Team

In 2011, I was awarded a European Marie Curie Fellowship to pursue a PhD (2011-2015) at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck University of London. My doctoral thesis “Individual Differences in Infant Visual Attention: Links to Child Temperament, Behaviour and Genetic Variation” explored the genetics of visual attention in the first year of life; and the degree to which individual differences in newborns’ and infants’ visual attention predict variation in temperament, cognition and symptoms of psychopathology in childhood. I conducted my MSc thesis in the InLab, under the supervision of Professor Kovas, exploring social (e.g. stereotype threat) and biological (e.g. prenatal testosterone) factors that contribute to sex differences in spatial and mathematical ability across development. In 2011, I received an MSc degree in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience from Goldsmiths University of London, and a BSc degree in Psychology from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in 2009.

My current research interests involve exploring the degree to which dark personalities (with a particular focus on narcissism) contribute to resilience and performance across contexts. My work has focused on narcissism, as a first step, in order to highlight some positive sides of this seemingly dark trait, such as showing resilience. The objective of my research programme is not to rehabilitate dark personalities, but rather to contextualize them in a complex web of societal costs and benefits. In so doing, I plan, through collaborative work, to be able to look into ways in which society can harness the energy of dark personalities while also curtailing their potential for harm.

Professor Yulia Kovas

Yulia Kovas is Professor of Genetics and Psychology at Goldsmiths, and a visiting Professor at University of Sussex (UK), New York University in London, Tomsk State University (Russia) and Higher School of Economics (Russia).  She also lectures at UCL and King’s College, London and supervises many BSc, MSc, PhD, and Post-graduate students’ research in the UK and abroad. In addition to being the Director of InLab at Goldsmiths (International Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Investigations into Individual Differences in Learning), she co-directs the International Centre for Research in Human Development (ICRHD) at Tomsk State University and the Russian-British Laboratory for Behavioural Genetics at the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education, Moscow.  She leads the genetically informative research into mathematical development in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) at King’s College, London; and directs the Russian School Twin Registry (RSTR).  The goal of her research programme is to provide insights into the development of individual differences in cognitive abilities, emotional and motivational processes and academic achievement.  Understanding the origins of variation in these traits will ultimately lead to more personalised educational approaches and to better education for all learners.

Yulia Kovas received her Ph.D. in 2007 from the SGDP Centre, Institute of Psychiatry. Her thesis on Generalist Genes and Mathematics explored the origins of the individual differences in school mathematics. She received a degree in Literature and Linguistics as well as teaching qualifications from the University of St Petersburg, Russia in 1996 and taught children of all ages for 6 years.  She received a B.Sc in Psychology from Birkbeck College, University of London in 2003 and an MSc in Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry from the SGDP Centre, King’s College. This eclectic – interdisciplinary and international – educational background has ultimately led to the formation of InLab at Goldsmiths, University of London.  The laboratory conducts international, interdisciplinary research into individual differences in cognition, motivation, achievement and other educationally relevant traits – with the aim of providing new knowledge that can be used to improve education.  A major focus of the research is on numerical ability, mathematics, spatial ability, as well as creativity –  STEAM fields.  InLab is one of the founding members of INRiCHD – an International Network for Research in Child Health and Development.

In addition to this research programme, Professor Kovas is also involved in promotion of genetic knowledge and in work that considers implications of genetic research.  She is a member of the Council for Ethical, Societal and Legal Implications of Genetic Research in Child Development and Education; and Chair of the Psychology Department Ethics Committee at Goldsmiths. In 2015, InLab and the ICRHD became the founding members of TAGC – The Accessible Genetics Consortium.

Professor Sergey Malykh 

Sergey Malykh is a Professor in the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education, where he directs the Laboratory for Developmental Behavioral Genetics and co-directs the Russian-British laboratory for Behavioural Genetics. He is also the Head (Academician-Secretary) of the Department of Psychology and Developmental Physiology of the Russian Academy of Education and co-director of the  International Centre for Research in Human Development (ICRHD) at Tomsk State University. The focus of his research is currently on the genetic and environmental origins of variation in psychological and psychophysiological traits. The goal of his research programme is to provide insights into the development of individual differences in cognitive abilities, emotional and motivational processes and academic achievement. Professor Sergey Malykh has published more than 350 papers and is the senior author of the major textbook in the field in Russia (“Foundation of Behavioural Genetics”,1998; the first textbook on this topic in Russia). He is also the co-editor of several books including, “Gene. Brain. Behavior.” (Eds: Malykh, Torgersen), Oslo, Moscow, RP PRESS, 2007; “Behavioural Genetics for Education’ (Eds: Kovas, Malykh, Gaysina), Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016; Behavioural Genomics: Child Development and Education (Eds: Malykh, Kovas, Gaysina) Publishing House of Tomsk State University, 2016.

Prof. Sergey Malykh has an MSc (Distinction) degree in Psychology from Saratov State University (1979); a PhD in Psychophysiology from the Scientific Research Institute of General and Educational Psychology, Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, USSR (1986); Dr.Habiilitation in Behavioural Genetics from Psychological Institute of Russian academy of Education (2000).  He is also an elected member of the Russian Academy of Education (2012).

Professor Donald H. Saklofske

Professor, Dept of Psychology, University of Western Ontario. Canada.

I joined the Psychology Department at the University of Western Ontario, Canada in 2012. Previously, I was a Professor in Applied Psychology and Associate Dean Research (Faculty of Education) at the University of Calgary.  I am currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary as well as the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Visiting Professor in the School of Psychology at Beijing Normal University, and a Research Member in the Laboratory for Research and Intervention in Positive Psychology and Prevention, University of Florence, Italy.  Journal editorships include Personality and Individual Differences and the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment. I am also Editor for the Human Exceptionality book series published by Springer.

I am a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, and Society for Personality and Social Psychology.  I recently served on the Board of Directors and as President of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences and the Board of the Canadian Psychological Association. My research and professional interests and contributions are included in other sections of my profile (https://psychology.uwo.ca/people/faculty/profiles/saklofske.html), including my attached cv. The diversity of research achievements of our current lab of exceptional graduate students is outlined as well. Finally, I have a long standing interest in the martial arts and hold a black belt in Shito-Ryu karate.

Professor Constantine Sedikides

Constantine Sedikides’ research is on self and identity (including narcissism) and their interplay with emotion (especially nostalgia) as well as motivation, close relationships, and group or organizational processes (http://www.soton.ac.uk/~crsi/constantineprofile). This research has been supported by grants from various funding sources, such as Economic and Social Research Council, Leverhulme Trust, and National Institute of Health. He has received several awards including Distinguished Lifetime Career Award from International Society for Self and Identity), Kurt Lewin Medal for Outstanding Scientific Contribution from European Association of Social Psychology, and The Presidents’ Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge from The British Psychological Society. Before joining University of Southampton, Constantine taught at University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. He holds a BA from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and a PhD from The Ohio State University, USA.

Professor Peter J. Clough

Peter is currently the Technical Director of AQR International. He was previously Head of School in the Departments of Psychology at Huddersfield University,  at MMU and the University of Hull.  He is an occupational and sports psychologist, training at the University of Bradford, University of Sheffield and the University of Aberdeen. Peter is interested in all aspects of applied and performance psychology, having a clear focus on the interface between theory and the appliance of psychology in real world settings. He has published over 50 articles and has produced a number of books and book chapters in his career.  He was the co-developer of the 4 ‘C’s and 8 ‘C’s models of mental toughness and has spent considerable time developing this theoretical construct and designing valid and robust ways of measuring it.

Indicative references:

Clough, P. J., Houge Mackenzie, S., Mallabon, E., & Brymer, E. (2016). Adventurous physical activity environments: A mainstream intervention for mental health. Sport Medicine. In press.

Sabouri, S., Gerber, M., Bahmani, D. S., Lemola, S., Clough, P. J., Kalak, N., . . . Brand, S. (2016). Examining Dark Triad traits in relation to mental toughness and physical activity in young adults. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 12, 229-235. doi:10.2147/NDT.S97267

Borkoles, E., Carroll, S., Clough, P., & Polman, R. C. J. (2016). Effect of a non-dieting lifestyle randomised control trial on psychological well-being and weight management in morbidly obese pre-menopausal women. Maturitas, 83, 51-58. doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2015.09.010

Earle, F., Hockey, B., Earle, K., & Clough, P. (2015). Separating the effects of task load and task motivation on the effort–fatigue relationship. Motivation and Emotion, 39(4), 467-476. doi:10.1007/s11031-015-9481-2

Perry, J. L., Nicholls, A. R., Clough, P. J., & Crust, L. (2015). Assessing model fit: Caveats and recommendations for confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling. Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, 19(1), 12-21. doi:10.1080/1091367X.2014.952370

Mrs Foteini-Maria Gianniou

I have joined the InteRRaCt lab in September 2017 as an Erasmus Visiting Researcher (September 2017 to April 2018), where I completed part of my MSc dissertation. I have completed (2018) an MSc degree on Human Performance and Health in Aristotle University, Thessaloni, Greece, specialising in School Physical Education and Psychology.  My MSc dissertation explored how physical activity influences psychopathology, through increasing narcissism and mental toughness, and it was presented in the 3rd World Conference on Personality that took place in Hanoi, Vietnam, in April 2019.

I am a Research Associate in the InteRRaCt lab since May 2018 coordinating data collection for the Beyond Good and Evil project including analyses of datasets in preparation for several publications. I am the Lab Manager since September 2019 responsible for performing a broad variety of administrative tasks and assisting in communication among Visiting Research Associates and members, who collaborate across various projects . In these roles, I am gaining invaluable experience ultimately aiming at pursuing a PhD in the InteRRaCt Lab.

I have gained a BSc degree in Physical Education and Sports from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. During my undergraduate degree, I have attended several conferences in the areas of psychology and physical education in childhood and I have presented my research on the influence of certain types of activities (e.g. swimming and taekwondo) on children’s psychology in national conferences and seminars.  I am particularly interested in the areas of personality, resilience, mental toughness, stress and anxiety and individual differences in coping strategies.

Dr. Giulio Costantini

Giulio Costantini completed his PhD at the Psychology Department of the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2015, with a thesis entitled “Network Analysis: A New Perspective on Personality Psychology”, supervised by prof. Marco Perugini. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the same department. His main research interests span the fields of personality psychology, psychological methods, and network analysis. His research has been focused mainly on developing network analysis as a statistical and theoretical tool to model personality. Additionally, he focused on applications of the network methodology to understand the structure and processes of a specific personality trait, namely conscientiousness. He is also interested in the psychometric measurement of personality, with a keen eye on implicit measures. Other research interests include the relationships between personality, behavior, and psychological situations; the psychometric measurement of creative problem-solving skills; statistical power and scientific reproducibility.

Dr. Neil Dagnall

Dr Neil Dagnall is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Applied Cognitive Psychology at the Manchester Metropolitan University. Neil alongside Andrew Denovan heads the Applied Cognitive Psychology & Performance Research Group. He also founded the Parapsychological Research Group, which he co-leads with Dr Kenneth Drinkwater in 2003. Neil’s academic interest in parapsychology dates back to 2001 when he took over a final year undergraduate course on the subject. The course in various forms has run ever since and regular attracts around 100 students per year. Additionally, works closely with Dr Andrew Denovan on projects around the broad topics of individual differences, personality and statistical analysis, and with Andrew Parker, who a world-leading researcher in the field of memory (i.e., effects of saccadic bilateral eye movements on recall).

Dr. Andrew Denovan

Dr Andrew Denovan is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield. He was previously a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University, a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His principal research interests are in the areas of differential psychology, positive psychology, and the student experience within higher education. Currently, Andrew’s research is concerned with exploring how positive psychology theory can contribute to our understanding of coping with stress, and how coping leads to adaptive outcomes including resilience. Another main research interest of Andrew’s includes research methods such as psychometrics and structural equation modelling. To this end, Andrew regularly works with academics on collaborative research projects offering his statistical support.

Dr. Mihalis Doumas

Mihalis completed his undergraduate (1999) and masters degrees (2001) in Sport and Exercise Science in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He moved to the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, where he did his PhD (2001-2005) and then to Belgium to work as a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven, initially funded by a university project (2006-2008) and then by a research fellowship from the research foundation of Flanders (2008-2011). He moved to Queen’s University Belfast as a Lecturer in 2011 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021. Mihalis is primarily interested in the control of posture and balance over the lifespan and in clinical populations. Specifically, his work focuses on (1) Life-span development of sensorimotor and cognitive processes (2) multisensory integration in postural control and (3) timing of rhythmic movements, using Neurophysiological (TMS, TDCS and fNIRS), cognitive (working memory, executive control) and Developmental (Lifespan) approaches. In the InteRRaCt Lab, Mihalis has co-supervised (with Dr Kostas A. Papageorgiou), Dr Teresa Gomez Arrulo and he is currently co-supervising Ms Ceri Welsch on projects relevant to the Dark Triad and performance under stress.

Dr. Darya Gaysina

Darya Gaysina is a lead of the Environment, Development, Genetics and Epigenetics (EDGE) in Psychopathology Laboratory and a Senior Lecturer at the School of Psychology, University of Sussex. Darya obtained a first class degree in Biology from the Bashkir State University, Russia, and PhD in Human Genetics from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). Her PhD thesis was devoted to investigating molecular genetic risk factors for human aggressive and suicidal behaviour. She was awarded an INTAS Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue her research into genetic underpinnings of suicidal behaviour and major depression at the Institute Biochemistry and Genetics, RAS and at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. After that, she was awarded an MRC Career Development Fellowship to develop a research programme in the life course epidemiology of affective disorders at the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL. Darya became a Lecturer at the University of Leicester before joining the University of Sussex in 2013. Her research interests are focused on exploring environmental and genetic factors, and their interplay, in relation to affective disorders across the life course. In her research, Darya combines approaches of molecular genetics, life course epidemiology, and developmental psychopathology. She is an author of more that 50 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters and, more recently, a co-editor (with Y. Kovas and S. Malykh) of the book ‘Behavioural Genetics for Education’.

Email: D.Gaysina@sussex.ac.uk

Dr. Teresa Sofia Gomes Arrulo-Clarke

Dr. Teresa Gomes Arrulo-Clarke is an Assistant Lecturer at Arden University. She completed her PhD in the InteRRaCt Lab under the supervision of Dr Kostas A. Papageorgiou and Dr Mihalis Doumas, at Queen’s University Belfast. Her PhD thesis, “Beneath the Surface: The role of socially aversive personality traits and music genres for stress management”, combined her primary research interests, exploring the relationship(s) between stress, personality, and music listening in non-clinical adults. Teresa’s work focused particularly on the assessment of how the controversiality and widespread undesirability of certain traits (e.g., narcissism) and music genres (e.g., hip-hop/rap) might conceal their potential advantages in the context of stress. Predominantly via experimental approaches, this research demonstrated how acknowledging these factors as multifaceted (rather than fundamentally aversive or desirable) may provide valuable insights into how music and personality can contribute to the well-being and everyday functioning of non-clinical populations.

Teresa, who is from Lisbon (Portugal), completed her BSc Psychology with First Class Honours at London Metropolitan University, receiving the British Psychological Society Undergraduate Award for Best Overall Performance, London Metropolitan University’s Recognition Award for Academic Excellence and Top Thirty Students Award, in 2017. Her Bachelor’s dissertation focused on the influence of music listening on interpersonal relationships.

Dr. Maxim Likhanov

Dr. Maxim Likhanov is currently a Director of the Centre for Educational Neuroscience and senior postdoctoral researcher at ITMO University, Russia. His scientific interests gravitate to nature of individual differences that are linked to academic achievement in different areas; and the mechanisms that underlie these links. In order to investigate them he employs a variety of research methods, including eye tracking and EEG, and advance statistical approaches such as network analysis, structural equation modelling and Bayesian statistics.

Maxim received his BSc hons (Specialist) in Fundamental and Applied Linguistics in 2015, and his PhD in Linguistics in 2019 at Tomsk State University (TSU). Since then he participated into several large-scale cross-cultural projects at Laboratory for cognitive investigations and behavioral genetics (TSU); International Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Investigations into Individual Differences in Learning (Goldsmith’s University of London); Laboratory for interdisciplinary studies (Educational Centre “Sirius”); Applied Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience Research Unit (Sirius University of Science and Technology) and Chemistry Neuroeducation group (ITMO University).

He is involved in InteRRaCt lab to help with a research which aims at investigating relationships among personality constructs such as Mental toughness, Big Five, Dark Triad and Strengths and Difficulties in gifted children

Ms. Lorna Lawless

Lorna is a coaching psychologist; her areas of expertise are mental toughness, emotional intelligence and flow states. Lorna uses evidence-informed coaching practices to help clients reach their potential and perform at their best. Lorna completed her Master’s Degree in Positive and Coaching Psychology from University College Cork. Her research dissertation focused on MMA athletes experiences of flow states. This led to a natural progression of coaching in the area of combat sports in addition to corporate settings.

Lorna is a licensed user of AQR’s Mental Toughness assessments. She uses this model to coach clients to develop these core skills and to assess the impact that training in combat sports has on individuals levels of mental toughness. Lorna’s current research interests are focusing on the effects of training in combat sports for women.

Lorna has ten years of corporate experience and has coached CEOs, managers, professional and amateur athletes and facilitated group sessions in both settings.  She has presented and published her research at international conferences on emotional intelligence and its impact on reducing work-related stress. Recently, Lorna presented her coaching case studies at the Mental Toughness Symposium at Queen’s University Belfast.

Dr. Yu Luo

Dr Yu Luo is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She received her PhD in cognitive neurocience from Beijing Normal University in 2011. She worked as a research associate at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London from 2009 to 2010.

Yu’s principal research interests are in the areas of behavioral genetics, personality psychology, and social cognition. Currently, her research invovles investigating molecular and quantitative genetic bases of personality and social cognition, such as the Dark Triad (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism), nostalgia, and implicit stereotypes. Another line of Yu’s latest research taps on the development of personality traits (e.g., narcissism) and implicit social cognition (e.g., implicit gender stereotypes). She also has a keen interest in understanding individual differences in social perception, particularly, face impressions.

Dr. Constantinos Mitsopoulos

Dr. Constantinos Mitsopoulos is currently an Associate Project Scientist at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. His main scientific interests revolve around theoretical, mathematical and computational methods to investigate the underlying mechanisms of neural systems, with great emphasis on learning and decision making. He enjoys working at the borders of theory and application of artificial intelligence and machine learning methods.  

Constantinos received his BSc in Physics from the University of Athens, and subsequently moved to London for an MSc in Machine Learning at the University College London. There, he was captivated by the elusive functionality of the brain and embarked on his journey into computational neuroscience field at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit. He acquired a PhD degree from the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck University of London, where he worked upon Reinforcement Learning and cognitive modelling.

Dr. Giovanni Moneta

Dr Giovanni B. Moneta is a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University. He earned his BSc in Psychology from the University of Padua and his MA and PhD in Quantitative Psychology and Research Methodology from the University of Chicago. He worked as researcher in various organisations in Europe, including the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, and the Institut National de la Santé et Recherche Médicale (INSERM). He then worked as associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, teaching in the areas of personality and motivation. Prior to joining London Metropolitan University, he was a research fellow at Harvard Business School. His main research interests are in positive psychology, with a focus on optimal experience (flow), creativity, adaptive metacognitions, and on how these influence performance in occupational and educational contexts. He is particularly interested in further developing models of flow and performance in challenging work contexts and testing them on longitudinal data.

Giovanni is the author of Positive Psychology: A Critical Introduction and co-editor of Psychology of Creativity: Cognitive, Emotional, and Social Processes. He is currently working on a number of research papers and an edited book provisionally titled Psychology of Work Complexity: Change, Stage Processes, and Trade-offs.

Dr. Dara Mojtahedi

Dara is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Huddersfield, teaching on Psychology (BSc), Investigative Psychology (MSc) and Security Sciences (MSc) courses. He is also a fellow of Higher Education Academy and a member of the Secure Societies Institute. With a background in Forensic and Investigative Psychology, his principle research interests are in the retrieval and evaluation of eyewitness memory — his PhD explored the impact of co-witness influence on blame conformity. Dara has presented his research at numerous domestic and international conferences, and has had his work featured in various magazines and newspapers. The emerging findings of his research have become widely accepted by both academics and practitioners from various police forces. In addition to research on memory, Dara has started exploring the applications of psychology within sports management — having recently been awarded a research grant by FIFA and the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) for his project on referee abuse in football. As a combat sports athlete himself, his future plans for research are to explore the impact of personality in combat sports.

Dr. Rene Mottus

Having worked as a clinical psychologist in a psychiatry clinic, I decided to  embark on an academic career. I completed my PhD (2009) in the University of Tartu, Estonia. After a being a post-doctoral researcher with the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, I started as a lecturer, and then Reader, in the Department of Psychology of the University of Edinburgh.
I am interested in various topics related to human personality. Currently much of my research is on the question of how to most efficiently represent human personality. When should we employ broader traits such as the Big Five domains and when numerous narrower characteristics such as “facets” and “nuances”? I propose that a many-dimensional representation of personality can often open up entirely new research avenues, capitalizing on patterns of variance between traits in their quantifiable properties (I call this personomics). I am also interested in personality development and behaviour genetics. For example, we have delineated age-trends in the magnitude of personality variance and the genetic and environmental contributions to these.

Dr. Oliver Perra

I am a Developmental Psychologist and a Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast. My research interests lie in the factors and mechanisms that explain differences in children’s behaviour (e.g. aggressive behaviour) and in their abilities to learn from others (e.g. the ability to imitate). I obtained a PhD at the University of Sheffield, and I collaborate with well-established longitudinal studies of children (the Cardiff Child Development Study) and adolescents (the Belfast Youth Development Study). I have expertise in the application of sophisticated quantitative methods to longitudinal analyses (e.g. multilevel hierarchical models; latent growth models, mixture models, among others) and in the assessment of Randomised Controlled Trials.

I have run a feasibility study of an attention training programme with very preterm infants, funded by PHA-R&D Division. The study adopted a programme developed by our collaborator Sam Wass (UEL) and train preterm infants’ ability to control attention. Attention control may provide these infants with the building blocks for developing further learning skills. I also contribute to the pilot of a midwifery home visiting intervention for improving outcomes of children born to socially vulnerable mothers (the New Baby Programme). Finally, I am the co-PI of the Northern Ireland Cerebral Palsy Register, a register of all children with this condition in Northern Ireland.

Dr. John Perry

John Perry is a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Limerick. Previously, John has held lecturing positions at several UK universities and most recently, was head of psychology at Mary Immaculate College. John’s primary research interests are in mental toughness, stress, and coping, where he has contributed to many publications and delivered conference talks all over the globe.

As a practitioner, John has vast experience working with sports teams and individuals, including professional football, golf, and GAA.

Dr Rachel Plouffe

Dr. Rachel Plouffe is currently a Postdoctoral Associate with the MacDonald Franklin Operational Stress Injury (OSI) Research Centre and the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. Rachel completed her Master of Science and PhD degrees at the University of Western Ontario in the Personality and Measurement Psychology program. Her PhD research examined the impact of Dark Tetrad personality traits and exposure to violence in childhood on partner and participant levels of physical and psychological intimate partner violence. As a Postdoctoral Associate at the MacDonald Franklin OSI Research Centre, Rachel is interested in developing valid and reliable psychometric measures to assess levels of moral injury in Veterans and military members, as well as identifying personality traits as risk and protective factors for mental health conditions as a result of combat experiences.

Dr. Teresa Rushe

I am a Reader at Queen’s University Belfast. My research falls within the area developmental psychopathology with particular expertise in Developmental Neuropsychology. I completed my PhD in 1996  on the neuropsychology of schizophrenia at the Institute of Psychiatry in London under the supervision of Sir Robin Murray and Professor Robin Morris. Since then I have published widely in the area of psychosis, with a particular focus on understanding the neurodevelopmental origins and I was the PI on the Northern Ireland First Episode Psychosis study which I set up in 2002. My expertise in developmental neuropsychology was developed during my post-doctoral research at the Institute of Psychiatry when I collaborated with pediatricians from University College Hospital on a longitudinal study investigating the long-term outcome of very preterm birth. At the University of Manchester (2004-2008) I was able to develop my research interests in developmental psychopathology and to use state of the art structural and functional neuroimaging techniques to understand both normal and abnormal brain development. More recent projects include the North West Adolescence Study which I set up with colleagues at Ulster University to explore the incidence and antecedents of self-harm and other risk behaviours in adolescents. I am currently working on several projects exploring the impact of childhood adversity on adult outcomes, including an ESRC funded study investigating the psychological and neuropsychological outcomes in young people who were in care in early childhood.

Dr. Christoph Scheepers

Dr Scheepers obtained his psychology degree at the University of Bochum in 1991, and his PhD at the University of Freiburg in 1997. He held a two-year post-doc position at the University of Glasgow (1998-2000) before starting a C1 assistant professorship in computational linguistics at the University of Saarbruecken (2000-2003.). He then held a lectureship in psychology at the University of Dundee (2003-2005) before moving to Glasgow in October 2005 where he currently holds a senior lecturer position. His main research areas are psycholinguistics and the psychology of language. He employs various brain-imaging and behavioural methods, including the recording of eye-movements during reading and linguistically aided scene perception (visual-world paradigm).

Dr Scheepers is editorial board member for JEP:General (http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/xge/), Cognition (http://www.journals.elsevier.com/cognition/), Frontiers in Language Sciences (http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/psychology/section/language-sciences) and Collabra (http://www.collabraoa.org/).

Mr. Doug Strycharczyk

Doug is the CEO of AQR International which he founded in 1989 – now recognised as one of the most innovative test publishers in the world.  Doug’s expertise includes development of Psychometric Tests and related development Programmes –playing a key role in developing MTQ48 as well as the Integrated Leadership Measure (ILM72), Carrus – a behavioural employability measure and TWOI – a team work orientation inventory, all in collaboration with Peter Clough. He is currently completing research (for a PhD) which will expand understanding of the Mental Toughness concept and questionnaire.  His experience covers Organisational Development, Top Team Assessment, Leadership Development and Talent Management. Doug has pioneered the application of the Mental Toughness concept to any sector where individuals face challenge or stressors. Doug works in the Occupational, Education, Social Work, Sports and Health sectors. Doug has co-authored with Peter Clough “Developing Mental Toughness” (Kogan Page 2105) now available in multiple languages as well as “Developing Mental Toughness in Young people” (Karnac 2014). Doug has co-authored with Peter Clough chapters in the following leading books:

• Psychometrics in Coaching  (2009) (Kogan Page)
• Leadership Coaching (2010) (Kogan Page)
• Coaching in Education (2011)

With Charles Elvin CEO ILM Doug has co-authored Developing Resilient Organisations (Kogan Page 2014) and with Charlotte Bosworth (Director OCR) “Developing Employability and Enterprise (Kogan Page 2016). Doug holds a first class honours degree in Economics.  Email Doug at doug@aqr.co.uk

Dr. Tayler E. Truhan

I have completed my PhD in the InteRRaCt Lab under the supervision of Dr Kostas A. Papageorgiou and Professor Rhiannon Turner. My PhD focused on a wider spectrum of personality in parents, including the Big Five, Dark Triad, and Mental Toughness, as well as parental acceptance-rejection. In adolescents, I assessed personality traits, including the Dark Triad and Mental Toughness, perceived parental acceptance-rejection, and behavioural outcomes. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive look at the broad picture of how parent personality, adolescent traits, and contextual factors (e.g. parenting, SES) interact to produce adolescent outcomes. As part of this research, I utilized network analysis, a novel statistical technique that presents relationships between variables as a graphical model. I believe that this research is important as it may provide the building blocks for future interventions targeting children and families.

I’m originally from Orlando, Florida (USA), where I completed my BSc in Psychology at the University of Central Florida. During my undergraduate programme, I completed my Honors Thesis on parentification in deployed vs. non-deployed military families. My thesis project received first place at the Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence and the UCF Libraries Annual Award for Excellence. In 2017, I completed my MSc in Psychology of Childhood Adversity at QUB and received a Distinction. My dissertation was conducted as part of the PaCT project in the InteRRaCt lab and focused on narcissistic traits and mental toughness in parents and child behavioural outcomes.

Professor Rhiannon Turner

Rhiannon Turner is a Professor of Social Psychology and intergroup relations researcher. She is Director of the Centre for Identity and Intergroup Relations at Queen’s University Belfast. Her research examines the effect of several different forms of intergroup contact in reducing prejudice, including cross-group friendship (e.g., Turner & Cameron, 2016; Turner & Feddes, 2011; Turner, Tam et al., 2014), extended contact (e.g., West & Turner, 2014; Paterson, Turner, & Conner, 2015), imagined contact (e.g., Crisp & Turner, 2012; Turner & West, 2012), and e-contact (e.g., White, Turner, Verrelli, Harvey, & Hanna, 2018). She is am also interested in the role of personality (e.g., Turner, Dhont et al., 2014; Vezzali, Turner, Capozza, & Trifilleti, 2017; Choma, Jagavat, Hodson, & Turner, 2017) and nostalgia in explaining intergroup relations (e.g., Turner, Wildschut, Sedikides & Gheorghiu, 2013, Turner, Wildschut, & Sedikides, 2018). She currently holds research funding from the ESRC, EPSRC, and SEUPB, and has previously received funding from the British Academy, ESRC, NIHR, and Leverhulme Trust. Rhiannon is past recipient of the BPS Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research Contributions to Psychology (2007), the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s Robert B. Cialdini Award for excellence in field research (2008), and the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize (2011). From 2019-2022 she is co-editor-in-chief of the European Review of Social Psychology. She is also an associate editor for Group Processes and Intergroup Relations and the British Journal of Social Psychology, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and the European Journal of Social Psychology. Rhiannon got her first degree in Psychology from Cardiff University in 2000, her Masters degree from the University of Kent in 2002, and her D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in 2006. After holding an ESRC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Birmingham, she was appointed as Lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Leeds in February 2007, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in August 2010, and took up her current post in September 2012.

Professor. Sam Wass

Sam is a Professor at the University of East London. He gained a first-class undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, and did his PhD at the Centre for Brain Cognitive Development in London. After this he was awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, based at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge. After this he moved to the University of East London, supported by  an ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellowship.

Sam’s research examines how concentration, stress and learning capacities develop during childhood. He works with typically developing children as well as children growing up in diverse socio-economic status backgrounds in East London. He is also a collaborator on a range of projects in London, Europe, the United States and Canada with clinical populations (children with Attention Deficit Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorders, preterm birth and Rett Syndrome). His research has been funded by the Medical Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, the National Institute of Health Research, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation, and others.

Dr. Paul Wilson

Paul is a Chartered Psychologist, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He is a teaching and learning focussed senior lecturer, specialising in the areas of Individual Differences, Quantitative Methods, Psychometrics and Historical/Conceptual Issues in Psychology. Currently, Paul is the Director of Undergraduate Education in the School of Psychology. Paul was awarded a PhD in 2014 for a thesis entitled On the Relationship between Intelligence and Inhibitory Control : Individual Differences in Cognitive Chronometry. After a research fellow position investigating the development of non-cognitive traits and their influence on literacy and numeracy outcomes in young children he was appointed lecturer specialising in education at the School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast where he specialises in Individual Differences, Psychometrics and Quantitative Analysis. He also lectures in Psychology at the QUB School of Medicine. His research interests are in the areas of cognitive ability and personality, especially factors underlying individual differences in educational attainment.  He has pedagogical research interests in the areas of student engagement and the use of personal response systems in the classroom. Paul is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, he is also a member of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences and the International Society for Intelligence Research.

Professor (Associate) Magdalena Zemojtel-Piotrowska

Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska, head of Cross-Cultural Psychology Centre, associate professor at Institute of Psychology, University of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski in Warsaw, Poland, chair and co-founder of cross-cultural psychology section of Polish Society of Social Psychology. She gained her Ph.D. in psychology degree in Polish Academy of Social Sciences (2006) and habilitation in Gdansk University (2016). She is an author of more than 80 publications, mostly from social psychology and cross-cultural psychology field. She is an author of two books: „Complaining, entitlement and perception of the social world” (2009, in Polish) and Psychological antecedents and consequences of entitlement in (cross)cultural perspective” (2016, in Polish). Her research interests are focused on narcissism (individual and collective), psychological entitlement, values, and subjective well-being. Her most important works are related to three-dimensional model of psychological entitlement, agency-communion model of collective narcissism, and circumplex model of narcissism. She led four international projects: Leader of project in cross-cultural research: Psychological entitlement and values – conducted in 28 countries (2010-2012); Entitlement attitudes and subjective well-being (2014-2015) – 42 countries, Narcissism(s) and self-esteem(s) in the cross-cultural perspective (2016-2017) – 56 countries; COVID-19, personality and quality of life: Self-enhancement in the time of pandemic – 72 countries (2020-2021).

Key words: Cross-cultural psychology, social psychology, political psychology

Ms. Micheala McIlvenna

My name is Micheala McIlvenna, and I am a second year part-time PhD student in the InteRRaCt lab at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). I completed my BSc Psychology from QUB in 2020, achieving a First Class Honours. Throughout my undergraduate degree I worked as a research associate in the InteRRaCt lab, specifically working on the PaCT project. This experience was very valuable as it consolidated my academic interest in research and inspired me to pursue a PhD.

Also in 2020, I commenced a PhD in the InteRRaCt lab investigating the relationships between an adaptive Dark Triad and resilience to Psychopathology. This project looks at the dark triad traits as multidimensional, converse to previous research, which had a unidimensional focus on the typical “socially aversive” aspects of these traits. This work builds upon research already conducted in this lab wherein the overall benefit is the ability to produce more comprehensive definitions of these traits, bridge gaps in the current literature surrounding the structure of these traits and gain a more robust understanding of the experiences of people dealing with stressful situations.

Ms. Ceri Welsh

In October 2021 I began the first year of my PhD. I accomplished my BSc in Psychology with First Class Honours and an award from Queen`s University Belfast (QUB) School of Psychology for achieving the joint-highest marked Thesis within the 2017-2020 cohort. My Thesis, “Predicting Achievement in University Students through Personality Traits and Emotional Intelligence”, fuelled my eagerness for individual differences and academic research. In September 2020 I pursued my MSc in Clinical Health Psychology with QUB. My Dissertation, “Experiences of Living with a Companion Cat: A Qualitative exploration during a Global Pandemic”, focused upon perceptions of how a cat may influence human wellbeing, including stress and coping during regulated confinement. The experience consolidated my drive to undertake further research and my interest in coping. I delight in teaching (psychology tutoring and demonstrating) and connecting with other academics. Doctoral research appeared ideal to continue my academic and professional development.

My PhD, “Improving the Assessment of Dark Personalities and the Prediction of Outcomes”, enables me to continue meaningfully exploring individual differences and coping. My systematic review will synthesise the quality of existing dark personality measures, including the ability to capture individual differences in dark traits and facets. I will learn to perform novel network analyses, which will help shed light upon the interconnections of dark traits, as currently measured. Finally, I will explore the convergent validity of specific dark traits and investigate how the individual traits may be utilised to predict stress/coping and performance in experimental settings.

new cohort of MSc students is coming soon for 2022-2023