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Keele Psychology News
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As part of our programme to develop teaching and research collaboration with European universities Professor John Wearden recently visited the University Autonoma of Barcelona (UAB).
Professor Wearden delivered a series of lectures to students on the psychology of time, as well as having discussions with UAB staff about future teaching and research collaborations. He was also interviewed for a video to appear on the UAB website, and for the science section of the newspaper ''La Vanguardia”, which has a wide circulation in the Catalan region.
Professor Wearden's visit was supported by the Erasmus scheme which is designed to build links between European universities.
Links with Lausanne University
Professor Michael Murray has recently returned from a visit to the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He was there as part of the Erasmus scheme. Whilst there he delivered lectures on 'critical health psychology' and on 'promoting social engagement among older people'. Staff at the University of Lausanne were very enthusiastic about this visit and keen to establish further links with Keele University. Professor Murray plans to visit again in the autumn.
Lecturers in Psychology (x3)
As part of the continued development of the Keele School of Psychology, we invite applications for three lecturer posts which are available from 1st September 2012. We welcome applications from psychologists with teaching and research interests in social / community psychology and in cognitive psychology / neuropsychology and related areas. Candidates will be expected to have completed or almost completed their PhD. The successful applicants will be expected to contribute to teaching at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, to enhancing the research profile of the school and to undertaking administrative responsibilities.
For an informal discussion about the post please contact Professor Michael Murray via the School office psyenquiries@psy.keele.ac.uk or Dr Nicky Edelstyn (tel: 01782 734318, email n.edelstyn@psy.keele.ac.uk )
Job packs available: www.keele.ac.uk/jobs, vacancies@keele.ac.uk, Human Resources, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK or Fax: (+44) 01782 733471
Please quote post reference: AC12/14UK
Closing date for applications: 3rd May 2012
Poster Prize Winners
Congratulations to the winners of the 3rd Year Psychology Project Poster Awards 2011/12:
Adam Sidaway
(Brain and Behaviour)
Sophie Goodwin
(Social and Developmental)
Katie Wright-Bevans
(Health and Wellbeing)
These awards are well-deserved and reflect the talent and ability of our hard-working students.
Seminar: Efficient and effective feedback: is it possible to do both?
Efficient and effective feedback: is it possible to do both?
Dr Julie Hulme, Discipline Lead for Psychology, Higher Education Academy:
Efficient and effective feedback: is it possible to do both?
25 May, 1pm, Psychology, Dorothy Hodgkin Building - Lab 2
[Please help us estimate numbers by using this Doodle to book for this seminar http://www.doodle.com/65uhxu2vfvc9qebq ]
The issue of delivering timely and high quality feedback to
undergraduate students has become even more important in recent years,
partly due to increased student fees, and partly due to findings of
the National Student Survey. This seminar will outline some recent
research in psychology exploring the purpose of feedback from both a
student and tutor perspective, and will offer recommendations for good
practice in feedback delivery. The tension between effectiveness
(defined as beneficial to student learning) and efficiency (relating
to staff workloads) of feedback will be explored, and some possible
solutions will be suggested. There will be opportunities for staff to
share their own good practice and to discuss potential developments
for their own teaching.
Information will also be provided to facilitate staff in obtaining HEA
funding to support developments in teaching and learning.
Dr Alex Lamont to begin 5 year term as editor of Psychology of Music
Dr Alexandra Lamont (Psychology) has just started a five-year term as
Editor of the journal Psychology of Music. This journal, published by
Sage in association with the Society for Education, Music and Psychology
Research, has grown significantly in submissions, readership and citations
in recent years. It received its first Impact Factor of 1.182 in the 2010
Journal Citation Reports, and Dr Lamont hopes to take the journal from
strength to strength over the coming years.
Lifetime achievement award for psychologist
The British Psychological Society has awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award to Professor Chris Cullen who is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Keele University and Director of Psychological Services for North Staffordshire NHS. Professor Cullen was appointed to Keele in 1995. Prior to that he was SSMH Chair in Learning Difficulties at the University of St. Andrews. Professor Cullen has been President of the Society as well as Chair of its Division of Clinical Psychology. He was also President of the British Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapies. Throughout his career he has been very active on a wide range of committees but he also has an extensive publication record particularly in the field of complex learning disabilities. It was for his distinguished contribution both to the profession of psychology and to the British Psychological Society over many years that he received this very prestigious award.
Time and Le Figaro
Professor John Wearden of the Centre for Psychological Research is currently on a research visit to Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France. Whilst there he was invited to give a keynote presentation at a specialist colloquium at the University of Rennes on ‘Time and Temporality: The Importance of rhythmicity in the psychic organization’. The subject of Professor Wearden’s presentation was ‘Clocks, memories and decisions: understanding of human time through the ages’. The colloquium was organised by the university Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and attracted wide-spread interest. Professor Wearden was also interviewed by Le Figaro, the French daily newspaper.
Seminar: Assessment, Feedback and Learning
Professor Lin Norton (Liverpool Hope) will present this interactive seminar on Wednesday 16 November, 2-4pm, DH Lab 2.
Assessment and feedback is one of the fundamental aspects of our professional practice in higher education; guidelines and principles abound, books are written about it, journals are devoted to it, yet there still seems to be a problem as evidenced every year in the NSS (2005-2011). Ramsden (2003) puts it bluntly, describing it as ‘… a serious and often tragic enterprise’
In this seminar, Lin will present some of her research findings and experiences in working on three HEFCE -funded learning and teaching projects (Assessment Plus, Write Now CETL and Flying Start). Much of this research has looked at the lecturers’ perspective, as well as that of the students, to give a more balanced picture of this ‘troublesome’ area. Throughout the seminar, participants will be invited to actively consider some of the implications of the research in relation to their own learning, teaching and assessment contexts.
Lin Norton is Emeritus Professor of Pedagogical Research at Liverpool Hope University, and a National Teaching Fellow. She was, until December 2010, the Dean of Learning and Teaching at Liverpool Hope. A psychologist, by background, she completed her PhD in the mid 80’s at the University of Keele, supervised by Professor James Hartley. The title of the thesis was Note-taking, note using and academic performance: a long term naturalistic study and heralded the start of Lin’s lifelong interest in exploring how students learn and how teachers teach and assess in a university context. Since her ‘retirement’, Lin continues to actively research and publish, details of which can be found on her website http://www.linnorton.co.uk/
'Health for all' Conference in Leipzig, Germany
Professor Michael Murray has just returned from Leipzig, Germany where he gave a Keynote Lecture at the International Conference on 'Health for all – a challenge for municipalities and regional authorities'.
The subject of Professor Murray’s lecture was ‘Developing opportunities for social interaction among older people’.
The conference was jointly organised by Leipzig University of Applied Science and the Saxonian Network for Health Promotion and was attended by participants from throughout Germany and neighbouring countries.
Turku, Finland - City of Culture
Professor Michael Murray recently gave a keynote lecture at the International Congress on Culture, Health and Wellbeing in Turku, Finland. This congress was part of Turku’s European Capital of Culture programme. The congress attracted over 200 people. Professor Murray’s lecture was on ‘Arts, health and social action’. He also gave another paper with his colleague Ari Vanaanen on the health impact of participation in arts activities.
Keele Psychology on National TV
Dr Richard Stephens appears in episode 3 of Fry's Planet Word series first shown on BBC2 on Sunday 9th October. Richard runs Stephen Fry and Brian Blessed through some of the Keele psychology swearing and pain experiments - creating a heady mix of ice water and profanity! This episode is available on BBC iplayer until 24 October (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01614w9)
Dr Richard Stephens in the Telegraph
Keele Senior Psychology Lecturer Richard Stephens was quoted in the Daily Telegraph on 20 September. The article previews the 2011 Ig Nobel awards. Richard, along with former Keele Psychology graduates John Atkins and Andrew Knigston, received the 2010 Ig Nobel Peace Prize for their paper showing that swearing can be a helpful response to pain. http://t.co/s6epsZ84
Keele in Top Ten for student satisfaction
Keele University has moved into the Top Ten of UK universities for student satisfaction.
90% of Keele students are satisfied with their courses, compared with 83% nationally.
Keele students were particularly pleased with the intellectual stimulation that their course offered and the quality of feedback they receive from academic staff. Students also indicated that they felt Keele's courses made them more confident personally and equipped them to deal with a breadth of challenges that modern day graduates are required to face.
Dr Richard Stephens on Channel 4
Dr Richard Stephens made a brief appearance in Channel 4’s “Secret Life of Buildings” on August 1st. Richard talks about the neurobiology of coping with pain as he runs the presenter, Times architecture critic Tom Dyckhoff, through a super-sized ice cold water pain challenge. You can still catch it on CoD, Channel 4’s view on demand service. Richard's part is at the start of the third segment (click here: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-secret-life-of-buildings/4od#3215764).
BAD LANGUAGE IN WREXHAM!
Dr Richard Stephens will be speaking at an evening event at Glyndŵr University on Weds 20th July as part of Wrexham Science Festival 2011. Richard will be talking about his Ig Nobel award winning research on swearing as a response to pain. See Richard's university web page for details.
Teaching Innovation award 2011
Dr. Chris Stiff and Dr. Pete Lonsdale have been successful in obtaining a Keele Teaching Innovation award of £400. The award will be used to examine the effectiveness of online tutorials in assisting students' understanding of statistics and SPSS
‘Preventing Domestic Abuse: Working with Children and Young People’, 24th June 2011, Keele University
Keele University is hosting an event on 24th June 2011 which focuses on the prevention of domestic abuse. The event will bring together over forty delegates who represent both local and national organisations in the areas of domestic abuse research, policy and practice. The workshop’s presentations will focus on working with children and young people in reducing their risk of becoming involved in domestic abuse as adolescents and adults. The event will include a presentation on the first stage of the ‘From Boys to Men’ research study. This study, led by Prof. David Gadd (University of Manchester), Dr. Claire Fox (Keele University) and Prof. Ian Butler (University of Bath), explores why some boys grow up to be domestic abuse perpetrators when others do not and how we can change the attitudes and feelings that give rise to abusive tendencies among adolescents.
Dr Sue Sherman in the New Scientist
Dr Sue Sherman presented her research on false memory at the British Psychological Society conference in Glasgow on 5th May. The New Scientist picked up on it and published a brief report on it in their magazine this week. The research reported found that you can create false memories for non-presented brand names (e.g., Carling) in the laboratory by presenting related brand names (e.g., Budweiser, Grolsch, Foster’s). Over time (a week later) false memories went up, whilst correct memories went down.
You can read the full article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20488-advertisers-beware-people-think-of-competitors-brands-when-they-see-yours.html
BPS Undergraduate Research Bursaries
Drs Claire Fox and Sue Sherman from the School of Psychology have each been awarded a British Psychological Society (BPS) Undergraduate Research Assistantship bursary of £1600 enabling two 2nd year Psychology students to get ‘hands on’ experience of research during the summer vacation, to gain an insight into scientific research and to encourage them to consider an academic career. Claire will be working with student Lucy James on a project to examine the links between children’s humour styles and the problem of bullying in schools, whilst Sue will be working with student Katie Wright-Bevans examining the creation of false memories for television advertisements. The BPS scheme is a prestigious award (only 10 are awarded each year across the country) that marks the students out as future researchers and potential academics. In the award letters, the Chair of the BPS Research Board stated that both applications were ‘exceptional’.
Visiting Speaker
Wednesday, 25th May 2011 at 1.00pm in DH0.31 (Lab 1)
Dr Brett Smith from Loughborough University will present:
"Spinal Cord Injury, Resilience and Wellbeing: A Narrative Analysis"
The Beat Goes On keynote
Dr Alexandra Lamont gave a keynote address to 180 delegates at the International Research in Music Education conference in Exeter.
Dr Lamont's talk, entitled "The Beat Goes On: Music, Identity and Lifelong Learning", covered psychological approaches to identity across the lifespan and drew on several ongoing research projects on adult amateur music-making (and concluded with a short video performance by her string quartet, the Mars Quartet, including Keele students Becky Thumpston and Matt Dolman).
In addition, Geraldine Leighton and Jodie Underhill (both Research Institute for Social Sciences) both gave spoken presentations on their research into music in schools.
Music and the Mind: Essays in honour of John Sloboda
Oxford University Press has recently published a book in honour of John Sloboda, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Keele University. The book, entitled ‘Music and the Mind’, celebrates the life and work of Professor Sloboda whilst taking stock of where the field of music psychology stands 25 years after his ground breaking work on ‘The Musical Mind’ first appeared. It reviews key areas of current research in the field, written by world-leading authors, each making a significant and original academic contribution. The contributors to ‘Music and the Mind’ also reflect on how the field has been significantly stimulated by the influential work of Professor Sloboda.
Dr Richard Stephens on BBC Radio West Midlands
Richard appeared as a telephone guest on the Danny Kelly Show on Monday 11th April chatting about the psychology of swearing. This was in the aftermath of Wayne Rooney's televised outburst and the subsequent repost by a senior police officer who blogged that anyone in Wolverhampton would be arrested for such language.
Psychology Seminar Series
Wednesday, 30th March 2011 at 12.30 in DH0.31 (Lab 1) GERALDINE LEIGHTON will present: "Opportunity and choice: Encouraging children to develop a positive musical identity" Followed by DR ALEX LAMONT who will present: "The beat goes on: Music and lifelong learning" ALL WELCOME
Sue Sherman on Radio Stoke
Dr Sue Sherman appeared on Radio Stoke's mid-morning programme with Stuart George on Wednesday 16th March to talk about why we forget things in everyday life.
Dr Alexandra Lamont on BBC Radio 5 Live
Dr Alexandra Lamont appeared on BBC Radio 5 live to comment on recent research on prenatal exposure to music (11 March). Researchers in Paris have recently published findings that prenatal exposure to specially-composed musical sequences can be recalled by newborns 6 weeks after birth. The babies’ heart rates decelerated more when they heard the familiar melody, showing that they could distinguish it from a novel melody. This study is similar to work Dr Lamont conducted with the BBC’s Child of Our Time project in 2001 where she found that infants could distinguish between real pieces of music that they had been exposed to in the last 3 months before birth up to 12 months later. The study used a range of real music from the Eastenders theme tune to Mozart, and the infants chose to listen longer to the piece of music they had heard than to a very similar but unfamiliar piece.
Visiting Speaker
Wednesday, 16th March 2011
1.00 to 2.00
Dorothy Hodgkin Building, DH0.31
Dr Pete Coffee from Staffordshire University will present:
"Attributions in Sport Psychology"
MSc programmes in Psychology 2011
Applications are invited for our range of MSc programmes in psychology at Keele. All Keele graduates are entitled to £1000 Keele Graduate Bursary. School has three competitive bursaries for a further £1000.
- MSc in Psychology
- MSc in Clinical Psychological Research *
- MSc in Child Social Development
- MSc in Psychology of Health and Wellbeing
* Extremely popular programme, applications considered in batches, next deadline 25 February 2011
Closing date for all other courses is 31 May 2011.
Contact Richard Stephens (r.stephens@psy.keele.ac.uk) or Alex Lamont (a.m.lamont@keele.ac.uk) for more information or see our website (http://tinyurl.com/KeeleMScPsyc2011). For MSc programmes in Counselling please see our website.
Stephen Fry calls on Keele psychologist
This week Dr Richard Stephens of the School of Psychology visited the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus to take part in some TV filming with Stephen Fry and Brian Blessed. The sequence, in which Richard ran through some of his psychological experiments on swearing with Stephen and Brian, will be included in Fry’s documentary “Planet Word” to be aired on BBC television in Autumn 2011.
Richard Stephens wins Ig Nobel award!
Dr Richard Stephens at the School of Psychology has been awarded an Ig Nobel award for his research into how swearing can help relieve pain. Richard collected his award in New York this week and was pictured in The Guardian displaying the thumb that inspired his work :-)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/oct/01/ig-nobel-awards-mould-bats
Marie Curie Fellowship
Prof. Ken Rotenberg and Dr. Sally Sargeant have been awarded a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for a project on Paediatric Medical Trust (PMT). The research represents the first comprehensive examination of the role that interpersonal trust plays in the treatment of children with serious illnesses. The PMT project also will help redress the scarcity of professionals in Paediatric Medical Psychology.
New book from Ken Rotenberg
Prof Ken Rotenberg's new book is titled "Interpersonal Trust During Childhood and Adolescence".
Interpersonal trust during childhood and adolescence is crucial to human functioning.
This book presents current research in the growing field of interpersonal trust during childhood and adolescence, highlights its importance for researchers from a wide range of nationalities and cultures, and promotes further research by future generations.
Green Care: A conceptual framework
Dr John Hegarty is one of the contributors to a major European review of an emerging trend in health and social care - Green Care (activities that promote mental and physical health through contact with nature).
The review is available in paperback (ISBN 978-1-907382-23-9) and further details of the host COST 866 action, Green Care in Agriculture, are at http://www.umb.no/statisk/greencare/general/brochure_866.pdf
