Social Identity, Norms and Approaches to Learning: Presentation at Exeter Psychology
Ken visited Exeter Psychology to present our work on Social Identity in Educational contexts, and to meet with colleagues and postgraduate students. The talk focused on our research on discipline-based social identity (for example, as…
Research, Knowledge Exchange and the Military Sector
Ken had the opportunity to present and be part of a panel discussion in a fascinating inter-disciplinary workshop on research, knowledge exchange and the military sector held in the Byre theatre. The workshop was an…
Presentation at BERA HE event on transitions and challenges
Ken had the opportunity to present our recent work on the experience of identity incompatibility that some students might feel between their home identities and university identity. The analysis showed that experienced of incompatibility…
Ken presents at BERA2018 on identity and norms effects on approach to learning
Ken had the opportunity to present two studies on discipline social identity, deep learning approaches, peer and instructor norms, and the implications for academic grades. The British Educational Research Association conference is a large and…
Social Identification and Academic Performance: Integrating Two Existing Models of Tertiary Student Learning
We have now had this paper accepted at Educational Psychology. This was a collaboration between Ken and colleagues at the Australian National University. Abstract: Recent research has mapped the ways social identification and normative influence…
Grants
Grant to study Christian IDP’s in Iraq
We were excited to be collaborating with an American-based NGO,…
Grant awarded by the Scottish Medical Education Research Consortium (SMERC)
We received a grant for just under £10,000 to progress…
Publications

When student and educator learning norms collide:
This paper is a collaboration between Ken and colleagues at the Australian National University. It is the first paper where we try…
Finding connections in social identity and post-structuralist perspectives
One of the interesting challenges in the recent edited book…
Social identity in education: the modifying role for perceived norms
This is a book chapter by Lillian Smyth, Kenneth I.…
Self & Social Identity in Educational Contexts
We are delighted that this edited book is now out…
Student Projects

Bashar Albaghli completes his PhD
Bashar came to St Andrews supported by Kuwait University, after completing a Masters in the US. The focus of Bashar’s project has…
Kerry O’Brien completes his PhD
Congratulations to Kerry for completing his PhD changes in time for…
Learning behaviour and outcomes: Social influence and field of study
This is an article by Lillian Smyth, Kenneth I. Mavor, and…
More Articles
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…
Talamas paper on subtle facial cues to perceived intelligence in JEP:G
One of the papers form Sean’s PhD has been accepted in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. The paper “Eyelid-Openness and Mouth Curvature Influence Perceived Intelligence Beyond Attractiveness” explores the impact of these subtle facial cues and perceived intelligence controlling for the well-known attractiveness halo.…
Blinded by Beauty: Talamas article on accuracy of perceived intelligence in PLoS One
One of Sean’s studies from his PhD has formed the basis of a paper published recently in PLoS One. Sean’s focus has been on different dimensions of perceived intelligence. In this article we examined perceptions of conscientiousness, perceived academic performance and perceived intelligence predicting actual…
Perceiver intelligence and the halo effect: Talamas article published in PAID
The third leg of Sean’s PhD has been published in Personality and Individual Differences (PAID). In this article we found that the perceiver’s own intelligence impacts upon their endorsement of the attractiveness halo – that is the more they see other faces that are attractive…
Kerry O’Brien PhD submitted
Kerry O’Brien submitted his PhD at the ANU this week. Kerry’s PhD is titled “Framing issues and identities: Aligning the content of group identity with the meaning of issues to produce normative influence.” The project was aimed at integrating the Social Identity model of normative…
Book chapter on causality in collective action
A recent book explores important issues of causality in a range of domains. It was great to be part of a group contributing to a chapter exploring how causality plays out in current models of collective action. “Causality in the study of collective action and…
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…
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…
Sean Talamas PhD completed
Sean Talamas has submitted his PhD (Co-supervised by Dave Perrett and Ken Mavor) on various aspects of perceived intelligence and the attractiveness Halo. The thesis demonstrates that malleable facial cues can influence perceptions of intelligence, identifies individual differences that influence endorsement of the intelligence-attractiveness halo,…