School of Psychology MSc. Forensic Psychology Initial Research Interests Form This form MUST be completed and returned with the application. Any application that does not have this form completed will NOT be considered. Please attend to the Research Interests of the Programme Team sheet at the end of this document when you complete this form as it may give you some ideas for potential areas. IMPORTANT PLEASE READ CAREFULLY As part of the MSc. programme you are expected to produce an empirical dissertation within the area of forensic psychology. At this stage of the application process we expect you to have a general idea about the topic you wish to address and the population that you wish to sample. This allows us to allocate you a dissertation supervisor as soon as your enrolment is complete. Of course, you can change your mind on your chosen topic but you need to have a fixed idea and written proposal by the end of the first semester (for part-time students, obviously there is more flexibility on this as you do not do your project until year 2). We encourage students to be realistic about the population that they wish to sample. Gaining access to applied populations can be difficult and timeconsuming with no guarantee that you will actually secure access. Applied populations include prisoners, prison staff, patients detained in forensic hospitals, solicitors, police officers and probation officers, to name but a few. Although supervisors will try to help and do have links with a range of applied settings, it is the responsibility of the student to ensure that they can obtain access to the research population of their choice. So, you need to think about this issue very carefully from the outset and remain realistic about what you can achieve. As a general rule we would state that, unless you are employed in a forensic service, we would not consider you using an applied forensic sample. You will therefore have to focus on a student/general population sample.
It is also important to highlight how using general population samples, including workplace and student samples do have considerable utility as a potential research population. Examples of forensic research topics that have been completed by MSc. students, using such populations include: Experience and perceptions of stalking behaviours Perceptions and experience of domestic violence Fear of crime Attitudes towards offenders Eyewitness testimony Beliefs about sentencing Lie detection Beliefs and attitudes towards sexual offending Perceptions of terrorism risk and dangerousness You can also explore the possibility of obtaining access to populations that are forensic and yet are not always an obvious choice. These include: Security firms Customs and Excise Transport Police Store Detectives Crime and Disorder Teams (Council) Neighbourhood Watch schemes Fire Service With the above in mind, please complete the following form.
SECTION 1: Topic area INITIAL RESEARCH INTERESTS FORM Below are some general topic areas. If your idea does not fit into any of these, please just complete the other box. You can tick more than one box if your idea falls across topics. Domestic violence Lie detection Stalking Occupational health/stress Beliefs/Attitudes about rape Forensic mental health Attitudes towards offenders Courts Beliefs about sentencing Forensic risk assessment Victimology Driving offences Bullying Fear of crime Beliefs/Attitudes regarding arson Personal attributes of offenders Fraud Other (please specify) Eyewitness testimony Substance abuse Credibility assessments Linking animal and child abuse Terrorism SECTION 2: Population *Consider feasibility of access, and as noted above* You can tick more than one box if you want to use more than one population. General Security Firms Student Customs & Excise Prisoners Store Detectives Forensic Patients Transport Police Prison Officers Other (please specify) Police Probation Officers Solicitors Crime and Disorder Teams Neighbourhood Watch Schemes PLEASE TURN OVER
Based on what you have indicated in Sections 1 and 2, please provide a 200- word abstract outlining a study that you would be interested in completing. Remember, this is only a basic outline that you are providing. You will work on a more detailed and specific proposal following enrolment. Why do you feel this area of research may be important? How you would aim to secure access to your sample? (again, consider feasibility.)
School of Psychology MSc. Forensic Psychology RESEARCH INTERESTS OF PROGRAMME TEAM Dr Zainab Al-Attar Terrorism, extremism, and radicalisation. The psychology of terrorism and counter-terrorism. Forensic mental health. Mental illness and dangerousness. Dr Joanne Bryce Forensic aspects of new technologies including the internet - online sexual exploitation of children, cybercrime, cyberstalking, bullying and harrassment. Developing profiles for children and young people vulnerable to online sexual exploitation and other risk categories; Intellectual property crime - risk communication and consumer perceptions; Media violence - effects and consequences, role in aggressive behaviour and offending. Dr. Nicola Graham-Kevan Risk factors for aggressive behavior; family violence, early adverse childhood experiences and adult functioning, psychological trauma and violence, stalking; personality and aggression. Dr. Roxanne Khan Risk factors for physical and sexual violence/aggression in the family (e.g. sibling violence, child-to-parent violence, intimate partner abuse) and community (e.g. 'honour'-based violence, cyberstalking). Potential risk factors include (1) personality disorders (e.g., Psychopathy, Borderline PD, Antisocial PD), (2) attitudes (e.g., hostile sexism, hyper-masculinity, right-wing authoritarianism), (3) lifestyle factors (e.g. use of violent pornography, alcohol misuse) or (4) expressions of anger (e.g. physical aggression, self-harm). Dr Carol A. Ireland: Course Director Violent and sexual offenders; Sexual exploitation; cognitive deficits in sex offenders; mentally disordered offenders; attitudes towards sex offenders; trauma; coping and health among offenders; sexual exploitation; critical incident management and terrorism (fear, perceptions of). Professor Jane L. Ireland Aggression; self-injury; personality disorder and psychopathy; gambling. Stasia Osiowy Young and juvenile offenders; Application of cognitive skills packages with offenders; violent and drug offenders. Dr. Paul Seager Psychology, investigation and the courtroom; the psychology of deception; forensic lie detection; jury/juror processes. Dr. Sarita Robinson Hostage taking and human adaptation to extreme environments, public beliefs regarding terrorism, coping and health among police and related services and changes in human physical and mental performance during acute stress (for example, changes in memory, the visual system or cortisol levels during exposure to crime). Dr. Polly Turner General offending; attitudes; aggression; personality disorder; mental health.
Dr. VJ Willan Traditional sexual scripts, sexual communication and consent; Acquaintance rape, pornography and 'soft' BDSM; Attributions towards rape victims/perpetrators; Fear of crime. Dr. Rachel Worthington Violent and sexual offending; Staff-client relationships and burnout; Prison Officers; actuarial versus clinical decision making; Forensic cultures; Personality Disorder; Suicide and self-injury; Trauma; Aggression; Therapeutic Interventions for Personality Disorder (including dialectical behavior therapy, schema therapy and EMDR). Gail Derefaka Violent and sexual offending; Stalking; Attitudes towards offenders; Juvenile delinquency and gang membership; Personality; Female offenders - risk assessment and treatment. Ioan Ohlsson General offending behaviour, young offenders, aggression, deliberate self-injury, sexual and violent offending, trauma, professional boundary issues in forensic practice, offence paralleling behaviours, personality disorder. Dr. Abigail Thornton intimate partner violence; general violence; women's offending; stalking and the individual differences associated with these (e.g. personality, personality disorder, trauma, empathy, control, low self-control, anger, attachment).