PhD Psychological Sciences

Conduct your own piece of research in psychological sciences. Contribute to knowledge in the sector while improving your professional practice and developing advanced academic skills and knowledge.

We offer research opportunities in:

Cognitive psychology / cognitive neuroscience / social cognition

• Decision-making in applied settings
• Situation awareness and applications to training for blue light services
• Team situation awareness – the role of unconscious emotional information in intuitive decision-making
• Virtual reality as a training tool
• Sound symbolism in infant word learning
• Creation and use of person-models in action prediction
• Using EEG in studies of anxiety, wellbeing and attainment

Forensic Psychology

• Investigative reasoning
• Investigative interviewing – including training interviewers, interviewing vulnerable people, and the role of identity and cultural differences
• Eye-witness testimony
• Training expert witnesses
• Cyberpsychology and cybersecurity.

Plus opportunities for cross-disciplinary research around topics in domestic abuse and homicide, stalking, and sexual violence.

Clinical and mental health and wellbeing

• Psychosocial interventions for people with chronic disease or mental distress
• The social scientific study of the arts and popular culture, identity and social interaction
• The arts in therapeutic contexts
• Care for people with dementia
• Understanding of Borderline Personality Disorder and implications for care
• Mindfulness
• The understanding of psychopathology in terms of underlying neuroscience
• The neuroscience of attachment behaviour and empathy
• Contemporary relational approaches to therapy, brief therapies and couples work

Health and wellbeing

• Psychology and social issues
• Psychological language
• Pedagogy, diversity and elearning
• Qualitative and quantitative research methods