Faculty
of Health and Life Sciences,
Department of Psychology, Health and Professional
Development
3 Year, full-time
funded PhD studentship
Project
title:
Romantic relationships and cultural identity
Eligibility:
Home UK/EU applicants who must be permanently resident in UK/EU
Closing
date: 11 March 2019
Interviews:
25 March 2019
Start
date: September 2019
Value
p.a.: Bursary equivalent to UKRI national minimum stipend plus fees (2018/19
bursary rate is £14,777)
Supervisors:
Dr Mark Burgess and Professor Guida de Abreu
Project: Healthy
romantic relationships contribute to the purpose and meaning of a person’s
life. Under normal circumstances, romantic partners reveal more of themselves
to each other as the relationship progresses. They present themselves as a
couple to their family and friends and they find a comfortable place in the
broader world. But what happens when a person’s sexual attraction and desire
for committed union challenges the time-honoured scripts of their valued cultural
identity? That person will know that danger zones are not only physical. They will
know that danger zones are also psychological and exist dynamically within a
socially embedded self (Hermans, 2018). Their self may incorporate seemingly contradictory
‘I-positions’ where they are
genuinely committed to a particular romantic future and yet also are genuinely
committed to a cultural group that prohibits that romantic future. This form of
impasse can threaten a person’s self-continuity, precipitate self-reflective
rumination, and challenge mental health (Aho & Guignon, 2011). The
resolution of such an impasse can lead to self-acceptance, growth, and a sense
of authenticity.
This
PhD research will use Hermans’ (e.g., 2001, 2014) theory of dialogical self and qualitative methods to
understand romantic experiences that are inconsistent with perceived cultural
expectations. The research could focus on a variety of relationship
experiences, including (but not limited to): sexual orientation, arranged marriages,
polygamy, polyamory, prohibition against divorce, cohabitation.
For
further information contact Dr. Mark Burgess mark.burgess@brookes.ac.uk
Requirements:
Applicants should have (or be expecting) a first class or upper second-class
honours degree from a Higher Education Institution in the UK or acceptable
equivalent qualification in psychology or related cognate discipline (knowledge
of research design and qualitative research methods is essential). EU
Applicants must have a valid IELTS Academic test certificate with an overall
minimum score of 7.0 and no score below 6.0 issued in the last 2 years by an
approved test centre. We are prepared to consider alternative acceptable
evidence of English Language ability.
There
is an additional requirement to undertake up to 6 hours undergraduate
teaching/week during semesters and to participate in a teaching skills course
without further remuneration.
Completion
of a DBS check is required on enrolment the cost of this will be covered by the
University.
How to apply:
Applications should be sent to hlsapplications@brookes.ac.uk and should include
an application form
(http://www.hls.brookes.ac.uk/images/research/phd-studentship-application-form-jan-14.doc) and a project
proposal (max 2000 words) including background, aims and an outline of how
those aims will be addressed. Applicants can liaise with Dr Mark Burgess when
developing their proposal.
Oxford
Brookes University
Faculty
of Health and Life Sciences,
Department of Psychology, Health and Professional
Development
3 Year, full-time
funded PhD studentship
Project
title: Mental Health Literacy in the
Workplace
Eligibility:
Home UK/EU applicants who must be permanently resident in UK/EU
Closing
date: 11 March 2019
Interviews:
25 March 2019
Start
date: September 2019
Value
p.a.: Bursary equivalent to UKRI national minimum stipend plus fees (2018/19
bursary rate is £14,777)
Supervisors:
Professor David Foxcroft and Dr Emma Davies, Prevention Science Group, Oxford
Brookes University.
Project:
As part of its European Mental Health Action Plan, the World
Health Organisation highlights the workforce as a population that needs
intervention to increase mental wellbeing (World Health Organization, 2013).
One way to improve workplace
wellbeing could be to improve levels of Mental Health Literacy (MHL). MHL refers to “knowledge of how to prevent
mental disorders; recognition of when a disorder is developing; knowledge of
help-seeking options and treatments available; knowledge of effective self-help
strategies for milder problems, and first aid skills to support others who are
developing a mental disorder or are in a mental health crisis.” (Jorm, 2012,
p.1). Higher levels of MHL
may be linked to lower levels of mental ill health (Wei, McGrath, Hayden, & Kutcher, 2015). High
levels of MHL literacy may also play a role in reducing stigma, and creating a
culture of supportive care within the workplace
This PhD studentship will focus on the development and
evaluation of a brief digital MHL screening and feedback intervention for use
in a specific workforce, which will be highly scalable. In our research team we
value the principles of co-production and employ systematic frameworks within
our approach to intervention development. Our research also has a strong
grounding in theory and so we would welcome applicants who are willing to
grapple with both theoretical and applied issues.
There is an additional requirement to undertake up to 6
hours undergraduate teaching/week during semesters and to participate in a
teaching skills course without further remuneration.
For further information contact Professor David Foxcroft david.foxcroft@brookes.ac.uk
Requirements:
Applicants should have (or be expecting) a first class or upper second class
honours degree from a Higher Education Institution in the UK or acceptable
equivalent qualification in psychology or related cognate discipline (knowledge
of research design and statistics is essential). EU Applicants must have a
valid IELTS Academic test certificate with an overall minimum score of 7.0 and
no score below 6.0 issued in the last 2 years by an approved test centre. We
are prepared to consider alternative acceptable evidence of English Language
ability.
How to apply:
Applications should be sent to hlsapplications@brookes.ac.uk and should include an application form
(http://www.hls.brookes.ac.uk/images/research/phd-studentship-application-form-jan-14.doc) and a project proposal (max 2000
words) including background, aims and an outline of how those aims will be
addressed. Applicants can liaise with Professor David Foxcroft when developing
their proposal.
Completion of a DBS check is required
on enrolment the cost of this will be covered by the University.
Department
of Psychology, Health and Professional Development
3 Year, full-time funded PhD studentship
Project
title: Parenting and child sleep
Eligibility:
Home UK/EU applicants who must be permanently resident in UK/EU
Closing
date: 11 March 2019
Interviews:
25 March 2019
Start
date: September 2019
Value
p.a.: Bursary equivalent to UKRI national minimum stipend plus fees (2018/19
bursary rate is £14,777)
Supervisors: Dr Luci Wiggs and Morag MacLean
Project:
Sleep difficulties are one the most common behaviour
problems encountered by parents of young children. Behavioural management (i.e.
teaching parents to use behavioural principles to help their child learn desired
sleep behaviours and unlearn undesired sleep behaviours) is the first-line intervention
approach offered by mainstream clinical services and has a strong evidence base
(Meltzer, & Mindell, 2014)
however it is not considered an acceptable approach by some families (Etherton,
Blunden, & Hauck, 2016). Better understanding of parents’ concerns
is important to facilitate the development of support that is both effective
and considered appropriate by parents.
Attention to
elements of parents’ cognitive style (e.g.Tikotzky & Sadeh, 2010) and
parenting is also relevant to understanding how child sleep is construed and
managed. For example, mothers vary greatly in their levels of mind-mindedness (i.e.
a parent’s proclivity “to treat the infant as an individual with a mind rather
than merely as a creature with needs that must be satisfied” (Meins,
Fernyhough, Fradley & Tuckey, 2001, p. 638)) but this has been very little
explored in relation to sleep.
A PhD in this area
would aim to further understanding of the links between aspects of parents/parenting
and child sleep. This could include how parental (mothers and/or fathers)
mind-mindedness is linked to parents’ use of bedtime settling strategies with
their child or their attitudes towards and use of various approaches to management
of child sleep difficulties. The
successful applicant will be expected to design, run and analyse data from
experimental studies. There is an additional requirement to undertake up to 6
hours undergraduate teaching/week during semesters and to participate in a
teaching skills course without further remuneration.
For further information contact Dr Luci Wiggs: lwiggs@brookes.ac.uk
Requirements:
Applicants should have (or be expecting) a first or upper second class honours
degree from a Higher Education Institution in the UK or acceptable equivalent
qualification in psychology or related cognate discipline (knowledge of
research design and statistics is essential). EU
Applicants must have a valid IELTS Academic test certificate (or equivalent) with an overall minimum score
of 7.0 and no score below 6.0 issued in the last 2 years by an approved test
centre.
How to apply:
Applications should be sent to XXX and should include an application form
(http://www.hls.brookes.ac.uk/images/research/phd-studentship-application-form-jan-14.doc) and a project proposal (max
2000 words) including background, aims and an outline of how those aims will be
addressed. Applicants
can liaise with Dr Dr
Luci Wiggs when developing their proposal.
Completion of a DBS check is
required on enrolment the cost of this will be covered by the University.
Faculty
of Health and Life Sciences,
Department
of Psychology, Health and Professional Development
3 Year, full-time funded PhD studentship
Project
title: Cognition and motor control in
older adults
Eligibility:
Home UK/EU applicants who must be permanently resident in UK/EU
Closing
date: 11 March 2019
Interviews:
25 March 2019
Start
date: September 2019
Value
p.a.: Bursary equivalent to UKRI national minimum stipend plus fees (2018/19
bursary rate is £14,777)
Supervisors:
Kate Wilmut, Clare Rathbone and Morag MacLean
Project:
Movement is
the only way in which humans can interact with the world. However, a wealth of
research demonstrates a significant decline in motor control as we age which
may have a significant impact on the quality of life. The decline in motor
control include change to both manual movements where we see slowness and
inaccuracy and gross motor control where we see a propensity towards falling
and tripping. A prominent theory in motor control research is the constraints-based approach to movement
which states that any motor response is constrained by the environment, the
task and the individual (Keogh and Sugden 1985; Newell, 1986). As such any
emerging movement is a response to these constraints. As such the change we see
in movement across the lifespan may be the result of changing constraints in
one, or more, of these areas.
A PhD in
this area could focus on the nature of the change in motor control across the
lifespan and the consideration of constraints on motor control. Such
constraints could include, but would not be limited to: physical constraints
(i.e. range of motion), higher-order cognitive processes (i.e. planning,
inhibition, memory) and/or internal simulation of movement which is thought to
be a key process in motor control (Wolpert et al., 1998).
There
is an additional requirement to undertake up to 6 hours undergraduate
teaching/week during semesters and to participate in a teaching skills course
without further remuneration.
For further information contact Dr Kate Wilmut: k.wilmut@brookes.ac.uk
Requirements:
Applicants should have (or be expecting) a first class or upper second class
honours degree from a Higher Education Institution in the UK or acceptable
equivalent qualification in psychology or related cognate discipline (knowledge
of research design and statistics is essential). EU Applicants must have a
valid IELTS Academic test certificate with an overall minimum score of 7.0 and
no score below 6.0 issued in the last 2 years by an approved test centre. We are prepared to
consider alternative acceptable evidence of English Language ability.
How to apply:
Applications should be sent to hlsapplications@brookes.ac.uk and should include an application form
(http://www.hls.brookes.ac.uk/images/research/phd-studentship-application-form-jan-14.doc) and a project proposal (max 2000
words) including background, aims and an outline of how those aims will be
addressed. Applicants can liaise with Dr Kate Wilmut when developing their
proposal.
Completion
of a DBS check is required on enrolment the cost of this will be covered by the
University.
Department
of Psychology, Health and Professional Development
3 Year, full-time funded PhD studentship
Project
title: Self and emotion in depression
Eligibility:
Home UK/EU applicants who must be permanently resident in UK/EU
Closing
date: 11 March 2019
Interviews:
25 March 2019
Start
date: September 2019
Value
p.a.: Bursary equivalent to UKRI national minimum stipend plus fees (2018/19
bursary rate is £14,777)
Supervisors: Dr Sanjay Kumar &
Dr Michael Pilling
Project:
A range of research has
indicated a bias for information associated with self in attention, perception
and memory (Stole, Humphreys, Yankouskaya, & Sui, 2017; Sui & Humphreys, 2015; Zhou, Guo, Ma, Zhang, Liu, Feng, …Zhong, 2017).
Similar biases have also been observed with emotional stimuli. Some works from
our lab indicate that individuals show self-related bias in attention and
memory and they can integrate self and positive emotion information to show even
larger self-biases. In a recent work we have shown that individuals with
depression show systematically reduced self-biases for both happy and sad
emotional stimuli.
The research work will
extend this line of research where the PhD candidate will investigate the role
of self and emotion in biased information processing in individuals with
depression using behavioural experiments, EEG/ERP and TMS. The project will be supervised by Dr
Sanjay Kumar and Dr Michael Pilling at Oxford Brookes University. The
successful candidate would be expected to present at scientific meetings and
publish. There is an additional requirement to
undertake up to 6 hours undergraduate teaching/week during semesters and to
participate in a teaching skills course without further remuneration.
For further information contact Dr
Sanjay Kumar (skumar@brookes.ac.uk)
Requirements:
Applicants should have (or be expecting) a first class or upper second class
honours degree from a Higher Education Institution in the UK or MSc or acceptable
equivalent qualification in psychology or related cognate discipline (neuroscience,
engineering, physics, mathematics or natural sciences). The candidate should be
able to work with varied groups of patient populations, if required, and be
interested in learning EEG/ERP methods. EU Applicants must have a valid IELTS Academic test
certificate with an overall minimum score of 7.0 and no score below 6.0 issued
in the last 2 years by an approved test centre. We are prepared to
consider alternative acceptable evidence of English Language ability.
How to apply:
Applications should be sent to hlsapplications@brookes.ac.uk
and should include an application form
(http://www.hls.brookes.ac.uk/images/research/phd-studentship-application-form-jan-14.doc)
and a project proposal (max 2000 words) including background, aims and an
outline of how those aims will be addressed. Applicants can liaise with Dr
Sanjay Kumar when developing their proposal.
Completion of a DBS check is
required on enrolment the cost of this will be covered by the University.