Research
Research Interest 1
I have research interests in Social, Organizational and Environmental Psychology with a broad social science background. I have worked extensively on cross- disciplinary research with engineers, computer scientists, biologists, vets and medics. My main areas of expertise are in identifying the factors underlying human behaviour, behaviour change, attitudes and attitude measurement. My research has been conducted in a variety of significant substantive areas of societal importance. This has included working with vets examining farmers’ behaviour and attitudes in relation to bovine TB. In particular this work looked at the relationship between policy and regulation and behaviour. I have recently published a major DfT supported study of transport mode choice, modelling the role of habit in relation to attitudes and behaviour. I currently have a significant interest in the social and psychological drivers underlying Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). I was a member of the ESRC’s 2014 working group on AMR, which led to the publication, Anti-Microbial Resistance: Setting the Social Science Agenda. I was the ESRC’s consultant in producing the research priorities for Theme 4 of the cross-council AMR research initiative. I authored the ESRC 2015 publication, Anti-Microbial Resistance: Behaviour within and Beyond the Healthcare Setting. I am a member of the NERC assessment panel for stage one of theme 3 applications. I was also a member of Nesta’s advisory group for the Longitude Prize 2014 on Antibiotic Resistance. In December 2015 I took part in international workshops on AMR sponsored by the Uk research councils an the Natural Science Foundation of China. The workshops took place in Shanghai with the aim of developing priorities of the Newton Fund and the NSFC.
I have conducted extensive funded research in industry looking at attitudes and safety as well as occupational stress. This follows on from international research I carried out in Hong Kong and China looking at worker stress.
I have been involved in extensive collaborations within the University, nationally and internationally. I would welcome future possibilities - I particularly like working in areas where it is not at all obvious that psychology has something to contribute. It almost always turns out that it has.
I am happy to consider PhD proposals from students. Recent students have examined issues such as domestic violence, volume crime, elder homicide, stress, environmental cues and arson, organizational risk culture, safety performance in industry, attitudes towards illicit drug use, and employee stress. My students have a very strong track record of successful completion of PhDs within deadline.
Research groups
Research grants
SCORE (Sensing Changes in Operational Risk)
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
August 2001 - April 2004
Intra-individual communication behaviour in conflict negotiation.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
January 2004 - December 2004
Value in People Award 2005.
WELLCOME TRUST (UK)
October 2005 - September 2009
Staff Well-Being
5 BOROUGHS PARTNERSHIP (UK)
April 2011 - March 2017
Stop and search research project.
MERSEYSIDE POLICE (UK)
August 2004 - December 2004
Workplace Stress and Employee Absenteeism: Development and Empirical Test of A Process Model.
MERSEY CARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST (UK)
September 2012 - July 2017
Identification of changes in individual and global farmer behaviour relating to the movement and management of cattle in the UK with particular reference to the introduction of bTB control measures.
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS (UK)
April 2007 - September 2009
Research collaborations
Dr Joseph Savirimuthu
Developing work on Big Data and its implications
Professor Werner Hofer
Joint grant writing and discussion of research and teaching on sustainability
Professor Yi Huang
Developing research proposals bringing together psychology and engineering systems for sustainability
Professor Paul Taylor
Lancaster University
Security. Communication. Safety. Joint grant applications and publications
Dr Margaret Wilson
Imperial College London
Security
Dr Stacey Conchie
Lancaster University
Research on safety, leadership, trust. Joint grant applications and publications
Dr Xu Zhu
Research on sustainability through electronic and psychological systems and processes.
Professor Kenton Morgan
Joint grant applications.
Dr Rob Christley
Joint publications and grant applications. Farmer behaviour/ food security.
Dr Simon Cooper
Liverpool John Moores University
Research on attitudes and the development of the Theory of Planned Behaviour model
Professor Cary Cooper
The University of Lancaster
European-wide research on occupational stress.