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Department of Psychology seminars

We host experts in different areas of psychology, including academics and practitioners from around the world. View our upcoming seminars on this page.

November 2023 seminars

Details about our scheduled seminars in November 2023. All seminars will take place at the University of Bath, unless stated.


15 November 2023

  • Speaker: Dr Ganga Shreedhar, London School of Economics
  • Title: Public understanding of the sixth mass extinction and support for systems transformations to mitigate biodiversity loss: Evidence from UK, USA, India, Brazil and South Africa
  • Time: 12.15pm - 1.05pm (GMT)
  • Location: 10W 2.02

Dramatic declines in biodiversity in the UK and across the world have led scientists to sound the alarm that we are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction event. In response to these existential risks of species extinction and associated planetary changes such as climate change, recent intergovernmental and scientific reports have called for transformative changes in human behaviour, societies, and systems. This study explores public understanding of the sixth mass extinction and the willingness to support transformative change through choices (e.g., electing politicians, changing diets) and the endorsement of policies (e.g., eco-labels, carbon taxes) using international survey data from the UK, USA, India, Brazil, and South Africa (n=2,700). The findings are supported by qualitative insights from interviews conducted with the public (n=50) and scientists (n=15).

16 November 2023

  • Speaker: Nina Higson-Sweeney, University of Bath
  • Title: Advances in our understanding and treatment of adolescent depression: the role of fatigue
  • Time: 12.15pm - 1.05pm (GMT)
  • Location: 10W 1.10

Adolescent depression is a prevalent and disabling condition, but current psychological treatments are only moderately effective. One way to improve outcomes is to further our understanding and capacity to target the most frequent and problematic symptoms. One such symptom is fatigue, with initial findings in adolescents suggesting it is common, highly disabling, and has the potential to interfere with engagement in psychological therapies for depression. Despite this, fatigue is poorly understood and often left unaddressed by treatments provided in routine mental health services.

In this presentation, Psychology PhD student Nina Higson-Sweeney will provide an overview of our current understanding of fatigue within adolescent depression, including a summary of three studies conducted as part of a mixed methods PhD on this topic. These studies include:

  • a systematic review of non-pharmacological interventions to address fatigue in adolescents
  • a qualitative exploration of adolescents’ experiences of fatigue in depression
  • a quantitative secondary analysis of data from a large-scale randomised controlled trial, examining whether current psychological treatments for depression address fatigue.

The presentation will conclude with consideration of the practical and theoretical implications of the findings, alongside directions for future research.

22 November 2023

  • Speaker: Professor Geoff Haddock, University of Cardiff
  • Title: What do we think about people who are attitudinally ambivalent?
  • Time: 12.15pm - 1.05pm (GMT)
  • Location: 10W 1.10

While research has studied the consequences of being attitudinally ambivalent, we know much less about how ambivalent people are perceived and evaluated. This talk describes a series of studies examining how people (a) perceive and mentally represent dispositionally ambivalent and non-ambivalent targets, (b) how they evaluate dispositionally ambivalent and non-ambivalent targets and (c) how they expect to interact with dispositionally ambivalent and non-ambivalent targets.

29 November 2023

  • Speaker: Dr Dima Danai, City University of London
  • Title: Exploring the interplay of genetics with functional and structural brain variations in psychosis
  • Time: 12.15pm - 1.05pm (GMT)
  • Location: 10W 1.10

In this talk, Dr Dima Danai will discuss the impact of genetic variations on structural and functional brain changes in psychotic disorders. An effective method for understanding how genes contribute to the onset of psychotic symptoms involves examining the connection between candidate genes, polygenic risk scores, and biomarkers that characterise brain structure or function in psychosis. The presentation will also explore the influence of biological aging (telomeres) on these factors. It will introduce the application of multivariate machine learning techniques to analyse these complex relationships. Moreover, it will highlight recent advancements in imaging transcriptomics and the valuable role of transcriptional atlases in validating hypotheses regarding the molecular mechanisms behind changes in macroscopic neuroimaging phenotypes associated with psychosis.


December 2023 seminars

Details about our scheduled seminars in December 2023. All seminars will take place at the University of Bath, unless stated.


6 December 2023

  • Speaker: Dr Janina Steinmetz, City University of London
  • Title: Too little money or time? Using justifications to maintain a positive image after self-control failure
  • Time: 12.15pm - 1.05pm (GMT)
  • Location: 10W 2.02

Research has shown that people frequently fail at exerting self-control. Yet, having good self-control is essential for being relied on and trusted. In this talk, Dr Steinmetz explores common and frequent excuses of self-control failures (i.e., resulting from lack of time versus money) allow people to maintain an image of good self-control despite failure. In six studies (five preregistered), using different types of self-control domains, the research found that participants perceived someone who failed at a resolution to nevertheless have good self-control if they failed because they lacked money (vs. time) to follow through (Study 1). This effect was due to the mediated (Study 2a) and manipulated (Study 2b) perceived controllability of the excuse. This effect had downstream consequences for participants’ hypothetical and real behavior toward the individual when their outcomes were interdependent (Studies 3 and 4). Finally, participants lacked insight into these patterns when communicating their own self-control failures, which they attributed to lack of time over money (Study 5).

14 December 2023

  • Speaker: Rachel Lees, University of Bath
  • Title: Cannabis use disorder in young people: investigating risk factors and treatments using epidemiological and clinical trial methods
  • Time: 12.30pm - 2pm (GMT)
  • Location: 10W 2.02

Approximately one in five people who use cannabis experience a pattern of use that causes impairment or distress, known as cannabis use disorder (CUD). This talk will outline the importance of CUD, and a series of investigations from my PhD into both risk factors and treatments using longitudinal datasets. Rachel Lees will highlight the role of adolescence as a vulnerability period, as well as the impact of comorbid mental health and cognitive function on outcomes in CUD.


Upcoming 2024 seminars

Details about our scheduled seminars. All seminars will take place at the University of Bath, unless stated.


7 February 2024

14 February 2024

21 February 2024

22 February 2023

28 February 2024

6 March 2024

13 March 2024

20 March 2024

21 March 2024

27 March 2024

17 April 2024

24 April 2024

  • Speaker: Adam Harris, University College London
  • Title: TBC
  • Time: 12.15pm - 1.05pm (GMT)
  • Location: 10W 2.02

25 April 2024


Previous seminars

Find details of past events from the Department of Psychology seminar series.


2023 seminars

15 November 2023

  • Speaker: Dr Ganga Shreedhar, London School of Economics
  • Title: Public understanding of the sixth mass extinction and support for systems transformations to mitigate biodiversity

16 November 2023

  • Speaker: Nina Higson-Sweeney, University of Bath
  • Title: Advances in our understanding and treatment of adolescent depression: the role of fatigue

22 November 2023

  • Speaker: Professor Geoff Haddock, University of Cardiff
  • Title: What do we think about people who are attitudinally ambivalent?

29 November 2023

  • Speaker: Dr Dima Danai, City University of London
  • Title: Exploring the interplay of genetics with functional and structural brain variations in psychosis

8 November 2023

  • Speaker: Dr Michael Proulx, University of Bath/Meta
  • Title: Roundtable: Research perspectives beyond academia

4 October 2023

  • Speaker: Professor Brad Love, University College London
  • Title: Embeddings of and for the mind

19 October 2023

  • Speaker: Professor Emily Ozer, Berkeley (United States)
  • Title: Strengthening community-engaged research with Youtyh and university conditions to support it

25 October 2023

  • Speaker: Masha Remskar, University of Bath
  • Title: Mindfulness, movement and mood: Creating and testing a digital intervention combining mindfulness training with physical activity for mental health and wellbeing

14 June 2023

7 June 2023

31 May 2023

3 May 2023

26 April 2023

  • Speaker: Professor Bradley Love University College London
  • Title: Embeddings of and for the mind

24 May 2023

  • Speaker: Maarten Speekenbrink, University College London
  • Title: TBC

20 April 2023

19 April 2023

  • Speaker: Dr Sinead Rocha, University of Cambridge
  • Title: TBC

29 March 2023

22 March 2023

15 March 2023

  • Speaker: Nathan Taylor & Susan Martin
  • Title: Intro to Lab Resources

9 March 2023

  • Speaker: Dr Esther Papies, University of Glasgow
  • Title: TBC

8 March 2023

  • Speaker: Raffael Kalish
  • Title: TBC

2022 seminars

8 December 2022

7 December 2022

23 November 2022

  • Speaker: Dr Jim Everett, University of Kent
  • Title: Moral dilemmas and trust in leaders during a global health crisis

11 November 2022

  • Speaker: Dr Susanne Quadflieg, University of Bristol
  • Title: The emerging (neuro-)science of relational impression formation

10 November 2022

2 November 2022

  • Speaker: Dr Tom Barry, University of Bath
  • Title: Autobiographical Memory and Psychopathology

26 October 2022

19 October 2022

  • Speaker: Dr Ana Levordashka, University of Bath
  • Title: Sitting Still: Psychological Immersion Is Associated with Reduced Head Movement

13 October 2022

  • Speaker: Katie Ellis-Davies, University of Swansea
  • Title: Idiosyncratic, relational and cultural sources of variation in family health and development

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