Research, Development & Knowledge Transfer

Research & Development Projects

Staff Research Interests

Click on one of these links for a particular area:

Service quality and delivery
Staff well-being and team and organizational functioning
Diversity
Psychological disorders
Research and knowledge transfer in relation to training
Personal growth
Collaborative work

Introduction

There are several broad themes that bring together the general and specific research interests of teaching and consultancy staff based in the Centre for Applied Social & Psychological Development (CASPD). These fall into aspects of service delivery, training, service evaluation and broader dimensions of understanding human suffering, psychological distress, team working and personal growth and development.

Service Quality and Delivery

Several members of staff have a research profile through their own research and through the research projects they supervise as trainers in the area of service delivery. Aspects of service delivery include service evaluation projects, service user satisfaction and factors impacting on effective team working. Specific areas within these include interests in different types of psychological therapies and therapy process across a range of service user groups or specialist service settings, and the impact of new legislation on service providers.

Diversity

There is increasing research being supported in the area of diversity, and specific staff research projects have been in the areas of looking at ways of improving training and clinical practice in relation to marginalized minority groups.

Staff Well-Being and Team and Organizational Functioning

There are also research interests in the well-being of people working in mental health services and the functioning of service provider teams in meeting the expectations placed on them .

Psychological Disorders

Several members of staff have an established research track record in the area of psychosis. There is also current staff research in the area of obsessive-compulsive disorders, and on depression, especially coping and recovery.

Research and Knowledge Transfer in Relation to Training

Some members of the staff team have a keen interest in training, service provision or research arising out of critical clinical psychology. There is also a shared strong research interest in evaluating and enhancing the quality of the training provision for clinical psychologists at different stages in their professional development. This is supported by research and knowledge transfer projects, including initiatives and funded work in e-learning, and work exploring dimensions of effective clinical supervision.

Personal Growth

There are strong research interests in personal growth, inner strength, spirituality and creativity, and there is current work looking at therapeutic effects of, and psychological processes in, autogenic training .

Collaborative Work

As well as having core research interests with the CASPD staff team, many of these interests are shared with colleagues and research collaborators within the South East Region. We are hoping that more of these links will be fostered in the future, particularly in relation to carrying out externally funded research and providing a strong regional foundation which can support trainee research in the context of both local R&D priorities and individual interests of clinical psychologists working in the region.