
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
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 used and developed in (social and applied) psychological theory and methodology.
External roles
- Founder member of the Association for Process Thought (APT)
- Member of the Critical Values-Based Practice Network (C-VBP-N)
- Affiliate of Qualitative Approaches to Affect, Feelings & Emotions (QuAFE)
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.
TEACHING
MODULES
- PY3301 Personal Development (Mental Wealth)
- PY7158 Applied research methods
Publications
Browse past publications by year.
Full publications list
Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications
- Affect, Emotion and Feeling in: Stam, H. and de Jong, H. L. (ed.) The SAGE Handbook of Theoretical Psychology. SAGE Publications, pp.In Press
- An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of the experience of being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy. 23 (4), pp. 37-51
- Making sense of burnout: A reflexive thematic analysis of how teachers in England discuss and encounter the term burnout. Qualitative Health Research. 34 (1-2), pp. 61-71. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732323120363
- Critical Realism and Qualitative Research in Psychology Qualitative Research in Psychology. 20 (2), pp. 265-288. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2022.2157782
- Meta-Study International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology. 15 (1), pp. 226-241. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2021.1931941
- Bodies, Representations, Situations, Practices: qualitative research on affect, emotion and feeling Qualitative Research in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2019.1656361