Research themes of the Psychological Sciences Research Group (PSRG)

Psychology research at UWE Bristol has a track record in delivering applied research around three themes.

Applied Cognition and Neuroscience (ACN)

Theme leader: Dr Kait Clark.

The Applied Cognition and Neuroscience (ACN) theme is home to our cognitive and experimental psychologists and neuroscientists. We have a common interest in exploring the workings of the mind and brain with an ultimate goal of translating our findings into real-world applications.

We specialise in areas including visual perception and attention, language and literacy development, emotion regulation, and social cognition. Our work also examines the impacts of factors such as drugs, sleep, and executive function on performance.

Our work has wide-ranging applications, including security science and radiology, offender identification, bilingualism and education, prejudice in society, alcohol consumption behaviour, driverless car technology, and virtual reality.

Optimising Performance and Engagement (OPE)

Theme leader: Dr Jemma Sedgmond.

The Optimising Performance and Engagement theme is made up of sport, exercise and work psychologists. We draw from psychological research evidence to design and implement strategies to optimise performance and engagement in sport and work contexts. We also examine the mechanisms that promote factors such as motivation, well-being, decision making and teamwork.

Our expertise is drawn from both research experience as well as applied practice. Our collaborations include projects with individuals, such as elite athletes and senior managers; teams, in both sports and business; as well as public and private-sector organisations and national governing bodies.

The video below is presented by Gemma Pike.

Promoting Psychological Health (PPH)

Theme leader: Dr Lucy Blake.

The Promoting Psychological Health theme is home to many of the staff who teach on our Masters and Professional Doctoral programmes in Health Psychology, Counselling Psychology and Music Therapy.

In our focus on promoting psychological health, we design, deliver and evaluate individual and group interventions. Importantly, we define promoting psychological health broadly and critically. As such, we think it is vital that our work also seeks to understand communities and environments and to be aware of the wider social factors that can cause harm at all levels. We have particular interests in areas related to community psychology and host the DRAW (Developing Research on the Arts and Well-being) and @SHWIG (Sexual Health and Well Being Interest Group) special interest groups.

The video below is presented by Dr Miles Thompson.

Contact us

All of our themes welcome contact from students, researchers and organisations (big or small) who are interested in our work and working with us.

Contact us