Stella’s request
Dear ATP Members, The newsletter team is currently gathering contributions for the new Division for Teachers and Researchers in Psychology (DTRP) bumper newsletter.

This bi-annual issue will be showcasing achievements, issues, research, etc at all levels of academia and will be disseminated across the UK. We would like to invite Members to contribute to this first issue. If you feel this is something you would like to get involved in, please contact us (dtrp@bps.org.uk). We are flexible regarding content, which can relate to activities at an individual staff member level or a department level. This could be an update on research, or discussion of an issue within the teaching of
Psychology at your institute or at a particular level of education. We already have a number of contributions from tutors within Higher Education, however our network has the advantage of representing tutors at all levels of academia and we would very much like our publication to represent these varied groups.

Please pass this communication on to anyone you feel maybe interested. We look forward to hearing from you.

Stella
Academic Assistant Division for
Teachers and Researchers in Psychology
The British Psychological Society
dtrp@bps.org.uk www.bps.org.uk/dtrp

ATP – The Journal
We are re-launching the ATP Journal as a peer-reviewed publication with articles on psychological topics and personal research. Contributions should be sent to the editors, Craig Roberts and Evie Bentley, who reserve the usual editorial rights.
Send us your contributions!
croberts@totton.ac.uk and eviepsych1@gmail.com

EFPTA The European Federation of Psychology Teachers’ Associations.
We are meeting in Seville on Friday and Saturday 23/24 October.
We are planning a European conference in Bratislava, Slovakia on
16/17 April 2010

Details of both these events can be obtained from Joe Cocker,
joe.cocker@ukonline.co.uk

PSYCHOLOGY and FASHION
After Joe Cocker’s workshop on this topic, a number of teachers expressed interest in a full-day seminar on the topic, possibly in London in March. If you would like to register interest in this please e-mail joe.cocker@ukonline.co.uk

The ATP has had to make quite radical changes to the process of membership applications and renewals. The old paper, postage and cheque system was just not working. We now have a Membership Committee, and the proposals for change are to bring the membership system into the C21st and make it much more streamlined so that the service for Members is much better.

Online application
All applications will occur online from now on. This means that the application will be instantaneous, and there can be no errors in completing the fields and typed entries will be legible. It also means that we can keep track of payment details and the time for renewals.

Membership numbers.
Members will now be issued with a membership number.

Payments
Payments can occur in three ways. The preferred method of payment is through PayPal, but we will also be giving members the opportunity to apply to pay by standing order and cheque on line. Current up-to-date standing orders are on-line. Please see the website for details.

Students
Student membership is now being charged at £10.00 for the year, and again application and payment will occur online.

Access to your details
Every Member will be able to access their own details and change them (with the exception
of payment and membership number details). You can do this by visiting the website www.theatp.org. Simply register on the website using ‘atpmember’ as the invitation code. You will be then sent a password, which you can then change into something more memorable. The current database protection policy continues.

Many hours of work have gone into the new system this summer. We hope the benefits will outweigh any problems which may occur in the change-over. Please be a little patient if things are not sorted immediately. But please do contact us if you have any concerns or difficulties. To contact a member of the membership committee please e-mail membership@theatp.org

Wendy Wood
(On behalf of the membership committee)
Helpline

The ATP runs a telephone and e-mail Helpline service for Members. Please contact Dorothy Coombs who will try to answer your query or refer you to someone who can.

Dorothy Coombs (EFPTA)
Prior Pursglove College, Church Walk,
Guisborough, Cleveland TS14 6BU
Wk: 01287 280800
Hm: 01287 636502
d.coombs@prior.pursglove.ac.uk

Emma Shakespeare
Emma_shakespeare@yahoo.com

Psychology at the cutting edge: A one-day conference for A level students
Dr Emma Dunmore – Head of Psychology, Harrogate Grammar School
11 March 2009
Harrogate Grammar School
One Night Only!

170 students and teachers from five schools (Harrogate Grammar, Malton School, Tadcaster Grammar,  King James School and Harrogate High School) came together to hear about the work of leading researchers and applied psychologists. The aim of the day was to give A level students the experience of being at a conference and hearing from leading researchers. It also aimed to offer opportunities for learning outside the classroom with people from other schools. An overview of the day is presented along with a selection of reports written by Year 12 students attending the conference. We would like to thank all the speakers for generously giving their time.

The day began with a presentation by Dr Catriona Morrison (University of Leeds) who has done some fascinating research on memory. Those of you who would like to take part in her research on how ‘The Beatles’ music sparks memories can go to her website: www.magicalmemorytour.com

The Magic of Memory
Dr Catriona Morrison – University of Leeds
Catriona Morrison’s talk on The Magic of Memory was focused on the human senses and on how, through them, we can explore who we are and determine a sense of self. This, she said, was mainly through autobiographical (or episodic) memory, which enables us to remember specific events and personal facts. Autobiographical memory seems to rely heavily on verbal and visual cues and through it, we can understand who we are, as we have a past, present and future. Dr Morrison also explained about how the senses can be extremely important and powerful in evoking memories; one sense tool for evoking memory is music. In a study using ‘The Beatles’, music was found to be a good memory cue, providing accurate, detailed, believable accounts from a variety of people spanning 67 countries. It did, however, see a shift to the left in the reminiscence bump (the period of time when the most significant events are remembered), being 11-15 years instead of the usual broader band of 10-30 years. As music generally produces positive emotion, and emotion is essential in making events memorable, music is therefore an important tool in retrieving memories.

Smell was also shown to forcefully enhance memory, so much so that we are more likely to recall information if the same smell is present when we study and when we are tested. Although smell does naturally decline with age, we were told how a relationship has been shown between the decline or loss of smell and cognitive decline. A study was conducted of siblings and other adults (control) where 10 strong odour stimuli had to be matched to relevant pictures. Those siblings with the E4 (ApoE) gene present (a gene which can predict cognitive decline/dementia in ‘high risk’ people) had a lower mean score, and siblings generally performed poorer than the control group. Therefore, one of the conclusions from her presentation was that problems in odour identification can be an early indicator of cognitive decline, help identify those in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and distinguish between depression and Alzheimer’s.  The other main conclusions drawn from the presentation were that music is a good aid for memory retrieval (though is perhaps not as useful in memory storage), and that all of our senses are vital to create a sense of self. Brin Pearson.

Dr Sam Cartwright-Hatton (Manchester University) then explained about her ground-breaking treatment for children suffering from anxiety disorders. This treatment focuses on teaching parents how to encourage confident behaviour in their child and how to manage their child’s worries and fears. She role-played some of the things that parents say and do that lead children to develop anxious ways of thinking. Often this stems from the parent’s own anxiety. Dr Cartwright-Hatton then talked about how she designed a randomised controlled trial to test this new treatment approach allowing the students to see ‘How Science Works’ directly.

We then moved on to ethics and the role of ethics committees. Many students noted how Dr Mark Wetherell (University of Northumbria) managed to take what could have been a very dry topic and make it really interesting. His use of PowerPoint animation was marvellous. This was followed by an interactive exercise where students acted as ethics committees to decide on whether to accept or reject a proposal for a real study. Both Dr Wetherell’s talk and the exercise are summarised below.

The Role of the Ethics Committee
Dr. Mark Wetherell – University of Northumbria
We were addressed by Dr. Mark Wetherell from the University of Northumbria, Chair of the Undergraduate Ethics Committee. He discussed how ethics committees study new proposals of research, study materials and ensure that all the studies they review run according to the protocol and review any changes to the protocol.  He outlined how the main priority of an ethics committee is to protect the participants taking part in the research. The three main principles of the ethics committee are respect, beneficence and justice; respect being that you need to treat every participant as an autonomous person – deserving their own respect. The idea of beneficence being that the research has to be doing overall good and justice being that the participants are being treated impartially and within the law.  Dr. Wetherell went on to talk over some examples of ethical guidelines – The Nuremberg Code (1947) and the Declaration of Helsinki (1964). The first ethics committee was formed in 1966.

When conducting research, he emphasised the importance of gaining fully written consent from your participants. There are unique professional guidelines for psychologists. All research has to meet certain criteria to be passed by an ethics committee. These are informed consent, deception, and freedom to withdraw from studies as well as debriefing, confidentiality and the protection of participants from psychological harm. Dr. Wetherell gave examples of research that was ethically controversial, Milgram’s Obedience Study, but also asked whether Big Brother is unethical. Finally, he talked about the structure of the ethics committee.

After the ethics committee lecture, delegates were split into small groups and given different roles of committee. We considered a proposal for research on whether the drug propanol reduces artificially induced fear memories, and we made a decision about whether or not this research was ethical.
Joshua Robinson

After coffee we were honoured to have our key-note speaker, Professor David Clark from the Institute of Psychiatry in London. Professor Clark is a world expert in cognitive therapy for the treatment of anxiety disorders. Most recently he has been one of the leading figures in developing a government-funded strategy to widen access to psychological therapies across the country. This is known as the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies strategy (IAPT) and it will require the training of many more cognitive therapists. These therapists will not all need to have undergone full clinical psychology training – so lots of future opportunities for our psychology students. You can find out more about IAPT from: www.iapt.nhs.uk – Here is a summary of Professor Clark’s presentation on cognitive therapy for panic disorder.

Anxiety and how to deal with it
Professor David Clark – Institute of Psychiatry
Professor David Clark, Director of the Centre of Anxiety Disorder and Traum, has done a lot of research on the development of ‘Cognitive Therapy’ for anxiety. This is the use of discussion and behavioural experiments to stop people feeling anxious, as opposedto more direct methods, such as drugs.

Anxiety develops when we think something bad will happen, often due to the unpredictability of a new situation. We focus upon an apparent danger, causing our hypothalamus to trigger the sympathetic nervous system. This results in sweating, an increase in heart rate and blood pressure and nervous feelings in one’s stomach. This is the common ‘fight or flight’ response, however as Professor Clark points out, in ‘normal’ people it occurs only when there is genuine cause for anxiety. Clinical anxiety is when anxiety is based on mistaken beliefs about how dangerous a situation is and is diagnosed in about one in ten people. It can be caused by many factors: traumatic events, the modelling of a fear from parent to child, misleading information and vulnerability. The most common treatment is drugs, usually
Benzodiazepines or antidepressants, for example Prozac.

Professor Clark first began researching a psychological approach to treatment in the early 1990s. The specific technique involves proving to the patient that their fears are mistaken. People who suffer from panic attacks are more sensitive to their heart-beats than other people. They notice perfectly normal phenomena, like the heart skipping a beat, and interpret it as the beginning of a heart attack, which then of course makes them anxious. Patients with panic disorder may have thousands of panic attacks during which they believe they nearly died. They engage in various ‘safety behaviours’, like lying down or breathing deeply, to stave off the heart attack, which of course goes away as it isn’t real. The therapy consists of discussing and encouraging other explanations of the sensations, meanwhile pointing out that it is near impossible for someone to survive two heart attacks, let alone thousands. The patient is told to recall a time when they were having an attack which went away when they got distracted, proving it must be psychological rather than physical. Finally, one has the patient bring on the attacks without doing their safety behaviours. Eventually, most people will begin to realise the attacks don’t have a physical basis and are caused by their catastrophic beliefs. This can often lead to many people being completely cured of their panic disorder.  Roslyn Forman

We then moved on to consider psychology in prisons as summarised below.

Riots in prisons and the reality of prison psychology
Sue Baron – Senior Forensic Psychologist,
HMP Holme House
This session began with a re-enactment of a prison riot by a group of Sixth Form drama students. Afterwards, each group was asked to comment on aspects of the play and prison riots in general, using their knowledge of psychology. The group who produced the best sheet of comments won an edible prize! Issues raised included: what factors contributed to the prisoners rioting?; how did the prisoners interact during the riot?; and what caused them to be sent to prison in the first place? Students found this task both interesting and thought-provoking, as it helped them see the challenges faced by prison officers everyday, and allowed them to apply their knowledge of psychology to a real-life situation.

Afterwards, Sue Baron, a forensic psychologist, gave a talk on the methods used in prisons to help prisoners rehabilitate and prepare for the outside world after their release. A lot was learnt from this talk, including: the problems prisoners have when they get sent to prison; the types of schemes used to help them and the aims of these schemes. For example, many prisoners come to prison from a chaotic lifestyle, possibly with a history of abuse. Just two of the many schemes available are Anger Management and the Enhanced Thinking Programme, which would help prisoners cope with their emotions and improve their chances of succeeding in the real world.
Naomi Breton

The day ended with a presentation on the practical applications of the famous working memory model of memory by Professor Susan Gathercole from York University.

Working Memory and Classroom Learning
Professor Sue Gathercole – York University
Professor Gathercole began by introducing herself and her studies. She is the Head of Psychology at York University and is part of a research into cognitive psychology spanning 30 years. Her main topic of study is memory, particularly focusing on short-term memory. She stresses that cognitive psychology is vitally important in everyday life, particularly in a classroom setting.

She then moved on to the facts behind her research; beginning with the key features of the working memory. She outlined the Working Memory Model which was initially developed by Baddeley and
Hitch (1974):
• CENTRAL EXECUTIVE (control)
• VISUO-SPATIAL SKETCHPAD (visual patterns)
• PHONOLOGICAL LOOP (verbal information)
She then evaluated working memory; saying that it is a good feature due to its ability to become a mental workspace, which is particularly useful in classroom situations such as mental arithmetic. However, working memory has negative aspects as well, as it only has a limited capacity meaning there is only so much information it can hold and for a short amount of time. Professor Gathercole then talked about the characteristics which are common in children with poor working memories. These include poor academic process; poor social ability; difficulties following instructions; place-keeping difficulties and problems with activities combining storage and processing information. Unfortunately, for these children, most, if not all, of these features become present in a classroom. Professor Gathercole discussed typical responses from teachers when evaluating children with this problem, which is almost always stating that the child has a poor attention span and highly distractible. Very rarely does a teacher realize that these symptoms are a consequence of a poor working memory.

Professor Gathercole asked herself the question: How can we help these children? This is where she discussed her own research and the results of it. By looking at children with poor working memories, warning signs can now be given to children to tell them what the symptoms of this are. Not only has Professor Gathercole achieved this, but she has also been part of a highly successful training programme for 10 year olds with working memory problems. This consists of a computer game based around a robot character to test the working memory of children. The main feature of the game, which differentiates it from other treatment options, is that it is adaptive to the child playing, meaning that they can set their own personal limits and can develop at a pace and a way that suits them. The result of this was very triumphant as, compared with other, nonadaptive treatments, it was highly successful. This was particularly true in the improvement of reading and maths in children.
Nick Cairns

Psychic Development for Beginners (An easy guide to releasing and developing your psychic abilities.)
William W. Hewitt. Pub: Llewellyn
Worldwide (2008)
Exam board: AQA-A

Before I begin, please do not be put-off by the title of this book. I am a psychologist, I recognise the importance of science and validity, but this little gem at only £6 from Amazon is worth getting.  Why? If you are looking for a cheap but cheerful resource to add towards the introduction of the new Parapsychology unit in AQA A A2 then you could have some nice introduction/ice-breaker sessions to set the tone for the rest of the course.

The book consists of 26 short chapters which give plenty of techniques that your students can attempt to use. It gives insight into the areas of Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Psychic healing and even Communicating with animals and spiritual entities! These topics will offer endless debate about the ‘scientific evidence’ (or lack of) and will get your students thinking about the seriousness of this topic area in general.

The book starts with some general questions which you could use in your class such as: Have you ever had a hunch that was true or accurate? Have you ever known who was phoning you before you picked up the phone? Have you ever had a sudden feeling enter your mind that you should, or should not do something and found out later that you should have listened to your feelings? These questions are followed by brief accounts of topics such as altered states of consciousness and even a chapter on helping you to become a Psychic! There are some fun exercises on Visualization, and Hewitt (who is a clinical hypnotherapist), has written a book which allows you to master a variety of psychic techniques.

My own view (for what it’s worth) is that you could use some of these methods and then introduce the more serious side towards questioning the validity of these concepts. In total you get more than 44 fun and simple activities and 28 case studies which explain these methods, so you will have some fun if nothing else!

Trevor Dunn (Cambridge)

Parapsychology – Research on Exceptional Experiences
Jane Henry (2005) pub: Routledge £15.95
Exam board: AQA-A

For those who are about to embark on teaching AQA A A2 Anomalistic Psychology for the first time this academic year, I would highly recommend this text.

The book starts by giving a brief but detailed account of the concepts of both parapsychology and the methodology used by researchers in this field. The main aim of this book is to document scientists’ attempts at trying to investigate and understand paranormal experiences. Most of the topics covered within the text relate directly to the AQA unit, and each chapter is free-standing, short in content and referenced. The topics covered include; psychokinesis, extrasensory perception, animal psi, out-of-body experience, near-death and reincarnation. Contributors to the text include Chris French (a leading academic in this field) along with Susan Blackmore (whom some of you may recall was a keynote speaker at the Lincoln conference last year). Most of the work covered is based on experimental design/evidence and is very student-friendly and would/will provoke both discussion and debate within the class. At the end of the text there is a very useful section which includes websites, organisations and journals to allow you to develop and obtain further resources for this course.

Finally, I must confess that when I first thought about teaching this course, my general impression was that it was not very worthwhile or scientific in both nature and content. However, upon reading this text and making use of the websites listed, I feel that both my students and myself will enjoy the opportunity of studying something that is both

University of Lincoln

School of Psychology
Psychology teaching and research in the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln has been based at Lincoln’s Brayford Pool campus since 1997. The school currently consists of 24 full-time academic staff and 12 PhD students.

The Psychology teaching accommodation includes purpose-built laboratories housing two large PC-based teaching laboratories; an observation suite for video/audio recording; a psychophysiology laboratory with two Electroencephalogram recorders (EEG/ERP), one a 16-channel EEG and the other with 64 channels; a Trans Magnetic Stimulation system (TMS); the Lincoln Infant Lab and numerous specialist research and practical laboratories as well as a library of psychological tests (e.g. Implicit Association Test). Three technicians are also at hand to aid students in the production of experimental materials and software development.

Undergraduate Awards
Around 550 students are enrolled on five undergraduate programmes (three-year full-time study or flexible part-time study), a general Single Honours Psychology degree, three more specialist awards comprising, Psychology with Clinical Psychology, Psychology with Child Studies, Psychology with Forensic Psychology and the psychology Major award consisting of Psychology and one other subject. ALL of our undergraduate degree programmes are recognised by the British Psychological Society (BPS) as conferring eligibility for Graduate Basis of Registration with the BPS.

Each degree is taught over two semesters per year with four modules within each semester. In the final year, as with all psychology degrees, the students need to complete an independent empirical study, which takes place over both semesters. While adhering to the needs of the BPS, the degree programme is designed to develop critical, independent, and socially aware psychology students. Hence the programme acknowledges cultural factors in its modules (Development in a Cultural Context); the need to be able to argue and justify a stance (Themes, Issues and Debates); alternative ways of approaching psychology (Current Research Issues in Psychology); the socio-political implications of psychology as a discipline (Conceptual Issues) and allows students to pursue their interests (elective modules).

We actively seek to generate a culture that is in keeping with the university logo, Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and knowledge, in both teaching and research. We have endeavoured to enrich the learning experience of our students in a number of ways so as to develop independent critical learners. The psychology school was the first in the university to initiate a tutorial programme for all of its first year students. The aim of the tutorial programme is to equip students with both academic and transferable skills through weekly group meetings between one member of staff and a small group of students. This system provides a learning space where students can discuss ideas with other students. Also, the tutorials offer students the chance for self-exploration, development, and an understanding of the roles and responsibilities necessary to become independent learners.

Postgraduate Awards
The School of Psychology runs the following Postgraduate taught programmes: Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (developed in partnership with University of Nottingham and three NHS Trusts in the region), MSc Child Studies, and Postgraduate Certificate in Primary Care Mental Health Practice (with the Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Trust).

Research
We see the discipline of psychology as heavily research-based, hence we don’t only teach research skills or wait until the final-year dissertation for students to engage in research; instead we actively involve students in researching psychological phenomena. In year two, students work together in small groups under the supervision of a member of staff on a research project that lasts for an entire semester. Also, the School takes full advantage of schemes within the University that aim to enhance the links between teaching and research in the undergraduate curriculum. The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Scheme (UROS) provides students with the opportunity to engage in real research projects, usually during the summer period, for which students can receive up to £1500 per project. In this competitive bursary scheme, the School of Psychology has been awarded more bursaries than any other in the university. Some of the successful projects includes;

• Gender Differences in co-operation: An evolutionary and meta-analytical approach
• The Mere exposure effect in high functioning adults with Autism
• Games and discrimination: An observational field analysis of voting patterns of contestants in the TV game show Weakest Link
• Can we use eye scanning patterns to assess people suffering from different learning difficulties?

We are committed to achieving excellence in scientific research with a focus on theoretical and applied research. Research within the School falls into three research groups developmental psychology; visual attention, and the psychology of health. The developmental research group focuses on cognitive, language and motor development as well as on injury prevention, face processing, social development (development of trust), comparative studies, attention and atypical development. For instance, colleagues within the School conduct research on prevention of road traffic accidents, children’s motor development and comparative work on infants, dogs and Barbary macaques.

As well as numerous other projects, Lincoln’s Infant Lab has carried out the following investigations:

• Do children categorise animals using the head or the body region?
• How do children learn their first words?
• How do children develop trust?
• Can children recognise different facial expressions in dogs?

One example of applied psychological work in the developmental research group is The Blue Dog (www.thebluedog.org) injury prevention project. This project aims to educate parents and children about the safest way to interact with their dogs within the household.

Research within the visual attention group is focused on the structures and processes underlying visual attention. Research has focused on comparing aspects of human cognition with equivalent aspects in animals. Also, the development of these mechanisms has been investigated so as to provide insight into how these cognitive functions have evolved in our own species. For instance, a current project is investigating the attentional bias for features on the left side of the face in infants, primates and dogs. This project is investigating whether human beings have this left hemiface bias from birth, whether this bias is shared by closely related primates, and whether dogs – who share at least 10,000 years of evolution with us – also show this bias.

A second focus in our research is the exploration of neural correlates associated with the effect of attention on early visual perception. The School of Psychology’s Neuroscience Laboratory is fitted with equipment for several imaging methods used for investigating these neural processes, such as EEG/ERP and TMS.

Finally, the psychology of health research group is concerned with social and psychological functioning and experience of individuals, as well as the measurement and management of psychological wellbeing. Health is considered from a broad perspective to cover normal and abnormal states including mental disorder and offending behaviour. In particular, much of the research carried out in this group is applied or practice-based and intended to be directly relevant to participants, practitioners, professionals and policy makers. Currently, research activities are in forensic psychology and applied developmental research, including work across the lifespan. For example, the forensic psychology research focuses on risk, personality disorder and attitudes towards offenders, while research into lifespan issues focus on psychosocial aspects of adolescence, pregnancy and ageing. Another research project evaluates Magstim Super Rapid Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator’s (rTMS) therapeutic potential for Depression, Schizophrenia, Epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.

Postgraduate Students
Our PhD students are principally conducting research within these three research groups. At present, we have postgraduates investigating grooming exchange and social cognition in Barbary macaques in Morocco; the role of left gaze bias in facial communication in human infants and domestic dogs; how the concept of social inclusion is used within the forensic services and the implications this has around issues of risk prediction and management; differential gaze behaviour towards sexually preferred and non-preferred body images; and dog gaze patterns in response to potential facial and bodily threat cues, etc. The School also undertakes research outside of these fields. For instance, we have postgraduates working within a non-experimental framework (e.g. social constructionist perspective) in the area of sheltered housing for older adults focused on gardening and identity. Another postgraduate is looking at how terrorism is constructed in scientific (psychological), media and lay discourse.

Our Culture
The School’s culture is built on our recognition that education is about people – students, staff and our communities. We make links with local FE institutions (for instance, we have contact with John Leggott College in Scunthorpe and have put on day events for a number of their students). The School has also organised a FE psychology teaching forum. Each year the School hosts a 2-day conference for all FE psychology teachers within the region (Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, South and East Yorkshire). The Trent and Yorkshire conference for FE Teachers of Psychology is free to all Members of the forum; membership itself is free (see below for contact details). The aim of this conference/forum is to share and develop good teaching practices, and update lecturers about the Psychology FE curriculum and innovations in psychology. On our part, we see this conference as a way of smoothing students’ transition to higher and further education by keeping teachers informed about further education in general and our School in particular. Thus another goal of the forum is the widening of participation in higher education. The commitment we have to making links with FE lecturers was strengthened further when The School of Psychology at Lincoln hosted and actively contributed to the ATP conference of 2008.

At our local FE psychology conferences, presentations and workshops are not only given by the forum members and Lincoln psychology staff, but also our students. Credit is given to such students in terms of a certificate which they can use in seeking employment.

Excellentia Per Studium
With these and other activities we aim to produce the learning landscape that achieves the university motto, Excellentia Per Studium – Excellence through Studies.

To join the Trent and Yorkshire forum for FE Teachers of Psychology please e-mail CGillard@lincoln.ac.uk with your contact details. For any other information about the School of Psychology at Lincoln please see our webpage at http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/psychology/

Below are the pages of the October 2009 edition of the ATP magazine.   You will have to be a member to read them though.  If you are not a member of the ATP do consider joining.

From the Editor by Laura Rudd.

From the Chair by Deb Gajic

The New VLE by Laura Rudd

Help with OFSTED by Jamie Hack

Active Learning Strategies by George Bannister

Discovering the world of Forensics

Debriefing means never having to say you’re sorry by Mark Judge

The use of visual media to teach Psychological concepts and theories by Chris Hallam

Creating heroes in Psychology by Matt Langdon

CBT – An evaluation from a therapist’s viewpoint by Stuart Rose

Breaking into the Psychology Research Field by Neil Goodare

Evolution as an excuse for Ethnocentrism By Mark Souter

University Focus – Bangor University

University Focus – University of Lincoln

Conference Focus – Psychology at the cutting edge by Dr Emma Dunmore

Book Review – Parapsychology – Research on Exceptional Experiences by Trevor Dunn

Book Review – Psychic Development for Beginners by Trevor Dunn

ICT – PsychExchange.co.uk by Mark Holah and Jamie Davies

Membership Details by Wendy Wood

Notices by Laura Rudd

BANGOR UNIVERSITY

Body and Brain: How is your body represented in your brain?

The School of Psychology at Bangor University offers students an opportunity to gain first-hand experience in world-class research. Students in the third year of their undergraduate degree work alongside research active psychologists to design experiments, test participants, analyse data, and write research reports with the potential for future publication. We would like to introduce you to some of the cutting-edge research currently being undertaken by our students this year. This article will focus on the fascinating world of the body schema to demonstrate how research is exploring the way that the body can be represented (and misrepresented) in the brain.

How does your brain understand your body? Look at your own hand and the hand of someone next to you – how does your brain know that one hand belongs to you and must be protected from harm or damage? Do you have an internal ‘sense’ of your body? And, more interestingly, could you ever make fundamental mistakes about your own body? Dr Fay Short and Dr Robert Ward are working with students at Bangor University to explore how the body is represented in the brain and how the brain can misrepresent the body.

The internal representation of the body in the brain is known as the body schema (Head & Holmes, 1911). Your body schema distinguishes between the parts that belong to your body and the rest of the world. It could be argued that two experiences contribute to this distinction between ‘body’ and ‘not body’: physical sensation from the body and physical control over the body. Early research exploring the cortex of the brain has revealed that the sensory cortex is responsible for creating the experience of physical sensation from the body and the motor cortex is responsible for granting control over the body (Penfield & Rasmussen, 1950). Modern research, however, has found that the body schema is not merely a result of sensation and control. Our body schema is actually a complex concept influenced by a wide range of factors including sensation, control, proprioception, vision, emotion, and memory. In fact, the body schema is so complex that it is vulnerable to many different types of error.

Your brain can misrepresent your body by extending the schema to include things that are not a part of your actual body. Amputee patients will often report an awareness of their missing limb and, perhaps even more astonishingly, some stroke patients have reported an awareness of additional body parts, such as an extra arm (Khaten et al, 2009) or even an extra head (Turnbull et al, in prep)! These phantom limbs and supernumerary phantom limbs demonstrate how the body schema can include body parts that no longer exist or have never existed. Research has also found that the body schema can even include external objects that are not real body parts at all. The rubber hand illusion shows how synchronous stroking of a hidden real hand and a visible rubber hand can result in the weird sensation that the rubber object is the real hand (Botvinick & Cohen, 1998). All of these findings suggest that our body schema is quite flexible and current research at Bangor University is exploring how this flexibility could help people to improve their interactions with external objects. We are using virtual reality techniques to encourage the body schema to incorporate tools and equipment; for example, could we help sportsmen incorporate their equipment into their body schema to improve performance? In terms of the brain, a tennis player could quite literally have a racket that is an extension of the self!

Your brain can also misrepresent your body by modifying the schema to appear physically unattractive or abnormal. Patients diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder will fixate on specific parts of their body with the belief that the part is abnormal or unattractive. This disorder is currently classed as a mental illness, but it is possible that there may be underlying neurological causes for this misrepresentation of the body. Current research at Bangor University has highlighted the importance of control over the body (Short & Ward, 2009), so perhaps the experience of poor control over the body (particularly during the ‘clumsy’ teenage years of physical development) contributes to these negative feelings. Perhaps the misrepresentation of the body schema can be corrected by giving the patient an opportunity to experience successful and graceful control over his or her own body? We are using virtual reality techniques to investigate reactions to ‘ugly’ hands and explore how we could manipulate feelings towards these limbs by providing the participant with control over their movement. We are hopeful that our research in this area may further our understanding of this devastating illness.

This article has provided a brief overview of the exciting research currently being conducted in the virtual reality lab by Dr Fay Short and Dr Robert Ward at Bangor University. We hope that you have found this article interesting, and please do not hesitate to contact us at f.short@bangor.ac.uk if you would like any further information.

Working at the University of Sheffield as a developmental research assistant for the past two years has permitted me to work alongside a variety of people, all of whom have been at different stages of their academic careers.

My time spent at the developmental lab has provided me with a rich insight into both the difficulties faced by prospective students wanting to enter academic research as well as those faced by those already well established in their field.

Before highlighting what I believe to be the main difficulties faced, it is important to describe what I have observed to be the typical pathway leading to a career in research psychology.

The first step for any aspiring research psychologist is to get as much work experience under their belt as possible that is related to their chosen research area. This can be attained prior to the completion of a degree at college/sixth form, during their university studies or even after they have graduated. Once a degree has been attained, a student can then either apply for a masters course relevant to their field of interest or apply for a PhD straight away. Although it is not considered prerequisite to hold a masters degree prior to the completion of a PhD, it often helps bridge the transition. Finally, once armed with a PhD, the next step for a newly qualified researcher is to seek out post-doctorate research positions in order to gain more vital research experience and thus enter the world of academia.

In academia, experience is considered vital. And I believe it is this gaining of experience that can be one of the main difficulties faced by aspiring researchers. Quite often students or graduates face a ‘catch 22’ situation whilst seeking to enhance their skills and experiences. In short, they need experience to get experience and this can cause some serious problems. Consider for a second that in order to get a place on a masters course you need experience, but also that many research assistant vacancies ask for applicants qualified with a masters degree.

Another difficulty faced by individuals at any stage of their research careers is that of funding. Whether you’re a fresh-faced graduate or a high-flying professor, funding for research underpins everything.  On the whole, the number of research related vacancies advertised to graduate students is determined by the success of grant applications made by researchers. As well as this, many researchers are themselves dependent on securing this funding in order to pay their own wages and as a result many individuals in a research team will be on fixed term contracts. Acquiring funding has always been tough and even fully fledged researchers with many publications to their name can be unsuccessful. You will not be surprised therefore to learn that the situation has been worsened significantly by the current economic downturn in the UK and across Europe.

A final difficulty linked very much to the issue of funding is that of job stability. In research, individuals are often required to be highly flexible and be prepared to move to different areas of the country or even different countries in order to keep their research going. Although the situation faced by those working in research can be argued to be disheartening, especially when considered in line with the issues raised here, it should be noted that many academics overcome these difficulties and have highly successful careers. However, in my experience, the successful individuals are those who possess a passion for their research area and the zeal to persist in the face of the difficulties. It is also important to note that, in addition to research psychology, all areas of applied Psychology place an emphasis on experience and so the issue of facing a ‘catch 22’ is a common one.

For students wanting to achieve a career in Psychology, acknowledging the limitations of all fields of psychology will allow them to make a more informed decision, but remember that passion and hard work have the power to overcome any obstacle.

Neil Goodare
Development Research Assistant at The University of Sheffield

The objectives of this article are two-fold, with both relating to the title.

The first objective is to provide information about CBT and the evaluation of it as a form of therapy that can be used as an evaluation as a therapeutic approach within AS and A2 lessons.

The second objective is still about information, but goes much further than the classroom and relates to what is happening within counselling and psychotherapy world, in the UK right at this present time. It relates to changes, in fact huge changes that affect service users and providers within the counselling and psychotherapy world. Changes that have stirred up comments and controversy.

Actually I am going to start with the second objective as this will cast light on, and inform, the first. It will make clearer some of the criticisms that are levelled against CBT and the clinical application of it within therapy. Up to this point in time in the UK ‘counsellor’ and psychotherapist’ and even ‘psychologist’ have not been protected titles. That is anybody could use the term even with the least amount of training if any at all. Get out the brass plate, shine it up, and fix it up outside the door and wait for the customers to come along. Although that was possible there has been organisational self-regulation in place. For example, this has been true within the therapeutic world with organisations such as the BACP and UKCP. These organisations regulate their member-practitioners by requiring certain amounts of training and the adherence to codes of ethics and practice. If these are breached in any way then the practitioner could lose their membership. This process was developed over a number of years and has taken into consideration a wide and disparate range of theoretical ways of working. A difficult task in view of the different interpretation of the therapeutic relationship and process which in turn will lead to differing goals and aims. Given that, in the opinion of many, this self-regulation has been effective and has worked at keeping the profession ethical.

Registration
However, this is changing. In a white paper published in February 2007, called Trust Assurance and Safety, the Department of Health stated the Government’s intention to regulate psychologists, counsellors and psychotherapists as a matter of priority. ‘Psychologist’, ‘Counsellor’ and ‘Psychotherapist’ will become protected titles which will mean that anyone using those titles as a description of themselves will have to be registered (Department of Health, 2007). The 1 July saw the start of this with the opening of a register for Psychologists. Registration is in the hands of the HPC (Health Professions Council). A minimum standard will be required of the practitioner before registration is permitted (as far as counselling and psychotherapy are concerned, in the opinion of some, it will require lower levels than at present within BACP and UKCP accredited membership). These changes have been welcomed by many therapists. It now gives a base-line for practice and a protection for the public. If complaints are made they can be made to a central source. If upheld and the matter is serious enough then the therapist will lose their practitioner certificate and will not be able to legally practice using the protected title of ‘counsellor’ or ‘psychotherapist’.

However not all have welcomed these changes and regulation. On 5 April this year there was a conference in London organised by therapists who are objectors to the proposed regulation. The conference was entitled ’Against State Regulation’. Subsequent to this, the ‘Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy’ issued a statement outlining their objections. Look closely here because implicit within the statement is criticism of CBT, which of course ties in with my first objective and the title of this workshop/seminar.

Among other points, the Alliance states:
‘Although many counsellors and psychotherapists work in medical settings, their work is not a branch of medicine nor an activity ancillary to medicine. Most forms of therapy do not focus exclusively on the relief of symptoms, but emphasise creating and exploring a relationship. If there is a goal it is a general improvement in the quality of life (so that client satisfaction, rather than the improvement of an isolated symptom, is the appropriate measure of effectiveness). Regulation through the HPC implies medical values and criteria which are in many ways antithetical to psychotherapy and counselling.

‘Many practitioners see their work as more of an art than a science: a series of skilled improvisations in a relational context, where each client offers unique issues and demands unique responses. Such an activity cannot be captured by a list of competences . Yet regulation by civil servants, who themselves know nothing of the field they are regulating, demand an objective version of practice, even if this falsifies its nature.

‘The initiative to regulate psychotherapy and counselling is itself a symptom of our tick-box society: of an obsession with safety, a compulsion to monitor every activity, an illusory belief that everything can be brought under control. In many ways psychotherapy and counselling inherently expose this illusion: they support us in tolerating uncertainty, difference, risk, and the unknown.’

The point has to be made here that all these views and the content of the Alliance statement are the views of the Alliance and is contrary to the stated view and official line of The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (Aldridge, 2009).

A speaker at the London conference who is a well-respected therapist and writer, Brian Thorne, in his paper ‘A collision of Worlds’ asserts that statutory regulation will do little or nothing to protect clients, but will sap therapists of their creativity. He argues that therapy is not a medical-associated activity that concerns itself with symptom reduction treatment plans and empirically validated procedures (all these terms are familiar to and used in CBT). But, Thorne says, therapy is about relationship, depth and about extraordinary intimacy. So that a person who is suffering can find hope, alleviation from pain, a sense of meaning and a way forward. He states: ‘To subject therapists to statutory regulation has about the same incongruity as putting ballet dancers under the direction of a regimental sergeant major’ (Thorne, 2009).

To continue with a final point in the Alliance for Counselling and psychotherapy statement:
‘NICE clinical guidelines and IAPT privileges a single form of ‘evidence based’ therapy [referring no doubt here to CBT] over all other modalities and promise to reduce access to long term, relationally oriented therapy; to reduce client choice; to medicalise the field; and to rigidify training’

Above there is reference to NICE clinical guidelines and IAPT. Two collections of initials that need explaining. NICE is an acronym for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. NICE produces guidance in three areas of health:
• public health - guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention of ill health for those working in the NHS, local authorities and the wider public and voluntary sector
• health technologies – guidance on the use of new and existing medicines, treatments and procedures within the NHS
• clinical practice – guidance on the appropriate treatment and care of people with specific diseases and conditions within the NHS.

This organisation provides recommendations based on research for best clinical practice within the NHS. CBT, because of its abundance of evidence-based research, is strongly favoured as a therapy preference for many common mental health problems.

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies
Now to the other acronym IAPT. This stands for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies. In 2006 the London School of Economics published a report advising that psychological therapy should be made more widely available to everybody in the UK. This has come to be known as the Layard report, named after its principal author Lord Richard Layard. It has led to the government funded initiative IAPT programme. The proposed focus of this is to provide increased therapeutic access and availability to help adults with common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. This initiative will total a massive £300 million and represents the largest programme ever to support the provision of psychological therapies in Britain. Layard’s economic analysis is based on the assumption that the cost of this will come from the benefits of savings of reducing absenteeism, getting people back to work and reduced use of NHS resources (Layard et al. 2007).  Incidentally, its critics say that the analysis is predicated on what they call in the May 2009 edition of the ‘Psychologist ‘a naive view of mental health problems, essentially a simplistic illness model and of an overly optimistic assessment of how effective psychological treatments can be’ (Marzillier and Hall 2009).

So now put all his together. Regulation which means developing a way of measuring competences; NICE guidelines which look to the paradigm of measurable evidence-based research; and the NHS IAPT programme strongly influenced by NICE recommendations.

You can see that CBT rides high in being in a favourable position as contrasted to practitioners from other approaches who may see their positions and way of working as being under threat. The British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) is the leading organisation for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in the UK.

Also of note is that recently, that is within this last year, BABCP has withdrawn its affiliation to the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapies (UKCP). In letters to members it was stated that ‘autonomy and independence of the BABCP is particularly important at this time’ as they ‘are now actively involved in key developments in relation to the Government’s agendas on HPC regulation and New Ways of Working for Psychotherapists, as well as their central involvement in the implementation and expansion of the IAPT programme’. According to this letter, ‘the UKCP has not only failed to support CBT but has been highly critical of it, particularly in regard to IAPT’.

All the foregoing has its effect on the therapeutic community here in the UK. An increasing number of jobs are requiring CBT training and expertise. Primary care counsellors in various PCTs have been required to re-train in CBT or have lost their jobs working within GP practices.

CBT – against and for
It is no wonder that therapists from other approaches have reacted in protest to what they see as a monopolising of practice and a marginalisation of alternative therapeutic methods and philosophies.  There have been many articles published of late objecting to what has been seen to be the exclusivity of CBT, the emphasis on the medical model (Sanders, 2007), and the questioning of its evidence base (Fairfax, 2008). A book recently published by PCCS Books puts the arguments forward written by opponents and supporters of CBT. It is edited by Richard House and Del Loewenthal. The title of the book is ‘Against and For CBT: towards a constructive dialogue’.

The major areas of criticism raised are: The alleged superficiality of the approach with the focus only on accessible cognitions and the ignoring of deeper motives and desires Philosophical critiques of the assumptions underpinning CBT such as technicism and rationality. The mechanistic determinist view of the human condition. The focus on a medicalised model that plays down meaning and purpose in clients lives. The strong cultural bias with the taking to task of Layard-type thinking with its socio-economic flaws. The collusion with psychiatric power structures and being used by the Government as a way of upholding a political and social economic system. The reliance on flawed research paradigms for support. (House and Loewenthal, 2008).

Last month there was a debate held at the Royal Geographic Society in London organised by Intelligence Squared. The subject and proposal of the debate was ‘Psychotherapy does more harm than good’. A subject that has echoes of the Eysenck study (Eysenck, 1952). In a pre-debate Radio 4 interview on 17 June, two of the debaters were interviewed. They were Jeffery Masson, an eminent opponent of therapy and author of ‘Against Therapy’, and Richard Layard. In the discussion that followed Masson referred to CBT as more of a marketing device than a therapy. He went on to say that: “CBT says that you are looking at the world in the wrong way. But who is to say that they are looking at the world in the right way? It is a political difference. Why should their way be better than your way? You will not be harmed by talking to a friend; you may be harmed by talking to a therapist.” (Incidentally, the result of the debate was 30% For, and 63% Against the motion ‘Psychotherapy does more harm than good).

As a practising CBT therapist I, of course, do not completely agree with such a statement and look at things from a different perspective. CBT is a well-researched method of helping people overcome difficulties that they are experiencing in their lives. It has helped people to return to a functioning and fulfilling way of life. It is evidenced-based, that means it has been developed and continues to be developed on what works and what has had long term beneficial effects. However, I do think it is important and healthy to consider the voiced criticisms. There can be a danger in the conveyor belt-type application if practising a rigid manualised CBT. This can dehumanise and disempower individuals (Merrett and Easton, 2008). Not to be underestimated is the importance of the therapeutic relationship and the empathic interaction of the therapist (Thwaites and Bennett-Levy, 2007). Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is an umbrella term that encompasses a growingly varied way of working therapeutically. REBT, ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), Schema-Based CBT, Compassion focussed therapy and Mindfulness-Based CBT are a just a few that come under that umbrella. The popularity and growth in the diverse angles of focus give evidence of the applicability and livingness of this as a therapy. All these varying ways of applying the principles and philosophy that underpins the approach offer in themselves a powerful response and reply to many of the criticisms that have been made.

Stuart is an accredited CBT therapist /supervisor. He is an accredited member of BACP and a UKCP registered psychotherapist. He is Features Editor of the Journal of the International Stress Management Association UK and a member of the Faculty of Healthcare counsellors and psychotherapists and works in private practice and in primary care. He also teaches psychology.
Contact: stuartrose@psychealth.co.uk

References

Aldridge, S. (2009), Making your mind up, Therapy Today, Vol.20, No. 4, p18-20.

Department of Health. (2007). Trust, Assurance and Safety – the Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century. London:  Department of Health.

Eysenck, H.J.(1952), ‘The effects of psychotherapy: an evaluation’. Journal of Consulting Psychology, Vol.16, p319-324.

Fairfax, H. (2008), ‘CBT or not CBT is that really the question?  Reconsidering the evidence’. BPS Counselling Psychology Review, Vol.23, No.8, p27-35.

House, R., Loewenthal, D. (2008) ‘Against and for CBT’, PCCS Books.

Layard, R., Clark, D., Knapp, M., Mayraz, G. (2007), ‘Cost-benefit analysis of psychological therapy’. National Institute Economic Review, 202, p90-98.

Marzillier, J., Hall, J. (2009), ‘The challenge of the Layard initiative’, The Psychologist, Vol.11, No.5, p406-408.

Merrett, C., Easton, S. (2008), ‘The Cognitive Behavioural Approach: CBT’s Big Brother’. BPS Counselling Psychology Review, Vol.23, No.1, p21-31.

Sanders, P. (2007), ‘Decoupling psychological therapies from the medical model’. Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal, Vol.7, No.4.

Thorne, B. (2009) ‘A collision of worlds’. Therapy Today, Vol.20, No.4, p22-25.

Thwaites, R., Bennett-Levy, J. (2007) ‘Conceptualising Empathy in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: Making the Implicit Explicit’. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, Vol.35, p591-612.