pathway: Psychology

My research explores stress perceptions in autistic children. Autistic children may be increasingly susceptible to stress leading to poorer health outcomes including a higher risk of depression and lower life expectancy. Stress interventions are often informed by caregivers reporting on their child by proxy, although studies suggest children from about 8 years of age can explain stress. My research aims to understand how autistic children perceive stress to improve knowledge and inform stress interventions tailored to this population. The wider impact offers the greatest benefit of reducing the negative effects of stress to improve health and well-being.

The serendipitous discovery of antidepressant medication has left many unanswered questions about how antidepressants work. We do not know precisely how antidepressants treat depressive symptoms, or why it can take up to several weeks to see meaningful improvements in symptoms. I am approaching these questions from a cognitive perspective, bridging the gap between neurochemical theory and clinical practice. Specifically, I am investigating the role of social behaviour in antidepressant effect, using methods such as Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA).

My PhD research investigates the association between cannabis use and ADHD, with specific emphasis on the harms and medicinal potential of cannabis amongst adults with ADHD. My PhD adopts novel and cross-disciplinary methodology, and employs novel quantitative, qualitative, and field-based research techniques, to analyse primary and secondary data provided by recreational and medicinal cannabis users across the UK. My research addresses the ESRC’s strategic priority ‘Securing Better Health’ and extends across other areas of importance for the ESRC and MRC.

Publications:

1. Turner, S. J. (2022) ‘Schizophrenia and cannabis use: new evidence measures risk of relapse’, MentalElf. Available at https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-cannabis/
2. Turner, S. J., Slaney, C., Robinson, E. J., & Attwood, A. (2022). MSc Dissertation: An investigation of reward motivation in adults with low and high trait levels of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Open Science Framework. Doi: https://osf.io/sc7gz
3. Turner, S. J. (2022) ‘Cannabis use in college: genetic predispositions less influential than social environment, Available at https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/substance-misuse/cannabis-use-in-college/
4. Turner, S. J., & Kent, C. (2022). Substance use is not associated with ADHD or reward sensitivity in young adults. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 36(8). 60-61. https://www.bap.org.uk/pdfs/2022BAPAbstractBook.pdf
5. Turner, S. J., Slaney, C., & Attwood, A. (2023). MSc Dissertation: Experience of reward in adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a qualitative study. Open Science Framework. Doi: https://osf.io/sghu4
6. Turner, S. (2023) ‘Drugs: What are they good for? 5-MeO-DMT edition’, Drug Science. Available at https://www.drugscience.org.uk/5-meo-dmt-drugs/

My research explores social and moral development in childhood and adolescence. Specifically, I am interested in speciesism (the assignment of different moral value based on species membership) in different cultural contexts, and how social norms and group processes influence children’s thinking about animals.

Over three years, my research focuses on evaluating executive functions (EF) in autistic adults and developing personalized interventions. Year one entails designing a novel task to concurrently measure working memory (WM) and interference control (IC). In year two, I assess the framework’s reliability and validity, exploring multidimensional EF profiles in a large-scale study. In year three, I aim to develop adaptive programs for supporting goal-directed behavior in autistic adults, considering individual EF profiles. The study aims to deepen our understanding of EF in autism, refine interventions based on individual needs, and explore ecological solutions for improving goal-directed behavior.

Whilst cisgender LGB+ people have seen some triumphs in their fight for equality, transgender individuals lag behind. The nested structure of the LGBT community leads to conflict and tension between the subgroups, creating an unexpected source of resistance to support transgender rights among LGB+ people. This creates a divide, with some LGB+ individuals engaging in collective action for the T and others advocating against the T. My research aims to explore this resistance by investigating the roles of shared disadvantage, perceived similarity, and intergroup contact in motivating collective action to understand how to increase support for the T in LGBT.

My research is focused on how exposure to different accents affects the way infants learn their first language. I will be using a mixture of behavioural measures and EEG to study familiar word recognition in infants who grow up in families where parents speak with the same accents, and families where parents speak with the same accent.

My research will explore the concept and measurement of ADHD and its links with mental health conditions across the lifespan with the hope of advancing our understanding of neurodevelopmental conditions.

The historical focus of psychology on the perspectives of a select few (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic; WEIRD) has made psychological knowledge unrepresentative of the global context. Genuine decolonising efforts that go beyond mere diversification of reading lists are the need of the hour. I intend to advance decolonisation efforts by identifying the barriers preventing the backbone of psychology, psychology research methods, from decolonising. Further, I will investigate ways to address the need for global visibility of non-WEIRD research and develop an evidence-based strategy to support broader, discipline-wide global efforts to decolonise the psychology research methods curriculum.

My research focuses on testing the limits of intentional linguistic control in bilingual communication. I intend to examine how bilinguals can effectively switch between two (or more) languages and to what extent this process is ‘costly’ or ‘cost-free’ in terms of the cognitive resources employed. In doing so, I aim to advance our understanding of bilingual language processing.