PhD studentships: some projects on offer

There are a number of staff in the Department of Psychology offering specific PhD projects. If you are interested in applying for a PhD studentship to pursue any of these projects, please contact the individual staff member.

Dr Elisa Back

Please contact me if you are interested in social cognitive development in Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or typically developing individuals. Areas include (but are not limited to) facial expression recognition and theory of mind using naturalistic tasks and real-time measures such as response times and eye-movements.

Dr Fatima Felisberti

• Emotion processing
• Attention modulation
• I am also open to interesting ideas in the area of cognition and health from prospective candidates.

Dr Giulia Galli

• The effects of non-invasive electrical brain stimulation on memory formation and retrieval

This PhD project would involve working with the Department's electrical brain stimulator to explore effects on memory function and retrieval and expand this field of research.

Dr Sabira Mannan

• Neuro-rehabilitation following stroke

Homonymous hemianopia is the commonest form of visual disorder following stroke or head injury. In this study the PhD student will develop and evaluate an eye movement based compensatory therapy making use of the range of oculomotor recording equipment and the driving stimulator based in the Department of Psychology at Kingston University, London. Depending on student interest and patient availability, it may be possible to test patients with Hemispatial Neglect.

Dr Cristina Martinelli

Please contact me if you are interested in conducting research in eating disorders and dysfunctional eating in the general population. Areas include (but are not limited to):

• The way binge eaters process internal bodily states (i.e., interoception)
• Socio-cognition in anorexia, bulimia and binge eating
• The effects of a 'healthy eating mindset' on eating behaviour and related dysfunctions.

Dr Ana Nikcevic

• Addictive behaviours

Addictive behaviours and in particular smoking, problematic internet use and gaming.

Dr Emma O'Dwyer

• Social representations of drone technology

This project will utilise social psychological theory to elaborate the ways in which lay people make sense of and orient towards drone technology. This could relate to either the domestic context (eg. in terms of surveillance, online shopping), or in terms of foreign policy and counter-terrorism operations, and will likely use both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Intergroup contact and social change. This project will contribute to a developing line of research within social psychology which suggests that intergroup contact may have negative consequences in terms of the maintenance of inequality in our societies (eg. Dixon, Durrheim, and Tredoux, 2007). It will adopt a qualitative approach by focusing on the meanings which individuals (belonging to minority and majority groups) attach to intergroup contact.

Dr Tushna Vandrevala

• End of life care
• Stress and burnout, particularly psychological detachment at work
• Screening behaviours