I am a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a UKCGE Recognised Research Supervisor, an award winning teacher of Psychology, and an active researcher in the field of Social Psychology, Mental Health and Well-being. 

I served as a member of the British Psychological Society Social Psychology Section Committee from 2020 and served as Chair of the member network between 2021 and 2023, and Past Chair and senior member of the executive committee in 2024.  I am a former Associate Editor and current Deputy Editor of the British Journal of Social Psychology.

I am former Deputy Director of the Centre for Applied Behavioural Sciences (CABS) and Director of the newly formed SOCIAL Impact Lab.

I am also an Associate Member of the NTU Social Identity Research Group

Contact to discuss research, collaboration, consultancy, or supervision using: [email protected]

My research is primarily located within social psychology and mental health, where I employ both quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore identity processes in relation to collective, personal, and place-related identities and how they interact with mental health and well-being outcomes. 

Specific areas of study and research impact include: social prescribing, loneliness reduction, community volunteering, experiences of poverty, financial and food insecurity, marginalisation and stigma, identity transitions, temporal aspects of national, community, and collective identity, mental health and well-being, group processes; social issues and health. 

I have a wide range of experience in media engagement including radio, television, and print. I can be consulted on topics relating to community and social groups, collective, place-based and national phenomena, society and health and well-being; social prescribing; volunteering and the community and voluntary sector, nature and ecotherapy, place-related identity; transitions to parenthood and its impact on mental health; lived experiences of financial insecurity and food poverty; and the relationships between time, history, and national identity

I achieved a first class honours degree in psychology at the University of Dundee in 2004. After a working as a research assistant for Prof Fabio Sani on an ESRC funded project exploring perceived collective continuity between 2004 and 2006/7, I acquired an MSc in Psychological Research Methods in 2008 before embarking on a PhD. My PhD research focused on the role of places in identity processes and specifically assessed the temporal aspects of place identity and their connections with both social identity and mental health.

I moved to Nottingham Trent University in 2010 to take up the post of Lecturer before being promoted to Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor.  I gained experience of teaching and research supervision at UG, PG, and PGR levels at NTU where I was also a research group lead, course leader, and programme director between 2010 and 2022. 

I took up the post of Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology in the School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in September 2022 where I teach courses in research impact and applying psychology on the MSc in Applied Psychology using engagement and involvement principles and community engaged learning and active learning approaches.  I am the Global Course Coordinator for the Independent Project in Psychology course across all of HWU's MSc Psychology Programmes.

Social Psychology, Social Identity, Health and Wellbeing, Social Prescribing, Collective Experiences, Loneliness and Isolation, Marginalisation and Stigma, Food Poverty and Financial Insecurity, National Identity, Temporal Identity and Collective Continuity