Dr Martin Willis

Dr Martin Willis

Lecturer

Social Psychology, Qualitative Research Methods

Department of Psychology & Human Development , School of Childhood and Social Care

As a social psychologist, Martin is particularly interested in ways in which subjectivity involves relationships between our bodies and social and material contexts.

Qualifications

  • BSc (Hons) Psychology (First Class), University of Northampton
  • PhD Social Psychology, Loughborough University
  • PGCert Learning & Teaching in Higher Education, University of East London

Areas Of Interest

  • Feelings, emotions, affect
  • Conspiracy beliefs
  • Social psychology of social class
  • Critical realism
Dr Martin Willis

OVERVIEW

Martin joined UEL in September 2015 where he teaches research methods and social psychology for BSc Psychology and MSc Psychology. He also supervises student research for these programmes, Professional Doctorate Counselling Psychology, Professional Doctorate Clinical Psychology, and PhD.

Martin's main research interests fall within the area of social psychology. He is particularly interested in how experience and subjectivity involve relationships between our bodies and social and material contexts and the role of these relationships in shaping how people experience and manage their lives and act in contemporary society. Particular topics of interest include feelings and emotions, morality, identities, conspiracy beliefs, and the social psychology of social class. He has also worked on projects exploring shared decision-making in mental health care and occupational health psychology (specifically, workplace stress and distress).

Martin is also keenly interested in research methodologies and methods (particularly qualitative), including ontological, epistemological, and axiological issues. He has recently been working in the area of analytical pluralism in qualitative research. Martin is also interested in the history and philosophy of psychology, including a concern for the contexts, applications and consequences of psychological knowledge and techniques. He is also interested in process philosophy (particularly that of Alfred North Whitehead), critical realism, and enactivist approaches to mind and cognition and how these ideas can be utilized and developed in (social and applied) psychological theory and methodology.

External roles

Other roles 

Peer reviewer for:

  •  Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise & Health
  • New Media & Society

CURRENT RESEARCH

Martin is currently undertaking research exploring the ways in which Covid-19 is constructed on a UK based Covid-19 conspiracy website. This involves analysis of the rhetorical techniques used in, and the affective tone of, these constructions. The project also aims to identify what, if any, other conspiracies and what, if any, other political issues Covid-19 is connected to on the website.

PUBLICATIONS

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

  • Willis, M.E.H. & Cromby, J. (2020). Bodies, representations, situations, practices: Qualitative research on affect, emotion and feeling. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 17(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2019.1656361
  • Pardi, J., & Willis, M. (2018). How young adults in London experience the Clubhouse Model of Mental Health Recovery: A thematic analysis. Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation & Mental Health, 5(2), 169–182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40737-018-0124-2
  • Cromby, J. & Willis, M.E.H. (2016). Affect – or feeling (after Leys)? Theory & Psychology, 26(4), 476-495. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354316651344
  • Stacey, G., Felton, A., Morgan, A., Stickley, T., Willis, M., Diamond, B., Houghton, P., Dumenya, J., & Johnson, B. (2016). A critical narrative analysis of shared decision-making in acute, inpatient mental health care. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 30(1), 35-41. https://doi.org/10.3109/13561820.2015.1064878c
  • Stacey, G., Felton, A., Morgan, A., Stickley, T., Willis, M., Diamond, B., Houghton, P., Dumenya, J., & Johnson, B. (2015). Informed, involved and influential: The 3 I's model of shared decision making in mental health care. Mental Health Practice, 19(4), 31-35. https://doi.org/10.7748/mhp.19.4.31.s20
  • Clarke, N.J., Willis, M.E.H., Barnes, J., Caddick, N., Cromby, J., McDermott, H., & Wiltshire, G. (2015). Analytical pluralism in qualitative research: A meta-study. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(2), 182-201. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2014.948980
  • Cromby, J. & Willis, M.E.H. (2014). Nudging into subjectification: Governmentality and psychometrics. Critical Social Policy, 34(2), 241-259. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018313500868
  • Barnes, J., Caddick, N., Clarke, N.J., Cromby, J., McDermott, H., Willis, M.E.H., & Wiltshire, G. (2014). Methodological pluralism in qualitative research: Reflections on a meta-study. QMiP Bulletin, 17, Special Issue: The Place of Qualitative Methods in Mixed Methods Research, 35-41.
  • Cromby, J., & Willis, M. (2013). England’s dreaming? UK critical psychology, 2011. Annual Review of Critical Psychology, 10, 932-951.

 

Conference & Seminar Presentations

  • Willis, M.E.H. (2019). The re-emergence of past emotion. Emergence: A CuSP meeting in collaboration with UEL Psychology and Social Change Group. Open University, 29 March.
  • Willis, M.E.H. (2017). Designing and implementing a plural methodology as a PhD student: Problems and solutions. Keynote presentation, Employing and Applying Pluralistic Qualitative Research (PQR). Middlesex University, 13 December.
  • Willis, M.E.H. (2015). Discussing Ellis and Tamboukou. Discussant paper presented at Thinking with Whitehead. Centre for Narrative Research, University of London, 30 November.
  • Willis, M.E.H. (2015). Organising feelings: Past, present and future. Invited presentation for QuAFE: Emotional Experience Across Time and In Space. London South Bank University, 8 May.
  • Willis, M.E.H. (2015). Nurses’ feelings in the context of systemic barriers to care. Paper presented at Psychology of Emotions and Feelings. University of Northampton, 8 April.
  • Clarke, N., Willis, M., Barnes, J., Caddick, N., Cromby, J., McDermott, H., & Wiltshire, G. (2014). A meta-study of methodological pluralism in qualitative research. Paper presented as part of the 'Pluralistic qualitative data analysis in theory and practice' symposium at the 4th International Conference on Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise. Loughborough, 1-3 September.
  • Stickley, T., Willis, M., Felton, A., Stacey, G., Diamond, B., Johnson, B., Morgan, A., Houghton, P., Dumenya, J., & Shutt, J. (2014). Shared decision making in mental health practice. Paper presented at Qualitative Research in Mental Health 5th Annual Conference. Chania, Crete, 2-4 September.
  • Willis, M.E.H. & Cromby, J. (2014a). Nurse moral distress: Contexts and coping strategies. Poster presented at Nottingham University Hospitals Annual Research Festival, “Engage, Enthuse, Empower”. Nottingham, 12 June.
  • Willis, M.E.H. & Cromby, J. (2014b). (Re)Enacting distress in the research interview: An affective textual analysis. Paper presented at 29th Annual PsyPAG Postgraduate Student Conference. Cardiff, 23-25 July.
  • Willis, M. (2013). Moral decisions, moral distress, and the psychological health of nurses. Poster presented at Loughborough University School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences Research Student Conference. Loughborough, 22 May.
  • Willis, M. (2012). Moral decisions, moral distress, and the psychological health of nurses. Poster presented at Loughborough University Health & Life Sciences Research Student Conference. Loughborough, 30 May.
  • Willis, M., Lazard, L., & Callaghan, J. (2010) In Britain’s best interests? Discourses of race, place and identity in British party-political manifestos. Paper presented as part of a symposium at Qualitative Methods in Psychology Conference. Nottingham, 23-25 August.

PhD Thesis

  • Willis, M.E.H. (2015). Moral decisions, moral distress, and the psychological health of nurses. Unpublished PhD, Loughborough University, Loughborough.

Other

  • Houghton, P., Stacey, G., Felton, A., Morgan, A., Stickley, T., Willis, M., Diamond, B., Johnson, B., Dumenya, J. & Shutt, J. (2014). Power and decision making on acute wards. Clinical Psychology Bite-Size, 40. Nottingham: Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.
  • Stacey, G., Felton, A., Morgan, A., Stickley, T., Willis, M., Diamond, B., Houghton, P., Dumenya, J., Johnson, B. & Shutt, J. (2014). Shared decision making in mental health in-patient settings: Implications for practice. Nottingham: Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

TEACHING

BSc (Hons) Psychology

Studying for a BSc in Psychology, you will develop a good knowledge of the influences on, and factors involved in, human functioning in all the core areas of psychology.

Read more about this course

MSc Psychology

A psychology conversion course for students with a first degree in another subject area. It means you could go on and train to be a professional psychologist.

Study MSc Psychology

MODULES

  • PY3301 Personal Development (Mental Wealth)
  • PY7158 Applied research methods

Publications

The last four years of publications can be viewed below. 

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