Psychology (PhD)

This project will seek to better understand the deficits underlying atypical behaviour (e.g. addiction, Autism, ADHD) using cognitive models.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Chris Retzler
• Dr Jennifer Retzler

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has identified that although the number of people accessing assisted conception is increasing overall in the UK, rates remain low in BAME communities. Further under-represented are gamete donors from BAME communities. Projects in this area would likely use qualitative methods and may examine experiences and perceptions amongst various stakeholders, including individuals considering or with personal experience of assisted conception (individuals or couples), health professionals and community organisations.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Zoe Darwin
• Dr Berenice Golding

Examine variables underpinning cancer screening behaviour and barriers to attending cancer screening, with a particular focus on cervical screening, including HPV-related issues.

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Susanna Kola-palmer

Causes and consequences of individual differences in executive function and attention

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Jennifer Retzler
• Dr Chris Retzler
• Dr Glyn Hallam

Cognitive and neural correlates of psychological disorders

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Jennifer Retzler
• Dr Chris Retzler

Proposed research looking at any aspect of UK and international counter-terrorism practice and police will be welcome.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Camilo Tamayo gomez

Proposals would seek to explore crime analysis techniques and/or spatial /temporal concentrations of crime in very small units of analysis, including individual addresses or particular types of premises (eg hospitals, airports). Research findings would add to our knowledge of crime generators, attractors and risky facilities or the work of crime analysts. Research in this field may also explore the role, impact and experiences of crime analysts. In both cases, quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods approaches are welcome.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Michelle Rogerson

Decision making and substance abuse

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Chris Retzler
• Dr Anna Murphy

The current approach to designing out terrorist threat has very much focused upon using situational target hardening measures to block terrorist threat, be that bollards in front of major national infrastructure sites, or defensive architecture that reduces the aesthetic appeal of places and can enhance perceptions of threat. Working closely with Police Counter Terrorist Security Advisors (CTSAs), Urban Designers, Planners and Architects this PhD will explore the existing methods of designing cities to reduce terrorist threat, but will focus upon ways in which positive psychology (the work of Prof. Roach) can be used to design in the pro-social as opposed to simply designing out the ‘outsider’ threat.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Professor Rachel Armitage
• Professor Jason Roach

Developing Concepts of Gender

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Sarah Daly

Study of atypical and/or homicidal sexual preferences including erotophonophilia, autassassinophilia, anthropophagic homicide, and chronophilias. In particular, proposals involving examining female sexual predators, as a current emerging research topic, would be welcome.

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Helen Gavin
• Dr Kalliopi Pepelasi

Projects in this area would involve experimental studies of human memory, spatial cognition and mental imagery and ideally would incorporate cognitive modelling as an approach to understanding and explanation.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr David Peebles
• Dr Glyn Hallam

Exploration of the effectiveness of publicity appeals of missing children

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/ Scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Daniel Hunt

This project will allow prospective candidates to examine how estimator and system (namely, the interview process) variables can elicit false memory amongst eyewitnesses. Successful candidates will have a discussion with the supervisors to determine what factors will be investigated. However, there is a strong preference towards focusing on interrogative suggestibility and misinformation acceptance.

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/ Scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

: Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Eilidh Noyes

Face recognition

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/ Scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Eilidh Noyes

To examine the ways in which female aggression is viewed, dealt with and punished. In particular, the aim is to examine girls and women who commit violent and aggressive acts including assault, homicide and multiple/serial homicide. Proposals around this emerging field would be welcomed.

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Kalliopi Pepelasi

To examine the ways in which female aggression and homicide is viewed, dealt with and punished. In particular, the aim is to examine girls and women who commit assault, homicide and multiple/serial homicide. Therefore, proposals examining female predators exhibiting, or female victims of predators exhibiting, homicidal sexual preferences including erotophonophilia, autassassinophilia, anthropophagic homicide, and chronophilias, as a current emerging research topic, would be welcome.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Kalliopi Pepelasi

Research in the field of green criminology, particularly that focusing on nonhuman animal harm, wildlife crime and forest crime. Projects may take a criminological, enforcement or socio-legal perspective and multi-disciplinary studies involving other Schools within the university are also welcomed. Research may be qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Professor Jason Roach

Policing has been evidenced to be a highly stressful occupation with various opportunities for trauma to occur. Recent estimates demonstrate a disparity between psychological sick leave and self-reported symptomology using psychological testing. At face values this suggests that a substantial proportion of officers who experience psychological symptomology do not take sick leave despite experiencing serve symptomology. One particular hypothesis is that police colleagues might be unable to recognise mental health symptomology. The proposed research seeks to measure mental health literacy in police employees to determine the levels of mental health literacy which could be influential in responding to wellbeing alongside dealing with members of the public exhibiting mental health problems.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Ashley Cartwright
• Professor Jason Roach

Mindwandering, cognitive control, secondary analysis of neuroimaging datasets

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/ Scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Glyn Hallam
• Dr Chris Retzler

This proposal explores how to develop an often neglected but important aspect of person-centred care. Members of the Spirituality Special Interest Group at the University (now reconstituted as the Spirituality and Compassion Special interest Group, SCSIG and led by myself) have supported a number of PhD studies to date as well as conducted a number of research studies. The concept of Spiritually Competent Practice (SCP; Wattis, Curran and Rogers, 2017) was developed from one of these pieces of work (Jones, 2017). It understands spirituality as part of the human search for meaning and distinguishes it from religion, seeing spiritual care as an important part of holistic person-centred care. My own PhD explored how concepts of Availability and Vulnerability, based on the Celtic Christian tradition, could be ‘secularised’ in Advanced Nursing Practice in Primary Care (Rogers 2016). Earlier work in the group had looked at health care educators’ attitudes to and understanding of spirituality, using brief rating scales developed for the purpose (Prentis et al., 2014). Working in partnership with the local NHS Mental Health Trust we have explored and extended these studies into Mental Health staff (Rogers et al 2019/2020), looking at attitudes to spirituality in mental health care and exploring the utility of SCP and A&V in this context. A study looking at mental health patients’ views has been interrupted by the pandemic but is in progress. The next phase of our research is to extend similar work into the fields of primary care and secondary care. This proposal is for a study exploring attitudes of primary care clinicians (including General Practitioners and Advanced Practitioners) to spirituality and the utility of SCP and A&V in developing understanding in primary care. It would use a mixed methods approach and details of the project would be developed to incorporate interests of a prospective PhD candidate as well as the SCSIG group’s interest in the wider applicability of SCP and A&V as educational and clinical tools in this area.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Melanie Rogers
• Dr Michael Snowden

Modern story telling is cleansed of gore and horror that appear in the original tales of caution and hope; these deal with psychological and cultural issues such as xenophobia, closeness to death, and fear of violent crime. Proposals examining the ways in which folk tales are being expressed in the 21st century, and what psychological issues inherent in that, would be welcome.

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Sarah Daly

Modern storytelling is cleansed of the gore and horror that appear in the original tales of caution and hope. These deal with psychological and cultural issues that were important narratives distributing messages in a world before widespread literacy, and can be interpreted as dealing with such issues as xenophobia, closeness to death, and fear of violent crime. What purpose then, do modern retellings of these tales contain? Proposals examining the ways in which folk tales are being expressed in the 21st century, and what psychological issues are inherent in that, would be welcome.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Sarah Daly

Paedophile hunter groups are vastly growing in the United Kingdom and are contributing evidence in up to 46% of trials for those charged with meeting a child after sexual grooming (BBC, 2017). However, the relationship the hunters share with the police is one of contempt with hunters being prosecuted for their actions (Milne, 2018). To date, no research has explored this developing problem and a pertinent place to start is through capturing the public perceptions’ pf paedophile hunter activities. The proposed research would utilise a cross sectional online survey to gauge whether the public support the activities of hunter groups.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Ashley Cartwright
• Professor Jason Roach

Reducing and/or predicting stigma against mental health difficulties

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr Susanna Kola-palmer

Projects in this area would involve examining how individuals' self-perceptions and self-esteem relate to their perceptions and behaviour within intimate relationships. Cross-sectional, experimental and longitudinal designs could all be employed to investigate this.

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Christopher Bale

Sexuality and Gender identity

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/ Scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Sarah Daly

Spatial Behaviour of Missing Persons

Please see our scholarships page at https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/ Scholarships to find out about funding or studentship options available

Please see details via the following web page https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/howtoapply/

• Dr Daniel Hunt

Spatial cognition, diagrammatic reasoning and mental imagery

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr David Peebles

Projects in this area would investigate an aspect of spatial cognition or mental imagery through empirical experiments and/or cognitive modelling methods.

Please see our Scholarships page to find out about funding or studentship options available.

• Dr David Peebles