Find out more about our innovative, self-funded PhD projects in areas of psychology.
We already have supervisors active and engaged in the research topic in our School of Psychology, Sport and Sensory Science.
Centre for Societies and Groups
Gender stereotypes, selfies, Instagram, Stereotype Threat, Stereotype Content
Research subgroup: Applied Social Change Hub
While gender stereotypes have been recognized as harmful and banned in British advertising (Zawisza, 2019), these regulations do not apply to digital media content, such as gendered selfies on social media. Yet, every third photograph taken by 18-to-24-year-olds is a selfie (Sung, Kim, & Choi, 2018) and that Instagram selfies are more gender stereotypical than magazine adverts (Döring et al., 2016). Despite selfies’ omnipresence and ability to spread harmful gender stereotypes they are under-researched.
This PhD project will focus on young women and investigate two key novel research questions: What is the impact of gender stereotypical (GS) and non-gender stereotypical (non-GS) selfies on the perceptions of women and women’s self-perceptions? To what extent can the predicted harmful effects of exposure to GS selfies on Instagram be buffered to improve young women’s self-perceptions?
Gender-stereotypical content in other media reportedly leads to a number of negative effects particularly for women in terms of their self-perceptions: increasing anxiety, shame, depression and eating disorders (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Zawisza-Riley, 2019), and impairing performance and lowering aspirations (Davies et al., 2005; Appel & Weber, 2017; Zawisza-Riley, 2019). Moreover, stereotypical content also affects how women are perceived by others (e.g. lower competence, Fiske et al., 2008). These are typically explained in terms of stereotype threat theory (Steele & Aronson, 1995) and Stereotype Content Model (Fiske et al., 2002). Previous research suggests promising ways of buffering harmful effects of gender stereotypical media content (e.g. ‘identity safety’ environments, Davies et al., 2005). However, these approaches have yet to be tested in the context of selfies and social media.
This PhD project will use quantitative methods such as (online) experiments (e.g. using Qualtrics or Gorilla) where audiences will be exposed to bogus, e.g. AI designed, (non)gendered selfies (e.g. using NightCafe Creator – AI Art Generator App). An array of dependent variables pertaining to women’s’ (self)perceptions will be measured to capture the selfies’ predicted negative effects. In the second stage of the project possible buffering interventions will be tested (e.g. identity safety environment). A possibility of running a field experiment in the digital space will also be considered.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Centre for Societies and Groups
STEM, HEED, gender stereotypes, work, job applications, stereotype content model
Research subgroup: Applied Social Change Hub
Women still consist about 29% of STEM workforce (gove.uk, 2023) and men about 15% of HEED work force (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). This has consequences for gender wage gap as STEM careers are amongst the best paid ones. One way of addressing it is for women to apply for such jobs more often. However, research shows that applying for ‘gender incompatible jobs’ comes with a penalties and research on how to overcome these is lacking.
This PhD project will aim to investigate how to improve hire-ability chances of candidates applying for gender-incompatible jobs (e.g. STEM for women or HEED for men). It will test and extend the SCM model building on my previous work in the field of gender advertising (Zawisza & Pittard, 2015, Zawisza-Riley, 2019) and that of Mitchell et al. (2023) in organisational psychology.
Reportedly the most successful people are seen as both warm and competent – the ‘golden quadrant’ of social perception (Fiske at el., 2002; Aaker et al, 2012). Is that true for personal advertising such as CVs on LinkedIn? It may well depend on the extent to which warmth and competence are compatible with the job domain. E.g. tech jobs may favour emphasising competence while health care jobs warmth (Zawisza & Pittard, 2015, Zawisza-Riley, 2019). This project will test this possibility and aim to provide further support for an extension of the Stereotype Content Model (Fiske et al., 2002) to job advertising context. It will also thus test methods of improving hire-ability prospects through tailoring job profiles (e.g. on LinkedIn) accordingly (Moss-Racusin et al., 2021).
This PhD project will use quantitative methods of investigation relying heavily on online experimentation (e.g. using Qualtrics or Gorilla). It will require development of experimental materials such as bogus LinkedIn profiles or CVs and measurement of outcome variables pertaining to hire-ability (Moss-Racusin et al, 2012). It can focus on a wide range of job domains and communication channels.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Prof Peter Bright (Psychology)
Dr Ian van der Linde (Computing & Information Science)
Neuropsychological Assessment
It is important for clinicians and researchers to be able to estimate a neurological patient's prior (i.e., pre-injury or ‘premorbid’) level of ability, typically their ‘full-scale’ IQ. This information is used to evaluate the impact of neurological damage on cognition, treatment planning and recovery monitoring. Standard tests for measuring IQ cannot be used for this purpose directly since a patient’s cognitive impairment will affect the scores obtained in one or more test components, yielding a full-scale IQ score that describes their current rather than premorbid cognitive ability.
Among several approaches proposed to address this problem evidence suggests that so-called ‘hold tests’ are particularly effective (Bright, Jaldow & Kopelman, 2002; Bright and van der Linde, 2018). Hold tests require evaluation of performance on cognitive functions that are both relatively resistant to neurological damage and known to correlate well with IQ in neurologically healthy participants. The estimated premorbid IQ is then compared with current IQ to judge the impact of the neurological condition on general cognitive ability. Other approaches for estimating premorbid IQ include the use of demographic information alone, or in combination with hold test performance.
The proposed research will focus on the development of alternative/novel approaches to increase the precision of premorbid cognitive ability estimates. We have recently published a promising evolutionary algorithm based approach for optimising the precision of hold test performance (van der Linde & Bright, 2018), and we would expect the successful applicant to extend this work. The overall objective of this research will be to successfully develop and publish new tools to benefit researchers and clinicians involved in the assessment of cognitive impairment following neurological injury, thereby improving (i) the clinical management of patients and (ii) the quality of patient-based academic research.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Prof Peter Bright (Psychology)
Dr Ian van der Linde (Computing & Information Science)
Research implicates that the complex process of attending to and producing goal-relevant behaviours is sensitive to variations in psychometric intelligence (Spearman’s general factor or ‘g’; Bright, 1998; Duncan, Emslie, Williams, Johnson, & Freer, 1996). More recently, a series of investigations has indicated that g reflects ability to organize novel information into complex, effective task models (Carroll & Bright, 2016; Duncan, Parr, Woolgar, Thompson, Bright et al., 2008). The observation that it is mental representation of task rules rather than real-time task execution demands that most closely predicts variations in g is an important finding. Our data indicates that g reflects a ‘chunking’ function, in which task relevant information is manipulated towards more efficient representation, thereby reducing storage or attentional demands on working memory (Carroll & Bright, 2016).
On the basis of work carried out to date the following predictions will form the early focus of the proposed PhD work:
These questions will be addressed with an existing paradigm developed by Bright and shown in multiple publications to be highly sensitive to variations in g (Bright, 1998; Duncan et al., 2008; Bandhari & Duncan, 2014; Carroll & Bright, 2016), but there will also be an expectation that the PhD student develops their own paradigm for investigating predictions and further developing theory. Therefore, the student will be expected to develop, run, analyse and interpret results from a coherent body of theoretically motivated experiments in an attempt to reveal individual differences in the ways in which task instructions are initially modelled and then remodelled over the course of preparation for, and execution of, goal-directed complex behaviours.
It is expected that the main body of data will be based on cognitive experimental studies of neurologically healthy participants. However, computational modelling may be required alongside behavioural data for a clearer understanding of how linguistic rules transform into effective conceptualisation of constraints. Contingent upon theoretical importance and direction of earlier findings, it may also be instructive to employ cortical stimulation techniques (transcranial direct current stimulation and/or transcranial magnetic stimulation, both available within the Department of Psychology) to address task modelling and performance from a neurological perspective.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Centre for Societies and Groups
Body image, Cross-cultural, Test adaptation, Psychometrics
Body image research has experienced rapid growth in the past several decades, but much of this research remains limited to a small handful of social identity groups. Our research group has identified a need for body image research that gives voice to historically marginalised or neglected linguistic, cultural, and national groups. In response to that need, we have begun sustainable programmes of research that focus on the body image experiences in diverse national groups, particularly in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. We have also led international crowdsourced projects focused on issues of body image, such as the Breast Size Satisfaction Survey and the Body Image in Nature Survey. However, there is scope to build on these achievements and broaden the scope of research activities to include other social identity and national groups.
We seek a PhD candidate with an interest in cross-cultural psychology to develop new programmes of research on body image within and across national borders, particularly in nations that have not featured (or rarely feature) in the available body image literature. Such a research programme will examine the experience of body image in a localised setting, develop appropriate instruments to measure body image, and explore the extent to which existing models of body image are valid for diverse national, linguistic, and/or cultural groups. The successful candidate should be familiar with methods of test adaptation and should be proficient with methods of psychometric validation.
For more information, see Swami, V. & Barron, D., 2019. Translation and validation of body image instruments: Challenges, good practice guidelines, and reporting recommendations for test adaptation. Body Image, 31, pp.204-220.
To discuss the project informally prior to application, please contact Prof Viren Swami.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Centre for Societies and Groups
Consumer Psychology, Gender and Sexualities, Identity and Social Issues, Social Perception and Advertising.
This project aims to systematically test a proposed theoretical extension of social perception theories to advertising context (Zawisza & Pittard, 2015, Zawisza, 2016).
Social perception models posit that brands may be perceived as humans (Wojciszke & Abele, 2008; aka the Big Two, Abele & Bruckmüller, 2011). The transference of social perception models over emotions and then behaviours (Cuddy, et al., 2008) makes them promising for predicting consumer behaviour. However, while the models have been applied, though only formally, to the perception of brands (Kervyn et al., 2012) its predictive value for purchase intent in advertising context is limited (Zawisza & Pittard, 2015, Zawisza, 2016).
The PhD project will focus on testing and extending the current social perception models and their applicability to advertising context. The thesis may focus on representation of any social group in advertising (be it gender, race, country of origin, etc.), any product, service or brand categories and any channel of communication (e.g. print media, social media, the Internet) or persuasive communication types (including social advertising focused on attitude change). It will test the utility of social dimensions in determining advertising success.
The project will examine the proposed extension empirically through the use of quantitative experimental research methods. Study 1 will preselect appropriate advertising stimuli. A series of experiments will then follow to test the performance of these stimuli as a function of moderating and mediating variables potentially affecting the resultant purchase intent. These could be various product categories, consumer characteristics, cultures and different types of services.
The aim of the project is to produce impactful practical recommendations for marketing practitioners and advertising standards agencies alike. It may form part of a bigger collaborative project run by Dr Zawisza at Cambridge. Equipment and software such as online experimental testing platforms enabling use of Social Media will be available at ARU.
Interested candidates should come with background in social sciences, marketing and/or advertising, experience in running quantitative research projects (i.e. experiments) and conducting advanced statistical analyses. Interest in experimental social psychology is essential and in consumer psychology desirable.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Infant crying serves an evolutionary function, signalling distress to caregivers who are hardwired to be aroused by this stimulus, thus eliciting caregiving and promoting survival. Unfortunately, infant crying can also trigger abuse by parents who demonstrate hyper-arousal in response to infant distress. This PhD project will aim to identify the factors and mechanisms underlying hyper-arousal, which could offer important insight into cry-triggered mistreatment or abuse.
Our current work uses lab-based studies that measure adults’ self-reported responses (intentional response and aversiveness rating) in response to audio samples of infant emotional signals (crying and laughter), in addition to collecting saliva samples and measuring heart rate variability to measure physiological arousal. One of the key novel components of this research is that we are analysing the acoustic properties of the cry and laughter stimuli (duration, frequency, amplitude and non-linear phenomena) and will test the contribution that this has on participants’ stress responses to the stimuli. The PhD programme of research will extend this work to further identify the risk factors that presuppose an individual to hyper arousal in response to infant distress in a larger sample.
The supervisory team are existing collaborators and bring together interdisciplinary expertise on developmental psychology, perinatal mental health, biological markers of stress, bioacoustics and emotional signalling. The PhD student would be well supported by the team, which has experience in PhD supervision and can offer the student training in various methodological and statistical processes and packages. Dr Kirk is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology, her research focuses on parent-child interaction, including mind-mindedness and maternal wellbeing in the perinatal period. Dr Bristow is the director of the ARU Biomarker Laboratory with expertise in salivary biomarkers. Dr Dunn is a behavioural ecologist, interested in the biology and evolution of communication systems in humans and other animals (mostly primates) (www.thepeergroup.org.uk).
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Centre for Societies and Groups
Consumer Psychology, Gender and Sexualities, Identity and Social Issues, Social Advertising
This PhD project aims to test novel ways of boosting the effectiveness of social advertising with the aim to change prejudiced attitudes to specific social groups, i.e. people with mental illness, women, sexual or ethnic minorities. For example, research shows that non- traditional female portrayals in advertising are less effective (Zawisza & Cinnirella, 2010), also cross-culturally (Zawisza et al., 2016, 2018), and less frequent (Grau & Zotos, 2016). Yet the more popular gender traditional ads reinforce stereotypes and have numerous negative effects on women (Dimofte et al., 2015; Van Loo & Rydell, 2014). Gender traditional marketing practices could be changed if the non-traditional ads could be made more effective. Design and testing of such boosting techniques is the aim of this project.
The novel ad effectiveness boosting tools will utilise social perception principles as these have been shown to apply to perception of brands (Kervyn, Fiske & Malone, 2012) and ads (Zawisza, 2016). For example, the lesser effectiveness of ads utilising non-traditional female portrayals is attributed to their lower warmth or likeability (Zawisza & Cinnirella, 2010; Zawisza et al., 2016, 2018).
The PhD project will examine if manipulation of relevant social perception dimensions can boost the effectiveness of social advertisements. It will involve a series of quantitative studies ranging from preselecting appropriate stimuli to testing manipulations of relevant dimensions of social perception and their effects on ad effectiveness, brand perception and attitude change. Moreover, relevant mediators and moderators will also be investigated.
The aim of the project is to produce practical recommendations for consumers, practitioners and advertising standards agencies alike and has consumers’ well-being at heart. It may form part of a bigger collaborative project run by Dr Zawisza in Cambridge. Equipment and software such as online experimental testing platforms enabling use of Social Media will be available at ARU.
Interested candidates should come with background in social sciences, marketing and or advertising, experience in running quantitative research projects (i.e. experiments) and conducting advanced statistical analyses. Interest in experimental social psychology is essential and in consumer psychology desirable.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Centre for Societies and Groups
Consumer Psychology
Making sensible food choices can be a difficult task for many consumers. The importance of a healthy diet is something that is commonly debated in the media. For a long time researchers have focused on using visual input to guide the decisions people make. However, one factor that has recently gained scholars’ attention, but also plays an important role in creating the impression of food, is texture. Texture is a sensory property and functional manifestation of the structural, mechanical and surface properties of foods detected through the sense of vision, hearing, touch and kinaesthetic (Szczesniak, 2002). Specifically, tactile properties has usually been investigated through texture-taste interactions. However, haptic information, through the hands, can also affect the perception of food and in particular texture (e.g. Barnett-Cowan, 2010). For example, the texture of a plate has been found to affect both taste and mouthfeel ratings of food (Biggs et al., 2016). This coupled with the fact that there are many other studies (e.g. Jansson-Boyd and Patel, 2018; Jansson-Boyd, 2011) that have found tactile input to be of utmost importance when it comes to influencing people’s perception means that touch may also influence how food is evaluated.
The research literature lacks work on how food information received through our hands may influence perceived healthiness of foods. Hence, this is the focal point of this research. The successful candidate will investigate whether textured haptic food information can help guide consumers to evaluate food as being healthy. Furthermore, you will explore if haptically based food cues have an important role to play in the likelihood of consumption.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Dr Roberto Filippi (External - UCL Institute of Education)
The claim that multilanguage acquisition directly drives performance advantages in executive function (the so called bilingual cognitive advantage) is currently an issue of vigorous debate in the literature. Attention in this area has broadened in recent years from a relatively narrow focus on inhibitory control to incorporate other cognitive domains such as visuospatial memory, theory of mind and rule-based learning.
In this project we will consider the impact of multilanguage acquisition on metacognition, a cognitive function incorporating (i) lower-level awareness or knowledge of one’s own thoughts, and (ii) higher-level regulation or control of our thinking. This notion of metacognition both as a comparatively passive (knowledge/awareness) function and an active (regulatory/control) function is problematic because it renders the term rather inseparable from the well‐established concept of executive function: both are concerned with top‐down monitoring and control of cognition in the service of ongoing goal‐directed behaviour (Bright, Ouzia, & Filippi, 2019).
Despite this conceptual overlap, the only studies to date that have directly and empirically compared metacognitive performance in multilingual and monolingual participants indicate either a multilingual disadvantage (Folke, Ouzia, Bright, De Martino, & Filippi, 2016) or comparable metacognitive performance in both multilingual and monolingual participants (Filippi, Ceccolini, Periche-Tomas, & Bright, 2020).
Your research will explore evidence for overlap and divergence in the neural and psychological basis of metacognition and executive function and consider implications for the current debate on proposed neurocognitive advantages associated with multilanguage acquisition. The research will incorporate established tests of cognition and the development of new tests exploiting the outstanding facilities available to you within our Science Centre. In addition to behavioural assessment, you will have the opportunity to incorporate EEG, cortical stimulation and/or functional near-infrared spectroscopy in your work.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Dr Giulia Poerio (Essex University)
Background: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is a sensory-perceptual phenomenon characterized by reliable, involuntary and pleasurable tingling sensation. It typically originates at the top of the scalp and spreads down to the back in response to specific stimuli called “ASMR Triggers” such as auditory, visual and visuo-tactile stimuli. The feeling of ASMR is often associated with feelings of calm and relaxation.
Even though the popularity of this phenomenon outside the scientific domain is inconceivable - with millions of people not only consuming ASMR media but many top ASMRtists making it their full-time jobs to create ASMR content - the scientific community has only recently started exploring and researching the phenomenon.
Despite only few scientific results have shown that ASMR seems to have beneficial physiological effects, numerous anecdotal reports show how ASMR users actively engage with the ASMR media for the sole purpose of relieving negative mood, stimulating relaxation and inducing sleep.
Given the potential therapeutic applications of ASMR, a more in depth understanding of this phenomenon is much needed.
Aim, Methods, and Resources: The current project will develop along two parallel lines of research. The first research aim will be to shed further light on the neural networks involved in the experience of ASMR and its hormonal correlates, by taking advantage of the School of Psychology, Sport and Sensory Science’s excellent resources, such as an Electroencephalography (EEG) lab and a Biomarker lab. The PhD student will be trained in using these resources with the aim to measure brain activity and hormones linked to the ASMR experience.
The second line of research will be extremely novel and will be aimed at developing a method to assess ASMR propensity in children. Given the benefits that ASMR seems to have in the adult population, it is worth investigating if it can have similar beneficial effects in childhood.
Many ASMR experiencers report having their first experience of ASMR at around five years of age, but the phenomenology of this experience in childhood has not been explored yet.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Dr Debora Antoniotti de Vasconcelos e Sa
Cognition, Clinical and Wellbeing
Estimates suggest that ~40% of patients suffering a stroke develop aphasia, an impairment of language function caused by brain damage. Aphasia has a drastic impact on social interaction, quality of life and wellbeing of both patients and their carers. Thus, it is unsurprising that aphasia is rated by patients and carers alike as one of the most devastating outcomes of stroke.
Treatment and recovery following stroke frequently involves considerable and sudden life-long adjustments on the part of family carers. However, they usually do so without formal training and routine access to support or information. Furthermore, research shows that, when compared to the general population, family carers of people with stroke tend to report higher levels of anxiety, depression and stress, and lower levels of life satisfaction, quality of life and well-being, which in turn can affect the quality of care they provide.
For people with aphasia, the inability to produce words quickly and accurately is the most pervasive symptom. Therefore, communication difficulties due to aphasia can be particularly challenging for family carers, drastically influencing the interpersonal relationship balance, thus increasing emotional distress and changes in the perception.
To date, little attention has been given to exploring the role of illness-related and demographic characteristics on the experiences of carers of people with aphasia. In this project, you will quantify patients’ speech abilities and impairments. You will also study the carer’s perception of the patient’s impairment, and their psychological wellbeing. You will then combine these two branches of research, hypothesising that while aphasia severity affects the carer’s illness perception and own wellbeing, this relation is mediated by the patient’s awareness of their own impairments.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Centre for Societies and Groups
STEM, gender stereotypes, company brand image, diversity statements
Research subgroup: Applied Social Change Hub
According to WISE (2023) Report 56% of people in senior roles consider gender diversity in STEM a top three priority for their company. However, women still consist about 29% of STEM workforce (gove.uk, 2023). One way of addressing it is for companies to attract gender minoritized candidates through diversity statements. This method of increasing gender equality is however under-researched and it’s not clear if it would alienate the gender majority.
This PhD project will aim to investigate how companies can use diversity statements and other diversity cues in job adverts and/or on their websites to attract more gender minoritized candidates (e.g. women in STEM). Content analyses show that job adverts are gender stereotypical and that this alienates gender minoritized candidates: When the wording of the ad uses even subtly masculine language response rate from female candidates is lower (Gaucher et al, 2011). Company diversity statements directly address such gender biases and hence may improve company brand perception and the job attractiveness for the underrepresented.
Reportedly companies are perceived similarly to people (Kervyn et al., 2012) and the most successful people are seen as both warm and competent – the ‘golden quadrant’ of social perception (Fiske at el., 2002; Aaker et al, 2012). Will injection of warmth in the form of a diversity statement shift the company’s brand perception closer to the ‘golden quadrant’? More importantly, will it make the company more attractive to gender marginalised candidates? What types of cues are most effective and why? Do personal differences affect candidate’s responses?
This project will test these possibilities and aim to provide further support for an extension of the Stereotype Content Model (Fiske et al., 2002) to company brand image context. It building on my previous work in the field of gendered advertising (Zawisza & Pittard, 2015, Zawisza-Riley, 2019).
This PhD project will use quantitative methods of investigation relying heavily on online experimentation (e.g. using Qualtrics or Gorilla). It will require development of experimental materials such as bogus jobs ads and or company websites (e.g. with Google Sites) with company diversity statements and cues. It will measurement of outcome variables pertaining to job attractiveness and brand image.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
The term ‘prospective memory’ refers to the ability to remember to carry out a planned action at the right time in the future, and in the right context, for example, remembering to convey an important message to a friend the next time you see them alone, or remembering to take prescription medicine 30 minutes before your evening meal. Children are capable of prospective memory by the age of 2 years, but there are rapid developments in this capability during the preschool period. This project has two main aims. First, it will investigate what cognitive skills are most closely associated with the development of different manifestations of prospective memory during early childhood. Second, it will attempt to determine the most effective incidental reminders for triggering children’s retrieval of their prospective memory intention and how these may change with age. Data collection will take place mainly in schools, with some parent-report questionnaires to be completed online.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Centre for Societies and Groups
Social Justice and Empowerment
For most people, what is considered a good life includes such things as social inclusion, a sense of belonging, social interaction and relationships. For many reasons, this can be hard for people with severe and profound disabilities, who may rely on others for mobility and access to activities and environments, and who may have little symbolic communication or use atypical means of interacting with others. Research has illustrated how opportunities for meaningful relations are often limited for this group, and how good quality encounters might require atypical patterns and modes of communication and interaction (e.g. Nicholson, Finlay & Stagg, 2021; Finlay et al, 2008). This project will investigate the opportunities and barriers to social relationships among this group, identifying the main relationships people have, what forms these take, and how people with severe and profound disabilities can be supported to have more extensive and better quality relations with others. Importantly, it will examine how people in this category interact socially with others.
A range of methods could be applied to this research, from surveys completed by supporters, services and family members, ethnographic observations in homes, day services, schools and clubs, video recordings of social encounters, and interviews with informants.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Centre for Societies and Groups
Dr Debora Antoniotti de Vasconcelos e Sa
Consumer Psychology
The focus of this research is to explore relationships between carers and the people they look after. Specifically, the aim is to investigate if interpersonal touch can be used as a means to create a closer relationship between careers and those they care for. The existing literature predominantly focus on ‘practical’ carers touch, i.e. when touch is used to practically care for patients, such as moving them to change bed sheets, giving medication or alike, rather than what we deem a more positive ‘social’ interpersonal touch. Practically based tactile interaction (such as the aforementioned) is reportedly not viewed in a favourable light by either the carer or the person cared for [Watts, 1998] and may refrain carers from engaging in other more positive tactile interaction.
The use of interpersonal touch could help to improve long-term psychological well-being for the person cared for. The importance of tactile input is evident from a plethora of research showing that it can alter perception [Woods & Diamond, 2002; Peck & Childers, 2003; Jansson-Boyd, 2011] and have an important role to play when it comes to connecting emotionally [Rolls et al., 2003]. The link between touch and emotion may also account for the fact that interpersonal touch has been found to have a strong influence on generating responses to requests. This is particularly notable from a study [Eaton et al., 1986] when staff who worked in a care unit for older people were asked to combine verbal encouragement to eat with interpersonal touch. When doing so the older people ate more and consequently consumed more calories and protein. The effect lasted for several days after tactile contact had taken place.
Currently the research literature lacks work on how the role of interpersonal touch can have a positive impact on the relationship between carers and the people they look after. Thus the proposed research will focus on the development of using interpersonal touch as a means to improve carer - patient relationships.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.
Background: Maternal behaviour is a critical factor for the optimal emotional and psychosocial development of a child. Increasing evidence from animal studies suggest an epigenetic foundation of maternal behaviour, influenced by environmental as well as biological factors. Oxytocin (OT) is a uniquely mammalian hormone that plays a key role in socio-affiliative processes and it has been shown to be critical in the initiation of maternal behaviour. Pregnancy is a critical period in a woman’s life where profound psychophysiological changes suddenly occur. Such changes are likely underlined by neurohormonal changes, as confirmed by animal studies. What we know so far in humans is that variation in OT levels in pregnancy differentially affects the later caregiving maternal behaviour. However, methodological and technical limitations in testing pregnant women have hampered this line of research from progressing. Moreover, whereas animal studies suggest a direct link between neurohormonal changes in pregnancy and maternal behaviour, the complexity of human beings might suggest the involvement of another component in this interaction, i.e. the cognitive representation of the infant in the mother’s brain.
This leads to the following research question: Do the neurohormonal changes during pregnancy shape subsequent maternal behaviour?
Methods: A longitudinal study we will first assess the participants’ neurohormonal profile during pregnancy. After giving birth the mother’s mental representations of the baby will be measured. Finally an observational session will provide a quantitative measure of the maternal behaviour.
Dr Katarzyna Gajewska-Knapik, Consultant in Obstetrics and Foetal Medicine at Cambridge University Hospital will collaborate on this project. She has collaborated with Dr Cardini and Dr Aspell for a previously funded project on pregnancy. Their collaboration is still ongoing and she has agreed to assist in identifying suitable participants from the patient pool at Addenbrooke’s Hopsital, and help in the organisation of recruitment.
This project is self-funded.
Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.
If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Psychology PhD. In the section of the application form entitled 'Outline research proposal', please quote the above title and include a research proposal.