Professor Ian Tucker
Professor, School of Psychology
Mental Health and Social Change Research Group , Psychology
Ian is Professor and Director of Impact and Innovation in the School of Psychology at UEL. He has expertise in digital media, emotion and mental health, and teaches across undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in these areas.
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AE 2.16, Stratford Campus
School of Psychology
The University of East London
Stratford Campus
London
E15 4LZ - i.tucker@uel.ac.uk +442082234349
Ian has developed applied approaches that study the ways that psychological processes are shaped through relations with social, technological and environmental practices. This includes specific focus on how emotion and affect operate in increasingly digitally mediated environments. This ranges from experiences of digital media use through to highlighting the impact of new digital technologies on psychological thought and practice more broadly. Ian has also studied the relations between individual and institutional practices in a range of environments for mental health care and support, from community day centres to forensic psychiatric units.
Ian has held grants from the EPSRC and Mental Health Foundation, and is currently working on two related EPSRC NewMind Network+ funded projects to develop a digital peer support mobile app for mental health communities. He is reviewer and rapporteur for EU Cost Action and British Council Newton Fund funding programmes and has reviewed for a number of European and UK funding agencies.
Ian has published over forty-five articles and book chapters, and has a monograph book entitled ‘The Social Psychology of Emotion’ published for Sage in 2015 (with Darren Ellis UEL). He is currently co-authoring an ‘Emotion in the Digital Age’ monograph for Routledge’s Studies in Science, Technology & Society Series.
Ian is currently supervising three PhD students, and is interested in supervising PhDs in the areas of digital media, emotion and affect, mental health, and surveillance.Overview
Ian is currently involved in the following projects:
1. The Empathy Agent (AI)
This involves designing and developing a digital app utilising artificial intelligence to provide peer-to-peer
support for mental health communities and patients. The project is funded by EPSRC NewMind Network+, and involves working with colleagues from the
University of Sheffield, a service user co-researcher and a UEL Student Research Intern (Hounsell).
2. Digital Community Assets in Mental Health
This project focuses on the role of digital media in the development and maintenance of community
assets for mental health recovery and resilience. The project is part of a newly formed Special Interest
Group I lead as part of the £1.4m ESRC Social, Cultural and Community Assets for Mental Health
(MARCH) Network+ (PI is Dr Daisy Fancourt at University College London).
3. Emotion in a Digital Age
This is focused on the role of emotion in key areas that are taken as central to life in an increasingly
digital age. Currently this involves undertaking systematic reviews of the role and uses of emotion in
the areas of artificial intelligence, social media, and digital surveillance. This work will form the basis
of a co-authored Emotion in a Digital Age monograph contracted to Palgrave’s Science and
Technology Series.
Collaborators
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Psychology
Ava Kanyeredzi
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Psychosocial Studies
Darren Ellis
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Psychology
John Reid
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Psychology
Laura McGrath
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Psychology
Lewis Goodings
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Psychology
Dave Harper
Research
Publications
Building and Testing a Demonstrator System for the Artificial Intelligence Empathy Agent, EPSRC Newmind Mental Health Technology Network+. £30,000. Co-Investigator. 2019
Developing an Artificial Intelligence Empathy Agent, EPSRC Newmind Mental Health Technology Network+. £15,000. Co-Investigator. 2018
Online support for psychiatric medication. EPSRC Communities and Culture Network+. £9801. Principal Investigator. 2015
Social media and austerity: Online peer support and mental health communities, EPSRC Communities and Culture Network+. £32901. Principal Investigator. 2014
'The impact of life transitions on older mental health service users'. Mental Health Foundation. £11853. Principal Investigator. 2006-2008
Funding
Interests
Portfolio
Ian teaches on the BSc Psychology, BSc Clinical and Community Psychology and MSc Psychology programmes. He teaches on the following modules:
PY4108 - Clinical and Community Psychology Foundations 1
PY5210 - Clinical and Community Psychology Foundations 3
PY5201 - Researching Psychological Worlds 2
PY7153 - Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology