Our Research

Novel Perceptions:

This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and explores how the general public perceives the quality of hundreds of novels. The team includes specialists from various disciplines including English Literature, Literary Studies, Computational Linguistics and Sociology, with Dr Tom Mercer providing insights from psychology. One strand of the project explores memory, investigating how people have remembered stories and characters they read in the past. Memory for emotions experienced while reading is also explored, and further information about Novel Perceptions is available here.

Cybermind Project:

Prof. Uther is part of a research team that successful secured funding (£31,000) from Innovate UK to conduct research from July 2020-March 2021 in the field of stress among Cybersecurity professionals. Read more here.

Investigating the interface between gambling and gaming:

Dr Lloyd (PI) and Prof Uther (co-I) from in the Centre for Psychological Research (CRUW cluster) have secured funding from GambleAware to run a multi-institution project exploring a potential mergence between gambling and gaming through chance-based micro-transactions in videogames. The project team includes external collaborators Drs Lloyd, Close and Smith (University of Plymouth), Dr Thomas Raymen (Northumbria University), Dr Chris Stiff (University of Keele) and Dr Jonathan Parke (Sophro). The funding is worth £300,321 over 18 months (Dec 2019 - June 2021) and employs Dr Laura Nicklin (formerly of University York) as a Research Associate to work with us for the duration of the project. Read more here. 

Exploring harmful [mis]information via normalised online violent content:

Dr Joanne Lloyd and Dr Laura Louise Nicklin from the Department of Psychology and the CRUW Cyberpsychology Research Cluster successfully secured $98,000 of research funding from Facebook’s Foundational Integrity Research: Misinformation and Polarization call, which received over 1,000 applications from around the globe. They will be conducting research into the viewing and sharing of extreme real-world violent content over social media, and its potential harms. Read more here.

“Board gaming and Covid: A qualitative investigation of board gaming as a psychological coping strategy during the Covid 19 Pandemic”. (Dr Jo Meredith & Dr Chelsea Slater):

Board game use has increased, and current research is predicting that global board game markets could grow to more than $12 billion by 2023 (Research and Markets, 2018). Currently there are large areas of research into the benefits and uses of board games that currently are completely unexplored. Individuals turned to board gaming during the Covid-19 Pandemic as a way of managing isolation. This study used a qualitative interview design to explore the perceived benefits of board games and online board gaming, and the impact this had during Covid-19. Data collection has been completed, with 18 online interviews conducted. Qualitative, thematic analysis is currently ongoing.

Mental health and Help-Seeking in high stress occupations

(Dr Niall Galbraith, Dr David Boyda, Dr Danielle McFeeters, Dr Alexa Guy, Dr Claire Jones, Dr Wendy Nicholls, Dr Hana Morrisey).

Mental health difficulties MHD bring immense distress to those who experience them and can impact family, relationships, work and study. Getting help for MHD can take many forms, but often, people are reluctant to seek out that help because of fear, shame, or not knowing where or how to ask for help. We are interested in understanding how this reluctance to seek help affects people, what the reasons for it are and what can be done to make people more likely to seek the help they need. We have done research on MH help-seeking in high stress occupations, such as doctors, nurses and police. During the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, we published an article highlighting the effects of the pandemic on doctors.

More recently, we have embarked on a project to explore help-seeking in other frontline professions, in particular the farming industry and in probation workers. These two professions face high levels of stress, but they are researched far less than some other high-stress occupations. Our project – funded by the University of Wolverhampton - involves conducting interviews and using Q-sort methodology to establish what the MH help-seeking needs and wishes are of farmers and probation workers. The project finishes in 2024 and is in collaboration with our colleagues in the Institute for Community Research and Development.

Adolescent help-seeking

We are also embarking on a systematic review of research in adolescent mental health. This stems from our interest young people’s understanding of what psychology is and how psychology services work and whether these understandings affect adolescents’ willingness to seek help. Our review will take stock of existing clinical trials on mental health literacy interventions in schools and whether they improve adolescents’ intentions to get help if they need it.

Mental health help-seeking in the UK Sikh population.

Dr Supreet Uppal, now a lecturer at Coventry University, conducted her PhD here at Wolverhampton, supervised by Dr Opinderjit Takhar (Centre for Sikh Studies, UoW), Dr Ranjit Kutan (School of Health and Society) and Dr Niall Galbraith from the school of Psychology. The first journal article from Supreet’s thesis, will be submitted in early summer 2023, the article describes the first large-scale survey of Sikh mental health and help-seeking in the UK (1001 respondents). More news on this to follow.

The lived experience of family planning of female patients diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and their partners during key reproductive stages – a qualitative study - Funding brought by Dr Satvinder Purewal (co-I) from Crohn’s and Colitis UK. £72,653.17, 2017.  Read more here.

Evaluating the efficacy of Active HERE - a brief, personalised physical activity intervention based on the health trainer model. Development and delivery of the programme was in Herefordshire, a large, rural English county, with a sizeable older and inactive adult population. Dr Niall Galbraith and external partners Tiller Research (£42000.00, funded by Herefordshire Council and Sport England). 

Police call handling service Digital 101: Effective interactions over social media messages (Dr Jo Meredith)

The research project explored how participants present and respond to the reason for the contact and establish shared norms and expectations for how the digital conversation will be organised. The priorities for the analysis were developed and refined in close collaboration with the police force throughout the project to reflect changing operational arrangements within the Control Room and due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We were able to conduct a wide-reaching conversation analysis that covered both the original priorities and emerging areas of interest in how the Digital 101 service operates. Our analysis addressed:

• How reasons for contact are presented by callers and initially dealt with by chat handlers.
• How to effectively manage chats in which the caller is requesting assistance with a non-policeable matter
• What some of the key differences were between 101 telephone calls and Digital 101 chats and how these differences can be best managed in Digital 101.
• How chat handlers can deal with moments when the caller expresses dissatisfaction with the police service

Seminar video for the Aston Institute of Forensic Linguistics available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=937_P7k0ADg

A project for the Tracheo-Oesophageal Fistula (TOFS) Charity: The role of Facebook groups in supporting TOFs and their family members

(Dr Jo Meredith & Dr Darren Chadwick)

We conducted a study examining the role of the TOFs Facebook groups in providing support to carers of TOFs and Adult TOFs. We asked members to complete a survey, asking questions about their use of the Facebook groups and their physical and psychological wellbeing.  A total of 64 members completed the survey. We conducted statistical and qualitative analysis around well-being, satisfaction with the Facebook groups and the role of the Facebook groups in supporting parents. We made a number of recommendations to the charity which the Facebook administrators have implemented.