Dr Bridget Dibb
About
Biography
I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of South Africa and then completed my MSc Health Psychology and PhD at the University of Southampton. My first lectureship was in the School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Southampton after which I moved to Brunel University, London. I joined the University of Surrey as a Senior Lecturer in September 2016. I am a registered Health Psychologist and Chartered Psychologist.
ResearchResearch interests
My research area focuses on rare conditions and I am particularly interested in how people experience, adjust to and cope with living with rare chronic illness and factors that are important for this process. This includes a focus on well-being and quality of life in various illnesses (e.g. Misophonia, HIV, Spinal cord injury, Meniere’s disease) and predictive factors important for adjustment, for example, illness beliefs, stigma and social comparison. My adjustment work includes factors important for recovery and work investigating the post-traumatic growth experienced after illness, a growing area of research. I use both quantitative and qualitative methods to in my research.
Research interests
My research area focuses on rare conditions and I am particularly interested in how people experience, adjust to and cope with living with rare chronic illness and factors that are important for this process. This includes a focus on well-being and quality of life in various illnesses (e.g. Misophonia, HIV, Spinal cord injury, Meniere’s disease) and predictive factors important for adjustment, for example, illness beliefs, stigma and social comparison. My adjustment work includes factors important for recovery and work investigating the post-traumatic growth experienced after illness, a growing area of research. I use both quantitative and qualitative methods to in my research.
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
Stage 2 health psychology supervision
I currently supervise 7 Stage 2 Health Psychology trainees:
- Lucie Ollis
- SJ Stewart
- Stefano Licchelli
- Sarah Beck
- Lauren Taylor
- Louisa Zhang
- Karen Protopapa
Current PhD supervision
- Lauren Taylor (1st Supervisor)
Completed postgraduate research projects I have supervised
Monique Botha (2nd supervisor): Autistic Community Connectedness as a Buffer against the Effects of Minority Stress (University of Surrey, 2020)
Venecia Pearce (2nd supervisor): An assessment of body weight perceptions and its impact on psychological outcomes and physical activity in Jamaica (Brunel University London, 2017)
Aisan Ghaemian Oskouei (1st supervisor): The influence of social comparison on the perception of quality of life amongst people living with epilepsy in Iran and the United Kingdom (Brunel University London, 2016)
Nashmel Sargalo (1st supervisor): Quality of Life and Stigma in People with Epilepsy in People with Epilepsy in the UK & Kurdistan, Northern Iraq (Brunel University London, 2016)
Elaine Dutton (2nd supervisor): Weight management among Maltese mothers (Brunel University, 2016)
Elizabeth Arnold (2nd supervisor): What factors influence the use of ambulatory oxygen in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease? (University of Southampton, 2009)
Teaching
I teach Health Psychology to both Undergraduate and Postgraduate students.
I convene Master's module: Chronic Conditions