Research

The School of Psychology is host to a thriving research community. We have well equipped laboratories for conducting specialised research, including an infancy lab, a 128-channel EEG lab, a remote eye-tracker lab, a qualitative research methods lab, a recreational drugs and psychophysiology lab, and a state-of-the-art virtual reality lab. Staff members are engaged in high-quality research and present their findings at conferences worldwide. The results of their work are published in journals of national and international standing. Members of academic staff group themselves under research designations that correspond with those found in the field, although within these there are a broad range of interests. Many members have interests that combine those of more than one area, and this is reflected in some researchers being associated with more than one research group. The School’s research community thereby exhibits both depth and breadth. As well as supporting theory-driven research, there is also a commitment to the application of psychology to important social and public issues. Members of groups are involved with a variety of research projects and these are detailed in the linked pages.

In the national 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) submission of research outputs from UEL School of Psychology, academic staff were judged to be of both national and international quality, our ratings in RAE units of assessment (UoAs) being ‘3A’ (psychology) and ‘4’ (sociology). In the 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise, work from twenty-three members of staff in the School was submitted across four units of assessment (i.e., Psychology, Allied Health Professions, Sociology, and Social Work & Social Policy & Administration). In the Psychology RAE unit of assessment (UoA44) ten staff were submitted who between them published eighty-four, peer-reviewed research journal articles in the 2001–07 period. Between them, they employed nine postdoctoral staff, ten research assistants, and expended external grant income in excess of one million pounds. As example of our results from this independent evaluation, of those 48 research papers submitted by UEL staff to the Psychology unit of assessment, 97.9 per cent were judged to be of quality that is recognised internationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour. So, the UEL School of Psychology continues to be an environment in which psychologists of international standing conduct research and collaborate with external partners. The School is hopeful that these positive results will maintain or increase the School’s HEFCE-derived recurrent research funding from 2009 to 2013, thereby enabling us to develop further research within the School.

All of the School’s research facilities in the Psychology home building (the Arthur Edwards Building) underwent entire refurbishment during the summer of 2008. This has resulted in an extensive, up-to-date, purpose-built research suite situated on the ground floor, which contains all dedicated research laboratories (as mentioned above) and office facilities for research assistants, postdoctoral research fellows and postgraduate research students. The two floors above ground level also have been entirely refurbished during the same period and contain additional research facilities. These include bespoke areas for technical support, interview rooms and project laboratories. The third and fourth floors of the School underwent complete refurbishment in 2007. The result of all this work on our physical environment is a twenty-first century setting for a thoroughly modern School of Psychology capable of hosting substantive pure and applied research.