help push this research area forward. Emma L. Barratt

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Expressing moral outrage at acts of animal abuse could actually leave meat-eaters ‘even more emboldened’ to consume meat, according to a recent study. The team found that blaming third parties such as factory farms for moral transgressions can decrease people’s own feelings of responsibility and moral culpability. (Social Psychological and Personality Science) 20

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Conversations about race can be seriously beneficial to children. Research has highlighted multiple positive outcomes for young people of all backgrounds – enhanced ability to accept different viewpoints and perspectives, increased levels of empathy, a better understanding of their own identity, and less racial bias to name but a few. Yet some parents are still unwilling to take the time to have such conversations. A new study, published in PNAS, finds that readiness to have such conversations has a lot to do with the racial identity of parents themselves. Looking at family conversations in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the Stanford University team finds that even in the context of the global conversation that followed the racially charged killing, White parents were far less willing to have conversations about race than their Black peers. Participants, who were either Black or White parents of children aged 0-18 living in the United States, were initially recruited in April 2020, six weeks before Floyd’s murder. First, participants indicated whether or not they have conversations with their children about race, racial inequality and racial identity, as well as how often those conversations were instigated. They were also asked to share a recent conversation they had had with their child, and rated how worried they were that their child might be a target of racial bias or might be racially biased towards others. Another set of parents also completed these measures two months later, in June 2020. The results showed that, overall, a higher proportion of Black parents discussed race, racial inequality and racial identity than White parents. After the murder of George Floyd, Black parents became more likely to discuss inequality, but White parents did not. There were also striking differences when it came to conversations about identity: Black parents remained just as likely to discuss being Black with their children after the murder of Floyd – but White parents were actually less likely to discuss being White.

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Longer talking for Black families about race

Among just those parents who discussed these topics, Black parents increased the frequency they spoke about them with their children after the murder, while White parents maintained the same frequency as before. The next focus of analysis was the content of parents’ conversations, shared through open-ended answers. White parents were more likely to give their children colour-blind messages – one White parent, for example, reported telling their child that ‘the colour of your skin doesn’t matter’. But Black parents had far more realistic conversations with their children, preparing them to experience racial bias, police targeting, and injustice. Interestingly, White parents were also more likely to share colour-blind sentiments after Floyd’s murder. Black parents were also more worried that their children would not only be targets of racial bias but actually biased themselves – but White parents had a low level of worry on both counts, and this remained low even after Floyd’s murder, perhaps suggesting a further resistance to engaging with questions of race. So, overall, Black parents were both more willing to engage in questions of race than White parents and more willing to explore issues of injustice after a particularly traumatic event. White parents were also more likely to engage in conversations about race not mattering: colourblindness, while potentially well-meaning, is ultimately unproductive as it reduces people’s willingness and ability to identify and engage with racial inequality. In the US, where the study took place, race certainly does matter. The authors of the study note that part of White parents’ reluctance to talk about race could be down to simply not knowing how to address the subject, and suggest that work could be done on the effectiveness of different strategies. Future research could also look at why White parents are so unwilling to have such conversations. Do they feel uncomfortable and out of their depth? Do they (wrongly) think children are too young to understand (https://tinyurl.com/dig220920)? Or is it that they simply don’t care? As the team puts it: ‘given the reality and brutality of racism and racial inequality, the time to answer these questions, and to have these conversations, is now.’ Emily Reynolds

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Teaching value of scientific consensus

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How do we change beliefs that are contrary to the scientific consensus? Preliminary but promising work has found that a brief training exercise on the value of scientific consensus, and how to look for it, can help. One study involved 854 USbased participants who all believed that genetically engineered food is worse for our health than nonGM food. Some participants were given an infographic that explained how a scientific consensus develops and why it’s very useful in deciding whether or not a new claim is likely to be true. It also provided a threestep guide to evaluating a new claim, and a short practice session with feedback on how to apply these steps. These participants, plus another group who were not given this guide, read a news article about a new fungus-resistant, genetically engineered banana. For some participants, the article stated that 92 per cent of ‘working PhD biomedical scientists’ said GM food was just as safe to eat as non-GM food. It did, then, communicate the scientific consensus on this topic – and overall, participants who saw this statement felt more positive about GM food than those who did not. But importantly,

those in the training group showed even bigger shifts in their beliefs towards the consensus than those who hadn’t received the training. However, when the team ran a similar study on climate change sceptics, this training did not change participants’ belief that current climate change is not primarily down to human action. This could be because trust in climate scientists in the US is relatively low, the team suggests: if you don’t trust the scientists in the first place,

you’re presumably less likely to be interested in or swayed by any consensus. Nevertheless, there are arguments in favour of boosting consensus reasoning in any case, the team writes. One is this: rather than telling someone what they should believe, the training is designed to ‘empower individuals to be able to understand and make the best use of the available information regarding a scientific consensus’. Emma Young

Digest digested… People with stronger ‘Dark Triad’ traits tend to find ghosting a more acceptable strategy for ending a relationship. Those high in Machiavellianism and psychopathy were also more likely to have ghosted a partner in the past, which the researchers suggest could be attributable to a lack of empathy among this group. (Acta Psychologica) Researchers have developed a new technique for making people feel that their doppelganger is in the room with them. The method, which involves playing the participant recordings of their own voice, could help psychologists to study

the relationship between auditory hallucinations and changes in how people perceive their own body. (Consciousness and Cognition) A new study has revealed the nuanced behaviour of ‘frenemies’. Researchers found that when people had both positive and negative feelings towards a co-worker, they co-operated well with that person but also harmed them, by going behind their back to spread rumours or give negative feedback. The research suggests that ambivalent relationships in the workplace are better than purely negative ones – even if they’re not perfect. (Journal of Applied Psychology)

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PsychCrunch Podcast sponsored by Routledge Psychology episode 28 Why songs get stuck in our heads

Research Digest www.bps.org.uk/digest ‘Easy to access and free, and a mine of useful information for my work: what more could I want? I only wish I’d found this years ago!’ Dr Jennifer Wild, Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Senior Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry ‘The selection of papers suits my eclectic mind perfectly, and the quality and clarity of the synopses is uniformly excellent.’ Professor Guy Claxton, University of Bristol 30

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29/11/2021 09:11

The Psychologist guide to…

finding meaning

Ella Rhodes hears from psychologists with evidence-based tips…

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Find your signature strengths Identify signature strengths and use them in service of something greater than yourself. Psychology lecturer at Arden University Dr Leanne Rowlands says: ‘We each possess a set of character strengths that lead to feelings of invigoration and excitement when used. Fostering these signature strengths to contribute to others can allow us to develop a sense of belonging to positive social structures, and enhance meaning and purpose in our lives. Identifying these strengths requires reflection, or take the VIA Survey of Character Strengths: www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/ testcenter.’ Tip: Identify personal ‘signature strengths’ and seek opportunities to use these for something greater than the self.

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Live life deliberately Taking an active stance to life by deliberately making choices gives us meaning. Dr Natalie Lancer, existential coaching psychologist and Honorary Secretary of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Coaching Psychology, says: ‘Rather than passively living life and reacting to circumstances, we can mould our lives – which takes risk and creativity. Regularly

reflect on the choices you have made and assess whether they are still serving you. Follow your curiosity to open up to alternative ideas. Do these suit you better at this point in time? Whatever the answer, you will have made an active choice.’ Tip: Regularly revisit previous decisions, weigh up alternatives and make active choices.

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the psychologist january 2022 guide to meaning

Volunteer to help others… and yourself Prosocial behaviours such as volunteering don’t only benefit the recipients of the help. They can provide a sense of purpose, build self-worth, and boost confidence – particularly if mastering or teaching a new skill is involved. Dr Mhairi Bowe (Nottingham Trent University) says: ‘Prosocial behaviours can result in valuable social connections with fellow helpers and those being helped: volunteers often develop a strong sense of identification within their volunteering groups and within the communities where they help. Thus, prosocial behaviours can unlock the well-known benefits of social identification: belonging, support, health and wellbeing, whilst also satisfying identity needs such as sense of esteem and personal control. During times of challenge, this type of prosocial behaviour can be vital for boosting collective coping and community resilience. Importantly, it also affords opportunities to gain a sense that you have contributed something to people and places that are important to you – actions that volunteers suggest give them a sense of mattering to others and of feeling good about themselves.’

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Tip: Try engaging in even small acts of helping in your community, that are meaningful to you: this can provide a valuable sense of connection.

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Focus on building strong relationships Professor Jonathan Passmore, Head of Coaching (Henley Business School), says that one route to health and life satisfaction is to build five or six strong relationships outside of any romantic relationship – through joining clubs, attending religious services, or simply taking a walk with a friend. ‘What matters most is a shared interest, along with the relationships which emerge from engaging with others in this shared experience. Use 2022 to commit to two new regular events and by 2023 you’ll have added to your friendship circle.’ Dr Daryl R. Van Tongeren, Associate Professor of Psychology (Hope College) adds that ‘most of life’s most meaningful moments involve other people, so surrounding yourself with healthy relationships that are mutual and empathic are key. Find people you can feel safe disclosing to and dreaming with. Forgiveness can increase meaning in life, likely because it improves relationship functioning. And cultivating a sense of humility and genuine care for others can make you a more desirable friend and romantic partner, which makes you more likely to have a strong social network.’ Tip: Attend events of shared interest with friends, talk about the experience and create a regular pattern of going. Try to repair relationships that are struggling.

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Use your values to find direction Paula Louise Dixon, business psychologist and coach, recommends a values-driven approach to finding direction – rather than relying on new year’s resolutions which so often fail. ‘Although we may lack the willpower to eat less, exercise more etc., values can provide direction in a personally meaningful way. By asking “what’s important to me?”, we unearth our values. Then, by considering, “what will I be saying

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and doing to embody these?” we define underlying, supportive behaviours which can then inform our goals.’ Tip: When willpower wanes, mindfully focus on values which may drive committed meaningful action. Harness the will to meaning Dr Penny Hyams (Arden University) turns to the work of Psychotherapist Viktor Frankl – a Nazi concentration camp survivor who reflected deeply during this time on his motivation to continue living in the face of horrific brutality, cold and hunger. ‘His vision of lecturing colleagues in a warm hall underpinned his cogent analysis that we are driven by a “will to meaning”; an imperative that carries us through loss and trauma. The pandemic has also destabilised our previous assumptions and meanings; bringing immeasurable loss of treasured ones and strained mental health. Yet medical science and social technology have buoyed our optimism for an emergent “new normal” in a kinder, more supportive zeitgeist.’ Tip: Harness collective anxiety creatively to forge new meanings in the post pandemic world.

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7 Surprise yourself Routine can be a person’s worst enemy – clouding judgement, suppressing instincts and dwindling skills. Dr Konstantinos Arfanis (Arden University) suggests that ‘leaving our comfort zone occasionally is vital to keeping ourselves motivated and keen, and it is easier to achieve than one might think. It might mean we take small steps towards a bigger goal. Trying something new, striking conversations with strangers, picking up from where we last failed are ways we can make every single day meaningful and purposeful. Waking up every day determined to achieve a milestone, even a small one, might light the path to a more fulfilled and happier life.’ Tip: Make a note of your achievements – use each small step as the basis for the one coming next. 28

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the psychologist january 2022 guide to meaning

Don’t underestimate confidence Research has linked meaning to psychological well-being and selfconfidence. Dr Mvikeli Ncube (Arden University) advises: ‘Believing in yourself can bring positive health outcomes mentally. People with a strong sense of self-confidence tend to perceive their life experience as meaningful and are optimistic that the things they will experience in the future will continue to be meaningful.’ Tip: Believe in you, invest in building your self-confidence.

Consider the full picture ‘Meaning cannot be discovered by condensing things down into separate parts, but rather from valuing the whole,’ says Lucy Anacleto (Arden University). ‘The purpose of Gestalt is for the individual to uncover, realise and encounter their own shape, pattern and wholeness. Gestalt sees the person holistically, as an entirety that embodies emotions, body, mind and spirit.’ In Gestalt therapy practitioners help clients to concentrate on self-awareness and focus on the here and now. ‘Heightening awareness of the present moment – by attending to immediate feelings, thoughts and behaviour as well as modes of relating – can elicit remarkable change, new perspectives and directions in a person’s life.’ Tip: Remember, ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ – Aristotle.

Don’t sweat the small stuff… and it’s all small stuff It’s thought to be Nebraskan Cardiologist Robert Eliot who coined this phrase, taken up by many to frame the essential triviality of our brief human existences clinging to a rock spinning through an infinite universe. When we reached out for contributions to this Guide on Twitter, Jane Street advised ‘embed the meaning into the process not the outcome. Success then lies in how you do something.’ And Gillian Bridge – author of The Significance Delusion – noted ‘finding meaning is in itself the (delusionary) outcome of ancient genetic mutations… a comforting thought, especially for the mentally lazy!’ But maybe don’t go too far on the nihilist views… recent research by Matthew Scott and Adam Cohen, reported on our Research Digest (see tinyurl.com/ digestnihilist), found that people who agree with statements such as ‘Our lives have no purpose’ were viewed more negatively. Tip: Take any evidence-based guides to finding meaning in your life with a pinch of salt… See also other contributions to this month’s issue, around the potential dark side of new year’s resolutions, and the powerful effects of expectaion…

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You can find ‘The Psychologist Guide to…’ you and your baby, leadership, healthy living, university life, pets, and retirement, via: thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/psychologist-guide

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So you survived a brain tumour… what next? Rachael Simms-Moore was one of the lucky few – so why didn’t she feel it? A journey to understand and cope took her towards psychology.

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the psychologist january 2022 stories of survivorship

hen I awoke from my first brain surgery, I was in shock. Not from the pain, the screeching machines or glaring lights, but from waking up at all. I had been convinced as I was wheeled off to theatre, giving my mum a grin and thumbs up, that this was the last moment we would see each other. I wanted her to remember me smiling and unafraid. By that point, I was at peace with dying. There are worse ways to go than under anaesthetic. I had been warned of the risks of death. Surgery is inherently risky. Brain tumours themselves reduce life expectancy more than any cancer, with only 12 per cent of those diagnosed living beyond five years. They are also the biggest killer of the under 40s of all cancers. My family had been warned I might have significant brain damage or changes in personality. But right now, thrust back into a cacophony of harsh lights, noise, and drug muffled agony, I was feeling less than lucky or grateful. So began a journey of survivorship which continues to this day, and which has led me to Psychology… A mental transition The mental transition – from accepting death to suddenly being told you are good to go home – is not achieved in a day. The research into experiences of parents of children with brain tumours highlights significant trauma. Indeed, similar findings have been reported in adult studies, noting not only the physical challenges of treatments but also emotional and socially isolating effects that can last years or often decades. Sitting there with tubes in my body, half a head shaved, face a rainbow of yellow, black and blue bruising, I was not ready for my well-meaning family’s questions about when I would be going back to work, what degree I wanted to do… I had planned for my funeral not a future. I felt as though we were all on different planets. A friend brought in some biscuits, and my aunt asked ‘should you really be eating that?’. I was jolted into my body again, a body that would now have to last, to carry me through what was to come. I wouldn’t need that organ donor card just yet. I felt as though the universe had got it wrong. I was living on borrowed time, convinced that although I did not die that day, it would happen imminently. I began to have intrusive thoughts of

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falling downstairs, tripping with a kitchen knife, being in a bus crash, slipping in the shower, electrocution when turning on a light… all ending in my demise. Brain tumours are particularly associated with significant prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in comparison to other cancers. I later realised this was what I was experiencing. I saw many neurology specialists, yet I was never offered any psychological support or signposted to any organisations. After all, I had a low-grade brain tumour – ‘that’s not really cancer, is it?’. The cancer services are there for people with real cancer, not for the ‘lucky’ people like me. I was repeatedly told I must be feeling amazing. Indeed, I did look lucky. My face healed relatively quickly, the facial nerves on the left side of my face regrew eventually. My hair flipped over and masked the incoming fresh crop. Within a few months I looked like me again, not that I was a good judge of that. My memory was shot, I couldn’t concentrate, and insomnia tormented me as my sleep centre was affected. I also was left with prosopagnosia (face blindness). I may have looked lucky, but inside I felt fragmented. The ‘sick person’ lens In an effort to regain control over my life I decided, against my neurosurgeon’s advice to postpone for another year, to begin studying a degree in business management. I was stubborn, and grasping for a purpose other than sitting on the sofa and thinking about my recovery. I struggled through the first three years of the degree, relearning how to learn. My memory was damaged, with a compressed hippocampus and temporal lobe hole the size of an egg. I look back and wonder how on earth I managed it. At university they allocated me a student support worker due to my memory and prosopagnosia issues. She had amazing wild curls of hair and she noticed that whenever she wore it up, I would walk right past and not recognise her. She kept that hair down for the entirety of my course. I shall never forget her kindness. By the middle of the fourth and final year my spelling and speech started to deteriorate. I instinctively knew I had another brain tumour. When I called my neurologist’s office, they insisted I didn’t need another MRI scan for at least another year as my chance of a recurrence was 1 per cent. After my repeated concerned phone calls, I had an MRI scan. I was right. In the lead up to the second surgery I felt almost at home. I had done this before. I knew how to be sick.

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People saw me through the ‘sick person’ lens, and that probably included myself. There is something seductive about being ill… people are nice to you, nurses pat your hand, no one nags you about your grades. I shocked myself by surviving again. I returned to university after a year out and completed my degree. Fortunately, this time around, I had a wonderful university therapist who helped me with the flashbacks and intrusive thoughts. Across 18 sessions she helped me find my footing again, challenging the pervasive feeling that I was on borrowed time. Such was the transformative experience of this therapeutic input that I began to consider psychological support as something that should be essential for those like me, the ‘lucky ones’. Back on my feet, life marched on and years ticked by. I began to understand that I was grieving the simplicity of being ill. That safe cocoon. I felt guilt around those feelings… surely, I should feel more grateful? Everyone around me seemed to think so. Others with brain tumours, people I had grown to know and respect, had died. Why them and not me? Emotional whiplash Then there was the pressure of my elevated, almost saintlike status. I had survived the virtually un-survivable. Surely I should now be able to change the world, be an inspiration to others? Imagine being told, ‘You are destined for great things’, ‘God has plans for you’, ‘The world is your oyster, nothing can stop you now’. All I wanted was to shrink away from the microscope. The more I protested, the more I was considered both modest and amazing. It felt like emotional whiplash… I would ask the universe when I might be allowed some respite from this exhausting back and forth. As the years ticked by, punctuated by the annual MRI scan, I got married, worked abroad, and moved house six times. I had a talented therapist who introduced me to mindfulness, and I had a turning point. I changed from feeling I was on borrowed time and that death was inevitable, to embracing the idea of living in the moment… doing the best with what life I had, no matter how long or short it happened to be. Working in a hospital as a Project Manager I began to question my career and my life’s purpose. I was in my late 20s, an age I never expected to achieve after my initial diagnosis at 20 years old. My thoughts on feeling more comfortable being ill, or fleeting regrets for having survived, seemed so taboo that they should never be uttered and certainly not written down in black and white. I felt I would be saying the unsayable: hardly an inspirational TED Talk, at any rate. But surely I couldn’t be the only one who had these thoughts? I discussed shared experiences with a friend and fellow survivor, and he told me: 34

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It did make me think about mortality and stuff but I

think there is a romanticised idea of people who go through this sort of surgery then living life to the full, and it’s great that some people do…but the reality is most people probably don’t have the opportunity to live like that. For me that would be like being able to spend more time with the kids but then I don’t because I’m busy with work and then you think, that’s not living life to the full!

It was these questions about expectations versus reality, and the mental recovery from critical illness, that led me to recently complete an MSc in Psychology. I wanted to use my circumstances and understanding to benefit others. A gap in the research Learning about brain tumours and epilepsy in the neuroscience modules was terrifying and fascinating in equal measure. I had opened my own personal Pandora’s box. As the degree progressed and the more I researched the psychological impact of brain tumour treatment, I noted that previous qualitative studies did not usually include the perspectives of adults post brain tumour treatment – they focused on perspectives from carers or a spouse instead. The body of research also tended to exclude the perspectives of patients with low grade tumours due to their benign non-cancer status, include other brain injury conditions in the research or conduct research from a particular angle such as existential well-being or positivity. This gap in research and the apparent lack of postoperative psychological support for the increasing number of survivors of brain surgery, led me to focus my MSc dissertation research on adults’ post brain tumour treatment by exploring their experiences through a Thematic Analysis of 100 blog posts. Whilst working on the blogs for research, I found so many experiences that mirrored my own while also revealing some findings I had not anticipated – a lack of perceived control by survivors in relation to their care, time, decision making, and appearance leading to issues with identity, decreased mental health and reduced quality of life. These finding were supported within the current body of research in relation to chronic illness in general and other cancers. Yet after all of this I was still left with more questions than answers… I suppose that’s the essence of the drive towards further research. One blog post that struck a chord with me was where a blogger was celebrating his 49th birthday, wishing that he might make it to 50. Sadly, he did not reach that milestone and passed away a few months later. While I was reading his blog it was also my birthday week, turning 30. I was reminded how on my first diagnosis I believed 30 was wishful thinking. During the dissertation write up I was also due my annual MRI scan. It would be 10 years from my first brain tumour, and fortunately I was given the ‘all clear’ for another year. It feels like a game of Russian

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the psychologist january 2022 stories of survivorship

Roulette. Twice I’ve received the bullet of phone calls telling me I have a brain tumour, many more times the all clear. The ratio makes no difference – the call confirming that you have a brain tumour is indelible. I was feeling everything afresh in going back to analyse some very similar experiences in the blog posts, but I returned to the dissertation with a renewed sense of purpose. What next? The perceived loss of control over ‘time’ was a common theme and source of distress for the bloggers in my research. Lost time waiting for treatments, results, reduced lifespan or inability to future plan chimed with previous studies suggesting that longer-than-expected recovery and unmet expectations can leave over a third of critically ill patients experiencing depression over a year after their initial diagnosis. Having just turned 30 years old and completed the MSc, I began to ask what was next. Is my future guaranteed enough that I might be able to contemplate children? More people are surviving brain tumours for longer periods of time due to scientific advances. I am one of the 10 per cent minority who have survived past five years. However, no general patient guidance is available on the risks of increasing tumour occurrence or mutation due to pregnancy. Trying to make this decision by myself with only limited information I had found during my neuroscience module or scrolling through papers online was proving fruitless and frustrating. The ‘unknown’ contributing to stress is well supported by studies measuring effects of long-term stress experienced by those with long term illness, and so my frustrations were not unfounded. I scheduled a phone call with my neurologist, sending her through a literature review I had conducted for my own interest. The appointment revealed that, yes, there are significant increased risks, but that these risk levels were dependent on the tumour type I had. I was again reminded by my neurologist that I am a minority within a minority – a brain tumour survivor and one considering the possibility of having children. My tumour samples are now going to be tested with the best of modern science, 10 years after the first surgery; a process called Lumina methylation where genetic markers will hopefully accurately determine my brain tumour grades and types. What are the ethics of having a child when your own life expectancy is reliant on ever-evolving statistics? It’s a question I have asked myself. The more I understand, the less I feel I know. For now, I just plan to lead a productive life. I want to expand my MSc

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research into a PhD on adult brain tumour experiences, adding to the support and knowledge available for healthcare professionals who work with brain tumour survivors, or for therapists to gain a better understanding of a survivor’s personal experiences. Healing the inner scars In a recent chat with the same fellow survivor, he also noted that some form of mental health support would have been beneficial during the recovery period. He indicated that he was not offered any formal mental health support or signposting during his recovery and further commented,

I’m not talking like loads and loads of sessions but maybe like a couple just on that period of recovery would have been nice… I think it probably would have helped to understand fully what I needed to do to make a speedy full recovery and to just get things off your chest a little bit, I mean I didn’t really speak to my family about it.

His comments echoed sentiments found in my research, where bloggers did not indicate that they had received any formal psychological support from their medical teams. This absence of evidence of psychological support builds on existing literature recognising a gap between psychological support provided versus demand for support from individuals living with brain tumours. This is concerning, given that negative mental health outcomes such as depression following critical illness has been associated with poorer health outcomes such as slower recovery and increased mortality risk. My outward scars have healed, hair grown back and memory restored. The inner scars have taken much longer to heal and required more work. At times the turmoil and struggles have been unrecognised and even denied by the very people I wish I had support from. With the initial diagnosis of a low-grade brain tumour and the lack of clarity surrounding the second tumour, I consider myself one of many who have fallen though the net in terms of psychological support services. However, it is through the support of some very special people, furthering my education, seeking answers and a talented therapist that I have recovered. Through continuing my journey into psychology research, I hope to channel my experiences into the goal of making it standard practice to offer all brain tumour patients (no matter their grade) mental health support in their recovery. Rachael Simms-Moore recently completed a Psychology MSc from Manchester Metropolitan University. See online version for references.

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‘The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.’ G.K. Chesterton, 1921

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New Year’s expectations Our beliefs can powerfully shape our reality, says David Robson. Here’s how to make a positive self-fulfilling prophecy in 2022…

oday, New Year’s Resolutions are as popular as ever – and according to various surveys, the majority end in disappointment. Is this inevitable? In my new book The Expectation Effect, I’ve explored the many ways that our beliefs can powerfully influence our capacity to make positive changes to our lives. Whether we are trying to get fit, sleep better, or maintain the willpower to stick to a diet, our expectations will shape our experience in surprising and fascinating ways. And by shifting our assumptions, we may find it much easier to turn our good intentions into reality. This should not be confused with the vague commands to ‘think positively’ that are common in the self-help literature. The expectation effects that I describe concern our specific beliefs about particular abilities or challenges – whether you think you are particularly prone to gain weight, for example – rather than an undefined optimism about life in general. And rather than relying on some mystical ‘law of attraction’, they are the product of known psychological and physiological mechanisms that profoundly alter our chances of success. Pill-less placebos? If this seems far-fetched, you might consider expectation effects to be an extension of the famous placebo response in medicine. Since the 1950s, doctors have increasingly come to recognise that our expectation of a drug’s effects can bring about objective changes in the body, even if we are only receiving a sugar pill. It is now known that the brain can release endogenous opioids when we believe that we are taking a real analgesic – providing natural relief from pain (Colloca & Barsky, 2020). The moral implications of lying to patients has limited the practical application of these findings. In recent years, however, scientists have started to find exciting new strategies that can harness placebo-like responses without any deception. Health psychologists in Marburg, for instance, recently helped patients undergoing heart surgery to set up more positive expectations of recovery. In a series of conversations, they described the likely benefits of the procedure, and set out a likely trajectory for the patients’ recuperation.

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They also discussed any discomfort the patient might feel and helped them to frame it as a normal part of the healing process – rather than a cause for distress or doom-laden thoughts. Follow-ups revealed that these patients were discharged from hospital around five days earlier than patients who had experienced the ‘treatment as usual’, and they continued to show greater improvements in their physical functioning over the following six months (Auer et al., 2018; Rief et al., 2017). It’s likely that this was partly the result of behaviour and motivation, but blood tests revealed that they also had lower levels of important pro-inflammatory markers such as interleukin-6, which suggests that the positive expectations and reduced anxiety had brought about some important physiological changes too. Primed for exercise Alongside these pioneering studies, it is becoming increasingly clear that placebo-like responses can stretch far beyond clinical medicine into everyday health and wellbeing. Imagine that you want to get fit in the New Year. Perhaps you have great faith in your body and you just know that you are going to feel great after each workout. If so, lucky you! Many people, however, will have the impression that they simply aren’t cut out for exercise – and this belief could make the whole experience a lot more painful. Consider a study from the Stanford University’s Mind and Body Lab (Turnwald et al., 2019). The participants were first given a genetic test that identified different versions of the gene CREB1. The gene is known to influence someone’s aerobic capacity and body temperature during exercise – and if you have the ‘high risk’ version, you are probably going to find your workouts a bit less comfortable. The test was genuine, but the researchers didn’t reveal the true results immediately. Instead, the participants received completely random feedback, which created the belief that they were or were not ‘naturally’ good at exercise. The effects of these expectations were striking. Participants who had been told they had the ‘negative’ version of the gene found a subsequent workout more uncomfortable, and showed lower stamina, than those who had been told they had the ‘good’ gene.

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Indeed, when it came to measurements of the transfer of carbon dioxide and oxygen in their lungs, the expectations proved to be more influential than the gene itself in shaping the participants’ physiological responses. The researchers noted a markedly similar effect when they looked at expectations of appetite. Half the participants were told that they carried a beneficial variant of the FTO gene, which results in increased satiety after eating, while the other half were told they had a variant that would leave them feeling hungrier. Once again, the expectations shaped both their subjective feelings and physiological responses to a meal, such as the levels of Glucagon-like Peptide 1, which controls appetite by regulating the movements of the digestive system and by binding to brain receptors associated with energy balance. We may not have taken a genetic test, but many other factors could create similar expectation effects. Our assumptions may be shaped, for example, by #fitspiration posts on social media depicting

Key sources Auer, C.J., Laferton, J.A., Shedden-Mora, M.C. et al. (2017). Optimizing preoperative expectations leads to a shorter length of hospital stay in CABG patients. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 97, 82–9. Bernecker, K. & Job, V. (2017). Implicit theories about willpower in resisting temptations and emotion control. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 225, 157-166. Colloca, L. & Barsky, A.J. (2020). Placebo and nocebo effects. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(6), 554–61 Giles, G.E., Cantelon, J.A., Eddy, M.D. et al. (2018). Cognitive reappraisal reduces perceived exertion during endurance exercise. Motivation and Emotion, 42(4), 482-496. Job, V., Walton, G.M., Bernecker, K. & Dweck, C.S. (2015). Implicit theories about willpower predict self-regulation and grades in everyday life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(4), 637. Lichstein, K.L. (2017). Insomnia identity. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 97, 230-241. Muraven, M. (2008). Autonomous self-control is less depleting. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(3), 763-770. Prichard, I., Kavanagh, E., Mulgrew, K.E. et al. (2020). The effect of Instagram #fitspiration images on young women’s mood, body image, and exercise behaviour. Body Image, 33, 1–6. Price, M. & Anderson, P. L. (2012). Outcome expectancy as a predictor of treatment response in cognitive behavioral therapy for public speaking fears within social anxiety disorder. Psychotherapy, 49(2), 173–179. Rief, W., Shedden-Mora, M.C., Laferton, J.A. et al. (2017). Preoperative optimization of patient expectations improves long-term outcome in heart surgery patients. BMC Medicine, 15(1), 1–13. Robinson, L., Prichard, I., Nikolaidis, A. et al. (2017). Idealised media images: The effect of fitspiration imagery on body satisfaction and exercise behaviour. Body Image, 22, 65-71. Savani, K. & Job, V. (2017). Reverse ego-depletion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(4), 589-607. Sieber, V., Flückiger, L., Mata, J. et al. (2019). Autonomous goal striving promotes a nonlimited theory about willpower. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45(8), 12951307. Thakral, M., Von Korff, M., McCurry, S.M. et al. (2020). Changes in dysfunctional beliefs about sleep after cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 49, 101230. Thiruchselvam, T., Dozois, D.J., Bagby, R.M. et al. (2019). The role of outcome expectancy in therapeutic change across psychotherapy versus pharmacotherapy for depression. Journal of affective disorders, 251, 121-129. Turnwald, B.P., Goyer, J.P., Boles, D.Z. et al. (2019). Learning one’s genetic risk changes physiology independent of actual genetic risk. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(1), 48–56.

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(practically) unobtainable body types. An Australian study found that, far from being motivating, viewing those images before exercise put participants in a worse mood, and made the workouts feel physically more fatiguing (Prichard et al., 2020; see also Robinson et al., 2017). Where there’s a will… We can see similar expectation effects in many other domains, including sleep. Multiple studies show that our estimations of how much sleep we get, relative to what we need, are often highly inaccurate. Many people achieve the necessary seven to eight hours a night, for example, but they believe that they are constantly lacking – developing an ‘insomnia identity’. And they are much more likely to suffer from symptoms such as poor concentration, fatigue, depression and anxiety than people who sleep less, but have a more positive opinion of their night’s rest (Lichstein, 2017). As the author of one recent metaanalysis told me: ‘worry about sleep is a stronger pathogen than poor sleep’. It is our beliefs about willpower that may be most pertinent for our New Year’s Resolutions, however. Self-control was once thought to be governed by ‘ego depletion’ [e.g. see tinyurl.com/baum0212]. According to this theory, attempts to remain focused on our goals, and to resist temptation, depletes a limited resource – often assumed to be glucose – in the brain. Unless we allow ourselves time to rest and let those resources recharge, our willpower will weaken and then break, leading us to give in to our urges. We gorge on chocolate treats, procrastinate on social media rather than focusing on our work, and skip the gym to slob out in front of reality TV. Yet recent research suggests that our self-control and mental focus can be swayed by our expectations, depending on whether we have a limited or non-limited mindset. As the name suggests, those with the limited mindset tended to assume that self-control and concentration can easily wear down. They are more likely to agree with a statement such as ‘when situations accumulate that challenge you with temptations, it becomes harder and harder to resist those temptations’. Those with the non-limited view believe that their willpower can fuel itself. They are more likely to agree with the statement ‘If you have just resisted a strong temptation, you feel strengthened and you can withstand any new temptation’. In a wide range of studies, Veronika Job at the University of Vienna has shown that these willpower mindsets can influence behaviours in a range of situations – from laboratory tests of mental focus to real-life academic studies and health regimes (Job et al., 2015; Savani & Job, 2017). To a certain extent, you have as much willpower as you think you have. While some people may tend to gravitate to one mindset or the other in all domains, it’s worth noting that our beliefs also vary with context and

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the psychologist january 2022 expectations

the particular activity you’re doing. For example, some people may have a non-limited mindset about their capacity to control their emotions or avoid procrastination, but they may believe that their capacity to resist delicious foods is severely limited (Bernecker & Job, 2017). New narratives This research – and many other findings like it – shows that we really are the product of the stories that we tell ourselves, and by changing that narrative, we may find it far easier to make positive changes to our lives. As the heart surgery patients in Marburg had shown, this does not need to involve any form of deception. Indeed, there is some evidence simply learning about these expectation effects, and the scientific basis for them, can shift your mindset, at least in the short term (i.e. Savani & Job, 2017). Knowledge really is power. We can also use techniques, such as reappraisal, that are borrowed from cognitive behavioural therapy. Try to take the attitude of a scientist who is constantly testing their pre-conceptions, or a well-meaning friend who is offering honest encouragement. Suppose that you are trying to get fit, and you have a generally dim view of your body and its capacity for exercise. The first step may be to question whether there is a strong factual basis for the underlying assumptions. Perhaps you absorbed the negative opinions from unpleasant experiences in PE that are no longer valid. Next, you might try to spot when negative thoughts and feelings come into your mind during your workout – and, where possible, reframe them. When you start to feel fatigued, for example, you might notice yourself thinking ‘I’m so unfit; I’m simply not cut out for this’ or ‘there must be something wrong with me to be feeling this way’. In place of those harsh words, you might reassure yourself that the sensations are a natural consequence of exercise and a sign that you’re building strength and stamina. This kind of approach, in which you try to be more objective and less negative about the feelings during exercise, can reduce people’s perceived exertion over the course of the workout (Giles et al., 2018). Finally, you can keep a focus on your overall trajectory. Remember that even small improvements deserve to be celebrated, and that step by step, you are getting closer to your goal. That’s far healthier than constantly comparing yourself to other people – and always finding yourself wanting. Similar acts of reappraisal could help you to cope more effectively with your perceived sleep loss. Indeed, cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia may work through the correction of people’s dysfunctional beliefs about sleep (Thakral et al., 2020). If you feel like you have had a broken night, for instance, you might try to question whether you have exaggerated how long you were actually awake; often, a brief period of

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Placebos in psychotherapy Treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy are designed to help participants challenge unhealthy thoughts and attitudes that might be contributing to their anxiety or depression. And it seems that the patients’ beliefs about CBT itself can determine its success. Someone with a more positive ‘outcome expectancy’ of the treatment is much more likely to benefit than those who feel that CBT is useless – in much the same way that positive expectations of anti-depressant drugs could increase their efficacy through a placebo response. This has led some to argue that patients should be presented with a more detailed description of the rationale of the therapy’s methods at the start of their treatment to maximise their expectations of success and – as a consequence – its actual effects on their lives (Thiruchselvam et al., 2019).

restlessness can seem like it lasts much longer than it really does. And you might try to notice catastrophic thinking (such as ‘I just can’t cope’) and instead remind yourself that the brain and body are more resilient to moderate sleep loss than you might think. To change your willpower mindset, meanwhile, you might try to cultivate a sense of autonomy. When we have chosen to do a task – rather than being forced – we tend to feel more energised (Muraven, 2008). And it seems that simply recalling times that you have willingly exerted self-control can help to prime the non-limited beliefs, which may then help you to exert more willpower in the future (Sieber et al., 2019). Question your 2022 stories These are just a few suggestions that come from our burgeoning understanding of expectation effects. They cannot work miracles by themselves, but they should make it far easier to adopt healthier behaviours and they should maximise the benefits from that hard work. In my own life, I try to test my pre-existing beliefs with small challenges that slowly take me outside of my comfort zone. If I succeed, I can use that as ‘proof’ that my pre-existing assumptions have been wrong. While writing The Expectation Effect, I couldn’t help wondering whether there is some kind of ‘metamindset’ that determines how easily someone can change their beliefs. We see something similar in clinical psychology: a client’s ‘outcome expectancy’ of CBT – whether they think it is going to be useful or not – seems to predict the effect of the therapy (see ‘Placebo psychotherapy’). If you have a strong sense that your current narratives are set in stone, then you might find it hard to question your beliefs and shift your mental habits. But if you are willing to keep an open mind, and to question at least a few of the stories that you have told yourself, you may be pleasantly surprised by what 2022 brings.

David Robson is an awardwinning science writer based in London. His book The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life (Canongate) will be published on 6 January 2022.

29/11/2021 09:23

‘It’s a process that starts with simmering dissatisfaction…’ Ingrid Covington meets Professor Herminia Ibarra to talk identity and transition across our working lives I talked with Professor Herminia Ibarra following her keynote presentation at the Division of Occupational Psychology’s annual conference in January 2021. Herminia asserts that today, more than ever, career paths will be circuitous. Increasing longevity, accelerated technological change, organisational transformation, and unexpected shocks that disrupt our habitual routines… all join together to make for more frequent and more radical transitions across our working lives. I was keen to discuss the relationship between identity and work, the nature of liminal periods in which identities are destabilised, and the processes of reworking identity by way of activities, relationships and narratives.

Your keynote focused on the changing of direction mid-career. Is this a luxury for the educated and well off? If people have to work to survive and don’t have resources, then do they have any possibility of change in the same way? So, that’s the question that I always get. I have always studied people like my students who are privileged and have had a lot of education. The research sample for my ‘Working Identity’ book, for example, was people who had at least a university degree and often a graduate education. But, as far as I can tell from reading and talking to people, the process of experimenting your way into something new, having something on the side, and growing it and cultivating it into something feasible enough or attractive enough to be the next thing, seems to be the standard way most people change careers. There’s really no other way to do it, whether you are well off or not. And why mid-career specifically? Mid-career is so interesting and important. As my colleagues Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott point out, as we live longer, soon to 100, the traditional threestage life consisting of learning when you’re young, working for about 40 years and then pausing… with 262,000 more hours of life, we can’t just stretch out the middle part in which we ‘hold a good steady job’ ad infinitum. We have to reinvent when and how we learn and pause, and how we transition back and forth in between.

Ingrid Covington (CPsychol) is Co-Founder of the Centre for Psychology at Work (centpsychwork. com) and winner of The British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology Practitioner of the Year. She has over two decades of experience building teams and advising leaders and organisations on leadership and culture, wellbeing, gender equality and future of work.

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Do you have advice for individuals struggling with their career identity – any tips for how they can connect to it? You spoke about exploring ‘possible selves’, which is great for developing hope and multiple pathways to a goal. The main practical tips that I give are the three levers I spoke about: • Using side projects to explore possibilities • Working your network – not just to give you leads but to give you inspiration and connect you to kindred spirits and peer groups • Taking advantage of any and all occasions to

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the psychologist january 2022 career transition

Herminia Ibarra is the Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School. Prior to joining LBS, she served on the INSEAD and Harvard Business School faculties. An authority on leadership and career development, Thinkers 50 ranks Ibarra among the top management thinkers in the world. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, one of Apolitica’s 100 most influential people in gender policy, a Fellow of the British Academy, and the 2018 recipient of the Academy of Management’s Scholar-Practitioner Award. She is the author of Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader and Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career. See herminiaibarra.com and follow on Twitter @herminiaibarra

practice and refine your story, about why and how your career change makes sense All my advice is founded on the idea of getting out of your head and trying things out as actively as possible. Do you think that is accessible to everybody? I talk to lots of young people early in their career who have been very entrepreneurial in generating other things that they do alongside their day job, as a way of growing their skill set and as a way of growing their network and exploring other things. So I think yes, that is accessible to everybody. One of the most frequent questions that I get is how do I move into something without having experience in it? The answer is that you don’t, you can’t! But temporary and side projects can help you learn, have experiences that you can put on your CV, and acquire the skills that you need in order to enter a new occupation in a more permanent way. It is also important to shift connections and networks. So much of who we are – our identity – is the company we keep, our professional reference group. Individuals don’t realise how much it shapes their identity… our network of friends and family tends to favour the status quo. I call these the ties the ‘bind and blind’. We need to shift connections in order to explore new possible selves. Your research on transitions is based on the midcareer over 40 demographic. How can individuals

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grapple with their transitions whilst still ‘performing’? Just about everybody has to do it this way. The only real exception is the person who loses their job and then has more time on their hands. But most people are in full on jobs and are exploring other things on the side, and that is part of what makes the transition period so difficult. There is no other way out either. I’ve seen people save up money and quit so that they can dedicate themselves more full-time to something to explore things, but that has its own problems. It’s easier to get certain types of jobs by having a job. And it’s very difficult to be disconnected from the work world. So, most of the time you’re just going to be working two jobs when you’re in transition. You’re doing your day job and looking for the next thing. I think that it’s helpful if individuals have in mind a general time frame for successfully making a career transition – is there one? What I have found, and people have confirmed, is that we’re usually talking about at least a three-year period. What do you see as the greatest challenge in that career change process? The career change process makes for an interesting conundrum. I define the transition process as moving away from something without yet having left it, while moving towards something without yet knowing what it is, and it is in this definition that you see both the challenge and the opportunity.

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The headline from my research is that it is messier and harder than anticipated. It’s hard to know what path you should be on, especially when the destination is unclear. The biggest finding is that at that stage people can articulate very clearly what it is that they no longer want, what it is that doesn’t suit them about what they’re doing, but they have a harder time understanding or identifying what it is that they want to move into instead. And, the destination can often be a moving target for people as they start to explore things. They may figure out that what they were initially exploring is not quite right for them, and, as a result, pivot and adapt as they go along.

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as you postulate is closely tied to what you do and who you do it with and can only be changed by doing something differently with different people… triggered by self-urgency. What do you believe are the future challenges in developing your approach? I’m interested in how this plays out in later career. As I get older, I tend to look at the experiences of people who are in my age cohort. I think the basic process of transitioning is the same but I am quite interested in how the drivers that influence it evolve over the life cycle, and how going through that process might be different when you are older, especially now that so many people are not looking to retire, but rather to continue a working life that is somewhat different. I’ve never studied the kind of career shifting that people do in their 20s because they haven’t had a career yet… but the whole idea of how do you focus on and build a career identity early on, would be something interesting to look at as well.

How can women from minority ethnic backgrounds better prepare for transitions? What are the key determining factors that define such transitions? I didn’t do the kind of study that allows me to compare and contrast men vs. women or people from majority vs. minority “In this betwixt and groups. My original research suffered from a lack of racial There’s also a lot to be said on between stage people diversity. But, we know that people the relationship between career often bounce back and in the minority, whether in terms of transition and adult development, forth between holding on how people grow and develop as gender or race or whatever it might be, struggle more to build networks to the old and letting go” they go through the life cycle. that connect them to powerful One thing I’ve been interested in is influential people, and face implicit how we make what I call ‘underbiases that affect how they are viewed when they are institutionalised transitions’, meaning transitions that postulating for jobs – in general. Those obstacles are are ‘do-it-yourself’ in the sense that the steps that take only going to be stronger when you are moving into a you from A to D are not mapped out, and you don’t new area. So I can speculate that the networking aspect take them in lockstep with others. Today people go may be even more important, or more challenging for back to school, get married, have kids, take gap years, people from minority groups. change careers at all different ages and stages. But let me stress that my focus has been on what people changing careers have in common, not how What consultancy do you engage in? How do they differ. The common ground is that it’s a process business people feel about your ideas? that starts with simmering dissatisfaction eventually I do a lot of speaking for companies but it’s not on leading to an increase in urgency to explore doing career change, as that’s not typically a topic companies something different. But, dissatisfaction isn’t enough… want their employees to learn more about! I’m more along with the ‘push’ there needs to be a ‘pull’… ideas, likely to be brought in to speak about leadership possibilities that might be attractive enough to lead to development and the process of stepping up into action steps. Once you start to take action you move bigger leadership roles, along with the identity shifts into the second, middle stage of the transition process that that entails, whether it’s stepping up into bigger – liminality. In this betwixt and between stage people roles or side stepping into different styles or areas of often bounce back and forth between holding on to leadership. That resonates a lot. I also speak quite a bit the old and letting go. The third and last stage begins on the diversity angle, the barriers women and ethnic as your story starts to crystallise into something that minorities face as they are moving up in organisations makes sense to you and to your audience. Throughout and how to alleviate them. the process the key levers available to you are the experiments you craft, the network connections you If you had one key piece of advice for leaders striving make and shift, and the practice in telling your story to engage their followers/employees throughout this and making sense of it during your interactions with pandemic – especially those with large numbers other people. And that is true whether you are rich or working from home – what would it be? poor, black or white, young or old, or whatever. I think those big overarching advice statements don’t really say that much. I could say be empathetic, Broadcaster Claudia Hammond who compered the connect to people, be human and all that… I think conference, was struck by the power of your advice those things are true… but they are enduring values, to vocalise your story, and surprised by how closely not just qualities that happen to be fashionable this connected it is to a person’s sense of identity. Identity year.

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the psychologist january 2022 personality and habit

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29/11/2021 09:41

Talent liberation Dr Maggi Evans on a way to tackle the ‘Great Resignation’ and record vacancies

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aving worked as an Occupational Psychologist for over 20 years, I am excited (and somewhat daunted) by the changing landscape of work. Alongside worries about getting hybrid working to work, overcoming systemic bias and taking a more sustainable approach to business, many of my clients are pre-occupied by concerns of the ‘Great Resignation’ (a term coined by American Psychologist Anthony Klotz), and a UK labour market with more live vacancies than ever before. They worry that perhaps this is the start of the apocalyptic warnings of the 2030 scenario described by Korn Ferry in a 2018 report as ‘the Global Talent Crunch’. HR functions that 18 months ago were making redundancies and putting people on furlough, are now desperately trying to fill vacancies. They need to find better ways to attract and retain people to do the tasks and roles that need to be done in the short and long term. As one HR Director told me recently, ‘this is serious. If I don’t get these people in place quickly, we can’t serve our clients. If we can’t serve our clients, we go out of business’. So, the stakes are high. Unfortunately however, the talent tools that many HR people rely on are not fit for purpose. Many of the commonly applied approaches

were developed in the 1950s (see Capelli & Keller, 2017), designed for stable, predictable environments; they are not suited to the turbulence, ambiguity and uncertainty that we are faced with. So, how can organisations respond? How can they rethink their approach? For the past 10 years this is the problem I have been exploring. I’ve been looking at it through both an academic and practitioner lens – trying to translate academic insight into pragmatic business solutions. With the support of my clients, my network and my co-authors (Professor John Arnold and Dr Andrew Rothwell), ‘Talent Liberation’ has evolved as a way to help organisations rethink their approach to talent. A new metaphor for our times Talent Liberation offers a new metaphor, a shift in thinking from the traditional ‘talent management’, opening new possibilities for understanding the core problems and developing appropriate solutions. The thinking was resonating with people before the pandemic hit, and is now even more relevant to help organisations to navigate the ‘Great Resignation’ and other challenges they face. Underpinning Talent Liberation are five premises that help people to reframe their approach to talent,

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the psychologist january 2022 talent liberation

moving from trying to manage and control it, to find ways to harness and set it free. We have developed these premises based on addressing five commonly held assumptions about talent – unhelpful assumptions that have been raised by writers in psychology, leadership, talent and business (such as Jeffery Pfeffer, Malcolm Gladwell, Rob Briner, Bob Sutton, Amy Edmondson, Paul Sparrow and David Collings). Taking an approach similar to that taken by the ‘agile’ movement in software development (developed on a ski trip to Utah in 2001), the intention of the Talent Liberation premises is to point to new ways of looking at a problem and thereby open up new possible solutions. Mindset of scarcity The first premise challenges the mindset of scarcity, suggesting instead that ‘talent is not as scarce as we think’. This responds to research that indicates how such a mindset drives behaviour which can be counterproductive (just think of the recent toilet roll and petrol ‘shortages’, and see Mullainathan and Shafir’s 2013 book Scarcity: Why having too little means so much). Within organisations, the mindset of scarcity drives behaviours such as salary inflation, poaching from competitors and keeping hold of capable people within teams (thereby limiting their opportunities to grow). Rather than colluding with the narrative of limited talent, we suggest that ‘talent is not as scarce as we think’. This clearly invites the question, ‘what is talent?’ Recognising that the term ‘talent’ is socially constructed with multiple possible meanings, we illustrate four common descriptions (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Four descriptions of talent, identified as underlying talent philosophies in Meyers and Van Woerkom (2014). The format for this diagram was adapted from a presentation by Nicky Dries at University of Loughborough in April 2015, drawing on the Meyers and Van Woekom paper.

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Within Talent Liberation, organisations are encouraged to reflect on what talent scope makes sense for them – is it releasing the talent of the ‘vital few’ (high potential)? Is it about enabling everyone to perform better (personal best)? Is it about matching roles to existing traits (personal strengths)? Or is it a combination? The chosen scope is likely to depend on an organisation’s strategic direction and evaluation of the risks and opportunities that they need to address through their talent strategy. (In the book, we share a methodology for developing a talent strategy based on exploring the risks and opportunities of various business scenarios. The approach is called the Talent Compass.) The premise ‘talent isn’t as scarce as we think’ is backed up by evidence of historical untapped talent and draws a distinction between ‘ready now’ talent and ‘ready in the future’ talent. Taking gender as an example, we illustrate that ‘ready now’ talent may be scarce because of lack of opportunity and lack of training, rather than an underlying lack of talented people. For example, in 1865 Elizabeth Garett Anderson became the first qualified woman doctor in the UK. By 1911, there were 495 women on the medical register and now, within the 30-34 age group, 57 per cent of doctors identify as female. This is surely a reflection of opportunity (social, education and employment), rather than a reflection of a change in underlying ‘talent’. Applied to the workplace, this change of emphasis has significant impact, highlighting the opportunity to spot talented people who may be hidden from view through lack of opportunity (often linked to a lack of effective inclusion of under-represented groups). The shift in mindset also helps organisations to focus on the value of increasing ‘personal best’ performance across the organisation and investing more in developing the skills they may need for the future. Furthermore, it encourages the exploration of new sources of talented people. For example, I am working with a social care provider who are considering how they can address the publicised shortages through a concerted effort to design roles that will be attractive for older workers, tapping into fresh sources of talent who may find purpose in a role within the sector. This broader view of talent may be critical to finding new solutions in the light of the Great Resignation’. Cult of individual heroes The second premise draws on research to indicate that a group of high performing individuals does not necessarily guarantee organisational success, and suggests that ‘high performance is a result of teams as well as individuals’. Much of the cult of individual heroes is predicated on the idea that talent is a fixed trait and people who possess this can work miracles. A bit like the star striker, brought in to rescue a failing football team, they can be set a near impossible task, and it often does not end well. For example, Adrian

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broader team working. Research Furnham has highlighted that 38 around the Great Resignation per cent of the highest paid CEOs indicates that a sense of belonging failed to perform. Many senior and strong team relationships are leaders I have spoken with describe important to retention – and more talent (especially leadership talent) important than employers tend to as an attribute that is transferable recognise (see ‘Exhibit 5’ in a recent between different situations, not McKinsey report, via tinyurl.com/ considering that the requirements eadf92dc). may be significantly different (for Dr Maggi Evans is an Author, example, a ‘turnaround leader’ Psychologist, Talent Strategist, is rarely successful or motivated Consultant and Coach Lack of strategic clarity in a ‘slow growth’ scenario). It maggi@mosaic-consulting. The third premise addresses the is important for these leaders to co.uk assumption that we can predict reflect, considering the important future talent needs. As I’ve said, question of ‘talent for what?’, a many of the talent tools were developed for a relatively question ignored in many leadership deployment stable context and are designed to help organisations decisions. predict future needs and take action to ensure that In addition to these concerns, there is a risk that they have access to the talented people they need the focus on individuals encourages behaviours to be successful. Indeed, most of the talent models of being self-promoting and using social capital to suggest starting with business strategy, sometimes personal advantage. These may not be the behaviours looking ahead by as much as 15 years. Effective Talent that will drive sustainable Management: Aligning strategy, people and performance, organisational success. Yes, a 2016 book by Mark Wilcox, devotes a whole chapter individuals have a role to play, Key sources to exploring ‘what sort of talent do we need?’. In many but a talented individual could be businesses this translates into succession plans – poached by a competitor, and thus Barney, J.B. (2001). Resource-based showing who can move into which roles, within what the perceived competitive advantage theories of competitive advantage: A timeframe. is lost. A more sustainable ten-year retrospective on the resourceThere is a significant challenge with this approach. competitive advantage may arise based view. Journal of Management, Business strategy is not a single, clear, stable direction. from a focus on the team and the 27(6), 643-650. Bowman, C. & Hird, M.A. (2014). Indeed, the value of ‘fast adaptation’ over ‘perfect context, as in the ‘Resource Based Resource based view of talent prediction’ is increasingly considered to be the way View’ of strategy (e.g. see Barney, management. In P. Sparrow, H. Scullion, forward (e.g. see www.bain.com). Thus, the identified 2001; Bowman & Hird, 2014). & I. Tarique (Eds.) Strategic talent successors may not meet the needs of the next iteration The case for this was well made by management: Contemporary issues of the role, and the skills that were highly valued one Jeffery Pfeffer back in 2001 when in international context. Cambridge year, might not be the most critical in the next year. he was challenging the emerging University Press. Capelli, P. & Keller, J. (2017). We balance this historic focus on strategic clarity with focus on talent management with The Historical Context of Talent his paper ‘Fighting the war for talent our third premise, ‘we need to be responsive to changing Management. In G. Collings, K. Mellahi, talent needs’. This is not intended to suggest that we is hazardous to your organisation’s & W. Cascio (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook cannot predict and therefore should not engage in health’. of Talent Management (pp. 23-40). Oxford The inclusion of teams as well as planning long term. Rather, the intention is to prepare University Press. for a range of possible scenarios, understanding the individuals has a significant impact Herriot, P. & Pemberton, C. (1995). New deals: The revolution in managerial talent implications, risks and opportunities of the most on talent strategy. In particular, it careers. John Wiley & Son Ltd. likely needs. Adopting this approach, organisations raises additional questions such as, Kegan, R. & Lahey, L. (2016). An aim to have access to a diverse group of people with ‘what is the contribution of teams everyone culture: Becoming a deliberately a range of skills and ensure rapid feedback loops on to our success’, ‘how do we help developmental organization. Harvard current needs and possible future needs. This type of teams to develop and perform well Business School Publishing. emergent and responsive approach is what CEOs I talk together?’, and ‘how are teams Meyers, M.C. & Van Woerkom, M. (2014). The influence of underlying philosophies encouraged to collaborate and share with are asking for. on talent management. Journal of World There is a challenge taking this type of flexible learning across boundaries?’. For Business, 49(2), 192-203. approach as there is little evidence or research to one of my clients, these questions Mullainathan, S. & Shafir, E. (2013). draw on. However, using ‘best available evidence’, have highlighted the importance Scarcity: Why having too little means so four approaches are likely to help. These include of collaboration across business much. Macmillan. understanding and focusing on core future skills, units in order to provide better Pfeffer, J. (2001). Fighting the war for talent is hazardous to your organization’s securing access to diverse talent pools, developing customer solutions. As a result, the health. Organizational Dynamics, 29(4), speedy feedback loops and ensuring responsive onboarding programme has been 248–259. recruitment and development. For clients, this broadened to include introductions Thunnissen, M. (2016). Talent thinking has helped them to focus on a range of ways to other business areas, and regular management, for what, how and how of accessing the talented people they need, moving networking events are held to help well? Employee Relations, 38(1), 57-72. beyond a focus on people who are employed, and build relationships and support

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the psychologist january 2022 talent liberation

considering a range of approaches, supplementing the traditional ‘build and buy’ with borrow, partnership, crowdsourcing, collaboration and technological solutions. If, as some predict, the Great Resignation continues or accelerates, a flexible approach to finding people seems an appropriate way to manage the risk of uncertainty. Dominance of formal process In my research asking HR leaders about their talent management, the typical response is to simply describe the processes they engage in (such as competency frameworks, appraisal, succession planning, leadership development, apprenticeship programmes). Often these processes become huge undertakings and HR leaders complain that they end up chasing and policing… frustrated that the process is not delivering value to the organisation. Meanwhile, other leaders are playing the game, ticking the boxes and wondering why they waste time on this. One HR Director summed it up as ‘we’ve got so wrapped up in the process, we’ve forgotten about the purpose’. Our fourth premise, ‘formal processes are only part of the answer’ aims to draw attention to the importance of wider, cultural and behavioural practices which impact on how talented people are managed, supported, developed, inspired and retained. Indeed, some writers (e.g. Kegan & Lahey, 2016) advocate focusing almost entirely on creating a positive organisational learning culture, with learning and feedback integrated into everyday activities rather than part of separate processes. Within the Talent Liberation approach, we recognise that formal processes may have a role to play. For example, good governance may require a succession plan, formal recruitment methods are a recognised way to overcome bias, and performance related pay should be underpinned by fair and consistent criteria. However, asking some questions can help ensure that processes are supporting the purpose, rather than becoming an end in themselves. A first question to consider is ‘what is the purpose of this process and the short/long-term benefits?’. This can then be evaluated against the effort/cost. A further question can explore ‘how does this process fit with the culture of the organisation?’. I recently worked with a client who was implementing a wonderful new system to support transparent giving and receiving of feedback. However, the culture was such that people did not feel safe to share such feedback, so it was unlikely to bring the hoped-for benefits. Further questions about the processes include ‘are there any informal or cultural practices which could support the aims?’ and ‘what are the potential unintended consequences of this process?’. These questions encourage a broader view of talent, which places value on creating an environment in which people can perform at their best, so the organisation can make best use of the talented people they have recruited, developed and deployed.

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Missing half the story The fifth and final premise of talent liberation turns attention to the observation that traditional talent approaches are ‘missing half the story’ with their focus on the organisation’s perspective and little attention to what the talented individuals want (Thunnissen, 2016). There has, over the years, been much talk of things such as employees as customers, servant leadership and employee value propositions. However, data consistently indicate that people often feel disengaged and unheard, that their opinions don’t matter, that they are not valued and that they don’t see opportunities to develop their career with their current employer. Indeed, these appear to be some of the themes behind the ‘Great Resignation’. The talent liberation premise is that ‘success depends on partnership between the organisation and the people’. When looking back at the career and talent literature it is interesting to see parallels between the situation now and the mid-1990s, as the Western world recovered from a recession. Herriot and Pemberton in 1995 described the breakdown of trust between employees and employers, and an opportunity to define a ‘career deal’ based on a partnership approach, with clear contracting about what is wanted and what is offered. Such an approach seems to offer merits in the current situation too. This is likely to be achieved through open career conversations and clarity about the roles and responsibilities of each party (in particular, the individual, the line manager and the ‘organisation’). Such contracting ensures clear expectations, and feedback mechanisms to check in on how well parties are fulfilling their role. To successfully deliver such an approach, organisations need to create opportunities for people to talk openly about what they really want. They also need to be able to respond to what they hear, potentially changing their employment model to enable far greater variety in working patterns, development opportunities and career paths. From an administrative perspective this is not going to be easy, but personalising employment, working in partnership with team members is likely to be an important strategy for attracting and retaining talented people and turning ‘the Great Attrition’ into the ‘Great Attraction’. Brought together, the five premises of Talent Liberation encourage fresh perspectives, a different way of looking at the ‘wicked problem’ of how to attract, develop, motivate and retain people to do the tasks that organisations need to be done. Supported by a talent strategy tool, the Talent Compass, the premises can help leaders to ask some different questions, to see how different parts of the system interact, and to develop solutions that will help them and their colleagues to be successful together. This could be an important way to help organisations to address the challenges of the Great Resignation.

From Talent Management to Talent Liberation: A Practical Guide for Professionals, Managers and Leaders, by Maggi Evans, John Arnold and Andrew Rothwell, won the ‘Practitioner’ category in the British Psychological Society’s Book Award.

30/11/2021 14:27

Thinking back positively Professor Hugh Koch discusses the psychology of writing his memoirs

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veryone has a book in them… a story worth telling. In 1973, I stood halfway up Hyde Street, one of San Francisco’s iconic streets. I looked down at Fisherman’s Wharf and thought ‘I’m 5000 miles from home, I’ve hitched across the USA, I need to hitch back to New York… and I can do it’. On that same trip I had bought a poster for my parents of two seagulls flying free and a byline that said ‘they can because they think they can’. It was a prescient purchase – encouraged by family members on reaching ‘three score years and ten’ to lay down personal and professional memories, I soon identified the theme of ‘cognitive empowerment’ – the path from positive thinking to opportunity and achievement. The result, They Can Because They Think They Can: A Psychologist’s Memoir, was published in June 2021. It reflects on the journey that my qualifications afforded me: psychologist Cary Cooper, who provided the foreword, suggested that I had been able to ‘look for circumstances I wanted, and if unable to find them, I made them’. I want to encourage others to make the circumstances for their memoirs.

Beginnings My father, born and living in Vienna, decided in 1938 to emigrate to London due to the economic catastrophe and rising political extremism in Austria following the ‘Anschluss’ (annexation). He used his intellect, social skills and considerable drive to establish himself and our family just outside London. He and my mother encouraged my sister and I to be self-sufficient and financially robust. I recall a conversation with him by the fireside when I was 19, wondering whether to study psychology – he said, ‘just make sure you develop skills you can market’. I took that suggestion to heart. Through my career in Psychology and expert witness work I have written several books covering topics such as therapy, community psychology, general management, quality management and civil litigation. Now, prompted by my daughter Emily to write about my earlier life before it was forgotten or too late, I set out to revisit the best times, my parents’ unconditional life, to learn more about myself, unwrapping the layers of my life from a professional point of view.

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the psychologist january 2022 books I had been gathering ideas, letters, photographs, articles that have acted as both a comfort blanket and stimulus for free association from day to day and event to event. Much of the thinking and writing was done at home with calming music, like Satie’s ‘Gymnopedies’ or chilled late-night jazz, and an occasional glass of dry white wine to hand. As Coleen McCann has said about writing, ‘it is a work of imagination, you won’t die trying; at least not yet!’. Learning The theme of this memoir is one of ‘cognitive empowerment’ in which positive thinking can interact and lead to feelings of ability, greater self-esteem and further achievement. What have I learned along that path? Graduating from Bristol University in 1973, I embarked on a varied and exciting career with five diverse roles as a Clinical Psychologist (therapist) NHS Senior General Manager, Management Consultant (TQM), Expert Witness, and, latterly, an academic/clinical professor in Law and Psychology and mentor to other psychologists. Each role has afforded me a view of very different contexts which psychology can be applied to. I approached each with a ‘can do’ attitude which helped me in the good times and the less good. My wish to be liked and loved has made socialising and getting the most out of relationships a crucial motivation to be positive, generous and avoid or resolve conflict when possible. Social communication has been in many different contexts – varying from one-to-one therapy to large group situations. My move away from therapy was motivated by experiences in an NHS management group in Colchester when the Health Minister of the time introduced the decision-making thrust that was General Management. My interest and aptitude in communication skills plus a ‘bias for action’ (adopting one of my parents’ traits) resulted in a successful foray into managing a wellfunded community care programme in Somerset. Slippery slopes Don’t get me wrong, writing has forced me to revisit slippery slopes too. A further step up the NHS management ladder to manage five hospitals in Cheltenham and Cirencester was an unhappy period: I was used to being successful, effective and valued professionally, and memories of being confronted in Health Authority meetings with my inadequate information and poor hospital performance don’t exactly fit my narrative of achievement and optimism. I had been promoted beyond my competence, and after 12-18 months I elected to leave. I had to look at other painful parts of my life too: my parents’ conflictual relationships; sitting on my mother’s bed crying; self-esteem difficulties at school and university; negative talk at home; university reluctance to let me change courses; poor academic performance; lack of skill in managing acute medical services; patients burning my office; investigating a cluster of suicides of patients in my care; dealing with unsympathetic

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politicians and media. Yet looking back, I can see how negative events can still have positive connotations. And simply the process of projecting your inner world onto the blank page is not dissimilar to undergoing therapy, giving the writer a chance to reflect. Our past haunts us, especially the difficult or conflictual events. You need to allow yourself the freedom to feel vulnerable and be open to your feelings, both happy, sad and bad. It takes quite a lot of courage to write about one’s life experiences – reluctance may be expressed as a practical ‘how do I start’ but is often, deeper down, a fear of disclosure (to oneself and others). This is a shame as this process is amazing and the writer is in control of what gets published. The bumps in my own road led me to forge a career as a management consultant, followed by establishing a business in medico-legal expert witness work which was not only intellectually and professionally extremely rewarding but also saw me implement my father’s advice to ‘have skills which can be marketed’. Writing the memoir reminded me of the many times and events where I had adapted a positive perspective which then translated into achievement and success. It has also made me much more aware of my roots, how my parents’ endeavours laid the foundations for a secure childhood, economically, socially and to some extent, emotionally. While writing, I was aware of how positive I became about many aspects of past relationships – this resulted in a generally positive outcome to the whole project of writing my memoir. Memoir writing helps to create a more profound sense of wellbeing and peace of mind. Tips I hope I have encouraged some of you to put pen to paper. I have found my memoir experience gratifying and empowering, both cognitively and socially – I hope yours is too, and here are some practical tips to get you started: • Choose a theme with/without some pivotal moments or events in your life. • Start gathering reminiscences by either brainstorming (non-chronological) or in an ordered way (e.g. chronological; location-based). • List people, events and ‘show don’t tell’ conversations – try and identity your feelings. Recreate dialogue as clearly as you can. Put the reader in the ‘room’. • Write in an effective way for you (structural; time managed; flitting in and out). • Be truthful and don’t avoid negative or ambiguous events… they can often carry the main ‘lessons’. • Be kind and positive to yourself, and keep in a positive mood/space when writing. There’s one postscript… Samuel Goldwyn once said, ‘I don’t think anyone should write their autobiography or memoir until after they’re dead’. The inevitable incompleteness of a memoir is, as Ian McKellen once said, ‘the final chapter is missing’. Like them, I am left intrigued about the ‘final chapter’ and what it may entail. This may well be the subject of the next project…

Professor Koch is interviewed by Dr Liz Boyd at thepsychologist. bps.org.uk/theycan-becausethey-thinkthey-can-valuepositive-thinking To buy the book, visit linktr.ee/ hughkoch memoir or email hugh@hughkoch associates.co.uk

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Developing trauma-responsive organisations Karen Treisman presents a wealth of information and resources to develop ‘adversity, culturally, and trauma-informed, infused and responsive practice, at a wholesystem organizational level’ (p 135). Across two volumes, Treisman covers the what, why and how of trauma informed services. With theory, baseline assessment guidance, values, and the application of ideas into practice with reflective exercises, full-page visuals and worksheets, Treisman guides organisations to identify their individual needs. The theoretical and ideological grounding is in narrative approaches, compassion focussed and community psychology, culture and politics, e.g., quoting authors and political ethicists. Treisman’s language consistently humanises organisations as ‘live’ systems of people, and she models a non-judgemental curious lens. She promotes evaluation and evidencing real and meaningful change in people’s lives. Treisman’s analogy of a trauma river frames the process of change as a journey where learning and practices develop. She offers a stage-

A Treasure Box for Creating Trauma-Informed Organizations Karen Treisman Jessica Kingsley Publishers

like developmental frame; moving from trauma sensitive, trauma aware, trauma informed and trauma responsive, whilst acknowledging that the process is more than a linear progression between points along a river. She emphasises a river’s differences, in depth or width, places where it moves fast and slow, runs clear or cloudy. An organisation will not be in the same point along the river for all areas of practice, eddies or boulders can impede its flow, and external influences like the weather have an effect. Whilst the analogy isn’t a perfect fit, I like the scope for creative thinking. Treisman returns to her emphasis on humanising organisations: a river is made of millions of individual water droplets, and every drop together make the river what it is. She acknowledges

the bravery of services engaging in these reflections, and as with other mentalization-based approaches, safety and epistemic trust are central. Treisman stresses the importance of meeting an organisation where it is at. Only once an organisation can support the people within it to regulate and relate, can they step onto the riverbank, the position affording greatest reflection. This book seems especially relevant now. As the jaws of the Covid crocodile loosen their grip on organisations, they have potential to become less reactive and recover their reflective capacity. The baseline assessment allows them to ask, ‘what is happening in our organisation?’ and identify a realistic vision of ‘what do we need to prioritise?’ The resources have much potential for creative application, but might benefit the development of peer support networks for those working through it. Reviewed by Dr Jo Kirk, Chartered Clinical Psychologist in CAMHS, Fostering and Adoption

More online: Find exclusive book extracts and more reviews at www.thepsychologist.org.uk, including: Socially valued, not inherently valuable An extract from The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality by Kathryn Paige Harden, with kind permission from the publisher Princeton University Press. Fighting half-truths with semi-fiction David Harper on his involvement with a new book, The American way: Stories of invasion (Comma Press). Collective and compassionate leadership An extract from Compassionate leadership: Sustaining wisdom, humanity and presence in health and social care by Michael West (Swirling Leaf Press).

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‘Mental health professionals have spent decades hiding behind a screen of hypocrisy’ Linda Gask speaks to Annie Hickox about her recent book Finding True North: The Healing Power of Place (Sandstone Press) and more.

29/11/2021 10:25

the psychologist january 2022 books

The big cheese at work Peter Cheese is the Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and so is very well positioned to write about the future of work. This big book is a thorough review of where we are now and how we can create a better future for the benefit of business, society and individuals. There are some real nuggets in here – it’s easy to read and contains great analysis and insight about where we are getting it wrong and right (from education to shareholder focus, to ideas about generational differences). Through it all is a hope that we can create a future where

work is both part of and an enabler of a healthy and happy existence. Cheese recognises that what we are doing now is not sustainable – there is a lot about the world of work which is unhealthy and damaging to our society. However, surveys have indicated that people are generally optimistic. If we focus on increasing flexibility, working fewer hours, learning more, greater equality, and actively doing good, then maybe we can all shape a better future.

The New World of Work: Shaping a future that helps people, organizations and our societies to thrive Peter Cheese Kogan Page

Reviewed by Emily Hutchinson, Associate Editor (books), Director of Apply Psychology

A history of bisexuality Shearing describes the variety of stereotypes and ‘[Bi culture is] the culture of being hated and rejected tropes of bisexual people. A widespread stereotype is by both the ‘normal’ heterosexual world and LGBT that bisexuality is a temporary stopover on the way to community yet still fighting for fighting for the rights and being gay or straight. Shearing writes that this stereotype prosperity of all...’ - Anonymous (pp.216-217, Bi The Way). developed from the idea that bisexual identities are less Lois Shearing’s (they/them) first book, Bi The Way, is a valid than gay or straight identities and, as a result, less masterfully crafted guide to all things bisexual. Shearing stable. This is encapsulated by the phrase ‘bi now, gay takes care to ensure that intersectionality, not privilege, later’. prevails in telling our stories, history, mental health, Bisexual people are also stereotyped as carriers of and the issues we face. They intertwine fact, theory and sexually transmitted infections. Shearing documents that history with real bi+ (an abbreviation that encompasses during the 1980s AIDS crisis, bi+ people were seen as a bisexual and other plurisexual individuals) life stories to way that HIV/AIDS could travel between gay and straight make each point stronger and more relatable. This is one communities. Bi+ people were scapegoated and blamed of the first of few bisexual history textbooks in the world. for the worsening crisis. It was assumed Shearing defines bisexuality, then they spread it to the general public (straight focuses on preferences, history, and people) through illicit affairs. Sadly, the HIV/ bisexuality and the gender binary. Shearing Bi The Way: The AIDS crisis stalled the early bi movement affirms that there is no right way to be bisexual guide to life because, as Shearing notes, so many bisexual and that having a preference Lois Shearing bisexual people died from HIV/AIDS. is perfectly acceptable. They stress that Jessica Kingsley Psychologists and mental health neither your relationship history nor your Publishers professionals could benefit from current partner defines your sexuality. understanding the bisexual culture, history, A bisexual person who marries or dates and discrimination described in this book. Often, bi+ someone is still bisexual, regardless of their partner’s individuals are not believed – they are asked to prove their sex/gender. Due to my history with men, people assume I bisexuality by disclosing their sex and/or dating history, am gay and lying to myself, which translates into intense while monosexual people are not. In my own experiences internalised biphobia. To me, Shearing’s words are receiving psychotherapy, the therapist’s belief in my genuinely affirming and supportive. sexuality gave me space to disclose what had happened This book taught me the history of my people that I to me. I received a response without judgment and never knew. This gap in my understanding is primarily agenda but with compassion, empathy, and acceptance. due to bisexual erasure in academic settings, which This has been instrumental to my healing process. Shearing demonstrates through comparing gay and A better understanding of bi+ clients in all mental bisexual literature in the British Library. Shearing notes health practitioners could lead to a more culturally and that Brenda Howard, ‘the mother of pride’, was an out historically informed therapeutic environment. and proud bisexual woman. In 1969, Howard organised the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, a month after the Stonewall riots, and again the following year. The Reviewed by Thomas York, a psychology student at Bath Spa University tradition has stuck, and we have what we today call Pride.

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29/11/2021 12:01

What do you stand for? In the latest episode of his podcast ‘Eighty Percent Mental’, Chartered Psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Psychology Dr Pete Olusoga is joined by organisational psychologist and best-selling New York Times author, John Amaechi OBE, for an honest and inspiring conversation about racism, anti-racism, and what we all could or should be doing to make our communities fairer for everybody.

e strongly recommend listening to the entire episode via eightypercentmental.com – but for those who prefer to read, Dr Olusoga has kindly given us permission to host an edited transcript, which you can find at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/what-do-you-stand What follows is just one chunk of that conversation. Sport has been really important in the last few years in keeping conversations about social justice going. There’s been a fairly predictable backlash to that – booing of players taking the knee for example. The reaction that we see to white athletes discussing issues out of their sport is very different to the reaction that black athletes get – Drew Brees, for example, the white American football quarterback, has the right to an opinion, whereas LeBron James should just ‘shut up and dribble’. But what can we do, as people who work in sports, psychologists, coaches and so on, to really support athletes who want to use their voices to talk about social issues? I think it’s part of our job. I’m not a sports psychologist, but I think is part of the job of sports psychologists and other psychologists to facilitate performance. We can’t stop where the court stops, where the field stops, it’s a huge mistake. What we could be doing is helping people to understand how they can best use their voice, helping them roleplay with you, ‘this is how I feel. I don’t have all the information about this circumstance, this situation, here’s some resources where you can educate yourself, here’s a way that you can have this conversation doing the minimal damage you can to your career and life, helping you understand the context of the backlash that you might receive, and how to handle that.’ To me, that’s the mature and indeed ethical way that support staff of all types should be having the conversation. You’re not going to stop athletes from speaking out at this point. That ship has sailed. But what we can do is ‘here’s how we can be congruent. Here’s how you can do it in a way that, regardless of whether it receives backlash, will be so dignified and ethical that the backlash will seem unreasonable at some point.’

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One of the issues that I find with that is that a lot of people in my field in particular, and psychologists in general, feel a need to be almost ‘politically neutral’.

They feel the need to not take sides. I suspect it’s because people don’t want to alienate a potential client base. I don’t know, I’m guessing at this point. But what would you say? It is self-serving, indiscriminately, stupid bollocks. Sport has been political since the first naked man ran to Marathon to inform their political leaders of a victory, and then dropped dead. Sport has always been political. It’s a political performance, most major events. Psychologists want to stay out of the mire. For exactly the reason you’ve talked about, people fear making themselves toxic. They fear making themselves controversial. So maybe the football team that they’d really like to work with will want to work with them in the future. But we have an ethical responsibility. We are scientists with an ethical responsibility, a duty of candour and the duty of care that extends well beyond the court. I tell all the people that we work with, as a business psychologist, ‘your company may be paying me. But when you are sat in the room with me, you are my client’. And when sports psychologists work with athletes, yes, you’re being paid by Manchester United, or wherever else, but the individual in front of you – that green kid from the lower ranks of a team – that’s your client in this moment. Their best interest, not pushing them to go through the pain of their hamstring industry, they’re your client. It’s not politically neutral. In a world where some of these athletes can leave in their nice cars and immediately be stopped and searched. There’s no politically neutral. I think it’s an abdication of our responsibility, as learned ethical scientists, to suggest that the world is not inherently political and sport with it. I know that that’s hard. Even as I say this, I’m aware that it’s hard. There are tons of people who will never work with me, organisations where my name is Kryptonite. And many of these organisations, my team and I could help. I have made it so that that bolt is shot. But whenever I meet a new client, what I can say to them is that my principles are intact. And I will do what’s best. Fundamentally, doing what’s best for the individual athletes will be in the long run what’s best for the team. It’s a difficult step to take, for a lot of people, to speak out on some of these issues. I see a lot of colleagues who

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the psychologist january 2022 culture

will flirt with the idea – like a tweet, or maybe even go so far as to retweet something that’s vaguely political. But that’s about it. That’s about the extent of them venturing into this world of what’s actually happening around us. What’s the first step that they can take to open up and acknowledge that the world is inherently political, and it does exist around us and that has an impact on the systems that they’re working in? The thing I would start with is not action, not doing anything. First, introspection. Part of the reason psychologists struggle around this is because they don’t know what they stand for. They have no idea. It’s not remotely controversial to stand for things ethically. So I’m against racism. I’m not kind of ambivalent about it. The sexism and misogyny. Yes, I want to destroy that. I’m not ambivalent. I’m not on the fence. Anti-semitism, Islamophobia. You name the incivility, I want to kill it with fire. That’s who I am. Test me. That’s what I tell everybody. I’m the one. I’m the fun sponge. I’m the politically correct one. I’m the one who will say something. You end up in my physical space, and if it’s your house, I won’t care.

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I’m the one who will call you on it. Because my declaration of principle is meaningless, if you can behave to the opposite of those principles around me. Psychologists, we have duty of care. We have a duty of candour, a duty of principle. And that means conflict. If you’re up for that, we can make a difference. So every single person listening to this – white, black or otherwise – needs to tell people what they stand for. Because people don’t know. They don’t know. And they need to know. I can’t have an authentic relationship with a client, if they don’t understand that. Even a racist client, for example – and I have had clients who are racist, and anti-semitic – they need to know where I stand, because that’s the only authentic way to have relationship with them. And in this psychology lark, we sometimes like to believe we’re a lot more effective than we actually are. But we are definitely not effective, at all, if we don’t build that a relationship built on something that is honest and transparent. So for the psychologists who are worrying how to do this, don’t start with liking the occasional tweet from a

More culture online: ‘Power is such an impactful force’ – Suzanne Alleyne on a webinar series thepsychologist. bps.org.uk/ power-suchimpactful-force

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left wing or right wing politician to declare your thing. Sit down and actually consider what do you stand for? In the context of this complex, convoluted disrupted world that we live in? What do you stand for? Maybe when you figure that out, the idea of retweeting or liking or siding with arguments that are congruent with your principles won’t feel so difficult. The second thing you can do is demand that the organisations that you’re a part of live up to their stated values. We don’t need to do anything else. You don’t need to introduce new stuff: most of the organisation’s governing bodies, most of the rigid regulatory bodies, they already have the provisions in place. Hold them to account for that, and when they don’t, say something.

therapeutic and warm ways human beings can heal each other. We should be optimistic because when I look at psychology, at its core – although we struggle with this thing of not being real scientists and trying to prove ourselves constantly – we are people trained to, with our very presence alone, our force of will and attention, to bolster, heal and enhance… not just the performance, but the thriving of individuals in the most difficult circumstances. That is what psychologists want to do. When they experience that, it will help them redouble their efforts to do some of this introspection that we need. It’s not that psychologists are being bad right now. It’s just that we could be better. So much better. And I am optimistic that we will be.

I’d like to end on something positive… Why should we be optimistic? Because for every disappointment, on an almost daily basis, I get just a glimpse of the profound or wonderful,

Also revisit our conversation about the Eighty Percent Mental podcast with Pete Olusoga and Hugh Gilmore, at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/december-2020/ we-have-responsibility-go-beyond-sport

On grief, healing and wholeness film Pig Dir: Michael Sarnoski

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It is a sensitive time to explore the themes of grief, healing and wholeness that are at the centre of Michael Sarnoski’s bittersweet Pig. It stars the excellent Nicolas Cage as Rob Feld, a once-prominent chef who now lives a solitary life in the woods, with only the company of his truffle pig, and the occasional business visit from Amir, a slick and showy ingredients trader. Following the violent and dramatic theft of his pig, Rob returns to the world he left behind – downtown Portland – to trace its kidnappers. As we quickly learn, it was loss that pulled Rob into the abyss and it is loss that pulls him out again. Fittingly, while the film starts at a rolling boil, it slows to a simmer to deliver its timely message. As Rob searches for evidence in the city’s high-end restaurant scene, pretence lurks at every turn – from the obnoxiously ‘de-constructed’ food offerings to Amir’s frantic attempts to become clued-up on classical music to fit in. Unexpectedly, Rob appears unmoved by vengeance, responding to his surroundings with a mixture of indifference, fatalism and disdain. Hollowed out by grief, he just wants his pig back. In contrast to the highly-polished backdrops, Rob cuts a haunted, wild-eyed figure who raises difficult questions. In one powerful scene,

the shot remains fixed on a head chef who struggles, excruciatingly, to justify his decision to abandon his dream of owning a pub in favour of opening an upmarket restaurant. The power and raw emotion of Rob is reflected in both his relentlessness and the underlying sense that he could erupt at any moment (a la John Wick). Pig’s message, however, hits home in its subtler moments. Rob’s earthy sincerity – displayed most vividly in the reverential way in which he prepares food – is one of the keys to his progress, and the progress of others also struggling with loss and damaged relationships. The film is a poignant exploration of loss, grief and what it means to be wholly human. Carl Jung’s concept of ‘shadow’ – the idea that there are primal parts of us that remain outside of our conscious awareness and public persona – is evident in the contrast between Rob and civilised society. Jung stressed the importance of not ignoring our shadow aspects if we are to be psychologically whole, and Pig nods to these risks in its depiction of the brutish places that lie just beyond the urbane exterior. Like Rob, grief and loss often arrive unannounced, unwashed and unwelcomed. Too often, these topics are dismissed as taboo or discussed superficially in fear of saying the

wrong thing; indeed, these themes are often too sombre for mainstream cinema. Pig calls us to probe beneath the surface and to do better than talking around the issues. As Rob reminds us: ‘we don’t get a lot of things to really care about’. Pig forgoes the prospect of fireworks and vengeance in favour of a measured unpacking of broken pasts and uncertain futures. The film is lurching in parts and measured in others, but always unpredictable and, crucially, different for each of its characters: a fitting reflection of the challenging path out of grief and towards knowing the parts of ourselves that dwell out in the woods. Reviewed by Mark Zarwi, a psychology student at BPP University. mzarwi02@hotmail.com

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the psychologist january 2022 culture

Lessons in motherhood, ACEs and compassion Sometimes as Psychologists we like to watch things which are pure escapism, but I also like stuff I can relate to, things I can be moved by and which help me further build upon my knowledge of working with people. The Netflix series Maid is a story of adversity, poverty and determination. It is a story which effortlessly causes us to reflect on the important lessons of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. When people are not safe and do not have a sanitary and reliable place to live, it really makes everything further up the hierarchy pretty impossible. At its heart, Maid is a story of motherhood and wanting our own children to have different experiences of growing up than those which we experienced. Alas, it is also a story of the key importance of Adverse Childhood Experiences and poverty on child and adult outcomes. Watching the interactions of lead character Alex (Margaret Qualley) with her Mum, played by Qualley’s real-life Mum, Andie MacDowell, can feel painful at times because it allows us insight into what life would have been like when the character was growing up. The patterns of Alex continuing to parent her Mum and to outsmart her time and time again in terms of her compassion and ability to emotionally connect with others, is clearly a pattern which started in childhood and continues into adulthood. In contrast, the relationship between Alex and her young daughter, Maddy is the real highlight of the series. It’s so warm and uplifting and convincing it will make you wonder if the little girl playing her is in fact her real daughter, or maybe her niece…? I’ll save you the Google, they’re not related but did have a lovely bond which developed over the nine months of filming and has continued since production wrapped. Maid also offers us useful learning points as

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professionals for how we can act with compassion like the refuge worker, and not to confound difficulties by delivering seemingly patronising interventions (such as the parenting class offered to Alex). It further helps us clarify the position of emotional abuse as domestic abuse, and not reinforcing potentially gaslighting narratives for any stance which suggests otherwise. It also reminds us of the Oxfam ‘give a man a fish’ campaign and of the importance of work for people’s sense of accomplishment and ability to self-sustain. The way that the production team handled Alex’s finances with on-screen calculations about affordability was incredibly powerful and also at times humbling too. Despite the adversity and the overlap with so many facets of our work I would wholeheartedly recommend that you watch Maid. I just inhaled it and the moments when they’re singing in the car, and also when Alex was dancing outside, still have me grinning from ear to ear when I think about them. Alex and her story – based on the book by Stephanie Land, inspired by her own real-life experiences – will stay with us, but hopefully for all the best reasons. Reviewed by Dr Marianne Trent, clinical psychologist and founder of Good Thinking Psychological Services; Author of The Clinical Psychologist Collective. info@ goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk; Twitter: @GoodThinkingPs1; www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk See also thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/i-had-dream-whati-wanted-and-gave-myself-permission-do-it and listen to The Aspiring Psychologist podcast by Dr Marianne Trent on Spotify.

tv Maid Netflix

Reviews online: Find more reviews at thepsychologist. org.uk/reviews, including Hannah Piekarz on Loki (Disney+)

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We dip into the Society member database and pick out… Judith Eberhardt, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Teesside University One book I’ve read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World several times, having been introduced to it in my teens. Huxley’s dystopian vision of a society in which conformity is achieved through genetic engineering, conditioning, consumerism and a mood-altering drug was fascinating and terrifying to me when I first read it. Every time I pick it up, I find something new in it. One thing psychologists could do better We are very good at identifying what drives individual health behaviour and what it takes to change that behaviour. We need to take a more active role in relation to intervening in the circumstances that promote maladaptive health behaviours. These often relate to social injustice. Focusing solely on the individual to effect positive change is not a viable long-term strategy. We need to be cognisant of this in the work we do, and campaign for social change on a larger scale. We can’t do this alone – it requires interdisciplinary work. One moment that changed my career A few years ago, I felt stuck in a rut in terms of my career, unsure of where I was heading. I met someone who helped me gain the confidence to pursue my research interests and who has since been a great source of motivation, support and inspiration for me. This serendipitous meeting has not only been career-changing but life-changing.

One film I saw Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey as a teen and it made a big impression on me. The film provides a wonderful allegory for the internal human conflict between the rational and the irrational, with the instinctual side of

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one on one

human nature being embodied by the world of the apes and the rational, scientific side by HAL. I constantly reflect upon this conflict as part of my research around preventative health behaviours. We tend to assume that these behaviours are a product of conscious and rational decision-making processes, but this assumption neglects the (often unconscious) biological and social influences on our behaviour.

One song ‘Glass Eyes’ has all the ingredients of a great Radiohead song – plaintive, haunting lyrics accompanied by ethereally beautiful music. It’s about being in love, it’s about pain, and it’s about being in the moment. It feels as though I’ve grown up and matured in tandem with Radiohead’s music. One nugget of advice for aspiring psychologists If you are thinking of pursuing a career in academia, try to gain some teaching experience as early as possible – it will help you decide if this career path is for you. I didn’t originally set out to become an academic. Upon completing an MSc, I wasn’t sure what to do next. I was offered some part-time lecturing work, and I found that I really enjoyed it. I had never seen myself as a lecturer – now I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Some of the most interesting discussions I’ve had have been with my students in the classroom. My job is interesting and fulfilling; seeing my students succeed and forge successful careers in psychology is very rewarding. One challenge With three children, combining a career in academia with motherhood is a constant balancing act. Additionally, as a woman of mixed race, it has at times felt as though I’ve needed to work twice as hard to prove myself. I don’t want my daughters, who will all grow up to be women of colour, to feel limited in terms of what they can achieve. I hope to set a positive example for them.

coming soon… story and myth in psychology; plus all our usual news, views, reviews, interviews, and 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 of over 57,000 BPS members: see details on inside front cover maybe you missed… …January 2012, ‘When Psychology came to my rescue’ Search it and so much more via www.bps.org.uk/thepsychologist psy 01_12 pOFC_Layout 1 13/12/2011 14:21 Page 1

the

psychologist vol 25 no 1

january 2012

Psychology to the rescue Leading psychologists recount a time science was their saviour

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

news 10 media 20 big picture centre ethics 52

praises – five a day for young children 32 doppelgängers 36 ‘see a psychologist? why?’ 40 feeding time 44

More via thepsychologist.bps.org.uk

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Society Trustees

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

www.bps.org.uk/about-us/ who-we-are President Katherine Carpenter President Elect Dr Nicky Hayes Honorary General Secretary Christina Buxton Honorary Treasurer Dr Roxane Gervais Chair, Education and Training Board Professor Niamh Stack Chair, Practice Board Alison Clarke Chair, Member Board Professor Carol McGuinness Chair, Research Board Professor Andrew Tolmie Trustees Dr Peter Branney, Dr Esther CohenTovee, Dr Adam Jowett

Chief Executive Sarb Bajwa Change Programme Director and Deputy CEO Diane Ashby

society notices

society vacancies

Notice of Special General Meeting See p.8 BPS POST Fellowship Scheme See p.24 BPS Learn online CPD See p.51 BPS conferences and events See p.55 Early Career Conference Bursary Scheme See p.5 New online portal registration See p.67

European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations seeking BPS representative for Expert Reference group on psychology and climate change See p.23

Director of Communications and Engagement Rachel Dufton Director of Finance and Resources Phil Hodgett Director of IT Mike Laffan Director of Knowledge and Insight Dr Debra Malpass Director of Membership, Professional Development and Standards 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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