We use cookies to improve your browsing experience, monitor how our site is used, and aid us with advertising. By continuing to use our site you are agreeing to our privacy and cookies policy.
The Groups and Social Processes research area within the ARU Centre for Societies and Groups (ARU-CSG) is a group of scholars focused on social identities, sense of self, social processes and societal challenges, including discrimination and prejudice.
Topics currently being investigated include sexual and gender minority experiences, use of mental health services, intergroup conflict, the use of social media and digital technologies, developing inclusivity in sport coaching, abuse and duty of care in youth sport, and masculinities.
Our team of academics is committed to undertaking research that makes a real difference to people’s lives through understandings of the nature of the self and processes within social environments, with impacts on public policy, pedagogies, and professional identities.
We offer a Psychology PhD and a range of innovative research project opportunities for postgraduate researchers.
Two of our students successfully completed their PhDs recently:
Research increasingly suggests that the transition to fatherhood can trigger mental health problems in the perinatal period (i.e., the period spanning pregnancy, childbirth, and the first postnatal year). The financial costs of paternal perinatal mental ill-health on the UK economy are substantial, but so too is the burden on fathers themselves, their partners, and their children. It is therefore important to consider perinatal mental health in terms of the family unit, including fathers.
In the Groups and Social Processes research area, we are leading ambitious projects that consider the lived experiences of fathers in terms of their mental health, in collaboration with partners in mental health services and scholars internationally. Led by Prof Viren Swami and PhD candidate Caroline Estrella, this research seeks to understand the experience of psychological distress in fathers and how best to help fathers experiencing distress to get the help they need.
In order to improve services for people, we need to understand how people use and access support services, and what happens in interactions between workers and those they support.
In the Groups and Social Processes research area, we study how people communicate with each other in care services for people with intellectual disabilities, how psychiatrists discuss medication with people who have mental health issues, how people use mental health apps, and how ward staff make formulations. Led by Dr Emma Kaminskiy, Dr Lewis Goodings and Dr Mick Finlay, we try and understand what happens when people access psychological and social support.