Pilot grant awarded by the School of Psychology and Neuroscience 2016

We are grateful to the School of Psychology and Neuroscience for supporting a pilot study to advance the project with a small grant of £3000. The grant is titled” The importance of self and identity for understanding the impact of stress and trauma”. The main focus of the grant was to develop the ideas further in the context of identity, stress and well-being, but also to broaden the theoretical basis and potential implications.

The grant will allow us to explore more fully the theoretical basis for the project, not just in terms of the medical stress and well-being literature, but more generally the associations between identities and well-being and the role of identity as a moderator of stress.

Empirically the project has two elements:

  • A pilot interview study with limited scope, focusing on Oncology and Emergency Medicine in particular
  • A follow-up study to explore the identity implications of some of the identified stressors.

We also hope to look at how the processes operating in medical contexts might have similarities or differences to other domains that involve identity-related stressors.

The project will be carried out in collaboration with the social psychology group at St Andrews:

  • Dr. Ken Mavor (Lead)
  • Prof. Steve Reicher
  • Dr Nicole Tausch
  • Dr Sam Pehrson.
  • Dr Caoimhe Ryan (part-time postdoc)

The project has been underway since May, 2016.