After taking a first degree (BA) in English Literature and a Dip.Ed. at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) Mark worked as a teacher and training coordinator before returning to university to gain a BSc Hons (first class) in Psychology at UEL. He then completed his PhD in Psychology at the University of Western Sydney with a thesis that explored the discursive productions and regulations of couple relationships, including openly non-monogamous, same-sex and non/extra-dyadic relationships. After postdoctoral research at Cardiff University working on qualitative projects about fatherhood and masculinity, and HIV-related quality of life, Mark joined UEL as a senior lecturer in psychology in 2008.

Mark’s teaching experience has included lecturing in social, critical and educational psychology and qualitative research methods, particularly discourse analysis. His main area of teaching at UEL is in individual differences.

• Module leader for PY2104: Individual Differences
• Level-0 tutor
• Level-3 tutor
• Research supervision (BSc, MSc)
• Doctorate supervision

Mark’s main research focus is on couple relationships, relational identities, and different kinds of intimate partnerships. His critical qualitative research explores practices of traditional and non-traditional ‘couple’ relationships from a psychosocial and inter-disciplinary perspective, attending to the dynamic interplay of the psychological and social. The purpose of Mark’s work is to highlight and challenge taken-for-granted narratives about healthy and happy coupledom, both different- and same-sex. In this he is particularly interested in exploring new ways of organising and experiencing intimate life in times of increasing mobility and social, economic and personal instability.

Besides looking into meanings and practices of monogamy and open non-monogamy, Mark has also researched men’s experiences of first-time fatherhood over time, and notions of quality of life with a focus on responsibility, risk and the governance of healthy citizenship. Methodological interests are in discourse analysis and the development of psychosocial and visual methodologies.

• BSc Psychology
• MSc Psychology
• Graduate Diploma in Psychology
• Psychology Extended Degree

• PY0001: Approaches to Psychology
• PY0003: Becoming a Psychology Undergraduate
• PY2101: Research Methods
• PY2104: Individual Differences
• PY3104: Critical Social Psychology
• PYM152: Individual Differences

A qualitative study of therapeutic engagements with practices of open non-monogamy

This research is responding to burgeoning academic and social interest in open non-monogamy and the question of therapeutic engagement with its various forms (e.g., polyamory, swinging) by investigating ways in which the complex relations, emotions and self-identifications involved in open non-monogamy are understood and approached by mental health professionals in relationship counselling contexts.

Qualitative data is being generated through a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with practicing relationship counsellors who identify as taking an ‘affirmative’ approach to open non-monogamy. The purpose of the research is to inform relationship counselling policy and practice in the support of sexual minorities through the provision of evidence-based recommendations and a model for therapeutic application.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Finn, M. (in press). The psychological architecture of the stable couple relationship. Theory & Psychology.
2. Murray, L., & Finn, M. (in press). Good mothers, bad thoughts: new mothers’ thoughts of intentionally harming their newborns. Feminism & Psychology.
3. Finn, M. (2011). Monogamous order and the avoidance of chaotic excess. Psychology & Sexuality. doi:10.1080/19419899.2011.551834
4. Henwood, K, & Finn, M. (2010). Researching masculine and paternal subjects in times of change: insights from a qualitative longitudinal and psychological case study. In R. Thomson (Ed.) Timescapes Working Paper Series 3.
5. Finn, M., & Sarangi, S. (2009). Humanizing HIV/AIDS and its (re)stigmatizing effects: HIV public ‘positive’ speaking in India. Health: an interdisciplinary journal for the social study of health, illness and medicine, 13(1), 47–65. 10.1177/1363459308097360
6. Finn, M., & Henwood, K. (2009). Exploring masculinities within men’s identificatory imaginings of first-time fatherhood. The British Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 547–562. doi:10.1348/014466608X386099
7. Finn, M., & Sarangi, S. (2008). Quality of life as a mode of governance: NGO talk of HIV ‘positive’ health in India. Social Science & Medicine, 66(7), 1568–1578. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.12.008
8. Finn, M., & Malson, H. (2008). Speaking of home truth: (re)productions of dyadic containment in non-monogamous relationships. The British Journal of Social Psychology, 47(3), 519–533. doi:10.1348/014466607X248921
9. Henwood, K., Finn, M., & Shirani, F. (2008). Use of visual methods to explore paternal identities in historical time and social change. The Qualitative Researcher, 9, 2–5.
10. Malson, H., Clarke, S., & Finn, M. (2008). I don’t think that’s normal: a reflection on accounts of experience of treatment for eating disorders. Feminism & Psychology, 18(3), 417–424. doi:10.1177/0959353507083097

Book Chapters

1. Henwood, K., Shirani, F., & Finn, M. (2011). Methodological and analytical reflections on visual methods used in the Men-as-Fathers study. In P. Reavey (Ed.), Visual psychologies: using and interpreting images in qualitative research. Routledge.
2. Finn, M. (2010). Conditions of freedom in practices of non-monogamy. In M. Baker & D. Langdridge (Eds.), Understanding non-monogamies. Routledge.
3. Finn, M., & Sarangi, S. (2010). Articulations of knowing: NGOs and HIV-positive health in India. In C. Higgins & B. Norton (Eds.), Applied linguistics in the field: local knowledge and HIV/AIDS. Multilingual Matters.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Malson, H., Finn, M., Treasure, J., Clarke, S., & Anderson, G. (2004). Constructing ‘the eating disordered patient’: a discourse analysis of accounts of treatment experiences. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 14(6), 473–489. doi:10.1002/casp.804
2. Finn, M., & Dell, P. (1999). Practices of body management: transgenderism and embodiment. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 9(6), 463–477. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1298(199911/12)9:6<463::AID-CASP544>3.0.CO;2-C