Dr Richard Stephens
- Title
- Senior Lecturer in Psychology
- Location
- Dorothy Hodgkin Building : DH1.75
- Role
- Research Leader of the Psychobiology Research Laboratory; Director of Psychology BSc courses; Workplace Safety Advisor.
- Contact me
- My office hours are Mondays 1-3pm.
- Phone
- +44(0)1782 733600
- r.stephens@keele.ac.uk
Biography
Latest News
This summer I carried out a research contract sponsored by Nurofen© to assess whether novel swear words, chosen because they had potential to evoke an emotional reaction or present a distraction, have pain relieving effects. The chosen words were “Fouch” and “Twizpipe”. This YouTube video I hope portrays some of the fun we had running this project. The pre-print of the paper is available here.
For latest updates follow me on twitter: @psychologyrich
Interested in doing a Masters or a PhD in my areas of psychology? I supervise Masters dissertations for students on the MSc Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience here at Keele. Please get in touch by email if you are interested.
Biography
I have been a psychologist for over 20 years and have developed an international reputation for research on alcohol and emotional language. My research on the benefits of swearing for pain tolerance and for performing physical tasks is very well known and has been portrayed numerous times in the media. I have given 9 keynote lectures at academic conferences and an additional 67 conference presentations. I have given invited talks about my research to 27 university departments and I have given 29 talks at popular science events, schools and colleges, including a TEDx talk. I am passionately interested in science communication and have achieved some notable successes in that arena including the 2017 British Psychological Society Book of the Year Award (Popular Science Category) and the 2014 Wellcome Trust & Guardian Science Writing Prize. June 2015 marked the worldwide publication of my popular science book, Black Sheep The Hidden Benefits of Being Bad, to critical acclaim. In recent years I have had popular science articles published across print media and blogs and have recorded 900k reads on The Conversation. I am a former Chair of the British Psychological Society Psychobiology Section (2013-2017) and continue to serve as a committee member. I am or have been external examiner for the BSc Psychology courses at Westminster University, Surrey University and Queen Mary University London. I became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy on 15th October 2015, recognition number PR094004.
Research and scholarship
Swearing
Our article "Swearing as a response to pain" published in 2009 received international media coverage including BBC television's The One Show , CBS television news, BBC Radio 4, Scientific American , ABC news , The Guardian, The Independent, and many others. Subsequently the research has been honoured, if that's the right word, by the receipt of an Ig Nobel prize in 2010. Ig Nobel prizes are awarded for research that "first makes you laugh then makes you think". A follow up paper appeared in Journal of Pain in September 2011. You can see me on Sky TV's Duck Quacks Don't Echo talking about swearing as a response to pain here.
Alcohol Hangover
Despite being the most prevalent and commonly recognised problem experienced in relation to alcohol, alcohol hangover has been a neglected part of the alcohol research scene until recently. In collaboration with Dr Joris Verster of Utrecht University, I was awarded £4,886 by the Alcohol Education and Research Council to fund speaker travel expenses and room hire for a one-day meeting on alcohol hangover research at the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting, June 26-30, 2010, in San Antonio, Texas. It was enjoyable, thought provoking and inspirational to meet hangover researchers from around the world. A brief report of the meeting is available to download here. For more information on alcohol hangover research, please click here.
MSc and PhD Supervision
I'd be very pleased to speak to prospective MSc or PhD students about supervising dissertation research in any of the above areas.
Teaching
Year 1
- PSY-10016 Research Methods 2 (Module Leader)
Year 2
- PSY-20018 Cognitive & Biological Research Methods in Psychology (Lecturer)
- PSY-20005 Biological Psychology, Perceptions and Cognition (Lecturer)
Year 3
- PSY-30061 Final Year Project (Project Supervisor)
- PSY-30199 Making a difference with psychology (Lecturer)
Further information
Psychobiology Research Laboratory
Research Leader: Dr Richard Stephens
PhD students: Kara Holloway and Olivia Robertson
Previous successes
2009/10 final year undergraduate student and Psychobiology Research Lab member Claire Allsop won the 2010 British Psychological Society Psychobiology Section Undergraduate Project Prize for her project entitled "The effect of manipulated levels of state aggression on pain tolerance". Claire presented her project at the September 2010 meeting of the BPS Psychobiology Section.
The full text version of my 2018 paper "Effect of swearing on strength and power performance", published in the peer-review journal "Psychology of Sport and Exercise" is available to download here.
Selected Publications
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2020. Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Hypoalgesic Effects of Novel "Swear" Words. Front Psychol, vol. 11, 723. link> doi> full text>
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2018. Playing in the UEFA Europa League Does Not Adversely Affect English Premier League or La Liga Performance. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, vol. 4(1). doi> link> full text>
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2019. Taboo gesticulations as a response to pain. Scand J Pain, vol. 19(2), 397-406. link> doi> full text>
Full Publications List show
Books
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2015. Black Sheep: The Hidden Benefits of Being Bad. Hachette UK.
Journal Articles
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2020. Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Hypoalgesic Effects of Novel "Swear" Words. Front Psychol, vol. 11, 723. link> doi> full text>
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2018. Playing in the UEFA Europa League Does Not Adversely Affect English Premier League or La Liga Performance. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, vol. 4(1). doi> link> full text>
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2019. Taboo gesticulations as a response to pain. Scand J Pain, vol. 19(2), 397-406. link> doi> full text>
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2018. Effect of swearing on strength and power performance. PSYCHOLOGY OF SPORT AND EXERCISE, vol. 35, 111-117. link> doi> full text>
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2017. Swearing as a response to pain: A cross-cultural comparison of British and Japanese participants. Scand J Pain, vol. 17, 267-272. link> doi> full text>
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2017. Does familial risk for alcohol use disorder predict alcohol hangover?. Psychopharmacology (Berl), vol. 234(12), 1795-1802. link> doi> full text>
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2017. Does Emotional Arousal Influence Swearing Fluency?. J Psycholinguist Res, vol. 46(4), 983-995. link> doi> full text>
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2016. The effect of alcohol hangover on choice response time. J Psychopharmacol, vol. 30(7), 654-661. link> doi> full text>
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2013. Does the severity of hangovers decline with age? Survey of the incidence of hangover in different age groups. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. doi>
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2013. Is love a drug?. The British Psychological Society Psychobiology Section Newsletter, 5-6.
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2013. Swearing - the language of life and death. The Psychologist, vol. 26(9), 650-653.
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2013. The relationship between membership of a university sports group and drinking behaviour among students at English Universities. Addiction Research & Theory, vol. 21(4), 339-347. doi>
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2012. Rat Park – challenging ideas about addiction. The British Psychological Society Psychobiology Section Newsletter, 7-9.
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2012. Sun, Sea Shakes. The British Psychological Society Psychobiology Section Newsletter, 7-9.
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2011. Do Individual Differences Moderate the Cognitive Benefits of Chewing Gum?. Psychology, vol. 2(8), 834-840. doi>
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2010. Cognitive and Psychomotor Performance During Alcohol Hangover. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, vol. 3, 80-87. doi>
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2010. Does binge drinking in teenagers affect their everyday prospective memory?. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 109(1-3), 73-78. doi>
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2010. Editorial: The Importance of Raising the Profile of Alcohol Hangover Research. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, vol. 3, 64-67. doi>
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2010. The Alcohol Hangover Research Group Consensus Statement on Best Practice in Alcohol Hangover Research. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, vol. 3, 116-126. doi>
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2009. Do UK university football club players suffer neuropsychological impairment as a consequence of their football (soccer) play?. Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology, 641-681. doi>
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2009. Why are some Parkinson’s disease patients unaware of their dyskinesias?. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology. doi>
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2009. Why are some Parkinson disease patients unaware of their dyskinesias?. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, vol. 22, 117-121. doi>
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2004. Neuropsychological effects of long-term low-level organophosphate exposure in orchard sprayers in England. Archives of Environmental Health, vol. 59(11), 566-574. doi>
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2003. To head, or not to head? What was the question?. PSYCHOLOGIST, vol. 16(12), 655. link>
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2003. Analysis of substitution test performance using eye movement and video data (vol 9, pg 181, 2002). APPLIED NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, vol. 10(4), 260. link>
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2001. Feasibility of the use of eye movement data in the analysis of neurobehavioral test performance. Environmental Research. doi>
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1998. Role of human neurobehavioural tests in regulatory activity on chemicals. OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE, vol. 55(3), 210-214. doi>
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1998. Role of human neurobehavioural tests in regulatory activity on chemicals. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 55(3), 210-214.
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Organophosphates: The relationship between chronic and acute exposure effects. NEUROTOXICOLOGY AND TERATOLOGY, vol. 18(4), 449-453. doi>
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1996. Abnormalities on neurological examination among sheep farmers exposed to organophosphorous pesticides. OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE, vol. 53(8), 520-525. doi>
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1995. NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF LONG-TERM EXPOSURE TO ORGANOPHOSPHATES IN SHEEP DIP. The Lancet, vol. 345(8958), 1135-1139. doi>
Chapters
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2008. Videogame aesthetics and e-learning: a retro-looking computer game to explain the normal distribution in statistics teaching. In Proceedings of the 2nd European Conference on Games-Based Learning. Connolly T and Stansfield M (Eds.). Reading: Academic Conferences Ltd..
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2007. Does football heading impair cognitive function?. In Cognitive Disorders Research Trends. Sentowski HC (Ed.). New York: Nova Science Pub Incorporated.
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2007. Expert Commentary: Does football heading impair cognitive function?. In Cognitive Disorders Research Trends. Sentowski HC (Ed.). Nova Science Pub Incorporated.
Other
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2013. HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF THE ALCOHOL HANGOVER PRELIMINARY FINDINGS FROM AN EU 7TH FRAMEWORK MARIE CURIE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP. ALCOHOLISM-CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH (vol. 37, p. 86A). link>
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2010. Bereavement and people with ID: developing a tool to support practice. JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES (vol. 23, p. 416). link>
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2008. Hydration and cognitive performance of secondary school children. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY (vol. 43, p. 502). link>
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2008. Videogame Aesthetics and e-Learning: A Retro-looking Computer Game to Explain the Normal Distribution in Statistics Teaching. 2ND EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON GAMES BASED LEARNING (pp. 341-348). link>
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2007. Cognitive impairment and polymorphisms of cathepsin D in multiple sclerosis. JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY (vol. 254, p. 163). link>
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2005. Neuropsychological outcome and apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 polymorphism in multiple sclerosis. JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY (vol. 252, p. 131). link>
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2005. Neuropsychological outcome and cannabinoid receptor 1 polymorphism in multiple sclerosis. JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY (vol. 252, p. 66). link>
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2005. Neuropsychological outcome and APOE polymorphism in multiple sclerosis. JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY NEUROSURGERY AND PSYCHIATRY (vol. 76, p. 158). link>
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2004. Neuropsychological outcome and APOE polymorphism in multiple sclerosis. MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS (vol. 10, pp. S207-S208). link>
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2001. The use of eye movement data in the analysis of neurobehavioural test performance.
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2001. Heading the ball in amateur adult football (soccer) and neuro-psychological impairment. Some preliminary results. Proceedings of the British Psychological Society.
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2001. Is heading the ball in football a cause of neuropsychological impairment in amateur adult players?. Proceedings of the British Psychological Society.
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2000. Analysis of WAIS-R Digit Symbol performance using eye movement data.
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2000. No evidence of Chronic sub-clinical neurobehavioral effects in orchard sprayers in England with long-term, low-level organophosphate exposure: Preliminary results of a cross-sectional study.
