Psychology News Spring/Summer 2011

The latest edition of the Clinical Psychology Programme's Newsletter is available here (PDF, file size: 131KB)

An additional collaboration is proposed between Staffordshire and Derby Universities and Newcastle under Lyme college beginning in January 2012.

Professor Sarah Grogan and colleagues are proposing to pilot a study to investigate the impact of a dance movement therapy intervention on young people’s body image and experiences of embodiment. There is some evidence from previous work that aerobic dance interventions can improve body image in young women.

The proposed study will focus on creative dance instead of aerobic dance and will look at impact on young men as well as young women. There is growing evidence that young men are becoming more concerned with the appearance of their bodies than formerly and it is important to know whether dance interventions impact on body image and embodiment in young men as well as in young women.

Young women and men will take part in a dance movement therapy intervention and will then take part in focus groups and interviews where they discuss the experience. We will use these accounts to provide process information that will help us to design a dance intervention that can be rolled out to a larger sample of young people in Staffordshire and Derbyshire.

At present our key aim is to see whether a dance movement therapy intervention impacts on participants’ subjective experiences of body image and embodiment and to see whether there are things that we can do to ensure that dance movement therapy interventions are delivered in ways that ensure have a positive impact on young people’s body image. We will also aim to see whether there are aspects that can be built in to maximize positive impact on both young men and young women, as impact of exercise interventions can be gender-inked.

Update 28.11.11 : Further information about this research project can now be found in this (PDF, file size: 183.4KB) attached pdf

Dr Mark Forshaw has been elected as a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.  This is the highest grade of membership, and involves demonstrating at least ten years of contribution to the Society of an outstanding nature to a panel of senior referees.  It is generally awarded to fewer than 2% of the membership, most of whom are established Professors.

Some recent publications from members of staff:

Gallagher, S. Randall, J. Buckley, E. Punnett, G. Li, E & Grogan, S.  (2011): Experiences of adolescent participation in a four-week community-based workshop designed to improve psychosocial skills: what are the key benefits?, Community, Work &
Family, DOI:10.1080/13668803.2011.609660

Jenny Hallam, Mani Das Gupta & Helen Lee (2011): Shaping children's artwork in English primary classes: insights from teacher–child interaction during art activities, International Journal of Early Years Education, DOI:10.1080/09669760.2011.629489

Jeffries, M. & Grogan, S. (2011). "Oh, I'm just, you know, a little bit weak because I'm going to the doctor's": Young men's talk of self-referral to primary healthcare services. Psychology and Health. Available online  12th December 2011.

At the Faculty of Sciences July 2011 Graduation Ceremony Marcus Lewton was awarded the BPS prize for Best Performance on an Undergraduate Psychology Degree, and Best Psychology Undergraduate Level 6 performance, and Melissa Barrett was awarded the prize for Best Psychology Undergraduate Project.

Prizes were awarded by Judy David, Programme Area Manager for Psychology.

Best Postgraduate Performance Prize was recently awarded to Alison Williams. Her prize was presented by Professor Sarah Grogan at the recent Faculty of Sciences July 2011 Graduation Ceremony.

Staffordshire University and the Staffordshire Psychology Network hosted a conference on Friday 24th June 2011 for students moving from AS to A level Psychology in the Staffordshire Area.

Students and teachers from around a dozen schools and colleges attended the event, which was jointly organised by Dr Julie Hulme of the Psychology department at the University, and Helene Ansell and Clare Deavall of the Psychology Network.  Approximately 150 students were informed and entertained through a series of talks and workshops provided by teachers and University lecturers, including Prof Sarah Grogan, who talked about using appearance based interventions to reduce smoking and sun exposure, and Mel Hall, who talked about the role of Psychology in improving eye witness testimony in the criminal justice system.  Dr Jenny Cole also provided the students with information on studying Psychology at university, and careers.

The event was a resounding success, and everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Dr Richard Jolley, senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology and Mental Health and author of Children and Pictures: drawing and understanding, spoke to children on the benefits of engaging in art activities at a children’s arts extravaganza event over the May bank holiday weekend. The event was run by an arts charity, Speight of the Art, and held at a Moto service station on the M6 inside a large marquee and throughout the station. The arts event incorporated a series of workshops that explored all the different areas of art including dance with international style dancing (Bhangra and Brazilian dances) as well as landscape artists, graffiti art, pottery making and motorsport artists. The two day artistic workshops were attended by 150 local school children on Friday 27th May 2011 and 50% of those children in attendance had special needs. The event was covered by a number of local radio stations, and was supported by both the Moto in the Community Trust and City of Stoke Council.

After an initial welcome and introduction by Oliver Speight, founder of the Speight of the Art  Foundation, Dr. Richard Jolley spoke to the children on the number of ways in which art activities benefits them. These included the development of imagination, creativity, expression, visual thinking and observation skills. Richard emphasised how each of these develops their brains. Richard said, ‘at a time when the arts continue to struggle against the emphasis placed on the so-called academic subjects in schools it is refreshing that art charities such as Speight of the Art provide these artistic opportunities for children.  Anyone simply observing all the varied activities on offer today, and how much the children are engaging and enjoying them, can see how important it is that children continue to get these opportunities’.

In the last three years Speight Of The Art have brought artistic and creative learning to over  6,000 children in the UK including Northern Ireland  through schools, theatres, hospitals, retail outlets and via companies such as Morrisons and McDonalds.  The mission of the charity is to inspire and promote children’s exploration and engagement in every aspect of the world of art.

Dr Jolley also recently spoke at a presentation evening for St Margaret Ward Catholic College in Victoria Hall, Hanley, Stoke on Trent. Further details of this can be found in this article.

Further links:
Dr. Richard Jolley’s university webpage

Speight of the Art

Sarah Grogan will be a keynote speaker at the Appearance Matters conference in Bristol in July 2012 more information can be found here.

Mark Forshaw has just been elected to serve as Chair of the Membership Standards Board of the BPS, from June 2012, when the current Chair, Peter Banister of Manchester Metropolitan University, steps down.  Mark, who is currently Chair of the BPS Qualifications Standards Committee and the Health Psychology Qualifications Board will be leaving these roles to take on this overarching committee and serve on the BPS Board of Trustees as a result.  Mark says "I'm delighted to take on this new challenge, and look forward to serving MSB and Trustees, but it means that I do have to give up my health psychology work for the BPS, which is going to be the end of an era for me!"

Please click here for recent news from Clinical Psychology (PDF, file size: 533.46KB) including amongst other things :

• Recent Trainee and Staff publications

• News on HPC Approval and BPS Accreditation