Psychology MRes

This module is designed to align with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) postgraduate training and development guidelines. As such, it will provide you with a solid grounding in quantitative and qualitative methodologies, which will underpin your research activities across the course.

On this module you will undertake a year long piece of independent research, with supervision from a specialist member of staff. The thesis enables you to put into practice the skills developed on the Psychological Research Methods module. It requires you to develop and demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of relevant conceptual, methodological and analytical processes. In order to develop key professional skills, you will be required to deliver a presentation, and to write up your study in the style of an extended journal article.

The contribution of word knowledge to the efficiency of processing words varies between contexts (type of information or language task) and between individuals (with different language or cognitive strengths). My recent research has focused on semantic influences on phonological processing of words in different contexts (reading and verbal short term memory, by manipulating word meaning properties like imageability), in line with interactive-activation based models of language (interactions between semantics and phonology). I’m interested in supervising quantitative projects exploring similar questions and would be happy to hear from potential students with related interests and project ideas.

I would be keen to supervise experimental projects investigating the influence and use of specific meaning-related properties of individual words on the speed/accuracy of processing. Such projects could focus on testing whole group level effects of a particular semantic variable, examine questions related to whether the context is production or recognition, or take an individual differences approach (for example, experimental work examining functional variation in sensitivity to semantic variables; I am). Projects might explore similar questions in relation to developmental dyslexia.

I’m also interested in hearing from students whose project would investigate questions related to the time course of semantic, phonological or other cognitive variables during language tasks, through the use of event-related potentials (ERPs; making use of our EEG facilities). Note that ERP projects are generally demanding, from the conception stage onward, and would require careful development in discussion with me. Of course, continued availability of EEG is subject to circumstances and social distancing guidance with respect to COVID-19.

Children with Autism have been found to have significantly lower scores on theory of mind (ToM) tasks when compared to typically developing children. They have also been found to have less imaginative play episodes. Recent research has found that although children with Autism show less imagination behaviour, in terms of having an imaginary companion (IC), their ICs are qualitatively similar to children who are typically developing. These data bring up a new research question as typically developing children with ICs have been found to have more developed ToM than those children without ICs. Note, potential students must have access to children with autism in order to do this project.

We all know that children are brilliant at learning to use tools. By copying others, children quickly master how to use a spoon, a cup and even an iPad. In contrast to children’s ability to learn from others, children are surprisingly poor at working things out for themselves. My research investigates the difficulties children have with innovating simple novel tools to solve problems. The evolution of human culture (tools in particular) is due to our faithful imitation of others actions, and innovations. Much research has focused on our ability to replicate what we see, but much less is known about innovations. My research focuses on why innovation is so difficult and what makes someone an innovator. I am interested in supervising projects aligned with the following topics:

• Collaborative Problem Solving – How do people work together to solve problems? Innovations are often the product of people working together. I am interested in whether 2 heads are really better than one or if we are only as good as the best person in the group.
• Scaffolding Problem Solving – Projects on this topic would explore how we can help children to solve problems with the minimum amount of intervention.
• Social Influences on Problem Solving – Projects on this topic would explore the effects of contextual factors on the ability to solve problems (e.g. presence of an unfamiliar experimenter).

Based on differential obligate parental investment, men and women have different optimum mating strategies. Where gender ratios are skewed, or where access to potential mates is restricted, competition for mating opportunities occurs. Research suggests that this leads to female-female competition in the form of gossip aimed at limiting sexual behaviours of rivals and, where promiscuity is detected, reduced intrasexual cooperation. Specifically, evidence suggests that women spread gossip more frequently than men (Davis, Dufort, Desrochers, & Vaillancourt, 2018), they are more likely to punish women who exhibit sexual-accessibility signals (Muggleton, Tarran, & Fincher, 2019), and such in/direct opposition is more likely in individuals who perceive women as more economically dependent (Price, Pound & Scott, 2014). This relates to my own research and projects I am supervising that focus on the underlying factors that affect (primarily negative) interpersonal interactions (e.g. sexual assault). I have expertise in experimental and survey research methods and would be interested in supervising quantitative projects aligned with the following topics:

• How self-perceived attractiveness and sex ratio affect intrasexual competition.
• How different sexual scripts affect intrasexual cooperation and the tendency to spread gossip about rivals.
• How individual differences (e.g. personality) affect sexual scripts and intrasexual competition.

Through childhood and adolescence, young people develop an increasingly sophisticated ability to understand, infer and reason about mental states (i.e. the thoughts, beliefs and feelings of themselves and others). This ‘theory of mind’ is central to social functioning and is known to develop differently in young people on the autism spectrum. Recent research has begin to examine how explicit theory of mind might develop through processes of social transmission; for example, children can learn about how people’s mental states relate to behaviour through exposure to stories. Storybooks contain more complex references to mental states than everyday conversation and, in order to understand the behaviour of characters in books, readers have to reason about their thoughts, beliefs and feelings. I am interested in supervising quantitative or mixed methods projects aligned with the following topics:

• Experimental investigations of how book characteristics influence parent-child discussion and/or children’s reasoning about mental states
• Investigation of the relationship between engagement with stories and theory of mind over developmental time
• Exploratory investigation of engagement with narrative media by young people on the autism spectrum.

Clinical trials have demonstrated that immersing individuals in virtual worlds can help manage a wide range of situations where some degree of pain or discomfort is normally experienced (from changing bandages on wounds to pain during childbirth). Since 2017, the literature base has expanded rapidly with beneficial effects of VR distraction being demonstrated across a growing number of labs across the world, with a wide range of clinical populations, and many different forms of pain. However, the theoretical basis of this effect, and the conditions under which it works best, have been relatively neglected within this rapid expansion of the literature. It is generally hypothesised that any effect occurs because virtual reality experiences recruit attentional resources that might otherwise be allocated to other stimuli, although some theorists have more recently argued that the degree of ‘presence’ an individual feels in the virtual world may also be important.

Projects in this area will make use of a cold pressor test (as a source of pain/discomfort), and the latest VR headsets, to further develop our theoretical understanding of how the effect works, and the conditions under which it works best.

An extraordinary physiological capacity combined with personal characteristics and cognitive functioning are crucial for high performance in sports. Despite wide-spread attention there is still much to understand regarding elite performance in sport. My research focuses on three areas of sport and exercise psychology, namely, executive function, personality, and psychometrics. All three intersect across athletic expertise and the individual differences associated with elite athletes. Specifically, I am interested in the mechanics driving athlete expertise and performance. In that, my work looks at a range of factors across different methodologies. For example, my previous research has explored the effect of Dark personality traits (e.g., narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy) on health-related outcomes such as physical activity, whether expert decision-making interacts with emotional competency to predict sport related outcomes such as risk-taking, and whether self-report questionnaires capturing personal dispositions such as mental toughness successfully differentiate individuals across athlete expertise. I am interested in supervising projects in the following areas:

• Psychometric properties of self-report questionnaires and their measurement invariance (e.g., across sample characteristics like athletes vs. non-athletes).
• The role of executive function in predicting performance and/or performance related variables (e.g., penalty kick success under situational pressure).
• The relationship between Dark personalities and sports related variables in athletes (e.g., doping attitudes, burnout and so forth).

We all have experienced the sensation of becoming totally absorbed in an activity. Literature on flow states aims to describe this phenomenon by looking at psychological properties related to attention, sense of self, enjoyment, perception of time, motivation, sensory sensitivity and locus of control. Interestingly flow states are linked to wellbeing and high performance, however measuring flow states to understand it further presents a challenge (which is why further research is needed). Flow states are not always easy to predict (for example they might be specific to time and place), people differ in their experience of it (some people are more action-orientated than others) and the act of measuring flow can disrupt it from taking place. I am therefore interested in supervising research that can take either experimental, or more qualitative, approaches to understanding issues such as:

• What is the relationship between flow and other attentional states (for example, mind wandering, dark flow)
• How can we create more enabling environments for flow states?
• How can we more accurately measure flow states?

Mental time travel is a complex cognitive skill, which involves the ability to recollect past experiences (Episodic Memory) and foresee potential novel situations (Episodic Future Thinking). There is a wealth of literature demonstrating how individual differences can impact on the ability to recollect past experiences, and project oneself into the future. I am interested in supervising quantitative projects related to all aspects of memory and future thinking, including:

• The individual differences, such as the impact of depression, dysphoria, and anxiety
• How memory and/or future thinking is impacted within Autism spectrum disorders
• Mental imagery and its impact on cognitive processing
• The application of memory to real world events, for example, eye witness testimony

There is increasing concern about, and awareness of the prevalence of exposure to graphic materials, including those of a violent nature, from very young ages. Despite this, there has been little research on the type of materials young people are exposed to and the extent to which this exposure affects views of what is (and is not) appropriate behaviour within intimate relationships. Given that governments are developing policies in the face of public pressure, it is important to develop the research base to ensure these policies are evidence-based. I am interested in supervising quantitative projects that build upon the existing evidence to look at how personality factors may correlate with exposure to different types of online images, and how this exposure affects the individual’s behaviour and experiences within intimate relationship. Questions that could be addressed include:

• Whether views about what is appropriate are affected by exposure to different types of graphic materials
• How exposure to graphic materials affects mental health outcomes following experiences of harassment or abuse
• Whether personality factors such as narcissism interact with exposure to graphic materials in determining an individual’s behaviour as a bystander when witnessing inappropriate behaviour