Psychology Research Projects

A common theme for our research is Quality of Life across the Adult Lifespan, looking at subjective evaluations of satisfaction with various aspects of life as well as more objective measures of mental and physical health, covering the adult lifespan from adolescence to old age. We focus on three complementary areas:

Research in this area looks at strategies and skills people make use of in their everday lives. We cover issues of personal competence and self-care skills, look at how we perceive ourselves and others, and try to understand how all of these link with wider issues of emotion and communication.

• Linking perceptual efficacy and useability to aesthetic preference of icons
• Cognitive processes involved in the retrieval and processing of remembered faces
• Comparing expectancy and reality in retirement
• The role of attention and memory in emotional processing

Although education during childhood often receives the most emphasis, people continue to learn new skills and seek out information in a variety of ways throughout their lives. Increasingly, the internet is becoming a primary channel for this, as well as offerring new means of finding community and social support. This area of research looks at traditional and novel educational techniques, as well as the psychological experience of technology-assisted learning.

• Online community support for health problems
• The role of traditional and computer-based social networking on the psychological identity and well-being of older adults
• Assessing student experience at university

The interrelationships between people and their environment (both built & natural) are increasingly being seen as a primary area of psychology research, especially in terms of levels of stress and general mental health. Whether we are looking at the design of recreational spaces, the provision of green-space in urban landscapes, or at issues relating to global climate change, understanding the basic psychology processes involved will help us to improve our quality of life as well as that of the non-human world.

• Visual scene features that are psychologically restorative
• Psychological effects of the built environment in sport
• Effect of psychological set on perceived restorativeness
• The concept of ecological intelligence

• School of Design, Engineering & Computing