Profile

I am a research psychologist at Northumbria University, Newcastle. I am also the Director of Research for the Department of Psychology, which basically means that it’s my job to decide what the important questions are that we should be researching, and to help my colleagues to apply for money from the government, charities or organisations/businesses to fund their research. My own research investigates the causes and consequences of stress. For example, I am interested in whether your personality determines how you will respond to stress, and the ways that stress can make you ill. My research often uses questionnaires, where people report how they are feeling, or how they would respond in certain situations. I also sometimes measure people’s stress responses in other ways, for example by measuring stress hormones in people’s saliva or by measuring the activity of the heart. Additionally, I am interested in ways that we can reduce people’s stress levels. Recently, I have been exploring the benefits of positive writing, where people write down their happy thoughts – and this seems to help some people to feel less stressed! Alongside my research, I also teach Health Psychology (which deals with how psychological factors like stress can make us ill) to the students at my university.

One of the things I love most about my job is that it can be fairly flexible. Most days I will either drop my daughter off at school or pick her up (depending on what meetings, teaching and research commitments I have on that day).  I can then work late or catch up on a bit of work in the evenings to make up the time. This helps me to maintain a good work-life balance. I need to balance my research work with my teaching commitments as well as meetings and admin associated with my Director of Research role, which isn’t always easy!!! So, to be honest every day is always a bit different. I especially enjoy working with my research students to help them develop their own research projects – that is the most rewarding part of my job!