Research themes
The School of Psychology is highly regarded as a leading European centre for postgraduate research, with an international reputation for excellence in social psychology (including group processes and intergroup relations); cognition and neuroscience; developmental psychology; and forensic psychology. We have staff who can supervise research degrees in all of these areas plus organisational psychology and political psychology. The research environment is designed to sustain a strong, vibrant research culture, encourage collaboration, and unite staff and students with shared research interests. Our themes ensure critical mass and create a highly energetic and stimulating intellectual climate.
Research activity is supported by:
- centrally coordinated provision and use of laboratories and technical support
- selection of speakers for our weekly departmental research colloquia
- weekly research meetings within each theme
- developing, reporting and analysing research, and hosting our many visiting scholars
- several monthly small meeting series on specific areas of cross-cutting research (such as forensic, social development, emotion, social cognition and health).
Social Psychology
Our academics have received prestigious editorial appointments and both national and international awards. Many leading international social psychologists are affiliated with the group, reflecting the strong reputation of social psychology at Kent.
Our work is funded by a variety of British and international sources including the European Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, National Science Foundation, European Commission, Home Office, Department of Trade and Industry, Nuffield Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Our researchers also engage in consultancy work for businesses and the government.
Our research covers all areas of social psychology, including:
- prejudice and discrimination
- equality, identity, diversity and change
- justice and morality
- attitudes and decision making
- status, leadership and power
- conspiracies and social movements
- security and risk
- social influence
- personality
- culture and social interaction
Much of our research is coordinated through the Centre for the Study of Group Processes.
Cognition and Neuroscience
Visual cognition, attention and memory
Research on this topic focuses primarily on the role of vision and visual perception in human performance. The aim of this work is to identify the cognitive processes and neurological mechanisms that underlie various visual tasks. Studies with neurologically healthy volunteers examine issues such as:
- face recognition and identification
- eyewitness testimony
- person detection
- emotion processing
- episodic memory
- pattern and motion recognition.
Our research also examines a range of psychological disorders, including unilateral visual neglect, addiction, dementia and persistent vegetative state. We are interested in examining the cognitive nature of these disorders, which includes assessing attentional biases, visual experiences and neurological activity. Much of our work also has an applied motivation, for example helping to develop better therapies for people with brain injury.
Language and communication
Research in this group examines various aspects of semantic, pragmatic, morphological and syntactic understanding.
Research questions on adult populations include:
- the role of executive functions in successful language use and communication
- how language influences attentional processes and perspective taking
- anomaly detection in reading
- brain structural and functional correlates of grammatical processing.
Our work on developmental populations examines issues such as:
- how children learn to understand and produce sentences in their own language
- how children learn conversational conventions and self-repair
- developmental disorders of communication, including autism spectrum disorders and dyslexia
- bilingual language acquisition and processing.
This research group has links with researchers in the School of European Culture and Languages, as part of the Centre for Language and Linguistics.
Forensic Psychology
Forensic psychology research at Kent and all forensic-related teaching operates through our Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychology (CORE-FP).
Forensic psychology seeks to understand:
- the psychological processes underlying offending behaviour (including group processes)
- the reduction and supervision of offending behaviour (i.e. rehabilitation, treatment and management of community risk)
- victim responses to offending
- the mechanisms underlying the criminal justice system more generally (i.e. jury decision making and the courts)
- attitudes to offenders and offender reintegration in society.
Our academics are represented in editorships and editorial boards of many major journals in forensic and applied psychology. Many are Chartered Forensic Psychologists who assess and treat offenders and evaluate offender rehabilitation programmes. Thus we have strong links with the UK Prison Service, the NHS, the Police, and other bodies involved in forensic related services and activities.
Our research is funded by various national and international sources, which include the British Academy, Economic and Social Research Council, the Home Office, Leverhulme, the Ministry of Justice and the Nuffield Foundation.
Areas of forensic psychology research that we are currently working on include:
- bullying in prisons
- prison gang behaviour
- jury decision-making
- child sexual offending
- rape
- rape proclivity
- female sexual offending
- theories of offender rehabilitation
- firesetting
- sexual harassment
- violence, aggression and alcohol
- infra-humanisation of offenders.
Other areas of research include social cognition, social and moral emotion, and group process theory, all of which are applied to the study of offending behaviour or court process issues.
Developmental Psychology
Our research interests include:
- how children learn to communicate
- social cognition (eg Theory of Mind)
- peer interactions
- understanding prejudice
- infant cognitive development
- developmental psychopathology (eg Autism)
- conversation analysis
We have excellent links with the wider community. Members of the Developmental Psychology group are committed to sharing their research findings and methodologies with the public. We hold highly successful large-scale events that bring together practitioners, policy makers, and academics to share knowledge and develop collaborations. Our outreach events are typically interactive, fun, and informative. They range from ‘Play and Learn’ days for young families, to workshops for school children on topical issues such as cyberbullying and happiness.
A central hub for our research and outreach activity is the Kent Child Development Unit.
Research centres
The School of Psychology currently includes two formally constituted research centres, representing areas of concentration and excellence in research.
Centre for the Study of Group Processes
The Centre includes a thriving international research community, involving twelve tenured academic staff, as well as its research fellows and PhD students. The Centre attracts visits and research collaborations from major international researchers, many of whom have formal affiliations with the Centre.
Over the years, CSGP has attracted substantial externally funded research on a wide range of topics. It has also recruited excellent MSc and PhD students and its members teach for the School’s MSc degrees in Social and Applied Psychology, Political Psychology and Organisational and Business Psychology. The Centre also edits an international journal, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations (Sage Publications).
Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychology
The Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychology strives to be the leader in research that informs practice and policy. The vast range of topics covered by the centre staff is indicative of the centre’s facilitative research culture. As a result, members of the centre team have been the beneficiaries of research funding for new and innovative research.
