News Stories
Find out about news stories and events related to the School of Psychology by following the links on the left
5:2 fasting diet is a recipe for unhappiness
1 February 2013
Pushing the 5:2 fasting diet is a recipe for unhappiness
Comments by Prof Jane Ogden
Psychology in the media
31 January 2013
Recently, several academics from the School of Psychology have found themselves speaking about the School’s research on Radio 4.
Final Year student runner-up in the Professional Training student of the year competition
17 December 2012
Rebecca Efford, final year psychology student, was runner-up in the Professional Training year student of the year competition. Out of over 40 nominations, Rebecca was shortlisted to be one of the top three students, and competed in the final stage last Friday, giving a presentation as part of the PTY community day.
Dr Naomi Winstone nominated Rebecca on the basis of the exceptional contribution she made to the NHS trust for which she worked. An evaluation model she took the initiative to develop has been presented to the directorate, and planning is currently underway to roll out the model for wider use in the trust.
EPRG Seminar and Book Launch today
6 November 2012
EPRG Seminar – 6th November at 13.00
Room 02AC02
Professor Nora Räthzel (University of Umeå, Sweden)
‘Changing individuals’ behaviours vs individuals changing the conditions of their behaviour’
Why buildings are ugly
19 October 2012
OAA perspectives magazine
The School of Psychology is very pleased and proud of three of their MSc students Clara Weber, Sarah Hewitt and Lily Bernheimer who have published a paper on 'Why buildings are ugly' in an international architecture magazine.
Please see the articles and statements on 15, 18, 19, 22, 23.
Genes may be cause of work stress
4 October 2012
Quote on BPS website by Almuth McDowall
The following quote by Almuth McDowall has gone on the BPS website.
Congratulations to Céline Rojon
19 September 2012
Céline is a final year doctoral student in the Department of Psychology and Surrey Business School. With her joint supervisors Dr Almuth McDowall (Psychology) and Professor Mark Saunders (Surrey Business School) she received the best full paper award in the Performance Management track of this year’s British Academy of Management Conference. Held in Cardiff this, the premier UK conference for management academics, attracted over 800 delegates offering a worldwide audience for Céline’s doctoral research.
Céline’s paper was titled “The development and evaluation of a new generic model of individual workplace performance”. She was presented with the award at the conference by Dr Vinh Chau on behalf of the Academy’s Performance Management Special Interest Group.
Céline has recently been appointed as an Early Career Fellow in Human Resource Management at the University of Edinburgh’s Business School.
Andy Pringle wins APA Division 10 prize at Annual Convention
9 August 2012
Congratulations to Andy Pringle who won the APA Division 10 prize for the best overall PhD Student Presentation at the APA Annual Convention in Florida. He had to compete against stiff opposition in a competition that was judged X-Factor style by a panel of extremely distinguished academics who did not hold back in their brutal feedback to the candidates!!!
Well done Andy.
Sex Offenders and Lad's Mags
7 August 2012
Are sex offenders and lads’ mags using the same language?
Far from being harmless or ironic fun, lads’ mags could be legitimising hostile sexist attitudes, according to new research.
Dr Naomi Winstone wins Surrey Learning & Teaching Award
2 August 2012
Naomi Winstone has won a Surrey Learning and Teaching Award in recognition of excellence in teaching and contributions to the literature on teaching and learning through research on increasing the involvement of all students in large lecture contexts and applying constructivist principles to the teaching of Psychology.
Dr Caroline Catmur wins ESRC Future Research Leaders Award
2 August 2012
Dr Caroline Catmur, a Lecturer in Psychology, has been awarded a Future Research Leaders grant by the Economic and Social Research Council. The aim of the Future Research Leaders Scheme is to support outstanding early career researchers to carry out excellent research and to develop all aspects of their research and knowledge exchange skills.
The award builds on Dr Catmur’s previous work on “mirror” neurons - cells in the brain that are active when we perform an action and also when we see someone else perform the same action - and imitation, a behaviour that is thought to rely on these neurons. Her research investigates both imitation behaviour and the responses of mirror neuron areas in the brain. The project has two aims. The first is to understand how we acquire the ability to imitate other people. This research could help design training methods for people who have trouble imitating (such as people with autism), or to improve imitation learning of skills, sports, or dance. The second aim is to investigate how we control imitative behaviour, and in particular how our ability to control imitation is affected by the social context when we are part of a group. This research has implications for understanding people's behaviour in group situations.
Health Psychology 5th edition
27 July 2012
New Book Release by Professor Jane Ogden
Thoroughly revised to reflect recent research, theory and practice in health psychology, this market bestseller includes new coverage of topical issues such as behaviour change strategies, health inequalities, exercise dependence, caffeine use and men's health.
Congratulations to Christine Coggins who is awarded second place in the Professional Training Student of the Year Award.
19 July 2012
Christine Coggins, a recent Psychology graduate has been awarded second place in the University wide Professional Training Student of the Year Award. The award was given in recognition of the work she did during her placement year. Christine completed her placement with Croydon Council under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Adult’s Team. The team’s overall aim was to protect vulnerable adults from abuse and to offer support to people who had been abused. When asked about her placement Christine said: “My placement allowed me to implement the psychological facts and knowledge that I had learnt through my degree and develop this knowledge. It also enabled me to develop important transferrable skills. I learned from those I was working alongside so that I was able to make a valuable contribution to my team, the service users and the care homes. I feel that I now have relevant experience and skills, and that could not have been achieved if I had not have completed a placement.”
Gavi Ansara Wins American Psychological Association Division 44 Transgender Research Award Prize
22 June 2012
Congratulations to Gavi Ansara who has won this year’s American Psychological Association Division 44 Transgender Research Award Prize. The award is given annually for psychological research that addresses transgender issues, and Gavi is the third recipient of the prize. Gavi won the award for the following paper:
Ansara, Y.G., & Hegarty, P. (2011). Cisgenderism in psychology: Pathologizing and misgendering children from 1999 to 2008. Psychology and Sexuality, 3, 137-160.
Well done Gavi!
Surrey Student, Geetha Reddy, accepted to attend the ISPP
22 May 2012
Geetha Reddy, who is currently studying for her MSc at the University of Surrey, was accepted to attend the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) Summer Academy which will be held on July 3rd – 5th 2012 in Chicago, USA. A fellowship at the academy is highly competitive and we are very proud that Geetha was accepted.
The Summer Academy is designed for young scholars who are likely to teach political psychology and/or conduct political psychology research in the future.
This year the Summer Academy program hosts five new courses by prominent scholars: Susan Condor (Lancaster University), Jack Levy (Rutgers University), Victor Ottati (Loyola University Chicago) Felicia Pratto (University of Connecticut), Jerrold Post (George Washington University) and an introductory course in Political Psychology by Leonie Huddy and Stanley Feldman (Stony Brook University). Fellows will also discuss their research agendas in smaller breakout groups, and take part in a number of social activities.
Geetha’s research looks at ‘Negotiating Ethnic Identities in multicultural Singapore’ and she will present findings of her MSc thesis at the ISPP annual meeting that follows the Summer Academy in Chicago.
She is supervised by Dr Ilka Gleibs.
Paper to be included in Science for Environment Policy
21 March 2012
At the end of last year, a paper written by David Uzzell and Nora Räthzel (Visiting Professor, and university of Umeå) - ‘Trade unions and climate change: the jobs versus environment dilemma’ (published in Global Environmental Change, 21, 1215–1223) was named research paper of the month in Nature: Climate Change. It has now been selected for inclusion in Science for Environment Policy, which is the European Commission's environmental news service for policy makers, distributed to over 14,000. A summary of the paper can be read here:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/277na2.pdf
and the full paper downloaded here:
