Wednesday 30 June 2010

Shameless self promotion?

Signed up today for the PCOS UK Annual Conference, which is taking place in November.

PCOS UK is a multidisciplinary society for healthcare professionals caring for women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

I attend their events pretty regularly, but I'm especially interested in this year's conference, because of a new feature - the Research Digest. Members of the organisation's council will present key research papers and the audience will vote for the one they believe will have the most impact upon the management of PCOS.

There will undoubtedly be papers offering biomedical advances, but it would be great if at least one of them offered something practical to address psychosocial concerns.

I wonder if it's 'the done thing' to lobby for papers to be selected ( I find this sort of informal self-promotion really embarrassing, but perhaps I ought to be more cheeky about it).

Just in case there's anyone out there who'd like to put a word in on my behalf...
Percy, C., Gibbs, T., Potter, L., and Boardman, S. (2009) 'Nurse-Led Peer Support Group: Experiences of Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome'. Journal of Advanced Nursing 65 (10), 2046

Tuesday 29 June 2010

All things in moderation...


Moderating and agreeing marks today for MSc Health Psychology dissertation students.

Every student's literature review is marked separately by two members of the course team. We then discuss the work and agree marks.

Rather dull but very important to maintain academic standards and ensure fairness for students.

Perhaps more interestingly, have just agreed to chair a parallel session at the European Health Psychology Society Conference in Cluj-Napoca in September.

And making progress on a book proposal - just need to get that submitted before going on holiday at end of week...

Monday 28 June 2010

Marking marking marking

Who said academics have great big long summer holidays...?

Exam boards for undergraduate and some postgraduate programmes just finished and now onto marking the first set of papers from masters dissertation students.

These are all literature reviews, and the ones I have been marking today relate to health psychology:
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome in South Asian women

  • Expressive writing interventions for ( a specific) chronic illness

  • web based interventions for (a specific) chronic illness

  • shared decision making in chronic illness

  • male breast cancer

  • parental interventions for teenage alcohol use

  • sexually transmitted infections in older women

And after those... feedback due on drafts of empirical papers by the same students, oh and graduate diploma students as well...

Still, planning to fit in some holidays as well.

Friday 25 June 2010

Ryder Cheshire Volunteers


Productive and inspiring meeting today with Steph and Beren at Ryder Cheshire Volunteers (RCV).

We discussed the findings of a project conducted by a Coventry undergrad psych student, as part of her second year work experience. Stacey worked for me as a research assistant. Our study used audit data to explore the extent to which RCV's volunteer partnerships meet members' needs.

Looking forward to presenting the findings at one of our internal Psychology Department research seminars, and (I hope) at a conference next year.

Perhaps more importantly, we have plans to do some further work.

To find out about RCV's excellent work - or to express interest in joining or volunteering - please see their website
http://www.rcv.org.uk/


Ryder-Cheshire Volunteers (RCV) is a person-centred organisation which aims to give individuals the opportunity to recognise their potential, through leisure and learning activities. We look beyond a person's disability, to focus on what can be achieved, rather than what can't. If there's a leisure or learning activity you've always dreamt of doing, our job is to make it a reality.

Thursday 24 June 2010

Knee deep in data

Knee deep in data today preparing a presentation for tomorrow. This is to communicate the findings of a study involving a combination of both deductive and inductive content analysis, with both qualitative and quantitative data, and several hundred individuals.

Fortunately, the analysis has all been done by a second year undergraduate from our BSc Psych programme, as part of her work placement (thank you and well done Stacey). I have checked the analysis and am now trying to squeeze it all into a coherent PowerPoint presentation.

For more info on this methodology see:

Altheide, D., Coyle, M., DeVriese, K., and Schneider, C. (2008) 'Emergent Qualitative Document Analysis'. in Handbook of Emergent Methods. ed. by Leavy, P. New York, NY US: Guilford Press, 127-151

Elo S, and Kyngäs H. (2008) The qualitative content analysis process. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 62(1):107-15.

Mazur, E. (2010) 'Collecting Data from Social Networking Web Sites and Blogs'. in Advanced Methods for Conducting Online Behavioral Research. ed. by Johnson, J. A. Washington, DC US: American Psychological Association, 77-90

Riffe, D., Lacy, S., and Fico, F. G. (2005) Analyzing Media Messages: Using Quantitative Content Analysis in Research (2nd Ed.). Mahwah, NJ US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers

Wednesday 23 June 2010

New applied research group?


Had a very pleasant and enlightening discussion today with a colleague about the possibility of setting up a new Applied Research Group in our department.

We already have three of these:


Tuesday 22 June 2010

EEEEEE-Mail

Today I have mostly been dealing with email (sigh).

Still good to see that it has its positive uses - though I'm not keen on the exclamation mark(!)

Development of Alive! (A Lifestyle Intervention Via Email), and Its Effect on Health-related Quality of Life, Presenteeism, and Other Behavioral Outcomes: Randomized Controlled Trial

http://www.jmir.org/2008/4/e43/HTML

ABSTRACTBackground: Cost-effective interventions to improve diet and physical activity are a public health priority. Alive! is an email-based intervention to increase physical activity, reduce saturated and trans fats and added sugars, and increase fruit and vegetable consumption. It was shown to improve these behaviors in a large randomized controlled trial.

Friday 18 June 2010

Vive l'algerie


I have absolutely no interest in football and have been enjoying the delicious quiet this afternoon as soccer obsessed colleagues' (and students') thoughts have clearly been elsewhere...

As someone who cares about health behaviour, I suppose I ought to acknowledge that football can have health benefits...

Krustrup et al (2010) Beneficial effects of recreational football on the cardiovascular risk profile in untrained premenopausal women

"KEYWORDS
maximal oxygen uptake • blood pressure • heart function • endothelial function • fat mass • lipid profile • soccer

In conclusion, regular recreational football training has significant favorable effects on the cardiovascular risk profile in untrained premenopausal women and is at the least as efficient as continuous running."

Thursday 17 June 2010

More exam boards


Two more exam boards today: to confirm degree results for students on BSc Health & Lifestyle Management, BSc Psychology and BSc Psychology & Criminology.

All very smooth and successful. Not that I think any graduating students (or indeed any students) are likely to be reading this, but just in case... your results should be available on SOLAR (online results system) next week.

Also picked up some interesting reading from the library:

Carrier (2009) Managing long term conditions and chronic illness in primary care: a guide to good practice.
Falvo (2010) Effective patient education: a guide to increased compliance.
Falvo (2009) Medical and psychosocial aspects of chronic illness and disability.
Finlay (2004) The Practice of Psychosocial Occupational Therapy.
Lubkin (2006) Chronic illness: impact and interventions.

All relevant to my module on the MSc Health Psychology, some on the reading list, and all worth getting reacquainted with.

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Another nice book review: From The Psychologist this time


Have spent most of today working on a book proposal. As it is still at the (very) pre-contractual stage I can't say more as to what it's about, but in the mean time I have been cheering myself up with another nice review of our previous book, in this month's Psychologist (Bulletin of The British Psychological Society).


Your Psychology Project Handbook: Becoming A Researcher
Clare Wood, David Giles & Carol Percy

Your Psychology Project Handbook: Becoming A Researcher does exactly what it says on the tin! Wood, Giles and Percy have developed this insightful text to guide all those students approaching their dissertation. Through years of their own extensive experience, in-depth research knowledge and broad academic backgrounds the authors achieve a highly accessible and resourceful book.

Historically ‘dissertation time’ is filled with much excitement, stress and procrastination. This text provides a calming, highly focused and structured step-by-step approach for every aspect of developing a research project. The reader finds themselves on a journey from generating ideas of research to completion and dissemination of findings, whilst also being pointed towards any potential problems (and resolutions!) along the way. At the same time, the authors have helpfully provided labelled subsections of text, chapter summaries and highlighted font as reference features as well as highlighting other literature and web-based resources to access.
I wish this text had been around when I was doing my undergraduate degree it would have saved a lot of time, questions and anxiety!

Pearson Education; 2009; Pb £17.99
Reviewed by Hannah Butler, who is an assistant psychologist for Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Psychology Service for Children, Young People and Their Families

Publication lag

Just signed the author/copyright agreement today for a paper that's been in the pipeline for quite a while.

Percy, C. & Murray, S (in press). The role of an online peer-to-peer health community in addressing psychosocial concerns and social support in polycystic ovary syndrome.
International Journal of Web Based Communities.

This will be part of a special issue devoted to online communities and health, and it should be out later this year.

The paper arose from a student project so it will be nice to see it in print.

See also online discussion forums provided by Verity, the UK PCOS support charity.

Saturday 12 June 2010

Just had a SCOPUS citation alert to say a paper I co-wrote with a former PhD student has been cited. This is, oddly, the second one in two weeks. It's peculiar how work gets picked up, sometimes quite a while after publication - and by whom...

The paper is :

Sandfield, A. & Percy, C. (2003). Accounting for Single Status: Heterosexism and Ageism in Heterosexual Women's Talk about Marriage. Feminism and Psychology, 13 (4), 475-488.

In the past seven years it has been cited as follows:

Shepperd, D., Coyle, A., & Hegarty, P. (2010). Discourses of friendship between heterosexual women and gay men: Mythical norms and an absence of desire. Feminism and Psychology, 20(2), 205-224.

Ron, P. (2009). Seeking help from health and welfare services among elderly single women. Journal of Women and Aging, 21(4), 279-292.

Budgeon, S. (2008). Couple culture and the production of singleness. Sexualities, 11(3), 301-325.

Heimtun, B. (2007). Depathologizing the tourist syndrome: Tourism as social capital production. Tourist Studies, 7(3), 271-293.

Macvarish, J. (2006). What is 'the problem' of singleness? Sociological Research Online, 11(3)

Simpson, R. (2006). The intimate relationships of contemporary spinsters. Sociological Research Online, 11(3)

Sandfield, A. (2006). Talking divorce: The role of divorce in women's constructions of relationship status. Feminism and Psychology, 16(2), 155-173.

Blakemore, J. E. O., Lawton, C. A., & Vartanian, L. R. (2005). I can't wait to get married: Gender differences in drive to marry. Sex Roles, 53(5-6), 327-335.

At least that means it was worth the effort of driving from Worcester to York to deliver the (thanks to me last minute) edits. Thankfully Anna is much better than me at time management, and is doing very well in an academic post at Hull.
http://psy.hull.ac.uk/Staff/a.sandfield/#L2

Friday 11 June 2010

The two hours' traffic of our stage


Exam board today - record time.

We positively whizzed through marks and modules for MSc Forensic Psychology, MSc Health Psychology and MSc Psychology of Anomolous Experience. In the olden days the board would have taken two or three hours, but it was all over - and done properly - in less than an hour. This is mainly because our admin staff, course team and processes are now so slick that most queries get resolved in advance. This allows us to confirm marks and discuss only those instances that require it.

External examiner commented positively on the wide range of assessment methods used, and the practical applied focus.

But none of this is especially romantic - so instead now watching ' When Romeo Met Juliet' - BBC documentary about two schools from Cov staging a production of Shakespeare's great romantic tragedy, rehearsing in the University's Ellen Terry Building. Worth a watch on the iPlayer if you missed it.

Thursday 10 June 2010

One hundred years of solitude - and files


Okay so who thought location independent working was a good idea? Having brought home loads of essential files from my campus office, to work on over the summer, I now have a bit of a space issue in my home office.

Something will have to be condemned to the archive in the loft. I had just steeled myself to banishing files that go back more than three years (yes I do have a hoarding problem), when I received an email from a student I supervised in my previous job. She was hoping I might have a copy of her dissertation report from 2001(? certainly pre- 2003 as that's when I moved to Coventry).

This was an interesting and very memorable project: a discursive study on people's views of xenotransplanation. I still refer to it every year in at least one lecture, but I can't remember the last time I laid eyes on the report.

Rehena - I'm going up the ladder for a look in the loft: I may be some time...

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Pics from student conference

Some pictures from last week's student conference...


The rapt audience








Student gets a grilling on her poster from my colleagues Erica (Bowen) and Hugh (Coolican)







Keynote talk from one of our PhD students



Understanding a Refugee's Experiences of Living in Coventry using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis: Daniel Quinn




Busy doing nothing?

Oh dear - one of those odd unsettled days - shifting stuff out of my office in preparation for cutting the cord and going completely LIW next week.

Feels like I didn't achieve very much, though I did have an interesting supervision meeting with a PhD student. We were talking about strategies to ensure that research has a genuine impact on the quality of services in health or social care.

Thinking about attending a couple of related talks that are part of the Healthy Debates speaker series this summer at Coventry...

22nd June 2010
Professor Bryan Stoten; Chair of NHS Confederation, Chair of NHS Warwickshire; CEO of Public Management Associates ; From Good to Great; What will they do to the NHS next?'

6th July 2010
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh; Medical Director NHS ; Focussing on Quality and Innovation in the NHS

Further details: http://www.coventry.ac.uk/latestnewsandevents/a/5904

To book a place: https://www.eventsforce.net/CU/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=4532&eventID=19&mode=preview&version=future&eventID=19

Tuesday 8 June 2010

What it's like being adopted: Forensic psychology & crime

A torrentially rainy afternoon in Coventry, but luckily it was dry inside the Graduate Centre.

Taught a couple of hours on the residential school for students on the Forensic Psychology and Crime MSc degree course. Although most of the course is delivered online, students come for an intensive residential once a year. This is a great opportunity for students and tutors to meet up, and to do some practical skills development.

Today we were looking at a range of qualitative research approaches including discourse analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

My session was a short lecture on IPA with an opportunity to do some analysis. Although for their assessed coursework students will be doing a full analysis on some forensic related data (Schulz, 2005, Not monsters: analyzing the stories of child molesters), for today's session we used a short data set on the experience of being adopted. Although the topics might seem very different, the same basic principles and analytical procedures can be applied.

Students did a really good job - getting stuck in to the preliminary analysis. Am really looking forward to seeing how they get on in the assessed work.

Course entry from Cov Uni website:

Forensic Psychology and Crime MSc degree course
  • The course is British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited and was designed to cover the BPS Division of Forensic Psychology’s core curriculum

  • Online delivery of materials, activities, and discussion opportunities enables students to learn at their own pace, combining work and study
  • The Forensic Psychology and Crime MSc is the only online Forensic Psychology course in the UK

Monday 7 June 2010

I have never been good at filing


Made my first use of the hotdesking "touchdown" room today - part of the trial on location independent working I'm participating in.
It was ever so tidy in there...

Friday 4 June 2010

Some feedback from an external examiner

Had some feedback today from an external examiner who has been checking the range and quality of work submitted by students on the BSc Health & Lifestyle Management degree, and the standard of marking and feedback provided by staff.

Students' module and programme marks have yet to be confirmed by the exam boards in the next few weeks, but it's nice to have some idea of what the examiner thinks before we meet as a board:


"Thank you for sending a selection of moderated student scripts for the above module. I have now had the opportunity to review the scripts and would support your marks. The first marker and internal moderator comments for all assignments were objective, clear, concise and fair identifying areas in which the students did well and the areas in need of development. Detailed feedback was given and the guidance very encouraging".

Our first cohort of the Health & Lifestyle Management students complete this year, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they've done on the degree overall.

Coventry Home > Undergraduate courses > Health and Lifestyle Management BSc Honours degree
"The way in which you live your life can have a dramatic impact on your health. This course examines the impact that lifestyle choices can have on well-being and looks at what measures can be taken to improve peoples' lifestyles. The degree will equip you with the ability to work in the growing field of health and lifestyle behaviour on a community or individual level."
(Course entry on Cov Uni website)

Now for a weekend of non-academic fun with Moon Economy Overlocker Thread in shades 086 , 081, 041, 056, 050, 090 and 046. Can you tell what it is yet?

Thursday 3 June 2010

Delighted with feedback on our psychology project book

Delighted to receive from our publisher today, some of the feedback she's had on our book:



“an invaluable student guide for dissertations; especially for students who lacked confidence in research methods (and many do). It makes my job easier as rather than me having to explain the same point to 8 different students I can refer them to this text for guidance throughout the project work process.”
Leeds Trinity


“easy to read, clear, concise, supportive and useful to students at levels 2 and 3 of an undergraduate degree programme. For some students it really is like having your supervisor there 24:7 because many of the questions about dissertations can be addressed by a quick check of this book.”

Leeds Trinity


“One student said it was like being able to take their supervisor home for the weekend!”

Leeds Trinity


“like having a reassuring tutor in your pocket style!”
Glasgow Caledonian
“A how to’ guide, and as such very useful. … also useful from a supervisors point of view, because a lot of stuff which I have to keep saying again and again are explained clearly in this book”

Stirling
“I would recommend it to students because it is relevant, accessible, and it would save me having to cover a lot of basic background stuff to doing a project.”
Stirling
“seems to sum everything I try to say to them when they come to see me individually.”
Bournemouth
“The most accessible for students I have yet seen. It focuses on final year u/g students and doesn’t try to cover starting Masters or Doctoral level theses.”
Bournemouth
“book would enhance substantially the quality of virtually all students’ projects if they used it as either a step-by-step guide to undertaking a project or as a reference to consult as they come across problems”
Bolton
“Personally, I think this one is the best; simple as that”
Chester
“I have found it very difficult to criticise. The approach taken by the authors gives the impression that the book has been aimed at students who want to do their best.”

Student at Chester
“Overall, I am very impressed with this book and have personally recommended to some of my fellow students”
Student at Chester
ISBN-10: 0273715569
ISBN-13: 978-0273715566

Wednesday 2 June 2010

Looking forward to student conference tomorrow

Looking forward to our end of year student conference tomorrow.

Papers/posters I am especially interested in hearing include:

Discursive analysis of Facebook discussions about asylum Seeking
Shani Burke

Graduate Competencies: Are Psychology Students Prepared for the Graduate Labour Market?
Sophie Ducker

The Lived Experience of Combat Stress in Ex-Military Personnel. A phenomenological study
Alexandra Mann

Understanding a Refugee's Experiences of Living in Coventry using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis
Daniel Quinn

What is it like to be labelled ‘gifted’? An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Perceptions of Gifted Adults towards the Gifted-Label
Ashia Bibi

A Comparative Study of the Effect of an Online Peer Support System and Writing Therapy on Psychological Wellbeing in Students
Emily Hobart

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Ten things that motivational interviewing is not

Home after delivering another one day workshop in motivational interviewing at the Graduate Centre here at Coventry.

One of the things we discussed (among many others) was the recent paper by William R. Miller & Stephen Rollnick in Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapy

Ten things that motivational interviewing is not
Background: In the 26 years since it was first introduced in this journal, motivational interviewing (MI) has become confused with various other ideas and approaches, owing in part to its rapid international diffusion. Methods: Based on confusions that have arisen in publications and presentations regarding MI, the authors compiled a list of 10 concepts and procedures with which MI should not be addled. Results: This article discusses 10 things that MI is not: (1) the transtheoretical model of change; (2) a way of tricking people into doing what you want them to do; (3) a technique; (4) decisional balance; (5) assessment feedback; (6) cognitive-behavior therapy; (7)client-centered therapy; (8) easy to learn; (9) practice as usual; and (10) a panacea. Conclusion: Clarity about what does (and does not) constitute MI promotes quality assurance in scientific research, clinical practice, and training.

Highly recommended