"Awfey busy"

Been bogged down in work for the past several weeks but thought I'd revive my blog as an opportunity to showcase the research seminars we're having in Psychology & Behavioural Sciences in the next few months.

Have placed posts about this on our departmental Facebook page, but bears repeating here as well:

Date	Speaker	Affiliation	Title
7th December	Dr Lorenzo Stafford	University of Portsmouth	Olfaction And Emotion: What More Is There To Know?
14th December	Prof. Peter Spurgeon	University of Warwick	Management and Leadership Competence: No Longer An Optional Extra for Clinical Staff.
25th January	Dr Caoilte O´Ciardha	University of Kent	The treatment needs of adult firesetters.
1st February	Dr Douglas Howat	Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Coventry University	Effective team-talks in sport: an identity leadership perspective.
8th February	Prof. Neil Coulson	University of Nottingham	Online support communities: Who, what and why?
15th February	Dr Rebecca Jenks	Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Coventry University	The effects of Salvia Lavandulaefolia on behavioural and self rated measures of attention.
22nd February	Luisa Tarczynski-Bowles	Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Coventry University	Stress sensitivity and reading ability in primary school children.
29th February	Sarah Critten	Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Coventry University	The role of spelling in the relationship between oral and written language in children with specific language impairment.
7th March	Lisa Hopkins	Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Coventry University	Bullying and cyber-bullying.
14th March	Dr Jackie Abell	Lancaster University	Discourse and Identity.
21st March	Kate Walker	Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Coventry University	Comparison of the psychological characteristic of desisters and persisters of intimate partner violence.
28th March	Prof. Lucy Yardley	University of Southampton	Learning from LifeGuide: Developing web-based health interventions.
4th April	Amy Grubb	Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Coventry University	An exploratory study of police hostage (crisis) negotiation within the UK.

Has it really been so long?

Been busy  - too busy... But back to it:

Supervising a test today for students on the third year option module Applied Health Psychology.  Students took the test online and got their results immediately - nicely meeting the new fast turnaround time for student feedback ;-) - with exception of a few who encountered technical problems and will get their papers manually marked within a day or so.

Some very pleasing results overall.

In the interim, one of my colleagues (Erica Bowen) has been on Radio 4 Women's Hour, discussing her new book on domestic violence. Listen again is highly recommended http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yj189

Trying not to be mechanical...

Busy on campus day today:


Earlier part of morning attending the opening of the conference I mentioned yesterday. Inspired by colleagues’ presentations.

Late morning dealing with usual bunch of emails.

Excellent meeting with three co-researchers, to agree who was going to do what regarding two major data sets: women’s experiences with polycystic ovary syndrome, and families’ experiences with assistance dogs. Looking forward to both.

Then pitched the Disaster Management research internship to a pleasantly substantial group of students (and one graduate) who had expressed an interest. Despite the fact that we have no money to offer, it was gratifying to find that several people remained committed to taking the posts up, even after seeing my PowerPoint presentation.

After that it was back to the conference, where it seems that I missed some controversy and impassioned debate. Replace FGM, the associated project, aims to address problems associated with female genital mutilation, on health and human rights grounds. But the term ‘mutilation’ when applied in this context is problematic for some. Essentially the same surgical procedure requested by a white western woman might be deemed acceptable on the basis that it enhances her self-esteem or sexual confidence, yet condemned as abusive and oppressive in a black African woman. Huge issues here as regards how ‘we’ define ‘health’ and individual autonomy.

Meanwhile it all got a bit nasty at the student fees protests in London.  I know some of our students travelled to the event.  Just hope that none were involved, either as perpetrators of the violence, or innocent onlookers.