PhD opportunities for research in psychology

I haven't had a funded PhD student of my own since I've been at Coventry and am hoping that various changes to the Faculty structure and research groups/centres will mean that I can now compete for funds to support this. I have good experience of supervision but have tended to inherit other people's students rather than taking on people whose research interests coincide directly with my own. 


The advert for PhD studentships came out online today.  If anyone reading this is interested in doing a PhD in any of the following areas and would like me to supervise, please let me know as soon as possible:


Health, especially gender specific issues, e.g. women's reproductive health, men's health behaviours; long term/chronic conditions; experiences of healthcare, e.g. good and bad experiences and need to improve patient experience.


Coping with difficult situations, especially in emergency or disaster work, e.g. mundane day to day experiences of ambulance, fire and police crews, e.g. in-theatre and post deployment experiences of armed services personnel, including but not specifically focussed on responses to traumatic situations.


I'm guessing this will be very competitive so we can work together to help refine and develop your plans.
Please see the entrance requirements online at http://wwwm.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet/ResearchStudents/ResearchStudentships/Pages/StudentshipDetail.aspx?stuID=73


And contact me if you'd like to talk about it further.

Disaster Management Day 1

OK so a lot has been happening while I haven't been posting, but no time to relate that just at the moment.


I'm at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, attending the Disaster Management 2011 Conference organised jointly by UCF and Wessex Institute of Technology (UK).


We were welcomed to the event by Carlos Brebbia (WIT) and Alain Kassab (UCF) who each told us a lot about their respective organisations.  We then had a very interesting keynote talk by Naim Kapucu, from the Centre for Public and Non-Profit Management.  He described how his PhD research was on the emergency responses to the terrorist attacks on the USA in September 11th 2001. On completing this he thought he would move into more general policy issues but fate had different ideas. He relocated to Florida and in 2004 the central region was struck by four hurricanes in rapid succession. This inevitably drew him back into the field of emergency responses to large scale disasters. 


[Florida is so accustomed to extreme weather events that every lecture theatre on campus has its own copy of the disaster response plan. The reality of this was brought home to me as I noticed the janitor's office next to the ladies loo was marked as a hurricane emergency local resource centre].


Dr Kapucu's research has made use of social network analysis to explore the interrelationships between the various federal, state, local, public and private sector organisations that all have a role to play in disaster management. he showed us some fascinating visual representations of the these networks, which can be used to diagnose weaknesses or breakdowns that may place the public at risk.


Towards the end of the day it was my turn to present the paper I co-authored with folks at Coventry: The contribution of human psychology to disaster management: mitigation, advance preparedness, response and recovery.  Given this rather inclusive title, luckily in my presentation I only had to plot out a broad overview of the areas where work has been done, and highlight gaps where there is potential for further development. The talk went well (I think) and I had some interesting questions, including one from a US healthcare professional about the phenomenon of 'worried well' self-presenting to emergency departments in crises, and another on the ways in which online social networking may give us an insight into the behaviour of volunteers in a disaster. More great ideas for further research...
The paper is available (in full text, via open access) at http://library.witpress.com/pages/PaperInfo.asp?PaperID=22040


During the final session of the day we became aware of a thunderstorm and high winds which necessitated a swift retreat back to the conference hotel.  I'm very grateful to the team who looked after us, reassured us and got us indoors safely before the threatened 'dime-sized' hailstones arrived. 

Since Monday

Since Monday have forgotten to post.  Monday night was teaching until 8.30 pm for part-time students, so got thrown slightly off kilter in my posting habits.

Tuesday teaching social psychology, with a focus on personal construct psychology:

Doster, J. A., Mielke, R. K., Riley, C. A., Toledo, J. R., Goven, A. J., & Moorefield, R. (2006). Play and health among a group of adult business executives. Social Behavior and Personality, 34(9), 1071-1080.

Weiss, P. A., Watson, N., & McGuire, H. (2003). Smoking and self-concept in young adults: An idiographic method of measurement. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 16(4), 323-334.

Wednesday meeting with student representatives as part of the student forum.  As final year tutor for psychology I was especially keen to find out what we can do to help our soon-to-be-graduates with their employment prospects.  Given that it's just been announced that graduate unemployment is at 20% they will need all the help we can give them.

MY icicle

It was too dark yesterday by the time I blogged to take a pic of MY icicle, so I used one from wiki commons. Here today, in all its splendour is mine...

Been reading some interesting papers today on the theme of fertility monitoring, including:

Diaz, M. (1997). Gender, sexuality and communication issues that constitute barriers to the use of natural family planning and other fertility awareness-based methods. Advances in Contraception, 13(2-3), 303-309. doi:10.1023/A:1006580727579

Severy, L. J., Robinson, J., Findley-Klein, C., & McNulty, J. (2006). Acceptability of a home monitor used to aid in conception: Psychosocial factors and couple dynamics. Contraception, 73(1), 65-71. doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2005.07.008

Sinai, I., Lundgren, R., Arévalo, M., & Jennings, V. (2006). Fertility awareness-based methods of family planning: Predictors of correct use. International Family Planning Perspectives, 32(2), 94-100.

Marketing motivational interviewing

Have been asked by a senior colleague for some quotes from our Motivational Interviewing course evaluations, which can be used to market the courses:

"This was very insightful and applicable outside of work also - helpful for reflective practice."


"I found it really interesting and I gained a lot from it. I would be extremely interested in taking it further, so if you could keep in touch with any potential opportunities or further training I would very grateful."

I also signposted her to the poster presentations I made at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference 2010, and the European Health Psychology Society conference in September. The poster be viewed at this link.

Have just noticed that the online shop link for the course doesn't mention that it is approved by the CPD centre at the British Psychological Society, so must get this sorted out today.

Cluj-Napoca Day 2

Conference proper started today, with a provocative keynote from Michelle Fine from the Graduate Centre, City University of New York. Taking the conference theme "Health in Context" seriously, Prof. Fine talked about her work in participatory action research, and the commitments that underpin her approach.

She cautioned us of the dangers that (psychological) science is being recruited for a particular kind of nation building - one that increases the gap between richest and poorest. She argued that 'circuits of dispossession' need to be recognised and challenged by health psychologists' work, and gave us some homework to do:

Both Spain and France report social problems and deprivation among Roma people living on their soil. France has 'repatriated' dozens of Roma , and intends to continue - citing crime statistics as a justification. Spain has invested significantly to include Roma and address inequalities. Prof Fine suggests we treat this as a natural experiment. Let's all see how these divergent responses translate in to social and health outcomes in the years to come.

Cluj-Napoca Day 1

hmmm... it's a quarter to nine here, so it must be ... quarter to seven there (UK) - I think.

Arrived in Cluj-Napoca today and been on a brief reccy of local area.  Turns out I am staying in hotel right next door to the University's Psychology Department - home from home.

But I want a nice cup of tea!

Sunshine on a rainy day...

wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunshine_fractal.png

Submitted our grant application today - now need to wait twelve weeks or so to hear if we get through to the next stage of the competition...

Also booked a few more dates for our motivational interviewing training.

And the sun has come out - finally.

Bit of progress

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1_RON.jpg

Picked up my Romanian lei today in preparation for next week's trip to Cluj-Napoca for the
24th European Health Psychology Conference, 1-4 September. At least as important, picked up my second poster from the printers.

Hoping to meet some hospital staff in Bulgaria the following week, to talk about motivational interviewing interventions for health behaviour change - but still awaiting confirmation on that front...

Meanwhile, just had a paper accepted for a conference next spring on disaster management - good job I have a 3 month sabbatical coming up...

Posters for EHPS conference accepted

Pleased to say that both my posters for the European Health Psychology Society Conference in Romania have been accepted for presentation.

Now to find the funding to attend... :-)


http://www.ehps-cluj2010.psychology.ro/

My abstracts are:

Enhancing rehabilitation professionals' self-efficacy, to enhance the self-efficacy of their patients (Evaluation data from our motivational interviewing workshops here at Coventry: https://store.coventry.ac.uk/catalogue/products.asp?compid=1&deptid=116&catID=92&hasClicked=1)

Role of a support group for women with polycystic ovary syndrome.(See a related paper in Journal of Advanced Nursing: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122535593/abstract )