The Psychologist January 2021 by The Psychologist

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psychologist january 2021

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psychologist january 2021

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© Copyright for all published material is held by the British Psychological Society unless speciﬁcally stated otherwise. As the Society is a party to the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) agreement, articles in The Psychologist may be copied by libraries and other organisations under the terms of their own CLA licences (www.cla.co.uk). Permission must be obtained for any other use beyond fair dealing authorised by copyright legislation. For further information about copyright and obtaining permissions, e-mail permissions@bps.org.uk.

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’

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.

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 Culture Kate Johnstone, Chrissie Fitch Books Emily Hutchinson Voices in Psychology Madeleine Pownall Psychologist and Digest Editorial Advisory Committee Richard Stephens (Chair), Emma Beard, Harriet Gross, Kimberley Hill, Deborah Husbands, Peter Olusoga, Miles Thomas

the

psychologist january 2021

Letters Supporting research during the pandemic; gender; work/life; and Santa… News Poverty progress; Covid response; and more Digest Working from home during Covid-19

The vegan resistance Kristof Dhont and Joachim Stoeber on ideological pushback against the rise of veganism

The distance between us Matthew Cole and Kate Stewart on how society ‘helps’ us to rationalise the exploitation of other animals

A vegan future? Jared Piazza considers the four Ns of meat justiﬁcation Let’s meat! Charlotte De Backer on how a simple choice can complicate social lives

Vegan: widening the circle Matthew Ruby and Tani Khara

On ‘meatheads’ and ‘soy boys’ Alina Salmen and Kristof Dhont on the gendered nature of meat consumption

The shift to sustainable diets Richard Carmichael on food policy and climate goals

‘Trying to change the world on my own would not work’ We meet Lawrence Moulin

Jobs in psychology Featured job, latest vacancies

Books We hear from Saba Salman on learning disabilities; data feminism; serendipity and more

Culture Bernie Graham on his involvement in My Family, the Holocaust and Me; Adult Material; The Queen’s Gambit

Looking back Barbara Wilson on Oliver Zangwill, the father of British neuropsychology

Can you imagine a vegan future? Or do you think animal consumption is here to stay – that meat is nice, normal, necessary and natural? Jared Piazza tells us these four Ns of meat justification are difficult to overcome. Matthew Cole and Kate Stewart show how the media circulate these justifications, allowing us to rationalise animal exploitation. For those who do shun meat, there are social implications, Charlotte De Backer tells us, and Alina Salmen and Kristof Dhont show that these differ according to gender. Matthew Ruby and Tani Khara remind us that veganism is not new, and despite stereotypes, ‘anyone can be vegan’. Plotting a path to a vegan future will help towards climate goals, and Richard Carmichael has recommendations for low carbon food policy. Read the full versions of some abridged pieces on our website, where you can also find out how to contribute. What else can you imagine for our future, and what is psychology’s role? Let us know.

One on one Sheila Ufot

Dr Annie Brookman-Byrne Deputy Editor @psychmag

We would like to ask for the help of readers of The Psychologist in an enterprise aimed at supporting all researchers in psychology during the current pandemic. A meeting of the BPS Research Board in May this year discussed ways in which the restrictions imposed on interpersonal contact by the Covid-19 lockdown and national/ regional restrictions were impacting on psychological research at all levels, especially in terms of live data collection. During that discussion, Board members noted that they were aware of various creative solutions that individual researchers had developed in response to the resulting problems. It was agreed that the BPS should develop a research resources hub as part of its Covid-19 provision, in order to promote the sharing of such solutions as widely as possible. The aim was to set up an exchange system that would support researchers in getting their research re-started, or beginning new research during the ongoing pandemic. Following that meeting, a working group was established to take this initiative forward, comprising ourselves as well as Victoria Simms, Ailsa Niven, Andrew Dunn, Michael Pilling and Duncan Guest. Our initial activity highlighted the timeliness of this idea during the live pandemic and the prolonged timeline of the pandemic impacts has further underlined its importance. Members of the Developmental Psychology Section had already held an online forum on Covid-related research challenges and potential responses to these, recognising that designing new paradigms and methods takes time, cannot always address the same research questions, and is especially challenging for doctoral students faced with completion deadlines. It was clear that the challenges of Covid were impacting developmental psychologists in conducting research at all levels. This had resulted in publication of a set of articles by twelve such students, edited by Ellen Ridley (BPS Developmental Section PG Rep), outlining the approaches they had taken. Lindsay O’Dell at the Open University was working on a guide for doctoral students based there. Staff undertaking qualitative research in health psychology at Manchester had held discussion sessions on the challenges posed by Covid and strategies for overcoming these, and Vicky Woof was producing digests from these meetings for circulation through the Qualitative Methods in Psychology Bulletin and its web pages. Bonny Oliver at UCL Institute of Education was developing a library, hosted by the Center for Open

Tim Sanders

Support for psychology researchers during the pandemic

Science, for researchers to share freely available and validated methods for remote collection of data from children and families. This and other activity illustrated how proactive psychologists from across the discipline were being in attempting to address Covid restrictions on their research endeavours – but also underscored the need for a hub to bring it all together, so that they could build on each other’s work and avoid duplication of effort. A subsequent BPS survey of academic staff in psychology departments on the impact of Covid-19 highlighted the value of the development of such a hub with 76.8 per cent of respondents indicating that it would be useful to them. The working group agreed that this hub should focus on providing a coordinated digest of issues, potential solutions, supporting resources, and guidance regarding best practice. In particular, it would: • Signpost already available creative solutions, such as those outlined above, with an emphasis on approaches that preserve research quality; and provide links to these and to emerging departmental

the psychologist january 2021 letters

A new hope for mental health in Northern Ireland •

•

guidance, including lab protocols and standard operating procedures Address gaps in currently available support and how solutions from practitioner psychologists might be applied in best practice guidance i.e. the lessons that might be learned from how sessions with clients were being conducted and how this could be applied to face to face testing Provide a blog-style narrative highlighting the impact of Covid-19 on psychological research and especially the differential impacts on parts of the discipline and cohorts of researchers Dedicate space to addressing the risk of whole cohorts of undergraduate and postgraduate students obtaining poorer quality experience of empirical research, and ways in which departments were trying to mitigate this risk

Getty Images

In order to populate the initial iteration of the hub, an email requesting input on these different strands was sent to Heads of Psychology Departments and to BPS Member Networks. Relevant links and other contributions have now been uploaded to a research resources section on the Covid-19 area of the BPS website (www.bps.org. uk/coronavirus-resources), and this page is now live. In its current form, it contains sections on practical guidance regarding ethical issues, doctoral research, and conducting systematic reviews; templates for current departmental protocols; advice on researcher wellbeing; tools to support decision-making on research resources; and a range of links to such resources, including dedicated support for research with children or vulnerable groups, where contact poses particular challenges. We are keen to emphasise that this is a ﬁrst version of a live resource, and that it is intended to grow over time, especially given the continuing uncertainties over when something resembling normal life might be restored. We would therefore like to invite readers of The Psychologist to visit the hub site, and make or suggest additional contributions to any of the strands we outline – or indeed other strands that might be included and which we have missed so far. Our primary goal is to help build a genuine community-based resource to support all psychologists in conducting high quality research under the current constraints – and one that will have a positive and lasting impact on how we conduct research in the future. Andy Tolmie UCL Institute of Education Debbie Riby Durham University Lisa Morrison Coulthard BPS

Northern Ireland’s catastrophic levels of mental ill health are very well documented; we have the highest suicide rate in the UK, in fact more people in Northern Ireland have died by suicide in the past 17 years than were killed here during 30 years of violent political conﬂict. Our male suicide level is twice that of England’s. We have the world’s highest recorded rate of posttraumatic stress disorder. One Ulster University study suggested that almost 30 per cent of the Northern Ireland population suffer mental health problems, nearly half of which are directly related to the Troubles. About 40 per cent of people here have been affected in some way by really traumatic events linked to the Troubles and 17 per cent have seen somebody dead or injured. Young people in Northern Ireland who know people affected by the Troubles are also more likely to self-harm, even though they never witnessed any of the Troubles. For two decades our government has failed to address the mental health legacy of conﬂict and now we live in a society blighted by transgenerational trauma. The collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly has only made the mental health crisis worse. We waited

Due to lack of a functioning executive, no recommendations of the Historical Abuse Enquiry could be implemented

while any momentum needed to appoint a much needed mental health champion diminished. The action promised on a regional trauma service, increasing access to psychological therapies, recovery focused provision, and maternal mental health, failed to materialise. Due to lack of a functioning executive, no recommendations of the Historical Abuse Enquiry could be implemented, including mental health support for individuals abused in children’s homes and other residential institutions (1922-1995) and their families. This delay and lost opportunity has led to a substantial human and societal cost of mental distress. Northern Ireland’s mental health crisis is a public health emergency and it long seemed like no action was taken, and no progress made. I was delighted to see the announcement of a mental health champion post in Northern Ireland as a strong, effective and independent voice to advocate for mental health. I look forward to seeing their role not only in highlighting the importance of emotional wellbeing and mental health in the aftermath of conﬂict, but now also in the context of Covid-19. This appointment is an integral part to a long overdue commitment to mental health. While the details of this role remain unclear, its creation is a positive step; acute mental health needs in our communities require a solution. A champion with a dedicated focus will help us achieve this. They will play a valuable role in ensuring that all areas of public life recognise the importance of taking effective steps to promote better health and inclusivity for those with a mental illness. The mental health champion will sit outside of government but hold them to account while they develop strategies, make recommendations and lobby for change. Naturally, there have been mixed reactions and concerns.

Some feel that this is a misguided and misdirected spending of public resources. It could also be argued that bereaved families and individuals struggling with mental health issues are already mental health champions within our communities and society, that we should listen to the ideas of these individuals and ensure timely and effective access to services – and that implementing these services should be a priority. I would argue that we have mental health champions in many people, and that the appointment of a mental health champion and valuing the views and recommendations of these individuals need not be mutually exclusive; a mental health champion will not take away from their initiatives but will add to them. There are also concerns that a mental health champion will not have enough power or leverage to

inﬂuence policy, and that we already have countless reports outlining gaps in our mental health services – so what could this person add? Despite these reports no change has been made and our mental health crisis continues. In the years without such an appointment, our efforts to improve mental health have been ineffective. Any movement by a mental health champion will be a valuable improvement. The BPS has now welcomed Professor Siobhan O’Neill as interim mental health champion for Northern Ireland. Siobhan is one of our leading experts in mental health. She has extensive experience of working within community and voluntary sectors and is well known for her passionate involvement in suicide prevention. She brings a wealth of experience to this role as someone at the forefront of developing responsive

services for those affected by trauma and mental illness. I am thrilled to see Siobhan in this role – as an assistant psychologist, mental health support worker, and QUB and Ulster University graduate, but most importantly as someone who calls Northern Ireland home. Siobhan’s appointment represents the opportunity to make a signiﬁcant difference, hold the N.I. Executive to account, and ensure mental health is prioritised and embedded in our policies and practices of government. Perhaps having a voice in the right place will increase the momentum for vital change that we have long needed. This is one appointment in Northern Ireland that ﬁlls me with a great sense of positivity and hope. I’ll be cheering her on all the way. Anna Balmer Assistant Psychologist annacbalmer@gmail.com

‘The presents were there – but no dead Santa’ Getty Images

I hope that readers are enjoying the festive period as much as is possible just now. Every year, I run the Santa Study (www.thesantasurvey.com). This time round I wrote about it for The Psychologist website, and I hope you might take a look at it – https://thepsychologist.bps. org.uk/presents-were-there-no-dead-santa As you would imagine with anything involving Santa, there is an element of fun and rightly so. However, there is also a more serious aspect to it. In 2016 I wrote an article (with Dr Kathy McKay) in The Lancet Psychiatry and we considered the implications of lying to children about Santa. In the article I referred to this as the ‘Collective Santa Myth’, as it is a story that is passed collectively through many families around the world. Of course, not everyone perpetuates the myth. We were surprised at the reaction to the discussion around lying and what exactly is truth. The issue was around ‘where do you draw the line’, and whether children are upset when they ﬁnd out that parent have lied to them. From the survey what we have found is that most people remember quite clearly when they found out the truth. They were then absorbed into a world where you know Santa is what he is, but you shan’t tell the children. The bigger question is about storytelling and the separation point between truths and lies. Telling each other stories is an important part of most cultures. It can strengthen bonds, even when children grow to learn that not every story is true but that doesn’t necessarily mean that adults have been deceitful. In the SantaSurvey at least, the stories of being upset were more often around when adults were directly

questioned about the truth of Santa and they unswervingly conﬁrmed that Santa is real. Of course, this is a house of cards and if the child is of a certain age (usually average 8 years old) they will soon realise the truth. If a child is old enough and is seeking conﬁrmation from a parent or guardian, it might be wise to think very carefully about perpetuating the myth. As children grow, adults are the provider of truth. Might the end of that absolute status be a positive as much as a negative? Children should be able to gently understand that not telling the truth all the time is not all bad, nor is it realistic to expect it. Dr Christopher Boyle FBPsS University of Exeter c.boyle2@exeter.ac.uk

the psychologist january 2021 letters

Want and buy less I read Dr Kordowicz’s article ‘You are more than your productivity’ (November issue) twice; always a good sign. The article was challenging and thought provoking and had a title few could disagree with. My only contention is that Dr Kordowicz could have been clearer as to where the actual problem lies. The problem is not productivity and efﬁciency. These, if anything are intrinsically positive values. Who would argue with using less of the earth’s resources to make something? Who would argue with helping people spend less time at mundane, dangerous tasks (grinding cereal by hand, digging iron ore with a pick axe, turning soil with a spade rather than a plough). I would argue that the problem lies with what we sometimes choose or are made to do with the beneﬁts of productivity. Do we make more and more stuff and persuade people to

buy it? Do we ﬁll peoples time with additional unsatisfying tasks? The solution is simple (I wish!). Use our great understanding of Behaviour Change Psychology to help people want less and buy less, not to create needs where there are none. Use our great understanding of Occupational Psychology to help managers and business leaders

understand that efficiency and productivity increase when staff are motivated by balanced and fulfilling jobs. Let’s move from a destructive cycle to a virtuous circle. Dr John Stephens former Manufacturing Manager, current Behaviour Change enthusiast, Macclesfield Cheshire rjstephens@ntlworld.com

A plea to hear each other I came across the debate on gender diversity and freedom of expression in The Psychologist (October and November issues) last night and have been struggling to fully get to grips with my relating to the issue. What is it that has sat so uncomfortably with me about this debate? As counselling psychologists (and from what I understand, clinical psychologists too), we are taught that without actively listening to the experience of the other, engaging therapeutically with another is pointless. Active and compassionate listening and hearing the experience of another is at the heart of what we do as applied psychologists. And yet this ‘debate’ seems to exhibit quite the opposite of that. In clinging on to ‘the right point of view’, the experience of the other is being silenced and unheard. Applied psychology is, as mentioned in the debate, a changing socio-political landscape. We draw on an array of modalities, one being systemic theory, which can be hugely valuable when considering ourselves in relation to our work, our clients and the wider sociopolitical systems we operate in. Such a modality can be invaluable in helping us with big, complicated topics such as privileged and oppressed parts of our identities. It is not until we look at our own identities and privileges that we might start to get a sense of how these operate and in turn impact on those who do not beneﬁt from

such privilege. As a queer, Jewish, white, middle-class, able-bodied parent, I have a multitude of lenses (both powerful and oppressed and which change depending on the context I am in) through which I read the debate. And rather than attempting to add another polarised position to this debate, I will offer only my questions and curiosities. I wonder why this debate has so deeply affected me and why I felt so powerless and scared when reading it. Is it because people are speaking without listening? Is it because of the history of trauma experienced by the LGBT+ community? Is it because I fear that removing these guidelines for psychologists working with gender, sexuality and relationship diversity moves us back towards reparative therapy? And that the dangers of this therapeutic approach are so far-reaching? Is it because I want to defend the complex assessments, therapy and MDT work carried out at the adult GIC (having previously worked there)? Is it because I know how complex the issues around gender and sexuality are and that these debates polarise us rather than let us hear, listen and move closer to one another? Or at the very least understand each other? Is it because I’m protective that ‘my’ community of LGBT+ folk are under scrutiny yet again and I want my children to grow up in a world where practitioner psychologists ‘do’ and ‘should’ afﬁrm their

identity of growing up in a queer family? Notwithstanding the above, I still want to hear and understand the position of those who want these guidelines removed. What are you scared of and what am I scared of? How can we make space for all of our fears? And our desires to protect the patients and communities we serve? Does it have to be either your way or my way? Can we find a way to listen to and incorporate both? And what might that look like? And does affirming someone’s identity need to negate a thorough assessment? Surely if we do not affirm someone’s identity (e.g., use their preferred pronouns, not assume they are heterosexual etc.) we risk not engaging them in the assessment process in the first place! For me personally, affirming is an important step

in moving away from the traumatic history (and indeed present-day context) of LGBT+ folk. However, as indicated in the guidelines, thorough assessment prior to the endorsement of medical interventions does not withstand this. I write this as an urgent plea to hear each other. Start with your own reactions and responses and open up and listen to your colleagues. Let’s do this before pulling down guidelines that are functioning to keep a community of LGBT+ folk safe and able to sleep at night. Dr Charlotte Whiteley Chartered Psychologist London charlotte@psychologist-london.com

from the president Moved to act BPS president Dr Hazel McLaughlin on the society’s policy theme, From Poverty to Flourishing, which continues into 2021. Covid-19, as a time of change and uncertainty, enables us to question priorities and to focus on what really matters. Relationships are increasingly important, and we are more aware of the significantly different circumstances faced by people across the UK. It is within this context that I reflect on the BPS Senate vote on the priority for policy development in 2019. Last year members’ choice was to focus on ‘From poverty to flourishing’, and this became more pertinent as 2020 progressed. Indeed, we have continued this theme as the core policy priority for 2021, and rightly so. At the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, Eighth Secretary-General said ‘saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth… these are one and the same fight’. The wider impact of this pandemic has highlighted inequalities and the short, medium and longer-term impact of poverty, especially on children and the elderly. The treasury’s economic projections highlight challenges ahead across the UK with more adverse impact in some geographies and within certain population groups. The slow economic recovery is likely to mean tough times for many people during 2021 and beyond. The Senate campaign is progressing well and the BPS is working with key decision makers to highlight the psychological evidence. There is still much to do, but we are taking positive, early steps in this area. Our policy team has been working with parliamentarians and, through the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Psychology, is liaising with MPs to enable the issue to be reviewed and to focus on what a flourishing society looks like in the 2020s. The BPS has engaged with key psychological experts so that they can give evidence to this group, alongside experts from other fields, to produce a comprehensive, evidence-based view for MPs 06

to consider as they address these challenges. In addition, the society is collating evidence to provide a substantial response to a new House of Lords Covid-19 Committee inquiry into the impact of increasing digitisation on wellbeing. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated our reliance on digital solutions, for everything from our weekly shop or to virtual meetings with family members to the commercial realities of digitisation. It is undoubtedly true that digital solutions will be a part of our daily lives into the future. The growing body of psychological research into the mental health impact of increased time spent online is also pertinent in this context. In this Covid-19 and post-Covid world, the way we interact and how we use technology has accelerated and will develop further. The blended work environment, the impact on education and the need to access digital solutions raises questions around who has access to these technologies and how best to use them. This develops the earlier BPS submission to the committee’s call for evidence on the long-term implications of the pandemic, which you can read on the website (www.bps.org.uk/news-andpolicy/bps-response-house-lords-covid-19-committee-longterm-implications-pandemic). This pandemic has brought into focus the inequalities and the poverty that exists in our society and highlights the relevance of the policy campaign for the 2020s. There is a role for psychology especially in the way we articulate the research and the practical implications. Campaigns such as Marcus Rashford’s on free school meals highlight there is a real public appetite for positive changes to come out of this pandemic. Let’s build on the psychology and on the contribution of psychologists as the UK emerges from this stage to recovery from Covid-19. As Bill Gates said, ‘if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act’. I invite you to engage with the BPS and the ‘From Poverty to Flourishing’ policy campaign. Dr Hazel McLaughlin is President of the British Psychological Society. Contact her at PresidentsOfﬁce@bps.org.uk

the psychologist january 2021 letters

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Foundations for the best start in life C

hild poverty is on the increase with 5.2 million children expected to be living in poverty by 2022. As part of its Poverty to Flourishing campaign the British Psychological Society’s policy team and the campaign’s expert reference group has produced a report on how psychology can help to inform policies to support children and families. The Foundations for the Best Start in Life report introduces two psychological frameworks – Maslow’s hierarchy of need and Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of human development – and explains how these models could be used in developing policy to give children the best foundations for development. Maslow’s model emphasises that for people to achieve ‘higher level’ needs, including education and social mobility, their more basic needs must be met ﬁrst. Bronfenbrenner’s model situates individuals at the centre of several systems, or environments, which children interact with and are affected by – including social structures, schools and peer groups. ‘It is crucial to address the reasons why people are in poverty. We need to address the impact of poverty, and concurrently intervene on the causes. This is the only way to see substantive change.’ The authors also highlighted the importance of promoting strong attachments in childhood, the role of adverse childhood experiences in later mental health

difﬁculties, and developmental cascades – or the ways in which difﬁculties in childhood, including poverty, might interact and escalate through a child’s life. ‘To establish strong foundations, children need optimum psychological development and policy makers need a good understanding of the things that are harmful to children and young people’s psychological development and the things that promote it,’ the report states. ‘Services should be designed to take into account the psychological, emotional and wellbeing needs of the early years.’ The authors made six recommendations, including a need to develop a comprehensive, cross-departmental anti-poverty strategy, to tackle poverty in a systemic way, and emphasised a need for collaborative and multiagency working and co-producing services with the people in communities who need them. They also highlighted the right of every child for the best start in life – enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – and pointed to the potential of universal programmes in schools. Local authorities should be psychologicallyinformed in their approach to designing early years services, and should protect services including children’s centres and family hubs. Assistant professor of social psychology and member of the Poverty to Flourishing expert reference group,

the psychologist january 2021 news Dr Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington (LSE), has explored the impact of poverty on people’s sense of control through her research. She was keen to include Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of development in the final report. While psychology may be thought of as a science of the individual, Sheehy-Skeffington said policymakers may not realise that psychologists often examine the individual in interaction with wider contexts and structures. ‘Some of the insights that come from that mean there are interventions we could do at higher levels than the individual – and that point is so often lost. It can be quite easy for us to see the scope for interventions, especially that psychologists can advise on, at the individual level like improving self-efficacy or skills. It’s sometimes harder for psychologists to think about psychologicallyinformed interventions at higher levels such as at the neighbourhood, local authority or society level.’ The current report attempts to address this by pointing out how policy makers should take a systemic, structural and yet psychologically-informed approach to addressing poverty, in order to increase access to societal and community resources that can create flourishing families and communities. Given psychologists’ knowledge about the importance of social status and social groups, Sheehy-Skeffington said psychologists were well-placed to consider the impact of wider society on the individual. ‘We know that a sense of exclusion and status anxiety matter, and that means we need to make sure that society, and social structures more broadly, don’t become so extreme or so unequal that people feel excluded or individual pressures to keep up. We know that in extreme inequality social comparison processes are more enhanced, and that really harms people who are the losing end of such comparisons. That’s why there’s a recommendation to think about things at the societal level such as inequality or political discourse that might demonise the poor.’ Sheehy-Skeffington said it was vital to take the context of poverty seriously to understand why, for example, those living in poverty may live more in the present than plan for the future. One way to do this, she said, was through experimental work. ‘You can manipulate the context and have middle class people experience it, and then show that in that context you would also choose something that benefits you right now, or even behave in unhealthy ways, or report having lower health efficacy. I’ve used vending machine tasks in my research where people buy more unhealthy food from the vending machine if they have played a household budgeting game where they haven’t had enough money.’ By taking context seriously, Sheehy-Skeffington said, we can see the rationality, adaptiveness and resilience of many decisions made in a context of poverty which may be seen by some as suboptimal or irrational. She said that mainstream thinking about poverty would suggest poor people do unwise things because they lack the mental bandwidth or cognitive space to do otherwise. ‘I don’t think that’s going far enough. I think our psychology is adapting to the cues it’s getting about

the kind of environment we’re in. And if we’re getting cues that our environment has scarce resources, is very unstable and unpredictable, and if we’re low in status and probably low in power, then the rational thing to do is focus on the here and now as opposed to the future.’ Sheehy-Skeffington and Dr Jessica Rea (LSE) wrote a report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on decision-making in contexts of poverty – cited in the Poverty to Flourishing Foundations report. This work involved 15 systematic reviews on the various psychological mechanisms underlying decision making and found that on most of those measures, including self-efficacy, cognitive functioning and aspirations, poorer people were faring worse than their richer counterparts. However, by looking at these results through a lens of adaptiveness, Sheehy-Skeffington said, we may be able to reshape our thinking about these decision-making processes. ‘Imagine you decide to take on a high interest loan now, or you decide to like take up smoking now, both of which really harm you later on. But those things do serve important proximal functions in terms of being able to buy a school uniform for your kid or being able to get the stress relief that smoking a cigarette gives you in extremely stressful situations. We need to recognise those important proximal goals that are being served by people’s behaviours, because if you want to change someone’s behaviour, you need to find something else that will serve that function too, as opposed to just trying to get everyone to focus on a future that they can’t necessarily count on.’ In the context of the Foundations report SheehySkeffington said this work on decision-making was important for two reasons. First, there is some thinking that this focus either on the present or the future may emerge very early in life and depends on the cues you receive as a child about your environment. This may mean there is a small window of opportunity to encourage young people to consider the future impacts of their behaviour. ‘If we want people to be able to access some of the opportunities that are only possible to access through a mindset that is more focused on the future, we need to enable them to cultivate that mindset while they’re young, by providing a stable environment where they have reliable relationships, reliable living conditions and so on.’ At the same time, Sheehy-Skeffington points to research on the cultural psychology of social class that argues the onus shouldn’t always be on those from low income backgrounds to have the ‘right’ mindset; institutions designed by middle class people should also develop a more inclusive set of norms and decision-making frames. The second important aspect of this decisionmaking research in early-years policy is related to

Dr Jennifer SheehySkefﬁngton

parenting. ‘Often what happens with a focus on child poverty is everybody is all about the innocent children, the implication there is that it’s down to the evil parents. Even today in the news you see reports about children who were home during lockdown losing a lot of their skills – whether in terms of toilet training or holding pens – there’s this feeling of what were parents doing during that time? If you’re a parent on a very low income what you were doing was just trying to survive. I just can’t imagine what it’s like to have to be thinking about whether I can afford the rent while trying to deal with the stressors of parenting.’ Sheehy-Skeffington notes that previous conservative governments have been ‘quite warm’ to the idea of parenting classes, teaching mothers and fathers to be better parents. ‘I think this report pushes back on that a bit and says you need to give people the cognitive and emotional space to be the parents they want to be by lifting some of those pressures. It’s not a question of ignorance or needing to teach parents – it’s actually a question of creating an empowering decision-making context for them.’ Sheehy-Skeffington said that helpful policies would address aspects of poverty that can trigger a certain decision-making mindset – lifting scarcity by relieving financial constraints through policies such as free school meals, and giving people more stability and predictability in their lives through (for example) employment law mandating set working hours and income, and stable, high quality social housing. The ‘saliency of status’ also needs to be addressed. ‘The more we could do to equalise the experience of parenting, the better. I think Sure Start and children’s centres do an amazing job of that because

provision is free, everybody’s going, because they’ve wrapped up midwifery care, neonatal care, stay and play drop-in and classes. It really is a place where everybody’s mixing and everyone’s there. And that’s an aspect that’s in the report – the good thing about universal provision is you don’t have the stigma associated with means-tested policies so as you access the service your disadvantaged status is not made salient; you’re accessing it as a member of society and as someone who has a child, as opposed to someone who needs to.’ Universal provision also enables mixing across social classes and across ethnic groups, which helps combat social exclusion. ‘The third reason these universal versus means-tested provisions are important,’ SheehySkefﬁngton said, ‘is because you then have a broader constituency that’s willing to defend the policy or the service, as opposed to it being something that’s for “them”. You can see that with the NHS – it is for everyone, everybody will defend it whereas housing beneﬁt, let’s say, is seen as just for another group of people and that’s already a group of people who are marginalised from the political sphere so are less able to defend that policy.’ ER The BPS Poverty to Flourishing campaign has been extended until the end of 2021. Two more reports, covering agency and empowerment and community-based approaches in the context of poverty, are due towards the end of January. If you would like to speak to the policy team or for more information email policy@bps.org.uk. We are planning a special summer edition around the campaign theme. If you have ideas for topics or authors, please get in touch on jon.sutton@bps.org.uk

Updates from the British Psychological Society’s Policy team

The second Psychological Government briefing, ‘Cognitive strain in Parliament: How can we reduce psychological stressors to improve policy-making?’, examines, from a psychological perspective, what the role of an MP looks like in practice from an occupational perspective, and what are the psychological ramifications faced by our elected representatives once they enter parliament. See www.bps.org.uk/ news-and-policy/cognitive-strainparliament The expert reference group of the BPS member-led senate campaign, From Poverty to Flourishing, has identified three key themes to underpin its policy-influencing

Lisa Cameron MP objectives: Foundations and Early Years Development (see p.10), Agency and Empowerment, and Community Based Approaches. Through conversations with policymakers, the team are calling for a paradigm shift in how poverty is understood in order for better policy-

based solutions to be developed. Saskia Perriard-Abdoh, BPS Policy and Government Relations Manager, said: ‘There is a growing understanding, especially in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, that policy measures that don’t consider people’s agency, choice and lived experiences will only remain surface level compromises at their best and lead to undue harm, paternalism and stigma at their worse.’ In partnership with Lisa Cameron MP the team successfully lobbied for a Westminster hall debate on mental health support for frontline workers to take place. On the day, the BPS’s key policy recommendations were read out in full during the

the psychologist january 2021 news

‘It’s a kind of social meteorite’ The Covid-19 pandemic has raised the proﬁle of psychologists and their work and highlighted their vital role during a public health crisis. The British Psychological Society recently explored psychologists’ experiences during this time, with a focus on wellbeing, through a survey and report, two webinars, and sharing personal videos from psychologists. The report, The impact of Covid-19 on the wellbeing of psychologists, explored survey results of more than 200 academic, practitioner and trainee psychologists – including the challenges they had experienced and the types of support they had found useful. Its authors outlined a list of the 10 key impacts which the survey uncovered. These included personal anxiety and uncertainty, adjustments to remote working, increased workload, ethical, moral and professional dilemmas. There were also more positive impacts, such as professional and personal growth and the increased public understanding of the positive role psychology has had during the pandemic. The psychologists who responded to the survey were also asked about the mechanisms of support which they had found useful for their wellbeing. These included having access to group reﬂective spaces, support from colleagues, practical help with adjusting to home working, guidance documents, having boundaries between work

debate, receiving a Ministerial reply. The BPS was also the only medical professional body to be selected to present during Parliament’s Evidence Week, where they will be continuing to present BPS work on addressing NHS staff burnout and wellbeing. The team is also continuing to support the growing work of the BPS Covid-19 Coordinating group. Perriard-Abdoh said: ‘We are especially delighted that, following our response to the House of Lords “Call for Evidence” on the longterm implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for our economy and society, we were speciﬁcally invited to present during an inquiry evidence session and contribute to

a follow-up inquiry which aims to look at how an increasing reliance on digital technology, accelerated by the pandemic, may impact our wellbeing.’ You can watch Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Northern Ireland Chair of the BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Professor Nichola Rooney’s (Queen’s University Belfast) testimony here: tinyurl.com/ y2px53lw. ER For more information or to talk to the policy team email policy@bps.org.uk To keep up-to-date with the latest Psychological Government programme developments see: www.bps.org.uk/psychologicalgovernment

and home, and support from managers and supervisors. The BPS also held two webinars – the first to launch the report and hold a panel discussion on its list of 10 impacts and resources, and the second to host an indepth discussion on the topic of psychologist wellbeing during Covid-19 and beyond. The society also shared videos of the personal reflections of psychologists including Dr Lorraine Gordon, Consultant Counselling Psychologist, who has worked in the NHS for more than 20 years and also works in private practice. Gordon was asked about the ways Covid-19 and working remotely had impacted minorities and vulnerable people. Gordon said that the Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted inequality in society in numerous ways – for example many services users, and particularly refugees and asylum seekers, had no access to smartphones or the internet. ‘There’s a real risk of digital exclusion continuing as the pandemic continues. As people say it’s a marathon not a sprint… we need to be adjusting over that period of time and thinking about new ways of working, making sure we’re not excluding people, particularly our most vulnerable people.’ A video of Consultant Counselling Psychologist Dr Khushbu Haria, who works in a community CAMHS setting, was also featured by the society. She was asked about ethical and moral dilemmas encountered during the pandemic and pointed to young people who have no access to a spare room or other space to speak confidentially. Also asked about personal anxiety and her own reaction to lockdown, Haria said the situation had given her a new appreciation of those who struggle with anxiety disorders or depression. ‘It’s really made me think a little bit more about self-care and I think working from home has really helped because it’s allowed me to practice what I preach a little bit in terms of making dinner, doing exercise, eating well… In terms of personal growth it’s allowed me to… appreciate how we adapt as humans.’ Consultant Clinical Psychologist, and Head of Employee Wellbeing for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Dr Adrian Neal, was also featured in the series of videos. Asked about the changing conversations about mental health, and the impact of Covid-19 on mental health, Neal said that it would be difficult to see the full impact of the pandemic for a long time to come. ‘If you think about what Covid is, it’s not just a disease, it’s a kind of social meteorite… it’s having rippling effects all over... we’ve talked a lot about trauma but what does that really mean?… diagnostic levels versus your small ’t’ trauma, where people become more anxious and are feeling more vulnerable, it’s really hard to understand where it’s going

but certainly a greater sense of vulnerability, a greater sense of caution, probably a greater sense of vigilance for threat.’ Neal said he wanted to steer the conversation away from ‘ﬁxing’ individuals to creating greater stability and safety in people’s teams and systems. ‘Can we create peer support networks rather than therapy support? I think those conversations are probably being had in a

number of places, but I guess we just have to be really thoughtful about how we navigate through this when there’s a lot of people screaming for solutions to really complex problems.’ ER To read the full report see: tinyurl.com/y6h9qy2r To watch the videos see the BPS YouTube channel here: tinyurl.com/y4g245m3

Covid’s impact on research The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in tricky ethical and practical challenges for psychology researchers. In response to this the BPS has published best practice guidance for psychologists conducting research on human participants during this time. The document was produced as an aid to ethical decision-making during Covid-19, rather than a deﬁnitive guide, to be used alongside the BPS Code of Human Research Ethics and Code of Ethics and Conduct as well as government guidelines on social distancing and using PPE (personal protective equipment). It outlines four ethical principles from the Code of Human

Covid-19 and mental health The ongoing Co-SPACE (COVID-19 Supporting Parents, Adolescents, and Children in Epidemics) study, led by University of Oxford academics, which has so far involved 12,300 parents, has released its latest report. The study found that during the first national lockdown, between March and June, primary school-aged children showed an increase in mental health difficulties and behavioural problems such as temper tantrums and arguments. Parents involved in the study reported that, from July to October behavioural, emotional, and restless and attentional difficulties have been decreasing. Young people of secondary school age have been more stable throughout the pandemic – as reported by parents and carers. The study found that children with special education needs and/ or neurodevelopmental differences, and those from lower income households showed consistently elevated behavioural, emotional, restlessness and attentional difficulties over the course of the pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a surge in the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation about the virus. Professor Rory O’Connor (University of Glasgow) Director of the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory has taken to Twitter to debunk one such myth doing the rounds. ‘The false 200% rise in suicide tweet linked to lockdown is doing the rounds again. Please remember, this isn’t true. There is no evidence of a rise. And @NCISH_UK [National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health] posted findings for England confirming no increase (but we need to remain vigilant in months ahead).’ ER 14

Research Ethics which may be particularly important to consider when thinking about continuing research during the pandemic or starting new research: respect for the autonomy, privacy and dignity of individuals and communities, scientific integrity, social responsibility and maximising benefit and minimising harm. The guidance suggests that researchers consider both the added pressure and stress brought about by the pandemic on potential research subjects and those people and groups who are disproportionately affected by the pandemic. In terms of scientific integrity the guidelines suggest among other things, that if research is moved online a researcher’s methodology and information for participants should be updated, and points to BPS guidance on Conducting Internet Mediated Research. Considering social responsibility the authors state that outcomes of research should support and reflect respect for the dignity and integrity of people as well as contributing to the common good. ‘During the pandemic, only research that is of a high social value should be conducted. The temptation to brand all research as “Covid-19 relevant” to gain accelerated ethics review and institutional approval must be resisted. The beneficiaries of the research (short, medium and longterm) must be clear.’ To ensure research maximises benefit and minimises harm the guidelines suggest that people should not be exposed to any risks that they would not encounter in everyday life and should consider the risks of carrying out research in places such as schools, universities, hospitals and care homes. ER To read the full guidelines see: tinyurl.com/y5vrp42q The BPS has also released a statement on ethics review and independent research with human participants which aims to support researchers working independently from an organisation that has an established, formal ethics review process, and provide guidance on how to proceed if they are seeking an ethics review. This document can be found here: tinyurl.com/y22a9yww. The society has also released updated guidance for psychologists working with animals which can be read here: tinyurl.com/yxbnp3n3

the psychologist january 2021 news

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Find more about Covid and psychology’s response online… ‘Without that framework, it feels like the virus is instructing us’ We hear again from Dr Rowena Hill, embedded scientist with the cross-governmental C19 Foresight Group. thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/without-framework-it-feelsvirus-instructing-us No normal crisis Ella Rhodes spoke to psychologists and staff in Colombian, Albanian and Irish psychological societies about their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the lessons they had learned. thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/nonormalcrisis We are still regularly publishing Covid-19 perspectives on our website, and you can ﬁnd them via thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/april-2020/ coronavirus-psychological-perspectives Find BPS resources at www.bps.org.uk/coronavirus-resources

ESRC Impact Prize winners The winners of this year’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Impact Prize have been announced, including important work by psychologists and cognitive scientists in areas as diverse as reading, autistic employability and adolescent mental health. The prize, which has been running for eight years, rewards ESRC-funded research which has had an impact on society, policy, business and enterprise. The ﬁnalist in the Outstanding Business and Enterprise Impact category was cognitive scientist Dr Anna Remington (UCL Institute of Education), Director of the UCL Centre for Research in Autism and Education, for her work in helping to enhance the employability of autistic people. Only 16 per cent of autistic adults have full-time jobs and Remington has been working for 10 years researching autistic skills and

finding ways to ensure workplaces recognise them through influencing company culture and practices. The winners of the Outstanding International Impact category were psychologists and cognitive scientists Professor Kathy Rastle (Royal Holloway University of London), a former BPS Spearman Medal winner Professor Kate Nation (University of Oxford), and Professor Anne Castles (Macquarie University), for their work on reading. Their research on the science of how children learn to read has been changing the way it is taught in schools around the world. The Panel’s Choice award winners and finalists in the Outstanding Public Policy Impact category were Professor of Economics Emla Fitzsimons (UCL) and Dr Praveetha Patalay (UCL), former winner of the BPS Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research,

for their exploration of adolescent mental health. Using evidence from national cohort data they revealed the scale of mental health problems in adolescents in the UK as well as the drivers behind those rates of mental ill-health. Economist Professor Richard Layard (London School of Economics and Political Science) was winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award for his research showing that better wellbeing can improve both the economy and people’s lives. Founder and Director of the ESRC’s Centre for Economic Performance and Codirector of the Centre’s Community Wellbeing Programme, Layard cofounded the Action for Happiness campaign and his work was instrumental in the IAPT (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies) programme. ER

Supporting men with breast cancer

A psychologist has launched a monthly virtual meet-up for men affected by breast cancer to share their experiences. Dr Kerry Quincey (De Montfort University, pictured) set up the initiative after her own research found that men with breast cancer did not feel they had the same level of support as women with the condition. She was inspired by US-based charities AnCAN and the Male Breast Cancer Coalition, which together have set up a similar forum in America. The UK breast cancer charity, Walk the Walk, which launched a ‘Men Get Breast Cancer Too!’ campaign in 2017 is also involved, and the meet-up has been supported by NHS clinicians at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital Breast Care Centre. Quincey said the virtual meet-ups, set to be held on the fourth Thursday of each month at 8pm, would be a safe space hosted by men for men. ‘My findings demonstrate a need for improved care and resources for men with breast cancer – including communicative means, and especially between peers. The meetups, which will be free for attendees, will be peer-led and hosted by male breast cancer "thrivers". All men with a history of breast cancer diagnosis, based in UK-convenient time-zones are welcome to join the meetings.’ Quincey works with many breast cancer charities through her research and early in 2020 was named the first collaborative psychologist for Against Breast Cancer, a national non-profit organisation that funds research into secondary spread breast cancer, focusing on prevention, detection and therapies. In August she was named a member of AnCAN’s advisory board and is a panel member of the De Montfort University Medical Forum, a national

research group set up by fellow lecturer Associate Professor Gillian Proctor, which aims to improve support for people affected by breast cancer. There are around 400 new cases of breast cancer in UK men presenting each year. The disease is responsible for proportionally more male deaths annually than some other men’s cancers, including penile and testicular forms. Quincy said it was crucial to raise awareness of male breast cancer and to give those men affected a voice. ‘Through our ongoing research and the incredible work being done through the Medical Forum, DMU is proud to be at the forefront of making a change.’ Quincey has worked alongside breast cancer thriver Doug Harper, who participated in her research study, to develop the concept and get a closer insight into what patients want and need. To join the conversation or for more information, contact Harper by emailing doug@ancan.org. In January the meeting will be on the 28th. ER ‘It’s a scary place for a man to go, into a breast cancer clinic’ Chartered Psychologist Dr Quincey speaks with breast cancer ‘thrivers’ Doug Harper and Dave Talbot about the Virtual Meet-Up on our website at https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/its-scaryplace-man-go-breast-cancer-clinic

the psychologist january 2021 news

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Challenging boundaries of work space Emma Young digests the latest research on working from home during Covid-19

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

Covid-19 has changed our working lives, perhaps for good. Home-working is now common, and many of us have been doing it for months. With changing rules and guidelines, some of us have even gone from home-working to socially distanced ofﬁce-working, to working back at home again. So what do we know about how these changes are affecting our mental health – and what can we do to make our new working lives better?

How are we feeling? In January 2019 (pre-Covid-19), 35 per cent of UK employees surveyed for the CIPD (a professional human resources body) reported that work had a positive impact on their mental health, while 27 per cent said that work had a negative impact. By summer 2020, those ﬁgures had shifted to 34 per cent and 26 per cent respectively. On these measures, at least, Covid-19 had no obvious impact. In this second survey, employees did report high levels of anxiety about contracting the virus at work – but despite this, half of those who were working remotely were looking forward to returning to their workplace. Almost half of all of the people surveyed also reported that social connections at work had worsened. Clearly, although the impact of work itself on our mental health hadn’t changed, altered work circumstances were – and are – causing difﬁculties, which are being further explored…

How bad is home-working?

‘It can be argued that the crisis has led to the most signiﬁcant, intensive social experiment of digital, home-based working that has ever occurred.’ This statement is from the website of the ongoing Working@home project, led by Abigail Marks at Stirling University, which seeks to understand the impact of this ‘experiment’. As the team points out, some commentators have suggested that home-based work is emancipatory, and improves work ﬂexibility. However, the team also notes, ‘this new world order, where the home becomes a multi-occupational, multi-person workplace… not only challenges boundaries but also conceptions of the domestic space’. So how is it making us feel? Overall, not great, according to their initial survey of

home workers. One in three reported sharing their home working space, 37 per cent reported that home conﬂicts have increased, and almost one in four said that they were doing poorly or very poorly in terms of general health. The most commonly cited trigger for household conﬂict was ‘interrupting or being noisy while you work’.

Keys to coping at home Yanmengqian Zhou at Penn State University and colleagues studied symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as coping strategies among American adults during the ﬁrst few months of the pandemic. Their study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, revealed that levels of ‘social strain’ – someone else making demands, giving criticism or just getting on your nerves – was the most consistent predictor of these symptoms of poor mental health. Anyone who’s working at home with their partner is certainly more likely to experience this kind of strain, especially if you have to share the same room. But the team did also identify helpful strategies for working in the time of Covid-19. They recommend keeping a consistent schedule, reminding yourself that things will get better, ﬁnding activities to distract yourself and taking care of others who need help. None of these strategies will stop you irritating each other, but they might at least ease the strain a little. Based on their own research, Kristen Shockley and Malissa Clark at the University of Georgia also recommend some kind of work-life/home-life boundary activity to replace the lost commute. Just a walk near your home at the start and end of the work day can make it easier to switch between roles, they say.

Overcoming ‘presence privilege’ In a recent issue of Occupational Health Science, ten experts were invited to comment on work-related issues associated with Covid-19. Larissa K. Barber at San Diego State University argues that as remote working is now common, it’s time to get rid of the ‘physical presence privilege’. Traditionally, Barber writes, ‘in-person meetings are preferred over web-conferencing, driving in over logging

the psychologist january 2021 digest

in’. Being physically present in the workplace is also conflated with work attention and productivity, she adds. Now that remote working is common, Barber thinks it’s high time that organisations shift their thinking and also devote energy and resources to making this style of working better for employees. One way to do this is to respect technological boundaries in the same way that we traditionally respect physical boundaries. ‘Barging into a coworker’s office, family dinner or even bedroom for an immediate work response is antisocial. Yet we tolerate and encourage similar behaviours in electronic communications,’ Barber notes (something that anyone who’s ever had a demanding email from their boss outside work hours will appreciate). Clearly, this is not a new problem – but perhaps with a mass shift to remote working, organisations will now feel obliged to set clear technological ground rules, for the benefit of us all.

Regaining control The pandemic, and the lockdowns associated with it, have profoundly challenged our autonomy – our sense of being in control of our actions and also seeing an alignment between our behaviour and our personal values and goals (an aspect of autonomy often called ‘authenticity’).

Autonomy is widely considered to be important for wellbeing. Unsurprisingly, then, there have been a number of studies exploring how Covid-19 has affected it, and how we’ve felt as a result. One recent paper, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found that while there were spikes in feelings of powerlessness and inauthenticity in the early days of the pandemic, these increases actually started to subside quite rapidly. The team concludes that because a sense of autonomy is so important to us, the participants were making changes in their lives to restore it, even in the face of ongoing stress and restrictions. All kinds of strategies, such as deciding to spend what used to be work commute time on a hobby or exercise, or even just revelling in the sudden ability to wear whatever they wanted for work (below the belt, at least, during Zoom meetings) could have helped. Other researchers, including Adam Butler at the University of Iowa, in that recent special issue of Occupational Health Science, point to studies ﬁnding that higher perceptions of control are associated with reduced stress among nurses. All of this suggests that whatever employers can do to enhance employee autonomy at ‘work’ – and home-working brings its own challenges, of course – should be good for their mental health.

The ‘sweet spot’ of horror in heart rate across the entire experience). People whose heart rate fluctuated more moment-to-moment tended to report more enjoyment – but again, only up to a point. When these fluctuations became too great, then enjoyment began to decrease again. These results suggest that people also hit a sweet spot of physiological arousal when they’re enjoying a scary experience. There are lots more questions to explore – in particular, it would be interesting to know exactly why enjoyment decreases when an experience becomes too scary. Do people simply become overwhelmed? Do they stop recognising that they are in a safe, artificial environment? Or could the physical signs of intense fear be souring the experience? As the authors point out, it would also be interesting to know whether there’s a similar relationship between fear and enjoyment for other media like video games or movies. Still, the ‘naturalistic’ aspect of their research is pretty cool, and is a nice example of work extending beyond the artificial environment of the lab. Not many other studies on fear can boast that they terrified participants with an actual chainsaw-wielding pig man. MATTHEW WARREN

Andrés Baldursson

You’re walking through a dark, dingy house. Floorboards creak and you think you hear something moving in the shadows. Suddenly, an engine revs and a blood-splattered man wearing a pig’s head lunges towards you with a chainsaw. You scream and run away. Terrifying, perhaps – but it also sounds kind of fun, right? We generally think of fear as a negative emotion – something that signals danger and which is unpleasant to experience. Yet so many of us seek out situations that make us scared: haunted fairground rides, scary video games, and horror movies and novels. And now researchers have looked at exactly how the experience of fear is related to our enjoyment of this kind of ‘recreational horror’. Writing in Psychological Science, the team finds that there’s a sweet spot when it comes to creating a scary but enjoyable experience: if you end up feeling too little fear – or too much – then it’s not quite as fun. Marc Malmdorf Anderson from Aarhus University and colleagues studied visitors to ‘Dystopia Haunted House’, a Danish live-action horror attraction, in which people walk through the rooms of a house and are confronted with actors playing spooky characters. Before entering the haunted house, participants were fitted with heart rate monitors so that the researchers could look at their physiological response throughout the experience. Once they had emerged at the other end, participants rated how scared they had been and how enjoyable they had found the haunted house overall. They also rated their fear and enjoyment for three specific locations in the house in which they had encountered a ‘jump scare’ (zombies suddenly jumping out from a staircase, for example, or the aforementioned pig man chasing them with a chainsaw). Overall, participants reported that the haunted house was both scary and enjoyable. And when the team looked at the link between fear and enjoyment across those three jump scare moments, they found a significant relationship. This took an inverse U shape: the more scared people reported feeling, the greater their enjoyment – up to a point. When their fear exceeded this point (which was around 6 or so on a scale that went from 0 to 9) then their enjoyment tended to decrease again. This suggests that for a scary experience to be at its most enjoyable, it needs to hit a ‘sweet spot’ so that it is not too tame – but also not exceedingly scary. This makes sense when you think of recreational horror as a form of play, the authors write. We already know that other aspects of play rely on the conditions being ‘just right’: for example, in order to stimulate people’s curiosity, a challenge shouldn’t be so easy as to make it boring, but also not so hard or confusing that it is impossible. The researchers also found that small-scale fluctuations in participants’ heart rates were related to feelings of enjoyment in a similar way (‘small-scale’ here refers to fluctuations that occurred across periods of just a few seconds, rather than longer-term changes

the psychologist january 2021 digest

Beauty and the brain Getty Images

Psychologists and neuroscientists have long debated whether there is a ‘beauty centre’ in the brain, which responds to things that we ﬁnd visually beautiful. Now a metaanalysis of existing fMRI studies on almost 1000 people concludes that no, our brains don’t have one ‘beauty centre’ – but two. Hu Chuan-Peng at Tsinghua University, China, led the study, published in Cognitive, Affective & Behavioural Neuroscience. The team identiﬁed 49 studies that involved whole brain analyses of young and middle-aged people, none of whom were art experts. Some of these studies focused on responses to human faces, while others looked at reactions to art. In all cases participants also made aesthetic judgements or rated how much they liked a given stimulus. Using a technique called ‘activation likelihood estimation’ meta-analysis, the team searched for any crossover between the studies in patterns of brain activity while participants viewed stimuli that they judged to be beautiful. This analysis revealed that beautiful faces triggered greater activity in the ventromedial prefrontal

cortex (vmPFC) and adjacent pregenual anterior cingulate cortex and also the left ventral striatum, compared with faces rated as being not beautiful. However, beautiful visual art was associated with more activity not in these regions but in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC). What might explain those different response patterns? The ventral striatum is known to be a key part of the brain’s reward pathway, so the team thinks that the structure responds to the rewarding value of a beautiful face. This signal, along with other information, is then integrated into the vmPFC, to generate the positive feeling associated with perceiving facial beauty.

Beautiful faces, then, seem to be more like ‘primary rewards’, similar to food and sexual contact – rewards that beneﬁt our (or our genes’) survival and which are inherently pleasurable. Viewing beautiful art is, though, more like getting money: a ‘secondary reward’, or something that we have learned to ﬁnd pleasurable. As such, it’s handled differently in the brain – it’s perceived as being beautiful due to high-level, top-down processing in the aMPFC. It remains to be seen how we process non-visual beauty, such as ‘beautiful’ music. Perhaps further research will reveal we have yet more ‘beauty centres’. EMMA YOUNG

Messages about climate change that end on a pessimistic note may trigger higher engagement with the issue than more optimistic statements. Researchers found that pessimistic appeals increased participants’ emotional arousal, which led to greater risk perception and stronger beliefs that they could do something to help ﬁght climate change. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Children can learn to fear an object or event just from seeing their parents react to it. That’s according to a study in which kids watched their parents go through a procedure where they learned to fear a particular colour of light, because

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Digest digested… it signalled they were about to get shocked. This vicarious learning is often beneficial – but the authors argue it may also partly explain how anxiety disorders are transmitted across generations. Scientific Reports In a rare collaboration with video games companies, researchers have obtained precise data about people’s playing habits, finding that longer play is related to greater wellbeing. The study casts doubt on the common assumption that spending more time playing video games is somehow detrimental to our mental health. But the data is correlational, so for now the direction of cause-and-effect remains uncertain. PsyArxiv

Babies as young as two months old relax when listening to unfamiliar lullabies from other cultures. The infants showed stronger physiological signs of relaxation in response to those songs than to songs meant for other purposes like dancing or expressing love. The work suggests that lullabies share some similar features around the world. Nature Human Behaviour

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What drives people to lash out at others who choose to eschew eating animals out of compassion? And what does it say about those who get upset and angry when someone else decides to give up meat?

the psychologist january 2021 vegan Getty Images

The vegan resistance

Kristof Dhont and Joachim Stoeber on ideological pushback against the rise of veganism

n January 2019, the largest bakery chain in the UK, Greggs, launched a vegan version of its best-selling product: a vegan sausage roll. The launch did not go unnoticed. Within hours of Greggs announcing the new addition to their menu, British television broadcaster Piers Morgan fulminated on Twitter: ‘Nobody was waiting for a vegan bloody sausage, you PC-ravaged clowns’. A few days later Morgan continued his tantrum during his television programme by declaring the start of ‘the vegan resistance’ while posing next to a stall full of raw meat. While it was evident that Morgan was not waiting for a vegan sausage role, numerous customers clearly appreciated its addition to the menu. Indeed, six months after the launch, Greggs reported an exceptional proﬁt gain of 58 per cent for the ﬁrst half of the year, pointing to the vegan sausage roll as the key driver of the boost in sales. It’s now planning to provide vegan versions of all its top-selling products. But what is it about a vegan sausage roll that unsettled Piers Morgan so much that he resorted to name-calling? How can the introduction of a new product – a sausage roll of all things – provoke so much anger and cause controversy on national television? Consider also the reaction from journalist Janet Street-Porter after seeing Tesco’s advert for vegan ‘pork’ sausages. The advert led to an opinion piece in which Street-Porter compared vegans to Stalinists and reported feeling nauseous after viewing the advert. Note that the advert does not show footage of pigs’ living conditions inside factory farms, which in most viewers would cause nauseating reactions (Gellatley, 2016). It merely shows a family at dinner time expressing care, love and compassion when a little girl says ‘I don’t want to eat animals anymore’ and the father – in response his daughter’s wish – decides to replace the pork sausages in their favourite dish with Tesco’s plant-based sausages.

These examples of backlash against vegan products are not isolated incidents. They exemplify the broader, widespread phenomenon of hostility and discrimination against vegans and vegetarians (hereafter veg*ns) and a general pushback against veganism and vegetarianism (hereafter veg*nism). Where does this anti-veg*n resentment come from? A relatively nascent but fast-growing body of psychological research throws light on this, and how prejudice against veg*ns is connected to other types of prejudice. Prejudice and discrimination A recent survey of hundreds of veg*ns found that over half of them had experienced situations of everyday discrimination because of their veg*nism (MacInnis & Hodson, 2017). Almost 10 per cent reported that at least one of their family members broke off contact after respondents revealed they were veg*n, and a similar percentage reported not being hired for a job because of their veg*n lifestyle. Clearly, prejudice against veg*ns is common and strong. Some meat eaters lash out at veg*ns because they feel that veg*ns, by not eating meat, express moral disapproval of the omnivore’s meat-eating behaviour. This uncomfortable feeling of being morally judged, even if just tacitly, motivates meat eaters to take measures to protect the positive view they hold about themselves and their sense of morality. One way of doing so is derogating the source of the perceived threat to one’s positive self-image. Such defensive reaction against morally motivated others is known as ‘do-gooder derogation’. The mere presence of a veg*n, salient when having a meal, can provoke such a hostile reaction. Consistent with this idea are observations that anti-veg*n prejudice is not only stronger against vegans than vegetarians (who still consume some animal products), but also stronger against veg*ns who are veg*n for moral reasons (i.e. ethical concerns

about animal welfare) rather than for health reasons, and stronger with increased levels of anticipated moral reproach (MacInnis & Hodson, 2017; Minson & Monin, 2012). However, rather than an attempt to restore or protect the moral identity of meat eaters, many instances of anti-veg*n pushback appear to be ideologically motivated. Research investigating the role of ideology found marked differences between people on the political right (hereafter right-wing adherents) and people on the political left (hereafter left-wing adherents) with the former eating more meat and expressing greater anti-veg*n prejudice than the latter (Dhont & Hodson, 2014; Hodson et al., 2020). While these ideological differences may not be surprising to many readers, the more important and arguably more interesting question is why such differences exist. To address this question, a more detailed look at the two distinct ideological motives and the components underlying right-wing ideologies is needed.

Key sources Dhont, K. & Hodson, G. (2014). Why do right-wing adherents engage in more animal exploitation and meat consumption? Personality and Individual Differences, 64, 12-17. Dhont, K., Hodson, G. & Leite, A.C. (2016). Common ideological roots of speciesism and generalized ethnic prejudice: The social dominance human-animal relations model (SDHARM). European Journal of Personality, 30, 507-522. Dhont, K., Hodson, G., Leite, A.C. & Salmen, A. (2020). The psychology of speciesism. In K. Dhont & G. Hodson (Eds.) Why we love and exploit animals: Bridging insights from academia and advocacy (pp. 29-49). Routledge. Hodson, G., Dhont, K. & Earle, M. (2020). Devaluing animals, “animalistic” humans, and people who protect animals. In K. Dhont & G. Hodson (Eds.) Why we love and exploit animals: Bridging insights from academia and advocacy (pp. 67-89). Routledge. MacInnis, C.C. & Hodson, G. (2017). It ain’t easy eating greens: Evidence of bias toward vegetarians and vegans from both source and target. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 20, 721-744. Minson, J.A. & Monin, B. (2012). Do-gooder derogation: Disparaging morally motivated minorities to defuse anticipated reproach. Social and Personality Psychological Science, 3, 200-207. Full list available in online/app version.

Valuing traditions and social norms The ﬁrst ideological motive underlying right-wing ideologies is the need for social cohesion, collective order and stability. Compared to left-wing adherents, right-wing adherents express this motive in a stronger endorsement of traditional norms and values, greater compliance with authorities and an intolerance towards those deviating from cultural and social conventions. This collection of socially conservative principles is also termed ‘rightwing authoritarianism’ (Altemeyer, 1981). People high in right-wing authoritarianism are more likely to support, engage in and defend traditional practices – and in our culture, this includes practices that involve eating or exploiting animals (Dhont & Hodson, 2014). Indeed, the habit of eating animals is deeply entrenched in our cultural traditions (Joy, 2009; Zaraska, 2016). Moreover, it forms part of our social identity and collective history, often situated at the heart of our warmest memories about family gatherings and moments of social bonding. In Britain, the Sunday Roast brings extended families together on the weekend and, for many Britons, is associated with fond childhood

memories of siblings, parents and grandparents united around the dinner table. Turkey is the meat dish central to many of our Christmas or Thanksgiving stories, and some of our friendship bonds would be weaker if not for those summer barbecues with the act of cooking meat together: steaks, burgers, sausages, drumsticks. Sharing the cooked meat among friends is centre stage, contributing to the formation, maintenance and strengthening of social relationships. In other words, these meals are never just about the food we eat but also about the social connectedness, group values and festive habits symbolised by the meal. And because of the prominent place of meat in these meals, eating animals has become an inherent part of many people’s social narrative and their norms and traditions. Because veg*ns disengage from this tradition of eating animals and advocate for an alternative lifestyle challenging the status quo, right-wing adherents tend to perceive the rise of veg*nism as a threat to their cultural traditions. And the more people perceive veg*nism as a threat, the more they tend to actively push back against veg*nism by, for example, consuming more meat, caring less about farmed animals and expressing stronger prejudice against veg*ns (Dhont & Hodson, 2014; Leite et al., 2019; MacInnis & Hodson, 2017). Group dominance and human supremacy The second ideological motive is the desire for group dominance and superiority. Compared to left-wing adherents, right-wing adherents express a stronger preference for strict intergroup hierarchy and social inequality, a construct known as ‘social dominance orientation’ (Pratto et al., 1994). People high in social dominance orientation believe that a functioning society requires that some groups deemed superior belong at the top (and possess the political and economic powers and resources) while other groups belong at the bottom and are deemed inferior. Social dominance orientation also generalises to how people view and treat animals. Speciﬁcally, people high in social dominance orientation tend to perceive a greater hierarchical divide between humans and animals and feel authorised to exploit animals and eat animal products based on their belief in human superiority over animals (Dhont & Hodson, 2014; Dhont et al., 2016). Such ideologically motivated beliefs in human supremacy not only encourage feelings of entitlement to use animals as humans see ﬁt, but also push animals outside people’s moral circles of concern (Caviola et al., 2019; Leite et al., 2019). Hence, desires for dominance and supremacy among those on the political right underpin their higher levels of meat consumption and their support for a range of practices of animal exploitation beyond farming animals, such as hunting, animal testing and the use of animals for entertainment. Consequently, right-wing adherents tend to

the psychologist january 2021 vegan

experience the rise of veg*nism as a threat not only to valued traditions, but also to their sense of entitlement to enjoy meat and other animal products and to their privileged status of human dominion over animals. Therefore, lashing out at veg*ns represents an active pushback from the right against ideologies and practices challenging both mainstream traditions and the dominant ideology supporting the use and consumption of animal products, particularly meat (Dhont & Hodson, 2014; MacInnis & Hodson, 2017). Speciesism and prejudice towards human outgroups The importance of social dominance orientation is further highlighted by studies simultaneously considering gender- and ethnicity-based prejudices against humans (sexism, racism) and prejudice against non-human animals, termed speciesism (see Dhont et al., 2020). Prominent scholars outside psychology such as Peter Singer (1975), Carol Adams (1990) and Breeze Harper (2011) have long argued that exploitative practices towards human outgroups (i.e. disadvantaged or minority groups) and exploitative practices towards animals are interconnected forms of oppression. Such connections not only manifest on a systemic level but also on a psychological level. The way people think about and treat human outgroups is meaningfully associated to the way people think about and treat animals. Putting this idea to the test, we collected data from four different countries including the UK and found that – across countries – people who expressed greater ethnic prejudice also expressed greater speciesism (Dhont et al., 2014, 2016). Furthermore, our studies conﬁrmed that social dominance orientation is key in explaining why ethnic prejudice is associated with speciesism. The meaningful association between ethnic prejudice and speciesism disappeared (i.e. became non-signiﬁcant) once individual differences in social dominance orientation were statistically controlled for, indicating that social dominance orientation is the common ideological core underpinning both ethnic prejudice and speciesism. Active reaching out To conclude, there is a growing body of psychological evidence showing that ideologies endorsed by rightwing adherents – valuing traditions and social dominance – have downstream consequences for a range of outgroups including animals and veg*ns. Such ideologies may foster attitudes supporting the

Dr Kristof Dhont is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Kent. K.Dhont@kent. ac.uk

exploitation of animals and the derogation and marginalisation of those who refuse to eat meat and other animal products. Furthermore, hierarchicallyProfessor and traditionally-minded people Joachim Stoeber are more likely to deny that we is a Professor of humans are responsible for climate Psychology at the change, support exploitative University of Kent practices that deplete our J.Stoeber@kent. natural resources and push back ac.uk against initiatives protecting our environment because they are perceived as threatening (Hoffarth & Hodson, 2016; Meleady et al., 2020; Milfont & Sibley, 2014). Such findings highlight that the ideological motives involved in human intergroup biases are intimately related to how we think about and treat animals and nature. The same ideological motives may explain why some people become angry and even aggressive in the face of the increasing popularity of veg*nism – to an extent that even the introduction of a vegan sausage roll is met with strong resentment. Increasingly, academics in psychological science recognise the interconnections between prejudicial attitudes and behaviours in human intergroup and human–animal relations. Serious attention is now devoted to improving our understanding of the psychology of veg*nism and animal exploitation (Dhont & Hodson, 2020; Dhont et al. 2019). Going beyond psychological science, we think that all behavioural and social sciences have a crucial role to play in advancing our understanding of the individual, social and societal factors that influence attitudes towards the consumption of meat and other animal products and how people see other forms of oppression and exploitation in human-animal relations. Moreover, we think that academics involved in this endeavour should actively approach veg*n outreach and animal advocacy organisations not only to share their research findings, but also to receive input from these organisations to make this research more practically relevant and have greater individual, social and societal impact. To kick-start conversations and active collaborations between academics and people working for veg*n outreach and animal advocacy organisations, we will be hosting a virtual conference titled Animal Advocacy: Insights from the Social Sciences from 30 June – 2 July at the University of Kent (for more info, please see: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/animaladvocacy/). And everyone interested in the topics we touched upon in this article is welcome – whether they were waiting for a ‘vegan bloody sausage’ or not.

The distance between us Matthew Cole and Kate Stewart on how society ‘helps’ us to rationalise the exploitation of other animals, giving us a ‘licence to harm’

Many of us express compassion and concern for other animals alongside complicity in their exploitation. Researchers can examine how the mass media allow us to sustain care towards other animals while making it more difﬁcult to know about, and act upon, the realities of the harms inﬂicted on them.

ur own interest in the paradox of animal care/exploitation arose from observing the puzzling phenomenon of children’s fast food meals that juxtapose animal products – such as burgers or chicken nuggets – with toy representations of animal characters from Hollywood films such as The Lion King or Babe (Stewart & Cole, 2009). The fictional characters, we argue, act as lightning rods for children’s empathy and affection, but simultaneously distract attention and concern from the real animals whose bodies are served up in the meal. Through these kinds of cultural experiences, children are habituated to concurrently hold positive self-concepts of caring for and about other animals (in the form of a much-loved toy/character), at the very moment of consuming them. As we pursued this line of research, we were quickly overwhelmed by myriad examples of this paradox in Western children’s culture (Cole & Stewart, 2014). From food packaging, to animal-themed clothing designs, toys, digital and online gaming, throughout the mass media and even in the formal education system, the same themes recurred: children are encouraged to cultivate affectionate, caring relationships with representations of other animals, while simultaneously being encouraged to consume real, exploited animals. Keeping our distance This socialisation process has a clear trajectory: as children grow up, our research shows that they are encouraged to increasingly distance themselves from other animals and to perceive humans as radically different and superior. Debra Merskin calls this ‘a reification of dis-identification with animals’ (2018, p.73). We saw this process plainly laid out in the famous toy shop Hamleys, in London (Cole & Stewart, 2014). The store is populated with hundreds of toys that represent other animals, but their character changes radically according to the target age group. Toys on the ground floor are aimed at infants, and then at progressively older children on each higher floor, ending with toys designed for tweens or early teens.

the psychologist january 2021 vegan Ana Rosa Louis/destroymodernart.com

On the ground floor, stuffed toys predominate, with anthropomorphised animals posed so as to invite cuddles, often with human-like smiles and wideeyed adoring expressions. These representations give way to more realistic hard plastic ‘farmyard’ animals higher up in the store. The transition models a shift from affection to objectification that is a hallmark of ‘growing up’, culminating in the objectification of real animals on the top floor. Here, sweets containing gelatine and other animal products are on sale, but there is nothing in the shop that might raise children’s awareness that real animals are exploited and killed to produce them. Hamleys is a microcosm of a more general process. In Seeing Species, Merskin (2018) examines how the media distance us from other animals. She argues that we are deceived as to our proximity to, and knowledge about, other animals – while they appear to be ‘everywhere’, their cultural representations are ‘often distorted and far removed from true visibility’ (2018, p.45). By contrast, media depictions of the real experiences of ‘farmed’ animals are rare (Freeman, 2009). Among the most dramatic cultural distortions are ‘suicide food’ – caricatures of cows, pigs, chickens or other ‘food animals’ represented as inviting their own consumption (Presser, 2013). These often feature in butcher shop windows or on restaurant signage or menus. A moment’s thought highlights the absurdity of other animals enjoying the prospect of their own destruction for human pleasure. But, the ubiquity of these kinds of representations highlights the extent of cultural estrangement from real exploited animals, who requires them to be killed and, usually, to suffer’ (2014, p.104). Loughnan et al. summarise recent research by are anything but suicidal. arguing that the ‘meat paradox’ is resolved, or at least Merskin goes on to argue that children growing held in abeyance, by perceived differences between up in urban environments are increasingly distanced humans and other animals. If nonhuman animals are from other animals. Direct experiences with free-living perceived as inferior, that seems to legitimate their animals in natural settings are becoming rare. Instead, exploitation, especially for individuals who endorse direct experiences tend to be mediated, for instance hierarchical inequalities in general terms. For example, in zoos or with companion animals: ‘relationships they argue that ‘people who accept or endorse in which the animals are often bred to be highly domination and inequality eat meat interactive, and even dependent on eagerly’ and that, ‘simply being us’ (2018, p.71). These mediated experiences instantiate distance “If nonhuman animals are categorized as food undermines an animal’s perceived mind’ (2014, between humans and nonhuman perceived as inferior, that p.105). The attribution of relative others, a distance which is seems to legitimate their mindlessness together with belief exacerbated by ‘distorted’ media in dissimilarity between (superior) representations. exploitation” humans and (inferior) other animals, soothes the meat paradox. Loughnan et al.’s findings Soothing the paradox suggest that eating other animals is strongly related Given the scope and consistency of the socialisation with holding power over them, which Lois Presser of the care/exploitation paradox, it is unsurprising, (2013) has interpreted as a ‘licence to harm’. For but nonetheless instructive, that recent psychological Presser, the puzzle that Loughnan et al. label the ‘meat research has illuminated how it plays out at the level paradox’ is contained within a broader ‘power paradox’. of individual attitudes and behaviour. Focusing on Her research suggests that the licence to harm that the consumption of other animals as one example of derives from feelings of human superiority sits exploitation, Loughnan et al. (2014) describe a ‘meat alongside feelings of powerlessness when it comes to paradox’: ‘Most people care about animals and do not eating other animals. Presser interviewed meat-eating want to see them harmed but engage in a diet that

participants who expressed being unable to avoid eating meat, either because it was human destiny: ‘We are carnivores; that’s our nature’ (2013, p.57), or because the body and its desire for meat was irresistible: ‘I can’t help it’ (2013, p.59). The ‘powerless’ side of Presser’s power paradox is further in evidence in recent psychological research – see Jared Piazza’s piece in this special collection on the ‘4Ns’ – that omnivores consider eating other animals ‘natural, normal, necessary, and nice’ (Piazza et al., 2015, p.117). Endorsement of the 4Ns is correlated with a greater likelihood to ‘dementalise’ or objectify other animals, and fewer nonhuman species being afforded moral concern. The 4N rationalisations do not emerge from a cultural vacuum. Our research and that of other social scientists such as Merskin reveal how rationalisations such as the 4Ns circulate through the media. To take one example, The Lion King ﬁlm is famous for its song ‘Circle of Life’. The circle of life is also a crucial ideological message in the ﬁlm: Simba’s father Mufasa legitimates ‘meat-eating’ for the young lion, and vicariously for the young audience, with reference to it as a natural inevitability, soothing Simba’s momentary disquiet with eating other animals: Simba: Dad, don’t we eat the antelope? Mufasa: Yes Simba but let me explain. When we die our bodies become grass, and the antelope eat the grass, and so we are all connected in the great circle of life.

As food chain ‘kings’, ﬁctional lions and human audiences receive their licence to harm from Mufasa at the same time as being powerless in the face of their naturalised destiny to eat other animals (Stewart & Cole, 2009). The extent to which media messages can seep into everyday discourse is suggested by one of Presser’s participants, who, perhaps unconsciously, justiﬁed her own meat-eating with reference to The Lion King’s ideology: ‘The circle of life constitutes that some animals are bred to be nourishment’ (cited in Presser, 2013, p.57).

Towards a revolution So what about the alternative resolution of the power paradox: to avoid harming other animals, as far as possible, by embracing a vegan lifestyle? Piazza et al. (2015) make an important point when they argue that the legitimacy of the 4Ns tend to go unchallenged. The lack of visibility of the real experiences of exploited nonhuman animals is one aspect of that lack of challenge (even in The Lion King, no animals are killed ‘on screen’). Another is the exclusion or

Matthew Cole is a Lecturer at The Open University. m.d.d.c.cole@ open.ac.uk

Kate Stewart is a Principal Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University. kate.stewart@ ntu.ac.uk

misrepresentation of the vegan challenge to that legitimacy. For example, research on the representation of veganism in the UK print media (Cole & Morgan, 2011) showed that vegans and veganism tend to be undermined through overwhelmingly negative coverage. That negativity may be interpreted as an inverse of the 4Ns: it frequently takes the form of ridiculing veganism (the opposite of ‘normal’), stereotyping veganism as practically impossible (the opposite of ‘natural’), dismissing veganism as a passing fad (the opposite of ‘necessary’), Key sources and stereotyping vegan food as unpleasant (the opposite of ‘nice’). Cole, M. & Morgan, K. (2011). In this context of largely anti-vegan Vegaphobia: Derogatory discourses media, it is perhaps unsurprising of veganism and the reproduction of that Markowsi and Roxburgh speciesism in UK national newspapers. (2019) ﬁnd evidence of the fear British Journal of Sociology 61(1), of vegan stigma as a ‘barrier to 134–153. Cole, M. & Stewart, K. (2014). Our avoiding meat consumption’ among children and other animals: The cultural US consumers (p.1). construction of human-animal relations in Default veganism may still childhood. Ashgate. seem a way off from becoming Freeman, C.P. (2009). This little piggy everyday reality for the majority. went to press: the American news 4N rationalisations appear to be media’s construction of animals in commonplace and are buttressed agriculture. The Communication Review, 12(1), 78-103. by mainstream media from early Loughnan, S., Bastian, B. & Haslam, childhood. However, it remains N. (2014). The psychology of eating the case that these ‘psychological animals. Current Directions in manoeuvres’ (Piazza et al., Psychological Science, 23(2), 104-108. 2015, p.114) and the immense Markowski, K.L. & Roxburgh, S. (2019). cultural labour required to sustain “If I became a vegan, my family and friends would hate me:” Anticipating them are much more effortful, vegan stigma as a barrier to plantindividually and societally, than based diets. Appetite, 135, 1-9. the simpler resolution of the killer/ Merskin, D. (2018). Seeing Species: carer paradox through embracing Re-presentations of animals in media and veganism. As vegans and veganism popular culture. Peter Lang. gain ground and visibility in Piazza, J., Ruby, M.B., Loughnan, S. et al. (2015). Rationalizing meat the cultural mainstream, we consumption. The 4Ns. Appetite, 91, suspect that the rationalisation of 114-128. exploitation will become ever more Presser, L. (2013). Why We Harm. precarious and vulnerable, and that Rutgers University Press. anti-vegan rhetoric may well be only Stewart, K. & Cole, M. (2009). The symptomatic of that vulnerability. conceptual separation of food and animals in childhood. Food, Culture and Perhaps a peaceable revolution in Society, 12(4), 457-476. our relationship with other animals is not too far away.

the psychologist january 2021 feature

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A vegan future? Jared Piazza (Lancaster University) considers ‘the four Ns of meat justiﬁcation’, and overcoming them

I Jared Piazza

n 2015 my colleagues and I published findings that showed that there are four principal justifications given for why it is okay for humans to kill and eat animals – that eating meat is Nice, Normal, Necessary, and Natural. Overcoming the Four Ns is no small feat, and once these perceived barriers have been surmounted, there is still the issue of retention. Research suggests, more often than not, fledgling vegetarians and vegans at some point backslide or abandon their commitments altogether. But the reasons people report for returning to meat have less to do with a resurgence of cravings (‘bacon nostalgia’) or concerns about their health. The real difficulties vegans face maintaining their lifestyle are social. Vegans can struggle coordinating their lives with others and fitting into a world where meat eating is the norm. There are also unfavourable stereotypes about what vegans are like. Furthermore, because vegans are seen as a group that rejects prevailing norms, they can be viewed as an irritant to society. Psychologists know surprisingly little about what motivates people to become vegan. More research is needed to understand how people become persuaded by animal welfare, health and environmental concerns, and what kinds of environments encourage and support vegan commitments. But studies based on recollections of current vegans suggest that many restrict their consumption of animal products in stages. Overnight conversions to veganism appear less common. It’s possible that in the near future we may see more people reporting conversions to veganism. Today the internet makes it easier than ever to find and share easy-to-cook vegan recipes. Moreover, innovative food products, like the Impossible Burger, which uses heme extracted from soy leghemoglobin to mimic the iron flavour of meat, are changing the world in powerful ways. Indeed, one possible path to a vegan future places great faith in our power to innovate. In the future, new food technologies, such as cultured meat and acellular agriculture, will make it easier for people to enjoy the pleasure of meat without the need for animal slaughter. This growth of innovation could start a chain of events leading ultimately to widespread uptake of plant-based and ‘slaughter-free’ products. Once that happens people will no longer have to worry about sacrificing their pleasure when considering the ethics of animal slaughter. Furthermore, as viable alternatives proliferate, vegans will become more common, thus changing the way we look at vegans as a group. While this vision of the future may be closer than we realise, for now vegan advocates must continue to wrestle with the major barriers that consumers face when considering what to eat. Vegan advocates must convince the world that animal products are not necessary, are not the only nice foods, and do not have to be the societal norm. There is nothing written into our nature compelling us to eat animals.

Read the full article at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-34/january-2021/ four-ns-meat-justiﬁcation

the psychologist january 2021 vegan

Ana Rosa Louis/destroymodernart.com

Breakfast with your mum, lunch with your colleagues, an after-work drink with friends or a late-night dinner with your partner: our days are ďŹ lled with social occasions that revolve around food and drink. Moments of sheer happiness, bonding, and sharing food. Or notâ&#x20AC;Ś

the psychologist january 2021 vegan Ana Rosa Louis/destroymodernart.com

Let’s meat!

Charlotte De Backer with a history of meat consumption, and how a simple choice to eat or not eat meat can complicate our social lives

group level coordination were required to access meat ood is sociality, yet it is also isolation. (Kaplan et al., 2000). When meat acquisition was Sharing food can connect us – successful, it often resulted in large packages of energyWoolley and Fishbach showed how dense food that in the absence of modern technologies similar consumption can promote could not be stored for long periods of time. The result trust and cooperation – but the foods was the sharing of food in strategic ways. we do and don’t eat can also create Throughout major parts of human evolutionary painful rifts between us. There is a history, the consumption of meat, more than any other close connection between food and food type, was characterised by sharing with related identity: we are what we eat, as the 18th century family members and with non-kin group members, French gastronome Brillat-Savarin taught us. Food based on rules of reciprocity (Jaeggi & Gurven, 2013): sociologist Claude Fischler added that if it is really I will share with you, if you return the favour; the basis the case that we are what we eat, then we are similar of cooperation and bonding. And that’s not all; ‘meat when we eat similar foods, and we are different made us moral’ (Mameli, 2013). Since meat acquisition when we eat different foods. Food is not just fuel to and distribution requires the body, but also an important cooperation, it also requires trust and often overlooked system of in others to cooperate, and feelings communication (Barthes, 1997), “the introduction of of anger towards those who do and it always has been. meat into the human not contribute or share. Energydense meat packages introduced diet has shaped our of fairness and cheating Meat and morality sociality in fascinating and dilemmas behaviour in the daily life of our Throughout human history, food contrasting ways” ancestors. As a consequence, a has shaped the way we think, regulating system of morality act and socialise with others. evolved to ensure group members Meat in particular has played an would contribute to the acquisition important role in this process. of meat, and the fair sharing of meat among different The introduction of meat to the human diet has been group members. linked to the expansion of the human brain and increased sociality (see Milton, 1999). This is, in part, due to the acquisition and distribution of meat in The creation of a divide ancestral human groups (Stanford & Bunn, 2001). In comparison to plants, animals are far more challenging The introduction of meat into the human diet may have thus enabled us to think about treating others to rely on as a food source, as one must locate the fairly. This becomes rather paradoxical if one shifts target, possess sufﬁcient skills to successfully hunt, and then process the meat for immediate consumption their view such that the ‘others’ become animals. If it is true that the introduction of meat in the human diet before it spoils. In ancestral times, high levels of has shaped our morality (i.e. our sense to treat others individual strength, skills, and knowledge, but also

fairly), then it was the introduction of meat into the human diet that enabled vegetarians and vegans today to consider it unethical to eat animals. The ethical desire to not harm animals is in fact the core motive that sets vegans and vegetarians apart from those who do eat meat (De Backer Charlotte De Backer is an & Hudders, 2014). And in this Associate Professor at the commensality. Commensality or sense, the introduction of meat University of Antwerp. conviviality, defined as ‘the act of into the human diet has shaped charlotte.debacker@ eating together’ is good for us, in our sociality in fascinating and uantwerpen.be terms of both physical and mental contrasting ways: it first connected wellbeing (Phull et al., 2015). us and enabled a sense of morality, And the act of sharing food socialises individuals into which translated to differences in food choices, and in ‘competent and appropriate members of a society’ the end created a divide between those who do and do (Ochs & Shohet, 2006). Subtle unspoken elements not eat meat. of mealtimes matter in this socialisation process, and Today this divide between those who do and get lost when sharing a meal with a likeminded friend do not eat meat seems bigger than ever. Some meat online. These ‘digital dinners’ enable us to eat together, eaters avoid vegetarians to not be confronted with but not to share food. criticism about their own meat eating diet choices Eating from the same pots/foods is genuinely (Rothgerber, 2014). Some vegetarians avoid contact ‘sharing food’, and different from ‘eating together’, with meat eaters. Some vegans even decide not to be where everyone has their own plate/meal, at the same intimately involved with meat eaters; this so called table, or even in different places but connected through ‘vegansexuality’ has sparked considerable debate from technology (Grevet et al., 2012). As compared to both sides (Potts & Parry, 2010). When vegans and eating together, sharing food has a greater potential meat eaters do get romantically involved, some worry to socialise individuals morally, because it primes ‘that [their] husband will one day leave [them] for people to think about fairness (De Backer et al., 2015). a meat-eater, for someone familiar When sharing food, and depending on cultures and who doesn’t sniff him suspiciously occasions, certain people will be served first, second, for signs of alimentary infidelity’ Key sources and so on, while others will be last. In most cultures (Kothari, 1999). Becoming vegan it is also inappropriate to take the foods of others, in a family of meat eaters can De Backer, C., Dare, J. & Costello, L. and greediness in general is not appreciated (Ochs & be very challenging, leading to (Eds.). (2019). To eat or not to eat meat: Shohet, 2006). serious conflicts and even family How vegetarian dietary choices influence In today’s society we have a range of energy-dense disruptions (Hirschler, 2011), our social lives. Rowman & Littlefield. packs that can be used to prime fairness, equality and and many vegans report negative De Backer, C.J.S., Fisher, M.L., Poels, sociality by means of food. We do not need to kill an K. & Ponnet, K. (2015). “Our” food reactions from friends and family versus “my” food. Investigating the animal to enable the social benefits of food sharing (Twine, 2014). Many vegans relation between childhood shared food – plant-based meals can be a perfect alternative. actively seek out new friendships practices and adult prosocial behavior in Moreover, buffets where we share a multitude of pots with likeminded people (Twine, Belgium. Appetite, 84, 54-60. and dishes are the perfect occasion to allow everyone 2014), and in today’ s society online Mameli, M. (2013). Meat made us moral: to join in and share a meal; some pots will be shared, forums are a welcome place to seek A hypothesis on the nature and evolution others passed on. Those who do and don’t eat meat what most of us inherently need to of moral judgment. Biology & Philosophy, 28(6), 903-931. (or any other food type) can share food in buffet style be happy: social contact (Chuter, Ochs, E. & Shohet, M. (2006). The meals, so bring out your pots and pans: for breakfast, 2018). cultural structuring of mealtime lunch, dinner and every snack in between. Our days socialization. New Directions for Child are filled with opportunities to share food and connect. and Adolescent Development, 111, 35-49. In a 2019 book about the impact of vegetarian Bring out your pots and pans Phull, S., Wills, W. & Dickinson, A. diet choices which I co-edited, ‘To eat or not to eat Few people like to be alone, and (2015). The Mediterranean diet: Sociocultural relevance for contemporary meat’, we collected stories from vegetarians and vegans few people like to eat alone. Eating health promotion. The Open Public worldwide that illustrate how food fuels our body as alone is not part of our human Health Journal, 8, 35-40. much as it fuels our social life. The choice to eat meat history (Fox, 2014). When we Rothgerber, H. (2014). Efforts to or not can have unforeseen and uncomfortable social do eat alone, we often seek out overcome vegetarian-induced consequences. These can be overcome, but require distraction; in front of window, dissonance among meat eaters. effort from us all. We need to understand and respect or a device that lends social Appetite, 79, 32-41. others’ food choices, as much as we need to bring companionship, such as an online Full list available in online/app version. back food knowledge and food sharing to the menu. forum with likeminded people. We should all be able to join in and eat together. Yet this cannot replace real-life

the psychologist january 2021 vegan

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the psychologist january 2021 vegan Ana Rosa Louis/destroymodernart.com

Vegan: widening the circle

Matthew Ruby and Tani Khara preview their online article

n many societies around the world, eating meat has long been linked to status, power, and masculinity. In India, however, the power dynamics of meat consumption have a very different history. The caste system, which has been a key part of the Hindu tradition in India, used traditional religious teachings to make social distinctions on the basis of people’s diets. Vegetarian foods were deemed ‘purer’ than non-vegetarian foods and were associated with high social status, compared to meat-eating, which was linked with low social status and a certain baseness. Although meat in Western cultures tends to have been linked to strength, in India physical power and strength were associated with manual, low-status occupations, and the culture has historically valued the ‘cerebral over things material’ and physical. On the other hand, urban Indian culture today is witnessing a gradual change where boundaries among the different castes have become less rigid, with food being an obvious example. Non-vegetarian food today now tends to be associated with high class status, in contrast to the idea that vegetarianism equals a high caste status. Meat is increasingly viewed as a status symbol, as high-end restaurants offer imported meats to cater to India’s higher income groups. In comparison, traditional vegetarian fare is considered by some as ‘utilitarian’ at best. Veganism is currently encountering its own challenges relating to perceptions of elitism, exclusion, power, and status. A common critique of vegan diets is that they are meant for the privileged, and are too expensive for the average person in comparison to their animal-derived counterparts. Furthermore, media depictions of veganism are frequently criticised for a disproportionate focus on white vegans, which both erases the work of vegans of colour and contributes to the perception that veganism is only for white people. Important work is being done to change this focus. For example, the online community ‘Black Vegans Rock’, founded by Aph Ko, highlights the unique stories and experiences of black vegans. The book ‘Sistah Vegan’ similarly highlights a more diverse vegan identity. By challenging stereotypes, vegans of colour have sought to decentre whiteness and demonstrate that anyone can be vegan. At its core, veganism is a lifestyle of compassion that seeks, in the words of the Vegan Society, ‘to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals’. A rejection of cruelty to animals also means moving past hierarchical worldviews that create division among both humans and non-human beings. In summary, to quote Albert Einstein, ‘Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty’.

Read the full article, ‘Vegan’: Recent word, ancient ideas, at thepsychologist. bps.org.uk/volume-34/january/vegan-recent-word-ancient-ideas

Matthew Ruby

Tani Khara

On ‘meatheads’ and ‘soy boys’ Alina Salmen and Kristof Dhont on the gendered nature of meat consumption and veganism Historically and culturally, we have come to believe that meat is essential for strength, and traditional gender roles demand strength and toughness from men in particular. Real men eat meat…

weaty, muscly men punching bags and lifting weights to the sound of heavy grunts and loud hip-hop music… The opening sequence of James Cameron’s recent documentary The Game Changers leaves no doubt that this is not your run-of-the-mill pro-vegan documentary. Rather than shedding light on animal cruelty or making a case for the disastrous environmental impact of meat consumption, The Ultimate Fighter winner James Wilks travels around the globe to meet plant-based professional athletes, aiming to clear up the myth that animal protein is necessary for physical strength and performance. The idea that meat is manly is engrained in society and permeates pop culture and advertising. For instance, meat advertisements often target men by praising the masculinity of eating meat or by portraying sexualised women alongside meat, implying that both women and animals are consumption products for men. Several scholars have picked up on this, including vegan feminist Carol J. Adams. As early as 1990, Adams wrote that ‘in some respects we all acknowledge the sexual politics of meat. When we think that men, especially male athletes, need meat, or when wives report that they could give up meat but they ﬁx it for their husbands, the overt association

the psychologist january 2021 vegan Ana Rosa Louis/destroymodernart.com

between meat eating and virile maleness is enacted.’ Such ideas have long been confined to philosophical and sociological spaces. But in recent years, and with the growing popularity of plant-based diets, psychological scientists have also developed a keen interest in the link between meat and masculinity and its implications for individuals and society. Meat is manly What does psychological research say about the meat-masculinity hypothesis? A straightforward first test is to compare men and women’s levels of meat consumption. And indeed, research consistently shows that, across cultures, men eat bigger portions of meat and eat meat more frequently than women. Women on the other hand report eating more fruit, vegetables, vegetarian meat substitutes, and vegetarian meals than men. Women are also more likely to self-identify as vegetarian or vegan. In other words, gender dynamics have a profound impact on meat eating habits, consistent with the meat-masculinity hypothesis (Loughnan & Davies, 2020; Rosenfeld, 2018; Ruby, 2012). Men and women do not just differ in their levels of meat consumption but also in the way they think and talk about meat. In research by Hank Rothgerber (2012), men not only reported consuming more meat than women, they also justified eating meat differently. Compared to women, men were more inclined to endorse justifications stressing the hierarchy between humans and animals; specifically, that humans are on top of the food chain and have the right to eat animals. Men were also unapologetic about the fact that they just like eating meat too much to give it up. Women on the other hand were more likely to say that they try to avoid thinking about the meat they consume, and to avoid associating meat with the animal it comes from. Clearly, gender differences in meat consumption are sizable and robust, and overall, men seem more

comfortable with the idea of eating animals. But do people really believe that meat is manly? Paul Rozin and his colleagues (2012) showed in a range of studies that meat does indeed symbolise masculinity. For example, participants were quicker to associate meat with masculinity than with femininity in an implicit association test. In another study, when asked explicitly, participants rated meat, and especially mammal muscle meat such as hamburger and steak, as much more masculine than feminine. The opposite was true for other food groups – chocolate and peach for example were rated as more feminine than masculine. Furthermore, analysing 20 languages with gendered nouns like German or French, Rozin and his colleagues found that meat and meat-related words are more often masculine than feminine. So we associate meat with masculinity both implicitly and explicitly, and this association is even reﬂected in how language is constructed. Violating gender norms If meat signals masculinity, then men who choose not to eat meat might sacriﬁce more than just their bacon. Indeed, the backlash against veganism and vegetarianism, with gendered insults such as ‘soy boy’, seems to be particularly directed at vegan (or vegetarian) men. Being a minority in most cultures, vegans and vegetarians are often targets of prejudice, comparable to the level of bias people hold against other minority groups (Hodson et al., 2020; MacInnis & Hodson, 2017). However, vegan and vegetarian men are under special scrutiny and are more disliked than vegan and vegetarian women (MacInnis & Hodson, 2017). In addition to belonging to a minority, they also violate masculine gender norms and are therefore perceived as less masculine. To test this idea, Ruby and Heine (2011) presented participants with a description of a person who enjoys reading, going to the movies, and hiking. Additionally,

the person was described as either a vegetarian or an omnivore. Half of the participants read about a man called Jim, while the other half read about a woman called Suzy, and all were asked to rate the masculinity of this person. Unsurprisingly, Suzy was deemed less masculine than Jim. More importantly, vegetarians were also perceived as less masculine than omnivores, but only when male, not when female. Specifically, vegetarian men were perceived as less masculine than omnivorous men, demonstrating the association between men, meat, and masculinity. Could such ‘loss’ of perceived masculinity come with aversive consequences for vegan and vegetarian men? That is, can lower perceived masculinity explain why anti-vegan prejudice is stronger towards male (vs. female) vegans and vegetarians (see MacInnis & Hodson, 2017)? Recent findings from our own research indicate that this is indeed the case (Salmen & Dhont, 2020). Key sources We found that vegan men are not only perceived as less masculine Adams, C.J. (1990). The sexual politics of than omnivorous men, but also that meat. A feminist-vegetarian critical theory. this lower masculinity is further Continuum. associated with more negative Loughnan S. & Davies, T. (2020). The attitudes towards them. In fact, meat paradox. In K. Dhont & G. Hodson our participants perceived vegan (Eds.) Why we love and exploit animals: men as less warm and were less Bridging insights from academia and advocacy (pp. 171-187). Routledge. keen on being friends with them, MacInnis, C.C. & Hodson, G. (2017). It and this was largely driven by their ain’t easy eating greens: Evidence of perception of vegan men as less bias toward vegetarians and vegans masculine. Moreover, these effects from both source and target. Group were especially pronounced for Processes & Intergroup Relations, 20(6), those who more strongly endorse 1-24. Rosenfeld, D.L. (2018). The psychology traditional gender roles. of vegetarianism. Appetite, 131, 125-138. Vegan men might also be less Rothgerber, H. (2013). Real men don’t fortunate than their meat-eating eat (vegetable) quiche: Masculinity and peers in the world of dating (Timeo the justification of meat consumption. & Suitner, 2018). In a recent study, Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 14, omnivorous heterosexual women 363-375. Rozin, P., Hormes, J.M., Faith, M.S. saw a range of descriptions of men, & Wansink, B. (2012). Is meat male? some of whom were vegetarian, Journal of Consumer Research, 39, others omnivorous. The vegetarian 629-643. men were seen as less attractive, less Ruby, M.B. & Heine, S.J. (2011). Meat, sexy, and less of an ideal partner morals, and masculinity. Appetite, 56, than the omnivorous men, and this 447-450. Timeo, S. & Suitner, C. (2018). Eating was partly because the vegetarian meat makes you sexy: Conformity men were deemed less masculine. to dietary gender norms and When asked about their impression attractiveness. Psychology of Men & of the men, some women even Masculinity, 19(3), 418. explicitly referred to their diet (‘He is far from my ideal mate Full list available in online/app version. because he is vegetarian’).

Alina Salmen is a PhD student in Social Psychology at the University of Kent A.Salmen@ kent.ac.uk Kristof Dhont is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Kent K.Dhont@kent. ac.uk

In another study, male participants were asked to imagine being in a restaurant with a female dating partner. They were then given ﬁctitious menus, containing meat and vegetarian dishes, and asked to pick dishes for themselves and for their partner. The more strongly they associated vegetarianism with femininity, the more likely they were to pick a meat dish for themselves and a vegetarian dish for their partner. Timeo and Suitner conclude that ‘Men seem to eat meat in part because they want to convey a gender-congruent image of themselves, and women seem to reward them for this in their mate selection’.

Preserving manhood Taken together, vegetarian and vegan men are perceived as less masculine than their meat-eating counterparts, and this can subject them to potential romantic rejection, but also more generally to prejudice and social avoidance. Men’s concerns about perceived masculinity and anti-vegan backlash might present a serious barrier to moving towards a plantbased diet. This is in line with decades of research that indicates that men often go to great lengths to protect their precarious manhood. Manhood, unlike womanhood, is often perceived as something that needs to be earned, and can easily be lost if one fails to meet society’s standards for manhood (Vandello et al., 2008). Threats to masculinity create anxiety, and men tend to avoid this anxiety by performing and demonstrating their masculinity, often with harmful consequences. For example, the more men conform to traditional masculine role norms, the less likely they are to engage in health behaviours such as medical check-ups, and the more likely they are to engage in risky behaviours, such as risky sexual and driving behaviour (Mahalik et al., 2006). Excessive meat consumption has been linked to long-term health problems (Bouvard et al., 2015), and might join the ranks of risky behaviours that men engage in to demonstrate and preserve their manhood. Promoting images of muscly plant-based athletes, as in The Game Changers, can help to challenge the idea that meat is essential for strength, uncoupling meat from masculinity. These images may take away barriers that stop men from becoming vegan. At the same time, such an approach relies on the stereotypical ideal of masculinity and could even reinforce the problematic idea that real men should be strong. Whether such efforts really can ‘change the game’ is a question we have yet to tackle.

the psychologist january 2021 vegan

Steakholders As many as 70 billion farmed animals (including birds, pigs, cows, goats, and sheep, but excluding marine animals) are raised and killed each year for food. Especially when ‘factory farmed’, most of these animals lead short and miserable lives and are subjected to pain, stress, anxiety, and boredom on a daily basis. While many people may deem it important to improve the living (and dying) conditions of these animals, the animal rights or animal protection movement wants to abolish the use of animals for human consumption altogether. If this movement wants to achieve its objective of abolition, a highly idealistic ‘go vegan for the animals’ approach will not be sufﬁcient. Given the extreme dependency on the use of animal products today, I suggest that the animal protection movement requires a lot more pragmatism. A pragmatic approach includes asking for reduction of animal products consumption, using non-moral arguments to motivate people, investing in creating an environment that facilitates change, and creating a larger tent. Read the full extract from Why We Love and Exploit Animals: Bridging Insights from Academia and Advocacy on our website. The book is edited by Kirstof Dhont and Gordon Hodson, and published by Routledge. This chapter is written by Tobias Leenaert.

Giki Zero

The shift to sustainable diets is not expected to happen at the pace and extent required for Net Zero carbon if left to the market, individuals, or voluntary industry initiatives. In Defra’s 2008 segmentation of pro-environmental behaviours, ‘changing to a lower-impact diet’ was located in the ‘able but unwilling to change’ quadrant… 44

the psychologist january 2021 vegan

The shift to sustainable diets Richard Carmichael works on behaviour change, public engagement and policy for Net Zero. He tells us how food policy can help us reach climate goals.

s the climate, environmental and public health crises continue to worsen, there is a clear and urgent need for policy to support wider and faster shifts towards sustainable diets. After many years of neglect by policy, the context in the UK now shows signs of being more favourable for such intervention, including the legally-binding Net Zero target of summer 2019, the growth in plant-based eating, and the opportunity Brexit presents to reform agriculture. The social and cultural aspects of eating practices ensure that changing them remains a challenge. But well-designed interventions could make these aspects begin to work in favour of change rather than against it. There are a number of low-risk, low-cost pragmatic steps that can and should be taken to reduce emissions due to diet. These could also deliver considerable co-benefits for health. As part of renewed interest in the contribution of behaviour change to meeting climate commitments, the Committee on Climate Change appointed me to set out policy recommendations to support such behavioural and societal shifts for Net Zero. The resulting report, Behaviour change, public engagement and Net Zero, released in October 2019, covered how government policy could better support public engagement with climate action generally and how to support behavioural and societal shifts to reducing emissions in four areas: driving, flying, what we eat, and how we heat our homes. To a large degree this will be through lowering barriers to low carbon choices, and here I will focus on the psychological aspects of behaviour change relating to food. Putting it on the menu One such barrier is the lack of plant-based options on catering menus. In the UK, 30 per cent of all meals are provided through education, healthcare and other government funded institutions. But they do not routinely offer any purely plant-based options. Broadening choice rather than introducing restrictions is an obvious first step in enabling people to shift to lower-impact and healthier eating habits. A series of experiments at Cambridge University Catering Services has generated evidence on the effectiveness of encouraging plant-based diets without

restricting consumer choice. These showed that doubling the availability of vegetarian dishes increased vegetarian sales by 42-97 per cent, especially among meat eaters. This was achieved without banning or removing meat from menus. New regulation should require that all schools, hospitals and other public sector catering outlets include at least one fully plantbased menu option that is available for everyone every day without special request (as suggested by the Catering For Everyone campaign). This has already been enacted into law in Portugal. This would not only cater to those already willing but unable to access plant-based meals but would introduce omnivores, and the growing number of ﬂexitarians, to readilyavailable, healthy, plant-based dishes with potential for spillover into their eating habits beyond the school or hospital and for social inﬂuence effects to ripple out to wider social circles. Improving access to plant-based foods is consistent with Richard Thaler’s maxim that ‘If you want people to do something, make it easy’. Dietary change also involves the widespread adoption of new behaviours and products, so a Diffusion of Innovation perspective is also valuable. Innovations – products, technologies, behaviours or ideas – tend to be more rapidly adopted when they can be trialled and when adoption by others is visible. Getting plant-based foods on the menu will increase both their trialability and give plant-based eating more visibility. Social barriers and social identities Lowering the material barriers to eating plant-based foods through menu changes does not just make it easier to get hold of vegan foods – it also reduces social barriers to choosing plant-based food. Firstly, those seeking plant-based foods can eat with friends and colleagues rather than having to go elsewhere. The visibility or observability of others’ food choices is particularly valuable and relevant for plant-based eating due to the social and cultural associations around meat eating and meat avoidance. The foods we choose can affect how we are seen by others and how we see ourselves. Twenty years ago I carried out doctoral research at Loughborough University Social Sciences on the social psychological aspects of vegetarian and vegan identities. The diary and interview case material from new and aspiring vegetarians and vegans showed that cultural

easier is afforded by plant-based ambivalence around meat and meat substitutes or ‘analogues’ meat rejection played out in their Dr Richard which typically have around one account-giving and self-narratives. Carmichael tenth the greenhouse gas (GHG) Giving an account of themselves is a Chartered footprint of meat. Plant-based meat as vegetarian or vegan involved Psychologist and dairy replacements have an managing various dilemmas and and a Research important role to play in shifting avoiding stereotypes. There was a Associate in to sustainable diets as they reduce dilemma of moral superiority: how the Centre for the complexity of plant-based eating to talk about their motivation for Environmental Policy, Imperial and are highly compatible with vegetarianism/veganism without College London. existing habits (both associated with criticising others and being seen r.carmichael@imperial.ac.uk rapid innovation adoption). as a preacher or killjoy. And there @DrRCarmichael Meat analogues or substitutes, was a dilemma of abstinence: how by definition and design, fit in with to present the self as consistent existing habits – a plant-based burger is still a burger, yet also ‘human’ rather than boring, abstemious and not a deep-fried insect or a meal replacement drink. monk-like. As one diarist reported, ‘Something they Analogues also have clear advantages over meat for said did bother me though... they said, “You think health (less saturated fat), environment, and animal you’re above us, don’t you, but you’re a bit boring welfare – all now common concerns. Costs should really, aren’t you?”’ These social and rhetorical aspects can make being vegetarian or vegan a more challenging reduce substantially as plant-based alternative proteins and meat and dairy replacements increase their scale choice of lifestyle and identity. Often, managing these of production and follow the usual ‘learning curves’ dilemmas of identity involved vegans presenting for new technologies. Another food technology route themselves as ambivalent, conflicted and divided. for reducing meat intake is offered by products which Another commonly-reported strategy was to avoid the blend animal products with plant ingredients. Blended topic altogether, as ‘there’s no nice way to talk about it products are already showing success in the USA with really… you’re always going to have a hard time’. the ‘Blended Burger’, which incorporates 30 per cent Talking about diets and dietary change can mushroom into minced beef. be helpful. Social networks can help vegetarians/ As with broadening menus, the perception that vegans through information, emotional support and reinforcement of group norms. Coaching conversations a plant-based diet is extreme, weird or ‘other’ will diminish as analogues continue to improve in taste, can also be powerful for getting ‘unstuck’, clarifying texture and price. In light of their value to meeting and moving towards goals, or increasing resilience. These days, there is greater focus on the environmental climate goals and reducing public health costs, government should accelerate the further development and health benefits of plant-based eating than 20 years of meat and dairy analogues through seed-funding ago, but talking about veganism and meat eating can research and commercialisation of new products with a still draw attention to social identities and differences focus on consumer appeal, nutrition and sustainability. in ways that are uncomfortable and unhelpful. Rather than just talking about it, or changing the subject, Key sources Labelling and personalised feedback the most promising strategy for Improving the availability of tasty, healthy and normalising vegan foods will be to Carmichael, R. (2002). Becoming affordable plant-based options will lower several change the material and rhetorical vegetarian and vegan: Rhetoric, barriers to shifting diets. A second major bottleneck context to be more vegan-friendly. ambivalence and repression in to change centres around more informed consumer When enjoyable plantself-narrative. Doctoral thesis, choices. based food is readily available, Loughborough University. Available at Reducing UK consumption of high GHG-impact eating vegan becomes easy https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/ meat and dairy, which tend to be high in fat, is highly and unremarkable rather than handle/2134/6904 Carmichael, R. (2019). Behaviour change, consistent with a reduction in calories and saturated strict, extreme and boring. Less public engagement and Net Zero. A report fats. There is an opportunity for greater awareness justification is expected. The line for the Committee on Climate Change. about the nutritional and environmental impact of between vegans and non-vegans Available at https://www.theccc.org.uk/ foods to work together to produce behaviour change. becomes less divisive and vegan publication/behaviour-change-publicWhile consumers can find nutritional information stereotypes lose a lot of their engagement-and-net-zero-imperialin numerical form confusing, there is evidence that potency. It becomes less ‘other’ and college-london/ Committee on Climate Change (CCC). graphical ‘traffic light’ nutrition labelling (which more normal. (2019). Net Zero: The UK’s contribution indicate green, amber and red ratings for calories, fat, to stopping global warming. London. saturates, sugars and salt content) helps consumers Retrieved from https://www.theccc. make informed decisions about the food they are Meat analogues and blended org.uk/publication/net-zero-the-ukspurchasing. Traffic light labelling is currently voluntary products contribution-to-stopping-globalbut there is demand among UK consumers (who are A second strategy for making warming/ the most overweight in Western Europe) for clearer sustainable plant-based eating

the psychologist january 2021 vegan

Getting specific about producers This kind of personalised feedback on overall purchasing habits could also be offered for the environmental impact of a household’s food shopping. Surveys suggest that 72 per cent of UK shoppers want information on the climate impacts of their foods to help them make more informed choices. Feedback could also benchmark a household’s shopping patterns against guidelines for sustainable diets. Environmental impact labelling of food has a further pay-off when it is based on producer-specific data. High-impact beef producers can emit 12 times more GHGs than low producers and have nearly 50 times the land use of low-emitting beef producers. Halving consumption of animal products and avoiding the highest-impact producers would achieve 73 per cent of the GHG emissions reduction potential of switching to completely plant-based diets. Significant emissions reductions could be achieved therefore by consumers making easy choices of lower-impact producers/brands of the same food type. The Danish government has recently indicated its commitment to climate food labelling and feasibility has already be demonstrated with free-to-use software (e.g., CoolFarmTool).

Policy strategies •

•

Ensure at least one fully plant-based option on all public sector catering menus available to everyone everyday Introduce standardised ‘trafﬁc light’ labels on food showing nutrition and producer-speciﬁc climate impact Enable consumers to share their purchasing data with third parties offering feedback on overall shopping habits Revise agricultural subsidies to incentivise lower-emission food production and consumption

Under the Common Agricultural Policy, about three-quarters (€29-33 billion) of direct payments to EU farmers go to producers of livestock or livestock fodder – almost a fifth of the EU’s total annual budget. The producer-specific data used for food environmental impact labelling could also be used as the basis for administering a revised system of financial support that rewards lower-emission food producers to incentivise changes in production methods and product development and filter-down as price signals to consumers. More than talk Together, these recommendations for policy comprise a two-step approach to reducing diet-related emissions. Solutions will need to be introduced in a coordinated sequence to maximise impact and public acceptance. The first step is to improve consumer choice and availability of data, and the second is to introduce financial incentives for change in production and consumption. Across all areas of behaviour change for Net Zero, it will be vital to reduce existing barriers and make low carbon choices easy, attractive, affordable and normal. Material barriers (e.g., in menu design) create additional social barriers in terms of social identities and stereotypes around eating that reinforce the status quo. More than just talk will be needed if everyday life is to support rather than resist the shift in diets that is required. The last couple of years have been interesting times for veganism in the UK. With help from welldesigned policy, things could get a whole lot more interesting in the coming years.

Giki Zero

information. Brexit presents an opportunity to improve the currently confusing, and at times misleading, frontof-package (FOP) labelling and make standardised graphical nutrition labelling mandatory. But even more interesting and potentially effective for behavioural change is that mandatory labelling would allow personalised feedback. Consistent and mandatory traffic light labelling opens up the possibility for shoppers to receive feedback about their food purchases as a whole. This feedback would also take into account different product/package sizes. Such aggregating and weighting of food label data is difficult for a human to perform but easy for technology. Consumers would have a clear, highly visible picture of their overall shopping and eating patterns, which are otherwise difficult to see. Over time, this could encourage shoppers to take more notice of individual product labels. Survey research has demonstrated strong consumer interest in having this kind of whole basket nutrition feedback printed on till receipts, indicating its potential for informing healthier food purchases. Smartphone apps (e.g., Giki Zero) and shopping websites could also deliver this feedback for a customer’s weekly shop, tracking it over a longer timeframe. Importantly, this would also give consumers feedback on progress made towards improving their purchasing habits (or alert them if they drift into less healthy patterns of shopping). Goal setting, tracking, monitoring and feedback are commonly used strategies in digital behaviour change interventions, which motivate partly through making goal setting and progress more specific and measurable.

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‘Trying to change the world on my own would not work’ When Ian Florance asked him for an interview, Lawrence Moulin gave two reasons for agreeing: he wanted to talk about ‘how psychology can be applied in interesting places such as the Department of Health’; and to tell undergraduates who are, like him, from less ‘prestigious’ backgrounds, that they too can have a place in the profession. In his ﬁnal year studying psychology at university, Lawrence asked his tutor for advice on how to become a clinical psychologist. ‘Don’t bother, it’s impossible’, came the reply. After successfully training as a clinical psychologist Lawrence worked clinically and in the management of services for people with a learning disability. This led on to commissioning health services, policymaking and systems planning. He is currently chair of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology West Midlands Branch and active ‘politically’ in Birmingham.

Do not be put off, but be realistic! ‘Mine is a good luck story’, Lawrence tells me. ‘A number of chance things led me to becoming a psychologist. I grew up in a council house and initially failed my 11+. I didn’t get a university offer after my A-levels and ﬁnally got a place through clearing at Keele, where I studied psychology and history.’ His interest in psychology started at school. ‘In the lower sixth form you were offered the option either to do sports or voluntary work. Mine was a single sex school and I initially chose sports because they were organised jointly with the local girls’ school. But a number of my friends chose to work at the big – what was known as “subnormality” – hospital, Botleys Park in Chertsey. Over 1200 people with a learning disability lived there. My friends came back and told me how strange but also how fascinating it was, so I started volunteering too.’ ‘I worked there every summer while I was in sixth form and at university: as a nursing and play assistant, in occupational and industrial therapy and in locked wards. I found it absolutely fascinating; it taught me a great deal about life, and my summer pay got me through those years of study! The work also gave me an impressive body of relevant experience for a clinical course, and the opportunity to work with and learn from many different professionals.’ ‘At Keele in the ﬁrst year we studied everything from Russian to Astronomy, then students did a dual-

honours degree and by the end I was focusing on abnormal psychology.’ ‘The comment about the impossibility of becoming a clinical psychologist spurred me on. I had applied to get on a clinical course during my degree, but it took me three years to achieve this, working initially as a nursing assistant then as a psychology assistant. I think three years is still the average time it takes for applicants to get on to a clinical course after finishing at university. Given the prevalence of unpaid internships it must be so hard for applicants nowadays. I finally got onto a two-year MSc at Birmingham University.’ Along with the BPS West Midlands and East Midlands Branches Lawrence is currently planning a programme to visit every University in the Midlands to talk to undergraduates about careers in psychology. I ask him what sorts of things he suggests to students he talks to today. ‘It’s hard. You need to build up a portfolio of work, publications, and activities, but I think it is essential to be realistic about how long you are going to keep trying to get on a clinical course. Do not get transfixed on clinical psychology. You need a Plan B with a timescale. The more I talk to members of the “Psychology family” the more exciting the range of options seems.’ Not a conventional career On the topic of the training itself, Lawrence is gently optimistic, but points out some key areas that need to be addressed. ‘There’s just been an announcement of more training places which is great. But as many people have been saying a key issue is the time and cost it takes to build up the experience to get onto a course. Those who can afford this may be from a restricted segment of society; one which is distant from where so many of our clients come from, especially when you look at the wonderfully diverse communities we have in a city like Birmingham. We need to do so much more to include more BAME students and those from more diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds in our profession.’

the psychologist january 2021 careers

Lawrence’s early employment involved working as a clinical psychologist in North Warwickshire NHS Health Trust. He moved through a number of roles and in the early 2000s led the delivery across England of the Mental Health National Service Framework. He finally left the NHS in 2013 and started his own consultancy. This is, perhaps, not a conventional psychologist’s career. ‘I will always remember, probably in the summer of 1977, I was working as an Occupational Therapy Aid in the “subnormality” hospital. During our lunchtimes we would volunteer to support young people with profound physical and learning disabilities on the wards to help them learn to feed themselves. One day I realised that we taught them for five lunchtimes a week, but the rest of the time they were spoon fed by nursing staff. Any tiny step forward we might achieve during one week was surely forgotten after the weekend. If instead I worked with/supported/ trained nursing staff, so between us the children were consistently taught to feed themselves, maybe we could really help them. Trying to change the world on my own would not work, but by working and organising together we could really have an impact on people’s lives.’ A manager with a background in psychology In 1999 the Blair government introduced the Mental Health National Service Framework, a policy which he views as strongly informed by psychological thinking. It directed the development of mental health services in seven areas: health promotion, primary care, access to specialist services, the needs of those with severe and enduring mental illness, carers’ needs, and suicide reduction. It had a series of targets, such as the development of 200 assertive outreach teams for people with long term mental health problems who found it hard to engage with services as well as 335 crisis resolution teams and 50 early intervention teams for young people who were moving into a first episode of psychosis. ‘I was asked to join the Department of Health (DoH) to lead the implementation of the framework, working with the mental health leads in English Strategic Health Authorities. I needed to really understand the evidence and research behind these new services, be able to share that with leads, and work with them to see how it would work practically in their area. I then needed to square those local realities with the DoH Performance team! For example, Herefordshire was meant to have three crisis teams, but with half the county’s population in Hereford City and the rest sparsely distributed in a huge rural hinterland we agreed locally to implement two teams each larger than the model, and then I had to convince the DoH performance team that two was three! This goes back to my point about my early experience of working with diverse groups of people. I had to deal with different geographies, clinical priorities and ways of doing

things. It was about storytelling, negotiation, putting people together, and, I suppose, leadership.’ In his role in the DoH and in an earlier role advising commissioners, Lawrence wasn’t employed speciﬁcally as a psychologist or in a role described formally as a ‘psychologist’ job, but for his wider range of skills and expertise. ‘It raises interesting issues about professionals being involved in policy development and delivery,’ he says. ‘Are they employed to represent their professional group and because of their professional training or because of their ability to form teams, provide more generalised leadership etc.? As an example, in the late ‘90s I worked advising NHS commissioners. They invited the local Trust and local charities to bid to develop some psychological support programmes in GP practices, and asked me to assess the bids. The local charities had produced an exciting bid; by contrast, the Trust’s psychology department submitted a rudimentary bid which felt off-the-shelf. Was I there to speak on behalf of psychology or the local people? After some soul-searching I advised they commissioned the local charities service.’ We talked about potential moral issues, such as those faced by the scientists on the panel of Covid-19 news conferences, or potentially by nurse and doctor members on Trust boards. ‘I was very fortunate not to face those types of dilemmas, I’d love to believe I’d be a hero, stick to my principles and walk away. That would

be ﬁne for me, but if I had a young family, I’m really not sure.’ What are Branches for? Our conversation moved to Lawrence’s present activities. He chairs the Society’s West Midlands Division of Clinical Psychology Branch and is a member of the West Midlands BPS Branch. ‘There is real tension in the BPS. It has been well signposted that we have a really complex structure – 150-160 branches, groups, faculties etc. I think. So there needs to be change. I am a great fan of Branches; they support, enable, and develop their members, and can also engage with local people and local health structures. But we also need to do more to work across Branches, be that between DCP Branches or between the BPS, DCP and other structures. ‘ What does Lawrence’s future look like? ‘My term

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Fair’s fair? What should psychologists understand about austerity, and ways to broaden the role of psychologists in order to combat its effects? Insights from ‘Make My City Fair’ in Birmingham. https://thepsychologist. bps.org.uk/fairs-fair

as chair of the West Midlands DCP finishes at the end of this year and I want to focus more on work across Birmingham and the West Midlands. The Make My City Fair initiative – an anti-austerity programme we’re working to develop here [see below], is a real focus for me. We are looking at whether we can help drive big initiatives – like the “Preston model” for community wealth building – or micro-changes, as ways forward to transform our city.’ Some interviews in The Psychologist have highlighted the need for psychologists to have more influence on policymaking. Often this seems to require a more proactive, assertive communications stance, using white papers and press releases as well as personal influencing of key figures. For me, talking with Lawrence about his career highlights a different method of influencing: working as a manager in policy-sensitive areas, using psychological background, knowledge and experience.

Plus a call for our special summer 2021 edition, around the theme ‘From poverty to ﬂourishing’

thepsychologist.bps.org.uk 52

the psychologist monthyear careers

Bowlby Centre Online Conference 2021 Saturday 24 April 2021 This conference will bring together clinicians from diverse backgrounds to explore the ways in which our early attachments may contribute to how we develop our sense of a gendered self and how we come to experience our bodies sexually. Our speakers will be bringing multiple perspectives to this conference – and in particular, perspectives from attachment theory, feminism and transgender theory. The aim of this conference is to explore and develop our understanding of the many ways in which we come to experience our bodies and how we choose to identify ourselves.

Attachment, the body and gender Can we assume there is a link between our early attachment history and how we come to develop our sense of gender? In what way can the treatment of our bodies as babies impact on our sense of gender? To what extent do we form our gender identity from our caregivers’ sense of their own gender? How do our attachments to primary caregivers impact on our ability to safely explore our gender identities? What is the impact on us when we can’t talk about our gendered sense of self?

Speakers Meg-John Barker (they / them) Igi Moon (they / them) Susie Orbach (she / her) Further speakers to be announced

To book your place please visit www.thebowlbycentre.org.uk/cpd/ The Bowlby Centre is a Company Limited by Guarantee N. 3272512. Registered Charity No. 1064780/0

Jobs in Psychology Whether you are a recent graduate, or a Psychologist looking for a change in career, you can view current vacancies for a range of Psychology roles here, or view the latest roles on the new appointments site www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk The job site is still the number one online resource for psychology jobs. Fully accessible on mobile and desktop computers, the site features increased search functionality, superb ease of use and navigation. For recruiters, there are many more targeting options for you to promote your vacancies to potential candidates. All adverts placed in The Psychologist will have their adverts included on the job site.

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Aspire Therapy Services Ltd Clinical Psychologist Skelmersdale £53,168-£63,751 WTE (depending on experience)

‘…the potential to make a signiﬁcant difference’ Job Title: Associate Psychologists Employer: Connect Psychological Services

Registered Forensic and Clinical psychologists Connect Psychological Services (CPS) are expanding their team of self-employed HCPC Registered Forensic and Clinical psychologists (with forensic experience), ideally with a minimum of 2 years post qualification experience. CPS are also looking to employ a psychologist, on a full or part-time basis, and would welcome expressions of interest. • CPS receive referrals for assessments throughout the UK. • Associate work is flexible and can be undertaken around existing employment and/or commitments, closer to home or further afield, with overnight accommodation expenses paid. • The primary purpose will be to provide independent psychologi cal risk assessment reports in predominantly prison and immigration law cases, although we receive referrals in criminal, family and mental health law. • When requested you will be required to give evidence regarding your psychological assessment report (e.g. parole board review hearing, immigration tribunal hearing). • CPS provide peer supervision and mentoring throughout the duration of a case from referral through to submission of the report, and in preparation for giving evidence, if required at a hearing. • At no point do associates feel like they are working in isolation; you will feel supported, valued and part of a team. • Peer supervision is predominantly undertaken by CPS Director and Clinical Lead, Gemma Clarke. Gemma has a wealth of experience gained in both the public and private sector before establishing CPS in 2014. • The CPS associate team, whose knowledge base can also be utilised, comprises forensic and clinical psychologists with a variety of specialisms, as well as neurodevelopmental disorder specialists and a registered mental health nurse. • Associates have access to a library of resources to help them in their role, as well as assessments. • CPS provide administrative support throughout the duration of the case ensuring associates have all of the information they need. • CPS also provide CPD opportunities. • Payment terms can be flexible to suit you; offering an immediate settlement scheme if that is your preference.

If you are interested in joining the team, please send your CV to admin@connect-ps.co.uk and we will provide you with a registration pack, which includes information about the company, nature of referrals received, fee structure and payment terms. Also, if you have any questions about the role and/or nature of the work, and what it is like working for CPS, please get in touch. You can view our website on www.connect-ps.co.uk.

‘The business has grown organically since I founded it in 2014’, says Gemma Clarke, Director and Clinical Lead of Connect Psychological Services. ‘My aim is to create a bigger team of associates and employees to meet the increased demand for expert witness services, in predominantly prison law cases. With more team members on board conducting risk assessments, we will be able to expand on the organisation’s consultancy, therapeutic and training services.’ The advertisement and recently revised company website give a good idea of the flexible way in which these associates work. I asked Gemma to describe the sort of person who would thrive in the role. ‘Some of our associates have other jobs; for instance, in the NHS. This role provides them with flexibility and a secure way of experiencing selfemployment. Others are fully involved in private practice. Whatever their situation, it’s rewarding and varied work. The role comes with a huge responsibility: we have the potential to make a significant difference in people’s lives and can be the difference between someone progressing in their sentence and being released back into the community, or not. There is a power imbalance, and we need to be considerate of this when meeting and interviewing clients. Compassion is essential but this must balance with protecting the public.’ ‘When recruiting, I look for experience in our areas of work. Associates should be reliable, organised, diligent, thoughtful, and considered. I’d welcome people who are prepared to offer innovative ideas to develop what we do. Writing understandable, wellpresented reports which are evidence-based and informed by psychological theory and knowledge is key. Associates also need good verbal communication skills if called to a parole hearing. CPS has developed a good reputation based on the high standard of reports produced, evidenced by the testimonials received. It’s important associates have these qualities for this to be maintained.‘ What do you provide associates? ‘Training and development opportunities: commitment to CPD is critical. We also provide access to assessments and relevant resources to help them in their role. Importantly, we offer support and a personal approach with peer supervision through the duration of a case, and a network of psychologists/specialists whose knowledge and expertise can be drawn on. I like to meet and get to know them. They are part of our team and I want them to feel they can contact me whenever. I also try to get them together socially whenever I can.’

Forensic Psychologists â&#x20AC;&#x201C; UK Wide

Make a difference every day Working in a Serco prison might not have been something that you considered before, but if you are a person who believes in rehabilitative justice and wants to help offenders address the factors KPĆ&#x192;WGPEKPI VJGKT ETKOKPCN DGJCXKQWT VJGP YG certainly have the job for you. As psychologists who work closely with our client group, we understand that many of the hard to reach, complex individuals we work with will have experienced trauma. We draw on multifarious theories and principles as we aim to create a safe environment that develops trust, takes a compassion focused approach, and supports autonomy in order VQ YQTM VQYCTFU RTQOQVKPI UGNH GHĆ&#x201A;ECE[ CPF empowerment. Operating across six prisons in VJG 7- CPF OQTG KP #UKC 2CEKĆ&#x201A;E YG CTG MPQYP HQT our transferable global experience and proven innovative approaches.

What we can offer you 9JCVGXGT RTKUQP [QW LQKP WU CV [QWoNN Ć&#x201A;PF C YGNN FGĆ&#x201A;PGF ENQUG MPKV CPF UWRRQTVKXG VGCO s YKVJ roles that you can make your own and that play to your strengths. And when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ready to move up or specialise, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be wholeheartedly supported on career development, with internal progression strongly encouraged. This includes funding training pertinent to your role, for example (but certainly not limited to): HCR-20; WAIS and RSVP assessments; and jobTGNCVGF %2& VTCKPKPI #U C SWCNKĆ&#x201A;GF 2U[EJQNQIKUV we pay your BPS and HCPC registration fees and offer you 10 days annually, fully funded, to attend CPD training or conferences. 1WT TQNGU KPEQTRQTCVG Ć&#x192;GZKDNG YQTMKPI VQQ YKVJ LQD sharing, reduced hours, occasional home working, CPF Ć&#x192;GZKDNG UVCTV CPF Ć&#x201A;PKUJ VKOGU CNN RQUUKDNG

Current Vacancies Forensic Psychologist HMP Doncaster, South Yorkshire E: Victoria.Bleanch@serco.com

Senior Forensic Psychologist HMP Thameside, London E: Philippa.Thody@serco.com

Senior Forensic Psychologist */2 #UJĆ&#x201A;GNF $TKUVQN E: Sonja.Copestake@serco.com

Senior Forensic Psychologist (Therapeutic Community) & Senior Forensic Psychologist HMP Dovegate, Staffordshire E: Linda.Palethorpe@serco.com

Senior Forensic Psychologist HMP Lowdham Grange, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire E: Rachele.Murphy@serco.com

Forensic Psychologist (12 month FTC) HMP Kilmarnock E: Nicola.Wylie@serco.com

For more information on these roles please get in touch: W: serco.com/uk/careers E: Sephlyn.Nelson@serco.com 56

Educational Psychologist roles in London EdPsychs provide educational psychology services to schools across London and beyond. We have been embed educational psychology across the whole school community. The core company values of integrity, freedom and contribution to society run through all aspects of our work, and our company aim is to help create a fairer, more ethical and more inclusive society. Our educational psychology team is experienced and highly skilled (and many are former course directors, regular joint development days; regular and ongoing supervision using a range of models and a variety of EP work across mainstream and specialist schools. We also have a team of Assistant Psychologists (APs) who successfully support the work of our EPs and schools. Our EPs are exceptional and we are a rapidly expanding company. We have the following positions available:

0.4 EP contract 0.6 EP contract 0.8 EP contract 1.0 EP contract These entry level contracts start at £55,000 a year with 11 weeks holiday (all to be taken during school holidays) or pro-rata thereof Regular training, support and supervision Future opportunities to work on the EdPsychs Research, Leadership and Development Team (RLDT), and these roles start at £62,000 and progress to £70,000 per year (or pro-rate thereof) with a £2000 a year annual additional training budget

To be eligible to apply, you must be a HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist with at least three years’ experience working as an educational psychologist in the UK. To apply, simply send a copy of your CV to Tereza Matysova, Operational Director of EdPsychs at enquiries@edpsychs.com with your answers to the following questions: How would you support an anxious, demotivated Year 7 student who is finding it hard to write? What is the most impactful EP training you have ever delivered and why? When have you made the biggest

We also have a range of consultancy opportunities available across London at our usual rates of £450 a day. As we provide so much initial training, supervision and support there is a minimum 60 days per year commitment for consultancy roles.

What do you hope to achieve as an EP? How would you contribute to EdPsychs?

You can learn more about some of what we do at www.edpsychs.com EdPsychs are an equal opportunities employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments at interview, please let us know in advance. The closing date for applications is 15th January 2021. © EdPsychs Ltd Company Registration No: 6862108 VAT Registration Number: 251 3899 87 10 Harley Street, London, W1G 9PF Tel: 0207 467 1517 www.EdPsychs.com Email: enquiries@edpsychs.com ●

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www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk If you are looking for a change in career or just getting started, the BPS job site has the latest vacancies in all areas of psychology throughout the UK and overseas. Register on the site today to be notified of new jobs in your area. If you need to advertise your vacancies, please contact Krishan Parmar t: 01223 378 051 e: krishan.parmar@cpl.co.uk 58

great place to live great place to work Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service

Clinical Psychologist Salary: Band 8a £45,753 - £51,668 pa The Isle of Wight NHS Trust CAMHs team is pleased to announce it is expanding following a transformation programme. As part of this expansion we are looking for a Clinical Psychologist to work in our multi-disciplinary CAMHS team. You’ll join our existing Clinical Psychologists and Consultant Psychologist in delivering high quality and innovative psychological solutions to children, young people and their families who experience difﬁculties with mental health. To do this, you will work alongside our mental health nurses, family therapists, psychological therapists, associate practitioners and psychiatrists and also work collaboratively with other agencies to create effective and individualised packages of intervention. The Service offers individual and group therapies to a wide range of client groups alongside family interventions and parent/carers workshops. We also provide consultation and training to professionals including the voluntary sector, education and social care. Common presentations for the service include trauma, issues of attachment, depression, emerging psychoses, anxiety and mood disorders, self-harming and self-injurious behaviour, behaviour that challenges in the context of mental health difﬁculties and psychosomatic disorders. In addition we have a specialist eating disorder service. The post reaches across all aspects of the service, making this a role which can be adapted to suit both experienced applicants who are looking to further develop areas of specialism as their career progresses, or applicants wanting to build experience and be supported in moving into an 8a role. In addition to delivering psychological therapies, you will support the development of psychological thinking and skills

within the wider team. You will have the opportunity to supervise and mentor assistant and trainee psychologists. The service has strong links with the clinical psychology doctoral training course at the University of Southampton which provides opportunities to train as a clinical supervisor and to pursue research and teaching interests. Additionally, there is a strong peer support network of Clinical Psychologists in the trust with a recognised Head of Psychology to ensure the wider structural and strategic development of psychological therapies. There are opportunities to work collaboratively with this network both clinically and for research. You will undertake service development and service evaluation projects, and will be encouraged to develop ideas for new psychological initiatives. The Isle of Wight offers the opportunity for multiple sporting, music and arts activities combined with rural areas of outstanding natural beauty and easy commuting distance to the mainland with good road and rail links to London and Southern England and regional airports- so life and work on the Island is “connected” with opportunities for good work-life balance. For further information please contact Andrea Burrow, Consultant Clinical Psychologist or Cally Wareham, Team Leader on 01983 523602. For more details and to apply online visit jobs.nhs.uk and search under Job Ref: 470-20-598-SH. Closing date: 30 January 2021

‘A person with a learning disability is a person first’ Made possible: Stories of success by people with learning disabilities – in their own words edited by Saba Salman and published by Unbound is out now. Deputy Editor Annie Brookman-Byrne asked Saba about the book. Can you tell us about how your sister Raana inspired you to put this book together? Made Possible simply wouldn’t exist without Raana, who has the learning disability fragile X syndrome. When my sister was younger, she wasn’t asked that question that all children get asked: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Society simply doesn’t regard someone like Raana as capable of success and that’s what inspired the book. I wanted to challenge the concept that having a learning disability means aspiration doesn’t apply to you. I’ve seen my sister grow up and achieve amazing things, whether that’s winning a commendation from her headteacher for being a role model for other pupils or moving to supported living and becoming more independent. I wanted to share her success and prove that with the right support everyone can shine. Success is such a crucial part of being human and if we don’t extend it to learning disabled people we fail to see them as human. Made Possible is, thanks to Raana, a book about equality and inclusion, with a clear, simple argument at its core – a person with a learning disability is a person first. Do we need to alter our definition of success? We absolutely need to change how we define success – and who we allow to define it. Success is a universal concept; there needs to be far greater acknowledgement that it applies to everyone, and that it can take many

L-R Raana Salman and Saba Salman in the garden (pic credit Maya Gould)

different forms. Raana hasn’t won any national honours or performed on a national stage and screen like some of the Made Possible contributors, but that doesn’t mean what she’s achieved is any less valuable. What success looks like depends on the individual. Made Possible features the stories of groundbreaking and successful people in the arts, campaigning, politics and sport. Yet my sister’s version of success is that she lives in a place she loves, surrounded by people she wants to be with and chooses to do things she enjoys – she’s also supported to keep up strong links with her family. Society would never regard Raana as successful because if you mention the words ‘learning disability’ to most people, they’ll think of personal deﬁcit, not personality. We need to value what people can contribute to society and I think we’d be richer for it if we did. What’s your favourite story of success in the book? I honestly can’t pick a single one because they’re all so powerful and engaging and each has a unique tone and voice. A lot of readers have commented on how they love the direct and raw energy in human rights campaigner Shaun Webster’s story and how he’s proved his critics and bullies wrong. I’ve also had some amazing feedback on singer Lizzie Emeh’s chapter where she describes her talent and others fell in love with actor Sarah Gordy’s words on the art of acting and what drives her. I genuinely

the psychologist january 2021 books love all the essays and throughout lockdown I’ve been dipping into them to stay motivated and positive. Is the way that society sees people with learning disabilities changing? And how does it need to change going forward? Had my sister been born 50 years ago, my parents would have been encouraged to put her away in an institution and forget about her. Thankfully this doesn’t happen today, so clearly attitudes have changed for the better. Equality and inclusion laws have been introduced (thanks to decades of campaigning by activists and families) and people live far better lives. But more than 2000 people are still locked away in assessment and treatment units, less than 6 per cent of learning disabled people are in paid work and health inequalities mean they die sooner than they should. And coronavirus has exacerbated these challenges not least with the huge problems over testing and personal protective equipment. People have effectively become less visible during lockdown and the death rate among learning disabled people more than doubled during Covid-19. It’s utterly shameful. Made Possible proves there’s another way and that people are capable of reaching their potential if supported and enabled in a way that works for them. We need attitudinal change and for learning disabled people to be more active and involved in our neighbourhoods and communities – something that is entirely achievable. There’s a great quote in Made Possible from self-advocate Paul Scarrott, who works with user-led charity My Life My Choice: ‘People should come in and see our charity and see what we do – it would change people’s minds’. Paul’s absolutely right. There are people doing amazing things every day, yet most people are completely unaware. What can psychologists do better to support those with learning disabilities? We know that people with learning disabilities get far worse healthcare outcomes than those without learning disabilities and are overlooked for treatment. Too often, diagnostic overshadowing means issues with a learning disabled person’s physical or mental health are put down to their ‘condition’, and assumptions are made that have disastrous outcomes. I know so many people who have spent time in institutional care and while they might have eventually recovered physically from the experience, the emotional and mental toll is harder to overcome. As ever one size doesn’t fit all – talking-based therapies don’t suit my sister for example, who finds verbalising her feelings difficult – but a more creative approach might suit her better. I’d hope the best practitioners would adopt a tailor-made approach led by their clients with ‘reasonable adjustments’, for example, for people who find communication difficult. Capturing a view of the whole person might also involve drawing on the knowledge of someone’s support staff or family, which isn’t always par for the course. Essentially, learning disabled people have every right to live as full a life as anyone else and not to be treated as second class citizens and psychologists can play a crucial part in changing this status quo.

An antidote to the orthodoxy Data Femininism Catherine D’Ignazio & Lauren F. Klein MIT Press Open

Western science largely takes a colour-blind, neutral, and apolitical viewpoint. Power asymmetries and social hierarchies are viewed as inconsequential to scientiﬁc endeavours. The Western, white, cisgendered, able-bodied and male perspective – hailed as ‘God’s eye view’ – is the standard against which all science is measured. Data science is no different in inheriting this worldview. Dichotomies such as emotion vs. reason are commonplace; context is seen not as a vital background but as a contaminant; and the data scientist (with her background, interests, motivations, and political inclinations) remains invisible. Data Feminism is an antidote to this orthodoxy, wherein the authors begin by acknowledging their privilege, status, and positionality, and continue to engage reﬂexively throughout the book. The book puts forward a feminist data science by building on the work of scholars and activists from intersectional feminism to sociology, archival studies and more. In doing so, the authors tackle persistent misconceptions: that data are neutral, that ‘numbers speak for themselves’, and that data exist out in the world awaiting collection. Far from being neutral, objective, and apolitical, data cannot be divorced from the inherently oppressive and racist structures in which they are embedded. Our lives are affected by datasets and algorithms which recapitulate historical and existing power asymmetries. Data practices that are unaware of hierarchies of privilege, context and oppressive structures sustain the status quo. Power is wielded where it already is concentrated. The book brings humans back to the centre of data science and remains close to them throughout, asking questions such as: Whose views predominate in data science? Who is marginalised and made invisible? Who is forced into visibility and excessive surveillance to the detriment of their safety? Who

benefits? Who disproportionately suffers harm? The book shines a light on such issues and concedes that data science should acknowledge and tackle them directly. In centring humans, the authors attempt to ground data practices in messy and contextual political ecologies and concrete lives. Since most data in data science are about people, it is only realistic that practices such as data visualization reflect human experiences. The authors oppose dichotomies such as emotion vs. reason, in contrast to the orthodoxy which forcefully divorces emotions from visualisation. Instead, they advocate for data visceralization – a type of data visualization framed around emotions where the whole body, not just the eye, can partake in understanding data – for representing the conditions of living bodies. As algorithmic decision making increasingly becomes integral to daily life, there is also a growing body of work surrounding ethics in data science and AI. Yet, a substantial amount of the work can be classified as shallow insofar as asymmetrical power distributions and structural inequalities get little, if any, attention. The focus of these ethical analyses is on narrow problems such as improving fairness metrics, often without consideration for the harm data tools can inflict on marginalised and vulnerable communities. While not entirely opposing such shallow efforts, Data Feminism provides principles for understanding and practicing data science. At its core, the book contends that data and data science is not an abstract and apolitical practice that emerges in a vacuum but is inherently historical, cultural and contextual. Consequently, the book is geared towards understanding the broader issues of justice over the narrow concept of ethics; tackling structural oppression

over bias; and prioritising equity over fairness. Data practices – dominated by white Western men unaware of their oppressive structures – as long as they remain unexamined harm marginalised communities. Those from dominant groups are unable to detect these harms, what the authors call ‘privilege hazard’. Projects that are led by and emerge from minoritized communities hold the key to sustainable solutions. The book is full of examples of ongoing projects from marginalised communities, including data initiatives by black women, transgender and non-binary people, and indigenous people. If you are interested in how data science can impact our lives directly or indirectly, this book is a good read. It is written in a playful manner and provides accessible examples throughout. Some of the neologisms such as ‘Big Dick Data’ – masculinist, totalising fantasies of world domination as enacted through data – make the book a gem. For those coming to data justice, ethics, and fairness, from statistics, data science, or computational sciences generally, this book will feel ground-breaking as it radically reimagines these concepts. For those with a background of, for example, Black feminist studies, the background work that the book leans on is not novel. Nonetheless, synthesising theories and ideas from various disciplines is challenging – interdisciplinary work is an uphill climb – and Data Feminism manages this eloquently. Reviewed by Abeba Birhane, PhD Candidate, University College Dublin & Lero – The Irish Software Research Centre

On, of and for the brain

The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul: Learning and the Origins of Consciousness by Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka takes readers on a scientiﬁc and philosophical journey that gives both an imaginative and incredibly productive perspective on consciousness. The book is an epic poem, albeit in technical but accessible prose, addressing fundamental questions about the relationship between living organisms and the world. Read Professor Tom Dickins’ full review at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk

the psychologist january 2021 books

Can you cultivate serendipity? The word serendipity was coined by Horace Walpole and famously refers to a combination of accident and sagacity. It describes more than good fortune, rather it is the process of using and exploiting the luck that is ever present in our environment. It is this ‘sagacity’ that makes serendipity interesting to psychologists investigating how people interact with uncertainty. As a cognitive psychologist investigating serendipity in problem solving and creativity, I was particularly looking forward to the much-trailed publication of The Serendipity Mindset by Dr Christian Busch, which focuses on developing serendipity as a skill. The book shows how we can shape our encounters with the world using ‘smart luck’. Smart luck involves widening your circle of experience, actively embracing chance and setting out to connect dots which may not initially seem related. The emphasis of this skill is to act and be ready for failure but, also, by being engaged in action, be able to restructure that failure. At first, this might appear common sense, but it is skilfully argued with in-depth scientific research. The ultimate message is that we have two choices in dealing with inevitable uncertainty: follow welltrodden pathways or embrace that uncertainty is both exciting and inspirational. Via stories from entrepreneurs and social enterprises through successful marriages and collaborations, Busch helps us to treasure the ability to profit from the unexpected. There is much debate in the field about the nature of serendipity – whether it is a skill or a disposition, and to what extent it is possible to cultivate it. Certainly, my own labbased research has demonstrated that moments of serendipity may be particularly hard to predict or cultivate which at times casts doubt on serendipity narratives which are told retrospectively. In other words, the narrative may reflect more the person’s understanding of serendipity than the moment of serendipity itself. However, the

The Serendipity Mindset: The art and science of creating good luck Christian Busch Penguin

stories that Busch draws on and the research evidence certainly shows the value of looking at serendipity from a broader perspective. Perhaps because of my initially sceptical view, I was drawn to the last two chapters, which discuss the narrative framing of serendipity which can sometimes lead to survivorship bias, and the uncontrollable nature of lucky events in our lives. The power of this book is in guiding us to make the most of these lucky events. Rather than being another feelgood book, The Serendipity Mindset is ﬁrmly based in the science of how people behave and interact with

uncertainty and what changes can facilitate that. I would particularly recommend it to anyone who has been wondering how to open up their life chances. The exercises at the end of each chapter and the overall ‘serendipity score’ (providing a personal gage of your own skill) are useful heuristics to facilitate life changes. I may not always agree with the conclusions, but I cannot fault the science and the research. A mustread introduction to the science of this fascinating concept. Reviewed by Wendy Ross, PhD student at Kingston University

Books online: More at www.thepsychologist.org.uk, including ‘If we don’t solve the incentives problem, we will become a very narrow discipline’: Tomasz Witkowski meets Brian Nosek, in an edited extract from Tomasz’s new book Shaping Psychology: Perspectives on Legacy, Controversy and the Future of the Field.

‘The monster was, and still is, hate’ Psychologist Bernie Graham on his participation in the BBC documentary My Family, The Holocaust and Me, and why he thinks such stories are particularly important now. Our editor Jon Sutton asks the questions

How did the programme come about? Following the success of Rob Rinder’s BAFTA winning Who Do You Think You Are the BBC wanted to explore further the experiences of second and third generation Holocaust survivors. I believe they placed an ad in both the Association of Jewish Refugees and the ‘Second Generation Network’ newsletters asking for people to contribute. I responded, offering some of the family information I had, but had no thoughts of appearing in any programme. Cutting a long story short, we had a good few telephone calls and exchanges of emails and then they asked me to do an interview on camera. I must admit

to being a little surprised when they selected me for the programme. Why do you think that this is an important programme to make? As the number of ﬁrst generation survivors diminishes, it becomes increasingly important that we do not forget their experiences during the horrors of the Holocaust. Hopefully, such programmes can also help discourage and negate Holocaust denial. The programme is also a warning for today and the future with the rise of hate and intolerance throughout the world. Whether it’s racism/

the psychologist january 2021 culture antisemitism, Islamophobia or homophobia, we must try to do all we can to stem this tide. Many people have trauma in their family history. Do you think there’s something about the Holocaust, other than sheer scale, which makes it different? Rob said: ‘Its shadow, its dark impact, has affected everything, it has shaped my entire family’. Maybe it was the systematic industrialised nature of the Holocaust and the careful recording of it by the perpetrators. It was also the first genocide captured on film. Additionally, it could be because it was the intention of the Nazis to completely eradicate a ‘race’ and other groups of ‘undesirables’. The timescale of this mass murder, some 10 million men, women, and children in under five years, is unprecedented in history. This Holocaust was also personal – my family were murdered in this genocide and I felt I was born into a state of bereavement. As a child I remember hearing an awful lot about dead relatives and family friends. Having said this, I see parallels with the Slavery Holocaust: 12 million Africans were ‘shipped’ across the world into slavery with 2 million dying during transport. I recently delivered a seminar for the National Black Crown Prosecutors Association on Transgenerational Trauma, focusing on the slavery and Nazi holocausts… more are planned.. Do you think that being a Psychologist was of relevance to this programme, in terms of why you went into it or how you reacted during it? Yes and No: Yes, because I have undertaken clinical training around Post Traumatic Stress Injury and have worked with many traumatised clients: survivors of child sexual abuse, refugees and veterans… so I had a level of professional awareness of what I was entering into. No because this was a very personal exploration of my family’s history. I’ve explored the impact of the Nazi Holocaust on my family and myself in my personal therapy, and Wall to Wall Productions / BBC provided an excellent psychotherapist offering ongoing support. But I don’t believe anything can prepare you completely for such encounters with the past. It would be amiss of me not to acknowledge the support I also received from the Wall to Wall film crew while filming in Germany – they couldn’t have done more. The day in Dachau was particularly difficult, but the almost hourly text message support I received from my dear friend Simon Weston CBE helped me enormously. Now there is a man who understands trauma. You seemed to be reacting as if the events you were being told about were happening at that very moment. The documentary was made by some of the BAFTA award winning members of the Who Do You Think You Are production team who made Rob Rinder’s original programme. In keeping with their production MO, uncomfortable detail is presented in real time to elicit a genuine and immediate reaction. I was also asked if I would sight read documents without any preparation to enable this.

In the programme the Clein sisters commented on seeing beautiful images of their relative, hearing about a man who travelled across countries to be with her, and coming out of that with pride… these stories are adding humanity in the face of inhumanity. I could find no light in the revelations presented in the programme. However, my parents (both Kindertransport refugees) exhibited incredible resilience during their lives of which I am so immensely proud. I was struck by the contrast with Rob’s grandfather, who just said ‘I know what happened [he didn’t]… what happened to millions of others. I really don’t know what you’ll find.’ Do you think that urge to know more is more common in second and third generations of survivors’ families? I think it would be hard to generalise. Within my own family some are particularly interested, others less so. I think those who don’t appear to want to know more may find it all too painful and just want to put it behind them. Are there still things you want to find out? If so, why? Do you still have that sense of wanting to hear more, but having concerns about that too? We have little information on the detail of the fate of my father’s family: of the seven members of his immediate family only two survived. We believe they were murdered in Treblinka and Belzec concentration camps. I want to find out more because exploring their fate enables me to know them at least a little and in doing so giving them some life. Concerns? Definitely. However, nothing I may endure comes close to what they did. When Rob stands by the graves, he reminds us of the importance that these people are remembered, that we know they had brothers and sisters who delighted in them. ‘It’s giving them part of their humanity, which was deprived.’ He says maybe that’s enough for now, but he goes on to remind us that is not the only place of earth like this in the world, and that the hardest part is maybe there will continue to be more. How do you think Holocaust stories specifically can help us to avoid history repeating itself? I would concur with what was written in the book The Reader; there is no catharsis in such places. However, through remembrance and education we can enable future generations to at least be aware of the horrifying consequences of hate and ignorance and hopefully they will do all they can to avoid repetition. We just have to hope. Now that you know the stories, has it changed you? Yes, it has changed me. I have learnt, as I say at the end of the programme, that ‘the monster’ was not Germany, it was and still is hate. Hatred of anybody, this isn’t just about Jews. Find My Family, the Holocaust and Me on BBC iPlayer..

Disclosing derogation and disregard tv Adult Material Channel 4

Lucy Kirkwood’s Adult Material is not an easy watch, but it is an important one. Peeling back the layers of this outwardly comical Channel 4 drama exposes a dark and uncomfortable side to the porn industry. The four episodes follow 33-year-old porn actress Hayley Burrows (played by Hayley Squires), embedding themes of consent, trauma, addiction, classism and the fluctuation of power. The series begins by presenting Hayley as empowered, the poster girl of porn, whilst also being a mum of three and a good wife. However, when Hayley meets Amy, a new girl on set not much older than her own daughter, everything collapses. Amy is humiliated and unknowingly abused on set, and Hayley is determined to fight for justice despite struggling with the consequences of her alcoholism. Hayley is defended by MP Stella Maitland, forming an unlikely friendship which forces Hayley to relive her own traumas and understand her true motivations behind fighting for justice. The themes represented in the drama are scarily common to the real lives of porn performers – see Rebecca Whisnant’s 2016 paper ‘Pornography, Humiliation, and Consent’. The demand for humiliation and degradation is increasing in modern pornography, according to a 2015 meta analysis led by Paul Wright, Robert Tokunaga and Ashley Kraus. It’s also common with sex workers, who are incentivised with elevated financial gain. This is something Adult Material highlights in episode one. Research has confirmed severe public humiliation, such as that shown in the programme, can result in major depression, suicide, anxiety and psychosis. Furthermore, Walter Torres and Raymond Bergner have suggested that the consequences are exacerbated when humiliation is photographed, such as within porn. Despite this, there is limited research on sex workers’

www.thepsychologist.org.uk/reviews: Find more including: Harry Clark on Fantastic Fungi; Chrissie Fitch on His House and Stateless

experiences of humiliation and trauma. Whisnant suggests this is due to the assumed consent actors give; in other words, that actors have chosen to be there, so it’s fine. Adult Material brings to light the ignorance of that point of view. Instead, it publicises the negative consequences that can and do occur when experiencing severe humiliation, despite consent. Hayley experiences this with her major depression, anxiety, alcoholism and PTSD like symptoms. In a 2008 article, ‘the camera as a weapon’, Carsten Bagge Laustsen suggests the audience prefers to believe the women on screen are there because they want to be. This is reflected in episode one, which frames women using their sexuality to their advantage, working in the ‘only industry women can get paid more than men’, as Hayley puts it. However, in the last episode Hayley flips this narrative, making for a more uncomfortable yet honest watch. Hayley speaks to Tom, her rapist, who is behind the camera, ripping apart the façade and exposing Tom’s actions. This forces ownership onto the viewer and reminds them that what goes on behind the camera may be very different from what is shown. The ending of Adult Material is bittersweet, with Hayley losing her court case. But this is real life. It’s not just on Channel 4, or even isolated to on-screen porn. The lack of regard for trauma in sex work is affecting everyday people; a 2016 qualitative study led by Cicely Marston was reported as showing that UK teens are reporting a ‘climate of coercion’ and ‘consent not being a priority’. Adult Material unapologetically initiates a muchneeded conversation. Isn’t it time stigmatisation no longer took precedence over the protection of human rights? Reviewed by Chloé England a recent Psychology graduate from the University of Leeds, aspiring to be a clinical psychologist

the psychologist january 2021 culture

A chess game between genius and madness Based on the 1980s novel by Walter Tevis, The Queen’s Gambit follows chess prodigy Elizabeth ‘Beth’ Harmon – remarkably acted by Anya Taylor-Joy – in her pursuit of Grandmaster status in 1960s America, in tandem with drug and alcohol use. I empathised with Beth right from the beginning. In early episodes, we see Beth and her mother abandoned by her father, and her mother’s death. Beth is taken by social services to live at an orphanage, Methuen Home, where she forms relationships with parental figures starting with the janitor, Mr Shaibel (Bill Camp), whose office is in the basement. Mr Shaibel is the essence of the authoritative father, teaching Beth the rules of chess with a firm yet encouraging approach. Beth also befriends Jolene (Moses Ingram), who imparts her teenage knowledge of sex and boys.

tv The Queen’s Gambit Netﬂix

Beth is eventually adopted by a couple secretly struggling with marital troubles. It is uncertain whether Beth truly sees her adoptive mother Alma (Marielle Heller) as maternal. Alma uses unconventional methods to support her daughter’s interest in chess, lying to the school about prolonged illness so Beth can attend tournaments. The pair bond over alcoholic beverages, despite Beth being underage. As Beth’s chess career takes off, she faces professional and personal challenges, which would leave anyone lonely and disorientated. It is probably why Beth chooses to focus on chess; she admits feeling ‘safe in an entire world of just 64 squares’. Beth appears to pour scorn on a journalist’s suggestion that she has apophenia, a tendency to perceive meaningful connections in unrelated things, which hints at

the whole series as a chess game between genius and madness. At the very least patterns are prominent throughout, including in the costume styling and sumptuous cinematography (with the ‘golden ratio’ to the fore in creating visually striking frames). Beth’s relationship with chess is bittersweet. From an early age, she is seen stockpiling a fictional benzodiazepine drug ‘Xanzolam’, which is given to the girls at the orphanage. Beth collects these tranquillisers even after they are banned, believing they help her win the games with Mr Shaibel and the others. This intrigued me from a psychological perspective, as the human information-processing model of addiction demonstrates that such substances influence working memory and perception. Beth feels the tranquillisers help ‘visualise her games’, yet they ultimately cause difficulties with her mental and physical wellbeing. Beth appears to find solace in alcohol as a means to endure flashbacks, bereavement and tournament losses. Having supported clients with addictions, Beth’s actions resonated as she pushed her loved ones away. In later episodes, Beth comes to terms with her addiction and seeks support. Without the need for tranquillisers and welcoming round-the-clock help from her friends, Beth prepares for a final chess showdown. Sadly, in reality, stages of recovery for those in her circumstances can take much time and effort, contrary to the clean victory in The Queen’s Gambit. Overall, I found satisfying insight into the world of competitive chess, along with themes emphasising the harsh realities of psychological difficulties prevalent within any era. Seriously addictive! Reviewed by Fatema Bangee BSc (Hons) PGCert, Self-Employed, Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner, Mindset Coach and Psychology Careers Mentor. IG: @mypsychcareercoach; T: @mycoachfatema

The father of British neuropsychology

Barbara A. Wilson on Oliver Zangwill

liver Zangwill (1913-1987) brought respectability to British psychology and neuropsychology at a time when American psychology dominated the field. In his exploration of the history of neuropsychology published at the turn of this century, the famous American neuropsychologist Arthur Benton credited Zangwill as the founder of neuropsychology in Britain. Zangwill’s commitment to a more theoretical approach to problems has encouraged less dependence on large test batteries favoured by American psychologists. In his 2006 paper ‘An intimate connection: Oliver Zangwill and the emergence of neuropsychology in Britain’, Alan Collins argued that Zangwill believed that for ‘tests to be useful they were better tailored to a particular purpose and had to have some basis in clinical experience. This was important because otherwise there was a danger that the results the psychologist obtained would lack clinical relevance and, moreover, that the psychologist’s task would become that of a glorified technician who simply applied a set of standardized tests’. There are a number of reasons why Zangwill is of great consequence in the history of psychology, and I will focus on three of them. First, he is important for his views on the rehabilitation of survivors of brain damage; in this, he has had a clear although often unrecognised influence on neuropsychological rehabilitation. Second, he was responsible for making single case studies respectable and therefore acceptable in neuropsychology. Third, he made significant contributions to the understanding of problems resulting from brain damage. Each of these areas is considered below, after a description of the man himself.

Who was Oliver Zangwill? Oliver was born in 1913 into an interesting and distinguished family that had emigrated to London from Riga, Latvia in the 1860s. Oliver’s father, Israel Zangwill, was a novelist and playwright who wrote both comedies and tragedies about the ghettoes. One of his murder mysteries was made into a silent ﬁlm.

A street in the East End of London is called Zangwill Road after Oliver’s father. Oliver’s grandmother was one of the ﬁrst women doctors to practice in England, although she had to study in France because women were not allowed to study medicine in England at that time. Her thesis was examined by Paul Broca, famous for documenting the case of an aphasic patient who could only utter one word – ‘Tan’ – which led to the diagnosis of Broca’s aphasia. In 1932 Oliver went to Cambridge University to study Natural Sciences, and in 1935 he graduated with a starred ﬁrst degree – an exceptionally good award. From 1954 until 1984 Oliver was to be professor of Psychology at the University of Cambridge but before that he went to work at Bangour Hospital, Edinburgh, helping soldiers wounded in World War Two. For a 2001 Royal Society memoir his old friend Richard

Oliver Zangwill

the psychologist january 2021 looking back

Gregory recalled that he had told him that this was the most creative period of his life. It was during these times that he became interested in neuropsychology; indeed Benton said the experience with brain injured soldiers is what turned Zangwill into a neuropsychologist. As a result of working with these soldiers, he became one of the pioneers of brain injury rehabilitation. His papers on this topic are still worth reading today (e.g. Zangwill, 1947). He was a great friend of Luria in the Soviet Union. In 1946, Zangwill was involved in the founding of the influential Experimental Psychology Society (EPS). A one-time trainee of Zangwill’s and later professor of psychology at Oxford University, Larry Weiskrantz, has said that Zangwill was indeed the driving force behind the creation of the society. Between 1958 and 1966 he edited its journal, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, and he also edited the journal Neuropsychologia for 20 years. He was president of the EPS between 1964-65, and of the British Psychological Society in 1974. In 1977, he achieved the rare distinction of being made a fellow of the Royal Society. Zangwill’s first wife was Joy Moult, the daughter of the poet Thomas Moult. They married in 1947. Their only son, David, died in a fire as a baby and later the couple divorced. His second marriage in 1976 was to Shirley, a dentist. Shirley remains a friend to the rehabilitation centre named after her husband, and attends special events at the centre whenever possible. Oliver retired from Cambridge in 1984 and died of a disabling cerebral condition in 1987. Brain injury rehabilitation Not only was Zangwill important in bringing theory and respectability to British neuropsychology, he also played a part in the rehabilitation of people who had survived injury to the brain. At The Brain Injuries Unit in Bangour Hospital, he studied and assessed psychological deficits after injuries to the brain. He wrote: ‘At the psychological level, brain injury may be expressed either in intellectual or personality changes of a general kind or in the form of relatively specific deficits of a more or less circumscribed nature. Among the latter are defects in various aspects of perception and motor skill, in memory and learning capacity, and in the sphere of language – the aphasias and kindred disorders of speech. It was my job to assess these changes as accurately as I could, where possible by methods somewhat more sophisticated than those of ordinary neurological examination... It will be borne in mind that many of our patients were young Service men and women who could look forward to many years of active life ahead of them’ (Zangwill, 1947, p.519). In that paper, Zangwill referred to three main approaches to re-education: compensation, substitution, and direct retraining. As far as we know, he was the first to categorise approaches to cognitive rehabilitation in this way, although others have since

developed, modified and extended this classification system. Primarily working with people with aphasia, Oliver also addressed problems of attention, memory and initiative. The questions he raised are still pertinent today. For example, he wrote ‘We wish to know in particular how far the brain injured patient may be expected to compensate for his disabilities and the extent to which the injured human brain is capable of re-education’ (Zangwill, 1947, p.62). Zangwill defined compensation as a ‘reorganization of psychological function so as to minimize or circumvent a particular disability’ (Zangwill, 1947, p.63). He believed that compensation for the most part took place spontaneously, without explicit intention by the patient, although in some cases it could occur by the patient’s own efforts or as a result of instruction and guidance from the psychologist/therapist. The examples of compensation offered by Zangwill include giving a person with aphasia a slate to write on or teaching someone with a right hemiplegia to write with the left hand. By substitution Zangwill meant ‘the building up of a new method of response to replace one damaged irreparably by a cerebral lesion’ (Zangwill, 1947, p.64). He recognised that this was a form of compensation but taken much further. Lip reading for people who are deaf and Braille for people who are blind would be examples of substitution. He used the tactile sense as substitution in the rehabilitation of a patient with aphasia who could no longer read through the visual route. The man was taught initially to trace the letters then pretend to write them on his knee with his fingertip and eventually to manage without the tactile sense except when faced with difficult words. I wrote about two cases in which this method was used successfully in my 1999 Case Studies in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. The third of Zangwill’s methods was ‘Direct retraining’. He considered this to be training at the highest level. Whereas compensation and substitution were the methods of choice for functions that ‘do not genuinely recover’ (Zangwill, 1947, p.65), he thought that training could restore some damaged functions. He admitted that some improvement might be due to overcoming the effects of shock or ‘diaschisis’ (von Monakow, 1914), but that in other cases it was possible for true re-education to occur. The examples provided are relearning of multiplication tables by people with dysphasia and the relearning of some motor skills through physiotherapy. Zangwill was rather tentative about direct retraining and did not hide the fact that he could not provide real evidence of it. He concluded that ‘direct, as opposed to substitutive training has a real though limited part to play in re-education’ (Zangwill, 1947, p.66). Robertson and Murre (1999) presented somewhat similar (although less tentative) views when they suggested that compensatory strategies should be the treatment of choice for people who are not expected to recover, while for those who are expected

to recover (for example those without severe lesions), then assisted recovery, akin to direct retraining, can be effective. Zangwill (1966) said that the brain injuries unit in Edinburgh marked the beginning of scientific interest in the re-education of people with brain injury in the UK. Gregory (2001) believes that just as significant was the value of the unit for showing the importance of the study of brain injury for general psychology. Oliver continued to be influential in neuropsychology after World War Two and founded the neuropsychology department at the National Hospital Queen Square in London in 1947, appointing Elizabeth Warrington to be the first head of department in 1953. She remained there for many years, contributing greatly to our understanding of neuropsychological disorders. Zangwill moved to Cambridge to become professor of psychology but retained a visiting psychologist appointment at the National Hospital until 1979.

Single case studies Zangwill realised that if one wants to know, for example, whether there is a difference in capacity of long term and short-term memory, it is of no use carrying out large scale studies – individual scores will be lost when results are averaged. Instead one has to find double dissociations where one person has problems in one area of theoretical interest and not in another, and then one has to find another individual showing the opposite pattern. Single cases became acceptable at meetings of the EPS at a time when this was not the case at a typical meeting of the American Psychological Association. American work dominated experimental psychology at that time and was still strongly neo-behaviourist. One example of a single case study is the fascinating person reported by Gregory and Wallace (1963). They described a man who had been blind from birth and who was given corneal transplants at the age of 52 years. They found that the man could see almost immediately objects already familiar to him, especially through touch, though he remained blind for a long time to unknown objects. Most striking: he could read upper case letters, with which he had been taught to read by touch in the blind school, but not lower case letters which were not taught in the school. Further, he could tell the time visually, without any help or practice. Here the touch experience was from a large pocket watch, with no glass. He could unhesitatingly tell the time by touch from its hands. The conclusion was that object vision depends on knowledge derived from active exploration, giving meaning to the eyes’ images. It showed, also, the importance of cross-modal transfer – knowledge from one sense being available to other senses. These findings, especially extensive cross-modal transfer from touch to vision, were very surprising at that time. The issue of single case versus group studies

continues to the present day (Caramazza & McClosky, 1988; Robertson et al., 1993; Tate & Perdices, 2018). In Zangwill’s time, it was accepted by medical practitioners that case studies were the means of extending medical knowledge. Therefore, the case studies produced by psychologists were legitimate in the eyes of the medical community and reinforced psychologists’ claims to a form of expertise (Collins, 2006). With the legitimacy of single cases established, other important cases appeared, including Brenda Milner’s influential work with the amnesic patient H.M. Others began to use individual patients to illustrate aspects of memory (Cermak & O’Connor, 1983; Warrington & Shallice, 1984), but it was Zangwill who had begun to make single cases respectable scientific methods in British experimental psychology. Understanding the effect of cerebral lesions Zangwill had many interests but is, perhaps, best known for his work on cerebral asymmetry incorporating visual spatial disorders and the importance of the right hemisphere; memory and learning deficits; and language disorders. You can read more detail on this work in the full version of this article, published in The Neuropsychologist. The concept of cerebral asymmetry has been around since the time of Paul Broca, with the notion that the left hemisphere is dominant for language. It was often referred to as the major hemisphere. According to Benton, the acceptance of the importance of the right hemisphere as crucial for visual perceptual and visual spatial functions had little significance for neuropsychology until the 1940s with the work of Hécaen and Zangwill. As a result of his work in Edinburgh during the second world war, Zangwill, along with colleagues, demonstrated that posterior right hemisphere lesions were associated with visual spatial deficits (Paterson & Zangwill, 1944). At the same time Hécaen and colleagues were drawing similar conclusions in France. Zangwill’s work resulted in a major programme of research in the UK after the war, with Zangwill publishing studies looking at the role of the left hemisphere in visual spatial tasks and the right hemisphere in language tasks. He was one of the first to recognise that left hemisphere dominance for language was not invariably true for left handers and also showed that the right hemisphere was involved in speech. Zangwill’s work on memory and learning difficulties probably began in the early 1940s with his realisation that some patients with obvious difficulties in memory and learning had a normal forward digit span (Zangwill, 1943). Observing normal forward digit span in some memory impaired people resulted in Zangwill designing a supra-span test whereby the patient had to learn a sequence of digits longer than his or her forward digit span. He found this test to be a better measure of short term learning. Thus, he

the psychologist january 2021 looking back

invented a sensitive procedure which was then used by other investigators (e.g. Drachman & Arbit, 1966). His classic 1966 book on amnesia, edited with Whitty, addressed clinical, psychological and medico-legal aspects of amnesia EPS to regard neuropsychology – a wide range of topics. His own as a respectable area of study chapter on ‘the amnesic syndrome’ and research. He encouraged the Professor Barbara A. Wilson includes a fascinating history National Hospital of Nervous The Oliver Zangwill Centre for of early research into memory Diseases in London to establish a Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, disorders. neuropsychology department. He Cambridgeshire Community There is obviously an overlap firmly believed that observation was Services NHS Trust between Zangwill’s work on a legitimate means of producing barbara.wilson00@gmail.com cerebral asymmetry, memory and knowledge and he championed the learning, and language disorders importance of single case studies as (e.g. Humphrey & Zangwill, 1952). A summary a way of furthering neuropsychology. Zangwill retired of the ontogeny of cerebral dominance was later in 1984 and died in 1987, ironically of a brain disease published (Zangwill, 1975). With regard to the which he had spent most of his adult life studying. overlap with memory abnormalities, Clarke, Wyke How did Zangwill become so important to and Zangwill (1958) published a case of language neuropsychology and beyond? Collins (2006, p.89) disorder in a patient with Korsakoff’s syndrome, a argues that a number of conditions conspired to syndrome typically associated with amnesia. They place him ‘in a pivotal position for pursuing and were concerned with the type of language difficulties promoting neuropsychology in Britain after World exhibited in people with thought disorders and War II. In broad terms, these were the background and whether their patient exhibited the experience of Zangwill himself, same difficulties as someone with a the practical engagement of focal dysphasia. psychologists with patients with “ it was Zangwill who Zangwill was always interested brain damage, neurologists, and had begun to make in the treatment of patients, psychiatrists, the introduction single cases respectable of medical reform including and a 1946 paper with Butfield summarised the re-education of the establishment of a National scientific methods in 70 people with aphasia. They Health Service, rekindled interest British experimental described the problems with in cortical localization, and the psychology” carrying out controlled studies, elite social networks that existed as well as the difficulty with in medicine and university life in spontaneous recovery. Some of postwar Britain.’ He goes on to their patients were not treated until six months or claim ‘that the career of Zangwill reveals rather than more after the injury when, they say, spontaneous obscures the importance of these wider conditions and recovery was expected to have been completed. This demonstrates an unusually close connection between seems rather a short period given that recovery may an individual and the emergence of a sub discipline’. continue for many years (Wilson, 2019). Nevertheless, Richard Gregory ends his 2001 monograph on 30 patients were considered to be much improved, 21 Zangwill with the following words: ‘It is a pleasure for improved and 12 were unchanged. The group with the his friends, and valued more widely, that his clinical poorest outcome were those with tumours. work is remembered and continues in an institute named after him, The Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, in the Princess Bridging the gap of Wales Hospital at Ely. It receives support from the Oliver Zangwill became professor of psychology at Anglia and Oxford NHS Executive and the Medical Cambridge University at the very young age of 39, Research Council. The centre helps brain-injured when he succeeded Frederic Bartlett. He was one of patients and it performs fundamental research in the most influential figures in British neuropsychology neurology and psychology. Its aims, procedures and and responsible for ensuring that it was a theoretically- philosophy are set out by Barbara Wilson et al. (2000). driven discipline. Nothing could be more appropriate to the life and Zangwill bridged the gap between the medical memory of Oliver Zangwill.’ profession and clinical psychology. He championed the links between psychological theory and patients This is an edited version of an article published by the with neurological or neuropsychological impairments, British Psychological Society in The Neuropsychologist, recognising that psychological tests could help in the available via https://shop.bps.org.uk/publications/ diagnoses of an organic disorder. He persuaded the publication-by-series/the-neuropsychologist.html

We dip into the Society database and pick out… Sheila Ufot Trainee Counselling Psychologist at Redbridge Psychotherapy Service and Imagine Health UK One lesson learnt Our body language speaks far more than our words and often much sooner. This was particularly true in my work with forensic clients. I naturally smile a lot, both when I am uncomfortable and when happy. This was often misconstrued as not taking things seriously. I’ve learnt to be more aware of how I am coming across, and what my body is saying. One thing psychologists should be proud of An increased focus on diversity and inclusivity, which has meant that many have been able to voice their experiences and be heard. This was particularly true following the Black Lives Matter movement, which brought a spotlight on the profession, particularly the representation of BAME members. A good example of this has been in the various articles regarding personal experiences of discrimination as BAME group members and ways to bring about much needed changes. One proud moment Giving birth to my son four years ago. I had always feared the concept of birth (never being one with much tolerance for pain), and I was able to get through it without complications. It is lovely watching him grow older and I am excited to see the person he is becoming.

One book I really enjoyed reading The Slap, a novel written by Australian author Christos Tsiolkas. The story focuses on an incident that occurs at a social gathering, whereby a man slaps his friend’s son, and the narrative is presented through the viewpoints of eight characters. I loved how one incident could have ripple effects on not just the child and the perpetrator of the slap, but other members

one on one

of the social group. It was also interesting how each had very different reactions to the same event, shaped by their own personal experiences, culture and beliefs.

One alternative career path I have always loved art and as a child, had envisaged a career as a painter or fashion designer. I still engage in fine art in my spare time. One inspiration My friend Leah Ogunlaja who sadly passed away from Covid in April. She was a qualified Cognitive Behavioural Therapist with years of experience providing therapy and was seeking to gain her doctorate in Counselling Psychology. I really identified with her as we were both mothers of a similar age on the course. She had such a calming spirit and warm nature and was always at hand to provide support, almost becoming somewhat of a peer lecturer. She was so passionate about psychology and the positive impact it could have on those experiencing distress. When she passed, I felt that the profession had lost someone truly great, which was echoed through the university. I aspire to be the kind of Counselling Psychologist I know she would have been. One challenging thing about my job Managing my own expectations. I believe that sometimes our desire to help people can lead us to feel like we may have let our clients down when they do not ‘recover’ or show progress at the end of therapy. Through my own personal therapy and supervision, I have learnt that the power to change lies with the client and all I can do is assist them on their journey. It may not always be the right time for therapeutic change (e.g. due to what is going on in their personal life and their motivation at that time), but it is not necessarily a reflection on my competence as a therapist. Lastly being content with being ‘good enough’ has always been a struggle but part of my own personal development and journey as a therapist. More at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk

coming soon… barriers to psychology with our VIP winners; plus all our usual news, views, reviews, interviews, and much 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… …January 2016, ‘Why demography needs psychologists’ …Search it and so much more via www.bps.org.uk/thepsychologist the

psychologist vol 29 no 1

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Why demography needs psychology Gillian Pepper, Lisa McAllister and Rebecca Sear consider fertility and population dynamics

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reproductive health matters 30 the psychologist guide to… you and your baby pull out how biases inflate scientific evidence 36

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All our trainers have been supervised either by Marsha Linehan or one of her original DBT Consultation team. All our trainers are experienced clinicians who have had their sessions assessed to ensure they are adherent to Linehanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s model before training RWKHUV WKH RQO\ 8. WUDLQLQJ WHDP ZLWK Î&#x2013;QWHUQDWLRQDO $É?OLDWH VWDWXV

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7UDLQLQJ LV FRQGXFWHG LQ WZR Č´YH GD\ sessions of instruction divided by six to nine months of home study. In Part I, lectures, tapes, and small group exercises are used to teach DBT theory DQG VWUDWHJLHV LQ GHSWK %HWZHHQ WKH Č´UVW DQG VHFRQG VHVVLRQV SDUWLFLSDQWV consolidate and apply what they have learned with the help of treatment SUDFWLFH DVVLJQPHQWV DQG D WDNH KRPH exam. Between sessions, teams design and begin to implement their own DBT programmes or integrate DBT into an ongoing treatment setting. In Part II, each team presents their work and UHFHLYHV H[SHUW FRQVXOWDWLRQ RQ VSHFLČ´F cases and on their program, including SURWRFROV IRU VSHFLČ´F WUHDWPHQW problems and adaptations of DBT.

info@dbt-training.co.uk | 0800 056 8328 | www.dbt-training.co.uk British Isles DBT Training, Croesnewydd Hall, Wrexham Technology Park, Wrexham, LL13 7YP