Summer interns explore issues of identity complexity and wellbeing

We were delighted to have four volunteer summer interns working with the lab over the summer – three from St Andrews and a guest all the way from Turkey! The group spend the majority of their time exploring the issues around identity and well-being in the medical context. We also explored different models of self-complexity … Read more

Dora Sharpe-Davidson PhD submitted

Dora Sharpe-Davidson has submitted her Clinical Psychology PhD to the ANU just in time for Christmas!  Dora’s project has taken the idea of self complexity and self-concept clarity, both of which have been found to buffer people against stressors and improve wellbeing.  Dora looked at various forms of discrimination as a particular form of stress, … Read more

Self and Identity Processes, Stress, and Resilience: Invited Talk

Symposium on Burnout and Resiliency in Medical Education Participants from across Scotland and further afield gathered in the Gateway building at St Andrews to discuss recent work on building resilience in medical education. The importance of improving the well-being of medical students and professionals has been a growing priority in recent years. As part of … Read more

Dora Sharpe-Davidson presents at the European Health Psychology conference

The 29th European Health Psychology Society conference was a great opportunity for Dora to see some of the newest empirical and theoretical research in health psychology. The conference showcased a diverse range of topics on how to facilitate behaviour change in health and illness, including e-mental health interventions, motivational interviewing, physical exercise interventions and the … Read more

A complex systems view in medical student wellbeing research

“…some stress is identity-potent: it has a special meaning in the context of a professional identity.” Ken and Kathy had the opportunity to write a commentary piece for Medical Education entitled “Moving toward a complex systems view in medical student wellbeing research”. We took the opportunity to further advance the view that we need to … Read more

Kathy McNeill awarded PhD

Congratulations to Kathy on completing her corrections and submitting the final thesis for the award of her PhD!  Kathy’s thesis was entitled “An Investigation of Self-Structure, Social Identity and Norms in Medical Student Wellbeing” and several papers have already come out of this line of work.  Kathy’s PhD is part of our “Prevalence to Process” … Read more

Ken gives “Beyond Prevalence to Process” talk to the School of Medicine in Dundee

The Seminar series run by the College of Medicine Dentistry and Nursing in Dundee is a wonderful opportunity to explore the implications of the self and identity process model of medical student well-being.  

“Prevalence to Process” paper in Medical Education

There is a well-established literature showing the higher prevalence of stress and threats to wellbeing in medical students. There is a well-established literature showing the higher prevalence of stress and threats to wellbeing in medical students.  In this paper we argue for the importance of researching specific psychological processes that might exacerbate or moderate these … Read more

Ken gives St Andrews seminar on Person Categories

Ken recently gave the local friday afternoon school seminar in St Andrews. The title of the talk was “The person categorisation heresies: Persons AS categories, and implications for a unified theory of social categorisation”. St Andrews is an ideal place for us to pursue this work, given the great intellectual atmosphere and intellectual interest shared … Read more