psych news march 2011

We sincerely hope you find

Psych News interesting and

possibly even entertaining,

and we are very keen to

hear your feedback. Just

drop us an email to the ad-

dress at the top of this page

to let us know what you

think! (Please be nice!)

Welcome to Psych News

Issue #1! As slapdash as

this newsletter / magazine

may appear, it has actually

been coming since the start

of first term. With each issue

we hope to refine the look

and format, so keep read-

ing!

Welcome to Our First Issue!

Brunel Psychology Professor Conquers Outback

This photo (below) was

taken from a helicopter

above the Bungle Bungle

Range Kununurra, Western

Australia in September

2009. The Bungle Bungle

range is remote, weird and

stunning. They are beehive-

like sandstone domes with

striping in alternating orange

and grey bands.

There is accommoda-

tion in the middle of this (a

so-called wilderness camp).

Most people take escorted

tou rs e .g . f l y i n t o

Kununuura, are picked up

and driven to the camp as

the drive is difficult. But,

Mark, my husband, adores

driving so we drove our-

selves in a four-wheel drive

vehicle (compulsory) - the

just over 50 km very tough,

rough road to the camp took

around 2 ½ hours!

Both Mark and I are

keen landscape photogra-

phers, so next morning we

took the helicopter trip situ-

ated a few kilometres from

the camp. The flights are

early morning as the tem-

peratures get to above 40

degrees Celsius during the

day. I love the Aussie “can

do” attitude – it isn’t easy

for me to get in a helicopter,

so they found a milk crate

for me to stand on and

pushed me in! To complete

the experience, the doors

had been taken off the heli-

copter, so we were held in

only by seatbelts. Fantastic,

leaning out of the helicopter

taking photos. That flight

was one of the best experi-

ences in my life (although

riding on a sled pulled by

huskies last summer in

Alaska came a close second

– but that’s another story/

picture).

THE IMPORTANCE OF

PLACEMENT 2

GET INVOLVED! 2

EMETO-WHAT? 3

MEET YOUR STUDENT

REPS 4

STUDENT REP FEED-

BACK 5

DISSERTATION ACA-DEMIC SUPPORT TUTOR JOINS BRUNEL PSY-

CHOLOGY DEPARTMENT

5

NEW LEVEL 3 OPTIONS

FOR 2011! 6

NEW FINAL YEAR OP-

TION 6

STUDY OF THE MONTH:

RAT PARADISE 6

MAKE THE MOST OF

YOUR REPS 4

TOP 10 TIPS ON HOW TO

SURVIVE (AND ENJOY!)

YOUR DISSERTATION

7

VOLUNTEER OPPORTU-

NITY OF THE MONTH—

HILLINGDON CARERS

7

ANNOUNCING BRUNEL’S

FIRST BRAIN AWARE-

NESS WEEK

8

OTHER AWARENESS

EVENTS 8

NATIONAL STUDENT

SURVEY! 10

BRUNEL PSYCHOLOGY

SOCIETY 11

BOOK OF THE MONTH

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHOR-

ITY: AN EXPERIMENTAL

VIEW

11

BRITISH PSYCHOLOGY

SOCIETY PAGE 12

WEBSITE OF THE

MONTH: RADIOLAB 13

KEEPING BUSY—

FERNAND GOBET 13

SUBMISSIONS WANTED! 13

Inside this issue:

B r u n e l P s y c h o l o g y S o c i e t y

Psych News Issue #1 March 2011 [email protected]

http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5

Lynn Myers

Brunel’s very own intrepid explorer riding a helicopter toward the Bungle Bungle range, Western Australia

“the doors had

been taken off

the helicopter,

so we were held

in only by

seatbelts.”

Photo taken by Lynn Myers, published in Glove Box Guide to the East Kimberley 2011 edition

Many Psychology students want to work as professional psychologists or in related social care, education or health careers. These jobs can involve dealing with vul-nerable children, adults or elderly people and so typi-cally require significant re-lated experience. Competi-tion for professional training as a psychologist makes it even more important to build a good portfolio of experi-ence. If you’re not on the placement option you’ll need to think about gaining this kind of experience outside of your course.

Experience with different client groups is useful and especially if you aren’t sure what you want to do when you graduate. Even if you have a specific goal, varied

experience may be neces-sary. For example, clinical psychologists work with cli-ents of all ages on a range of issues including anxiety and depression, phobias, eating disorders, addiction, disabilities, schizophrenia and other mental health problems. Broad experi-ence will not only help your applications but also ensure that you have the empathy and ability to cope with chal-lenging situations.

Educational psychology has the more specific client range of children and young people up to school leaving age. Here teaching experi-ence and other work with children and young people including those with emo-tional, behavioural or learn-ing difficulties is most di-rectly relevant but aim for some balance with other activities.

Try looking at your end goal and working out what is most relevant for you, start-ing broad and narrowing down as you start to focus in on specific careers.

Paid work is attractive for obvious reasons but you might need a step by step approach to getting exactly what you want and the first step will probably be volun-tary work. Voluntary work can be a good way of getting direct clinical or client ex-perience which helps you overcome the ‘no experi-ence no job’ barrier. Volun-teers work in a variety of settings including schools, day centres, residential hos-tels, help lines, hospitals etc. Don’t worry that voluntary work won’t ‘count’ with future employers – it’s very much the quality of the experience that matters.

socially / sport or work-

related, it all helps to boost

your CV and you can make

a whole bunch of new

friends at the same time.

A recent example of some-

thing I was involved in is

‘Brunel’s Got Talent’ (which I

hope you all went along to!).

I learnt a whole range of

skills relating to team build-

ing, organisation & planning,

and worked alongside some

terrific performers and mem-

bers of staff.

Hello Psychology students!

It’s your Level 2 Student

Rep here, Brett. I’d like to

take this space to say how

important it is to engage with

everything that’s happening

here at Brunel.

Many people you speak to

will say that University was

the best time of their lives,

so I’m urging all of you to

really make the most of it!

Whether it’s academically /

To become involved in the

next Brunel’s Got Talent,

whether to audition or be-

come part of the team be-

hind it all, please visit

www.brunelstudents.com/

talent.

I hope you all have a terrific

time whilst you’re at Brunel,

and become involved in the

various student activities

and movements that are

happening; not only for your

own enjoyment but for your

future success as well.

The Importance of Placement

Get Involved!

Psych News

Brett Halsey, L2 Psychol-ogy Course Rep

Kate Croucher

“Many people

you speak to

will say that

University was

the best time of

their lives”

By Kate Croucher,

Deputy Director, Careers, PCC

[email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5

By Brett Halsey

L2 Psychology

of fearing something so

“stupid”, because of a lack of

understanding that they have

received in the past “no one

likes vomiting, what makes

you any different?”

Emetophobia limits my social

life. I fear going out to

places far away because I

worry that if I do spontane-

ously vomit people will see

me, and I won’t be able to

get home quick enough. I

fear going out amongst the

typical student scene be-

cause of the high risk (in my

mind) of seeing someone get

sick from the alcohol or food.

Even watching TV I got in

the habit of holding the re-

mote ready to turn the TV off

should anyone look ill. Doc-

tor surgeries, hospitals,

pregnant people, theme

parks, children, pubs, clubs

etc all come with them a

heightened degree of anxi-

ety. At my worst I would

hardly eat and if I did, it had

to be white foods (rice,

pasta, bread, etc.). After

overcoming the housebound

element, I was only able to

travel in a car for 30 minutes

at a time and public transport

was a no go.

In lectures I would always sit

by the door and know where

the nearest toilet was at all

times in case I had to run to

it. Living in halls I would put

towels under the cracks of

my doors if I knew of a stom-

ach bug or flu going round.

When I feel I have been ex-

posed to anything that way

inclined I will wash myself in

antiseptic hand gel. The

sight of buckets makes me

nervous. People coughing

makes me panic inside. On

emetophobia forums online

Emeto-what? Emetophobia.

Oh right. What’s that? It’s a

fear of being sick. Oh yeah I

have that, being sick is horri-

ble isn’t it? I mean no one

likes it do they? No.

I have had chronic emeto-

phobia for 12 years. On

paper it is a fear of being

sick but in reality it is so

much more than that. A pho-

bia of being sick differs from

a simple dislike of it because

of the excessive and irra-

tional anxiety that comes

with it. Often emetophobics

will say “I’d rather die than

be sick” and they are not

kidding. Years ago I held a

knife to my wrist because I

felt like I was going to vomit.

Emetophobia can come in

three forms: fear of yourself

being sick only, fear of your-

self and others being sick,

and fear of others being sick

only. Emetophobia is like

being scared of your own

body. Vomiting is a bodily

function that is normal, peo-

ple do it every day for a vari-

ety of reasons and it is not

something that in reality you

can avoid. Which is why it

can, and did for me, escalate

into something that made me

housebound. Every minute

of every day I am obses-

sively checking my state of

health; Do I feel sick? Do I

feel hot? Do I have a head-

ache? Are the glands under

my throat feeling heavy?

Already in a constant state of

anxiety that shoots up dra-

matically if I do for whatever

reason feel nauseous. Indi-

viduals suffering with emeto-

phobia find it difficult to dis-

close because of the shame

people will type v* or v*ing

as some people can panic

from the sight of that single

harmless word. My only

saving grace, my only es-

cape from the constant bar-

rage of thoughts in my head:

“am I going to be sick?” my

constant supply of pre-

scribed anti-emetics, drugs

that are given to physically ill

people to stop them being

sick.

As always, there are a num-

ber of reasons why someone

can develop emetophobia. It

is thought most have had a

very disturbing experience to

do with vomiting in their

childhood. I didn’t but I can

remember the exact moment

I all of a sudden was over-

whelmed with a panic attack

rooted around being fright-

ened I was going to be sick.

I was 11 years old, sat in a

Spanish lesson with my form

tutor and the thought popped

up, I reacted to it with im-

mense fear and left the

room, and unfortunately that

thought has made a home in

my mind. For me, it has

been hypothesised, that it is

an extreme manifestation of

a fear of losing control.

I have been at university

now for 5 years and in that

time I have been developing

ways to control my phobia so

that it is no longer as debili-

tating as it used to be. My

time at university has been

made a lot easier with the

support of the Disability &

Dyslexia Service and the

adjustments put in place to

help me participate in univer-

sity the way everyone else

does, and for that I am eter-

nally grateful.

Emeto-what?

Psych News

More FAQ’s on

emetophobia

can be found

here:

http://

www.emetophob

ia-clinic.com/

emetophobia_f-

a-q.html

By Jenny Leslie,

L3 Psychology


Emetophobia in

the DSM-IV

300.29 -

Specific Phobia:

Other type

Make The Most of Your Reps

We have also, more re-cently, unearthed that there is in fact no plus or minus 10% word limit on submitted assignments, and have helped to inform students of this.

Student Reps attend regular Staff-Student Liason Com-mittee meetings (SSLCs) where they meet with the module and course leaders to help solve any issues that students might be facing.

It is therefore vital that we hear from you so that we are able to feed something back to the ‘top dogs’!

Without your input, it’s very unlikely that anything will be changed!

Student Reps also feedback to Course Reps (i.e. the reps responsible for the whole of Social Sciences) who sit on School Board meetings to

suggest School-wide im-provements for all students here at Brunel!

You should be able to iden-tify who your Student Reps are via their hoodies - if you haven’t seen one yet then look out as there are quite a few around!

We are also trained to help students who are in need of advice or support, although you can always speak to your personal tutor regard-ing any issues you might be facing as well.

Student Reps are democrati-cally elected each year and anyone can be one!

For further information about how you can be involved, please visit :

www.brunelstudents.com/

reps

Student Reps are here to represent YOU and to make YOUR voice heard!

Ever felt like you weren’t learning properly or getting the most out of your lecture? Well we want to hear from you!

We can help with issues such as lecture quality, late submission penalties, U-Link materials, timetabling, com-puter resources, assess-ment and feedback.

For instance, level 2 Psy-chology students managed to get their timetable changed for this year, so that they didn’t have back-to back lectures from 9am - 5pm on a Tuesday!

Psych News

“Student Reps

are here to

represent YOU

and to make

YOUR voice

heard”


Meet Your Student Reps

By Brett Halsey

By Brett Halsey

Level 1

Olaide Asuni [email protected]

Toby Berriman [email protected]

Level 2

Brett Halsey [email protected]

Nichole Davies [email protected]

Maria Paes [email protected]

Kiranjit Gheent [email protected]

Sanna Ahsan [email protected]

Level 3

Level 5

Katharina Lefringhausen [email protected]

Level 6

Gaia Di Castro [email protected]

“Student Reps

are

democratically

elected each

year and anyone

can be one! “

Psych News [email protected] http://on.fb.me/fHhxZ5

day. There is no evidence of

the deadline being moved

multiple times. It can only be

speculated at this point that

the confusion may have ar-

rived from a miscommunica-

tion, so staff have been re-

minded of the importance of

careful and thorough com-

munication of any changes

to deadlines. Students

should also be vigilant with

checking uLink for an-

nouncements.

L e v e l 2

Some students raised issues

with work placement tutors,

and one particular student

did not find out the name of

his tutor for three months,

and even then there were

confusions due to the place-

ment tutor being new to the

university. This has high-

lighted an (admittedly rare)

issue with the procedures,

and the work placement con-

venor has been asked to

assign tutors earlier, particu-

larly for those students start-

ing placements in June. Both

In the last Student Staff Li-

ason meeting in November a

number of issues were

raised. Here is a quick sum-

mary of what has happened

with those issues:

G e n e r a l

Staff have confirmed that

there is no such thing as a

+10% allowance for word

limits on assignments, and

future handbooks will specify

this explicitly.

Despite the rumours that

have circulated, Lab Reports

do need to be fully refer-

enced.

Students with a registered

DDS support profile have

highlighted that they are not

receiving all lecture slides in

advance of the lectures.

Staff have been reminded of

their duty to provide these

slides to those identified by

DDS as requiring them.

There has been some confu-

sion, particularly in the first

year, caused by different

lecturers requiring different

presentation styles. The re-

quests of the lecturers

should never contradict the

advice printed in the hand-

book, and any extra require-

ments they have must be

carefully and thoroughly

communicated.

L e v e l 3

There were issues around

an assignment deadline that

had apparently been moved

back and forth a couple of

times. The investigation has

shown that the deadline was

approved to be moved on

the 4th Nov from the original

date of the 15th to the 19th.

An announcement was

placed on uLink on the same

the work placement conve-

nor and Toby Robertson

would like to apologise to the

student concerned, and

thank them for bringing this

issue to attention.

L e v e l 1

A request was made for ex-

ample essay plans to be

available for students in

coming years, as many stu-

dents raised concerns that

they were unclear as to what

was required of them for this

a s s i g n m e n t . I f a n

“appreciable” number of re-

quests for this are made on

the evaluation form then the

lecturer will consider this,

however since there is no

such thing as an “ideal” plan

the lecturer emphasizes that

she is available by email or

by signing up for a slot on

her office door to discuss

any issues.

Future issues of Psych News

will have feedback presented

by individual course or

school reps.

Student Rep Feedback

“Future issues

of Psych News

will have

feedback

presented by

individual

course or

school reps.”

By Toby Berriman

Dissertation Academic Support Tutor joins Brunel Psychology Department

Dr. Gavin Sullivan has re-

cently joined Brunel Psy-

chology Department for 3

months to provide academic

support to 3rd level disserta-

tion students.

Gavin has worked previously

as a Senior Lecturer in Psy-

chology in Australia, New

Zealand, and Indonesia and

as a Guest Professor in Ger-

many. He has experience of

supervising quantitative,

qualitative and mixed-

method research and 25

publications (i.e., peer-

review journal articles and

book chapters) on such di-

verse topics as forensic psy-

chology, psychotherapy for

borderline personality disor-

der, theoretical psychology

and research on individual

and collective emotions.

Dissertation students are

welcome to contact him at

[email protected]

to make a time to discuss

possible assistance with the

completion of their work.

Gavin is located in the Gas-

kell Building Rm GB 203

Dr Gavin Sullivan

Dr. Gavin Sullivan

to the pleasure-giving sub-

stance more than an inher-

ent property of the drug

itself.

To prove their theory they

constructed a rat paradise, a

two-hundred foot pen with

delicious cedar shavings and

brightly coloured toys. The

pen was heated ideally, and

had separate areas for nest-

ing, birthing, and exploring.

Into this pen they put half

their test subjects, and left

the control group in the stan-

A lot of research has been

carried out to demonstrate

the addictive property of

various substances by ob-

serving the animal self-

administering the drug, even

to the point of death. How-

ever in 1981 Bruce Alexan-

der, Robert Coambs, and

Patricia Hadaway chal-

lenged this, arguing that the

conditions that the animal is

kept in drive it’s “addiction”

dard lab cages.

Each group was given ac-

cess to sugary morphine

water, and plain tap water.

The sugary water would

have been a treat to the

sweet-toothed rats!

You may not be surprised to

hear the rats in the control

condition consumed the

morphine-laced water enthu-

siastically, however the Rat

Paradise group largely

avoided the laced water!

Study of the Month: Rat Paradise

Psych News

“in contrast to most

(if not all) the other

final year options,

the new final year

option will incorpo-

rate some practical

lab classes”

Dr. Michael Price


Level 3 module options are now decided for 2011/12 and there is a wider choice of 10 modules rather than the 8 of the previous year!

So hot off the press, the inside scoop, here are your choices for next year. Re-member: you saw it here first!

Term 1:

PY3006 Inter-group Rela-tions

PY3467 Therapeutic Ap-proaches in Clinical Psychol-ogy and Mental Health

PY3019 Introduction to Cog-nitive Neuroscience

PY3003 Autistic Spectrum Disorder

PY3465 Psychology of Age-ing

Term 2:

PY3032 Evolutionary Psy-chology

PY3468 Psychology of Con-sciousness

PY3102 Drugs, Hormones and the Brain

PY3025 Understanding Health

PY3XXX Practical Investiga-tions of Mind and Brain (tentative title)

New Level 3 Options for 2011!

By Dr Michael Price,

Undergraduate programmes

Director

By Toby Berriman

“a rat paradise, a

two-hundred foot

pen with delicious

cedar shavings and

brightly coloured

toys”

New Final Year Option

I will be starting a new final year option module next academic year, its provi-sional title is “Practical in-vestigations of mind and brain”. As the title suggests, the main aim of the module is to introduce students to the key techniques we have at our disposal to study the relationship between the brain and the mind, or in other words, between the

physical and phenomenal worlds.

It will address how we might establish the relationship between neuronal and per-ceptual events – one of the key goals of modern psy-chology and neuroscience.

The module will review two key approaches: psycho-physics and neuroimaging, and in contrast to most (if not all) the other final year options, will incorporate some practical lab classes.

Details are still sketchy at the moment, so watch this space for more develop-ments on this module!

By Adrian Williams,

Centre for Cognition and

Neuroimaging

Effect of early and later colony

housing on oral ingestion of

morphine in rats

Alexander, B.K., Beyerstein,

B.L., Hadaway, P.F., Coambs,

R.B.

Pharmacology Biochemistry and

Behaviour, 1981 vol:15 Issue:4


such as PsychINFO, Sco-

pus, and Web of Knowl-

edge (i.e., don’t rely only

on Google Scholar!). See

http://www.brunel.ac.uk/

life/study/library/databases

for a list of databases

available at Brunel. If you

need help in carrying out a

search on one of these

databases, visit the Help

desk in the library or con-

tact the subject liaison li-

brarian (see link above).

5.You will need to formulate

research questions for your

study. Don’t be discour-

aged if you need to revise

your research questions

(even more than once),

based on feedback from

your supervisor. This is

part of the process!

6.Once you have chosen a

topic, you should read

about the most suitable

methodology. The choice

of methodology should be

driven by your topic, and

not the other way round!

7.Remember that there will

be lots of information on u-

Link about dissertations,

including FAQs, ethics

information, and past sam-

1.Arrange to see a prospec-

tive supervisor to discuss

your ideas and possible

supervision. Choose a

supervisor early on – all

staff have “quotas” and

cannot take on unlimited

numbers of students. Also,

please arrange to see only

one potential supervisor at

a time and be sure to get

back to staff you have

seen if you have decided

on another supervisor.

2.Choose a topic that you

are really interested in. If

you are having trouble

finding a topic, think about

the lectures you have

found interesting or a pa-

per/book that you enjoyed

reading.

3.Start reading on a topic

early on. Recent review

articles are particularly

useful, as they often high-

light the “gaps” in an area

and provide ideas for fu-

ture research.

4.Make sure that you do

some “proper” literature

searches, using databases

ple dissertations. You will

have access to this u-Link

site sometime in May,

2011. Before emailing your

supervisor to ask a specific

question, do check first to

see if the information is

already on u-Link.

8.Most students find that

working out a “timeline”

with their supervisor is

extremely helpful e.g., set-

ting dates for completion of

ethics application, data

collection, and reading

drafts. Ideally aim to agree

on a project with your su-

pervisor and obtain ethical

approval before the sum-

mer holidays.

9.Prepare for any meetings

with your supervisor. For

example, bring along a list

of specific questions you

have, or hard copies of

questionnaires that you

would like them to see.

10.Attend the dissertation

teaching sessions held in

Term 1 (on writing an intro-

duction etc.). There will

also be dissertation clinics

on statistics and qualitative

analysis held in both

Terms 1 and 2.

Top 10 tips on how to survive (and enjoy!) your dissertation – For Level 2 students

Cynthia Graham, Dissertations Convenor

“Choose a topic

that you are

really interested

in. If you are

having trouble

finding a topic,

think about the

lectures you

have found

interesting or a

paper/book that

you enjoyed

reading.”

By Cynthia Graham,

Dissertations Convenor

Located in Uxbridge, oppo-

site Tesco’s, Hillingdon Car-

ers supports people who

look after relatives and

friends with special needs,

disabilities, or long-term ill-

ness in the borough of

Hillingdon.

Types of volunteer work

available include:

• Office and administration :

computer work (Must have

computer knowledge of

Microsoft office), answer-

ing telephone and general

office duties.

• Carers Cafe : help prepar-

ing, serving refreshments

and helping with activities.

• Young Carers Saturday

Club : helping the staff in

running the club with arts &

crafts, sports and cooking.

If you have a few hours

spare and would like to vol-

unteer, please contact the

office on 01895 811206 or

pop into our Information &

Advice Centre. where you

can pick up a Volunteers

pack.

h t t p : / /

www.hillingdoncarers.org.uk/

Volunteer Opportunity of the Month—Hillingdon Carers

01/03/2011

Self Injury Awareness

Day

http://

www.firstsigns.org.uk/siad/

21/03/2011 - 27/03/2011

Down’s Syndrome

Awareness Week

http://www.downs-

syndrome.org.uk/

21/03/2011 - 27/03/2011

Share the Care Week

http://

www.sharedcarenetwork.org

.uk/index.jsp

Other Awareness Events

Psych News

“This cross-

departmental

concerted effort

will introduce a

variety of topics

of psychology

and

neuroscience in

an accessible

and engaging

manner.”


Brain Awareness Week, an initiative of the Dana Foun-dation, is an international campaign to increase public awareness about the pro-gress and benefits of brain research. Since 1996, around 2600 schools, uni-versities, and hospitals from 82 countries, including many institutions across the UK, have participated in this week-long celebration of the brain. Through the provision of a variety of engaging ac-tivities and discussions, con-tributors to the campaign disseminate the latest inno-vations in neuroscience to the wider community. The first Brunel contribution to this event is jointly organ-ised by Dr. Alex Nowicky from the School of Health Sciences and Social Care, as well as Dr. Adrian Wil-liams and Dr. Andrew Parton from the School of Social Sciences. This open-invitation public event will provide a series of short talks, posters and demon-strations designed to pro-mote brain health and show-case Brunel’s own contribu-tions to neuroscience re-search.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Brian Butter-worth will present the key-note talk on Thursday 17th

March 2011 at 17:00. Emeri-tus Professor at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, Prof. Butterworth’s current research interest is dyscalculia – or the science of failing to learn arithmetic. As of 2004, his seminal book ‘The Mathematical Brain’ had been translated into four languages. Furthermore, Prof. Butterworth regularly contributes to advancing the public understanding of sci-ence – appearing regularly on BBC radio and television. Elected a fellow of the Brit-ish Academy in 2002, Prof. Butterworth has held teach-ing posts at Cambridge, MIT and the Max Planck Insti-tute, to name but a few. We are delighted that Brunel’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Chris Jenks, will provide a short welcome statement prior to Prof. Butterworth’s talk.

Further contributions in-clude: a talk concerning dys-lexia from Professor Taeko Wydell; an introduction to the science of magic led by Dr. Gustav Kuhn; a discus-sion on pain perception by Neil O’Connell; a presenta-tion on ‘Friedreich’s Ataxia’ - a neurological disorder - from Dr. Mark Pook; a dem-onstration, from Dr. Daniel Bishop, of how enhanced activity in the mirror neuron system is common amongst expert players of fast sports; a personal story of a suc-

cessful recovery from the limitations left by stroke, from Dr. Tom Balchin; and many more to be confirmed!

This cross-departmental concerted effort will intro-duce a variety of topics of psychology and neurosci-ence in an accessible and engaging manner. Please feel free to attend a selec-tion of talks that particularly interest you; of course, should you wish to find out more about the many facets and functions of your brain, we will be delighted for you to join us for the duration of the event. You might happen upon that key element miss-ing from your essay, that snippet of information that will impress your examiners – you may even discover a topic that will inform your course of research for years to come. We look forward to seeing you there!

This free public event will take place in the Darwin Room in the Hamilton Cen-tre on Tuesday 15th & Thursday 17th March 2011 (from 1pm to 6pm; mid-afternoon refreshments are provided). For a detailed schedule of activities and presentations keep checking www.brunel.ac.uk/brain for the most up-to-date pro-g r am m e , o r e -m a i l [email protected] to be added to the mailing list.

Announcing Brunel’s First Brain Awareness Week

By Sean Williams

BBAW Administrator

“Each year, the 1st of March is designated as SIAD around the

world. It's a time when we can all come together to help raise

awareness about self-injury and

self-harm.”

www.brunel.ac.uk/brain

at Brunel.

Results will show the per-

centage of students satisfied

so if you are in anyway satis-

fied with your time at Brunel

you need to tick the

‘definitely satisfied’ or ‘often

satisfied’ options as all the

other options (including the

middle one) are not included

in this calculation.

Level 3 students: The Na-

tional Student Survey (NSS)

is a questionnaire completed

by all Level 3 students in the

UK. It is currently open to all

our level 3 students and is

your opportunity to tell us

about your experience here

If you haven't already com-

pleted the form, please click

on

www.thestudentsurvey.com

Many thanks and best

wishes!

National Student Survey!

Psych News

The NSS is a national initiative, conducted annually since 2005. The survey asks final year

undergraduates to provide feedback on their courses in a nationally recognised format,

students on flexible courses will be asked to participate as they near the end of their

course but not necessarily in their final year.


By Bridget Dibb

Touch Point Leader for Psy-

chology

The results from the

main 22 questions

are made available

for prospective stu-

dents and their advi-

sors on Uni-

stats.com to help

them make informed

choices of what and

where to study.


capacity and mechanisms

for this exists inside every

s i n g l e o n e o f u s .

This book, published over

ten years after the experi-

ments, is Milgram's chroni-

cling of the experiments, the

results, the analysis and

conclusions he drew, and

some of the critical reactions

it provoked. It is also very

readable, which I have found

is unusual for a book written

by a psychologist. There is

no excessive jargon or aca-

demic writing style, just plain

language and good explana-

t i o n s .

Personally I found the book

fascinating, and while I al-

ready knew about the fa-

mous experiment I was unu-

ware that quite so many

variations had been carried

Starting in 1961 American

psychologist Stanley Mil-

gram started a series of ex-

periments which were to

become some of the most

famous and revealing in his-

tory. After the Nuremberg

Trials a lot of people were

asking how the Nazis could

have carried out the atroci-

ties they did, and a common

defense presented by those

on trial was "I was following

orders". It was hard to be-

lieve, however, that people

could really commit such

heinous acts simply because

they were ordered to. Mil-

grams experiments showed

that not only can the pres-

ence of authority easily influ-

ence people to bypass their

moral judgements and inflict

harm on others, but that the

out and covering such a

wide sample of the popula-

tion. I would say this book

should be required reading

for just about everyone, not

just psychologists, as it

teaches us a lot about our

own obedience to authority

and by learning the lessons

here we can learn to ques-

tion and challenge authority

w h e n a p p r o p r i a t e .

If you find this book interest-

ing you may also like:

The Lucifer Effect: How

Good People Turn Evil -

P h i l i p Z i m b a r d o

a n d

Opening Skinner's Box:

Great Psychological Experi-

ments of the Twentieth Cen-

tury - by Lauren Slater

Book of the Month Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View

“I would say this

book should be

required reading

for just about

everyone, not

just

psychologists”

By Toby Berriman

The Brunel Psychology Soci-

ety is approaching it’s first

birthday now, and it has

been quite a year! We didn’t

know quite what we were

letting ourselves in for when

we started, and some com-

mittee members found that

their studies didn’t allow

enough spare time for them

to dedicate to the society.

This meant that through the

first year we have had a high

turnover on the committee.

But those of us that are still

here have learned a lot of

lessons, like don’t schedule

events right before assign-

ment deadlines or tests! Or

how external forums don’t

really work, but Facebook

seems to work well.

“a joint screening of Das Experiment with the Cult Film Society (which I suspect they are still recovering from!)”

We held a number of events

through the year, including a

couple of social events, a

joint screening of Das Ex-

periment with the Cult Film

Society (which I suspect they

are still recovering from!), a

screening of In Treatment,

and some study groups.

As we go forward we are

picking up speed and putting

what we have learned into

practice. Psych News is the

first sign of this, and there

will be more to come includ-

ing more events like:

• BBQ Social

• Study Groups

• More film screenings

• Hopefully a debate with the

debating society

• And lots moreX!

We also have our Annual

General Meeting coming up

soon, at which you will be

able to vote for who takes

what committee positions

next year. And if you want to

get more involved, you could

run for committee positions

yourself! More information

on this and how/where to

vote will be published

through our facebook page

and by email closer to the

time. Until then, keep think-

ing Brunel!

Brunel Psychology Society


BPS for students, and offers

all sorts of benefits including:

* Free or discount entry to

certain events

* An annual conference (this

year featuring a Q&A with

Prof. E. Loftus!)

* Monthly magazine The

Psychologist

* Quarterly magazine Psy-

chTalk

Most psychology students

know about the British Psy-

chology Society (BPS), but

do you know about the BPS

Student Member Group

(SMG)? No? Well you’re not

alone, but that’s why I’m

here!

The SMG is a branch of the

* Discounts on BPS books

* Free transfer to graduate

membership

* Reader access to Senate

House Library where the

BPS library is held

So lots of great benefits! For

more info go to the website,

or contact me, your BPS

SMG Representative, at

[email protected].

British Psychology Society Student Member Group

Event: Why do women prefer to cradle babies on the left side?

tions of the bias and the evi-

dence for them. It has been

suggested, for example, that

babies are held where they

can hear the soothing sound

of the mother’s heartbeat,

where they have best access

to the most expressive side

of her face, or that the

mother accommodates to

the baby’s preferred head

position.

At present, the most promis-

ing explanation of the left-

cradling bias relates to the

organisation of the mother’s

brain. Cradling on the left

side may be advantageous

as it enables optimal proc-

essing of infant signals in the

mother’s right hemisphere

which, typically, is special-

ised for emotional informa-

tion. Cradling on the left is

therefore said to allow for

finely tuned awareness of

the infant’s state as indicated

by appearance, sounds and

muscle tension. Some im-

portant evidence of a reduc-

tion in the tendency to cradle

on the left-side in women

and men who are experienc-

ing stress, anxiety and de-

pression will be examined.

Speaker: Dr Brenda Todd

Date/Time: 16 March 2011

6:15pm

Location: BPS London Office,

30 Tabernacle Street, London

EC2A 4UE

It is well-established that the

majority of women prefer to

hold their babies on the left-

side of their bodies but the

reasons why are not so

clear. The bias appears to

be independent of handed-

ness since left- as well as

right-handed women typi-

cally prefer to cradle babies

in the left arm. Brenda will

explore a variety of explana-

The BPS SMG has a num-ber of events scheduled, some of which are free for members!

Free entry to BPS

SMG members. Free

entry by ticket only,

available by emailing

londonandhc@googl

email.com Please

type “Left” and add

y o u r B P S

membership number

as ‘XXX’ in the

subject line of your

email. Tickets usually

go quickly so early

booking is advised.

Only one ticket per

member will be

issued.

By Toby Berriman

http://www.bps.org.uk/smg/smg_home.cfm

Event: Psychology For All

Date: 26th March 2011

8:45am—5:30pm

Location: University of West-

minster

Cost: £20.42 per person; con-

cession £15.32

An enjoyable and informa-

tive one day public event

showcasing the variety and

relevance of psychological

research to our health and

well-being.

The talks include:

Get the edge: Understand-

ing the body's little secrets

The Luck Factor

“An enjoyable and informative one day public event showcasing the variety and relevance of psychological research to our health and well-being.”

Deconstructing young peo-

ple’s behaviour: How to

make sense of a child’s

world using personal con-

struct psychology

The psychology of work-life

balance

How brain injury can help us

to understand the mechan-

ics of the mind

Brainwaves – where Mind

and Body meet

Knowing the words, but not

the music: What psycho-

paths can teach us about

empathy

What happens to our brain

and mind as we get older?

On the witness stand - vari-

ables influencing eyewit-

ness’ accuracy and confi-

dence

Prejudice reduction using

our own neurology

Negative Capability: The

benefits of having a capacity

for being in uncertainty

And lots more!! For more

details and information visit

http://bit.ly/huPQXt

Are you a student or staff at

Brunel and have something

you would like to write about?

Then let us know! We are

looking for any submissions

that are related to psychol-

ogy, studying psychology, or

about yourselves as psychol-

ogy students or staff.

Articles can be as short as

you like, or stretch up to

We are off to a good start

with Psych News and hope

to continue that each month

with better and better mate-

rial.

And remember, Psych News

is brought to you by the

Brunel Psychology Soci-

ety!

much longer, although the

recommended length is up to

about 200 words for a short

article or up to 500 words for

a longer article.

So please, send all your

ideas, articles, or whatever to

us at: [email protected]

and we will do what we can to

ensure you get into the next

Psych News!

Next Month

Keeping Busy—Fernand Gobet

As if that wasn’t enough, he has just published Founda-tions of Cognitive Psychol-ogy, together with Philippe Chassy and Merim Bilalić, two former PhD students. While most textbooks on cognitive psychology are written for an advanced-level audience and can be over-whelming and confusing for the students, Foundations of Cognitive Psychology is pitched at the introductory level. Written in a simple style, the book clearly ex-plains how topics such as

perception, attention, mem-ory and problem solving fit together and provides nu-merous illustrations from everyday life.

Finally James Borg, who graduated in 2009, and Prof. Fernand Gobet have just published an article in Man-ual Therapy titled “The inter-mediate effect in clinical case recall is present in musculoskeletal physiother-apy “. The article is based on James Borg’s disserta-tion.

Let it not be thought that our professors are not busy! Brunel’s Prof. Fernand Gobet has been very busy, first he has been invited to give a keynote speech at the 2nd conference of the Inter-national Research Associa-tion for Talent Development and Excellence (IRATDE) in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, in November 2011 where he will talk about “Excellence : Expertise vs. Talent”.

Professor Fernand Gobet, Professor in Cognitive Psychology, Director of the Centre for the Study of Expertise .

“a radio show and podcast weaving stories and sci-ence into sound and mu-sic-rich documentaries.”

We are looking

for submissions

from students

and staff!

Articles,

opinions,

response to

something

you’ve read in

Psych News,

whatever you

feel like

sending!

Radiolab, while not being

specifically a psychology

website, contains some great

information for those inter-

ested in learning more about

psychology. In their own

words: “Radiolab, with Jad

Abumrad and Robert Krul-

wich, is a radio show and

podcast weaving stories and

science into sound and mu-

sic-rich documentaries.”

The podcasts are easy to

listen to, breaking down com-

plex ideas into simple to di-

gest pieces mixed with inter-

views, stories, and dialogue.

What sound like heavy com-

plex topics can be easily en-

joyed in a quiet hour.

I have been a fan of radiolab

for a long time now, and ab-

solutely love the psychology

related shows they do. Level

one students recently learned

about Jill Bolte Taylor, the

neurologist who got to experi-

ence her brain deteriorating

when she had a stroke. I first

learned about this case in a

fascinating Radiolab podcast

Website of the Month: Radiolab

entitled “A World Without

Words” that looked at the

psychology and function of

language in our world.

Other particularly great

shows have included Pla-

cebo, Choice, Laughter, Mu-

sical Language, Memory and

Forgetting, and Sleep.

http://www.radiolab.org/

By Toby Berriman

By Professor Fernand Gobet

Submissions wanted


psych news march 2011

Documents

bungle bungle range

brunel psychology society

y i n t o kununuura

brunel psychology professor

psychology students

student reps

p s y c h o

psych news interesting