Psychology Research
Research in Psychology
Research is an integral part of UN's activity and the School of Social Sciences is committed to building and maintaining a strong research base. Psychology is one of the largest staff groups in the School and takes a leading role in promoting research activities. Currently there are four research groups in Psychology, with all staff belonging to at least one of these groups. These groups broadly include the following research areas: critical and social psychology; developmental and health psychology; cognition and achievement, including teaching and learning; and transpersonal and parapsychology.
The critical psychology and parapsychology research groups are especially active and are creating research centres of excellence in their respective areas. Some examples of the critical psychology group's research includes work on gender, ethnicity and race, politics and professionalisation, motherhood and the discourse of sexual harassment and disability.
Parapsychological research is conducted within the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes (CSAPP). The centre focuses on the study of transpersonal and parasychological experiences and phenomena. CSAPP staff members are involved with a wide variety funded research projects, some involving researchers working at other UK institutions, as well as international projects involving European and U.S. researchers.
Staff research is funded by a variety of external grants. Recent funding bodies include the Perrott Warrick Fund, the Bial Foundation, the Sameuli Institute for Information Biology, the Society for Psychical Research and the British Academy. Funding has also been made available from regional sources to undertake joint research projects, eg. evaluating subjective experience of an intensive therapy unit with a local NHS Hospital Trust.
Psychology is well supported by a range of specialist research facilities, including audio/visual recording facilities, sound-attenuated and shielded rooms and psychophysiological measuring equipment. A participant pool is maintained for members of the public who wish to become involved with some of the interesting and enjoyable research being conducted within Psychology. There is also a regular programme of research seminars supported by staff, research students and visiting speakers.
More details about research opportunities, as well as research participation, may be obtained from Professor Deborah Delanoy, the Research Leader for Psychology.
The Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes (CSAPP)
This centre is a recognised national and international centre of excellence in the areas of parapsychological and transpersonal psychological research. CSAPP occupies a specialised, niche research area, being one of only four academically-based research centres in the world dedicated to the study of psychological processes that are anomalous in the sense that they are beyond current scientific understanding, e.g., the experience and phenomena of extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK), and experiences of unusual and/or exceptional quality, such as mystical and peak experiences. The centre co-ordinates and promotes this research within The University of Northampton's research community, as well as fostering national and international research collaborations with external researchers and academics. Additionally, CSAPP provides a focus for both undergraduate and postgraduate recruitment and a supportive environment for the training of research students and junior staff. The Centre plans to return at least five staff members in RAE 2008, and hopes to achieve a rating of 4 or higher.
The University of Northampton staff associated with CSAPP include six full-time academic staff members, one part-time senior researcher, three research degree students and three research assistants. The Director of CSAPP is Professor Deborah Delanoy and other members are: Dr Malcolm Walley; Dr Chris Roe; Mr Anthony Edwards; Dr Simon Sherwood; and Dr Richard Broughton, Dr Kevin Buchanan.
CSAPP staff members have attracted a major proportion of the available U.K. funding for parapsychological research, and a significant amount of the available international funding in the current RAE period. During this period income generated by CSAPP-related grants has totalled over £250,000. This funding has come from a variety of national, European and USA-based funding organisations.
Some examples of recent grants are:
- £155,000 Delanoy (PI), Roe & Sherwood: Examining Participant Roles in Psi Research; the Perrott-Warrick Fund (Trinity College, Cambridge University), 2000 - 05)
- € 38,000 Roe: Sender as the PK source in ganzfeld studies; Bial Foundation (Portugal); 2003-05
- € 45,000 Broughton: Somatic markers and intuition; Bial Foundation (Portugal); 2003-04
- $ 61,500 Broughton: Testing of models of anomalous skin conductance; Samueli Institute (USA); 2004/05€ 48,000 Roe: ESP & PK as a unitary phenomenon; Bial Foundation (Portugal); 2002-03
- £ 8,000 Delanoy: Exploring psychomanteum experiences: Society for Psychical Research Grant for equipment and research (UK); 2002-05
- $ 3,000 Sherwood: Francis P. Bolton Fellowship Award; Parapsychology Foundation (USA); 2003
- £ 1,293 Sherwood: Archival examination of reports of black dog apparitions; Society for Psychical Research Grant (UK); 2003-04
Additionally, staff hold elected positions on international and national professional organisations (e.g., Broughton, Delanoy and Roe hold elected positions on the Parapsychological Association and Edwards is an elected representative to the Transpersonal Section of the BPS). Additional indicators of standing are that Roe serves as senior editor of a journal and a consultant to another and Delanoy is on the editorial board/editorial consultant of three journals. Delanoy and Broughton are both involved in refereeing grant proposals for a number of funding organisations including the Society for Psychical Research, the Perrott-Warrick and the Parapsychological Association.
The centre has plans to expand its research degree student population. Five staff members are currently available to serve as supervisors for PhD students (Buchanan, Delanoy, Roe, Sherwood and Walley), and interested students should see Staff Profiles to obtain more information about specific areas of expertise.
MPhil and PhD Research Degrees
Psychology has a growing number of research degree students. Students are able to pursue degrees in any area of staff expertise (see Staff Profiles for staff research interests). Current research students are working in the areas of health psychology, critical psychology, transpersonal and parapsychology. For more information about undertaking a Psychology research degree, please contact the Research Degree Administrator at the Graduate School, or Professor Deborah Delanoy in Psychology.
Links between Research and Teaching
Staff members' research interests and activity informs undergraduate teaching. Level three option modules particularly are based on staff members specialist research areas. These currently include modules on Parapsychology and Anomalous Experiences, Transpersonal Psychology, New Paradigms in Psychology, The Psychology of Health, and Forensic psychology. At postgraduate level, the master's programme in Child and Adolescent Mental Health was developed out of staff interests and students are encouraged to choose research areas of internal staff and linked external practitioners when selecting topics for their own research projects for their dissertations. Staff research strengths in qualitative and quantitative methodologies are utilised on several of the modules in the institution's MSc in Research Methods.
Grant supported research has led to the further development of the Division's resources including new video-recording facilities, psycho-physiological measuring equipment and shielded experimental testing environments, all of which undergraduates can access for their own research work in level 3. Students have presented the findings of their empirical dissertation at national conferences and some have published their work in research journals. Students are encouraged to participate in ongoing staff research projects and on occasion have worked as research assistants on staff members' externally funded projects.
