The Psychologist September 2020 by The Psychologist

the

psychologist september 2020

Standing against racism As British Psychological Society Chief Executive Sarb Bajwa admits â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;We are institutionally racistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, we hear from him, our readers and Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce Chair Nasreen Fazal-Short about next steps

www.thepsychologist.org.uk

the

psychologist september 2020

contact The British Psychological Society 48 Princess Road East Leicester LE1 7DR 0116 254 9568 info@bps.org.uk www.bps.org.uk Twitter: @BPSOfﬁcial the psychologist and research digest www.thepsychologist.org.uk www.bps.org.uk/digest www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk

Standing against racism As British Psychological Society Chief Executive Sarb Bajwa admits ‘We are institutionally racist’, we hear from him, our readers and Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce Chair Nasreen Fazal-Short about next steps

www.thepsychologist.org.uk

The Psychologist is the magazine of

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It provides a forum for communication, discussion and controversy among all members of the Society, and aims to fulﬁl the main object of the Royal Charter, ‘to promote the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge of psychology pure and applied’

Download our iOS/Android apps. Complete access for Society members via your login. advertising Reach 50,000+ psychologists at very reasonable rates. CPL, 1 Cambridge Technopark Newmarket Road Cambridge CB5 8PB contact Kai Theriault 01223 378051 kai.theriault@cpl.co.uk july/august 2020 issue 51,324 dispatched

The Psychologist needs you! We rely on your submissions throughout the publication, and in return we help you to get your message across to a large and diverse audience. For details of all the available options, plus our policies and what to do if you feel these have not been followed, see www.thepsychologist.org.uk/contribute The main message, though, is simply to engage with us. Contact the editor Dr Jon Sutton on jon.sutton@bps.org.uk, or tweet us on @psychmag.

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Managing Editor Jon Sutton Deputy Editor Annie Brookman-Byrne Production Mike Thompson Journalist Ella Rhodes Editorial Assistant Debbie Gordon Research Digest Matthew Warren (Editor), Emily Reynolds, Emma Young

Associate Editors Articles Paul Curran, Harriet Gross, Michelle Hunter, Rebecca Knibb, Adrian Needs, Paul Redford, Sophie Scott, Mark Wetherell, Jill Wilkinson History of Psychology Alison Torn Interviews Gail Kinman Culture Kate Johnstone, Sally Marlow Books Emily Hutchinson Voices in Psychology Madeleine Pownall Psychologist and Digest Editorial Advisory Committee Catherine Loveday (Chair), Emma Beard, Harriet Gross, Kimberley Hill, Deborah Husbands, Peter Olusoga, Richard Stephens, Miles Thomas

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psychologist september 2020

Karin Creemers

Letters Racism; sex and power in the university; and more

Obituaries

News The return to school; training places; 5 minutes with Rose Stewart

Digest Music, and more

‘We need to broaden the conversation to institutional bias’ Nasreen Fazal-Short, Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce; plus BPS Chief Executive Sarb Bajwa

What Improv, Ubuntu and Covid-19 have taught me about leadership David Murphy’s Presidential Address

‘The heat and light that draws us together’ We report from the BPS 2020 Conference – online. Keynotes from Stephen Reicher, Miranda Wolpert, Paul Slovic and Alison Gopnik, plus much more.

Rethinking the public health approach to obesity Joanne Rathbone, Jolanda Jetten, Fiona Kate Barlow and Jasmine Russell

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‘Change needs to happen on a real systemic level’ Tosin Bowen-Wright in conversation with Paul Jenkins

A more ﬂuid approach to drinking Young adults are consuming less alcohol than previous generations: Dominic Conroy and Fiona Measham look to understand changing ‘styles’

Careers We talk human factors with Rob Hutton

Jobs Latest vacancies

Books Attention; plus reviews

Culture Clemency; and more

Looking back Hans Asperger

One on one Maria Qureshi

Veterans, horses, and the rediscovery of ‘with’ Adrian Needs

Our issue cover is, perhaps, more bold than the contents: little more than the latest attempt to (re)ignite the conversation around racism. I agree with Taskforce Chair Nasreen Fazal-Short (p. 22) that psychology, the Society and The Psychologist must ‘mainstream the agenda’ around inclusion, considered more broadly and with the input of a real range of voices. What does ‘standing against racism’ mean to us as a magazine? Seeking out BAME psychologists for our pages. Providing a space for constructive, evidencebased, psychological conversation. Engaging with marginalised groups along all kinds of intersecting dimensions. This brings criticism from readers, but we make no apologies. As Nasreen told me, ‘people need to learn to tolerate, and not believe that just by existing they are oppressive, or being oppressed... real conversations are the only answer, to move us all forward, not just some of us.’ Can the Society be ‘the heat and light that draws us together’ (p.36)? Dr Jon Sutton Managing Editor @psychmag

Turning reﬂection into meaningful action

Since the murder of George Floyd, there has been time to reﬂect and educate ourselves. We must now turn these learnings into long-term, meaningful action, and commit to sustained change. Letters published in The Psychologist highlight the personal and professional impact of systemic racism and the depth of the issue within psychology. Although the Chief Executive’s statement held important reﬂections, there was a notable absence of any discussion of racial inequality in summer edition of The Psychologist. This suggests much more must be done to ensure this is not just a moment in history but, a sustained movement for change. Together we must examine and deconstruct racist systems across all areas of psychology. Efforts must be underpinned by the need to achieve equality of opportunity for and representation of racial minorities. Within this, an understanding of intersectionality must be integrated to make psychology an inclusive space for all. Academic institutions demonstrate enormous disparity in opportunities afforded white compared with BAME individuals. The majority of our Psychology departments are white; as such, aspiring psychologists of other ethnicities do not see themselves represented. This has to change. To diversify our departments, we must consider pathways into academic careers, identify existing systemically racist barriers and deconstruct them. In research, our regular processes must be redesigned. From conception to dissemination, energies should focus on making research accessible to and representative of minority groups, who are often excluded. It is important to commit to tangible changes across all stages of the research process. The concept of decolonising the curriculum will now be familiar to many. Diversifying the content of teaching and training is hugely important. When we considered who is currently represented in our teaching: the authors, theorists and populations under study, we see a whitewashed image. We must therefore rethink how we teach psychology. Many teaching structures are based on colonial hierarchical systems. These systems represent power imbalances between lecturer and student. When there is minimal, racial diversity represented within these positions of power, what message does this send to students from BAME backgrounds? The Chief Executive acknowledged the important work by the UCL clinical trainees around issues of race, power and privilege. Psychologists however, practice in many disciplines: counselling, clinical, health, forensic, educational, occupational, sports and consultancy. Our

discussions about race and privilege should happen in all disciplines. Health inequalities were recently brought into sharp focus and it was particularly disappointing not to see a discussion of the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on BAME communities in the recent issue of The Psychologist. Psychologists must be engaged in this discussion and taking action. We can start by identifying barriers for BAME patients accessing and engaging with services (e.g. availability of services, lack of racial representation within healthcare teams) and then deconstruct and rebuild. We have a lot of work to do. It is imperative that we take this opportunity as a group of professionals and people to do better. The British Psychological Society is the representing society for psychologists in the UK. Therefore, across all our divisions, sections, groups and taskforces we must stand up and be accountable to make change happen. Maia Thornton, MBPsS University of the West of England Mary Keeling, CPsychol Christine Ramsey-Wade, CPsychol AFBPsS Editor’s reply: In terms of the summer edition, early on in lockdown it was clear that it was going to be a real challenge to produce any issue at all, but we made the decision to attempt a combined July and August one which focused 100 per cent on the theme of ‘towards a new normal, and beyond’. Quite late on in that process, the killing of George Floyd and the protests happened. We decided to reflect BPS statements and some perspectives we received, along with a collection of archive links, at https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/ standing-against-racism We did refer to BAME groups in the context of the pandemic a few times in that issue, but decided to delay broader coverage around racism until the September edition. Partly that was because it’s so important to get it right… and I’m far from convinced we’ve done that. This issue is an attempt to (re)ignite the conversation, and I get how frustrating that is for many people, i.e. ‘it’s just more talk’. We need people to come forward, with evidencebased and constructive contributions which move the conversation on. As you say, long-term, meaningful action and a sustained movement for change is key. But perhaps to get to that stage, it remains important (and acceptable?) to pause, reflect, listen; to consider what can be done from a specifically psychological perspective, as we redouble efforts to eliminate racism from our society.

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Black lives have always mattered. In the last few months, it seems the world is experiencing a ‘racial awakening’, and only just catching up to the experiences and narratives Black individuals have been holding, long before another senseless death of an unarmed Black man. It is now July and other lives have been lost. We at the British Psychological Society’s Division of Counselling Psychology Black & Asian Counselling Psychologists’ Group would like to reafﬁrm our position on our opposition to all forms of racism following the reported deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and countless other people in the United States and the UK, including Belly Mujinga, Sarah Reed, Sheku Bayoh, Joy Gardner, Stephen Lawrence, Mark Duggan. In addition, we do not forget the deaths across the world that go unreported. We also see the loss of so many lives in the healthcare sector and the ways in which Covid-19 has predominantly highlighted the ongoing structural, systemic and institutional racism that all people from ethnic minorities face at a disproportionate rate due to the nature of their roles and the manner in which they are exposed to Covid-19.

We are not conflating these separate incidences but highlight them together to demonstrate how racism permeates and impacts Black lives. We would like to highlight the ongoing and enduring strain and emotional anguish that is felt by Black communities and how it aids in the causes of mental health issues and difficulties. We will continue to stand in solidarity with all protesters in the US and the UK who have decidedly taken to the streets in protest during a pandemic, because in their words ‘No virus can harm us more than we are already being harmed’, and we would like to register the pain in that statement of continuous existential threat. During this time, we call for our Universities and training programs to specifically highlight the issues faced by minority ethnic communities in their training, so that we have an ongoing and ever-growing population of trainees and graduates who are aware and alert to the detrimental effects of these environmental oppressions when they appear in therapeutic spaces, and more importantly, how these issues can be tackled effectively. We also call for our Universities and training programmes to look

the psychologist september 2020 letters

specifically at the ways in which their lecturers and educators are attuned to these issues, how they support their ethnic minority members of staff and trainees to deliver appropriate training and specifically dedicate continuous modules to non-western perspectives on mental health and psychotherapy. We require an ongoing commitment to understanding our demographic breakdowns from applicant to graduate level across all training programmes in order to identify areas for development and to comprehensively commit to positive change so that more Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic trainees have access to qualification as Practitioner Psychologists and that they are supported throughout their training. We also call for the British Psychological Society to review its own position with regards to race and racism following high profile incidents that took place at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 within the Society, and how it plans to concretely address the learning outcomes of the investigations conducted at a structural level. Of course, the responsibility is not just within our training organisations and the Society although they have a huge part to play. We acknowledge the statement by David Murphy, the work of the Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce, and more recently the indication of a diversifying Psychology curriculum. It also falls on seasoned practitioners in the way that they work with clients knowingly and unknowingly. Everyone needs to examine their actions and bias they hold in this arena. It is not the responsibility of the ethnic minority communities to effect shifts in the behaviours of many who perpetuate racial and cultural discrimination. We reiterate our commitment to standing against racism and its damaging effects. This falls to all of us. Enough is enough. Dr Yetunde Ade-Serrano On behalf of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Counselling Psychology Black & Asian Counselling Psychologists’ Group

We must act to decolonise psychology

In the last few decades, as light is shed on racial inequality throughout most of the globe, students and academics have organised debates on the decolonisation of the psychology curriculum to advocate for profound social change within the discipline. However, the discussion seems to fail to be transformed into concrete changes to the curriculum. It is a topic that is continually falling off the radar. During my educational and academic life, I have struggled with the lack of diversity in psychology. To this date as a lecturer, I ask myself whether psychology is for me. Can I make it in my ﬁeld? As I look around me, there are still a few Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) academics in senior positions. From the research topic to the participants, psychology is not a welcoming environment for minorities. Ramon Grosfoguel (2016) deﬁnes racism as ‘a dehumanisation related to the materiality of domination used by the world-system in the zone of non-being (violence and dispossession) as opposed to the materiality of domination in the zone of being (regulation and emancipation)’. How many institutions teach Frantz Fanon theory? How many courses teach the compliant history of psychology in oppressing minorities? How many courses debate the errors of psychological theory such as Drapetomania? The material domination of the curriculum in psychology is perpetuated by violently dispossessing learner from these and many other debates. Psychology students must be given the opportunity to engage with the political, socioeconomic and cultural contradictions that interact to diminish people’s lives, such as systemic racism. Psychology’s focus on implicit bias, small discriminatory acts are all too often understood as unconscious, offering a convenient and unwelcomed distraction to tackle prejudice. Discrimination is seen as implicit bias, regardless of whether evidence to show that such behaviour is unconscious is still contested. It is also a disturbing feature of everyday interaction. The negative impact that psychological theories and practices have had on minority groups has been further exacerbated by the failure of the bodies that oversee the discipline to recognise the key, distinctive cultural and social determinants that contribute to forming the subject. As the British Psychological Society oversees the university’s course for validation, the BPS could also ask for evidence as to what psychology departments across the country are doing to decolonise their curriculum. By decolonising the curriculum, I mean the fundamental reconsideration of who is teaching, what the subject matter is and how it is being taught. To illustrate, a report from the University and College Union stated that in the 2016-17 academic year 25 black women were recorded as working as professors compared to 14,000 white men. Psychology practitioners, from therapy to teaching, must critically examine our assumptions about how

the world is, such as, assumptions on racial and civilisational hierarchy that has informed the subject thinking. The interrogating of the assumptions, models and frameworks for speciﬁc biases within psychology is long overdue. Henrich and colleagues have argued that individuals from Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic countries make up the bulk of samples in psychological research. It forms distorted generalisations about human behaviour overall since 80 per cent of research participants are from this context representing 12 per cent of the world’s population. The BPS could release guidelines to encourage psychology practitioners to be committed to cultural awareness and knowledge of both self and others. Psychologists must recognise their attitudes and beliefs, the importance of multicultural sensitivity and understanding, the value of researching persons from various ethnic, linguistic and racial minority backgrounds, and the importance of this cultural competence in clinical practice. The aim must be building a decolonised psychology curriculum, pedagogy, research, practice, and governance. A cultural shift must be institutional by promoting diversity in the representation in, research in, and the practice of psychology through faculties, publications, conferences, grants and the decolonisation of the curriculum. Bruno De Oliveira, AFHEA, FRSA PhD Researcher, M.A. in Community Psychology University of Brighton Links and references via https://thepsychologist.bps.org. uk/standing-against-racism

the psychologist september 2020 letters

Tim Sanders/www.timonline.info

I was pleased to see the British Psychological Society’s statement reafﬁrming its committent to anti-racism following the killing of George Floyd. It is clear that commitments to anti-racism within psychology, and to ﬁghting racial injustice in society more broadly, are urgently needed. As a small part of this, the BPS should rename one of its most prestigious prizes – the Spearman Medal – given that it is named after eugenicist Charles Spearman. Spearman does not seem to have been a proudly overt racist like his UCL predecessors Francis Galton and Karl Pearson, but as a fellow of the Eugenics Society of London he certainly knowingly facilitated a lot of racist thinking that we are still battling today, while expressing some deeply troubling eugenist views (‘One can even conceive the establishment of a minimum [intelligence] index to qualify for parliamentary vote, and, above all, for the right to have offspring’, Hart and Spearman wrote in the British Journal of Psychology in 1912). People from times past leave complex legacies, and it is left to

subsequent generations to make sense of the fact they may have made contributions we all beneﬁt from (for example, Spearman’s statistical methods) while also being divisive and harmful. Awards, however, should represent the best of what the Society wishes to promote. The current name is not ﬁt for purpose and the award should carry a name that everyone would be proud to be associated with. Dr Vaughan Bell UCL Editor’s note: This proposal is due to be considered at the Society’s Research Board in October.

Find more perspectives at https:// thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/standingagainst-racism including from Dr Rosabel Ng, Dr Khadija Rouf, Halina Bryan and Shameema Yousuf.

Sex and power in the university Eighty per cent of psychology undergraduate students are female and at Russell Group institutions, the proportion is even higher, standing at around 85 per cent. The result is that psychology professions are pervasively female-dominated: 80 per cent of Clinical Psychologists and Educational Psychologists are women. This gender imbalance has negative ramifications for all concerned; members of the public who are more comfortable seeing a male psychologist may find it challenging to find one, and for those of us within a psychology profession, research suggests that gender-balanced teams operate more effectively within the workplace. The gender imbalance also fails to offer women any career-long benefits, with ‘a leaky pipeline’ effect meaning that only 63 per cent of university psychology lecturers and 33 per cent of psychology professors are female. At the University of Leeds, School of Psychology, we have been investigating this issue as part of our Athena SWAN Silver Award Action Plan and have made changes which we hope will increase the number of applications we receive to study psychology from prospective male students. However, we are one psychology department trying to tackle a much wider problem. Not only is the gender imbalance seen in psychology a national problem; it stretches right across the higher education sector, with 57 per cent of all undergraduate students identifying as female. Alternatively, when viewed from an international lens, it is quickly apparent that other countries are struggling with the same challenge of a psychology gender imbalance. As such, we believe that for any local initiatives like our own to be truly effective, a national strategy is needed to address this issue. While it is clear to us that a national strategy is needed, knowing what this strategy should look like is less clear and there are few positive examples to draw on, as previous initiatives to try and improve gender balance in other areas of education have had only limited success (see, for example, Smith, E. (2011). Women into science and engineering? Gendered participation in higher education STEM subjects. British Educational Research Journal, 37(6), 993-1014). We recently conducted focus groups with our male students to understand this problem better and found our male students perceive psychology as a degree primarily relating to health and education professions; careers which they perceived as being ‘women’s work’ and which do not strongly appeal to them. This led us to be aware of two key issues: the first is the need to highlight the important role of male psychologists in all professions; ensuring that male psychology role models are available and visible to both the school students who we engage with as part of our community and schools work and to prospective applicants who attend our open days. The second is the

need to showcase and promote the wide range of careers that a degree in psychology can lead on to for both our prospective applicants and our existing student body. At the School of Psychology, University of Leeds we already have a strong emphasis on supporting student employability: we offer a work placement (industrial) year option to enable students to gain valuable work experience before graduating and our Careers Director (Dr Gina Z. Koutsopoulou) oversees a range of ongoing student career development opportunities. However, our ﬁndings have led us to now identify and advertise a range of remunerated industrial placement year opportunities in sectors such as public services (e.g. civil service, local government, statistical services), industry and business (e.g. management consultancy, banking, human resources, accountancy, marketing, advertising), on a

At ﬁrst sight the front cover of the June edition of the Psychologist appeared to depict a covid sneeze (‘Psychtoo’). On further examination the image was revealed to represent the subject of sexual harassment in the world of psychology. The case of Henri Tajfel was discussed in two articles, including the fact that the EASP has removed Tajfel’s name from their lifetime achievement award following revelations of his behaviour towards young women colleagues, students and others, beginning in the 1960s. My lockdown reading of the ﬁnal part of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy turned up this plea by the 15th century French ‘poet, thief and general vagabond’, Francois Villon; ‘Brother men, You who live after us, Do not harden your hearts against us.’ In other words, applying the standards and values of the current age to a previous one is a dubious enterprise. We are all inescapably the products of the periods and circumstances into which we are unavoidably born and obliged to live our lives. Part of my lockdown catchup viewing is the excellent 20072015 TV series Mad Men. Depicting

weekly basis and provided workshops to support students with their applications. We will now monitor the effectiveness of these changes and continue to engage in initiatives to improve gender balance within our own department. However, for our efforts to be effective, a wider and broader national strategy is needed. Furthermore, given the limited success of gender-balancing strategies in other educational areas, research to better understand this issue and how it can be addressed will also be crucial. Judith Johnson, Anna Madill, Gina Z. Koutsopoulou, Charity Brown and Richard Harris University of Leeds For links see https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/tacklinggender-imbalance-psychology

the world of advertising on Madison Avenue in the 1960s, it reminds us that it was indeed a man’s world, as James Brown famously sang in 1967, to the extent that behaviour now classed as sexual harassment if not actual assault was not only tolerated as normal but was practically a deﬁning characteristic of masculinity in certain contexts. To be thought weak, effeminate or homosexual could carry a disastrously high social, economic and sometimes legal cost. The values, attitudes and behaviours of the 1930s and 40s began to be regarded as repressive and damaging in the post war period and the 1960s saw a revolution against them. The characteristic ‘stiff upper lip’, self restraint, respect for authority and pursuit of modest respectability were routinely ridiculed, railed against and cast aside by a signiﬁcant and

Deadline for letters for the October print edition is Friday 28 August. Letters received after this date will be considered for the following month and/or for publication online. Email letters to psychologist@bps.org.uk with the subject line ‘Letter to the editor’.

inﬂuential portion of the population, not just the young. When I was an undergraduate in a social psychology department in the late 60s, many staff routinely socialised and had sexual relationships with students. We thought little of it and indeed members of the nascent women’s liberation movement, of which I was an early supporter, tended to view such relationships as part of that very liberation. However misguided all this may now seem, I do wonder if those condemning Tajfel from today’s perspective understand how different was the time in which he lived. Stephen Munt Kingston on Thames

the psychologist september 2020 letters

Really ‘doing better’ on racism The Young and Hegarty article ‘Psychology has a sexual harassment problem’ (The Psychologist, June 2020) was a bold and necessary contribution, drawing attention to the power dynamics of a discipline in which men still occupy most of the dominant positions. It was beyond their brief in the article, but it is worth bearing in mind that these particular questions are part of a broader problem in academic institutions, and a deeper analysis also needs to emphasise that this problem is pervasive inside psychology around the world. In 2018 three academics – Karuna Chandrashekar, Kimberly Lacroix and Sabah Siddiqui – edited an astonishing collection of articles called ‘Sex and Power in the University’ which was published as a special issue of Annual Review of Critical Psychology [tinyurl.com/ y37ynz9j]. These editors were young women early in their careers who had experienced, or had close friends who had experienced, sexual harassment by senior male colleagues, and it was a brave decision to go public. They make it clear that women are still mostly in junior positions, which makes them more vulnerable, and also less likely to speak out. The problem considered in a global scale is not down to one or two badly-behaved men, but is endemic; psychology certainly does have a sexual harassment problem. There are undoubtedly cases where young vulnerable men are also abused, and we would do well to remember Kate Millett’s speciﬁcation of patriarchy in her 1997 text Sexual Politics as entailing the dominance of women by men and of younger men by old men. Ian Parker Emeritus Professor of Management, University of Leicester, UK See also https://thepsychologist.bps. org.uk/naming-poison for a response from Sasha Priddy and James Randall around working in clinical psychology.

The killing of George Floyd has led universities to signal their anti-racist credentials, typically by extending their implicit bias training provision. In our recent article for The Psychologist website, we argued that although these initiatives sound good, the evidence underpinning them is questionable. Recent meta-analyses of their effects have found that such training produces, at best, small changes in implicit biases, with these effects typically vanishing within a few days. The disparity between the observed empirical evidence for implicit bias measurement and bias-reducing policies on the one hand, and the enactment of such policies in higher education institutions on the other, suggests a desire within universities to appear to be doing something about racial inequalities, even if that ‘something’ is ultimately ineffective. However, effective alternatives are available. Considering the context within which scientiﬁc knowledge is acquired and considering different cultural approaches to social issues (known as decolonising the curriculum) is surely a positive step, but this needs to be enacted in a non-tokenistic manner, and with nuanced scepticism, rather than a rejection, of the scientiﬁc method. Even at universities where curricula remain untouched, there is evidence that changing our teaching practices could have the desired effect of closing attainment gaps.

One method that has been shown to do this is the SCALE-UP model. This is a ‘ﬂipped’ teaching approach, with an emphasis on student-led problem solving and teamwork in the classroom. Large-scale analyses of SCALE-UP as a pedagogical approach have found that it increases engagement, enhances understanding of key concepts, reduces failure rates, and closes racial attainment gaps. A complementary initiative was recently launched by the University of Hertfordshire, which provided Black and minority ethnic (BAME) students with the same information as senior leaders to listen to each group’s proposed solutions to racial attainment gaps. This active approach centres the voices of BAME students, provides experience in leadership contexts, and shows university leaders the potential of BAME students in such positions. As psychology educators, it is incumbent upon us to critique bad ideas emanating from within our discipline. Implicit bias training appears to be one of these. However, realistic and effective alternative solutions to racial inequalities are available. University leaders need to be braver in how they respond to this issue, and realise that ‘business as usual’ is simply not good enough. Craig A. Harper & Harry Purser Nottingham Trent University Read the article at tinyurl.com/HarperPurser

Letters online Find many more letters at www.thepsychologist.org.uk/debates, including: Time to rewrite the rules – Rachel Holt on clinical psychology inclusion. ACTing autonomously – Liam Myles at a T-junction. Bridging words and images – Dimitra Theodoropoulou responds to an article on art therapy. The problem with using rainbow flags to support the NHS – Kirsty Conway. A mosaic of fragmented memories – Mohamed Khougali on the therapeutic dimension of oral tradition. We have also continued to add to our huge collection of perspectives on Covid-19 at https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/april-2020/ coronavirus-psychological-perspectives To give just three recent examples: A jolt of transformation – Daren Lee takes a philosophical look at what the pandemic might mean for replicability and the efficacy of practice in psychology. Collaborative learning despite remote working – Julia Norman on the enduring power of the collective brain, even in distanced times. FlowUnlocked in East London – Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou, with the help of Jon Adams and Briony Campbell, reflects on a UCL-funded project to explore autistic people’s relationships during and after the lockdown.

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From tots to teens – psycho logy and the schoo l return

hroughout lockdown psychologists from many areas have been working to support, and advocate for, children. As the government plans for pupils to return to schools, but with uncertainty about how this will work in practice, what is the role for psychologists during this transition? The British Psychological Society’s Covid-19 Coordinating Group has developed numerous resources across the course of the pandemic: from early advice on resilience in teachers in the face of school closures, and supporting care-experienced and looked-after children, to more recently publishing psychology guidance on promoting re-engagement and recovery as children come back to school. As part of this work the Division of Clinical Psychology advised parents on how to support children and young people in times of uncertainty, and how best to make difﬁcult decisions on behalf of children. The document highlights that even very young children will be affected by the uncertainty in their lives, and points out the importance of managing the information about Covid-19 that children receive. The authors share some useful tips on how parents can talk to children about their own feelings in a sensitive way, how parents can make decisions when they are stressed and worried, and how to support children to manage their own anxiety and worry associated with uncertainty. ‘Children will continue to hear information about the Covid-19 pandemic and it could be quite difﬁcult for them

to understand the changes to the rules and why adults may feel anxious. Helping them by managing information they hear, allowing them time to express their feelings, and by ensuring the way adults speak about the pandemic in front of them will help them manage their own anxiety and worries.’

A space for hope Educational psychologist, lecturer and co-chair elect of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology, Dr Dan O’Hare, has been involved with some of the other BPS outputs for children and their families. He, along with fellow Educational Psychologist Dr Hester Riviere (Oxfordshire County Council), wrote a resilience and coping framework for supporting children back to school which outlines ways to promote and nurture resilience and coping through creating a sense of belonging, strong relationships and agency. ‘If we adopt that resilience approach we have space to think about trauma, harm and anxiety, but it also gives us space to think about strengths and assets and hope. I think the question schools should be considering is, not only how do we mitigate any harm, but how do we promote and strengthen the resilience that has been demonstrated?’ O’Hare said it was key to remember that children were not one homogenous group and that their experiences of lockdown would have been vastly different. ‘There are

the psychologist september 2020 news going to be some children who might experience more stress and anxiety about going back to school, some children have ﬂourished at home and some children have really missed school… Some children will have experienced traumatic circumstances like bereavements or family members who have been seriously ill and some have been spending more time in environments which are perhaps neglectful or within which they experience abusive situations.’ While educational psychologists have been working throughout lockdown, but in adapted ways, once pupils are back in schools their work will involve increased focus in certain areas. O’Hare said one area they are likely to be involved with is critical incident support if members of the school community have died during the Covid-19 outbreak, as well as supporting teachers and other staff and developing ways to maintain wellbeing. ‘Dr Sarah Dufﬁeld and I wrote a paper near the start of lockdown about teacher resilience and there’s still things from that which are really important – how do we promote that sense of belonging? How do we promote learning in this really stressful time?’ O’Hare said educational psychologists will be working to support those children with special educational needs who, while schools were open, might have had targeted interventions every day but have missed those for six months. ‘I think our work will also be around emotional needs. Whether that is about readjusting to school, whether it’s about friendships, or anxiety, or behaviour, but taking that view that behaviour is communication. School is a very different structure to home and if there are behaviours that are seen as challenging, we need to unpick why that’s happening. I would expect that there’ll be quite a lot of demand as more children return to school.’

Digital inequality One of the biggest lessons O’Hare said he’d taken from the pandemic and lockdown was that emergencies such as this were not an equaliser. ‘There’s real digital inequality in society at large. We’ve heard from families where mum, dad, or a carer, has one mobile phone and that’s it, and they’ve got three or four kids, perhaps split across different years in different schools, and they’ve all been assigned online learning. We know that more people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic populations are dying, so how does that then affect the approach that schools have for children who come from those communities?’ O’Hare has also been interested in children who might be identifying as LGBTQ+. ‘There are many children who may have spent a considerable length of time now in home environments that are not LGBT+ positive and have not been able to have those contacts with friends and connections that really mean a lot to them. How do we meet the speciﬁc needs of these children and young people?’ O’Hare said he’d also been reminded of the importance of relationships and connections during the pandemic. ‘It’s reinforced our knowledge of how important relationships and connections are. I heard a really lovely

example from a friend whose son had work sent home, it wasn’t expected to all be done, but the teacher would record a video or have a live call and then say something about every single individual child. That connection is so, so important – the teacher-pupil relationship is really powerful in terms of school outcomes.’

REACHwell One group of academics has been working to provide summaries of research into the potential harms of lockdown for children and young people. Co-chaired by Professor Ellen Townsend, Principal Investigator with the Self-Harm Research Group (University of Nottingham), the Researchers in Education and Adolescent Child Health and Wellbeing (REACHwell) group has published eight research summaries so far on topics including play, social development, mental health and many other issues (see https://reachwell.org). Townsend previously told our Deputy Editor Dr Annie Brookman-Byrne that the idea for REACHwell had come about after discussions with Professor Ian Goodyer (University of Cambridge), co-chair of the group, after feeling frustration by the neglect of children and adolescents in government decision-making during the pandemic. ‘We are concerned about the lack of focus on the needs of this age group, from tots to teens, in policy making during the pandemic. We felt that a group of academic experts focusing solely on the needs of children and adolescents in this crisis was a gap that needed to be filled. We are providing succinct summaries of scientific evidence relating to the impact of lockdowns and social distancing… Reports will also highlight inequalities experienced in these areas.’ Most recently Townsend wrote about the impact of lockdown on self-harm in young people – which was on the increase prior to lockdown with some evidence suggesting that, during lockdown, younger people were more likely to have experienced both self-harm and suicidal thoughts than older age groups. Dr Maria Loades (University of Bath) also wrote a guest post on loneliness in lockdown and its potential to impact the mental health of children and young people for years to come. While there is little evidence on this specific to the context of pandemics, a good amount of the evidence Loades examined suggested that loneliness was associated with depression and anxiety. ‘Loneliness is associated with later depression and anxiety, up to nine years later. There was some evidence that the duration of loneliness is more strongly associated with unfavourable mental health outcomes than the intensity of loneliness.’ Other recent summaries include the challenges for children’s services including CAMHS as lockdown restrictions ease, the potential impact of lockdown on the attainment gap, and the ‘substantial’ impact of lockdown on the mental health of children and young people.

Remote learning Some schools and colleges will take a ‘blended’ approach, continuing with elements of remote provision. Writing on our Research Digest blog, Emily Reynolds pulled together

See also tinyurl.com/ RobWebster where he unravels the evidence behind the Department for Education’s Covid guidance on deploying teaching assistants

the evidence on how to get the most out of virtual learning [see tinyurl.com/digestvirtual]. Tips covered effective note taking, asking ‘pre-questions’, setting goals early, and discussing course content with other students in online forums. She concluded with advice that is likely to be important right across the education system: ‘students and teachers alike should understand their specific needs and the context in which they’re working; if a student has ongoing issues with their internet connection, they’re not going to need advice about self-regulation, while those who find it hard to wake up in the morning might. Working on personalised strategies, therefore, might benefit you the most in the long run.’ ER

The British Psychological Society continues to produce a range of Covid-19 related resources, for professionals and the public. See www.bps.org.uk/coronavirus-resources In terms of the university experience, ﬁnd ‘The Psychologist Guide to [New] University Life’ at https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/ psychologist-guide-new-university-life and Sarah Hodge and Layla Johnson on the ‘digitally resilient student’ at https://thepsychologist.bps. org.uk/digitally-resilient-student

‘Systematic disadvantage can accumulate, and prevent access to the profession’

Recent rises in clinical psychology doctoral places in England, Wales and Scotland are good news for the many people attracted to a career in the area. But how can we ensure that the clinical psychology of the future is as eclectic and varied as the populations it serves? After the 2015 announcement that bursaries for nurses and others would be stopped, Professor Tony Lavender (Canterbury Christ Church University), and other members of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP), set up a review group to respond in case the same decision was made for clinical psychology trainees. They worked out that if clinical psychology doctoral students had their salaries stopped, their cumulative debt at the end of undergrad and postgrad training would be around £150,000. A review by Health Education England (HEE) into clinical psychology doctoral salary support was eventually undertaken in 2018/19. Dr Jan Hughes (University of Leeds), Lavender and his colleagues, including Chair of the DCP Dr Esther Cohen-Tovee, worked with HEE to present arguments for maintaining the funding, including ensuring the supply of clinical psychologists at a time when the NHS Long Term Plan for England set out the need to expand the psychological workforce. It was announced in January 2020 that salaries for clinical psychology doctoral trainees would remain in place, and their fees would still be paid by HEE. Around the same time Lavender and his group, alongside other psychological professional bodies, pushed for an increase in training places to meet the need identiﬁed in the NHS Long Term Plan for England. This summer HEE announced that clinical psychology doctoral places in England would be increased by 25 per cent – or an additional 137 places. Lavender said this announcement came just in time. ‘The ﬁnal date when courses had to let people know whether or not they got places was 12 June, and many applicants to training were on reserve lists. So the courses were able to quite quickly offer places to grateful

applicants. That was quite joyous – it’s not the easiest thing to do to get into clinical training.’ In some of the devolved nations similar increases are also being seen; in Wales there are two courses in Cardiff and Bangor and for 2020-2021 there were an extra two places funded, bringing the total number of places to 29. In Northern Ireland, after many years of decreases, numbers have been rising in recent years; however, it has yet to be conﬁrmed whether this year will see an increase. Professor Nichola Rooney, Chair of the DCP Northern Ireland, tells me training place numbers are much lower per head of population than the rest of the UK. ‘This is despite 25 per cent higher rates of psychological ill health morbidity in Northern Ireland and higher levels of suicide, largely related to the trauma of the “Troubles”. We do not have IAPT here and there are long waiting lists (18 months to two years) to access psychological therapies in some Trusts. As a professional organisation, we are calling for increased training funding and parity with the rest of the UK.’ Although the situation in Scotland is similar, in that there has been an 18.6 per cent increase in the annual intake of clinical psychology training places from 59 to 70, Judy Thomson (NHS Education for Scotland Director of Training for Psychology Services) told me there have also been increases in related training routes for psychology graduates that lead to qualiﬁcation as Clinical Associates in Applied Psychology. Two MSc level courses, one in Applied Psychology for Children and Young People and another in Psychological Therapy in Primary Care, have also seen increases in the number of places. Thomson’s role, which includes supplying the psychology workforce for the NHS in Scotland and upscaling the wider psychological care workforce, has led to the development of close working relationships with the Scottish government colleagues – particularly in mental health – as well as with Heads of Psychology Services (HOPS) across the Scottish NHS. ‘Having good, close and collaborative relationships with the government

Professor Tony Lavender

Judy Thomson

the psychologist september 2020 news and all NHS Scotland psychology services is definitely helpful in that psychology begins to develop a reputation for actually being able to deliver on agreed expansion. One of the things which is different in psychology to perhaps some other disciplines, is that it’s relatively easy for us to expand… there is no shortage of suitable applicants for training. That has been helpful in terms of responding to emerging priorities and pressures.’ Some of those priorities include a drive to improve services in perinatal and infant mental health, access to CAMHS and to better support adults with anxiety and depression. The MSc in Psychological Therapies in Primary Care, which is open to psychology graduates, trains students in cognitive behavioural therapy for helping adults with anxiety and depression. ‘In terms of the unmet need those are the most common presentations in terms of adult mental health. And there’s huge areas of unmet need, so there’s been support for expansion there.’ The MSc in Applied Psychology for Children and Young People gives trainees similar competencies to the Primary Care course but with a greater focus on younger age groups, parenting and family interventions. Clinical Psychologist Dr Vasiliki Stamatopoulou (Barnet, Enfield and Haringey NHS Mental Health Trust) and trainee Clinical Psychologist Runa Dawood (Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust) are co-chairs of the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) Minorities in Clinical Psychology Sub-Committee. While they were pleased that there will be a 25 per cent increase in clinical psychology training places in England they told me that courses needed to consider how to actively target recruitment of a more diverse set of trainees. Dawood said that BPS Vice President David Murphy’s recent research into clearing house data shows that issues of representation occurred at the screening phase of recruitment; many courses would use those extra places to recruit from reserve lists, likely reducing the proportion of applicants with protected characteristics. ‘Courses need to think hard about how they can implement different strategies in their recruitment process. The wider profession can support by supporting applicants from minority backgrounds in pre-training experiences and mentorship. Peers can support their colleagues by offering support and committing to making work and study places a fair and non-discriminatory place to be.’ Since the minorities group was founded eight years ago by Guilaine Kinouani its members have held application and interview preparation events and community meetings, supported people through online forums, presented work at conferences and held their own annual conference, as well as creating their own publications and publishing open letters advocating for issues around the shortlisting process of clinical psychology doctorate courses. However, Stamatopoulou tells me, the barriers for marginalised groups entering the profession go much deeper than many people consider. ‘The background of psychology has historically benefited privileged groups

Runa Dawood

Dr Samantha Rennalls

and oppressed marginalised groups. We see that both in who is in the profession and who are the service users. In terms of barriers, from our experience and research there are several. Some examples would be lack of paid posts to gain experience before applying which would disadvantage people of low economic backgrounds; very low numbers of Black qualified psychologists, therefore not much visible representation; lack of diversity on interview panels; the very few places offered and the competitive nature of the whole process, as well as the lack of safe spaces during training and post-training.’ Dawood and Stamatopoulou have been supporting a research project exploring the facilitators and barriers to clinical psychology training, which was developed and is currently being led by third-year trainees Julie Baah and Dr Samantha Rennalls (both Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust) – supervised by Dr Kat Alcock. Baah and Rennalls have collected the experiences of more than 1000 clinical psychology doctorate applicants. Rennals, who is also the DCP Minorities in Clinical Psychology Race and Culture lead, has co-founded the Black Clinical Psychologists Network (BCPN) with two trainees Kassmin Tong and Ashley Peart, which holds events to support Black clinical psychology trainees. To get to the heart of clinical psychology’s lack of diversity Rennalls said we need to consider a range of factors such as disparities in educational attainment and the financial implications of getting onto a doctoral course through completing a Master’s degree first, the lack of access to important networks, and the fact an expectation of free work exists in clinical psychology and can improve someone’s chances of gaining a place on a doctoral course. ‘What we can see from just these three things alone is how systematic disadvantage can accumulate over time and prevent access to the profession. This isn’t even the full picture. To do a full analysis of this, we need to think broader than just what’s happening at the point of entry to clinical psychology training, look at this at a regional level to see how the barriers vary by location. We also need to stop considering this as a homogenous “BAME” issue and explore the barriers faced by people from more specifically defined groups… a “BAME” approach can mask and distort the issues that people face, and make it much more difficult to address them in a targeted fashion.’ I asked Rennalls what support for clinical psychologists, trainees and doctorate applicants would look like in an ideal world. Among other things she suggested acknowledging the problem of a lack of racial diversity, without explaining away those issues, focus the narrative on making the system more equal rather than ‘letting more BAME people in’, increasing transparency and accountability in the profession – including having publicly-available data on diversity, and to stop using the BAME acronym as it can be misleadingly homogenising. She added: ‘The “new normal” for the profession should be co-developed with people from minoritised groups at all levels. Course staff should be equipped to adopt an anti-racist approach and do the work associated

Katie Knott

with that and courses should be better prepared to have people from Black, Asian and other minoritised backgrounds in their classes and on placements by having systems in place to help these trainees to handle the racism they face on training and at placement while also handling the normal pressures of a doctorate course.’ Rennalls said the profession should avoid ‘whataboutery’ and take focused, targeted action while recognising that ﬁxing this issue requires a multifaceted approach with multiple solutions. It should continue to fund and resource mentoring schemes and seek expert opinion and pay for the work exploring these issues. ‘It requires knowledge, insight and expertise to understand complex and longstanding systems of oppression that cause and maintain this problem.’ Clinical psychology trainees Leanna Ong (University of East London) and Katie Knott (Lancaster University), are co-chairs of the DCP Pre-Qualiﬁcation Group which works alongside the DCP Minorities Group. Ong told me she was particularly interested in ensuring that people from a wide variety of backgrounds could access training, particularly people of colour and from working class backgrounds.

‘I think it’s competitive enough to get onto training, so we aim to run events that are as accessible as possible, with a range of different speakers to more non-traditional routes into clinical psychology. We’ve also been working with key stakeholders to influence systems around getting on to training, which can make the profession more accessible.’ The Pre-Qualification Group runs Leanna Ong annual events to support people in their applications, as well as encouraging people who may not think their skills are the right ‘fit’ for the profession. They also work alongside the DCP and have represented the pre-qualified membership at meetings to discuss widening access to clinical psychology doctorates. Ong said the profession can seem inaccessible without access to good information or networking opportunities. ‘We want to make that information more publicly available in different ways, so that people can find out about getting onto training, for example, through videos or podcasts.’ ER

Deana Kay

Five minutes with… Dr Rose Stewart Living with diabetes can lead to a multitude of psychological challenges – Dr Rose Stewart, Principal Clinical Psychologist for Wrexham Young Adult Diabetes Service, told Ella Rhodes her expertise in this underrepresented area was of particular importance in times of Covid-19.

Could you tell me about your dayjob and some of the psychological problems people with diabetes might struggle with? I have two jobs: I work clinically as an integrated Clinical Psychologist within a young adult diabetes service. My post was commissioned on the back of a successful pilot project and last year we won a national award for the model of psychological support we provide. The other half of my time is spent in an All-Wales role developing guided self-help materials for people with diabetes: the Talking Type 1 range. The prevalence of anxiety and depression are double in people with type 1 diabetes, and eating disorders are about three times more prevalent

than in people without diabetes. Providing support for young adults is particularly important because this is when distress traditionally peaks, and they have been through transition from paediatric to adult diabetes services, which is often difﬁcult. Some people might start omitting their insulin in order to lose weight, abuse it as a form of self-harm, and then lots of young adults just try and pretend their diabetes isn’t there at all. Could you tell me more about the Talking Type 1 range of self-help materials you’ve created? Many people with diabetes never get the support they need unless they’re

If you’d like to ﬁnd out more see @DrRoseStewart on Twitter or diabetes psychology matters.com

in a real crisis, and there just aren’t enough diabetes psychology posts to meet demand. We’re using the books across Wales as a first step in psychological care; they’ve been particularly useful in areas where psychology is difficult to access. The first book we published was on diabetes burnout – people who are in burnout will often stop checking their blood glucose, or might not be taking their insulin regularly, it’s about trying to reinvigorate people and help them feel motivated again. The second one was about needle phobia, if you have type 1 you may have to do 12 needle pricks a day; if you’ve got needle phobia that’s a really big problem. The third one was a book called How to Manage a Mammoth which was an illustrated children’s version of the diabetes burnout book, and we’re about to publish Burnout for Parents. What has the impact of Covid-19 been on people with diabetes and how have you been helping to support them through lockdown? We knew that the outbreak would be particularly difficult for people with diabetes, because they have a higher baseline distress level and the risks to them from Covid were a

the psychologist september 2020 news

Accredited Training in EMDR Therapy AGM and Review of the Year At the Society’s Annual General Meeting, held online during the 2020 conference (see p.36), the following elections were conﬁrmed: Honorary Fellow Jonathan A. Smith Honorary Life Member Carol McGuinness Dr Nigel MacLennan President Elect For the British Psychological Society’s ‘Review of the Year 2019’, see www.bps.org.uk/news-andpolicy/bps-review-year-2019. Chief Executive Sarb Bajwa said: ‘I said in the introduction to our 2018 review of the year that I wanted The BPS to be a conﬁdent and proactive organisation that you are proud to be a member of, and hope that you’ve seen us make progress on this during 2019.’

Delivered by Dr Michael C Paterson OBE specially selected and trained by EMDR founder, Francine Shapiro PhD ^ƚĂƌƚŝŶŐ Dublin 10-12 September 2020 Manchester 1-3 October 2020 Newcastle Tyne 11-13 November 2020 Manchester 11-13 February 2021 Belfast Dates TBA Other training levels through the year In-house training – details on request

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lot higher. Many health psychology colleagues had been redeployed to staff support services, so we needed to look for strategies to support as many people as possible. I was already using social media a lot because there’s a really active diabetes community on Twitter and at the beginning of lockdown, when things were unclear, I noticed that diabetes nurses were being contacted with the same questions over and over again. This was one of the reasons we set up the @_Diabetes101 account on Twitter. We felt if we had a place online where we could give that information, coming from credible NHS professionals, it could be a way to take some of the burden off teams. We provided reassurance, information and had a daily support routine, and we’d mix in educational sessions. A trainee clinical psychologist on placement with me needed to do a teaching session so we got her to deliver a ‘tweetorial’. Her session about compassion-focused therapy had an absolutely incredible response – one of her slides has had more than 12,000 views! I also started creating infographics to share basic self-care information. One we did in March (How to Manage Worry About Covid and Type 1 Diabetes) was a really simple list of things you can and can’t control and that got picked up by the Australian version of Diabetes UK who sent it out to all of their members – well over a million people, and it got translated into 26 different languages. I’ve made infographics covering everything from sleep to understanding hazard ratios which meant that people with diabetes could go and look at Covid risk papers and work out their own individual risk. The Covid work is far from over, but it’s been a real privilege to demonstrate how useful psychologists can be in diabetes services.

Tel: 028 9066 1110

info@stylishwebsites.co.uk www.stylishwebsites.co.uk

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Musings on music Emma Young digests the research

Find our Research Digest at www.bps. org.uk/ digest Editor: Dr Matthew Warren Writers: Emily Reynolds and Emma Young Reports, links and more on the Digest website

usic and humans go back a very long way. The earliest accepted instruments, made from bones, appear on the European scene about 40,000 years ago. But for perhaps at least a million years before that, our ancestors had the throat architecture that in theory would have allowed them to sing. All kinds of ideas have been put forward for why and how music came to matter so much to us. But what’s abundantly clear is that it does matter; there isn’t a society out there that doesn’t make and listen to music. And new research is now revealing all manner of psychological and neurological effects…

What about people who don’t like music? Music is a human universal, but it’s true – not everyone enjoys music. In fact, as a 2014 paper published in Current Biology revealed, some perfectly healthy people can perceive music just like anybody else, but their rewardrelated neural circuits don’t respond to it. (These circuits do still respond to food or money, for example, so it’s not that they’re generally defective.) In fact, an estimated 3–5 per cent of people experience ‘musical anhedonia’, and get no pleasure from music. (To see where you sit on the music reward spectrum, ﬁll in the team’s questionnaire at tinyurl.com/hcpakoh.) Last year, a team that included some of the same researchers published a follow-up in the Journal of Neuroscience. They found a neurobiological basis for their earlier observations: differences in the white matter ‘wiring’ that connects the auditory cortex and the ventral striatum, a key part of the reward system. What causes these differences is not yet clear.

For the rest of us, what is it about a piece of music that gives us pleasure? Last year, a team led by Vincent Cheung at the MaxPlanck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany published an analysis of responses to 745 US Billboard pop songs. They found that expectancy is key. When listeners were pretty certain about which chord to expect next (based on what had come before), they found it pleasurable to be surprised. When they weren’t sure what to expect, though, more predictable subsequent chords were pleasing. Popular songs strike a good balance between both subverting expectation and reassuring listeners, the team concluded. ‘It is fascinating that humans can derive pleasure from a piece of music just by how sounds are ordered over time,’ Cheung commented. It is also important for understanding how music inﬂuences our emotional state…

Why do we like listening to sad music? The ﬁrst point to stress is that we don’t all necessarily like it. In 2016, a team led by Tuomas Eerola at the University of Durham reported on the emotional experiences connected with sad music of 2436 people in the UK and Finland. The majority said they enjoyed sad music, and that this pleasure boosted their mood. ‘However, there are people who absolutely hate sad-sounding music and avoid listening to it,’ notes Eerola. The study revealed that for these people, sad music was associated with painful personal experiences, such as loss. Still, the reports of mood-boosting effects from the majority

the psychologist september 2020 digest is important. In 2015, a paper titled ‘Sad as a Matter of Choice?’ reported that people with depression were more likely to listen to sad songs — which the team controversially took to imply that they were maintaining or even worsening their own low mood. Last year, however, a study published in Emotion found that depressed people prefer sad music because it is calming and even uplifting. As some participants in another recent study commented, when you’re feeling low, sad music can seem like a supportive friend.

emerged. It’s known that when audience members are enjoying a piece of live music, their brainwaves tend to synchronise. And, earlier this year, a team led by Yingying Hou at East China Normal University revealed that when a musician is playing a piece, and the audience is enjoying it, a synchronisation in brain activity develops. The team were even able to use the strength of this ‘inter-brain coherence’ to predict how much the audience reported enjoying a piece.

Extreme emotions Some pieces of music have dramatic effects on us. ‘Peak emotional states’ involve powerful physical responses, such as tears, or feeling ‘the chills’, and often extreme sadness or joy. They can be triggered by something inherently deeply meaningful – such as childbirth – but also by a beautiful view, or piece of music. A 2017 study published in Scientiﬁc Reports explored these reactions, and found that song-induced tears were associated with subsequent calming – they seem, then, to have a cathartic, relieving function. Some people, though, are more prone than others to feeling goosebumps or a shiver down the spine in response to a piece of music. And as a paper recently published in Social Cognitive and Effective Neuroscience has revealed, such people have stronger connectivity between auditory processing and social and emotional processing areas of the brain. These same connectivity differences have also been linked to greater empathy. As the researchers write in their paper: ‘Perhaps one of the reasons why music is a cross-culturally indispensable artifact is that it appeals directly through an auditory channel to emotional and social processing centers of the human brain.’ Only, it does this more for some of us than others.

Connecting brains One proposed adaptive function for music is that it unites individuals. With music, we can march together, dance together, and express emotions as one. And there’s now growing evidence that this unity can occur right down at the neural level. Back in 2009, Ulman Lindenberger at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and colleagues reported that when two guitarists play the same piece of music together, their brainwaves synchronise. Big deal, you might think: they’re processing and playing identical notes, so why shouldn’t there be similarities in their brain activity? However, in 2012, the team reported a follow-up involving duets with different guitar parts. When these pairs had to actively coordinate their playing, there was a synchronisation in activity in some regions between the two. This, the team concluded, was evidence of ‘inter-brain networks’. ‘When people coordinate actions with one another, small networks within the brain and, remarkably, between the brains are formed,’ noted Johanna Sänger, lead author of this study. Since then, more evidence of inter-brain synchronisation during musical experiences has

Use the beat Humans are unique as a species in being able to perceive beat. And there’s all kinds of evidence that the tempo of a piece of music affects our behaviour. A classic study, published back in 1986, found that diners in a Dallas restaurant ate significantly faster when faster tempo (more beats per minute) music was played, compared with slow tempo music. These findings went on to influence the choice of soundtracks in restaurants the world over. But there’s also recent evidence that listening to high-tempo music while exercising can increase heart rate more than slow-tempo music and also make the exercise feel less difficult. ‘This means that the exercise seemed like less effort but it was more beneficial in terms of enhancing physical fitness,’ commented researcher Luca P. Ardigò of the University of Verona in Italy.

Background effects If you’re the kind of person who likes to have background music playing while you work, there are a couple of studies worth bearing in mind. Listening even to music that you enjoy can interfere with working memory, which could impair mental arithmetic, a study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology has found. And though it has been suggested that music can encourage creativity, in fact it ‘significantly impairs’ it, according to a 2019 paper published in the same journal. The researchers, from the UK and Sweden, gave participants verbal insight problems, which are meant to tap creativity. (For example, they were given the words ‘dress’, ‘dial’ and ‘flower’ and asked to identify a single word that could be combined with each – ‘sun’.) Background music with foreign lyrics, instrumental music without lyrics and music with familiar lyrics all made the participants worse at this. Again, the researchers think that this is because music disrupts working memory; in this case, verbal working memory. ‘To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music enhances creativity, and instead demonstrate that music, regardless of the presence of semantic content, consistently disrupts creative performance in insight problem solving,’ they write. It’s worth noting that the negative impact of familiar music was observed even when a participant said it boosted their mood, reported liking the song, or said that they typically studied with background music playing. So if you do typically work with music, and think it helps, surely it’s worth at least trying to go without.

Growing up with grandparents What happens if you grow up with a grandparent living in your home? Does the prolonged contact counter prejudices, biases and stereotypes of the elderly? Or might it instead encourage negative perceptions of older people as being slow, angry or sickly, for example? These are important questions, partly because in some countries, though not all, an increasing number of elderly people are moving in with family members. In the US, for example, 15 per cent of older adults are now living in someone else’s household, up from 7 per cent in 1995. Now a new paper, published in Social Psychology by Brian T. Smith and Kelly Charlton at the University of North Carolina, suggests that this trend could be causing undesirable outcomes: people in the study who had grown up with an elderly person had signiﬁcantly lower opinions of the elderly than those who had not. However, these respondents did at least report less anxiety around their own ageing process. Smith and Charlton studied 309 Americans, all recruited online. Of these, 194 reported growing up with

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an older adult – and 80 of these people said that the older adult in their home had suffered from a serious illness. All the participants completed a series of surveys that explored, among other things, their current levels of contact with elderly people, the positivity (or otherwise) of this contact, their general attitudes towards elderly people, and also their anxieties about growing old themselves. The analysis revealed that people who’d grown up with elderly people had lower opinions of older adults (this was especially true of those who’d grown up with an older adult who had been sick). The analysis also revealed that people in this group had greater levels of current anxiety about interacting with older adults. Overall, ‘our findings indicate that even years after a young adult has presumably moved out of the home, growing up in that home with an older adult had a significant negative effect on opinions of the elderly,’ the researchers write. This finding contrasts with other work suggesting that contact with ‘out’-groups (such as minority groups) can counter prejudices. However, the researchers did observe that participants who had grown up with an older adult and who then managed to maintain frequent contact with elderly people did have more positive current opinions of older adults. Among this group, the older adult who’d lived at home was less likely to have suffered from an illness. Living with someone with a mental or physical illness can cause chronic strain and impact the health of others in the house, the researchers note. It often means that everyone in the house becomes a caregiver and, as the pair writes, ‘the effects of being a caregiver are generally negative, associated with severe negative and physical outcomes’. Given all this, it’s surprising that people who’d grown up with an elderly person also reported being less anxious about their own ageing. But the researchers suspect cognitive dissonance could be at work here: ‘Younger adults who are faced with the realities of ageing (even if the older adult in their life is not seriously ill) may feel threatened by this. To reduce their discomfort at the idea of becoming older, they may tell themselves that their aging outcomes will be different.’ There are various limitations to the study. All the participants were American, so whether the same results would apply elsewhere is not clear. Also, the researchers didn’t ask the participants directly about their opinions of the older adult that they grew up with. Still, the work does suggest that if a grandparent – especially a sick one – moves in to a family home, this will not necessarily improve the attitudes of children in the house towards older people. Parents may need to consider the quality of the relationship their children have with older people in their lives, and do whatever they can to encourage a positive relationship – especially if a grandparent is sick. EMMA YOUNG

the psychologist september 2020 digest

Religion and attitudes towards science Getty Images

Are religious people less scientifically-minded? It’s a popular belief, but a new study in Social Psychological and Personality Science suggests otherwise. Jonathon McPhetres from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues find that while the link between religiosity and negative attitudes towards science is pretty robust in the United States, in other countries that relationship is very different. The team first explored Americans’ religiosity and attitudes towards science across nine studies comprising more than 2300 participants. Each study used the same measure of religiosity: participants rated themselves on six statements like ‘I consider myself religious’. But the studies used different measures of participants’ stance on science: some looked at interest in scientific topics, for instance, while others examined attitudes towards science. In pretty much all of the studies, people who were more religious tended to have less interest in science, or more negative attitudes towards it. The team then conducted a couple of further studies outside of the US. First, they looked at data on attitudes towards science and religiosity from 66,000 participants in 60 countries, which had been

collected during a large, global survey. This time there was no consistent relationship between science attitudes and religiosity: in some nations there was a positive correlation, while others showed no relationship at all. The researchers ﬁnally asked people from Brazil, the Czech Republic, the Philippines, South Africa, and Sweden to complete the same measures of interest in science and attitudes towards science as in the ﬁrst set of studies. This time there were small positive correlations in each country: those who were more religious tended to be a little more interested in science and had more positive attitudes.

Overall, the results suggest that, for much of the world, rejection of science is not necessarily a feature of religion. Instead, the authors write, ‘apparent conﬂicts may be the product of other sociocultural and historical features of speciﬁc countries’. Whatever your take on the results, the study neatly illustrates the problem of relying solely on data from American or ‘WEIRD’ participants in research. Making sweeping generalisations based on such a narrow group can lead to stories about how we think and behave that are just not true for vast swathes of humanity. MATTHEW WARREN

Digest digested… Castiello points out that plants use sophisticated ways of communicating that have parallels with language, and that they can be trained using classical conditioning. Some plants even display a form of reciprocal generosity. These kinds of skills would be called ‘cognitive’ if they were seen in animals, Castiello writes. Journal of Comparative Psychology

Men holding cats in photographs are seen as less masculine, more neurotic and ultimately less dateable. That’s according to a recent study in which women rated pictures of two men when they were holding cats and when they were alone. The effects were particularly strong when the rater was herself a dog person. Animals Comparative psychology should embrace the study of plants, not just animals, argues a recent review. Umberto

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It’s better to be a realist than over-optimistic, according to results from a British longitudinal study. Researchers found that people who had realistic expectations about what their ﬁnancial situation would look like in the future had greater wellbeing than those who were unrealistically optimistic, or those who were particularly pessimistic. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Social stigma towards obesity can negatively affect the quality of care for overweight patients – and now research suggests that the same may be true for pets. Vets felt more negative emotions towards obese dogs and their owners, compared to lean dogs. Owners’ weight was also important: vets believed that overweight owners were more responsible for their dogs’ weight if it was obese. International Journal of Obesity

‘We need to broaden the conversation to institutional bias’ We hear from Nasreen Fazal-Short, Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce

Are we institutionally racist? Yes. But making this statement is not straightforward, it’s not as simplistic as saying it and expecting applause. It’s about saying we’re doing something that will mainstream this agenda. ‘Noticing’ is not enough. God knows we should have noticed. Sure, it’s a step change, it’s a start, to hear Sarb Bajwa say it as Chief Executive of the British Psychological Society. But then we have to have

a strategy. We have to have a plan. We have to have people in charge of delivering the strategy. It’s really difficult for me, as a brown person, to say that people are being racist. Because then you have to sit with the reality that you face on a day-to-day basis. And all of us wanted to have been able to move along, nobody wants to still be in this position. But if we don’t talk about it, how are we going to get to grips with the complexity, to move to a point where we have long enough to do the work? It’s like my clinical work: when I see people with borderline personality disorder, we struggle to get to speak about their trauma because the fires are too big, we’re too busy putting them out over there. I would like all psychologists to be able to talk about racism, without people criticising our attempts, when they are not perfect. Talking about institutional racism starts us down a path. But we need to broaden the conversation to institutional bias. Even if you’re not visibly different, even if you’re not in a disempowered group, you can relate to institutional bias. There are loads of people talking about this stuff out there. They might not hang with the BPS because they think that we haven’t got the right values for them. We need to demonstrate that more actively, by talking about it in complex ways through all the vehicles that we have access to. The idea of the taskforce is to think about inclusion in broad brushstrokes, and to make those conversations available to everybody. Otherwise people are thinking the threat is on the inside. The real threat is that psychology won’t be taken seriously, because we’re busy fighting each other… in quite difficult, entrenched ways.

Email: inclusion@bps.org.uk www.bps.org.uk/about-us/diversity-and-inclusion/taskforce

At the moment the balance isn’t right. Hardly any people who even visibly look slightly different are reﬂected because the institution has got itself in a position where it’s perpetuated things that go on outside, but in a way that’s noticeable. Where

the psychologist september 2020 diversity and inclusion

from the chief executive Igniting the conversation

A couple of days before my speech at our virtual annual conference last month, a member of our team asked me whether I thought that the British Psychological Society, the organisation that I lead, is institutionally racist. Then, at the conference, one member challenged me directly about the lack of BAME speakers and delegates. My answer – that it’s a function of the lack of diversity in psychology as a whole – simply wasn’t adequate. I can’t, and won’t, ignore the depth of feeling about racism within the psychology profession and the lack of leadership that the BPS has shown in this area in the past. “If it feels like we’re institutionally racist, then we probably are.” That was what I said in my conference address [tinyurl.com/sarbbajwa2020], but as some have since pointed out, this was still ambiguous. So, let me be clear – the BPS is institutionally racist, and we need to change. Neither this fact, nor our acknowledgement of it, is unusual. Ever since the 1999 Macpherson inquiry, which showed institutional racism in the police force, organisations have been coming

to terms with their past and present, and how it can lead to a better future. We now need to rise to that challenge as one BPS. Our diversity and inclusion taskforce, led by chair Nasreen FazalShort, will have a key role in formulating our ﬁve-year strategic plan. Above, Nasreen explains how the group is going to make this agenda mainstream. How it will broaden the conversation to include institutional bias and inclusion in every context, and draw on the views and expertise of a diverse range of members. She also draws on a topic that I’ve discussed a lot before – the values of psychologists. What are they? What should they be? How can they drive our work in this area, and allow us to have a reckoning with the difﬁcult path that has brought us to where we are today? The only way that we will truly understand this is by talking to each other. By thinking about the unique qualities that psychology brings. How it has understood difference, discrimination and hatred, through its chequered past up to the present day. The Psychologist will remain a vital forum for these discussions.

you look on any criteria of inclusion – visible difference, disability access, where people are neurodevelopmentally different – we’re a way off. Yet this is psychology’s bread and butter. Racists might call themselves a psychologist, but they need to understand something about what that means. There are values embedded in that. And I get that those values can’t be that we all agree with each other. But those values have to be that you have open debate and don’t simply throw rocks from the outside. And it’s got to be about humanity being better than it is – the fact that we hate people, that we kill people because they happen to be slightly different from us, is not a good plan for humanity. We have to talk about human behaviour. What is it about human beings and their make up that makes us behave in the ways we do with difference? What is the psychology of racism? What is the psychology of hatred? I think psychologists are very clever people. And that goes in two directions… a power for good or

Talking, however, is no longer enough. It should never have been enough. So, we will develop a properly resourced strategy for diversity and inclusion, including giving the taskforce what they need to do the job properly. We will seek out the widest range of voices that we possibly can - the cover of this issue is the BPS making that call. If it prompts you to get in touch with your vision for a diverse and inclusive society, it will have served its purpose. Both the taskforce [inclusion@bps.org.uk] and I would love to hear from you. Sarb Bajwa is Chief Executive of the British Psychological Society. Contact him at Sarb.Bajwa@bps.org.uk

for evil. Debates can be a deflection away from action. Psychologists can talk a thing to death, only produce a paper if it’s perfect and backed up by 30 years’ worth of research… I think that can be a way of stopping moving forward. A lot of people are being killed, so you can see why some members are angry: it’s not an intellectual discussion for them, it’s their life. For them, we’re completely missing the point. We have to make a ‘good enough’ plan, implement it and see where we are. No police officer is going to put their foot on my neck. They think of me as some nice Asian doctor. That’s a privilege I hold. We need to talk about those complexities. If you’re a Black man in that case, and if you look at the data, the same privilege does not apply… when I see what happens, it has the feel to me of a lynching. It’s quite a long way from a civilised society. We’re not going to sit for a year and a half writing a long report that nobody could implement. Psychologists like micro faffing. Three years on a

committee to write a paper. By that time, nobody’s reading it. What is this about? It’s just wasting time. Instead, we’ve got senior managers of the Society on the taskforce with us, we’re collaborating with many different groups inside the Society and outside, we’re going to have dedicated staff resource. What we will do is input into the ﬁve-year BPS strategy, with a dedicated diversity and inclusion strategy and the resources to make it happen. We need to mainstream this agenda to make the systemic changes needed. Let’s talk instead about the values of the Society. Is it reasonable to say that the BPS is institutionally racist because our values are that we would be shocked and shamed about being institutionally racist? Otherwise, what is the purpose of saying it? If we’re joining in with Black Lives Matter, that’s one thing, but because we think we should. But if we actually truly believe that our values are that if we were to be institutionally racist, as we are, that we have to do something about it and sharpish… that’s our values, isn’t it? My job will be to agitate everybody to get started. Not to tell them what to do, or the right way to do it, because nobody knows that. But we’ll get each of us believing individually we can do something. You will hear from lots of different people. Inclusion isn’t

just about brown people or black people or women. It’s about things like disability, mental health distress, understanding places of disempowerment. I want our work to be a broad inclusion agenda. I feel like we don’t behave like psychologists sometimes. But then I have a view of psychology that’s probably a bit ridiculous, a bit highfalutin. I think we should change the world by actually understanding human behaviour and getting humanity to be a bit kinder and more compassionate. Maybe that’s ridiculous. We need to get people to understand that there’s more than just a few people trying to make the change. And it’s not just about Sarb speaking, not just about the taskforce speaking, it’s about all the other people, working on the inside and outside of the Society. This cannot turn into a minority interest. There are the people to make it happen, but the BPS needs to adjust its traditional way of doing business. There has been this metaphor of the oil tanker turning very slowly, but to me that’s a bit benign. At this stage in its history, if it doesn’t move on this, the BPS is like the Titanic… it doesn’t even know there’s an iceberg coming.

we are not exclusively aiming at students, we are mostly What are the While interested in identifying high potential amongst those starting their journey in psychology. Address the question in any way barriers to our you see ﬁt. We recognise it’s a real challenge: the total word is just 1000, and it’s absolutely vital you write with profession, and how limit our publication and audience in mind. Deadline Friday 25 September. Please submit by email can we remove them? to jon.sutton@bps.org.uk and include a bit about yourself – your aspirations, and how you’re looking to engage with the communication of psychology. One submission per person please, and unfortunately we cannot respond to everyone. That’s the question for We hope to publish a selection of the best responses The Psychologist’s 2020 ‘Voices In online and in print too. Some of the winning entrants will be Psychology’ Programme, offered support in developing their ‘Voice in Psychology’, through to identify and nurture the provision of advice and opportunities to write more in various new writing talent contexts. Get writing – and don’t be shy! If you’ve got a head bubbling with questions, original ideas about psychology beyond the lecture theatre, and a desire to make a difference, then that’s a good place to start. You don’t have to be the ﬁnished article to be Very Important to us! Dr Jon Sutton Managing Editor Madeleine Pownall Associate Editor for the VIP Programme 24

the psychologist september 2020 diversity and inclusion

‘Change needs to happen on a real systemic level’ Dr Tosin Bowen-Wright (Clinical Psychologist with the Camden CAMHS service) in conversation with Paul Jenkins (Chief Executive of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust) Paul Jenkins: Promoting a genuine culture of diversity and inclusion in NHS organisations is central to how we deliver good and equitable outcomes for all who use our services, whatever their background. As part of this, as white leaders, the best place to start is to listen attentively to the stories of BAME staff and hear at first hand the experiences, good and bad, which have helped shape their careers, and their insights into what needs to change. So, Tosin, we are going to have a conversation about your experience of being a black woman, and how that has impacted on your career. I’m very keen to explore how we can learn as an organisation from your experiences, to make sure we are giving genuine equality of opportunity. To set the scene – could you describe your career to date? Dr Tosin Bowen-Wright: I’m a clinical psychologist, managing the Clinical Intake Team which is the front-door service for Camden CAMHS. I have had a desire to work with children as a child psychologist since I was a child myself, and following qualification in 2007, have worked in CAMHS settings in London. I have worked here at the Tavistock and Portman Trust for 10 years this year, initially working in the Fostering, Adoption and Kinship Team, as well as in the Youth Offending Service based in the Camden Local Authority. The strongest influences have been my own experiences, and guidance from my mum, who really supported me to realise my ambition to be a child psychologist. That desire stemmed from my own need for help when I was a child. We moved as a family from Nigeria to the UK when I was eight years old. The experience of moving from Africa to the UK was quite difficult, both for me personally, but also for us as a family. It was a big adjustment, a very different environment, and I struggled to fit in. I felt a huge sense of loss for all that I had known, and for the way that I had been naturally accepted as a person in Nigeria. I found the UK quite alien and hostile initially, particularly at school. I also missed having family around me in the way that I had been used to. The

emotional difficulties I had as a child inspired me to want to be able to help children like me one day. Now I am a mother, I am thinking about these sorts of issues from the perspective of a parent. Ensuring that parents get the support they need to help their children is now a driving force for me. Paul: What were the steps you took to realise your ambition, and what have been the breaks or frustrations? Tosin: I’ve been to some extent quite fortunate in my career, particularly up to the point of becoming qualified. I definitely had the ambition to become a psychologist, but I don’t know that I quite had the drive before getting on to the doctorate. However, my mum did… she was the one who found the adverts for the two assistant psychologist jobs that I applied for and got! My first assistant psychologist post came about through an advertisement for three assistant psychologists at a CAMHS in Folkestone. After the interview, the head of service contacted me to say that I didn’t get any of the posts, because I did not

Clinical Psychologist Dr Tosin Bowen-Wright (Clinical Psychologist and a manager within the Camden CAMHS service) and Paul Jenkins (Chief Executive of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust)

have any assistant psychologist experience. She went on to say that she decided to create another post, for another assistant psychologist without that experience. The experience I got in that job was pertinent to my application and interview for my next assistant psychologist role in Brixton, during which I got onto the clinical psychology doctorate at UCL. People who are aware of the path to clinical psychology know that it is very competitive. I was the youngest on my course, and I got on to the doctorate on my first application, which at that time was rare. I think getting on to the doctorate quickly was a combination of my own skills and talents, and the support of people who knew what I needed to be doing and saying to get on to the doctorate. I was fortunate to have worked with clinical psychologists who could see what I had to offer and who believed in me. I also had good support during training – I had excellent supervisors, some of whom I still have a relationship with, and a very supportive course director. I had my own mental health difficulties during training, and I wondered whether I could keep going. Some of my difficulties were related to my past and to personal issues. However, some were also about holding onto my confidence and belief in myself, being the only black person on the course, and managing the negative remarks – that I now understand as microaggressions – by some of my peers, as well as other qualified professionals I worked with. I really felt that I had the course behind me to ensure that I got the support that I needed to thrive despite those difficulties. This was another example of having the right people around me. Paul: When we have talked before, I recognised that picture in my own career. How should we look out for people and give them that extra bit of confidence? Tosin: I think those people were interested in me as a person, and were also curious about me. We got to know each other well. Although at times they struggled with how to articulate their curiosity, they were able to show it in a way that allowed me to let them know more about me and what I was about. I experienced some people’s initial scepticism and wariness, but in time they came to respect me and valued what I had to offer. I did feel that I had to work harder than others and tone myself down; try to be softer to prove my worth to them. I was very aware of their doubt at the beginning. Those who believed in me from the start, like that first clinical psychologist and head of service, were encouraging of my ability to be forthright and challenging and understood me as a passionate person. Paul: Have there been things about coming from a BAME background that can make it more difficult to have those relationships?

Tosin: As a black person I know that people have all sorts of thoughts and ideas about me that are not

initially positive because of the colour of my skin. A few times during my training people would refer to me as the administrator or nurse or trainee social worker, as though those were the only professions I could be qualified for. It seemed there was something really bewildering about encountering a black trainee clinical psychologist. At times that was painful and frustrating to deal with and to break through. I feel I have had to be very forgiving of people. Paul: People from a white background who have supported you – what was different? Did they acknowledge the difference, or have they been ‘colourblind’? Tosin: I think they have been willing to talk about these things, not shy away from uncomfortable conversations. Also, they were people working in settings with a strong BAME population… I think they understood some of the challenges that community was facing, and could bring that experience to me. Paul: I hear a strong message that the important thing is to talk about it. It is better to have said. I’ve been reflecting on the fundamentals of how mental health services have not been meeting BAME needs, particularly the needs of young black men. As a practitioner, what do services most need to do? Tosin: I think mental health institutions need to think about what change means, and what to do differently. We work from such a Eurocentric perspective. It is difficult for me sometimes because, as a Black African woman, there is a real tension in me, about what we’re doing as a service/organisation and whether our thinking is right for these families. People have to be socialised to this Eurocentric model to get the best from it. Often people from BAME backgrounds, particularly parents from African or other ethnic minority backgrounds, don’t have this Eurocentric language about their difficulties and how they are dealing with them. So they are working in systems that in some ways are working against them, as the system doesn’t think in the same language as them, or have a genuine curiosity and interest in their experiences. Over the years we have come a long way though, we are getting a lot better at having conversations about these issues, amongst ourselves and with our families. I also think that having more people who look like the people they serve and understand the background of the people they serve, is the way that we have to go. In the criminal justice system there are just not enough people doing the judging, sentencing, and sectioning that have any idea of what it is like to be a black boy or man. I would like to think that there would be fewer black boys caught up in those systems if there were more black men and women in more senior and powerful positions making decisions. Change needs to happen on a real systemic level, especially at the top.

the psychologist september 2020 diversity and inclusion

Paul: It is interesting that a lot of our models about talking therapies are Eurocentric. Do you think there’s scope to make those more culturally inclusive, or do we need to rip them up and start again? Tosin: Some approaches lend themselves to cultural inclusivity. The systemic approach for example, which talks about the ‘Social GGRRAAACCEEESSS’ – not a typo! – when thinking about people’s experiences. It is also about the people who are delivering therapies. Paul: Moving back to within the organisation… What are the top three things to put substance behind the promise of equality of opportunity? Where do we start?

I also think there is something about good support, both for those who are coming in and those who are moving up in the organisation. When George Floyd’s death was being so highly publicised, I realised that I just try to suppress this stuff. I know racism goes on all the time, but it is too painful, too traumatic, to constantly think about. On a daily basis I am really struggling with this stuff. I have had to work out who I could go to when I needed help, who I could trust to want to genuinely help me, and what that support was going to look like. The Trust has a responsibility to ensure people have the support they need to navigate the very complex issues they’re going to inevitably face. Paul: So, can we crack this?

Tosin: An organisation is a reﬂection of the leadership. The work begins with the leadership genuinely wanting to understand and be held accountable for bringing about change. There has to be some thinking and feeling about the stuff that is uncomfortable to talk about. There needs to be a review of what has been going on, what hasn’t been dealt with, and how things could be done differently. Recruitment is another thing – how do we make sure it is fair, and that we are recruiting in a way that is pulling in people from diverse backgrounds? What are we doing as a Trust that shows that we genuinely want to be more diverse and culturally inclusive?

Tosin: I hope so. As a Trust we’re about making a difference in the lives of the people in the communities that we serve. I do believe, having worked here for so long, that we are a group of people who want to make a difference, to make this a place where everyone feels they can be a part and belong. It is going to be difﬁcult… we are all going to feel quite uncomfortable, perhaps for some time… but in the end it will beneﬁt everyone. We shouldn’t move too quickly into action, we should spend a bit of time really thinking and feeling about this, ensuring everyone across all levels is part of the process.

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What Improv, Ubuntu, and Covid-19 have taught me about leadership David Murphy, British Psychological Society President 2019-2020, gave his Presidential Address at the online conference In David Murphy’s address as the outgoing President of the Society (available in full on the BPS YouTube channel), he outlined principles picked up along a ‘winding, improbable journey’ to ofﬁce… along with how he has put them into practice throughout the year.

Find David Murphy on Twitter @ClinPsychDavid 30

’ve served in BPS voluntary roles continuously for over 20 years, so have attended my fair share of Presidential addresses, although I never imagined giving one myself. I could also never understand why it was left until the end of the President’s term of ofﬁce. However, as I was preparing my address, the penny dropped. By the time a President reaches the conference hall lectern (or in my case the webcam!), they have been delivering their address through their actions for a whole year. These few words are just the coda. In the words of Mark Twain, ‘Actions speak louder than words, but not nearly so often’. If you saw me delivering the address, sitting alone in the little box in the corner of your computer screen, or if you are reading these words now, you might think that somehow I had got to this lofty perch solely as a result of my own efforts. Indeed, it’s not uncommon for leaders to ardently believe that myth themselves.

the psychologist september 2020 presidential address

It’s all too common to pull out an extract of someone’s life and look at it in isolation, but this gives a distorted picture. Before I started my address I went back to some of the many people who share any achievements of ‘my’ Presidential year. Firstly, my mother, who has always modelled kindness and concern for others, despite battling severe mental health problems at different points, including during the first few months of my life which we spent together in a psychiatric hospital. Also, my father-in-law, who passed away at the very start of my Presidential year. He came to this country as an immigrant from Pakistan in the early 1960s. He faced hardships throughout his life but always modelled dignity and respect for everyone, whatever their station. I had the privilege of travelling with him to many parts of the world. He showed the same respect to members of parliament as he did to people begging on the street. Ubuntu Some years ago, I was privileged to have an opportunity to learn about the African concept of Ubuntu from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. As a student in the 1980s, I had been involved in the anti-apartheid movement and, since then, ‘Arch’ as he asked to be called, had been a hero to me. He explained that Ubuntu is a term common to almost all of the Bantu languages; in both Xhosa and Zulu it can be defined through the proverb ‘umuntu, ngumuntu, ngbantu’, or ‘a person is only a person through other persons’. ‘Arch’ explained that ‘we are human through relationships, we become human through relationships. We are made for the delicate network of interrelationships; the completely self-sufficient person is “sub-human”. I need you to be you, in order to for me to be me.’ This ‘delicate network of inter-relationships’ is also widely recognised in the natural world. My first degree was in Psychology and Zoology (I was as indecisive then as I am now!), and my early experience of studying ecology was hugely beneficial. When any change occurs in one species, an ecologist’s first response is not to look at it in isolation but to look at changes within its environment and ecosystem. Although my clinical psychology training at the Maudsley focused almost exclusively on cognitive behavioural approaches, in my subsequent clinical career in physical health, where the system comprising of relatives and health professionals is readily accessible, I also drew on systemic approaches that I trained in later. Many years on, when I was director of the clinical psychology programme at the University of Oxford, I had a framed picture of the coastal redwood trees in California in my office. Students must have got fed up of hearing me using it as an analogy for recognising the importance of support from others. The coastal redwood is the largest on planet earth, standing at over 400 feet, and also one of the oldest at up to 3500

years of age. Despite its elevated stature, its roots descend to a relatively shallow depth of about 12 feet, which seems inherently instable. However, the secret of the redwood’s success is that its roots grow out to a diameter of 100 feet and are interconnected with those of many other trees. This provides not only stability, but also the opportunity to share water and nutrients between trees. When I visited the forests where they grow naturally, a park ranger told me, to my surprise, that I could have found some in the UK. However, the coastal redwood grown on its own will only grow to a fraction of its usual height, will be pale in colour and is unlikely to live very long. We are all connected and rely on others, just like the redwood trees. It’s just that some people don’t acknowledge it. As Mungi Ngomane, Arch’s granddaughter, and author of the 2019 book Everyday Ubuntu, said recently in an interview ‘The self-made man is a myth, I’ve never yet met anyone who gave birth to themselves!’ Leadership I’ve been studying and teaching about leadership in one form or another for many years, and over the past few years had the privilege of leading a longitudinal study of leadership development in early career psychologists based at the University of Edinburgh. Popular notions about leadership still focus on an individual who stands alone from the crowd as a result of some special qualities, often defined in terms of charisma, which derives from the Greek word χαρισμα (khárisma) meaning literally ‘divine gift’. The sociologist Max Weber described charisma in relation to leaders as a ‘certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary.’ These ideas remain prominent in our narratives about leadership today. If you type the word ‘leadership’ into an image search you will find images of a man (or occasionally a woman) standing out in front of the crowd, often on top of a giant arrow or on the top of a mountain, often pointing or holding a telescope or steering wheel (as in the example to the left). Behind are typically smaller nondescript figures who are tagging along behind the leader – these are the ‘followers’ whose role is quite clearly one of passive submission. We can also hear this narrative in the news on a daily basis; a ‘super-head’ teacher has been brought in to ‘turn-around’ a failing school, or a ‘visionary’ new CEO has arrived at a company to ‘drive up performance’. A great deal has been written on leadership. You would think, therefore, that our beliefs about leadership must be built upon a pretty solid foundation. Well, yes…and no.

Last year a list of the top 25 leadership books of all time was published in Soundview magazine. To be clear, I think most of the books on the list are excellent – I found I had 22 of them on my bookshelf, and had even read most of them! However, if you take a step back, and particularly if you look at photos of the authors, you begin to realise that there’s something odd. The 25 ‘best books’ have a total of 32 authors, and all but one of these authors is male (i.e. 97 per cent), and all but two are White (94 per cent); the exceptions being Sun Zsu, who wrote The Art of War in the 4th century BC, and Ram Charan, who whilst born in India, took his MBA and doctoral degrees in Harvard and spent his working life in the USA. Indeed, every single book was written either in the USA (94 per cent) or the UK (6 per cent), apart from The Art of War (which seems to be much more popular in the USA and the UK than it is in China!). There seem to me to be two possible explanations for this observation. 1) Leadership only happens in the UK and USA or 2) Our understanding of leadership has been coming from a rather limited perspective, and one perhaps in which the ‘hero leader model’ is more dominant. Indeed, an intriguing 2010 study of culture and the perception of the leader’s position, led by Tanya Menon, found that Americans represent leaders standing ahead of groups, whereas Asians represent ‘back leaders’ standing behind groups. I’m a big fan of the USA and its people. However, its history is quite distinct from most other countries; over 95 per cent of the population are descendants of those who arrived within the last 200 years. Most White immigrants arrived alone, or with their immediate family unit, almost all with the hope of making a better life through their own endeavours via free enterprise. Thus, even of the White population of the Northern Hemisphere, they were a selected sample. Yet it is their descendants who have shaped our view on leadership towards the ‘heroic leader’. Of course, the ancestors of the majority of Black Americans have a very different history, arriving as slaves either directly to the USA, or via the Caribbean. Their voices are notably absent among the books on leadership. The ancient Indian parable of the blind men and the elephant is relevant here. One day the residents of a village inhabited by blind people learn that an elephant is passing through the area; having no experience of the animal they sent a party out to report back. They found the elephant and each felt it carefully, ready to report back. When they returned to the village, the first announced confidently ‘This being is like a thick snake!’ The second interrupted ‘you are quite mistaken, this beast is flat and broad like a fan!’ Another interjected ‘no, no, an elephant is a solid pillar like a tree-trunk’. Another, who had grasped the tail, said ‘you are all mistaken, an elephant is like a rope!’ If the village had only listened to one of the blind men, and perhaps he had written books and given TED talks, our view of an elephant would be quite incomplete.

Sign commemorating the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Montgomery, Alabama (Photo – D. Murphy)

There are many aspects of the ‘heroic leader’ model that make it dangerous and counterproductive. One I have personally been particularly concerned with is how it alienates those who work in health professions. My own research has found that early career psychologists see leaders being significantly more ‘dominant’, ‘dynamic’, ‘pushy’ and ‘male’ than themselves. The extent of the discrepancy between their own view of themselves and their beliefs about leaders, correlates with their motivation to engage in leadership roles, which among psychologists is often low. However, through our longitudinal research we’ve found that early-career psychologists can, and do, develop into confident leaders through a process of identifying their own leadership strengths within but also developing a different model of leadership. Another problem with the heroic leadership model is that it filters what we see in the world. With ‘heroleader glasses’ on, the complexities of a situation are filtered out and the ‘hero leader’ appears in front of us. Shared leadership A few years ago, I visited the Southern states of the USA as part of research into the civil rights movement. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I was inadvertently travelling with my ‘hero-leader glasses’ on. Since my teens, I’ve looked up to Dr Martin Luther King Jr., and I came to realise that my view of the US civil rights movement of the 1950s had very much been constructed through these lenses. To be fair to me, I’m

the psychologist september 2020 presidential address

not the only one to be guilty of this; most accounts of the movement are written through similar lenses. The Montgomery bus boycott is probably the single most important turning point in the 20th century civil rights movement in the South. The Black community in Montgomery, Alabama, staged an almost total boycott of the city bus system that lasted over a year, and resulted in the end of the system of segregated seating and the birth of the modern civil rights movement, with Dr Martin Luther King at its helm. Like many people, I arrived in Montgomery, with a view that the boycott started when Rosa Parks, returning home from work on a dark, cold Thursday evening in December 1955, refused to give up her seat to a White passenger. Parks’ role seemed brave but passive, whereas it was the leadership of Dr King, standing apart from the crowd, which led the community to action. The sign that stands on the spot where she boarded the bus, certainly does nothing to dispel this view. However, it turns out that Rosa Parks wasn’t the first Black person to refuse to give up their seat on a bus. She wasn’t even the first that year. In 1955 alone, five other women had been arrested, and charged, for the same ‘offence’, including a 15-year-old schoolgirl, Claudette Colvin, in March 1955. Following Colvin’s arrest, a delegation including E.D. Nixon, the President of the local chapter of the Black civil rights organisation, the NAACP, and Jo Anne Robinson, the Chairperson of the Montgomery Women’s Political Council, met with city commissioners to protest and even threated a bus boycott. Nor was Rosa the passive, apolitical, character of the dominant narrative. More relevant than her job as a seamstress in a department store, but notably absent from the sign, are the facts that Parks had served as the secretary of the local NAACP since 1943, had attended a residential leadership course at Highlander Folk school that summer led by Septima Clark, the ‘grandmother of the civil rights movement’ and, just four days before her arrest, attended a meeting about the recent acquittal of the murders of Black teenager, Emmett Till. The night Rosa Parks was arrested, Nixon, and civil rights lawyer, Clifford Durr, went to make her bail. Robinson learned of Parks’ arrest in the late evening. A lecturer at Alabama State College, she went back to work that night where she and two students hand-

a) Traditional leadership model

b) Shared leadership model

printed a staggering 35,000 leaflets calling for a bus boycott the following Monday, the day scheduled for Parks’ trial. After teaching her morning classes, Robinson and her students distributed the leaflets across the whole of Montgomery via other members of the Women’s Political Council. In contrast, Dr King wasn’t even aware of Parks’ arrest until later on Friday morning, when Nixon called him to tell him of the plan, and that he had arranged a meeting that afternoon to be held in King’s own church since it was the largest venue! The meeting was attended by all the local ministers, of which King was a relatively junior member, being only 26 years of age and having only arrived in Alabama to take his first ministerial position the previous year. Indeed, he later wrote that, when he was asked the following Monday afternoon to lead the MIA, the organisation established to co-ordinate the boycott, ‘The action caught me unawares, it happened so quickly that I did not have time to think it through, if I had it is probable that I would have declined the nomination’. Later that evening, after the first successful day of the Boycott, 6000 people crammed into the church, or gathered outside, to hear Dr King’s powerful words, that he had written only minutes before: ‘There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. There comes a time.’ The boycott eventually came to an end, not through the capitulation of the local authorities, but through a case brought in the Federal court by Fred Gray, the 24-year-old protégé of Clifford Durr, on behalf of the four women who had been charged earlier in 1955, including Claudette Colvin. By the time Colvin courageously took the witness stand in the Alabama District Court in June 1956, she was 16 years of age and a single mother. When asked by the attorney for the city if she and the others had a leader when they began protesting the segregation laws, she replied ‘Did we have a leader? Our leaders is just we ourselves!’ What Claudette Colvin was saying was not that there was no leadership, nor that no leaders were required, but rather that there was not one single ‘heroic’ leader. Rather there were multiple leaders who shared the activities of leadership as shown left. This might sound more straightforward, but in fact I believe it requires more skilful leaders to interact with considerably more coordination than a single heroic leadership model. Yet I think history shows us that it can be considerably more effective. Clare Gerada, former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, has used the analogy of a peloton in the cycle race to describe this type of leadership. Writing ‘Trust me… I’m a leader’ for the

NHS Federation in 2013, she said: ‘Taking turns at the head of the peloton allows the whole ﬁeld to travel faster and for longer than any one rider could manage alone. No rider – no matter how strong – can win without cooperating with others.’ Improv wisdom In many ways, the leaders of the bus boycott were dealing with a predictable situation; they expected more riders to be arrested and prepared accordingly. Many leadership challenges are not so predictable. Some years ago, I read a 2005 book by Patricia Ryan Madson, who is Professor Emerita in Drama at Stanford University and who has subsequently become a dear friend and mentor. Patricia developed the improvisation programme at Stanford, and although she retired some years ago, she continues to teach adult education classes in Improvisation. In her 2005 book Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up, she applies the principles of Improv to everyday life. I have found her work incredibly useful myself, and also relevant in clinical psychology training. In clinical practice, it’s not at all uncommon to have rehearsed an assessment or therapy session in your mind. You might even have notes or a manual to guide you. But when the client walks in, they reveal something completely unexpected. Trying to stick to your ‘script’ in those circumstances is detrimental to the client and also to the practitioner – improvisation is called for. I am still in awe of the improviser’s art, and since I’ve been doing research based in Edinburgh for the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to visit the fringe festival and watch many improv performances. I even went back to see one improv show three times, as I couldn’t believe they really produced a different show every day based on pulling audience ideas out of a hat. One of the things that really struck me about the improv group is how much they support each other, just like the redwood trees. They pay constant attention to where the other is going, and get ready to pick up the thread, or to step in, if their partner is beginning to struggle.

Covid-19 As the reality of the Covid crisis became apparent earlier this year, I drew on the principles of improv once again. In her book, Patricia lists 10 ‘improv maxims’. The 5th is ‘Be average’: she encourages readers to dispense with perfectionism and ‘dare to be dull’. On Friday 20 March 2020, the BPS Board of Trustees approved my proposal to form a group to oversee the Society’s response to the Covid crisis. The next day, I sat down to begin to wonder what this would actually consist of! On a scrap of paper, I sketched out the different ways in which psychology might contribute to managing the pandemic, and also its broader effects on society. My normal mode would have been to elaborate and revise it over the course

of the next week or two and perhaps circulate it to a few trusted colleagues for their comments. However, I decided that if there was ever a time to put the principles of improv into action it was now. I scanned the scrap of paper and posted it on Twitter with a request for comments and additions. I posted it at 7:30 on Saturday evening, and immediately began receiving comments, which didn’t stop. I spent the next 24 hours straight responding to comments from around the world. People suggested additions, made links with areas of existing work, and highlighted specific potential psychological contributions. Over the next two days, we recruited members to the coordinating group, including a clinical psychologist with experience of international humanitarian work who I had not known until she responded to the tweet. The group met for the first time on Wednesday 25 March and this ‘crowdsourced’ framework has been used to organise our workstreams ever since, with only small subsequent modifications. Throughout the BPS Covid response we have explicitly drawn on the principles of shared leadership. These are summarised by Jay Carson and colleagues in a 2007 Academy of Management Journal article. They identify a number of facilitating factors: a shared purpose (clear understanding of a shared goal, team members providing practical and emotional support to one another, trust), encouraging openness and candour, and voice (ensuring that each team member’s contribution is heard and valued). Through applying these principles, we have been able to draw together psychologists from very different backgrounds and networks, to work across the eight workstreams, most of whom still haven’t met each other in real life. It has not always been plain sailing… all of us have a natural inclination to stay in our comfort zone with familiar colleagues. However, responding to crises requires coming together across silos, although not at the expense of existing, valued networks. Within the coordinating group we found the model of the Barbarians rugby team a helpful one. The Baa-Baas are an invitational team that draws players from clubs across the world to play occasional matches against national teams. They have their own uniform, a black and white hooped jersey and black shorts, but players are allowed to wear the different coloured socks of their own club team. No one participating in the work felt that an existing social identity was being threatened, but rather that a new one was being gained through contributing to valuable work. Some of the outputs, which have received praise here in the UK and around the world, can be seen at www.bps.org.uk/coronavirus-resources. I will finish with my favourite of all the many leadership quotes from the Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu, with, if you will permit me, my own small addition at the end. A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves… and they will be right.

the psychologist september 2020 presidential address

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‘The heat and light that draws us together’ O

n 30 June and 1 July, when the British Psychological Society’s 2020 Conference should have been held in Leeds, hundreds of delegates convened instead online. Introducing the two days of Zoom keynotes and discussions, outgoing President David Murphy noted how Covid-19 has ‘brought into focus the deep inequities which exist in our world, and magniﬁed them’. This, he said, can leave us feeling overwhelmed and negative. Yet the Society’s logo offers, Murphy felt, the symbolism of ‘the heat and light that draws us together’. [Find his Presidential Address elsewhere in this issue.] Host, broadcaster and Society member Claudia Hammond, who skilfully brought together the conference themes and audience questions throughout the entire event, noted of coronavirus that she ‘can’t think of a policy issue where there has been more mention of psychology and behavioural science’. And so it proved, through a series of stimulating and well-received talks…

the psychologist september 2020 annual conference

‘We have to get our own house in order’ Ella Rhodes reports from British Psychological Society Chief Executive Sarb Bajwa’s introduction to the online conference Opening the second day of the conference, CEO of the British Psychological Society Sarb Bajwa addressed the organisation’s ‘historic lack of action’ on issues of race and equality and its institutional racism. After being challenged on the lack of speakers from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds at the conference, Bajwa was asked whether the Society was institutionally racist. While his first reaction was ‘emphatic denial’, the question led him to reflect. Earlier this year Bajwa said he was told by a Black trainee clinical psychologist that they would not attend a BPS event as they would feel unwelcome. ‘That’s not an organisation I want to be a part of. I reflect on the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on the BAME community. And as an Asian, I can say that it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, in fact, what surprises me is that people are surprised.’ Bajwa pointed to the 1999 Macpherson Inquiry on racism within the police, which described institutional racism as a form of collective behaviour and a workplace culture supported by a structural status quo. He said that this description led him to reflect on the Society’s own committees, working groups and governance structures which seemed to be built to aid the structural status quo. ‘I also reflected on the fact that many of our members are angry, frustrated, feel their voice isn’t heard, and they do not trust us. So if my colleague was to ask me again if

we were institutionally racist, I think my answer would be that if it feels like we are then we probably are.’ The time had come, Bajwa said, to admit the Society had been deaf to the pleas of its members, slow to address their concerns, ignorant of their issues and had not taken action to address any of this. To move forward and become a truly representative organisation he said the organisation needed to admit those mistakes. The Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force should be part of the organisation’s day-to-day work and should not run in isolation, Bajwa added. While addressing the Society’s lack of action on race and inequality would take time, he suggested some first steps – including benchmarking the BPS against other professional bodies, using The Psychologist magazine as a way to explore the profession’s history and biases, and running a survey of trainee clinical psychologists’ experiences of racism. ‘I’m not saying this can be fixed overnight. It can’t. But perhaps the most important first step is admitting that we haven’t spoken up when we should have, we haven’t acted when we should have, especially when you, our members, told us that we needed to for too long we’ve been on the wrong side of this issue. If we really want to positively influence psychology to be the diverse profession it needs to be then we have to get our own house in order first.’

Improving lives at the heart Given the opportunity to open the conference after winning the student competition [see https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/we-canonly-go-forward-here], Alice Thomson (University of Westminster) spoke eloquently on her hopes for the future of psychology: ‘I believe a focus on diversity, driven by an anger at the lack thereof in the bulk of classic research, combined with increased collaboration across disciplines, approaches and countries, will have driven the foundations of the field to where they ought to be. … those creating and investigating, or those accessing and engaging, will be truly acknowledging that this isn’t a one size fits all kind of discipline. Increasing diversity and acknowledging where we have previously got it wrong in theory, research, practice and education is incredibly important. By 2040 we will be more accurately reflecting the world we live in, encompassing all people, all communities, and all cultures. … psychology as a field will be nearly unrecognisable. … these are massive changes, and even if they’re really good, they can be quite daunting to think about. But I think the motivations behind everyone who’s here – of understanding behaviour, improving lives, and supporting each other – is going to remain at the heart of every person involved.’

Towards a mental health super science Annie Brookman-Byrne reports from Professor Miranda Wolpert MBE’s keynote

Imagine a world in which no one is held back by mental health problems. That’s the vision of Professor Miranda Wolpert MBE, Head of the Mental Health Priority Area at the Wellcome Trust. With £200million to spend over five years, Wolpert and her team are taking a radical new approach to addressing anxiety and depression in 14- to 24-year-olds. Last year Wolpert concluded from a brief survey that the mental health conversation was best framed around supporting recovery and the achievement of goals, rather than achieving a ‘cure’ to mental health problems. While the term ‘cure’ represented hope and ambition for some, for others it increased stigma and took focus away from finding ways to live with anxiety and depression. With this ambition of ‘no one held back’ in mind, Wolpert is less interested in debates about the causes or definitions of anxiety and depression, and is more focused on solutions. What are the ‘active ingredients’ of approaches that help those affected by anxiety and depression? There are possible active ingredients in four distinct categories that Wolpert says the field sometimes confuses: prevention, treatment, stopping relapse and managing ongoing difficulties. Funded teams are currently reviewing the evidence for 26 different active ingredients. These range from the biological (such as better gut microbiome function), to the behavioural, to relationships, to societal (including cash transfer and engagement with theatre). The aim is to identify the ‘best bets’ – the most promising active ingredients for Wellcome to focus on. While the scientists working on these active ingredients come from traditionally siloed fields, such as brain science, developmental science, and data science, Wolpert is passionate about creating a wider community around mental health science – what she calls a super science. Part of this new super science, in Wolpert’s view,

includes widening our very deﬁnition of science to incorporate economics, anthropology, humanities, and social science – in short, anything that looks rigorously at evidence. Wolpert likes the British Academy’s new acronym SHAPE, for ‘Social science, Humanities & the Arts for People & the Economy’, which they describe as ‘a new collective name for those subjects that help us understand ourselves, others and the human world around us’. Wolpert warned us to beware the jingle-jangle fallacies. The jingle fallacy is the assumption that two things are the same because we use the same word to describe them, and the jangle fallacy is the assumption that two things are different because we use different words to describe them. Wolpert said mental health science is currently full of these fallacies, pointing again to the need for siloed groups to work together and share knowledge. Creating this super science community involves drawing on people who have experienced anxiety or depression. Wolpert endeavours to have people with lived experience at the heart of this work, and Wellcome has created a network of experts with lived experience who are advising throughout the process. The work is also inclusive in explicitly aiming to feature non-WEIRD research, and taking a global approach with a particular interest in low and middle income areas. This is only year one of a ten-year programme, and Wolpert is optimistic. Quoting Maya Angelou, Wolpert said, ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’. Wolpert hoped she had made the audience feel optimistic, and invited everyone to join her on this journey (via open discussion on Twitter and LinkedIn) to achieve a new vision in addressing mental health problems in young people.

the psychologist september 2020 conference

We are dynamite Jon Sutton on Professor Stephen Reicher’s keynote There is perhaps no psychologist we’ve featured in our pages more than Professor Stephen Reicher (University of St Andrews), and I make no apologies for that. His keynote was a typical tour de force – if any psychologist has no need to apologise for not using PowerPoint, it’s Reicher – combining research and real people with the whiff of revolution. ‘What is happening leads us to reconceptualise one of the basic questions in psychology,’ he began, ‘the relationship between the collective and the individual, and between the individual and the state’. Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, Reicher has advised government through SPI-B, the Scottish advisory group, and now Independent SAGE (‘which allows me a voice outside of the system’). His tweets make headline news the following day, and news bulletins have regularly featured his strident challenges to the government. Reicher was at pains, though, to point out that he wants the government to succeed. And for that, he has to exploit different spaces to hammer home his point that their assumptions are not only wrong, but actively dangerous. The dominant view within government – during this pandemic but also long before, Reicher argues – has been a sceptical and paternalistic notion of the public, rooted in fragility. People are psychologically weak, the thinking goes, in intellectual, cognitive and moral terms. ‘You wouldn’t have a half decent Hollywood disaster ﬁlm without people running, screaming, clogging up the exits,’ Reicher said. ‘People are fragile, they over-react, turn a crisis into a tragedy.’ It’s a view that the state has a vested interest in sticking to: if people could self-organise, then we wouldn’t need government. Actually, compliance with coronavirus measures has been remarkably high, with research led by Professor Bobby Duffy (King’s College London) suggesting that about 92 per cent of people are following the guidelines. It might seem like less, because as Reicher pointed out, ‘violation is always a better news story than compliance… footage of a shelf stacked with loo rolls is not a story’. And this compliance has come at considerable cost, with people suffering psychologically and materially. We have not been acting out of individual self interest. Reicher and colleagues predicted this. Professor John Drury’s work has shown that emergencies and crises inherently create a sense of shared identity, and that this sense of ‘groupness’ leads to support and communication. ‘When we act in terms of “we”, our self is extended.’ People die in emergencies not due to over-reaction, but under-reaction. They are not given the information, clarity about the risks, and the opportunity to do something about them. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen those problems of information and opportunity. Research shows that poor people are six times more likely to go out. ‘But there’s no difference in motivation,’ Reicher said. ‘They wanted to stay home, but to put food on the plate they had to go out.’

‘Yes but Steve, what about all these idiots on the beach?’, I have been known to ask. Patiently, he will explain that most people were socially distancing. In any case, are they fools or idiots, or simply responding to the implicit (and, I would argue, explicit) message of government… brieﬁngs stopped, open for business, ‘go to the beach’. ‘Poor old Chris Whitty pleaded with people – “don’t see it as back to normal”’, Reicher pointed out. ‘We are still in the midst of a deadly pandemic, and actions are a form of messaging.’ (‘This is a government that understands messaging,’ Reicher said, leaving me to ponder darkly what lies beneath ‘stay alert’ and ‘Super Saturday’.) The reality, Reicher argued, is that the state cannot cope on its own. ‘Mutual aid has been as important as government intervention. And it critically involves a sense of community identity – people acting in terms of “us”.’ He reminded us of research on the ‘social cure’, the fact that groups are a prophylactic against mental and physical ill health. ‘Physical proximity has the potential to kill you, but so has social distance.’ The public, then, becomes the greatest asset. How do we nurture that? Leadership is absolutely critical: ‘there’s no use talking the talk of shared identity if the reality of experience is different’. Particularly coming out of lockdown, equity becomes the critical issue. Although Reicher accepted that the government rhetoric had been ‘OK at times’ and the furlough scheme practically important, he feels that over time ‘the sense of shared identity has been undermined’. Interestingly, Reicher said that although trust in the government dropped by around a ﬁfth after the Dominic Cummings incident, as would be

predicted by Tom Tyler’s work on procedural justice, some of the people most angry at Cummings were more likely to comply with guidance. Cummings became a counter example. Where do we go from here, at this stage in the ﬁght against the virus? ‘Treat people as a partner, listen, be open, be realistic, involve them in the production of policy,’ Reicher concluded. ‘If you believe that people can’t cope with the reality of hard times, it leads you to hide information away, to a banal optimism where you say everything is going to be OK.’ Instead, we need a ‘scaffolding state’, which organises, supports and resources communities to come together. Reicher also covered the research response, calling for the ‘resource, energy and effort’ which might build strong foundations for a Chief Behavioural Science Ofﬁcer role in the future. But in the meantime, he warned, ‘hubris destroys everything. It’s important to be open and honest about the state of our evidence. Of course we don’t have direct evidence of the way this particular pandemic affects behaviour; but we do have the principles and the processes which can be applied to new situations.’ We must move beyond a series of ad hoc measures and towards a clear strategy, an ‘overall mental model of the pandemic’. Behaviour will undoubtedly be at the core of that

model. ‘All the means we have of combating the pandemic have a central behavioural component,’ Reicher said, giving the example of ‘test, trace, isolate’. ‘Can you change the norm of showing grit and soldiering on, so that people recognise and report symptoms early on? Will we tell the authorities who our mates are, who we have been spending time with? What about getting people to isolate, at a time when others are coming out of lockdown?’ He added that there is a looming question of generational inequity: who will pay and who won’t pay? ‘The sense of alienation could grow and grow.’ Reicher chose to ‘ﬁnish on a brighter note’. Even he has been surprised by just how positive the overall behaviour of the public has been. They have led, the government has followed: demanding more stringent lockdown measures, more support, equity. ‘The resilience of the public has made up for the problem of leadership.’ But he insisted he is ‘not trying to sell you a Polyannaish view of “groups are always good”’. ‘After 150 years of sneering at the collective, we need to get our heads around the “we” concept.’ ‘We’ are dynamite: yes, we can do horribly destructive things, but we have the potential to be a remarkably powerful resource. Clear and honest information, backed up with resources which give us the opportunities we need to control the virus, will light the fuse.

‘We need each other’ In her ﬁrst address as BPS President Dr Hazel McLaughlin outlined her vision. Ella Rhodes reports.

During her career, Hazel McLaughlin has worked with organisations as diverse as the NHS and L’Oréal. Something which emerges repeatedly, she said, is the importance of developing effective teams, change and creating the right kind of culture and purpose. Also a visiting lecturer at IoPPN King’s College London, McLaughlin said it’s vital to focus on developing people and enhancing capability. Moving onto Covid-19, McLaughlin said we needed to begin to consider the new normal. She pointed to data from the Sunday Times that demonstrated how much the world has changed since the start of the outbreak – in positive and negative ways. The environment has likely beneﬁtted from lower rates of air pollution and reduced rates of energy use. However with monumental drops in GDP, millions of people on furlough in the UK alone, and measurably worse impacts on some of the most vulnerable in

society, McLaughlin said we must learn lessons from this time. The ﬁrst, she said, is that the world is uncertain and we should expect the unexpected; the second is that we are social beings and that community is essential. ‘I think some of the lessons relate to the way we organise and structure ourselves as a psychology society, and where we put our emphasis… we need to be thinking about what we have in common, rather than what differentiates us. We have over 154 networks, but the world is changing all the time, and we need to be thinking about having networks that are ﬁt for today’s environment.’ McLaughlin pointed to the work that the BPS has been doing on the Society’s ‘member journey’. She has been thinking about how to build this to the next stage, and enable the Society, from a psychologist’s perspective. Inspired by positive psychology research she has developed a psychological capability

framework. ‘Positive psychology emphasises hope, optimism, selfefﬁcacy, actually engaging with people, and I think that really is the essence of what we need at the moment as a society.’ McLaughlin introduced her vision of the ‘seven pillars’ of how that might work in practice, including a need for a bold vision and clear sense of focus and outlining the Society’s culture and values, as well as the importance of CPD, diversity and inclusion, and volunteers. McLaughlin ended with quotes, including one from Grace Lee Boggs: ‘You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it’; and another from the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, ‘Life doesn’t make any sense without interdependence. We need each other and the sooner we learn that the better for us all’. McLaughlin added ‘I genuinely feel that’s the case’.

the psychologist september 2020 conference

Picture taken on April 29, 2018 shows a visitor looking at victims’ portraits at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda.

‘The more who die, the less we care’ Jon Sutton on Professor Paul Slovic’s keynote There are, said Professor Paul Slovic (Decision Research and the University of Oregon), enormous human and environmental challenges as we face the changing landscapes of the future. ‘I have to warn you the talk is quite distressing. It’s not a pleasant menu’ – climate change, Covid-19, genocide, nuclear war – ‘the positive side of it is maybe we can overcome the obstacles to managing them better.’ So in ‘confronting the deadly arithmetic of compassion’, Slovic also had ‘hope for better times in this age of unprecedented risk’ – ‘I always like to have two titles, in case the ﬁrst one doesn’t work’. His talk centred around the concepts that Daniel Kahneman put forward in Thinking, Fast and Slow – of fast, feeling based thinking, and a slow analytical style. Fast is easy, feels right, and usually works; but it is innumerate and can lead to serious mistakes. Slow thinking can deceive us too. In terms of that innumeracy, consider what Covid-19 teaches us about climate change – ‘act now before it is too late’, Slovic said. His native United States, he said, is not only not controlling coronavirus, but is actually going in the opposite direction. He attributed this at least in part to a failure to understand exponential growth, even in the early stages of the outbreak. Climate change and its damages also happen exponentially. Antarctica has lost nearly three trillion tons of ice since 1992, and oceans are rising at the fastest rate in the past 28 centuries. What’s to be done? We don’t do as well with numbers as we do with visual imagery, so show the impact on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago complex (or, alternatively, somewhere the wider population might care about) of a 7ft rise in sea levels. Pay attention to experts who think slowly and scientiﬁcally. Don’t expect people to give up the comforts and conveniences of a climate harmful lifestyle;

government and industry must work to develop new ways to meet our needs with less damage. But Slovic doesn’t seem to be a fan of a ‘softly softly’ approach, saying ‘We don’t need nudges to behave better, we need shoves’. Confronting that ‘arithmetic of compassion’, Slovic argued that we are incoherent in our valuation of human life. ‘We value individual lives greatly, but those lives lose their value in the face of greater threats.’ We’ve known this for a long time; it’s a sentiment encapsulated in the quote, often attributed to Stalin, ‘One man’s death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic’; in the saying ‘Statistics are human beings with the tears dried off’; and in Albert Szent-Györgyi’s ‘I am unable to multiply one man’s suffering by a hundred million’. After each genocide, Slovic said, we say ‘never again’. And then repeat, again and again. In 1994, 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days in Rwanda, while the world watched and did nothing. State-led mass killings have taken place recently in Congo, Myanmar/Burma, Nigeria and many other countries. Why do we rarely intervene? Slovic pointed to various factors: it’s dangerous, costly, difﬁcult; there’s racism; distance is involved, and a diffusion of responsibility combined with the dominance of protecting national security over protecting foreign lives. But in terms of experimental evidence, he focused on ‘psychic numbing’, with information failing to convey affect and emotion. We should see every human life as of equal value, or at least think that large losses threaten the viability of the group or society. But our actions don’t follow either of these. Our feelings override our analytic judgements; we experience diminished sensitivity as ‘n’ grows large. ‘The feeling system can’t count!’, Slovic concluded. People report, for example, being more willing to send clean water to a refugee camp in order to save

4500 of 11,000 lives than 4500 of 250,000. What can we do about it? Slovic pointed to the research of Tehila Kogut and Ilana Ritov on the ‘identiﬁed victim’ – donations are twice as high with a single victim. Unfortunately, we have a short attention span for this stuff. There may have been a spike in web searches around ‘Syria’ and ‘refugees’ after the media published the tragic photo of the drowned three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, and a study showed a surge in donations to the Swedish Red Cross on behalf of Syrian refugees. But they quickly returned to base level. ‘An image can wake us up, but then there’s a window of opportunity when you’re emotionally connected,’ Slovic said. ‘We start to think “What else can I do?” – if it feels like the answers is nothing, then it dampens out.’ Slovic ended with a stark warning around how the ‘prominence effect’ can cause a disconnect between values and actions, and the implications of this in the nuclear age. ‘Prominence is like an attentional spotlight – lives not in the spotlight are ignored no matter their

number.’ The existence of nuclear weapons may have become taken for granted, but Slovic is clearly worried about ‘the caveman and the bomb in the digital age’. ‘People say they’re not used, but actually that’s not true, and in any case is a pointed gun not being used?’ As Bruce Blair wrote in 2016, ‘The city of Moscow alone lies in the bore sights of more than 100 nuclear weapons’. Bringing his talk back round to the deadly arithmetic of compassion, Slovic referred to Roger Fisher, Professor of Law at Harvard University, who in 1981 suggested that the secret code the President needs to initiate a nuclear attack should be implanted near the heart of the person who would need to be sacriﬁced in order to start a nuclear attack. In conclusion, Slovic urged us to ‘understand the strengths and weaknesses of fast and slow thinking as a necessary ﬁrst step towards valuing lives humanely and improving decisions’. Find out more at www.arithmeticofcompassion.org

The unique life history of humans Annie Brookman-Byrne reports from Professor Alison Gopnik’s keynote

If an Alpha Centauran biologist came to Earth during the Pleistocene and tried to figure out what makes the new branch of primates different from existing primates, what might she notice? Professor Alison Gopnik, of the University of California at Berkeley, thinks it is their ‘life history’ that would have stood out. In evolutionary biology, life history is the developmental programme of an organism across its life. The life history of humans is radically different from our closest relatives, Gopnik said. We have a very long period of immaturity and dependence in childhood, as well as a long period of vulnerability and dependence in older age. These periods of dependence are very costly, and seem counterintuitive from an evolutionary perspective. But Gopnik argued that humans have adapted for this with what she calls the ‘investment triple threat’. First there is pair bonding between the parents who cooperate to raise children together – which is very rare in mammals. Then there are alloparents, who are not biologically related but care for children. And finally there are grandmothers (Gopnik’s favourite – she showed a picture of her three grandchildren) who are a strikingly human phenomenon. The ‘grandmother hypothesis’ is that postmenopausal women enabled the protracted period of human childhood. Parents, who are in the prime of life, forage, mate and acquire resources, while grandparents, who are less effective at those things pass on information and ensure children survive. Gopnik said that the extended period of protected childhood allows children to explore and learn about the world in a safe environment. In adulthood, there is a shift to a goal-directed ‘exploitation’ cognitive profile, which

Professor Gopnik with her grandchildren allows us to get things done based on what we’ve learnt. Gopnik described what is known in computer science as a trade-off between exploration and exploitation. The intrinsic tension between the two means that in adulthood it is challenging to switch between explore and exploit. This explore-exploit trade-off is even relevant to academia. Gopnik said that when she did her DPhil it was considered a time to explore, rather than to exploit (i.e. publish). It seems that the life history of an academic is evolving to include just a short period of exploration followed by a long period of goal-directed exploitation. Nonetheless, Gopnik did encourage students to be exploratory – sometimes this leads to the most successful work. These ideas are discussed in much more detail in Gopnik’s recently co-edited special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society on life history and learning.

the psychologist september 2020 conference

Covid-19 and the media Hosted by the BPS Standing Conference Committee Chair, Dr Michael Smith (Northumbria University), a panel of experts – including a trauma specialist, a conspiracy theory researcher, a cyberpsychologist and our Editor – came together to talk about Covid-19 and the media. Professor Roxane Cohen Silver (University of California Irvine) kicked off the session (at 5am her local time!) discussing her own research into the effects of exposure to news coverage of traumatic events on the general public. Following the September 11th terrorist attacks Cohen Silver said she and her colleagues were surprised to ﬁnd that those who were exposed to six to eight hours of TV news coverage per day showed similar psychological effects to those who witnessed the attacks ﬁrst-hand. Thanks in part to the rise of smartphone cameras, the images released in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing were particularly gruesome. Cohen Silver found that those who engaged with the news, through a variety of media, for six or more hours per day showed higher levels of acute stress than people who had been present at the bombing itself. In the years following this bombing the USA experienced a number of other traumatic events, including the 2016 terrorist shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando where 49 people died. Cohen Silver has followed the participants in that study since then and said that those who were exposed to more media after the Boston bombing were more likely to be anxious about terrorism over the subsequent years, have post-traumatic stress symptomatology, and were more drawn to news coverage about terrorism in general. ‘Those who spent more time engaged with the media in 2013 were more likely to be anxious and more likely to expose themselves to images, and to stories, and to the gruesomeness of the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub shooting.’ Five days after Covid-19 was declared a national emergency in the USA, Cohen Silver started a longitudinal study and has so far surveyed 6500 people. While Covid-19 does not present particularly graphic or gruesome images, the news has been relentless, repetitious and worsening. ‘A very, very big difference about Covid and

The Society response A symposium on ‘Psychological contributions to managing the Covid-19 pandemic’, convened by David Murphy as Society President and Chair of COVID-19 Coordinating Group, included contributions from Angel Chater on ‘Advising policy makers and public health on behavioural science and Covid-19 disease prevention’; from Ingram Wright on ‘Undertaking reliable & valid psychological assessment remotely’; from Vivian Hill on ‘Psychological perspectives on transitions during a pandemic’; and from Daryl O’Connor on ‘Psychological research priorities for the COVID-19 Pandemic and beyond’. You can ﬁnd all the workstreams and resources they talked about via https://www.bps.org.uk/coronavirus-resources

the kinds of events that I have previously studied is that with Covid we’re in the eye of a storm, and we don’t know how long that storm is going to last,’ she said. ‘The other thing that’s extremely important about Covid is that the media is the means not only of how people learn about this trauma, but it’s also how they’re learning about the rapidly changing science, and the information about ways in which they can protect themselves. It is very important that people stay apprised of the new information that’s coming out from the biomedical side, and because of that we certainly aren’t encouraging people to keep their heads in the sand.’ Dr Linda Kaye (Edge Hill University), Chair of the BPS Cyberpsychology Section, spoke about some of the benefits of our online worlds – in gaming and social media – which have helped to bring people together and build community during the pandemic. Kaye also touched on our changing way of working and the overwhelming tiredness people have been reporting from countless video conferences, or ‘Zoom fatigue’ as it is now known. Kaye said that our monitoring of our own selfpresentation and behaviour during video calls, as well as a lack of subtle social clues, can be particularly draining. Conspiracy theory researcher Dr Daniel Jolley (Northumbria University) addressed some of the wild theories about Covid-19 which have been proliferating since the very start of the outbreak. He pointed out that conspiracy theories were particularly likely to emerge during significant events and at times of crisis when feelings of threat, uncertainty and anxiety abound. Jolley said it wasn’t fair to participate in the ‘othering’ of people who believed in conspiracy theories. ‘They’re asking questions about the world, but they may lack the abilities to think through the evidence – we know people who have lower critical thinking abilities are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, also people who find themselves at a disadvantage are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories.’ Finally, Editor of The Psychologist Dr Jon Sutton highlighted some narratives that had been particularly present, or surprisingly absent, during the pandemic. These included whether policy has been ‘led by the science’ and the surprising psychological influences on vaccine effectiveness. He also addressed whether psychology is ‘crisis ready’, and how we might get better at ‘telling stories’ to influence public understanding. Sutton concluded: ‘Sometimes I just wonder whether we need to get over ourselves... all disciplines are facing these kinds of questions, and we shouldn’t imagine some kind of hierarchy or hide our light, we should just crack on with working alongside other disciplines in order to give “to the best of our knowledge” advice.’ Ella Rhodes

Veterans, horses and the rediscovery of ‘with’ Adrian Needs considers the processes at play in equine-assisted learning with members of the armed forces

I ﬁrst became aware of Tower House Horses through a liaison, diversion and peer mentoring initiative, led by Hampshire County Council, for veterans in contact with the criminal justice system. Their programme is structured around tasks involving horses and ponies over six weekly sessions. It sounded intriguing and worth exploring, especially for veterans who are hard to engage by more familiar means…

everal years ago, with MSc students Georgina Hodgman and Emma Pollard, I was facilitating a focus group with some long-term prisoners. The prisoners were all former members of the armed forces. There was real poignancy in hearing from people who had once served their country but were now serving sentences. During a break, one of them showed me a rather creased photograph of himself in happier times, wearing his scarlet tunic and bearskin whilst on duty outside a royal residence in London; his active service over a decade and a half had extended to numerous conflicts around the globe. They were a diverse group in many respects. Yet all agreed emphatically, with more than a hint of nostalgia, when one said that, in the services, ‘sometimes saying nothing means something, and saying something means something else’. Later I found a quote from a veteran of the Falklands War that seemed to be getting at something similar: ‘It doesn’t need to be said… you can hint towards it… they’ll nod… and you’ll know that they know’ (Burnell et al., 2006, p.285). That caught my eye, and related issues came into sharper focus when I became involved in evaluating an equine-assisted learning programme at Tower House Horses, Micheldever in Hampshire… You can’t fool a horse… My first visit to Tower House was encouraging, yet I knew I needed to approach the evaluation with care. Research into equine interventions has been characterised by methodological shortcomings and sometimes extravagant claims (Anestis et al., 2014). Yet there is also substantial variation in forms and targets of intervention (Lee et al., 2016) and some ‘confounds’ such as novelty are hard to avoid (Barnfield, 2015). Even in more mainstream areas, much evaluative work fails to specify parameters of settings, and relies too much on group averages. With such considerations in mind I conducted a small number of interviews along Realistic Evaluation (‘context-mechanism-outcome’: Pawson & Tilley,

the psychologist september 2020 veterans and horses

1997) lines. These were aimed in part at developing materials for a larger-scale study, and included participants comparing photographs from their personal portfolios of the course. Contextual aspects highlighted in the interviews included the peacefulness of the natural setting, time out from problems and an interpersonal environment that resembled a ‘secure base’ in the attachment theory sense. Against this background, in the words of one client, horses ‘notice everything that’s going on’; in those of another, ‘you can’t fool a horse’.

In terms of mechanisms or processes, this responsiveness to nonverbal cues (and the need to gain their trust in order to work collaboratively) makes horses and ponies a powerful source of feedback. One client described ‘falling out’ with a horse. In psychotherapeutic practice this might be termed ‘relational rupture’, and repair provided clients with vivid insights into their personal patterns and the possibility of alternative approaches which lead to different outcomes. Such feedback is immediate, direct and self-evidently authentic. Meanwhile, horses remain

open to cooperating with fresh approaches in a way that is commendably non- judgemental. Several photographs show synchrony between the gait and posture of client and horse, once trust and cooperation had been achieved. This nonverbal mirroring has also been observed in successful psychotherapy and other positive dyadic interactions. People described a sense of peace and immediacy, permeated with a sense of trust – one client described a ‘turning point’. Although ‘being in the moment’ is an aspect of mindfulness that has been highlighted in interventions using horses, the photographs and interviews both suggested an importance of not just being in the moment, but being in the moment with another living being. One client spoke of the importance of achieving ‘mental contact’ with the horses and ponies. Another likened the experience to ‘talking without speaking’ and a third reported: ‘I’ve lost a lot of knowing how to connect, but now it’s like I’ve never lost it.’ This seemed a central and much-needed outcome. It resonated with those quotes from the start of this article. I couldn’t shake off the thought that at times a conventional focus on what is ‘within’ a person (or animal) may result in the possibilities of ‘with’ being overlooked. As De Jaegher and colleagues (2010) pointed out, psychology has a long history of studying how we make sense ‘of’ people, but how we make sense ‘with’ them can Key sources be at least as signiﬁcant. Such concerns have parallels with developments relating to Akerman, G., Needs, A. & Bainbridge, complexity and dynamic systems C. (Eds.) (2018). Transforming in other sciences. Interactions, and environments and rehabilitation: A guide processes of change or transition, for practitioners in forensic settings and criminal justice. Routledge. loom large in such thinking. And Ashforth, B.E. (2001). Role transitions transition is an area of particular in organizational life: An identity-based concern to the armed forces; sharing perspective. Lawrence Erlbaum common processes with personal Associates. development (and its pitfalls) more De Jaegher H., Di Paolo, E. & Gallagher, generally. S. (2010). Can social interaction constitute social cognition? Trends in Could such parallels help us to Cognitive Sciences, 14(10), 441-447. more fully understand the relevance Lee, P.-T., Dakin, E. & McLure, M. and potential of equine-assisted (2016). Narrative synthesis of equinelearning? assisted psychotherapy literature: Current knowledge and future research directions. Health and Social Care in the Community, 24(3), 225-246. Mobbs, M.C. & Bonanno, G.A. (2018). Beyond war and PTSD: The crucial role of transition stress in the lives of military veterans. Clinical Psychology Review, 59, 137-144. Stevanovic, M. & Blaski, S.E. (2018). Intersubjectivity and the domains of social interaction: Proposal of a cross-sectional approach. Psychology of Language and Communication, 22(1), 39-70. Full list available in online/app version.

Find where you belong In Blake Ashforth’s 2001 book on role transitions in organisational life, belonging is identiﬁed as one of four major interdependent areas – along with identity, meaning and control – needing realignment when individuals’ organisational roles and circumstances are altered. It’s regarded by many as a fundamental human motive. The military establishment demands an exceptional degree of social

integration (Hatch et al., 2013), and indeed the British Army’s current recruitment campaign invites potential recruits to ‘Find where you belong’. Analysing the transition into military life in these terms helps illuminate long-standing military practices. These include initial separation from civilian routines whilst building up an identity that is functional in the new setting; orientation to military values through structure, traditions and ceremonies; whilst increasing confidence and new ways of engaging tasks through discipline, training and teamwork. Driving all this is a sense of belonging, integration within a larger whole, including loyalty, comradeship, mutuality and coordinated activity at an interpersonal level. These patterns are crucial to resilience as well as performance (Jones et al., 2012). Those four aspects I mentioned – identity, meaning, control and belonging – can be seen as necessary characteristics of a complex, embodied, self-organising, adaptive living system (Needs & Adair-Stantiall, 2018). To generate and maintain itself such a system requires a sense of unity and distinctness (identity); it derives from its environment information and patterns relevant to its purposes (meaning); to exercise choice it needs a sense of autonomy and self-efficacy (control); yet the whole system develops through learning, reciprocity and connectedness with similar systems (belonging). For inherently social beings the predominant other systems are, or originate from, other people. The official medical history of the Second World War recognised this. A customary psychiatric demarcation involving an ‘emphasis on the individual, almost as an isolated unit independent of group dynamics’ came to be discarded as ‘entirely artificial and meaningless’ (Ahrenfeldt, 1968, p.177). Instead, the military establishment ensures social integration and operational effectiveness through both top-down constraints (such as regulations and traditions) and the bottom-up, ‘emergent’ outcomes of coordinated and shared activity within groups (Kozlowski, 2015). Just as the ‘wetness’ of water resides not in its constituent hydrogen or oxygen molecules, but arises from the interaction between them, so emergent features such as trust, collaborative problem-solving and humour stem from the interactions between individuals and are not reducible to them in isolation. There remains an intrinsic tension and synergy between the need to balance and integrate participation, sharing and connectedness on one hand with distinctiveness, autonomy and ‘emancipation’ on the other (Kyselo, 2014). Interactions involving mutuality, shared attention and responsiveness bring together the outlooks of ‘other’ and ‘self’ in a relationship of ‘intersubjectivity’. Coordinated activity in childhood sharpens awareness that others have perspectives, knowledge and intentions (including towards us) and that we can have them too. It is through mutually responsive interactions involving intersubjectivity that the capacity to navigate the social world emerges (Stevanovic & Blaski, 2018).

the psychologist september 2020 veterans and horses

When belonging breaks down Such considerations place the sense of ‘with’ between comrades or with horses in a broader perspective. However, as with Yet there have been important many psychological processes, innovations, including growing there is shadow behind the recognition of the often-pivotal light. Stein and Tuval-Mashiach importance of the interpersonal (2015) characterised some of dimension. the most pressing problems of Dr Adrian Needs is Principal Precipitating events for PTSD troubled Israeli veterans as ‘failed Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at tend to be most undermining intersubjectivity’. So what happens the University of Portsmouth. when they arise from human intent when belonging is damaged or adrian.needs@port.ac.uk (Charuvastra & Cloitre, 2008), otherwise impaired? deny personhood and explode the Seen from a systemic viewpoint, moral bedrock that enables a sense of common ground a reduction in external interactions involving and safety. In military contexts, such events include connectedness and coordination leads to a rigid atrocities but also situations permeated by moral coupling of internal processes (Laroche et al., 2014). ambiguity, betrayal, or failure to fulfil obligations. A system that evolved to serve action in coordination The term that has come to be used for this separable with others can go into overdrive with self-focused form of trauma is ‘moral injury’ (e.g. Currier et al., concerns, often centred upon its own viability or 2015). Emotional states of shame, anger, isolation or preservation. With increasing dominance through disillusionment are often prominent; distress may be repetition and failure to elaborate alternatives, these maintained less by a sense of physical threat than by form ‘attractor states’ which allow little scope for a profound, visceral disruption of social integration flexible reorganisation (Hayes & Yasinski, 2015). and shared sense-making. This may be exacerbated Renewed development requires openness to other by a sense of difference in experiences and values perspectives and the flexibility to engage and adapt. These are conspicuously absent across a range of forms to civilians more generally, of mental disorder (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). although this We must remember that many veterans do not and disruption suffer from mental health problems as a result of in areas such their time in service. Most come to make a successful transition from military to civilian life. Although media as identity can cause problems coverage might lead you to believe that post-traumatic in its own right stress disorder (PTSD) is an almost inevitable consequence of military service, research indicates that (Mobbs & Bonanno, 2018). it affects a minority and that its prevalence is less than Theories that of alcohol abuse, anxiety and depression. of impaired Then again, current and former military personnel or incomplete are a very heterogeneous population in terms of ‘processing’ experiences before, during and after service. Whilst in PTSD and some service personnel experience substantial combat associated exposure and are at risk of ‘sub-threshold’ (which therapies are still cause significant distress and can fluctuate with rooted in circumstances) as well as diagnosable disorders, many the tradition of making sense ‘of’. If we accept the are never deployed in front-line operations at all. For importance of making sense ‘with’, the hypothesis some, childhood adversity (including problematic arises that experiences defy reconciliation when they attachment) confers vulnerability to later problems in seem to rip out even the possibility of intersubjectivity adjustment, perhaps including those occasioned by and connectedness. Trauma is more about shattering leaving the military ‘family’ prematurely under less of a person’s fundamental ‘stance’ towards a world than ideal circumstances. It is known, for example, and future of other people than loss of specific beliefs that there can be particular complications with ‘early (Ratcliffe et al., 2014). service leavers’ of less than four years’ service. Overcoming trauma then turns upon overcoming a profound sense of isolation and displacement. Acknowledgement, trust and a degree of shared, Exploding the moral bedrock responsive understanding can enable the finding of All that said, let’s consider the specific example of what Stolorow (2007) termed a ‘relational home’ for PTSD. It’s a concept that continues to be beset by experiences that set a person apart from others (for controversy over criteria, processes and empirical an application to military personnel, see Carr, 2011). support for central assumptions (Needs, 2018).

In practice, this may be a generic benefit of many interventions (Wampold, 2019) that are delivered with skill and sensitivity, but for some clients such issues may need to be at the forefront. In addition, a major problem is that some of those most in need of experiencing connectedness and intersubjectivity are least likely to engage with help, professional or otherwise. A sense of difference, distrust and alienation can extend to potential sources of care even over practical matters such as housing and benefits. This is a good argument for making available sources of support such as peer mentoring, or for the involvement of charities run by former service personnel. For some veterans, however, problems may be complex and deep. Some may have tried conventional interventions but derived little benefit. This was the case with the majority of clients interviewed at Tower House. The Tower House programme, then – out of doors, highly experiential, embodied, largely nonverbal methods, in situations that several clients emphasised were ‘real’ – may be especially appropriate for some veterans. Even non-veterans in the small sample contrasted these aspects with talking about memories or hypothetical instances in less immersive settings.

A note on anthropomorphism Some readers may disregard any suggestion that mutual responsiveness and coordinated action with an animal might constitute an intersubjective process. Nonetheless, intersubjectivity is precisely how an equine intervention was characterised by Sharpe and Strong (2015), and Merritt (2015) described something similar in reciprocal exchanges with dogs. There was some suggestion that a tendency to anthropomorphic thinking in clients may enhance engagement – troubled clients can feel an afﬁnity towards animals from a rescue background, or see something of their own tendencies, such as stubbornness, in an equine partner. But what is central here is the development of coordinated interaction between living beings and the emergence of experiences, actions and possibilities that would not have occurred otherwise. Along the way, many clients seem to rediscover that something akin to connectedness, or ‘with’, can be part of their lives once more. There are other, complementary processes. It has been widely argued that interventions involving horses work at the level of metaphor, helping clients formulate new narratives as challenging tasks are accomplished and new patterns are brought forth. In the Tower House course, a task towards the end involves clients assembling a kind of obstacle course which represents their journey through life. Coaxing

and leading a horse through what has been constructed tended to be experienced as elevating a sense of being no longer alone, an integration of emancipation (distinctiveness) and participation (connectedness) in Kyselo’s terms; it may also foster a more open stance towards reconciliation with the specific issues depicted, including ones pertinent to Ashforth’s framework. Parallels might be drawn with the symbolic enactments and liminal (transitional) states of rituals which help dislodge from rigid patterns and orient to new directions (Hinton & Kirmayer, 2017). All clients described increases as the course progressed in capacities for self-reflection and selfawareness, particularly in seeing the link between their own and a fellow interactant’s behaviour (whatever the species!). They frequently reported having learnt, through direct experience, to maintain calmness, set aside assumptions, appreciate other perspectives, consider options and not give up. The trail ahead Clearly, future research will need to address the durability, transferability and tangible benefits of immediate outcomes. We need bigger samples, and attention to issues familiar to other approaches (such as non-attendance and non-completion). Such research should not lose sight of the need for further delving into context and process, or of emerging analytical techniques from psychotherapy research based on interactional dynamics and patterns over time. It is also important to be clear about intended targets. Benefits may be multi-faceted, but the strongest case may be made for equine-assisted learning as a means of enabling renewed openness and development through self-awareness and a deep experience of connectedness. In ‘treatment-resistant’ cases this may set the scene for engagement with more conventional forms of support or intervention. Engagement with horses and ponies is not the only way of creating the conditions for collaborative participation with other living beings. I and others have previously touched upon other possibilities in relation to clients in criminal justice settings for whom a lack of connectedness to others is often a major problem (Akerman et al., 2018). To me, equineassisted learning presents a distillation of processes which are at the core of effective psychological therapy and are intrinsic to social and personal development. For former members of the armed forces, these processes may also evoke something of what sustained them or was damaged in or following military service. Yet (crucial in working with veterans) this should not just be backward-looking. Several clients addressed this explicitly, one stating his realisation that ‘We live a lot in the past, don’t we?’ Another expressed a rekindled sense of awe and connection as he stared at one of his photographs: ‘To have something to trust me, to come to me…’. The experience of ‘with’ may enable a new beginning.

Can you deliver excellent professional training? We need you our members to submit proposals to deliver CPD and contribute to the Societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s professional development programme across all domains of psychology. Visit www.bps.org.uk/delivercpd for more information including our submission guide and how to submit your proposal. Deadline: 30 September 2020. Reviewers wanted We need Chartered psychologists from across all domains of psychology to review professional development proposals aimed at delivering CPD for our members. This is a voluntary role for those willing to contribute their time to the peer review process to help maintain the high-quality assurance of our CPD programme. We cannot do this without your support! To register your interest visit:

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Inside a dehumanising, emotionally destructive job on death row

C ﬁlm Clemency Curzon Home Cinema

inema’s longstanding fascination with America’s death row has produced numerous masterpieces, including Dead Man Walking and The Green Mile. Lauded for their moving depictions of injustice and redemption, whether based on real life, as in the former, or a fantasy crime novel, such as the latter, they have, however, rarely focused on the people within the judicial system tasked with actually carrying out these controversial executions. Now, Clemency turns the spotlight fully on these integral yet arguably overlooked individuals, and reveals their mental and emotional fallout that is an inevitable by-product of the prison system. Outstanding in this long overdue starring role, Alfre Woodard is Bernadine, the prison warden managing and personally overseeing death by lethal injection. When an execution goes horribly wrong, however, it is not only the prisoner but also those responsible for carrying out the sentence that are visibly distressed. As the story unfolds we understand this event as a ﬁnal straw for Bernadine. She is suffering PTSD nightmares and regularly drinking heavily at the local bar, thereby avoiding home and her crumbling marriage. In well-crafted and emotionally

complex scenes, we come to understand that rather than being cold and insensitive to his wife’s travails, husband Jonathan’s (Wendell Pierce) patience has long been tested; he is resigned to no longer reaching his increasingly disconnected wife. Indeed, Bernadine’s fragility is internalised carefully in all that she does, with her cool exterior only slipping after a few drinks at the bar. Tellingly, the ﬁlm is subtly bookended with Bernadine disconnecting from her identity as warden at signiﬁcantly emotional moments. In both scenes a prison colleague tries to get her attention, calling ‘warden’ twice; it is only when they say ‘Bernadine’ she turns, suggesting an emotional rupture and failure to maintain the reserved detachment of her ‘warden’ role. The implication, then, is that whilst dehumanisation is key to professional survival, its cost of course is loss of self. So long, therefore, as Bernadine retains her emotional capacity, the system has not obliterated her. However, as her need to detach wrestles with her increasingly ravaged unconscious, her deteriorating mental health seems inevitable. Key to Clemency’s theme of dehumanisation is how

the psychologist september 2020 culture substantially Bernadine’s character has been drawn by writer/director Chinonye Chukwu, and then performed by Woodard: both are spot on. Bernadine’s emotional difficulty with her professional duties is not because she is a woman, but because the job itself is universally emotionally destructive. Indeed, the film is a quietly focused depiction of how being a part of the prisonindustrial complex dehumanises everyone involved. We see a lawyer and the prison Chaplain both confess that their pending retirements can’t come soon enough, and all three characters epitomise how their vocations’ alignment with state sanctioned murder has devastated them. In a key but understated scene Bernadine listens implacably to the lawyer on the radio reeling off reasons why his client’s conviction is clearly unsafe. Bernadine is seemingly immune to his plea; arguably finding her remit challenging enough without complicating it with considerations of justice, and the guilt, or otherwise, of her charges. Essentially, the system has used up and spat out any compassionate optimism these characters might have formerly embodied; their tasks have proved thankless and dehumanising: be it spiritually comforting the condemned, fighting for unlikely justice, or controlling the manner of inmates’ final moments. Chukwu really shows her credentials here as an activist on issues of incarceration, having embedded herself in prison appeals and made films to support cases whilst researching Clemency. In so doing, she has created a significant cinematic representation of the modern prison system and those who struggle with their roles within it, and became the first black woman to win the Grand Jury prize at Sundance last year. Clemency is a consummate immersion into the dayto-day reality of a system whereby individuals must oversee the death of others, and Chukwu’s tone for portraying this is astutely quiet and still. Whilst noisy aggressive tension has become the standard onscreen representation of prison life, here there is a physical emptiness that mirrors the hollowed-out characters’ despair. The prison is noticeably quiet: interactions are one to one and in isolation, providing space to consider the characters’ thoughts which bounce around their confinement. Chukwu doesn’t neglect the vital prisoner experience here, and Woods (Aldis Hodge) is a powerful moving depiction of death row hopelessness and dignity. This film, however, is fervently about the psychological fall-out for those who must enact the reality of death sentences born of dispassionate legal minutiae; who must rationalise some kind of existential survival mechanism so that they might navigate their heinous professional obligations. Clemency suggests this is an impossible task, and in doing so, provides a powerful argument against the continuation of the death sentence in 21st century America and beyond. Wendy Lloyd is a film critic with a degree in Psychology from the Open University. She is currently studying an MSc in Culture and Society at LSE. www.wendylloyd.com

A nuanced story of liberation and equality Madeleine Pownall watches the miniseries Mrs. America on BBC2 It is 1973 in America and the Women’s Liberation Movement is rapidly accelerating across the country. It has now been 10 years since Betty Friedan (portrayed by Tracey Ullman) published her seminal book The Feminine Mystique, which sent a rallying cry of feminism throughout the states. The pull of feminism is growing, and it has its sights firmly set on committing equality to the US Constitution in the form of the Equal Rights Amendment (or, as it’s known throughout the miniseries, the ERA). The ERA guarantees equal rights for American citizens regardless of sex. On the surface, it seems like a relatively unproblematic proposal. Today, over fifty years on, the ERA has still not yet been ratified in the US constitution. Mrs. America showcases the enduring power struggle of the ERA in American politics, between the ‘libbers’, a group of feminist activists, and its opposers. As the tag line of the series hints: ‘opposition comes from the most unexpected places’. In historic feminist television and film, we are used to seeing high-powered men in high-powered suits being positioned as the enemy of equality. Mrs. America has a flavour of this, including one particularly gutting scene whereby the only woman politician is asked to be the meetings’ note-taker (‘you probably have the best penmanship’ the men shrug). However, Mrs. America is unique in that it shines a light on one of the fiercest female oppositions

Phyllis Shlaﬂy

to the ERA – a group of suburban homemakers led by the steelyeyed, pink lipsticked conservative activist Phyllis Shlafly (played by Cate Blanchett). The ‘STOP ERA’ group, shorthand for ‘Stop Taking Our Privileges’, see the ERA as a threat to traditional American values. A carnival of televised debates, parallel picket lines, and political lobbying ensues, culminating at the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston. Mrs. America raises some important questions about equality, power, and freedom of speech that, although located firmly in history, feel relevant today. The miniseries also serves as a crucial reminder that feminism is not concerned with pitting men and women against each other. The quest for equality is not a woman’s game. Ultimately, this miniseries is full of troubling but enlightening storylines that address the intersections of race and gender and the slippery, heavily contested definition of true equality. It portrays a nuanced story of liberation and equality that can inform current thinking about feminist affairs. Mrs. America is available on iPlayer Madeleine Pownall is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and PhD student at the University of Leeds

Coercion or constructive force Chrissie Fitch watches BBC dark comedy drama, I May Destroy You (2020), by Michaela Coel, creator and main protagonist of the show – this review includes spoilers! This show follows a 20-something Ghanaian woman named Arabella, as she navigates working as a freelance author in London. As a freelancer currently in pandemic lockdown in the same city, Arabella’s frustrations in motivation, meeting deadlines and maintaining a balance between her professional and personal life resonated with me. Tackling the themes of social categorisation, intersectionality, rape, substance abuse, sexual identity, self-efﬁcacy and the desire for unconditional love, friendship and intimacy, this show is authentic, unﬁltered, nuanced, and even amusing, compared to other shows of a similar nature. In light of the Black Lives Matter movement and identifying as British-Sri Lankan myself, I was encouraged that the show’s cast centres around people of colour. For example, Terry is an aspiring black actress and her scenes in episode 2 illustrate the systemic racial injustice and white privilege that occurs in the entertainment industry as a whole. Further, episode 3 abrasively addresses the explicit situations faced by millennials that are rarely, if ever, seen on television. Due to these realistic representations, the show exceeded my expectations. I believe the show is pivotal, progressive,

timely and necessary; an absolute must-watch for audiences today. I enjoyed how fragments of the show’s premise were revealed to create an overall picture. Deviating from the picturesque setting of Liar (ITV), this show shifts between nightlife in London and Italy. After a night of recreational drugs and alcohol in episode 1, Arabella begins to have flashbacks; her head is bleeding, and her iPhone is broken. Arabella discovers she is a victim of drug-facilitated sexual assault; a plot grounded in Coel’s personal experience. Later her allegations are twisted by leading questions during police investigations, mirroring the interrogations of White British teenager Marie in Unbelievable (Netflix). Whilst Arabella is photographed and swabbed in episode 2, we learn that she was subjected to more violence than suggested by her nonchalant exterior. This is interesting in terms of Freudian defence mechanisms, as Arabella continues to partake in sex and alcohol only to be violated by ‘stealthing’, in episode 4. Finally, in three different, but brilliantly formulated scenarios, episodes 11 and 12 praise the strength of the human mind as Arabella reaches a point of acceptance, resilience and confidence despite her trauma; throughout the show her emotional state is symbolised by her hairstyle changes, from purple dye to baldness. What coping methods do we use ourselves and how are they perceived by society? Coel ensured that the emotional and moral integrity of all cast and crew were protected; therapists were accessible in case scenes triggered adverse memories. This is poignant as episodes 7 and 8 discuss the stigma associated with counselling sessions and support groups following rape survival, and the repercussions of falsified rape accusations. Alluding to Philip Larkin’s poem: ‘they fuck you up, your mum and dad, they may not mean to, but they do’, the scenes with Arabella’s parents in episode 10 and Theodora’s relationship with her mother in episode 6 portray the effects of avoidant attachment styles and parental neglect. The show also explores the perils of online dating and sexual manipulation, and that male rape is not uncommon. In increasingly harrowing scenes with Arabella’s gay best friend, Kwame, episodes 4 and 5 consider the complexities of control, consent and selfcriticism, as well as the decriminalisation of rape and the potential loopholes of our criminal justice system. Kwame’s struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder in episodes 8 and 9 emphasise the stereotype of male masculinity particularly in black communities. What is the impact of sexual exploitation on self-image, trust and autonomy, and what effect does social media have on one’s psyche? Reviewed by Chrissie Fitch MBPsS (Online Child Psychology Tutor); Twitter: @fitchy_chris; email: chrissie_hmic@consultant.com.

The Wellcome Photography Prize has announced its 2020 shortlist. Chosen from ﬁve categories, including two dedicated to this year’s theme of mental health, the shortlist comprises 44 photos by 25 professional, amateur and student photographers, from Tanzania to the US. Returning for its second year, the prize tells provocative visual stories about the health challenges of our time, combatting health taboos, bringing complex health issues to life and showing how health affects society. With a special focus on mental health, the prize aims to transform preconceptions and address how people affected are represented through the camera’s lens. Miranda Wolpert, Head of Mental Health Priority Area at Wellcome, said: ‘In order to help

Amber Lynn Nichols, 24 Years Old, 3 Months off Heroin Jeffrey Stockbridge

Holding on to Daddy Benji Reid

the psychologist september 2020 culture

the millions of people whose lives are affected by anxiety and depression it is vital that we find the next generation of treatments and approaches which work. It is clear from the stories and images throughout this years’ Wellcome Photography Prize that every individual experience of mental ill-health is personal. Our job is to find the key mechanisms which can help as many people so that no one is held back by mental health problems. If you are inspired, or moved, by these images please share them with others and join us on our journey to find the next generation of treatments and approaches.’ The winner is due to be announced in an online event on 19 August. See https://wellcome.ac.uk/our-work/ wellcome-photography-prize/2020

The aftermath of the Hans Asperger exposé Rabbi David Ariel Sher on implications for psychologists

ans Asperger was celebrated worldwide. The disability he described in 1944 was named after him and appeared in mainstream diagnostic manuals. His birthday, 18 February, was designated ‘International Asperger’s Day’ and countries across the world marked this date. For many, Asperger represented the benevolent face of psychiatry, a man whom, it was believed, saved children from the insidious peril of the Third Reich. Surprisingly, until relatively recently, Asperger was barely known in the English-speaking world. It was only in 1981 that the renowned psychiatrist Lorna Wing introduced the term Asperger’s syndrome in a journal article in Psychological Medicine. From that moment onwards, the syndrome became widely known and was ﬁnally incorporated in the DSM in 1994.

The Asperger exposé In May 2010, Herwig Czech, an Austrian historian, strode to the front of a gathering in Vienna’s ornate City Hall and addressed the assembled crowd. The audience had gathered for a two-day symposium on Asperger’s life and work. Asperger’s daughter and grandchildren were present. Over two days, professionals from across the world would discuss the latest developments in Asperger’s syndrome and reﬂect on Asperger’s legacy. But now they listened in startled silence as Czech explained the archival material he had unearthed that would devastate the adulatory narrative surrounding Asperger. Perhaps the most shocking discovery Czech shared on that day was a medical note from Spiegelgrund hospital concerning a two-year-old girl named Herta Schreiber. Am Spiegelgrund was founded in the summer of 1940 on the grounds of the Steinhof Hospital in Vienna. It was led by Erwin Jekelius, a former colleague of Asperger and a leading ﬁgure of the Nazi ‘euthanasia’ programme. It was here that children who did not meet the Nazi criteria of ‘racial purity’ and ‘hereditary worthiness’ were sent. Almost 800 children were killed at Spiegelgrund between 1940-1945, many by poisoning or through the administration of barbiturates over a period of time; the cause of

the children’s death was listed as ‘pneumonia’ on documentation. On 27 June 1941, Asperger assessed Herta at his clinic. In brief notes he wrote that ‘At home the child must be an unbearable burden to her mother, who has to care for five healthy children.’ Using the euphemistic language characteristic of German state documents of the period, Asperger wrote; ‘Permanent placement at Spiegelgrund seems absolutely necessary.’ A few days later, on 1 July, Herta was admitted to Spiegelgrund and on 2 September, a day after her third birthday, Herta died of ‘pneumonia’, the cause of death regularly induced at Spiegelgrund. Herta was not even afforded dignity in death; her brain was preserved and used for research alongside hundreds of organs of other Spiegelgrund victims. The hospital only released these for burial in 2002. These revelations were a source of embarrassment to those who had championed Asperger. Of course, it would have been easier to doubt the veracity of these revelations. However, a subsequent article by Czech that appeared in Molecular Autism in 2018, with further grave discoveries, was so detailed, so meticulous in its painstaking collation of first-hand archival material from diverse sources, that the facts, now laid bare, were left to speak for themselves. As Czech noted, Asperger championed the rehabilitation of those with a chance of becoming ‘useful’ to the German Volk. He did not, however, refer to what fate should be met by those who exhibited no chance of this. Asperger had diagnosed Herta Schreiber as ‘post-encephalitic?’ In 1944, he had written of working with optimism at his clinic. ‘But’, he noted, ‘in the case of these post-encephalitic personalities, we too have to say that one in most cases has to largely capitulate.’ It seemed clear that capitulation in the case of Herta Schreiber meant signing papers for her to be killed. In the case of another five-year-old girl, Elisabeth Schreiber (unrelated to Herta), who was also transferred to Spiegelgrund, Asperger observed in his evaluative notes that she featured ‘Erethic imbecility, probably on a post-encephalitic basis. Salivation, “encephalitic” affects.’ In the final recommendation, Asperger wrote ‘Spiegelgrund would be the best possibility.’ Nurses at Spiegelgrund noted that Elisabeth was affectionate and friendly but could only say one

By Haeferl - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40062578

the psychologist september 2020 looking back

word – ‘Mama’. On 30 September 1942 she succumbed to the induced ‘pneumonia’ at the killing facility. These shocking cases were paralleled by others. In December 1941, it was discovered that children based at the Gugging psychiatric hospital near Vienna were playing truant from school. A committee was ordered to convene, and it was urged that those ‘non-educable’ in both a ‘special school’ or psychiatric institution were to be handed to ‘the operation of Dr. Jekelius’ at the earliest opportunity. Dr Jekelius’ ‘operation’, of course, meant death. Asperger was the only qualified clinician appointed to this panel, which by mid-February 1942 classified 35 children as uneducable and unemployable, a verdict inexorably linked to ‘euthanasia’. Ultimately, 41 children were transferred from Gugging to Spiegelgrund. There were no survivors. Contrary to the claims that Asperger consistently embellished his diagnostic reports to save children, Czech found in at least 12 patients’ files that Asperger was far harsher in his assessments than even the Spiegelgrund staff. He labelled children with terms including ‘unbearable burden’, ‘semi-imbecile’ or ‘psychopathic infant’. He sent one boy with ‘hypochondria’ symptoms to a forced labour camp as a ‘cure’. He unnecessarily referred to the Jewish lineage of his patients. Following the Anschluss, the regime took measures to ensure Jewish children in non-Jewish foster families were placed in Jewish orphanages, from where they were transported to death camps. In March 1938, Asperger recommended separating a 13-year-old Jewish boy named Alfred from his non-Jewish foster mother and placing him with Jewish foster parents; a

Above: Memorial to those people killed at Am Spiegelgrund

highly questionable judgment. In November 1940, Asperger wrote of a boy named Ivo; ‘The only problem is that the boy is a Mischling of the first degree.’ Asperger’s unnecessary use of this term –which denoted individuals with one Jewish parent – was an extremely hazardous and potentially fatal piece of information. Similarly, Asperger wrote the label ‘Mischling’ on the front cover of nine-year-old Marie Klein’s diagnostic assessment, noting that the way she spoke contrasted ‘to her quite Jewish character’. From Asperger’s Heilpädagogik (therapeutic pedagogy) ward, Marie was sent to a children’s home and in February 1940 was deported to the Wlodawa ghetto, from where children were taken to be gassed at Sobibor. A 12-year-old Jewish girl, Lizzy Hofbauer, was admitted to Asperger’s clinic in 1939. She had displayed great fear two days before admittance and spoke of antiJewish persecution; something understandable in Nazi-ruled Vienna. Asperger claimed she was schizophrenic and noted ‘For her age and race, conspicuously retarded sexual development’; evidence that he had internalised sexualised Nazi anti-Jewish stereotypes. Asperger also profited from the dismissal of 96 Jewish Viennese paediatricians (out of 110) and in 1935, despite not having obtained the specialist doctor paediatric degree and after only four years at the ward, Asperger took charge of the ward, in the place of more experienced Jewish doctors, including Georg Frankl. Asperger’s writings and organisational ties to Nazism In Asperger’s youth he had belonged to the rightwing faction of Bund Neuland, an anti-Jewish youth organisation. By 1940, he was a member of several rabidly anti-Semitic organisations, including the National Socialist German Physician’s League, the figurehead of the Nazi Party within the medical profession. By 1938, he was signing his diagnoses with ‘Heil Hitler!’ In that year, referring to the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being forcibly sterilised, Asperger wrote; ‘You know by what means one strives to prevent the transmission of diseased hereditary material’ and said ‘We physicians have to take on the tasks that accrue to us in this area with full responsibility.’ A year later he wrote of the need ‘to carry out restrictive measures’ to stop ‘the diseased…transmitting their diseased hereditary material’ to the detriment ‘of the Volk’. He emerged unscathed from repeated vetting by the Nazi Party, which was initially concerned about Asperger’s Catholicism. Vienna’s deputy Gauleiter wrote in 1940 that the Nazi Party had ‘no objections whatsoever’ against Asperger and in 1940 the Nazi authorities deemed his political views and character

‘irreproachable’ and stated that collusion in the euthanasia Asperger conformed to ‘the National programme ‘very saddening’, but did Rabbi David Socialist racial and sterilisation not explain why her book chapter Ariel Sher, B.Sc. laws’. A colleague warned Asperger did not discuss the references to (Hons) Psych, that he went too far with pro-Nazi Nazi ideology in the preface to M.A. (Dist.) rhetoric and observed that a lecture Asperger’s 1944 paper. J.Ed, MBPsS of Asperger’s was ‘maybe just a little Steve Silberman, the author of is studying bit too Nazi for your reputation’ and NeuroTribes, which won the 2015 for a further advised ‘I would drop the thanks to Samuel Johnson prize, initially postgraduate degree in psychology the Führer’. presented Asperger in a positive and education at the University of During the final two years of the light as an Oskar Schindler-esque Cambridge. war, Asperger joined the Wehrmacht figure who tried to protect children He would like to thank in Croatia, where tens of thousands from Nazi race hygiene measures Professor Baron-Cohen for his time of civilians were put to death by underscoring those children in discussing various issues relating by the German forces. In 1974, on the ‘high-functioning’ side of to these historical revelations. Asperger declared of his service the spectrum. Czech attacked in Croatia; ‘…I would not like to this position by illustrating how References are available in the miss any of these experiences’. Asperger devoted a section of online version. He enjoyed a successful post-war his 1944 paper to outlining the career, serving the children’s clinic, hereditary nature of the condition heading Innsbruck University’s paediatric clinic and in and how Asperger highlighted the severe impediments 1962 being appointed Chair of the Vienna Paediatric of his case studies in papers. In at least four diagnoses, Clinic. In a book published in 1952, he buttressed Asperger referred to the heredity as ‘degenerative’, his claims of the importance of heredity by citing which increased the probability of fatal outcomes of Johannes Lange, the Nazi eugenicist, and Otmar von these evaluations. Silberman’s apologetic arguments Verschuer, who conducted ‘research’ by exploiting in articles relating to Asperger, following the first Holocaust victims’ body parts sent from Auschwitzrevelations on Asperger’s actions, stimulated a Birkenau by his student, Josef Mengele. In 1950, furious backlash from Manuel Casanova, Professor Asperger wrote that child victims of sexual abuse of Biomedical Sciences at the University of South shared a ‘shamelessness’ and that they ‘attracted’ these Carolina. Silberman later rewrote sections of his book experiences. He denounced a 15-year-old girl abused to reflect Asperger’s disturbing history. by a 40-year-old man for showing no ‘remorse’ for Following Czech’s article, Dean Falk of Florida what occurred and opined she displayed ‘severe sexual State University authored an article in an effort to depravation’. In an interview in 1974, Asperger spoke defend Asperger’s record. She argued that it was appreciatively of ‘my mentor, Hamburger’ in reference unlikely that Asperger knew of the murderous to the director of the Vienna Paediatric Clinic, Franz activities taking place at Am Spiegelgrund. However, Hamburger, a committed Nazi, who by 1931 had a paper from Czech appeared shortly thereafter, commenced purging the clinic of its Jewish and female positing that Falk’s article misrepresented sources and professionals. Writing after the war, Asperger lamented failed to engage with evidence presented in Czech’s how ‘feebleminded’ families ‘procreate in numbers paper ‘by omitting everything’ that did not support clearly above the average’ and declared their reliance Falk’s ‘manifest agenda of defending Hans Asperger’s on public welfare ‘presents a very serious eugenic record’. Czech argued that Falk’s paper should never problem’. have passed peer review and demonstrated how Falk’s arguments were severely undermined by the presence of ‘basic factual errors’ and mistranslations. In a Fallout and recent literature rejoinder, Falk admitted she had mistranslated some Shortly after Czech’s article appeared, a book with a key words in German but related that she still thought similarly damning assessment of Asperger’s war-time that as late as April 1942 Asperger did not know about guilt was published by Edith Sheffer. Like Czech, the killings at Am Spiegelgrund. Sheffer attacked the positive portrayal of Asperger However, this position seems untenable, for as that had been widely propagated. Sheffer’s volume Czech argues, by September 1940, long before Herta’s and Czech’s article were particularly scathing in their transferal to Spiegelgrund, it was widely known assessment of Uta Frith’s book chapter ‘Asperger and across Vienna that psychiatric patients were being his syndrome’, which claimed ‘Asperger clearly cared murdered; astoundingly, a protest was even staged about these children, who in most people’s eyes were outside Vienna’s Steinhof psychiatric hospital. Indeed, simply obnoxious brats’, and argued his innocence in November 1940, public knowledge of the Nazi against claims of his Nazi involvement. In a letter to ‘euthanasia’ programme was so detailed that the official The Guardian in the aftermath of the exposé, Frith said Nazi party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, was ‘none of this was known’ at the time she translated forced to deny rumours that patients were receiving Asperger’s work and that she found Asperger’s lethal injections or were being gassed. Moreover,

the psychologist september 2020 looking back

to further indicate the implausibility of Falk’s claim that Asperger ‘didn’t know’ of ‘euthanasia’ killings, Czech cites the case of Anna Wödl, a Viennese nurse whose son, Alfred, had a mental disability. Almost a year prior to Herta Schreiber’s referral, Wödl had been sufficiently alarmed by widespread rumours of ‘euthanasia’ killings to identify the Nazi coordinator of the T4 killing programme, Herbert Linden, and approach him directly (in an unsuccessful attempt to save Alfred, who was killed at age six at Spiegelgrund). Additionally, because Falk did not engage with all the issues Czech raised in his riposte and because Falk did not address other wide-ranging and comprehensive incriminating evidence delineated in Czech’s initial paper, one is forced to conclude that the detailed historical revelations concerning Asperger stand with no credible challenge to their veracity. Relevance to everyday practise and use of the term Asperger’s Some may wonder how lessons from this saga are relevant to day-to-day psychological practise. With autistic people already subjected to greater levels of prejudice and stigma than the general population, it seems that we should be careful as clinicians in using terminology that can associate autistic people with infamous or brutal figures. Indeed, Simon BaronCohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge argues that ‘The saga is relevant to everyday practise because we want autism to be free of any stigma and if we use Asperger syndrome as a term for one of the subgroups there is a risk of an association with a dark period in history. Rather than naming subgroups after specific doctors, we could just name them Type 1, Type 2, etc.’ It may be queried why it is not possible to simply divorce ‘Asperger’s’ as a concept from Asperger as a person. When I put this question to Baron-Cohen, he noted that ‘The idea that we can divorce the label from the man himself is also not straightforward. For example, some people who love Michael Jackson’s music no longer play it because of his likely paedophilia.’ Baron-Cohen also referred to Sibelius and Wagner as being ‘composers whose music we can no longer listen to and separate from their culpability’ in actively supporting anti-Semitism (Wagner’s music has been under a semi-official moratorium in Israel since Kristallnacht over his rabid anti-Semitism). It is true that the term ‘Aspie’ was and is used with pride by many autistic individuals who found it reflected the unique cognitive style that an Asperger’s syndrome diagnosis represented. There has already been considerable research on the preferences of those within the autism community regarding what terms to use (see for example, Kenny et al., 2016), which revealed strong views on this point. Ultimately of course, it seems only correct that autistic people should be the final arbiters of how the term is used. A poll on this issue, in which 1645 autistic people took

part, was conducted by the National Autistic Society (NAS). As a result, the NAS magazine, Asperger United, was changed to The Spectrum, with the editor noting that the society felt that changing the name was both ‘necessary and urgent’. Anna Kaczynski, who in 1993 founded the magazine – which is written by and for autistic people – wrote that she suggested changing the name because Asperger ‘fully cooperated’ with Hitler’s euthanasia programme and also because ‘since this information has become public knowledge some people who share our disability have even begun to receive hate mail.’ When I contacted them, the Head of Research at the NAS also revealed that in response to the question posed by the NAS: ‘Should the National Autistic Society reduce our use of the term Asperger syndrome immediately, except where explaining that this was a former name for a diagnosis within autism?’ 53 per cent said yes and 31 per cent said no, with 16 per cent ticking ‘Don’t know’. Writing in The Independent, Ryan Hendry, press ofﬁcer for Autistic UK, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, wrote that ‘The idea that the condition I have been diagnosed with bears the name of the individual who would have sent people like me to their deaths is something I feel extremely upset about.’ He added ‘after the news about Hans Asperger, I think it’s time the condition was renamed.’ BaronCohen similarly wrote that in light of the recent revelations, he is no longer comfortable using this term. He changed the acronym of the CLASS clinic that he set up in 1997 (the ﬁrst diagnostic clinic in the UK for adults with suspected Asperger syndrome), from its previous meaning of Cambridge Lifespan Asperger Syndrome Service, to the Cambridge Lifespan Autistic Spectrum Service. Our use of the term Asperger’s syndrome now needs to be revised, particularly as the NAS and other evidence to date indicates that overall, the autism community prefers it not being used at all, except where explaining that this was a former name for a diagnosis within autism. This should be respected, not least because the autism community, which already has to contend with unacceptable levels of stigma, may be further stigmatised by the use of this term. This saga is also relevant to everyday practise because it reveals uncomfortable truths about the way in which those working in our profession can easily exploit vulnerable populations whom we have a duty to both champion and protect. They deserve the basic human rights of being accorded dignity and respect. This narrative must be closely studied by clinicians and researchers so that a new generation learns from history and avoids repeating the shocking violations of human rights of the past. This dark chapter concerns the most critical ethical issues that psychiatrists and psychologists face. It is a story of careerism, breach of trust and dereliction of duty of care. These are issues that affect us all, albeit in less dramatic contexts, every day. This is a story that must be told and retold.

We dip into the Society member database and pick out… Maria Qureshi Clinical Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire Doctorate in Clinical Psych programme and Clinical Psychologist in West London NHS Trust

One psychological superpower Juggling the demands of two jobs whilst finding a work-life balance and making time for self-care requires superhuman capacity. I am nowhere near there yet, but the aspiration and hope lives on. One book There are countless literary allies who I turn to and who have contributed to my journey. The one I have picked up time and again this past year has been Audre Lorde’s The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. This short collection of essays can easily be read in one sitting. Audre Lorde’s words have provided comfort, validation, encouragement and motivation. ‘In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower’ (p19). One interesting thing about my job Constantly learning through connecting with people around me. One film Parasite really does live up to the hype. The film provides commentary on class, social mobility, ethics of human behaviour, all whilst being incredibly entertaining, with a gripping storyline and multi-dimensional characters. One musical The West End adaptation of Amélie was pure brilliance! They perfectly captured the film’s quirky sense of whimsy.

One podcast I don’t normally listen to podcasts, but I recently discovered Afua Hirsch’s ‘We Need to

one on one

Talk About the British Empire’. It charters the tales of the empire from people who have lived through it. It is incredibly powerful and I have learnt a great deal from it. One nugget of advice for aspiring psychologists Find your voice, ﬁnd people who will support you in your journey, don’t be afraid to speak up, and don’t let setbacks make you lose your passion.

One inspiration Paulo Friere’s concept of praxis has provided inspiration in the way I teach and work with people. Continuously striving to strike a balance between reﬂexivity and action ensures I am giving enough thought and consideration to every task I face, whilst not losing sight of accountability through tangible action. One proud moment Organising the BPS Community Psychology Festival alongside the University of Hertfordshire in 2018 stands out. We had a passionate team of trainees and colleagues who were all motivated to create a diverse and inclusive festival. We held each other accountable, were thoughtful of the needs of people attending and created an event in line with our values. The festival showcased the breadth and depth of what community psychology has to offer.

coming soon… marie jahoda: the ultimate example; collaboration; plus all our usual news, views, reviews, interviews, and more... contribute… reach 50,000 colleagues, with something to suit all. See www.thepsychologist.org.uk/ contribute or talk to the editor, Dr Jon Sutton, jon.sutton@bps.org.uk, +44 116 252 9573 comment… email the editor, the Leicester ofﬁce, or tweet @psychmag to advertise… reach a large and professional audience at bargain rates: see details on inside front cover maybe you missed… …September 2019, a special issue on ‘schooling the good citizen’ …Search it and so much more via www.bps.org.uk/thepsychologist the

psychologist september 2019

One thing psychology should do better The ability to mentalise and hold empathy for those accessing our services is a cornerstone of our work, and yet when it comes to matters of race, many of us turn away, saying they will never know what it is like to inhabit a black or brown body. Yes, that may be true. But some of us will also never know what it is like to inhabit a body plagued by trauma, yet this does not stop us from bearing witness to the pain. Until we learn to sit with our discomfort and use the skills we gain from our training, we will continue to alienate and perpetuate the discrimination of colleagues, service users and communities of people from racially minoritised backgrounds.

Schooling the good citizen

www.thepsychologist.org.uk

Society Trustees www.bps.org.uk/about-us/ who-we-are

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President Dr Hazel McLaughlin President Elect Dr Nigel MacLennan Vice President David Murphy Honorary General Secretary Dr Carole Allan Honorary Treasurer Dr Roxane Gervais Chair, Education and Training Board Vacant Chair, Practice Board Alison Clarke Chair, Membership Board Professor Carol McGuinness Chair, Research Board Professor Daryl O’Connor Trustees Chris Lynch, Dr Ester Cohen-Tovee, Christina Buxton, Dr Adam Jowett

Chief Executive Sarb Bajwa

society notices BPS conferences and events See p.10 Practice Board Awards See p.44 Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research Contributions to Psychology See p.49 Workshop development See p.67

Change Programme Director Diane Ashby Director of Communications and Engagement Rachel Dufton Director of Finance and Resources Harnish Hadani Director of IT Mike Laffan Director of Knowledge and Insight Dr Debra Malpass Director of Membership and Professional Development Karen Beamish Director of Policy Kathryn Scott Head of Legal and Governance Christine Attﬁeld

The Society has ofﬁces in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow and London, as well as the main ofﬁce in Leicester (St Andrews House, 48 Princess Road East, Leicester, LE1 7DR).