pathway: Psychology Alumni

My PhD will focus on understanding key memory processes (over-general memory and intrusive memories) associated with poor mental health following trauma. I am also interested in the role that emotion regulation may play in this link between memory processes and trauma-related mental health problems, particularly as poor emotion regulation is a central problem for young people in foster care. As well as this, poor emotion regulation presents across a range of mental health problems associated with memory processes, including PTSD, depression, and anxiety; making it a useful focus when exploring risk factors in this more complex sample.

The medical world is lagging behind in their adoption of technology to deliver useful services such as booking appointments, understanding scientific data and delivering therapies. We don’t fully understand how to develop and incorporate these technologies for the good of the NHS and the British public. I’m working with academics and medical practitioners to understand and further the adoption of a range of digital health technologies. This research is situated within a branch of Applied Psychology known as Human Computer Interaction. This work stems from my professional practice.

My research aims to provide a comprehensive test of the utility of a novel social identity model of behavioural associations (SIMBA) that proposes associations between the concepts of social identity, group norms, and individual behaviour. The model suggests that individuals are motivated to maintain a level of cognitive consistency. Therefore, behaviour change could be achieved through modifying the strength of any one of these associations. Through highlighting the way in which associations exist in established groups, can be created in novel groups, and can be changed in both novel and established groups, I hope for the research to serve as a foundation for behaviour change interventions.