Category: PhD

Interested in PhD study?

21 March 2024 / admin / 0 Comments

We are pleased to announce the release of six new PhD projects that will be supervised by members of the Interpersonal Relationships & Wellbeing Research Group. These opportunities are for self-funding students and align with major areas of research activity within the group.

Why study our projects?

We asked project supervisors to give us an insight into the value and importance of their proposed projects and we share their comments below. Please click on the project title links to find out more.

Pro-Environmental Behaviour and Life History Theory

Dr Daniel Farrelly, Principal Lecturer in Psychology will supervise this project and Daniel explains why this work is important:

“Our early surroundings can have profound and lifelong effects on our cognition, perception and emotions. These effects shape how we respond to our world in later life, and can predict how we interpret and behave in different scenarios such as risk-taking, impulsivity and social relationships. One possible further effect our early life can have is on pro-environmental behaviour, and this project will explore precisely this. By doing so it will offer valuable insights into how attempts to tackle the climate crisis can be shaped for different populations in society.”

Training emotional competency in the workplace: Does ‘one size’ really ‘fit all’?

Dr Sarah Davis, Principal Lecturer in Psychology and Interpersonal Relationships & Wellbeing Group Lead will supervise this project. Sarah explains that:

“Training emotional competencies in the workplace has become commonplace, particularly with the rise of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy. Most of us will have heard of programmes that teach ‘perspective taking’, ‘sensitivity training’, or ‘emotional intelligence’ in our workplaces. But does everyone always benefit from these ‘interventions’ at work? Might there be some unanticipated and unintended consequences for employers and employees? This research seeks to explore the scope of these practices within organisations across the UK and explore this neglected but important question.”

“Getting On With It!”: Ensuring Safe and Compassionate Supervision and Thinking Spaces for Practitioners in Child Protection Practice

Dr Claire McLoone-Richards, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Violence Prevention, Trauma and Criminology and leader of our Trauma & Violence Prevention theme will supervise this project. Claire outlines why this research is valuable:

“The professional experiences and practices of child protection is complex, challenging and takes a toll on the emotional well-being and resilience of practitioners. This study can examine the need for promoting and ensuring organisational cultures of compassion and safety for staff, as being conducive to enabling critical reflective practice to protect vulnerable children.”

“Please take us seriously!”: examining the help and support needs of male victims of domestic abuse

Dr Claire McLoone-Richards Senior Lecturer in the Department of Violence Prevention, Trauma and Criminology and leader of our Trauma & Violence Prevention theme will supervise this project. Claire explains:

“This is an important research theme when considering the experiences of less visible and marginalised groups. The concern of male victims is troubling against the backdrop of “toxic masculinities” in society, as restrictive gender norms and the shaming of men, make it more difficult for victims to disclose their experiences of abuse.”

Read more from Dr McLoone-Richards here.

Responsible virtual assistant for effective marketing communication

Dr Sajad Rezaei, Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, and member of our Customer Interactions theme will supervise this project. Sajad believes that “exploring Responsible AI empowers academics and practitioners to discover the potential of emerging technologies for society.”

How care-experienced individuals define and achieve career success

Dr Pamela Murray, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Organisational Behaviour, and member of our People and Work theme will supervise this project. Pamela notes that “A regrettable relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and a range of marked negative outcomes impacting the life course exists [see a recent report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood:

Children enter the care system for a myriad of reasons, most of which can be characterised by loss of a pivotal positive in the children’s lives. That being the case, this vision of this research is to explore enabling interventions experienced by care-leavers making their way toward personal fulfilment by achievement of career aspirations”.

How to apply

If you wish to apply for any of these projects, please go to our Course Search and select the relevant research degree programme area.

An application link can then be found towards the bottom of each programme page. In your application, please remember to clearly highlight that you are applying for one of our un-funded MPhil/PhD project ideas.

Highlighting issues with the jury system

5 March 2024 / admin / 0 Comments

Recently, there have been several programmes highlighting issues with the jury system. In the US there was Jury Duty (Heller, 2023), a reality hoax series about jury service. In this programme, all jurors, witnesses, attorneys and even the judge are actors, except for one juror, Ronald Gladden who thinks he is serving on a real jury trial. Although comedic, this programme highlights issues within the US jury system and jury decision-making more generally.

In the UK, The Jury: Murder Trial, was shown on Channel 4 (Shapira, 2024). Unlike Jury Duty, this was a dramatisation of a real, anonymised murder case with two real juries (classified as red and blue) trying the case. Neither jury was aware of one another in order to investigate whether they both reached the same verdict. The programme reiterated that little is known about jury decision making. This is not helped by restrictions imposed by s.8 of the Contempt of Court Act, 1981. Under this act, jurors are forbidden from talking about their deliberations and research inside the jury room is forbidden meaning jury decision-making processes are shrouded in secrecy (Curley et. al., 2022; Salerno & Diamond, 2010; Sprain & Gastil, 2017).

In the programme, it was evident how the individual decision quickly became a collective one, and how the group dynamic plays a crucial role in the decision-making processes, for example, the influence of strong personalities on the group. The programme also highlighted how difficult the role of the jury is, and the cognitive and emotional toll it takes on jurors. In particular, it demonstrated the dissonance in how they felt they should make the decision according to legal instruction, versus how they would like to make the decision according to their feelings or intuition. It also demonstrated how much of the decision was influenced by their own schemas and experiences, for example, one juror told the group how he threw a plate at his wife during an argument, showing how someone could lose their self-control. Additionally, it demonstrated the role of emotion in making the verdict decision. Feelings toward the defendant were portrayed by jurors who said things like, ‘I feel sorry for him’, and also towards the victim, which were often more negative and demonstrated victim blame, e.g., ‘she was goading him’. Even feelings toward the other witnesses and barristers played a role in the decision of murder or manslaughter in this case.

Although we only see a snapshot of the data/footage in these television programmes, they do highlight issues with juries that could affect fairness, and how we need to know much more about the collective decision-making processes of the jury.

My PhD research explores the group decision-making processes of the jury, and I have found similarities with these programmes, particularly The Jury: Murder Trial. I also used an anonymised murder case, and two mock juries that were present for the trial and who then deliberated to reach a verdict. These juries were not run simultaneously but on two separate occasions. My research aims to explore how the jury reach a verdict, and how the group itself i.e., interpersonal processes, group dynamics, effect or influence that decision making.

I found that the juries in my research also based their decisions on their own experiences, schemas, and values. They very quickly became a decision making group rather than a set of individuals, and although minority members conformed to the majority with very little questioning or argument, they did not recognise the influence of the group on this change of decision. Despite being in a mock jury and knowing that there were no real consequences of their decision making, I also found that jurors struggled psychologically and emotionally with their decision. They mentioned the discomfort between how they were meant to make the decision and how they actually felt the decision should go, i.e., they were instructed to make the decision objectively on the evidence presented, but felt that the defendant was actually guilty. Both groups did find the defendant ‘not guilty’ despite him being charged with murder in the real trial.

These kinds of findings, both in the Channel 4 programme, and in my research, are worrying as jurors show that they are not objective decision makers, but base their decisions on feelings, existing schemas, and the influence of the group itself.

Sarah Lloyd

Sarah Lloyd is a Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at the University of Worcester. She is a member of the Trauma & Violence Prevention research theme within the Interpersonal Relationships Wellbeing Research Group. Sarah is interested in how the jury collectively reach their verdict decision and the group processes involved in this. Sarah’s PhD explores this topic in the context of a murder trial. Further details of Sarah’s work can be found at https://www.worcester.ac.uk/about/profiles/sarah-lloyd

A Road Less Travelled

28 April 2022 / admin / 2 Comments

The PhD by Publication

Gray Asphalt Road in Between Trees
Peter Fazekas

‘Life is difficult. This is a great truth. One of the greatest truths.’ The opening sentence of M. Scott Peck’s seminal text, The Road Less Travelled, had my attention immediately. I read his book in my very early twenties just as I was completing my student training to qualify as a Mental Health Nurse, in my home county of Donegal. The book resonated with me as young woman back then, as I had seen a lot of the harshness of life as a student nurse and the difficulties that people experienced due to mental ill health. I was also quite naive about what lay ahead for me in my life. I was optimistic about where life would take me and what I might accomplish over the course of my future and my career. I had no appreciation then that I would travel to England and be domicile here for the next thirty-five years or more, as my career and continued education opened paths and gateways that I never envisaged or anticipated. And yes, some parts of my journey were difficult, as a nod here to M. Scott Peck. When I left home for England in 1987, I promised that I would return once I considered myself to be more qualified and accomplished in my career. Surprisingly perhaps, I never thought that I would eventually achieve what would be one of my greatest achievements, that is, my PhD award.

The QAA 2020 defines the main characteristics of the PhD by Publication as follows:

‘A candidate presents a portfolio of interconnected published research papers contextualised by a coherent narrative, demonstrating overall an original contribution to knowledge. Such publications may include papers, chapters, monographs, books, scholarly editions of a text, technical reports, creative works in relevant areas, or other artefact’ (p.8).

Smith 2015 emphasizes that the PhD by Publication is a very useful alternative for individuals who are already widely published, are established researchers or mid-career academics. I would also add that the route can appeal to those individuals who have a diverse professional back story on which to draw from, in the context of prospective publications on a given theme and research interest. It is fair to say that the typical traditional research doctorate is just one form of the range of other PhD programmes, including a taught PhD, or a professional doctorate. There is a consensus in academia that the undertaking of a doctoral study is about the creation of original and coherent contribution to knowledge. However, there are two key differences between the traditional PhD route and that of the PhD by Publication.

Firstly, the traditional PhD is based on a supervised programme of study with an allocated supervision team, to assist with the progression towards the submission of the final thesis. Whereas the PhD by Publication candidate will work closely with their Mentor and, their thesis is based on a selection of coherently themed peer-reviewed publications. Secondly, the candidate on the traditional route will be trained and supervised by their allocated supervisors in research methodology, to identify the most appropriate methodology for their research. Whereby the PhD by Publication candidate’s research methodology is recognised and evaluated within the retrospective analysis of their publications. The PhD by published work still attracts the smallest uptake by candidates. Admittedly, this road less travelled that I decided to navigate was in fact, long and windy. There were plenty of bumps on the way which jolted my confidence on occasion and, at certain times I got a bit lost or ran out of fuel. In some ways, it felt like a pioneering journey and at times lonesome, as there were very few of my academic colleagues or, other doctoral candidates who had or were pursuing this route.

To cut a very long story short, having worked in various services relating to mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, domestic violence, and child protection, I eventually started my academic career with the University of Worcester in the summer of 2007. I took up my position as a Senior Lecturer with the former Centre for Early Childhood and I quickly immersed myself in the business of teaching and subsequently researching and writing for publication. I was very fortunate to work with inspirational colleagues who invited and encouraged me to write a series of book chapters which focused on my expertise from my professional history. The chapter themes and peer-reviewed journal articles related to issues of children’s rights, child protection, domestic violence and subsequently, the professional development of Early Childhood Educators and Carers. My research did not happen in an isolated vacuum, I was very involved with my collegiate communities of academics and students within and beyond the university. Mantai 2017 describes how PhD candidates interact with others, develop their own support networks and learn and develop internally and externally to their research environments. This is despite the soundings in the literature of student isolation and loneliness.

Mantai (2017) also relates how doctoral candidates face many intellectual and emotional challenges, some of which can result in students’ ‘feelings of intellectual inferiority’ amongst their peers, akin to imposter syndrome (p.638). I reflect on how I had to really dig deep at times to find my doctoral voice. One of the safest places in doing so was with my wonderful PhD Mentor, who gave me the time and space to articulate my ideas, my research woes and my thinking about how to extrapolate the essential ‘cover story’ Lee, 2010, of my combined selected publications for the final portfolio. In amplifying my doctoral voice, I made good use of research seminars to talk to my peers about my research journey so far. I also attended national and international conferences to present my research and the germinating synthesis of my combined publications and their contribution to knowledge.

The final examination of the PhD by Publication does of course involve the Viva as with all PhD candidates. The submitted review of my selected publications, along with the necessary synthesis of the publications to demonstrate their coherency, originality and critical contribution to knowledge underwent the required examination and scrutiny. Undoubtedly, this was a challenging and extraordinary experience in the last lap of my PhD journey, but I endured and enjoyed it very much indeed.

Niven and Grant 2012 write how they discovered that PhDs by publications ‘are not an ‘easy way out’ to the qualification’….there is nothing in our experience that suggests this mode is ‘easier’ than traditional doctoral studies’ (p.110). The authors comment on the most rewarding and creative aspects of this PhD route which is the ‘importance of the person of the researcher’ (p.110) and the significance of the reflective narrative of the doctoral experience as a journey. These thoughts are salient as I conclude with my own observations as a previous PhD by Publication candidate. In research ‘emphasis is given to the importance of “critical subjectivity” which should not be suppressed, as it is also an anchor to the researcher’s inquiry so that we do not become overwhelmed….[or] become lost in our own narrative’ McLoone-Richards, 2021, p. 4. In short, as researchers we all have our stories based on our personal, professional and academic experiences. These narratives inform who we are as researchers, and it is this recognition that particularly resonates with the PhD by Publication in extricating the so called ‘cover-story’ of our collected works.

Key Messages for the potential PhD by Publication candidate:

As a published author or if you are considering developing your publication profile, do remain mindful of the importance of identifying the common and coherent theme/s within your final selection of publications for your thesis.
You should have the opportunity to be involved in the selection of your Mentor who will work closely with you for the duration of your PhD journey. Ideally, this should be someone who has previous knowledge and experience of the PhD by Publication route. So, ensure this person is someone you can relate to as this is important in developing a constructive, challenging and supportive academic relationship.
Finally, have faith in yourself and your abilities. There will be good days and there will be days when you may feel like giving up on your PhD, but keep going on that road!

Dr. Claire McLoone-Richards

Claire is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Violence Prevention, Trauma and Criminology, School of Psychology, University of Worcester, and a member of the Trauma & Violence Prevention research theme within the Interpersonal Relationships and Wellbeing Research Group. She is currently the Course Leader for the MA in Understanding Domestic and Sexual Violence MA Understanding Domestic and Sexual Violence and her research and teaching expertise is related to child and adult protection, institutional child abuse, professional advocacy and violence prevention.