The Psychologist October 2021 by The Psychologist

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psychologist october 2021

Using evolution science to build a prosocial world Freddy Jackson Brown, Paul Cooper, Emma Balfour and Mary Stanley-Duke

www.thepsychologist.org.uk www.thepsychologist.org.uk

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psychologist october 2021

Using evolution science to build a prosocial world

contact The British Psychological Society 48 Princess Road East Leicester LE1 7DR 0116 254 9568 info@bps.org.uk www.bps.org.uk the psychologist and research digest www.thepsychologist.org.uk www.bps.org.uk/digest www.jobsinpsychology.co.uk psychologist@bps.org.uk Twitter: @psychmag Download our iOS/Android apps advertising Reach 50,000+ psychologists at very reasonable rates. CPL, 1 Cambridge Technopark Newmarket Road Cambridge CB5 8PB contact Krishan Parmar 01223 378051 krishan.parmar@cpl.co.uk september 2021 issue 57,588 dispatched cover Napal Naps www.napalillustration.com environment Printed by PCPLtd

issn 0952-8229 (print) 2398-1598 (online) © 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.

Freddy Jackson Brown, Paul Cooper, Emma Balfour and Mary Stanley-Duke

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The Psychologist is the magazine of The British Psychological Society 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, Shaoni Bhattacharya (job share) Production Mike Thompson Journalist Ella Rhodes Editorial Assistant Debbie Gordon Research Digest Matthew Warren (Editor), Emma Barratt, Emily Reynolds, Emma Young

Associate Editors Articles Paul Curran, Michelle Hunter, Rebecca Knibb, Adrian Needs, Peter Olusoga, Blanca Poveda, 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), Kimberley Hill, Sue Holttum, Deborah Husbands, Miles Thomas, Layne Whittaker

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psychologist october 2021

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Letters Climate; driving; IAPT; Covid and persvasive fatigue, and more News Teaching and learning in Covid times; autism; Mary Aiken; and more Digest Parochial attitudes; conspiracy; ‘pretty privilege’; new podcast episode; and more

‘Those secrets… they’re literally eroding my bones’ Kyle Kelleher discusses Adverse Childhood Experiences, and the need to discuss family trauma

The threat is coming from inside the house Annie Hickox balances the value of sharing our personal stories of mental illness with the risk of exposure

One for sorrow… seven for a secret Vanessa Moore on whether it is helpful to be a psychologist if you develop mental health problems

Tics in the room and tics on Zoom Seonaid Anderson hears from Becky Simpson about being a therapist with Tourettes during Covid

‘People erase my existence’ Thomas York on bisexuality, biphobia and bisexual erasure

Using evolution science to build a prosocial world Freddy Jackson Brown, Paul Cooper, Emma Balfour and Mary Stanley-Duke

From academia to industry Two stories, from Ashleigh Johnstone and Joshua Balsters, about their moves to Gorilla

‘Communicating can produce a virtuous circle’ We meet Linda Kaye, Chair of the Cyberpsychology Section

Jobs in psychology Featured job, latest vacancies

Books Living While Black; dance; The Unbreakable Student; and much more

Culture Healthworker Talk, and how to start a podcast; and we meet Jolel Miah

One on one Ray Bobrownicki

Over the last year or so, as I said in the online version of the Advisory Committee letter published last month, we’ve been on the receiving end of comments from members that, to my eyes at least, became a bit much. This is not a new experience. But I was a little shocked when my attempts to explain the impact of repeated, named, personal abuse prompted comments (including public) that I was playing the victim or weaponising my mental health. Surely as psychologists we can and should do better than this? The evolving public narrative around mental health, stigma and ‘it’s good to talk’ is to be welcomed. But what if, as Annie Hickox says on p.28, ‘the threat is coming from inside the house’? This month we have a few pieces which consider self-disclosure around mental health and other aspects of personal lives. And for a more prosocial world, we look to evolution science (p.46). As ever, a big thanks to all those who support and contribute to what we do. Dr Jon Sutton Managing Editor @psychmag

Tim Sanders

Climate activism among members

‘Increasing rates of climate-related hazards are exacerbating existing mental health problems and leading to psychological distress and the onset of new episodes of mental illness.’ (Ben Beaglehole and colleagues in the British Journal of Psychiatry, 2018) There is by now a considerable literature evidencing the impact of climate breakdown on mental health. The research evidence is backed up by clinical experience in the fields of psychology and psychiatry. In 2020, a Royal College of Psychiatrists survey revealed that over half of child and adolescent psychiatrists in England were seeing children and young people distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment. As a consequence, they produced a detailed position statement (PS03 Our planet’s climate and ecological emergency, May 2021). In the light of this situation, action to put pressure on those in power to take steps to mitigate the everworsening climate and ecological crises is in line with our ethical obligations as psychologists to do everything possible to relieve and mitigate mental distress. For some of us, such action includes participation in non-violent demonstrations, such as those organised by Extinction Rebellion, calling for the government to take action proportionate to the size of the threat posed by climate breakdown to human life and health, including mental health. In December 2020, The Psychologist published an interview with one such psychologist/activist, Dr Rosie Jones. Dr Jones reported that, following her arrest, the HCPC initially drafted ‘fitness to practice’ allegations against her but later decided that there was no case to answer. More recently, another BPS member – a clinical psychologist – was likewise arrested while taking part in a peaceful XR demonstration. Like Rosie Jones, he reported his arrest to the HCPC. For reasons unknown, they decided on this occasion to take out ‘fitness to practice’ proceedings against him. He was subjected to a long and anxious wait, with his professional status and livelihood

on the line, followed by a two-day gruelling hearing. Finally, the tribunal concluded that no misconduct had taken place. At the tribunal, the member benefitted from the support of the Association of Clinical Psychologists, which unequivocally supports member actions taken in the interest of mitigating climate breakdown and the associated mental distress. As far as we are aware, the overall position of the BPS in relation to such matters is unclear. We find ourselves in a situation where certain member organisations support climate activism, while at the same time our regulatory body the HCPC sees fit on occasion to take action against those engaging in such activism. This is a source of confusion and concern to the increasing numbers of psychologists who feel called to non-violent action by the climate crisis and its ever-growing impact on mental health. We, in turn, call upon the BPS to urgently address this matter and clarify its position. Dr Maggie Turp, CPsychol, HCPC Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) Dr Wendy Hollway Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Open University, UK, Honorary Fellow of the BPS, CPA. And 20 others

Karen Beamish, Director of Membership, Professional Development and Standards, responds: A representative of the Climate and Environmental Crisis Workstream of the British Psychological Society’s Ethics Committee, attended the recent hearing in question here, summarised the proceedings and outcome and fed them in to the wider review of the Society’s member conduct rules. There are clearly complex issues at stake, including the Society’s approach to criminal wrongdoing in general, and how rules around membership of the Society sit in relation to HCPC procedures. The member conduct rules will be out for wider consultation in the near future.

the psychologist october 2021 letters

A middle class profession I was pleased to see the front cover of September’s issue (‘Conversations on class’) targeting the rarely acknowledged, and taboo, subject of social class. I am currently in Clinical Psychology training, and often notice how very middle class the profession is and how, as a working class individual, I sometimes feel that I don’t quite fit into the profession I have dedicated the past ten years of my life to. However, in the same issue, I was disappointed to see a letter titled ‘At the coal face’, discussing the threat to Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs) under the New Community Mental Health Framework. Although I understood the logic behind the title, and the comparison between the predicted changes to CMHTs and the closures of coal mines in the 80s (funding cuts, closures of valuable services) this was, unfortunately, simply another example of why I feel my working class background is not welcome in Clinical Psychology. My family, like many from the North and the Midlands, are historically a coal mining and farming family. The closure of the mines brought unprecedented levels of poverty and unemployment to vast areas across the country. It goes without saying the impact of the mine closures spanned more than just the financial, bringing physical and emotional suffering for thousands of families, many of whom continue to experience the longlasting effect of financial, social and political neglect.

The comparison of those who were actually ‘at the coal face’ to those who are employed in psychological roles in CMHTs today is a painful reminder of the enormous gap between my family history and my future profession. We are fortunate to work in a profession that will, in some way, almost certainly continue to be in demand for the foreseeable future (in part due to the ongoing psychological difﬁculties caused by governmental actions such as closing the mines…). But that doesn’t mean that the experiences of others, even from 40 years ago, should be used as a metaphor. It is painful and unfair to reduce the experiences of thousands of coal workers to a metaphor relating to our own privileged profession. Danielle Bream Trainee Clinical Psychologist School of Health and Social Care University of Essex

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psychologist september 2021

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As an aspiring psychologist who has an invisible disability, I wholeheartedly agree with Dr Ilona Singer’s letter ‘Time to modernise our attitude towards driving?’ (July/August edition). I’m often reminded how my health conditions can impact my life, such as being unable to drive. I appreciate that having a driver’s licence is useful and necessary in some occupations, but is it truly a requirement for aspiring psychologists? As Singer said, if courses were more transparent about the location of placements, and whether there’s ﬂexibility with these, applicants could make informed decisions about which courses they would be most suited to. Removing driving as a ‘requirement’ from courses would

improve accessibility in Clinical Psychology. Along with the inclusion of more part-time courses (such as at Lancaster University), this would help break down some of the barriers in the profession and encourage more people to enter. In a world where we are striving for equality, equity and the removal of ‘labels’, Clinical Doctorate courses are unintentionally forcing those with disabilities to identify themselves, which not everyone is comfortable with and can be seen as an invasion of privacy. While reading Singer’s piece, some reoccurring thoughts appeared. Am I less of an applicant because I have a disability? Am I less of an applicant because I’m unable to drive? Would these ‘faults’ make me less of a Clinical Psychologist? How many other aspiring psychologists

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Driving requirements for aspiring psychologists are doubting their abilities and career goals because of these ‘requirements’? Abigail Lee PhD Candidate, University of Nottingham I totally agree with Dr Ilona Singer’s sentiments about driving as a selection criterion for clinical psychology courses. Surely this is archaic, illegal and discriminatory and needs to stop immediately. I was advised by recruitment for the last post I advertised that the criterion of being able to travel between sites in a timely manner was more appropriate. Judith Storey

Editor’s note: Find more responses online. We continue enquiries and hope to come back to this important discussion.

Empathic leadership I agree with Dr Chris Timms (September issue) that although empathy may focus on suffering and reacting compassionately, this is not always the case. In my PhD research on empathic leadership in elite sport (completed this year at the University of Loughborough) head coaches explained that through empathising they share far more positive experiences than negative. Consequently, these leaders enjoy the numerous beneﬁts of an empathic approach and do not see being more empathic as too emotionally draining or likely to lead to burnout. Sharing in positive events in the careers and lives of others has a positive impact on our own wellbeing. Furthermore, head coaches claim to use empathy in a variety of other ways, which do not lead to a compassionate response. Throughout history, humans have proﬁted from empathising, which not always but often leads to acting pro-socially. In-group empathy can improve relationships, encourage cohesion, and make teams or tribes stronger. We can use the knowledge gained through empathy however we choose, including to understand a rival or competing tribe (see psychoanalyst and ex-England cricket Captain, Mike Brearley OBE, at https://vimeo.com/62854436). Hunter gatherers of the Kalahari delegate one person to dress and act like the animal they hunt to inform their understanding of its perspective. This allows them to better predict where it will seek cover and how it will try to escape.

By empathising with opponents in sport, leaders can gain a more accurate understanding of their strengths, weaknesses and concerns, and then strategise accordingly. Gilin and colleagues state in a 2013 article in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin that ‘success in strategic social interactions often necessitates an understanding of the underlying motives, feelings, and likely behaviours of one’s opponent’. As Brearley points out, leadership is about knowing how your people tick and knowing how the opposition tick. Leaders in elite sport also use empathy to gain understanding of the perspectives of other stakeholders, like fans, ofﬁcials, journalists, those above them in their organisations, and in governing bodies. This understanding obtained through empathy facilitates good relationships, which in turn encourages trust and alignment. There are lessons here for other industries. Indeed, empathic approaches in the workplace are growing in medicine, education, business and politics. Empathy is part of being human. It lies dormant in too many of us. However we use it, empathy has much to offer individuals, groups, organisations, and wider society. Dr Peter Sear The Empathic Minds Organisation peter@empathicminds.org

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Hunter gatherers of the Kalahari delegate one person to dress and act like the animal they hunt to inform their understanding of its perspective

the psychologist october 2021 letters

Critiquing IAPT In the September issue, Ross Harper – CEO of Limbic, providing AI software for mental healthcare – extolled the virtues of their collaboration with four IAPT services. The supposed gains were all in operational matters, e.g. reduced time for assessment, with no evidence that the AI has made a clinically relevant difference to client’s lives. This is merely the most recent example of the biased reporting of The Psychologist with regards to IAPT. I raised these concerns in a 2014 submission, ‘IAPT – The Emperor Has No Clothes’, and the Editor rejected it with the line ‘I also think the topic of IAPT, at this time and in this form, is one that might struggle to truly engage and inform

our large and diverse audience’. This response was breathtaking given that IAPT was/is the largest employer of psychologists. Fast forward to 2018, and I had published a paper ‘IAPT – The Need for Radical Reform’ in the Journal of Health Psychology, presenting data that of 90 IAPT clients I assessed independently using a standardised diagnostic interview only 10 per cent ‘recovered’ (in the sense that they lost their diagnostic status). This contrasts with IAPT’s claimed 50 per cent recovery rate. The paper has received only a passing mention in the pages of The Psychologist [‘Letters’, Flatt and Lido, April 2021]. This year I wrote a rebuttal of an IAPT inspired paper that was published in the British Journal of Clinical

Psychology, ‘Ensuring IAPT Does What It says On The Tin’, but again no mention of this debate in The Psychologist. In my view the BPS is guilty of a total dereliction of duty to mental health service users in failing to facilitate a critique of IAPT. If psychologists cannot pick out the log in their own eye, how can they pick out the splinter in others? Dr Mike Scott michaeljscott1@virginmedia.com

Editor’s reply: Funnily enough, we’ve also received strong criticism over the years for being too critical of IAPT! While I stand by my ‘at this time and in this form’, those are ever-shifting considerations and I’m pleased to now be in contact with you about a potential contribution to the magazine.

Pervasive fatigue: A lack of distance in times of distancing How are you, right now? Fatigued? For many, during the pandemic, fatigue has changed. We have witnessed – and are to a certain extent still witnessing, despite the gradual return to in-person work and socialisation – reports of fatigue, and relatedly pain, across groups in fundamentally different situations. Health care professionals have offered up concrete evidence of their tiredness and pain through photos on social media – weary faces with marks from PPE equipment, accompanied by descriptions of tough working conditions. The experience of fatigue and pain are likewise common amongst those who contracted Covid-19, with those two symptoms among the most prominent ones persisting months after the onset – so much so that there is currently a debate around the potential overlap with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). The expression ‘Zoom fatigue’ has caught on, and ‘furlough fatigue’ mentioned in articles explaining tiredness during lockdown and the pandemic more generally; an experience which could be shared with those who were/became unemployed. There are cultural theorists who have offered explanations for such an increase of fatigue. Byung-Chul Han, who in his book The Burnout Society broadly argued that the omnipresence of fatigue is due to an internal obsession for achievement, is now saying there is a strengthening of this phenomenon during the pandemic, where the compulsion to achieve extends to areas

outside of work. However, as Žižek rightfully points out in his recent book Pandemic! Covid-19 shakes the world, Han’s perspective does not sufﬁciently consider external pressures and limitations. Indeed, the pandemic has reinforced certain sociocultural and political structures which were already there. Most notably, a socio-political aspect which has been intensiﬁed is the late capitalist demand for constant productivity and presence, made possible by the advancement of technology, a precarious job market, tough working conditions, and the fact that even sleeping/ resting/time off has turned into a commodity to be monitored, registered and performed as effectively as possible. Boundaries disintegrate between work and time off, the external and internal. We are constantly, monotonously, ‘on’. It is in this way we can start to discern a similar experience, although by no means the same, across the situations created by the pandemic – of things being ‘too much of the same’.

A presence that is too much This is where I diverge from Žižek’s suggestion that there are different types of fatigue depending on the work engaged in: tiredness caused by monotonous lineassembly work, constantly having to be nice in care work, creatively intense work for a product one cares little for, or ‘creative team work’. While there are different qualities

to fatigue as shaped by one’s particular situation – for example, physically straining work and being biologically affected with a virus might give a particular undertone to fatigue – I am focusing on some broad experiences that may contribute to giving rise to or strengthening fatigue across various situations. Contrary to what has been commonly and repeatedly put forward as being the most difﬁcult aspects of the pandemic which induces fatigue – absence, isolation, loss of others and community (something Han argues) – I am proposing that a monotonous reality with no end in sight, a kind of ‘too much of the same presence’, can equally, instead or simultaneously, act as the culprit. This is not to dismiss experiences of isolation and loss that are in some cases too real, but merely to highlight an experience – not usually a conscious one – that has been neglected as a contributor to fatigue and which can exist alongside its opposite. Also noteworthy is that not everyone reacts to social distancing measures in the manner I outline, as for some it can sometimes mean less demands/pressure and social anxiety – being able to stay a safe distance from the presence of others. Nevertheless, the existence of a ‘too-much-of-thesame-presence’ can perhaps most convincingly be made for those who worked, or are still working, from home. With work, leisure time and home-care duties being physically in the same place – and with the demand for productivity thus being ampliﬁed, particularly as switching to a new medium meant for many more work – the boundary between work and other aspects of life are ever more blurred.

The collapse of boundaries

Socialising and time off are too close to work, the former not uncommonly continuing over the same medium as the latter (the laptop and even the same programs such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams etc.). Communicating with others online – be it either for work or socialising – can easily become too much for several reasons. Firstly, there’s the presence of gaze. Being directly gazed at can be overwhelming, hence why online interactions can sometimes be more comfortable and safe. The same goes for not showcasing the whole body, and leaving the body out physically. Nonetheless, having the feeling of constantly being watched but not knowing if people are looking, and where, can be anxietyinducing. Contributing to this is the fact that that we are now oftentimes included in the view on the screen, in a way seeing what others are seeing. This takes the position of ‘being on the outside looking in’, constituting the ideal place from which to judge oneself, which can easily become weary in relation to the ongoing multitasking. The presence of the image and idea of ourselves are thus ever so close, with the boundaries between the internal and external, work and the personal, increasingly blurred. This reinforces the constant, ongoing evaluation part of contemporary society, where our private lives are now up for scrutiny and affecting our professional lives (as evidenced for example by the not uncommon process whereby one’s professional career is ‘cancelled’ due to

something that went on in private). Secondly, there is no possibility of sharing food or beverages online, at least not to the same extent as in-person; items which can mediate and make more bearable the presence and proximity of others, as argued by psychoanalyst Darian Leader in his book Hands – What we do with them and Why. Adding to this, the inability to spontaneously form one-on-one interactions means one is stuck in group conversations whether one likes them or not. And lastly, the physical movement between meetings, work and home offered a space in which we could take distance from, and reﬂect and process conversations, alongside the presence of others. So work can feel like it never ends and leisure becomes work, reinforcing a late capitalist structure that was already there pre-Covid times.

Filling gaps All of this places (further) demands on the individual to actively create their own boundaries to mediate the presence of others and obligations. These boundaries were previously spontaneous, external or inherent to rituals, such as the office closing and travelling to work. Indeed, the accumulation of demands is another presence that can easily become overwhelming. Not uncommonly, food and alcohol are often used as attempts of escaping demands and marking a difference between work and time off. Such self-creation of boundaries/differences in the face of a monotonous reality, both of which can be exhausting, is an experience that can also be present for those being/who were furloughed, unemployed, and even essential workers. With work, one often has clear-cut tasks and generally a purpose which can protect against exhaustion. But even so, every-day obligations can easily accumulate in combination with the time-consuming, repetitive task of applying for jobs, the constant worry/ uncertainty about the future of one’s job, or indeed the reality of added caretaking. Not to mention that those who had more time on their hands were told they should now rest and/or ‘reinvent themselves’ (operating under the demand to ‘slow down!’ and ‘consume!’ but ultimately under the overarching one of productivity): pick up that instrument, sport or language that have been put off for so long. That is, people were told to isolate but to quickly fill up the gap it potentially created. The confinement to the home gives a concretely monotonous reality, which could also be the case with the repetition of everyday obligations, and with these now being more inescapable. Not uncommonly, essential workers were forced to adapt to more intense shifts with added precautions and increased workload, thus amplifying the prevailing demand (‘keep going!’) and particularly that of being flexible (‘keep going no matter what!’). Particularly with the lack of possibilities of existing outside of work and the home, or outside the home for those not working, the sense of stuckness and inescapability this creates, both from demands and a monotonous reality, can quickly become exhausting. Such stuckness can also apply to Long Covid patients

the psychologist october 2021 letters conﬁned to their illness. They are unable to escape unbearable and uncomfortable symptoms that are far too overwhelming, persistent, and mysterious. There’s no framework available to understand their symptoms, those symptoms cannot always be registered, and they’re unpredictable. In this way, something internal and intimate (one’s bodily symptoms), becomes external and foreign (unknown, uncontrollable symptoms), thus blurring the boundary between the two. Indeed, some patients dedicate much time and effort into getting better without any results.

Running on the spot? This brings us to an incredibly frustrating experience I believe contributes to the increase of fatigue: the experience that immense effort has no effect. Social distancing as well as working more intense shifts within health care (or essential work in general), is usually felt to contain a sacrifice. In accordance with what Žižek argues, when this sacrifice is made for the collective good – contributing to saving and protecting lives – then it leads to a ‘worthwhile’ fatigue, and I would add can protect against unbearable and intense fatigue. But it is when one feels that one’s sacrifice and effort are to no avail that a heavy, hopeless exhaustion can appear. This has become evident through social media posts, both by those isolating and those working in health care. These have included multiple appeals to follow social distancing measures as a response to seeing people breaking them; often feeling like one’s effort has been undone. Similarly, healthcare professionals have explained how they go through enormous effort in attempting to save people’s lives, yet they die anyway; even more devastating when these are young, healthy people. What is more exhausting than the feeling that you’re running on the spot? That what you do doesn’t matter? Here we come back to the experience of stuckness and monotony, there being no difference to reality after one’s efforts. Again, this reinforces the contemporary capitalist experience of being a mere interchangeable and insignificant object in a wider system that has a life of its own, where there is a limitation to one’s effort in relation to the resources received. There is thus a presence of helplessness in the air: that no matter how much one tries, Covid is here to stay. This is made even more salient by the suggestion of a third wave and the existence of new variants the vaccine could be less effective against. This gives the monotonous reality an added, exhausting, experiential aspect: that the end of it is nowhere in sight, leading to the experience of a never-ending, overwhelming presence.

Constant variety In these complex, contradictory times, there’s also another experience – ‘too much difference’. There is a lot of variety, a twisted lottery, in how people respond to the virus. Even healthy, younger people can get severely ill and even die. The presence of the virus, its consequences, and how to combat it, are highly uncertain. This contributes to a sense of cold, random indifference, which

is even more jarring in a society obsessed with control. The psychology of ‘Freedom Day’ Reinforcing such Written on behalf of the British experience of uncertainty is Psychological Society Covid-19 the constantly shifting and Behavioural Science and Disease contradictory rules, combined Prevention Taskforce with a highly precarious https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/ job market, which reflects psychology-freedom-day and reinforces the already precarious free-market society where (temporary) jobs on questionable contracts and pay are now common and even competitive. Adding all these mentioned uncertainties together, we are experiencing another type of presence. It becomes, to borrow an expression used by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, a ‘presence of an absence’: an amplification of uncertainty, and one that is experienced as inescapable. There is something contradictory about such a presence of an absence, and indeed this touches upon another experience that has been reinforced for some: that time and the future is suspended, while nevertheless moving fast and indeed being commanded to constantly move. Time is experienced to be standing still but is still inevitably moving, related to the exhaustive sense of running on the spot. Nevertheless, both ‘too much of the same’ and ‘too much difference’ can be collapsed into the same experience insofar as ‘too much difference’ can turn into yet another presence that is too much of the same: constant variety. It is no wonder then that a common symptom of current times is suffocation – it being currently both biologically and symbolically experienced – which relates to a sense of exhausting stuckness facing an overwhelming, homogenous presence. In conclusion, even though people have experienced an absence throughout the pandemic, I wonder how much of this is a defence against the fact that others, the idea or image of ourselves, obligations and bodily symptoms have intruded in some of our lives more than ever. These intrusions have blurred the boundaries not just between work and time off, and the external and internal, but also between self and others – leading to the emergence of a presence that is too much, too uncertain, and too close. Dr Amanda Diserholt is a Tutor in Psychology and completed her PhD at Edinburgh Napier University in November 2020. Her doctoral thesis explored the individual and sociocultural influences on the formation and experience Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), through the lens of psychoanalytic theory.

Election of President 2023-24 Are you interested in becoming our President in 2023? The President is the visible ﬁgurehead of the Society, and the most important elected role that we have. In early 2022, we will be seeking nominations of members to stand for election to the role of President in the Presidential year 2023-2024. The successful candidate will also be President-Elect in 2022-23. Nominations go live in January 2022. Before this, you may wish to explore what the role involves and whether you would be interested in being a candidate. Descriptions of the role and responsibilities, together with requirements and time commitments, are available on request. Please contact Kerry Wood: kerry.wood@bps.org.uk.

bps.org.uk/events Search and access the variety of conferences and seminars, talks and workshops organised by the society. The Psychologist have met many of the webinar presenters, and you can ﬁnd these Q&As via https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/meets The impacts of growing up with a sibling with mental illness Hester Bancroft ‘It’s to help people recreate their futures’ Dr Fiona Beddoes-Jones on authentic leadership ‘Psychology can explain so much of what we can do on climate action’ Dr Jan Maskell on the role of psychology in the climate change crisis

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Preparing for the new teaching term As universities begin the autumn term either online, face-to-face, or a mixture of both, Ella Rhodes looked at what psychology and psychologists can tell us about new ways of learning…

Dr Emily Nordmann

ince the start of the Covid-19 pandemic questions have been raised over the efﬁcacy, and value for money, of remote teaching and learning in higher education. We spoke to two psychologists about the challenges and opportunities online and remote learning present and looked at the results from a new BPS survey into the ways Covid impacted students and lecturers. University of Glasgow senior psychology lecturers Dr Emily Nordmann and Dr Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel, also a member of the BPS Division of Academics, Researchers, and Teachers in Psychology committee, took a unique approach to teaching during the pandemic. In the summer of 2020, they had discussions about the best way to both deliver a positive learning experience in their lectures and give students a sense of community and belonging. Kuepper-Tetzel said they developed a ‘watch party’ approach to lectures which students loved. ‘Lecturers pre-recorded short videos of their lecture content and during synchronous live sessions on Zoom, these pre-recordings were livestreamed. Students asked questions and added comments in the chat box and the lecturer addressed these and provided additional resources.’ She and Nordmann are set to publish a paper on this approach in the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (a peer reviewed preprint can be found at https://psyarxiv.com/ys4jn/). Nordmann said that a highlight of this approach was the diversity of student voices in the chat. ‘Often in

on-campus lectures it can be difficult to get a response when you ask a question, and there tends to be a limited number of students who are willing to speak, particularly in large first year lectures. Not only did the watch party chat have more students willing to respond, there was a greater diversity of responses, for example, neurodiverse and/or queer students sharing their experiences.’ Even before the pandemic, Nordmann was involved in researching lecture capture – the recording of live lectures – and said students had been pushing for more use of recordings to increase accessibility, inclusivity and flexibility. She, Kuepper-Tetzel and colleagues produced guidance on its use (https://tinyurl.com/yfmp36py) which has been widely adopted to help promote self-regulated strategies for the use of lecture capture for students and instructors. ‘I hope that the impact of Covid on higher education will be that both staff and students reflect more deeply on their learning and teaching choices – for example, some students have realised that a fully online programme would better suit their needs, others that the structure and social interaction of an on-campus experience is vital for their learning and wellbeing. On the other hand, lecturers have been forced to reckon with the core purpose of their lectures. Personally, I have become hyper-aware just how much of my teaching is reacting and how hard it is when I can’t read a room. One thing is for certain though: educators who claimed that teaching couldn’t be recorded, or learning made more accessible, are going to need to find new arguments moving forward.’ I asked Kuepper-Tetzel and Nordmann about the effectiveness of online learning – do students miss out with a remote approach? Kuepper-Tetzel said that effective teaching approaches that work face-to-face can also be used in online teaching, and vice versa.

the psychologist october 2021 news ‘For example, frequent, low-stake quizzes boost knowledge retention and we implemented them in a variety of ways this year – through in-class activities using online polling systems and short multiple-choice homework assignments.’ She also pointed to the benefits of having a chat box during their watch party lectures which increased interactions and promoted peer learning. ‘On several occasions I observed how one student would answer another student’s questions. I also felt that more students were comfortable using the chat box… When returning to face-to-face lectures, I will definitely integrate a chat box element to live lectures as a way for students to interact more effectively with me and with each other.’ In her role as first-year lead and as a lecturer on the university’s postgraduate research methods courses, Nordmann said moving to online lectures highlighted the amount of incidental learning and peer support was taking place in classrooms. ‘Students were watching the behaviour of other students in lectures or leaning over to their classmate to ask where to find something on the VLE, these spontaneous interactions help students so much but were difficult to encourage in an online environment. As a strong proponent for lecture capture pre-Covid, online learning has the benefit of increasing inclusivity and flexibility and I hope we (as a sector) don’t lose sight of that.’ Building community and belonging, Kuepper-Tetzel said, is the biggest issue with online learning. She said that the lack of direct social contact was a burden for both students and staff. However, the experience had made her and her colleagues reflect on their teaching practice. ‘We worked on clear signposting and increased consistency in our teaching delivery, which in turn helped students adapt to the increasing level of self-directed learning expected of them as our programme progresses. We also prioritsied generic study skills, for example, by having timetabled sessions for students to organise and plan their time and providing clear checklists of their expected weekly work. We made changes to in-class activities and provided opportunities of asynchronous engagement with the material. As a result, the teaching quality improved in some ways and we can use this now

Dr Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel

for the upcoming face-to-face delivery which will allow us to combine high-quality teaching with the essential social components of community and belonging.’ The University of Glasgow, where Nordmann and Kuepper-Tetzel work, is planning a blended approach in the autumn term, with lectures being delivered online and teaching to groups of up to 50 students taking place faceto-face. Nordmann said: ‘Having not taught an in-person class since March 2020, if I make it through my first lab without tears of joy it will be a miracle – but at least my mask will soak them up.’ While Nordmann and Kuepper-Tetzel emphasise the importance of self-directed learning in their work, this is something which is often neglected in discussions about changing ways of learning. In an article for Times Higher Education (https://tinyurl.com/4ctxhbs4) Dr Linda Kaye (Edge Hill University) argued for a greater focus on self-directed learning in these debates, particularly as it makes up the largest proportion of a student’s learning while at university. Kaye argued that while much debate has centred on whether a tutor is available in real-time delivering lectures (synchronous learning), or uploading recorded lectures and materials (asynchronous learning), the amount of self-directed learning students engage in has been largely ignored. ‘It appears clear to me that we need to move beyond our focus on the delivery of teaching and instead look at the holistic learning process from a student’s perspective. Unfortunately, it seems likely that the onus on tutor delivery will remain central to sector concerns, especially when governmental agendas place so much focus on the importance of contact hours and how tutors and universities are “providers” of a quality higher education experience.’ Kaye suggested five ways that tutors can incorporate the tenets of self-directed learning into their own teaching. These include helping students to establish their own learning goals, ensuring students can access and locate necessary resources, and encouraging students to develop a timetable of self-directed learning activities such as reading time. Meanwhile the BPS is set to publish results from a survey of more than 1,100 psychology students and academic staff about their experiences of teaching and research during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic. Students from BAME groups and economically disadvantaged backgrounds were negatively affected by the pandemic due to more limited access to technology. Changes to the ways lectures were delivered had a significant impact on disabled students, international students and those with caring responsibilities. All academic staff reported an increase in workload with female staff having much less time to write up and submit their work while staff with caring responsibilities also struggled to find enough time to engage in all research activities. The survey also found that a large majority of staff and students had lower wellbeing since the start of the pandemic, and those with disabilities and caring responsibilities experienced the most significant decline in wellbeing.

See also: A look to the future of psychology pedagogy… Madeleine Pownall and Hannah Slack report from the European Society of Psychology Learning and Teaching (ESPLAT) 2021 Conference. thepsychologist. bps.org.uk/ look-futurepsychologypedagogy

Working with autism The BPS has published new guidance for practitioner psychologists who work with people who have autism and their families and carers. The document, ‘Working with autism: best practice guidelines for psychologists’, is based on Adult autism CPD current NICE guidance. Written by the BPS Autism The BPS is set to launch the first Task and Finish Group and of three eLearning CPD courses on chaired by Emeritus Professor building awareness of adult autism. of Clinical Child Psychology The other two courses, planned to Patricia Howlin, the guidance be released later this autumn, will emphasises the importance of explore supporting adults with autism involving autistic people and and working with adults with autism. their families in decision-making Delivered through the society’s about their assessment and new virtual learning environment, BPS the intervention approaches Learn, this first course is designed used with them. It covers many for anyone with an interest in learning contexts where psychologists more about autism or for those who work, including with children, work with adults with autism. It will young people, adults, older explain autism, explore the experience adults and in education, health, of having autism, and provide social care, employment and the information on supporting people with criminal justice system. autism. Howlin said she and the To find out more and to book see working group involved in learn.bps.org.uk. developing the guidelines made

a concerted effort not to advocate a speciﬁc therapeutic approach, but rather to provide guidance and support based on psychological principles. ‘Autism is a highly complex condition for which the evidence base for causation and treatment is continually developing. The guidance is objective and grounded in evidence and we hope that it will prove invaluable to practitioner psychologists working with autistic people across many different contexts and environments.’ The guidance is split into several sections including assessment, diagnosis and formulation, autism in children and young people, autism in adults, employment, and autism and the criminal justice system. Each of these sections consider areas such as education, the limitations of diagnosis, co-existing conditions, quality of life and interventions, and each concludes with a summary of best practice recommendations. The authors also list some areas in need of more research including autism in girls, women and older adults, how to increase autistic people’s wellbeing, ways to reduce autistic people’s vulnerability to certain physical and mental health conditions and uncovering the most effective models of care for people with autism at different life stages, with different abilities and levels of autism. To read the full document see: tinyurl.com/32xh7jfj

Five minutes with… Alison Lacey Each year the BPS holds a fellowship for postgraduate psychology students to join the Parliamentary Ofﬁce for Science and Technology for three months. Many fellows work on a brieﬁng paper or POST note collating evidence. Ella Rhodes spoke to Alison Lacey, a doctoral researcher at Sussex University, whose PhD has been exploring the impact of school closures on families during the pandemic. For her fellowship she took part in a project with the Health and Social Care Select Committee.

What made you want to apply to the POST fellowship? I have always been interested in politics and the chance to work with parliamentarians was too good to miss. I hadn’t heard of POST before my supervisor suggested applying for the BPS/POST fellowship, so I started my research by looking at blogs written by previous POSTies. They all seemed hugely positive about the experience, which spurred me on. POST Fellows usually start in cohorts in January, April, and September and while most Fellows are allocated to work on a POSTnote there are also opportunities to work in Select Committees or one of either the Commons or Lords libraries. I was asked if I wanted to do a POSTnote or work on a completely new project with the Health and Social Care Select Committee.

I went for the Select Committee because I thought it might offer the chance to get more involved in the inner workings of Westminster. The Health and Social Care Select Committee recently established an Expert Panel to pilot a completely new method of government scrutiny. Select Committee inquiries typically involve scoping reviews alongside the evaluation of evidence gathered during oral evidence sessions or in written submissions to come up with policy recommendations. The Panel were asked to do more of a ‘deep dive’ to assess the quality of commitments the Government has made in specific policy areas, and to rate progress against these commitments using Care Quality Commission-style ratings. The pilot evaluation was on maternity services and was the first time a government department has been graded in this way, and, surprisingly, the first time there has been a systematic process to assess government progress against its own targets. The Expert Panel is chaired by Professor Dame Jane Dacre, former President of the Royal College of Physicians, and includes experts from academia, law, and maternity professionals. As this was the first evaluation of its kind, there were a lot of unknowns and the chance for me and Florence Young (my fellow Fellow working on the project) to make our mark. During the first week, the Panel received a formal response from the Department of Health to its questions on each of the four commitments under review: maternity safety, Continuity of Carer, Personalised Care and Support Plans; and safe staffing. My first job was to analyse this response, cross check calculations, and highlight any missing data

the psychologist october2021 news

Portrait of knitting to ease depression scoops photo prize

UK filmmaker and journalist Jameisha Prescod’s image Untangling (above) was one of two winners of this year’s Wellcome Photography Prize. The self-portrait reflects her experience of lockdown and turning to knitting to soothe her mind after her depression worsened. Yoppy Pieter, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, was also named a winner for his series Trans Woman: Between Colour and Voice which looked at the ways Covid-19 made life more difficult for trans women in the country. The prize, returning for its third year, gives photographers the opportunity to explore three topics which reflect Wellcome’s three worldwide health challenge areas – mental health, climate change and infectious disease. The winning photographs were chosen from 90 shortlisted images from 15 countries: see tinyurl.com/6vxa5pdc for more. ER

or gaps. Over the next nine weeks, Florence and I supplemented this initial analysis with information received in written submissions from key stakeholders, facilitated roundtable events with midwives and obstetricians, and attended a focus group with women from East African backgrounds. We also held follow-up meetings with the Department and NHS England Improvement to chase up any data queries, or to request new information. Throughout the process we were responsible for keeping the panel up to date with new information, and making sure the Chair was properly briefed for meetings. The ﬁnal few weeks were spent drafting the panel’s ﬁnal report, including the CQC ratings for each commitment. What surprised during your time on the project? I was surprised, and pleased, by the autonomy we were given at every stage of the process, from developing a new method of qualitative analysis of written submissions in a health policy context, drafting questions for the department, or deciding the focus of questions for the roundtables. We also had access to some incredible people; the panel themselves were very generous with their time and expertise, as well as the wider committee staff.

We also had the opportunity to work with colleagues at the National Audit Office and other key institutions. I was also surprised by the intensity of the experience: there were a couple of opportunities for a breather but they were few and far between. Writing the draft with Florence was an iterative process with several stages of review, and at 60,000 words it is quite the door-stopper. The irony that my original application to POST was assessed on my ability to write a succinct 4-page policy briefing was not lost on me! What will you take away from the experience as a whole? It was an incredible privilege to have been a part of the Expert Panel’s first evaluation, and to have worked with such a high-profile Committee. I have learned a huge amount about the realities of policy work, about the constant efforts of staff behind the scenes, and the excitement of working in such a fast-paced environment. It has also been an amazing networking opportunity – I’ve never been part of a WhatsApp group with two dames and a sir before – and we have already made plans for some collaborative work in the future. The placement has opened up career possibilities following my PhD that I can’t wait to explore.

‘Cybersecurity does not protect what it is to be human online’ Ella Rhodes spoke to Mary Aiken, Professor of Forensic Cyberpsychology at University of East London, about her recent work with the UK government on protecting people from harm online, and the areas of cyberpsychology which need more attention from researchers and policymakers. How did you become interested in cyberpsychology? I first came across AI in the mid 90s in the form of one of the world’s first chatbots, which a colleague of mine was developing. At the time, I was working in consumer behavioural profiling for a US public company in the marketing and advertising services sector when the fascinating and then new ‘digital marketing’ phenomenon began to emerge on the West Coast. I quickly realised that my studies, up to that point, in psychology did not equip me to understand the potentially profound and pervasive impact of these new technologies. I reviewed the literature over time and in the late 90s came across the work of Professor John Suler, an acknowledged founder of the discipline of Cyberpsychology. I decided to resign from my job in industry, return to academia, and then went on to complete an MSc in Cyberpsychology and a PhD in Forensic Cyberpsychology. Cyberpsychology has come a long way since the late 90’s; many academics worldwide have contributed to the establishment of the discipline. I had the honour of working with and being mentored by Professor Suler, an inspirational thought leader and educator. My vision for cyberpsychology has always been inclusive, encouraging people from various academic backgrounds to take higher degrees in the subject. Some two decades following my introduction to cyberpsychology, I am delighted to share that I have been appointed as Professor of Cyberpsychology, and Chair of the new Department of Cyberpsychology at Capitol Technology University, Washington D.C.’s premier STEM University. In a global first, we are offering both online Masters (M.Res) and Doctoral degrees in Cyberpsychology. We hope to have a broad range of applicants for our programs, particularly in areas relevant to cyberpsychology that require further research, such as forensic cyberpsychology and cybercriminality, cyber ethics, AI and Virtual Reality, developmental cyberpsychology, eHealth, human factors in cybersecurity, infosec and online safety technologies.

Do you think cyberpsychologists could play more of a role in informing policy, as you have? Yes, absolutely, academics who are qualiﬁed in cyberpsychology are very well placed to advise and inform policy initiatives. I have worked closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) in terms of investigating and helping to establish the new online safety technology sector, or as we describe it ‘Safety Tech’. Cybersecurity focuses on protecting data, information, networks and systems, but it does not

protect what it is to be human online. Notably, your data is never going to suffer from low self-esteem or feel the need for revenge. Conversely cyber safety, or Safety Tech, delivers technology solutions to facilitate safer online experiences and protects users from harmful content, contact or conduct. It’s a focus on protecting people – and therein lies the opportunity for cyberpsychologists, to deliver insight at the intersection between humans and technology. It is critical that networks and systems are robust, resilient and secure, it is equally important that people are psychologically robust, resilient, secure and safe in cyber contexts. We all acknowledge that digital advances will drive our economies and enrich our societies, but to fully harness the internet’s advantages, we must confront the online threats and harms it can propagate. We need to ensure the safety and security of those online – particularly those who are vulnerable. Can you give examples of where this focus on online harms and online safety technologies has led? Our research team at the UEL Institute of Connected Communities explores technology solutions to technology-facilitated harmful and criminal behaviours. The study of cyberpsychology is an interdisciplinary scientific endeavour by design, which arguably counters the risk of subject-specific myopia. However, complex policy issues require an even broader transdisciplinary approach. In 2020, cyber criminologist Professor Julia Davidson and I collaborated with a team of economic advisors and DCMS to produce a comprehensive sectoral analysis of online safety technologies in the UK. Our report investigated the UK online safety technology ecosystem, and developed a taxonomy of Safety Tech solutions delivering services at a system, platform, and endpoint level. Building on this work we were commissioned by Ofcom, the UK regulator of online harms, to conduct research to help to inform their regulatory role in issuing guidance on appropriate measures to video-sharing platforms, specifically concerning harms that may impair the ‘physical, mental and moral development’ of minors. Our research project considered both quantitative and qualitative evidence and our findings informed a new conceptual framework. We found a lack of consensus in the literature regarding risks and harms, tension between these concepts, issues surrounding correlation and causation, compounded by mediating factors and individual differences. This led us to conclude that ‘creating a

the psychologist october2021 news

hierarchy or taxonomy of harms, was neither feasible, useful, practicable or proportionate in trying to create a system of the relative magnitudes of harms’. Therefore our findings informed an interconnected frameworks model, mapping both benefits and risks, along with social and technology solutions. Are there areas of cyberpsychology which are underresearched, or that will become more important in the future? There are several areas in cyberpsychology that are under-researched. The first is forensic cyberpsychology which focuses on the study of criminal, deviant, and abnormal behaviour online, a research and practice area of particular interest from my perspective. Our current University of East London (UEL) Horizon 2020 pan-European research project iinvestigates human and technical drivers of cybercrime, our intention is to add to the emerging body of literature in forensic cyberpsychology, build empirical evidence to inform the study of criminal behaviour mediated by technology, and encourage a broad spectrum of researchers to contribute to this growing research field. The second area could be broadly described as eHealth – technology-enabled healthcare solutions ranging from e-therapy to telehealth. Over a decade ago I conducted research investigating anxiety induced by health-related search online, an increasingly differentiated activity known in the field of cyberpsychology as cyberchondria, which has explanatory value regarding the impact of technology on both mental and physical well-being in the general population, and specifically those predisposed to health anxiety. A topical issue given what the World Health Organisation has described as an ‘infodemic,’ namely, ‘too much information including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak’. We are currently researching the relationship between coronavirus, cyberchondria and cybercrime, or as we describe it ‘the perfect storm’. Whilst the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney has a Cyberpsychology Research Group dedicated to training in the field of cyberpsychology and eHealth, as we advance more international research and centres of excellence are required. Could you tell me more about some of your current research projects? My current research efforts are primarily focused on the psychology of cybercrime. I am a co-lead investigator

on a Horizon 2020 funded pan European project titled ‘CCDriver’, which focuses on understanding drivers of cybercriminality, along with investigation of new methods to prevent, investigate and mitigate cybercriminal behaviour. Notably, at five million euros of funding this is the largest international grant awarded to a cyberpsychology informed project to date. We are surveying a stratified sample of youth population in eight EU countries (N=8000). Our project will contribute to the development of prevention strategies and practice guidance and will strengthen the research field by informing and adapting existing theoretical models regarding cybercriminality and juvenile cyber delinquency. Findings will inform evidence-based awareness, education and intervention initiatives and will build on our previous research, ‘Youth Pathways into Cybercrime’, undertaken for Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre. Our research group at UEL is currently working on various research proposals in the area of countering online harms, specific areas of interest are the measurement of psychological and physiological aspects of online harms, along with assessment of ‘cyber developmental’ factors. I am also an advisor to the UK Online Safety Data Initiative, a project bringing together expertise from tech industry suppliers and a range of government, academic, and civil society stakeholders. The initiative aims to drive innovation in the Safety Tech sector by ‘providing companies with access to the vital data needed to develop world-class safety tools to identify and remove harmful content online’. In terms of publishing – it’s been busy, I have just completed a report for Europol titled The Cyber Blue Line which was published in June 2021. It’s a position paper that seeks to question the social contract between police and civil society, in a globalised world, in the cyberspace era. I am also the Principal Investigator on a research study currently investigating the US online safety technology or Safety Tech sector: our report will be published at the end of 2021. Additionally, I’m a member of an international research group developing AI-informed biometric solutions for age verification and security online – our findings have just been published, and last but not least I have just co-authored a book chapter ‘Nature, Structure and Science of Cyberspace’ in a book Cyberpsychiatry, the first academic publication to make a case for a cyber sub-discipline of psychiatry.

People co-operate more willingly with others from their own country Matthew Warren on a new study examining national parochialism

Editor: Dr Matthew Warren Writers: Emily Reynolds, Emma Barratt and Emma Young Reports, links and more on the Digest website

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any of the world’s most pressing problems require global co-operation. If we are to combat climate change or contain the spread of devastating diseases, for instance, we need to work across borders and share resources. So a new study in Nature Communications doesn’t make for encouraging reading. Using a common paradigm for studying co-operation, Dr Angelo Romano from the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn, Germany, and colleagues look at how more than 18,000 participants from 42 different countries co-operate with people from their own nation and elsewhere. They find that in every single country, participants show national parochialism: they co-operate more readily with people from their own country than with others. Participants completed 12 trials of a prisoner’s dilemma task, each with a different partner who either came from their own country or another country (there were also some trials in which participants weren’t given any information about their partner’s nationality). In each trial, participants were given 10 ‘monetary units’, and had to decide how many to keep for themselves and how many to give to their partner. Any money they gave away was doubled – and any they received from their partner was doubled too – so in theory the optimal result would be for both parties to co-operate by giving away all their money. Additionally, on some trials participants were told their decisions would be private, while on others they were told they would be published online. The team found that people co-operated more (i.e. sent more money to their partner) when their partner came from the same country compared with when they came from a different country. This effect was statistically significant for 39 of the 42 countries, and the remaining three showed a non-significant trend in the same direction. It also didn’t matter whether or not their decisions were going to be made public: participants displayed this ‘national parochialism’ either way. And although the decisions were all about a hypothetical pool of money, a sub-study in which participants actually received a monetary reward produced the same results. Interestingly, the extent to which participants favoured co-operating with their compatriots over people from

other nations was similar across the different countries, and the team didn’t ﬁnd any evidence that this was related to cultural or political factors. By contrast, they did ﬁnd that overall levels of co-operation varied by country and were related to particular factors. For instance, co-operation was generally greater in countries with more egalitarian values and those where there are more opportunities to establish new relationships with others. The results suggest that national parochialism occurs around the world with surprisingly little variation. This is consistent with theories that our tendency to favour the in-group is a universal human behaviour, the authors write. However, they also note that past studies using different methodologies have found cultural differences in in-group favouritism, so further work is needed to understand the exact scenarios in which national parochialism emerges in different countries. Still, the study shows that at least when it comes to making decisions about sharing goods with others, people are less keen to co-operate with those outside of their own country. While the paper focuses on decisions made at an individual level rather than those made by governments and institutions, the work has clear implications when it comes to understanding the obstacles to co-operating across borders. In fact, we’re in the middle of a pandemic that requires a co-ordinated, global response, yet in most low-income countries the vast majority of people haven’t received a single dose. The barriers to global co-operation are obviously multifaceted, but national parochialism surely doesn’t help.

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Conspiracy theories more ‘entertaining’ Conspiracy theories stoke anxiety and uncertainty and can even threaten the health of those who espouse them. Take Covid-19 anti-vaxxers, for example, who put themselves at risk by refusing a vaccine. So given those negative consequences, it’s surprising that conspiracy theories are so prolific. Research shows that beliefs that other groups are colluding secretly to pursue malevolent goals (the definition of a conspiracy theory) are more common during times of crisis – like a global pandemic. Heightened anxiety is thought to lead people to (erroneously) believe that there are hostile forces at play. But now a paper in the British Journal of Psychology reveals another reason for why conspiracy theories can be appealing. Jan-Willem van Prooijen at the Free University Amsterdam and colleagues found that conspiracy theories provoke a stronger emotional reaction than relatively dull-but-true reality – and this encourages belief in them, especially for people who have the personality trait of being ‘sensation-seeking’. In two initial studies, participants read either a conspiratorial or an accurate story about the Notre Dame fire in Paris (which was in reality a tragic accident, but in the conspiratorial version was set on fire deliberately) or the death of the US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (who died by suicide in his cell, but in the conspiratorial version was ‘murdered’ by powerful people). Finally, all participants were asked whether they believed that there was a conspiracy behind the fire or death of Epstein. The team found that participants who had read the conspiracy text also reported stronger belief in the conspiracy theory in both cases. But importantly, the conspiracy text was also judged to be more entertaining, and it seemed to be this ‘entertainment value’ that ultimately led these participants to have a stronger belief in the conspiracy theory. A further study more clearly linked the emotive nature of a text to its entertainment value. This time, participants read either an emotion-laden or emotionless description of a fictitious election, with no reference to any conspiracy theories. The text with lots of emotion was deemed to be more entertaining and also provoked a stronger emotional reaction. What’s more, even though it didn’t mention any conspiracies, participants who’d read this text were more likely to agree with conspiracy-related statements (such as ‘There will be cheating in the results counting process’ or ‘A conspiracy will determine the election outcome’) – but only if they also scored relatively highly on a measure of sensation-seeking. Sensation-seekers love excitement and thrills; they also enjoy scary movies and new and risky experiences, for example. And, according to yet another study reported in the paper, employees who score higher on the sensation-seeking dimensions of boredom susceptibility,

disinhibition and adventure-seeking are more likely to believe that their bosses secretly pursue malevolent goals – in other words, to believe in workplace conspiracy theories. A final study assessed participants’ belief in various common conspiracy theories, such as that the US government had advance knowledge of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that NASA faked the Moon landings. The researchers found a link between the strength of these beliefs and scores on the three dimensions of sensationseeking identified in the employee study. ‘The results reveal that sensation seeking reliably predicts people’s belief in specific and concrete conspiracy theories,’ they write. So – yes, conspiracy theories may make people feel more anxious and uncertain. But perhaps sensationseekers not only don’t mind this, they even enjoy it. The researchers add that to have this effect and attract believers, a conspiracy theory would have to be at least somewhat credible. But let’s not forget that according to one poll some 12 million Americans reportedly believe that the US is ruled by giant lizards… Scores on the sensation-seeking scale alone clearly don’t explain that extreme type of misguided belief. But given just how common conspiracy theories are, any insight into what encourages people to believe them is interesting. Of course, the idea that adding emotion to a factual story makes it more appealing is hardly new: news outlets and true crime podcasts do it all the time. But this new work does also perhaps imply that the more entertaining we can make the truth, the more likely that sensationseekers will buy into it, rather than a twisted alternative. EMMA YOUNG

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For some people, someone else chewing is enough to cause overwhelming feelings of anger or disgust. Now a study suggests that ‘misophonia’ (a hatred of sounds) is related to an ‘over-mirroring’ of someone else’s physical actions, rather than being linked to hearing issues. The fMRI study, led by Sukhbinder Kumar at Newcastle University, found that people with misophonia showed stronger brain activation in their facial motor regions in response to trigger sounds than those without the condition. [Journal of Neuroscience].

Check out digest.bps.org.uk/podcast for episode 27 of our PsychCrunch podcast: The Psychologist Presents… at Latitude Festival 2021 – Child Food Poverty. At Latitude Festival in Suffolk in July, The Psychologist Editor Dr Jon Sutton hosted a conversation in The Listening Post with Greta Defeyter, professor of developmental psychology and founder and director of the ‘Healthy Living’ Lab at Northumbria University. An expert on food insecurity, social injustice, school feeding programmes and holiday hunger, Professor Defeyter considered why children go hungry, what we can do about it, and how her own experiences of poverty have shaped her. 20

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‘Pretty privilege’ affects the way we value animals and even landscapes Do you think a ladybird is more beautiful than a locust? If so, you probably also feel that the ladybird is ‘purer’ than the locust, and so possesses more inherent moral worth. This, at least, is the conclusion of a new paper that links perceptions of purity, beauty, and moral standing for people as well as animals, and even landscapes and buildings. Earlier studies have found that the more we feel an entity has a mind, and is capable of feelings, the greater its moral standing – that is, we think that there is a stronger moral aspect to decisions about to how it should be treated. Aesthetic judgements have an impact, too – people and animals perceived to be more beautiful tend to be perceived as having a greater moral standing. Now the new work in more than 1600 people, published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, ﬁnds that perceptions of purity should be added into these equations. In the ﬁrst of six studies, Christoph Klebl at the University of Melbourne and colleagues used a measure of ‘desire to protect’ a number of animals as an indicator of the moral standing ascribed to each. The participants also rated the degree to which each ‘ugly’

or ‘beautiful’ example of a fish, butterfly or bird made them think of something ‘pure’, as well as how useful and inspiring they were, and how much they made them feel disgusted, afraid or sad. Purity perceptions emerged as being relevant to the desire to protect. In fact, there was no direct effect of beauty (vs. ugliness) on moral standing; instead, animals judged to be more beautiful were also judged to be more pure, which led participants to see them as having greater moral standing. (Perceptions of how ‘useful’ the animals were were also relevant). A second study involving photos of attractive and unattractive human faces, produced similar results: perceptions of beauty were linked to purity judgements, and so to moral standing scores. When the team studied inanimate targets, again, participants judged ‘beautiful’ vs ‘ugly’ lakes, mountains and even buildings to be ‘purer’ and more deserving of protection; again interpreted as reflecting greater moral standing. Perceived utility (and, for buildings, judgements of how inspiring each example was) also influenced the results. But does the desire to protect a

lake, say, really reﬂect judgements of moral standing? Follow-up studies used a more explicit moral standing scale (rather than ‘protection deservedness’). Participants rated the extent to which harming the animal or building would be morally wrong, for example. Again, beautiful animals and buildings were seen as more pure, leading to higher moral standing scores. The researchers say their work provides empirical evidence for ‘purity intuitions as a psychological mechanism through which people view beautiful entities as possessing moral standing’. Conservation organisations are sometimes criticised for picking attractive ﬂagship species to promote their causes. But this work does suggest that the more beautiful the threatened target, the more strongly people will feel. If an ‘ugly’ species in peril shares a threatened habitat with a more attractive species, then focusing on the cute one could well be the sensible approach. Focusing on the purity of other at-risk targets could be useful too. Conservation efforts might highlight the purity of a building’s Modernist style, for example. EMMA YOUNG

There seems to be a link between adverse childhood experiences and risk for some of the leading causes of death. How do we discuss the uncomfortable topic of past trauma with family members in an accessible way?

the psychologist october 2021 adverse childhood experiences

Karin Creemers

‘Those secrets… they’re literally eroding my bones’ Kyle Kelleher considers Adverse Childhood Experiences, and the need to discuss family trauma

fter 34 years of sobriety, countless hours of therapy and persistent self-care, my mother can ﬁnally exhale. The emotional scars of childhood abuse are as healed as they can be. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning… there is a second chapter to her journey. The adversities my mum faced as a child are having a very real impact on her health, her immune system and her brain, today. According to the NSPCC, one in four people experience childhood abuse or neglect in the UK. It is woven into our society. Yet with more than 85 per cent of child abuse going undetected in the UK (OCCE, 2015), and a culture of silence over uncomfortable topics, it can seem more like a rarity than a reality. While it may seem invisible, the echoes of childhood adversity come back later in life louder and harder to ignore than ever. ‘I have worked hard throughout my life to understand how my childhood affects me emotionally,’ my mum says. ‘I am just now at the stage where I can hear how it affects me physically.’ A wave of emotions The striking statistics linking childhood adversity with negative health outcomes later in life are not new. In 1998, Doctors Felitti and Anda of Kaiser Permanente Hospital conducted an experiment on more than 17,400 patients in partnership with the Centre for Disease Control (CDC). They discovered that a person’s risk for developing life-threatening negative

health outcomes in adulthood is inextricably linked to their adverse childhood experiences, known as ‘ACEs’. The 10 ACEs are physical, sexual and emotional abuse, physical and emotional neglect, growing up in a household with domestic violence, where a parent was incarcerated, substance dependent, mentally ill or divorced (Felitti et al., 1998). After more than 30 replications of this study, the CDC repeatedly find the same chilling statistics. As a woman with an ACE score of more than 4/10, my mum is more than twice as likely to develop heart disease and cancer, and 2.5 times more likely to develop a stroke than a person with no ACEs. She is four times more likely to develop chronic lung disease and, most shockingly, her risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia increases 11-fold (CDC, 2020). When I first learned this, I felt a wave of emotions. As scientists, we pursue data that is untainted by emotion. However, we must speak vocally about these findings precisely because they are so emotionally raw. When Felitti first told his colleague, Dr Bessel Van der Kolk, of the devastating effect that childhood trauma has on adult physical health, he wept (see Van der Kolk’s 2015 book The Body Keeps the Score). Emotional pain is not the downfall of modern science, but a pivotal, motivational force that drives the pursuit of knowledge. Together, we must acknowledge the fact that childhood adversity is a very real part of our lives today. We must work together, have uncomfortable conversations, educate our loved ones and work diligently on preventative health strategies. ‘Thank God I found out about this at 57,’ my mum says, ‘and

not 67’. It is never too late to have these conversations. It is never too late to reclaim your past by making proactive, lifestyle changes. Indirect and direct pathways In order to understand this profound connection between trauma and health, it is important to consider numerous factors that indirectly and directly link childhood adversity to adult health. Firstly, chronically high adversity affects a child’s developing brain in critical regions involved in reward and addiction, Key sources like the nucleus accumbens, which mediates pleasure, and the orbitofrontal cortex, which Boparai, S.K., Au, V., Koita, K. et al. is important for inhibition (2018). Ameliorating the biological impacts of childhood adversity. Child (Muhammad et al., 2012). A person Abuse & Neglect, 81, 82–105. with four or more ACEs is three Burke Harris, N. (2018). The deepest times more likely to become a well: Healing the long-term effects of recurrent smoker and engage in childhood adversity. Houghton Mifﬂin binge drinking behaviours (RyanHarcourt. Ibarra, 2020), thus highlighting Felitti, V.J., Anda, R.F., Nordenberg, D. et al. (1998). Relationship of childhood an indirect pathway linking abuse and household dysfunction to high childhood adversity with many of the leading causes of death in reduced health outcomes in adults. American Journal of Preventive adulthood. Understanding the Medicine, 14(4), 245-258. neuroscience linking ACEs, Häuser, W., Kosseva, M., Üceyler, N. substance dependence and health et al. (2011). Emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in ﬁbromyalgia syndrome. is a critical piece of knowledge Arthritis Care & Research, 63(6), 808–820. that can empower people to better Lee Oh, D., Jerman, P., Marques, S.S. understand their bodies and minds. et al. (2018). Systematic review of Additionally, some school pediatric health outcomes associated systems are not built with high ACE with childhood adversity. BMC Pediatrics, kids in mind. Children with four or 18(1). Mallett, C.A. (2016). The schoolmore ACEs are 32 times more likely to-prison pipeline: From school to be diagnosed with learning or punishment to rehabilitative inclusion. behaviour problems (Ryan-Ibarra, Preventing school failure: Alternative 2020). These behavioural problems education for children and youth, 60(4), are all too often met with detention, 296–304. one-strike systems and expulsion Muhammad, A., Carroll, C. & Kolb, B. (2012). Stress during development alters (Mallett, 2016). This closes doors dendritic morphology in the nucleus to education and the opportunity to accumbens and prefrontal cortex. build lasting positive relationships Neuroscience, 216, 103–109. that typically correlate with better Purewal, S.B., Marie, T., Aguayo, E. health outcomes. Rather than et al. (2017). Adversity and academic proactive care and rehabilitation, performance among adolescent youth. Journal of Adolescent and Family Health, this putative system perpetuates a 8(1), 2. cycle that neglects the children most Saghir, Z., Syeda, J.N., Muhammad, A.S. in need, deepening the grooves that & Abdalla, T.H. (2018). The Amygdala, link adversity and poor health. Sleep Debt, Sleep Deprivation, and the Emotion of Anger: A Possible Connection? Cureus, 10(7), e2912. Shokri-Kojori, E., Wang, G., Wiers, C.E. et al. (2018). β-Amyloid accumulation in the human brain after one night of sleep deprivation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(17), 4483–4488. Full list available in online/app version.

However, according to Paediatrician Nadine Burke Harris (2018), even a person with educational advantages who does not engage in high-risk behaviours is still statistically more likely to develop heart disease and cancer if they have a high ACE score. How can this be? Burke Harris explains that repeated exposure to prolonged stress in childhood affects the brain developmentally. Imagine you run into a bear. Your amygdala fires up, activating the hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal axis, the stress response system. Cortisol floods the body. Blood is shunted to your major skeletal muscles. You are in fight or flight mode. Your immune response becomes hyperactive, just in case. These complex systems, all working in concert, are highly adaptive and can save your life if you run into a bear in the woods. But, as Burke Harris puts it, what happens when the bear comes home every night? This was the case for my mum. Prolonged, repeated exposure to ACEs chronically hyper activates the stress response system and the immune response system, which becomes maladaptive and toxic to the body. The neurophysiological mechanisms behind this may seem complex, but the simple analogy of a bear in the woods is replicable and easy to understand. Conversations about mental and physical health do not need to be overly complex. A re-education A meta-analysis examined the nuanced relationship between sexual abuse and autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia (Häuser, 2011). Prolonged toxic stress is one of many factors that can contribute to the increased circulation of proinflammatory cytokines throughout the blood to harmful levels (Purewal et al., 2017). As a woman with an ACE score of 8 out of 10, it is sadly unsurprising that my mother lives with rheumatoid arthritis. When my mum found out about this link, she was furious. ‘I’ve worked so hard to distance myself from my past, so the fact that it is still affecting my whole body in a systemic, visceral way is infuriating.’ This highlights an important facet of family conversations. Acknowledging childhood trauma itself is not easy, let alone the fact that it may still have effects on health today. These conversations are not about reliving, or retraumatising, but about re-education. Talk with your loved one at their pace. Listen, be patient, and be empathetic. At this point, it is easy to shy away from these distressing statistics and reassure ourselves that ‘this does not apply to me’. However, of Felitti’s original 17,400 participants, two out of three people had at least one ACE and one in eight people had four or more ACEs. This is a crisis that affects people on all ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. 70 per cent of these original participants were Caucasian, and 70 per cent were university educated (Felitti et al., 1998). More pressing is the fact that this crisis

the psychologist october 2021 adverse childhood experiences

emotional stability (Saghir et al., 2019) becomes refreshingly clear in your own life. Occasionally, when my mum is crying and having a bad day, I tentatively ask ‘are we working with a three sleep cycle night?’, to which she responds with a few chuckles in amongst disproportionately affects people of the tears. Humour is so important, colour in certain communities that Kyle Kelleher is a student at especially when things are intense. are forced into low socioeconomic Durham University My mum has reinforced to me status by systemic racism (Burke Kyle.j.kelleher@durham.ac.uk throughout my life that ‘you have Harris, 2018). In some areas, up to to be able to laugh at yourself’. 92 per cent of children have at least The Centre for Youth Wellness, a pioneering one ACE (Purewal et al., 2017). organisation for ACE awareness, highlights six main This problem is further exacerbated when categories for preventive health care for those with acknowledging that ACEs themselves are highly high ACEs. First, there are the classics we are all correlated with other community-specific adversities too familiar with; sleep, diet and exercise. Secondly, and other general health risk factors (Purewal et al., we must also consider mental health, mindfulness 2017). Underlying shared risk factors that promote and maintaining positive ACEs can simultaneously increase relationships. On a wider scale, the likelihood of poorer health “Acknowledging childhood broad governmental intervention outcomes generally. What makes programmes that protect children ACEs so fascinating, however, is trauma itself is not easy, are essential. Early intervention for their statistical stubbornness. A let alone the fact that it at-risk children leads to measurably strong dose-response relationship may still have effects on improved brain function, as well as exists where the more ACEs a decreases in inflammation markers person has, the worse their health health today” and stress hormones (Lee Oh et al., outcomes, even in communities of 2018). We have the power to strive poverty with these confounding for lasting, policy changes that negative health risk factors (Boparai protect our children, but this cannot be done before we et al., 2018). start having practical conversations with those closest Whether or not this link is due to causal pathways to us. or robust correlations, the fact is that there is a link. This is not a question of ‘how can this be’, but a conversation about what’s next. ‘This conversation is more important than ever’ Finally, it is important to note that I am fortunate to have a relationship with my mum where we can Preventative health care discuss these topics in a safe way. This is not the So, what can you and your loved ones do? For the case for everyone. These conversations can be had rest of my life, I will ask mum ‘how did you sleep’ with your friends, the people you love, and any when she picks up the phone, and she knows this is support system in your life that means family to you. lovingly synonymous with ‘how are you?’. Every night ‘This conversation is more important than ever,’ my of acute sleeplessness contributes to the build-up of mum says, ‘the shame is keeping it secret, and those beta-amyloid proteins in the brain (Shokri-Kojori et secrets are eroding our health. In my case they’re al., 2019), which, over time, stick together to form literally eroding my bones’. Coming together to have plaques. These plaques are one of many factors that these types of conversations is, of course, inherently can increase the likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease. Too many of us pride ourselves on how little sleep we need uncomfortable. It is an oxymoron where science and emotion must mix. to ‘survive’. With one out of six people over 80 living My mother is the bravest, strongest and most with some form of dementia (Alzheimer’s Society), inspiring person I know. She has battled traumas I will sleep can no longer be taken lightly. never be able to fully understand, and she has become When it comes to sleep, it is not simply about how more resilient and loving. It is an honour to work many hours you log at the pillow, but instead how alongside her, improving our health together with a many complete 70-90-minute sleep cycles you achieve newfound sense of urgency. Conversations about our in one night. An adult should be getting five or six pasts must become the norm to better our futures. Yes, sleep cycles a night, which amounts to between 7.5-9 it is uncomfortable. No, it does not come naturally to hours of slumber, but most of us only achieve four us, but the reward is so immense. ‘It allowed me to sleep cycles a night (according to Matthew Walker’s empower the abused child within me, to fully recover Why We Sleep). Once you understand the mechanism her body and her mind.’ of sleep, the correlation between sleep quality and

The threat is coming from inside the house Annie Hickox balances the value of sharing our personal stories of mental illness with the risk of exposure

I 28

t was never my intention to write about my lived experience of mental illness. In 2019, I wrote an article about my daughter’s depression and my experience of this both as a mother and as a clinical psychologist. It took me two years to finish, I broke down in tears a few times while writing it, and at one point I was ready to abandon the project altogether. I asked myself if the pain of reviving memories of this difficult time outweighed the potential value of what I was writing. But my daughter Jane, who has suffered from severe depression, wouldn’t let me off the hook. We agreed that if the piece helped even a single reader to feel less alone, it would be worth the effort and uncertainty. With that potential reader in my mind, I pushed myself to finish those last few sentences. My account was about my efforts to walk the tightrope of being both a mental health professional and a mother; a line I wobbled off several times, and still do. I wanted readers to know that, despite the shame and sense of failure that I felt in myself and the imposter syndrome I experienced in my workplace,

it was still worth talking about my own fallibility openly, while not exposing too much about my daughter’s personal suffering. My article was published on The Psychologist website, shared on Twitter and in due course appeared in the print magazine too. While I had expected a few people to read my brief memoir, I was overwhelmed by a stream of public and private messages. These came from mental health and medical professionals, patients, and parents who shared with me their past and current struggles at home with their own young adult children suffering from depression, anxiety, and OCD. Reading each one of these poignant confidences, which tended to start with ‘Thank you for telling your story, now here is my story...’ filled me with a profound sense of humility and empathy for the people who entrusted me with their own raw experiences. Sharing my story for the first time on social media felt like I was taking a huge risk in the fragile hope that adding my voice as a professional would encourage others to do so. I have the good fortune to be part of a vast and varied mental health twitter community, sometimes known as #madtwitter, #mentaltwitter or

the psychologist october 2021 lived experience

#mentalhealthtwitter. This is an extremely diverse and broad group of mental health professionals, patients, and others with lived experience of mental illness. I have always admired people who told their own stories about their own illness trajectories and how they navigated the labyrinth of NHS services that are far too often bewildering, opaque, and infuriatingly inadequate. I also heard from many fellow mental health professionals who related their own lived experiences, and the strong sense of shame they suffered when they spoke openly to colleagues about their mental health struggles. Although we are a profession whose work often entails encouraging others to open up and share their trauma and personal pain, it seems we are also a profession who finds it far more difficult to listen to each other recount our own stories. Woven into family life Clinical psychology is based on the scientistpractitioner model, and recognises that informed choice and evidence-based knowledge can help people find the best path to deal with their mental health issues. On social media, most of us see our role primarily as providers of information engaging with allied mental health professionals and service users. I have therefore always steered away from discussing my own family history of intergenerational mental illness, limiting myself to the occasional comment about the impact of my father’s severe mental illness on my early childhood and adolescence. Every family that experiences severe mental illness knows how it can sweep in like a tempest, pulling everyone into its force. I grew up in the 1960s, during a time that saw the first generation of modern psychotropic medications. Their unpredictable interactions, the care with which they were prescribed, and the question of who should be doing the prescribing, were frequently overlooked. The clash of diverse and often incompatible medications frequently exacerbated our father’s condition in unpredictable and alarming ways. The complex triangular relationship between my father’s haunting memories of his childhood trauma, his depression and his psychosis still runs through my mind every day. They left an indelible mark imprinted on every recollection of our childhood and the rhythm of our family life. During his periods of being well, the glimpses of increasing stability and joy during Dad’s days of gradual recovery felt like sea spray from a surf that still held the power to pull him under again. Sometimes as a child I would visit friends and be mystified by those families for whom these psychological forces appeared to be absent. I would wonder, ‘what can that be like?’ Decades later, my four siblings and I always return, again and again, to discussions and debriefings about our father’s illness and the imprint that it left on each of us. These recursive reminiscences (and even at times

laughing darkly when we recall a particularly vivid episode that would have seemed absurdly comical if it had been portrayed on a television series) continue to provide us with the paradox of the combined pain and balm of shared experience. We knew we were not alone and we are not alone. Mental illness in the family has provided us with a shared language and ease in handling the subject that is, perhaps, unusual. I feel grateful that I have always felt able to talk openly and unashamedly to my husband and my children about our family history. My therapeutic work has led me to admire my father even more, the fact that after all of his suffering, and several suicide attempts, he still managed somehow to survive for our mother and for us. He had no means of hiding his vulnerability, and even with our mother’s best efforts to keep the show on the road, there was no way to shelter us from these episodes. This has perhaps been one of the greatest lessons of growing up with a mentally disordered father. Mental illness has always been intricately woven into my family’s life, even for generations before I was born, and it continues to this very day. Shame and stigma from inside the profession So talking about mental illness in the family can be a healing, bonding, and educational experience… until it isn’t. Things can and do go wrong when we expose our vulnerability and anguish to people outside of our close personal circle, especially on social media. The initially overwhelming Twitter response to my article reminded me of William Styron’s observation of his own depression: ‘the disease engenders lasting fellowship, if nothing else’. And yet, my attention was drawn to a handful of tweets that felt stigmatising and shaming, suggesting that I had ‘medicated’ my daughter, that I myself was ‘probably mentally ill’ and ‘unﬁt to work as a mental health professional’, and ‘probably on drugs herself’. The momentary sting of these few speculative tweets did not last. I knew that they had been written by people who had described deeply distressing experiences with mental health services, and I reﬂected that my own memoir may have stirred up resentments and anger. As a highly privileged clinical psychologist, I was a ready target. The stigma was more striking, though, when messages on social media came from a couple of members of my own profession. A clinical psychologist described my article as evidence that I was ‘dragging’ my daughter and family into an apparently selfserving drive to support diagnosis and psychiatry. A psychotherapist chastised me for taking my daughter to her GP, saying, ‘what a shame you went straight to a bio bio bio treatment without considering addressing the root causes’, even though I had written at length in the piece about the profound value that therapy gives to Jane.

The survey also showed that those of us who have When I read these social media messages, I was lived experience sought help either from our GPs reminded of the urban legend horror trope, ‘the calls or from private psychiatrists. Therefore, while the are coming from inside the house’… the creepy phone majority of us experience mental health problems, calls that come from the last place one would expect, most of us are reluctant to disclose how we feel to the safety of one’s own domain. In this case, the threat our work colleagues. The barriers for seeking help at was in fact written without the shield of anonymity, by work include perceived mental health stigma, shame, members of the British Psychological Society. and negative consequences of disclosure particularly I asked myself why the social media comments towards our careers. (As an aside, I remember receiving felt so shaming, when in my day to day life I feel so at this survey, as a member of the DCP, and briefly ease in discussing my personal experience of mental hesitating to complete it for fear that somehow my illness with friends and family. I also thought about replies would be shared with my employers). why, in contrast, I have always tended to freeze at the Overall, it appears that our profession has a long thought of talking about it at work, or writing about way to go before those of us with lived experience of it publicly. It had always seemed that by keeping my mental illness can feel safe in talking openly with our stories hidden, I could avoid the struggle of deciding colleagues about our struggles. And yet, promoting between what to reveal and what to withhold from the openness about lived experience in the workplace light, to protect. would seem essential in allowing us My own small experience to feel that it is really okay to speak of social media shaming is, of candidly and without fear about course, personal and anecdotal, “…the current emphasis our mental health, and to ask for but my reaction caused me to on resilience and/or support when needed. consider how we as a profession We may, no doubt, encounter deal with disclosure of our mental normalisation of what many barriers in reaching this goal, health histories to our fellow for many is a paralysing but two strike me as particularly professionals. I reflected on the illness can sound a lot like salient. The first is the emphasis on many psychologists who, like me, resilience in the workplace, which had lived experience and would ‘bootstraps’” conflicts with the message that also see these brief messages as a we should open up and reveal our warning shot that said, ‘Hush. If vulnerability. In the NHS, resilience you try to tell your story we will training is often seen as a way of helping workers distort it and use it against you’. ‘bounce back’ and is often equated with success, productivity, and leadership. A second barrier is the view of some psychologists Clinical psychologists with lived experience who appear to normalise mental illness and refute the Was I being overly sensitive? I decided to find out widely accepted position that diagnosis and medication a bit more about the prevalence of mental illness in our profession, and whether the sense of being shamed can have significant therapeutic value. Advocates of ‘critical psychology’ consider diagnostic constructs to by members of our own profession was common. be invalid and also consider the term ‘mental illness’ I discovered that I am in good company. I knew that to reflect a failed and outdated psychiatric paradigm. many studies have shown that a majority of mental Abridging and modifying the language we use, it is health professionals have personally experienced argued, will lead to an elision of these traditional diagnosable mental illness, and that the statistics concepts. appear to be consistent across these various reports. In the 2020 BPS Division of Clinical Psychology But a particularly relevant study is a 2018 paper by document, Understanding Depression, the term ‘illness’ Stacie Tay and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical is eschewed by the authors, who prefer to describe Psychology, surveying members of the British depression in ‘its everyday sense’ as something we Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology experience ‘just as we experience anxiety, anger, (DCP); in other words, my own profession. or even love or joy’. The authors state that ‘we Their research indicates that over 62 per cent of don’t necessarily need ‘treatment’’. They advocate us have lived experience of diagnosable mental health problems, with depression and anxiety most commonly for practical support and help to make changes, favourably listing non-clinical interventions such as experienced. Clinical Psychologists experience high levels of stigma, and while we appear to be comfortable yoga, mindfulness, and ‘healthy environments’. As Ronald W. Pies states in his Psychiatric Times article, ‘Is disclosing our experience to our family and friends Depression a Disease?’, ‘the BPS report barely discusses (68.2 per cent) far fewer of us felt able to disclose the benefits of antidepressant treatment, including to work settings (44.5 per cent). The most negative improved quality of life, but spills a great deal of experience of disclosure was with employers. ink discussing its potential risks and side effects’. The misalignment between the two perspectives of normalisation and illness has also jarred with

the psychologist october 2021 lived experience

non-professionals. Lucy Dimbylow, a suicide survivor with an extensive history of severe mental illness, states in her blog that ‘“common human experiences” have no Rouf’s words stand out in their relation whatsoever to the severe, own right, but are particularly enduring clinical depression salient in view of the BPS/ that leaves me bleeding on the DCP document, ‘Statement on bathroom floor or semi-conscious Dr Annie Hickox, clinical psychologists with lived in the back of an ambulance…’ CPsychol, PhD is a clinical experience of mental health And in her Morning Star article neuropsychologist with over 35 difficulties’, published in August ‘Semantics instead of treatment’, years of clinical experience in the 2020. Like Rouf, I welcomed this the journalist Ruth F. Hunt quotes a NHS and private practice. Find development, although I felt it psychologist who states succinctly, her on Twitter @dranniehickox was long overdue. This document ‘depression (or sadness) as a mood states clearly that the DCP publicly state – such as grief, will come and go. Depression as a clinical disorder does not go away’. recognises and supports the ‘unique and valued contribution that lived experience of mental health Feeling our experiences are minimised or ignored difficulties brings to individuals working within is yet another barrier between us and our colleagues. clinical psychology’. It also acknowledges the stark Hunt, who has suffered from disabling depression conflict that arises regarding whether we share our and physical disability since her teens, has written experiences in the workplace. ‘Significant change is that in the ‘move away from an ‘illness’ to ‘personal needed before individuals are able to feel confident in responsibility’… the onus is on the patient to find receiving normalising, compassionate and accepting the answers so they can get themselves better. For responses, as opposed to those that are dismissive, service-users this undermines and invalidates their denying, attacking, ‘othering’ or marginalising’. lived experience of devastating prolonged bouts of The authors state the need for a ‘whole-systems illness’. For the many members of our profession who have experienced the crippling effects of mental health responsibility’ at all levels of the profession. The DCP’s statement is laudatory, and I applaud conditions, the current emphasis on resilience and/or courageous clinicians such as Khadija Rouf, Anna normalisation of what for many is a paralysing illness Chiara Sicilia, Natalie Kemp, and others who have can sound like ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’. underlined the powerful potential that the meaning and resonance of this document may have. Signs of change Would eradicating diagnosis really reduce stigma and Telling who we really are shame about our mental health experiences? The We need to be able to talk about our experience and accounts of clinical psychologists experiencing shame know that the risk of disclosure does not outweigh the in the workplace tell a different story. In a poignant and candid letter to The Psychologist benefits of sharing our stories, which are, after all, such an important part of our identity. Lived experience (November 2020), Khadija Rouf describes the of mental illness in our profession is common; the ‘real, and as yet, unnamed form of prejudice and majority of us have lived experience of diagnosable discrimination against people who are survivors’. mental health conditions. In my own case, I grew up It was Rouf’s experience of being helped by social with a parent who suffered psychotic depression and workers and psychologists that sparked her desire mental illness was tightly woven into my childhood. to eventually train as a clinical psychologist, yet she I suffered psychosis during my teen years, and both suffered ‘an unhealthy and invasive level of scrutiny of my children suffer from anxiety and depression. I during training and ‘assumptions made about my do not see it as an asset nor as a drawback, it is simply past… silencing and shaming’. Colleagues questioned who I am, and it is who we are. It is indelible, and her professional judgement due to her survivor status, denying it or minimising it will not erase it. We all yet ‘they never appeared to question whether they need to speak up and to speak out. knew enough about victim and survivor experiences’. We need to share our stories and have them Rouf’s experience will resonate with the majority heard and validated by all levels of our profession. of our profession who have lived experience of mental Lived experience can be an asset in our work. But illness. ‘It’s a strange kind of binary, where a profession built on understanding the human psyche, cannot cope our profession’s discomfort, expressed by shaming and silence, is a fault that runs deep, whether in the with a person who happens to be both a survivor and a clinician’. It appears that it is not the diagnosis that is workplace or on social media. If we work together to remove mental health shaming from our profession, shaming, but the attitudes we face when we cross the we can begin to tell people who we really are, rather liminal boundary between hiding and disclosing our than let them tell us who we are not. mental health difficulties.

PsychCrunch episode number 27 at Latitude Festival 2021 – Child Food Poverty

Research Digest www.bps.org.uk/digest ‘Easy to access and free, and a mine of useful information for my work: what more could I want? I only wish I’d found this years ago!’ Dr Jennifer Wild, Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Senior Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry ‘The selection of papers suits my eclectic mind perfectly, and the quality and clarity of the synopses is uniformly excellent.’ Professor Guy Claxton, University of Bristol

Have you heard… The podcast from The British Psychological Society’s Research Digest 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Dating and attraction Breaking bad habits How to win an argument The psychology of gift giving How to learn a new language How to be sarcastic Use psychology to compete like 16. Bonus episode: what’s it like to an olympian. have no mind’s eye? Can we trust psychological 17. How to make running less studies? painful and more fun How to get the best from your 18. How to boost your creativity team 19. Should we worry about screen How to stop procrastinating time? How to get a good night’s sleep 20. How to cope with pain How to be funnier 21. How to stay connected in the How to study and learn more ‘new normal’ effectively 22. Drifting minds Psychological tricks to make 23. Whose psychology is it anyway? your cooking taste better 24. How children learn through play Is mindfulness a panacea 25. How to change your personality or overhyped and potentially 26. How has the Covid-19 pandemic problematic? affected our mental health? 27. At Latitude Festival 2021 — Child food poverty Listen via digest.bps.org.uk Follow us @ResearchDigest Routledge Psychology are proud sponsors of PsychCrunch podcasts

One for sorrow… seven for a secret

Vanessa Moore on whether it is helpful to be a clinical psychologist if you develop mental health problems

had been a clinical psychologist for 25 years when my husband Paul dropped dead. We had gone swimming, as we did every Sunday morning. I waited for him in the leisure centre car park. He never did come. He died of heart failure in the changing rooms: one minute he was there, and the next minute he was gone forever. At the time, my three children were teenagers, we lived in an old, dilapidated house, and I was the head of a large and busy Child Clinical Psychology service. My life was completely derailed, and I had no idea how to get it back on track again. Acute anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts became a daily, and nightly, occurrence as I struggled to ﬁnd a way forward. Fourteen years later, I’m still here, and able to reﬂect on whether it was helpful to be a clinical psychologist when faced with such a major life crisis. Until recently, my unequivocal answer to that question would have been yes. I wrote a book about my experiences, one important theme being that my professional training had been helpful in navigating my way through the trauma that threw my personal life into turmoil, for three main reasons…

Ways of dealing with trauma and loss First of all, being an experienced clinician meant that I had access to a lot of clinical material from my patients. I don’t think I anticipated how important this would turn out to be, but as soon as the tables were turned and I was the one in need of help, I began to see that my patients could show me many different ways of dealing with loss and trauma. One example was a support group that I ran for the parents of preschool children who were being assessed for autistic spectrum disorders. These parents shared the experience of ‘losing’ the child they had anticipated when confronted with an autism diagnosis, yet their reactions to this varied widely from denial and shock (‘You can tell me anything but just don’t tell me he’s autistic’) to universal sadness, loneliness (‘My family and friends don’t really understand what I’m going through; I feel I’m not like other parents anymore’), anger and blame (‘Those bastard MMR vaccine manufacturers are harming all our children’) and, in rare cases, early acceptance and a desire to get

on with life (‘He hasn’t changed at all just because he’s been given a diagnosis; he’s still my lovely boy’). I had felt all of these emotions since Paul died, apart from acceptance, but as the weeks went by and I watched the parents bravely inching their way towards a more hopeful future in spite of their loss, I started to believe that I could do it too. I think I also became a better, more sensitive clinician. After Paul died something shifted, and my experience of the group’s anguish and sense of loss was no longer drawn from the pages of a textbook, but rooted deep within me. Navigating mental health services The second thing that my training gave me was the knowledge I needed to navigate my way around the mental health services: the pros and cons of different treatments, how to access them and so on. I was almost certainly drawn to therapy as the key to processing my own trauma because my career had shown me again and again that therapy is what helps people who are distressed. Over the years following Paul’s death, I worked with three psychodynamic psychotherapists and one CBT therapist. These experiences offered a fascinating insight into the question, to use Anthony Roth and Peter Fonagy’s phrase, of ‘What Works for Whom?’. It felt very different being on the receiving end of psychodynamic and behavioural therapies, and I found myself in the unique position of being able to make an informed comparison between them. My overwhelming conclusion, based on lived experience but concurring with the academic literature, was that the kindness and sensitivity of the person sitting opposite me (those elusive ‘therapist variables’) mattered far more than the type of therapy. The psychotherapist Valery Hazanov puts it rather well: ‘Conceptualisations, theories, interventions… only matter if the patient remembers a person, something that person said or did for her that was real.’ Research skills The third, rather surprising aspect of my training that turned out to be helpful was my research skills. Very soon after Paul died, I began to experience white feathers appearing in unexpected places, almost always

the psychologist october 2021 lived experience

when I was thinking about him or ‘talking’ to him, as the bereaved tend to do. I didn’t know what to make of them. Did they mean something? Were they a sign from him? Throughout my career, I had researched questions that interested me in my clinical work and published my contributions to the evidence-base, and so I felt that I should be equipped to investigate the feathers: not a full-scale experimental study, but a thoughtful and systematic approach to determining their significance. A quick search of the internet revealed that ‘feather’ experiences are commonly interpreted by bereaved people as a sign from the deceased, and indeed are often viewed as evidence of guardian angels. Although this was encouraging, it was anecdotal, and I needed more robust data. I interviewed a sample of bereaved people and carried out a questionnaire survey of experiences following the death of a loved-one. This revealed that half of the bereaved people sampled had a sense of the dead person being ‘around’, and half of these described more concrete ‘signs’: a magpie who appeared after a woman’s sister died, a smell of cigarette smoke where nobody was smoking, a white feather appearing on the floor when a woman was thinking intensely of her dead husband, a robin hopping on a dead child’s grave. ‘Signs’ such as these were all reported in the first two years following the death, often beginning on the day of the death itself or very soon after, and the people who reported them tended to be particularly strongly attached to the person who had died, and devastated by their loss. They all viewed the ‘signs’ as evidence of ongoing communication with the person who had died. These findings led me to a possible explanation in terms of the need to ‘cling to’ the loved one after their death, which is experienced as unbearable, via some kind of ‘sensory thread’ (a feather, or bird, or perfume), which carries a link to the dead person. This is reminiscent of Donald Winnicott’s writing about ‘transitional objects’, the sometimes strange items that babies and young children use as comforters, maintaining a link with their mother particularly at times of stress and separation from her. For me, the white feathers were, and are, always experienced as a source of comfort, which made separation from my dead husband a little more bearable. I was able to put my research skills to good use to reach beyond anecdotal explanations and gain a better understanding of their psychological significance. Culture change It was not until I had a publishing deal for my book and I happened to read a 2018 article led by Stacey on mental health problems among clinical psychologists, in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, that I did a sudden double-take about whether being a clinical psychologist had really helped. Tay and her colleagues found that although personal experience of mental health problems is relatively common amongst

clinical psychologists, the majority are reluctant to disclose these to colleagues and superiors as a result of perceived stigma, fears of being judged negatively and shame. It occurred to me that I had decided to access therapy privately without even considering the NHS route: why? Why had I told none of my work colleagues or my manager about the anxiety and depression I was experiencing, or the therapy? Why did I wait until I had almost retired from my NHS post before committing pen to paper to write about my experiences? Why was I so anxious about the book? Clearly, I had backed away from disclosure without even being aware that this is what I was doing. Had I been younger and less established in my career, this would undoubtedly have mattered even more. As Tay et al put it: ‘even at training level there is an emphasis on emotional resilience and an unspoken belief that disclosing one’s mental health problems may be viewed with mistrust and could result in discrimination’. They review the growing literature on the wide prevalence of mental health difficulties amongst mental health professionals, coupled with a health service culture which views such difficulties as a weakness, and conclude that this culture needs to change ‘…to encourage open conversations about lived experience in the workplace, with the aim of reducing stigma and shame associated with these.’ Reflecting on my own experience, it is a great pity that I felt unable to be open about what I was going through with my work colleagues, nor turn to the service in which my whole career had taken place for help. The culture of non-disclosure needs to change, and perhaps our profession should be at the forefront of enabling this to happen. The 2020 Division of Clinical Psychology briefing paper on clinical psychologists with lived experience of mental health difficulties is a step in the right direction, as is the guidance on supporting and valuing lived experiences of mental health difficulties among trainees. Compassion towards ourselves My mother died six months after my husband, my brother-in-law died a year after that, and a little further down the line, my father died too. I expect it was the sheer weight of loss in a relatively short space of time that tipped me over the edge, and this time it was not a private psychotherapist but the mental health crisis team that came to my rescue. They were wonderful, but my point in the current context is that this intervention by statutory services was by far the most difficult experience to write about in my book, and still is, in this article: the stigma and shame were, and still are, palpable. Yet if surveys show that people with lived experience are more likely to be attracted to working in the field of mental health in the first place, and if as a result we can show compassion to our patients, why as a profession can we not do better at showing compassion towards ourselves? Surely we should try to be instrumental in moving this agenda forwards?

Vanessa Moore is a Chartered Psychologist and author of One Thousand Days and One Cup of Tea: a Clinical Psychologist’s Experience of Grief.

Tics in the room and tics on Zoom Dr Seonaid Anderson, Chartered Psychologist and freelance neurodiversity consultant, hears from Becky Simpson about being a therapist with Tourettes during Covid-19

Can you provide a little overview of yourself, Becky? Hi Seonaid – I am currently an NCS accredited senior therapist and counsellor for a trauma and crisis charity, alongside recently starting my own private practice… I have experience across a few settings including the NHS. My background is in Psychology and I worked as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner before training as a Psychotherapist. I have recently written an article about practising as a therapist with Tourette’s syndrome for the journal Psychotherapy and Politics International. So having Tourette’s Syndrome – can you tell me a little more about that? When were you diagnosed, what kinds of tics do you have, what kind of impact does it have on your life? So, mine started non-typically – my tic symptoms started when I was 14 years old as a response to a period of turmoil and high emotional stress I was going through at the time. I didn’t really know what was going on, it was a bit scary as I didn’t know what it was, so I went to the GP and went to see a neurology specialist who diagnosed me with Tourette’s.

I don’t suffer with severe tics – they were actually a lot worse when I was younger compared to what they are now. I don’t have the coprolalia (swearing) form of Tourette’s either, but I have coughing, twitching, clapping, hitting myself, facial expressions and neck jerking. Occasionally when I am stressed or anxious, I will have vocal tics and I also sometimes get echolalia – repetition of sounds or words I hear. It doesn’t have too much of a physical impact on me, I do quite well managing it with a combination of medication, exercise, and meditation and calming techniques… music is the best thing for me actually, I never tic at all when I’m listening to or playing my music or my instruments. The worst thing for me is probably the social impact – I’m always worried what people are going to think of me. I’ve had funny looks and stares in the past, that kind of thing. I tend to ﬁnd myself trying to suppress a lot when I’m in company, especially if it’s someone I haven’t met before. I still don’t think Tourette’s is well understood enough or accepted in society. I’ve met lots of therapists and clinicians who offer behavioural therapy for tics. Have you ever tried the therapy yourself for your own tics? Becky: I am familiar with CBIT [Comprehensive Behaviour Intervention for Tics] as an approach for tics, but I’ve never actually tried it for myself. Like I say, I can manage mine well enough with what I do already usually.

Seonaid Anderson is a chartered psychologist and freelance neurodiversity consultant with many years’ experience in neurodevelopmental disorders. Website: https://www.neuro-diverse.org/ Twitter: @Seonaidanderso2

I have only met a couple of therapists who are treating tics with behavioural therapy who have tics themselves. Although you have not treated people with behavioural therapy to help them with their tics, can you tell us about what kind of therapy you offer? I am a Humanistic Integrative Psychotherapist, which means I combine a range of approaches and theories to what best suits the individual. I work with a wide range of clients and presenting issues. I very much believe in taking into account every aspect of a person when it comes to therapeutic interventions. I offer both long- and short-term therapy, with both solution

the psychologist october 2021 tourettes

focused and longer term approaches. My go-to model is Transactional Analysis, but I also use elements of CBT, DBT, Mindfulness, Gestalt, Guided Affective Imagery, and Jungian and Psychoanalytic approaches just to name a few. Typically for tics I would adopt a solution focused behavioural approach such as DBT. Are there any challenges you face as a therapist, with tics, delivering therapy? Yes, quite a few. With Tourette’s I always have the problem that it is very physically obvious and apparent that there is something going on with me. The motor and vocal tics are immediately noticeable. This can sometimes cause a discomfort with clients, particularly during the initial meeting or assessment session. I can see, as in other cases when meeting someone for the ﬁrst time, there is a mixture of curiosity, uncertainty, and not wanting to offend. Also of course if I am working with a client who also suffers with tics, my tics can exacerbate theirs and vice versa. I ﬁnd it important to address this ‘elephant in the room’ to make clients feel more comfortable, so I make it explicit what is going on and explain about my condition. This usually brings about relief for the client, which of course I am pleased about. Yet, I feel I do not have much choice about disclosing and talking. I sometimes wonder how differently I would feel if I had a condition that did not have physically obvious symptoms, how I would probably not be put in the same position. It does feel vulnerable and can lead to a feeling of being unworthy or not good enough. Have you ever experienced judgement or stigma from patients or from others in the profession? Yes, I have. It is actually mainly other therapists I have received the judgements from. I do not usually mind people asking me questions about my condition, as it can show that they are willing to try and understand me and what I need, and how my differences can be supported. However, when someone starts a sentence with ‘I don’t want to be offensive, but…’ you can usually tell the kind of thing that will be coming next. Biases from therapists towards other therapists, particularly centred around identities/lived experience,

seem easily to get framed around fear of ‘client impact’ in some way. I have had people ask me if I consider the impact my condition will have on the therapeutic relationship. How I think my clients will be impacted. As if being neurodivergent makes me less suitable to work with certain client groups such as severely traumatised people as I will find it more difficult to empathise. That my tics will cause a distraction in the room which will make it harder to build a therapeutic relationship and maintain relational depth. I feel that what is said to me highlights how difficult it can be at times to accept our own prejudices, instead trying to deflect them or reframe them as something else. Deeming me potentially unsuitable to work with clients because I have a condition shows a lack of understanding and awareness, and is discriminatory – just as it would be if I had applied for a job and been told I was unsuitable for that position due to my condition. I feel it’s important that as therapists, we are always in a process of reflecting on our own biases, so as to reduce the risk of harm. During the recent pandemic have you experienced any impact on the way you work? Yes, to start with during the first few months of lockdown I had quite a big drop in client numbers and referrals, particularly in the older generation who were not comfortable having therapy online or over the phone. This also resulted in a considerable drop in income. Clients and therapists alike have all had to adapt to a new way of working – it’s also strange to

Becky Simpson is an experienced humanistic integrative therapist and a senior counsellor accredited with the National Counselling Society, and a registered member of the BACP. Becky has her own private practice Bishop Auckland Counselling and Psychotherapy. Website: bsimpson therapy.com Twitter: @stigmainthebin Email: bsimpson therapy@gmail. com

experience that equilibrium of us all going through the same trauma at the same time. I’ve returned to some limited face to face work now, but mainly I’m using Zoom, WhatsApp and phone for sessions. The advantage is that I’ve been able to work with clients from all over the country, not just my local area, which makes for a wider range of experience. Working online is certainly more intense than working face to face. I’ve noticed this has an impact on how I’m feeling throughout the day, I’ve been feeling more tired and run down and I need to do a lot more self-care.

This pressure of knowing that people are looking at you and judging you deﬁnitely causes more discomfort and anxiety which of course will exasperate the tics – it’s a bit of a vicious cycle really. Obviously the coughing tics at the moment are what people pick up on and judge you for, and although I’m not exempt from wearing a mask myself I can totally hear what you’re saying about people judging ticcers for that too… people are very quick to judge something they don’t understand fully. It shouldn’t be like this. I think there needs to be more information and education out there to address these stigmas, and we need to look inwards on our own judgements and biases about individuals with a disability, as it isn’t the sufferer’s responsibility to make us feel more comfortable.

I’ve heard from patients with Tourette Syndrome and in the tic disorders community that during the pandemic they have experienced an impact on their tics and mental health; with anxiety and uncertainty people have noticed their tics increasing. As a therapist with tics, have you How have you coped personally noticed this yourself? with the pandemic? What coping Yes, absolutely. Mine definitely “I have noticed an increase strategies have you used? increase during periods of stress Music has been, and always will in tics and tic frequency anyway, and I have noticed an be my biggest outlet. I always find increase in tics and tic frequency music so calming and it’s something since the beginning of since the beginning of lockdown. I can just immerse myself in fully, lockdown” I’ve also developed quite a few new I find that when I’m concentrating ones. It’s an anxiety provoking on a task like playing my guitar my situation for sure, and with all that’s tics are reduced and it really directs going on to think about and worry about it leaves me my focus to what I’m doing. It’s very grounding. less room for tic management. I’m also on Beta blockers for a heart murmur that I’ve had for a couple of years, but I can take them for As we know there are some people with tic disorders anxiety as and when too and it really takes the edge also have vocal tics which look very similar to some off the physical symptoms. Also as I mentioned before Covid-19 symptoms, these tics are highly suggestible. mindfulness techniques and behavioural techniques They include tics such as sniffling, spitting, sneezing, really help with the tics. I think freedom from having coughing and upper respiratory tics (Covid-like to suppress is also key, when I’m around people I symptom tics). Have you heard of, or experienced know and trust, and feel comfortable in myself, there’s this? definitely a lot less pressure there. Staying connected Yes, I have. Coughing and clearing my throat was to people has definitely been a big help too. I’m so one of my tics anyway and I suppose the generalised grateful for modern technology. anxiety of catching the virus may have brought that out more… can’t speak for others, obviously, but just I know you’ve made the case for the counselling my take on it. With everyone’s anxiety around the profession to be more aware of neurodiversity and virus if you do this around others it will tend to illicit a educated about conditions such as tic disorders. hostile response, which can be saddening. What do you think would make the biggest difference? Can you talk a little about having Tourette’s and I’m always so grateful when a colleague asks me ‘What being in public? I would imagine this will exacerbate can we do / is there anything you need to help you feel anxiety and will no doubt also increase these more safe/secure/supported?’ I feel like these are such suggestible tics which are especially difficult during important questions, and ones we should always be the current health pandemic. People with tics can asking our neurodiverse clients too. I think there’s a have sensory sensitivities too, which may mean they knowledge gap and a lack of good, in depth training have issues wearing masks. around working with neurodiversity, particularly Sure. As I mentioned before I have had some Tourette’s, I certainly haven’t seen much to date. I feel experiences in the past of being in public and ticcing it would be key to develop a framework or include this where people will stare at me, kids will point, laughter, in mandatory training for students, so nobody is going that kind of thing. I know that something which is into that kind of situation unprepared. unusual and strange will bring out people’s natural I also haven’t seen much CPD around this topic. anxieties – however that isn’t an excuse, it’s rude and I think there’s still a lot of practitioners, particularly quite hurtful, as I’m sure it is for many other Tourette’s those of an older generation to myself, who are lacking sufferers. in knowledge and experience of neurodiversity. It’s

the psychologist october 2021 tourettes

essential that these knowledge gaps are filled so as to reduce the risk of harm to clients, but also to neurodivergent practitioners such as myself. You said recently ‘When working with neurodivergent clients, my lived experience and deeper understanding of what it is like to be neurodivergent help to strengthen the trust and relationship and can lead to greater relational depth – a feeling of profound connection and understanding between client and therapist’. This surely is a situation where the impact of your condition hugely benefits the therapeutic relationship – if we think about Jung’s ‘wounded-healer’ concept in psychology? Yes, absolutely – there’s always a reason why we do what we do, and we all have a history. The idea that therapists have got it all together and are always doing great 100 per cent of the time is completely false! Certainly, from my perspective as a client, if I feel as though the therapist can relate to me and has been through similar experiences, I feel a lot more comfortable and able to form a relationship with them. This has been feedback I have received from several of my clients also. We can have all the qualifications and training, which is great and absolutely valuable, but at the end of the day we are sitting in the room with another human being. As a therapist and counsellor your specialism is in

trauma and crisis. What do you think of the idea that due to the pandemic as a society, we are all undergoing a collective trauma, which will affect us for years to come? I completely agree. I think the reality of the situation is that we just don’t know the wider impact of this situation yet. There’s a lot of questions we can’t answer. I think in time we will start seeing more and more people needing therapy for the resulting trauma this situation has brought to us all, and when it is all over there will be visceral relief, but the residual trauma will still be there in the background – it’s important not to ignore that concept. I think the government need to take this seriously and be more prepared and provide the funding and access to therapy that is so needed. There are thousands of qualiﬁed, registered and competent therapists and counsellors already available, and being utilised privately – so why not call upon them? Would you have any message or advice to the Tourette’s and Tic Disorder community, about getting through the pandemic? Stay connected to others, and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. There are more of us out there and we are never alone – if we share our vulnerabilities and worries with others it’s far better than trying to cope with it all on our own. We will get through this!

Bringing professional training to your screens We miss seeing you in real life! Since the pandemic, industries and businesses nationwide have struggled, and the events industry is no exception. But we were keen to continue as many of our events as possible. And over 25,000 of you seemed just as keen, taking part in 156 online events since March. So we’re not stopping now. In 2021, our calendar of online events continues to grow, providing virtual learning across the many areas of psychology – check our website for the latest updates.

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‘People erase my existence’

Thomas York, a bisexual psychology student at Bath Spa University, draws on research and cultural sources to understand biphobia and bisexual erasure

was in college when I experienced bisexual the term was coined by law scholar Yoshino in 1999. erasure for the first time. I was part of a The Royal College of Psychiatrists recently defined Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), and many of the term as: ‘ignoring, removing, falsifying evidence my friends were members. At the time, I had of bisexuality from a source and in its extremist a boyfriend, and my friends asked me: ‘So form can perpetuate that bisexuality does not exist’ Tom, now that you have a boyfriend, does that (Watson & Smith, 2020). When bisexual people mean you’re gay now?’ At the time, I didn’t internalise society’s negative social beliefs and apply realise that what had been said was an act of them to themselves and other bisexual people, that’s bisexual erasure – I knew nothing internalised biphobia (Hayfield, about it. To them, it was just a 2020). joke, but to me, it was painful and It’s worth defining the ‘four “ bi people may self-define monos’. upsetting, although I couldn’t quite Monosexuality is the on the basis of attraction attraction to a single sex or gender, put my finger on why. I ended up calling out my GSA, while non-monosexuality (or to multiple genders, most of whom were friends. In both plurisexuality) is an attraction but others may require the initial event and the call out, to more than one sex or gender. ongoing ‘proof’ to consider Monosexism describes the I felt a depth of discomfort that I haven’t felt in years, possibly ever. negativity shown to individuals them bisexual.” I remember being asked, ‘are you who do not identify with attracted to anyone in this room?’ monosexuality (Hayfield, 2020). – the stereotype about bisexuality Finally, mononormativity refers to being that I am automatically attracted to everyone. cultural or social norms which assume that everyone is Recently I overheard a conversation along the lines of or should be monosexual (Hayfield, 2020), and it also ‘if you date girls, you’re a lesbian and nothing else’. I refers to the assumption of monogamy. sometimes feel that around every corner, people erase I come from a perfectly accepting family, yet I have my existence. experienced binegativity and biphobia in a variety of I don’t often see myself in TV and film. When I do, forms. They are just as problematic as they sound. I am actively objectified, and my sexuality is painted negatively (Glee, Sex and the City, Insatiable, The Real O’Neals). All this comes together to form a mess of Examples internalised biphobia. Am I gay enough? Am I straight One of the most common examples of biphobia enough? All I am is 100 per cent bisexual. from both straight and LGBTQ+ individuals is that bisexual people lie to themselves and are gay or straight, and bisexuals are confused in their attraction. Christina Dyar and colleagues (2014) reported that Biphobia and more this is especially prominent when bisexual people Biphobia has been prevalent globally for decades. are in relationships, because people assume that both It was defined in 1992 by Bennett as prejudice individuals in the relationship are gay or straight. experienced by bisexuals from straight and gay Women are particularly likely to be assumed gay or on individuals. It’s when others don’t view bisexuality as a their way to being gay. Bisexual women in different-sex valid, unique, and legitimate sexual orientation. These relationships can also experience a specific form of prejudices are born from negative attitudes, beliefs, views and stereotypes that are hurtful towards bisexual ‘acceptance’ from a straight male partner due to the eroticisation of female bisexuality. This eroticisation people or perceived bisexuals. can lead to an increase in depression in bisexual While bisexual erasure has existed for a long time,

the psychologist october 2021 bisexuality

women in different-sex relationships as a direct result of being treated as sexual objects instead of equally. That paper also showed that bisexual women in different-sex relationships report elevated depression symptoms and higher frequencies of binegative exclusion and rejection by lesbians and gay men than bisexual women in same-sex relationships do. There is a great irony in this – the supposedly accepting LGBTQ+ community perpetuates the exclusionary practice, feeding the belief that because bisexual people like multiple genders, they are not gay or straight enough to belong in either community. It must be particularly upsetting for bi people to find others ‘like them’, only to not fit in (an issue highlighted by Irvine (2017) and Weiss (2004)). Another example of biphobia is that bi people may self-define on the basis of attraction to multiple genders, but others may require ongoing ‘proof’ to consider them bisexual. Flanders and colleagues (2017) found that bisexual participants felt pressured to engage in sexual behaviour to provide evidence of their bisexuality, and when doing so, they did not always use safe-sex practices. Their research also indicated that the assumption that bi people in monogamous relationships had ‘chosen their side’ was associated with individuals changing their behaviour to avoid being misidentified – this negatively impacted sexual or mental health. In a monosexual community, would a person feel pressured to engage in sexual activity, risky or otherwise, to prove their sexuality? It sets an impossible double standard that bisexual people need to be in a constant cycle of having sex to prove their bisexuality. Bisexuality has even been erased from the legal map (Marcus, 2020). In 2020 the United States Supreme Court decided a landmark LGBTQ rights case, Bostock v. Clayton County. The decision affirmed that Title VII’s sex discrimination protections extended to gay and trans employees, but there is no mention of bisexuality or bisexual people. Bisexuality is again assumed to be a subset of being gay and not its own unique identity. And we see biphobia in the media too. In the hit show Glee, gay character Kurt responds to Blaine, who is questioning his sexuality after a drunk kiss with a girl, by saying: ‘Bisexual is a term gay guys in high school use when they wanna hold hands with girls and feel like a normal person for a change.’ This is just one of many examples – see the GLAAD report ‘Where we are on TV’ (www.glaad.org/tags/where-weare-tv). Double and multiple discrimination Double discrimination is the discrimination by straight and gay people against those who are bisexual (Weiss, 2004). Research by Friedman et al. (2014) concluded that bisexual people face behavioural, psychosocial, and biomedical consequences of marginalisation and isolation from straight and gay individuals/

Thomas York is a second-year undergraduate student at Bath Spa University. Thomas.York18@bathspa.ac.uk

communities. A systemic absence of positive attitudes toward bisexual people may be one of several complex factors that continue to drive higher rates of poor health outcomes among bisexual people (Dodge et al., 2016), including poorer mental health (Mereish et al., 2017). Bisexuals can be seen as confused about their sexualities and as untrustworthy to romantic partners. Matsick and Rybin (2018) outline how prejudice comes in part from people discounting the authenticity of bisexuality and wanting to know a bisexual’s ‘true allegiance’. Negative experiences stemming from LGBTQ+ communities can be particularly challenging for a bisexual person to comprehend and process (Weiss, 2004). Such exclusion and alienation can rob an individual of their sense of community acceptance, causing a severe impact on their mental health (Ross et al., 2010). Bisexual people can also experience multiple discrimination based on ‘the intersections of gender, race and ethnicity, disability, class, and other factors’ (Hayﬁeld, 2020). A 2019 study by Doan Van and colleagues found that a bisexual person’s discrimination experiences could be ‘additive’ and based on other marginalised parts of their identity.

Bisexual people have to navigate any other stigmatised identities, such as being a person of colour or trans. Discrimination that comes on multiple identity fronts is detrimental to an individual’s mental health (Ross et al., 2010). There is very little research on multiple discrimination and its effects on bisexual/plurisexual people, and it is vital that more is done.

Burden and buffering Much early psychological research missed out on bisexuality or legitimised anti-bisexual discrimination as it classified bisexuals as either gay or straight based on the gender of their current partner. Barker and Langdridge (2008) found that psychological research that feeds into popular culture (e.g. news and media) leans into bisexual erasure through dichotomy and biological explanations. An example is Carey’s (2005) New York Times article ‘Straight, Gay or Lying?’, which publicised a psychological study conducted in the same year. Rieger and colleagues had found no physiological attraction in bisexual men towards women, only the self-reported bisexual attraction before the experiment began. Attraction matters to a lot of people, but bisexual people exist. I come back again to the mental health burden. Chan et al. (2020) found that bisexual individuals have a greater risk of depression and anxiety than gay people and that sexual identity stresses occur at intrapersonal, interpersonal and community levels. And out bisexual women are twice as likely to have Key sources an eating disorder than straight women (Koh & Ross, 2006). The Barker, M. & Langdridge, D. (2008). II. same research found that bisexual Bisexuality: Working with a silenced women who publicly identify as sexuality. Feminism and Psychology, bisexual, compared to lesbians who 18(3), 389-394. do not publicly identify as lesbian, Chan, R.C., Operario, D. & Mak, W.W. were 2-2.5 times more likely to have (2020). Bisexual individuals are at experienced suicidal ideation in the greater risk of poor mental health than lesbians and gay men: The mediating last 12 months. role of sexual identity stress at multiple Surely, finding a community levels. Journal of Affective Disorders, 260, where we feel we belong is key? In 292-301. a 2017 study of US women, Jaclyn Dyar, C., Feinstein, B.A. & London, B. Lambe and colleagues found that (2014). Dimensions of sexual identity perceived binegative discrimination and minority stress among bisexual women: The role of partner gender. and internalised binegativity Psychology of Sexual Orientation and correlated with self-esteem and Gender Diversity, 1(4), 441. depression, but only internalised Hayfield, N. (2020). Bisexual and binegativity predicted self-esteem pansexual identities: Exploring and and depression. Importantly, challenging invisibility and invalidation. participation in a bisexual-specific Routledge. Marcus, N.C. (2020). Bostock v. Clayton community at high levels (daily County and the Problem of Bisexual to two or three times per week) Erasure. Northwestern University Law reduced the impact of internalised Review Online, 115, 223. binegativity on depression Stonewall. (2018). LGBT in Britain: Home (although not self-esteem). and Communities. London: Stonewall. Simple, then – participate in Full list available in online/app version. a bi-community. Unfortunately, research conducted in Australia by

McLean (2008) concluded that while some bisexuals were active within lesbian and gay communities, many were not as they feared rejection or discrimination due to their bisexuality. Additionally, those who did participate in lesbian and gay communities kept their bisexuality hidden most of the time due to the fear of being made unwelcome. Statistics from the UK bear this out. The 2018 LGBT in Britain Home and Communities report by Stonewall surveyed 5000 participants, 30 per cent of whom were bisexual. 30 per cent of bi men and 8 per cent of bi women felt unable to be open about their sexual orientation with any of their friends, compared to 2 per cent of gay men and 1 per cent of lesbians. A further third of bi people were not open about their sexual orientation to anyone in their family, compared to 8 per cent of lesbians and gay men. The survey also found that 50 per cent of bisexual men and 43 per cent of bisexual women have never attended LGBT speciﬁc venues and events in their local communities, compared with 33 per cent of lesbians and 27 per cent of gay men. Shockingly, 27 per cent of bisexual women and 18 per cent of bisexual men had experienced discrimination or poor treatment from the LGBTQ+ community because of their sexual orientation compared to 9 per cent of lesbians and 4 per cent of gay men. Stonewall followed this with the LGBT in Britain Bi Report in 2020, revealing that 31 per cent of bisexual people had experienced a hate incident. Seventyﬁve per cent did not report it out of fear that the police would not take their case seriously. The report concluded that 76 per cent of gay people were out to all their friends compared to 36 per cent of bisexual people, and 63 per cent of gay/lesbian people were out to all their family members, compared to just 20 per cent of bisexual people. Increasingly, people are identifying with other terms that describe attraction to more than one gender. They may have experiences which are similar to and different from bi people. Stonewall’s 2018 Celebrating Bi Inclusion in Secondary Schools guide states: ‘Young people who are bi or who identify as another term such as pansexual or queer are more likely to deliberately harm themselves (67 per cent and 79 per cent respectively) than lesbian or gay young people (59 per cent)’. There is no beating around the bush here; young non-monosexual people self-harm at higher rates than their gay counterparts because they are bullied for being attracted to more than one gender. What can be done? Whether it is coming out, discrimination or hate crime, we’re seeing common factors – the fear of discrimination and biphobic assumptions about what the LGBTQ+ community should look like. This can

the psychologist october 2021 bisexuality

have a seriously detrimental effect on the psychosocial wellbeing of bisexual people. Yet little has been done in practice to improve protections and support for bisexual individuals. There are some steps that can be taken. First, simply consider the possibility that someone might be bisexual rather than either straight or gay. Second, create and implement evidence-based psychological interventions to support bisexual and plurisexual minorities. These interventions should strategically target identity stress at multiple levels to help bisexuals struggling with antibisexual discrimination. The demand for this type of intervention is supported by psychological literature – House et al. (2011) highlight a severe need for suicide prevention and self-harm interventions among LGBT youth. Furthermore, a Stonewall School Report (2017) showed that 76 per cent of LGBT students did not know what bisexuality was. To put that in context, in a school of 1000, if 20 per cent of the students were LGBT, 152 of those 200 LGBT students would not know what bisexuality was. The same report also found that one in three bisexual students (35 per cent) were bullied in school for being bisexual. This indicates a crucial need to create a comprehensive sexual health education curriculum inclusive of bisexual, plurisexual, LGBTQ+ and heterosexual

identities. House et al. (2011) suggest that community education on gender and sexual orientation-based discrimination and its negative impact on bisexual people would increase the trend towards greater acceptance. Social and psychoeducational awareness programs in schools and colleges, illustrating the damaging effects of anti-bisexual discrimination, could transform a monosexist culture to make it more accepting of non-monosexual people. Universities can play their part too. While I am yet to reach my ﬁnal year of study, I do not feel represented in the curriculum so far. Human relationships is one of the most prominent areas of psychology, yet much of the classic research ignores or erases my experiences. It’s time for bisexuality to stand as a unique identity. What would positive change look like to me? • Freedom to live without fear of anti-bisexual discrimination • Inclusion in educational curriculums (at university, in school sex education etc.) • Respect for bisexual people of all genders and races • Equality among all communities (straight, gay, bi and wider LGBTQ) Ultimately, all I ask is that you treat bisexual friends, family and colleagues with respect and kindness. Whether they’re out or not, it could beneﬁt them more than you think.

Are you a Practitioner Psychologist? The Practice Board is recruiting! The Practice Board is seeking to recruit two new members: • A neuropsychologist • An academic psychologist The Practice Board acts as a responsive source of expertise, discusses current issues in psychological practice and engages in regular horizon scanning to proactively identify gaps in practice knowledge. We are seeking members currently in practice who, in addition to being a conduit between the member networks and the Board have a wider strategic interest in the development of the profession. The BPS is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and we encourage applications from all backgrounds. For the full role description, terms of reference and to request a statement of interest form please contact sunarika.sahota@bps.org.uk. The deadline for applications is Monday 15 November 2021.

Using evolution science to build a prosocial world Freddy Jackson Brown, Paul Cooper, Emma Balfour and Mary Stanley-Duke For most people, the word evolution is synonymous with genetics and how DNA changes when species adapt to their environments. But this ‘gene-centric’ view misses a far richer and ultimately more useful view of the evolutionary process that has major implications for society…

e now understand evolution to be much more complex than just genetic change. For social species like humans, evolution is taking place within and across four interacting inheritance streams – genetic, epigenetic, learning and cultural. And to make matters even more complicated, evolution is also operating on different levels of complexity, such as between individuals within groups and between groups in a multigroup population, at the same time. This new understanding provides insights into some of humanity’s unique characteristics, like our extraordinarily high levels of cooperation and altruism. Today, psychologists are using this wider appreciation to tackle some of society’s more pressing challenges, such as how we build a more prosocial and sustainable world. Defining evolution Long before Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, evolution was already a popular topic. Studies from natural history suggested life on Earth was not fixed in its current form, but constantly changing. People were asking how. Darwin’s great insight was that a natural process operating over long periods of time could explain these evolutionary changes. He called the process natural selection and it involved three basic components – variation, selection and heredity (i.e. the retention of traits – why offspring look like their parents). Individual organisms in a population naturally vary, Darwin argued, and traits that increased an organism’s chances of survival and reproduction were more likely to be passed onto the next generation. Favoured traits accrued across the generations and over time led to diversification and later speciation. For Darwin, evolution was a ‘struggle for existence’ between individuals, and only the traits of the winners made it to the next generation. Heredity was widely accepted at the time Darwin was writing – it was well known that selectively

the psychologist october 2021 evolution and prosociality Napal Naps www.napalillustration.com

breeding plants and animals could accentuate or favour certain traits. However, it was not clear how this process worked until Mendel’s studies with peas clariﬁed the units of inheritance, later called genes. By the 1930s, Darwinian theory and Mendelian genetics had combined into what came to be called the Modern Synthesis (Huxley, 1942). From that point on, genetics took centre stage and became what most people meant by ‘evolution’. Four streams of inheritance It’s now believed there are four distinct evolutionary inheritance streams in organic life (Jablonka & Lamb,

2005). The ﬁrst and best-known of these is indeed genetic. Mutations and changes in DNA (variation) that support survival and reproduction (selection) are more likely to be passed onto offspring (retention). Individual organisms live and die, and species evolve as they adapt to their local environments. The second inheritance stream is epigenetic. Every single cell in our body – skin, liver and blood cells etc. – contains exactly the same sequence of DNA and yet they all have different structures and functions. This is because different cells use, or express, different parts of our genes, depending which are turned on and off by epigenetic modiﬁcations. DNA is like an instruction manual for how to build a body, and epigenetics is like

highlighting which bits of the text to pay attention to at different times with coloured marker pens. One type of epigenetic process occurs when molecules called methyls attach themselves to DNA sequences, thereby deactivating them. Methylation follows in response to the organism’s experiences (like starvation or trauma) and it can lead to changes in cell structure and functioning. This matters in evolution because epigenetic modifications can be (though are not always) passed across the generations – our grandmothers’ experiences or childhood diets can impact us today. Epigenetic modifications are a distinct hereditary system from genetic Key sources evolution. The third inheritance stream is Atkins, P., Wilson, D.S. & Hayes, S.C. learning (i.e. behaviour change). (2019). Prosocial: Using evolutionary The psychologist B.F. Skinner was science to build productive, equitable, and one of the first to understand that collaborative groups. Context Press. natural selection was operating Hayes, S.C., Strosahl, K.D. & Wilson, K.G. (1999). Acceptance and Commitment in different inheritance streams, Therapy: An experiential approach to which he identified as genetic, behavior change. Guilford Press. learning and cultural (epigenetics Huxley, J. (1942). Evolution: The Modern had not yet been discovered). Most Synthesis. George Allen and Unwin. of his work centred on learning, Jablonka, E. & Lamb, M.J. (2005). which he described as ‘selection Evolution in four dimensions: genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic by consequences’ (Skinner, 1981). variation in the history of life. MIT Press. Operant learning, he argued, Konkel, L. (2016) Positive reinforcement involves behavioural variants helps surgeons learn. Scientific being selected (i.e. reinforced) by American, 9 Mar. 2016, www. the consequences they produce, scientificamerican.com/article/positivehence becoming more or less reinforcement-helps-surgeons-learn. Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the likely to occur again in the future commons: The evolution of institutions for (i.e. the heredity of learning). collective action. Cambridge University Just as individual organisms live Press. or die and the species evolves, Pinker, S. (2012). The false allure of individual behaviours are selected group selection. Edge, 18.06.2012. or deselected and the operant www.edge.org/conversation/steven_ pinker-the-false-allure-of-groupevolves. This is how practice works selection – feedback selects and shapes our Skinner, B.F. (1981). Selection by skills, from playing the piano to consequences. Science, 213, 501-504. orthopaedic surgery (Konkel, 2016). Styles, R. (2018). Solid evidence for Learning enables the organism to prosocial within government agency adapt to the local environment more settings. www.prosocial.world/post/ solid-evidence-for-prosocial-withinquickly than genetic or epigenetic government-agency-settings evolution, with clear survival Wilson, D.S. (2015). Does Altruism Exist? advantages. It probably emerged for Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others. that reason. Yale University Press. The fourth inheritance Wilson, D.S. (2019). This View of Life: stream, cultural evolution, is Completing the Darwinian Revolution. Pantheon. the transmission of behaviours Wilson, D.S., Ostrom, E. & Cox, M.E. between individuals within and (2013). Generalizing the core design across generations. In essence it principles for the efficacy of groups. involves one individual copying Journal of Economic Behavior & (i.e. replicating) the behaviour Organization, 90, S21-S32. of another. When this includes Wilson, D.S. & Wilson, E.O. (2007). offspring, the behaviour becomes Rethinking the theoretical foundation of sociobiology. Quarterly Review of Biology, transgenerational. Examples 82, 327-348. include chimpanzee tool use and human Christmas traditions. Direct

imitation is an important vector of transmission within a group, but human cultural evolution really took off with the emergence of symbolic systems and generative language (i.e. language without a direct learning history). Symbolic systems allowed the accumulation and rapid transmission of ever more complex knowledge that in turn opened up new opportunities (see Yuval Harari’s Sapiens for an excellent account of this journey). While occurring independently, the four evolutionary inheritance streams also interact with each other, creating an extraordinarily complex process that enables human beings to adapt swiftly to hugely different ecological niches. Today, human evolution is like a braided river with four intermingling inheritance streams meandering through the Earth’s landscape, speeding up, slowing down, separating and reforming over and over again through time. Multilevel selection and cooperation Evolution also occurs at different levels of biological organisation, from cells to individual organisms to groups of organisms to multigroup populations (Wilson & Wilson, 2007). We typically think of evolution as only operating on single organisms, but in fact it can take place wherever units vary and are selectively retained. Our immune system is a well-known example of the evolutionary process operating within individuals. B-cells in our blood produce a wide variety of antibodies. The ones that latch onto a pathogen stimulate other B-cells to produce more of those antibodies. In effect, antibodies are selected and replicate, thereby adapting to and eliminating the pathogen. On a larger scale, honeybees, wolf packs and businesses on the high street are examples of groups of individuals functioning as single units that succeed or fail together (i.e. are selected). Even individual organisms are collections of genetically unrelated organisms functioning as a single unit (e.g. our microbiomes). Once we move beyond seeing the individual organism as the only unit upon which the evolutionary processes of variation, selection and retention can act, a new way to understand our extraordinarily high levels of cooperation and prosociality emerges. If evolution is all about individual competition in a struggle for existence, why do humans seemingly waste time and energy, or even put themselves at risk, helping other people, particularly if they are genetically unrelated? Darwin’s answer presaged our contemporary understanding. He argued that groups of individuals who helped each other would outcompete groups of individuals who did not. He understood that groups could function as units that compete against each other much like individual organisms do, and that this between-group competition could produce a selection pressure for within-group cooperation. In other words, groups whose members showed higher

the psychologist october 2021 evolution and prosociality

levels of cooperation would do better than groups with lower levels of cooperation. Today, this idea is called multilevel selection theory (MLS; Wilson, 2015) and while still the source of considerable debate, it does offer useful insights into the basis of human cooperation. Critics of MLS argue that group selection cannot occur because groups do not make copies of themselves or have traits that are independent of the individual members (Pinker, 2012). Proponents of MLS would agree that groups do not exist independently of their members. But it is not the individual or their traits that are selected. What is selected is cooperative behaviour. And when cooperation is supported and replicated by other individuals, a cultural process emerges that affects the overall success (or survival chances) of the whole group. Learning and cultural replication (inheritance streams three and four) are both distinct from and related to the genetic and epigenetic processes upon which they are based and as such they cannot be reduced to them. The relationship is analogous to the way computer software is both distinct from and related to the hardware on which it runs. MLS has particular relevance for humans as we evolved and continue to live in groups of varying size alongside other groups in the wider population. How groups function in relation to external targets (e.g. erecting a tent) or in competition with other groups (e.g. sport or business) matters for almost everyone. And here’s the rub – because behaviours that are good for the individual are often bad for the group, if the group is to be successful then it is in its members interests to promote cooperative and prosocial behaviours above self-interest. So how do groups achieve this? Ostrom’s core design principles Cooperation is part of the human potential, but it needs a specific social context or more self-interested behaviour will predominate. What are the contextual variables that support cooperation? Elinor Ostrom was a political scientist who in 2009 won the Nobel prize for economics for her work on how individuals cooperate to manage common resources sustainably. Ostrom (1990) studied groups around the world, and from meticulous and painstaking observations distilled eight core design principles (CDPs), which encourage cooperation and sustainable resource management: 1. Clearly defined boundaries and membership 2. Locally adapted rules for equitable distribution of costs and benefits 3. Collective choice arrangements that include everyone in decisions 4. Effective monitoring of agreed rules and behaviours 5. Positive and negative consequences for following or transgressing agreed rules 6. Fast and efficient conflict resolution 7. Local self-determination without interference from

Freddy Jackson Brown and Paul Cooper are with Avon and Wiltshire NHS Trust, Bristol. freddy.jacksonbrown@gmail.com or freddy. jacksonbrown@nhs.net Emma Balfour and Mary Stanley-Duke are with Trading with Schools, Bristol City Council, Bristol Prosocial

higher-level authorities 8. In the case of larger systems, groups relate to other groups using principles 1-7, producing multiple layers of networked cooperating groups Individually, each of Ostrom’s CDPs are straightforward. Many people will recognise them (perhaps by their absence) in their groups and organisations. Ostrom found that groups who implemented the CDPs more had higher levels of cooperation, collective effectiveness and overall wellbeing. Conversely, when they were not fully implemented, group functioning broke down and individual self-interest took over. This meant that some individuals did substantially better than others and the group’s effectiveness at managing common resources dropped. A great example of effective cooperation comes from health care in the Netherlands. In 2006, four nurses had become disillusioned by the impact of Government health care ‘reforms’ on their relationships with clients. They founded an organisation called Buurtzorg, seeking to simplify the care system and build teams that put clients at the heart of everything they do. The Buurtzorg model is based on self-managing teams that have ‘professional freedom with responsibility’. The teams are small, usually around 12 people (CDP 1) and through open, shared decision making (CDP 3) they self-organise to deliver agreed services and outcomes. For example, new teams ﬁnd their own ofﬁces, decide their internal responsibilities and governance, set their own pay and get to know the local community and care networks (CDPs 2, 4, 5 & 6). Everything is self-organised, and problems are addressed in the level they occur, not by higher management (CDP 7). Teams cooperate with other teams using these same principles to produce the overall organisation – a network of cooperating individuals in cooperating teams in a single corporation (CDP 8). This type of bottom-up self-determination contrasts with the centralised management structure and decision making of most large organisations. As well as producing high quality

person-centred care, Buurtzorg is popular with staff. Its success has seen it grow to over 15,000 professionals in 850 teams in communities across the Netherlands and spread into 24 countries. In effect, Ostrom’s CDPs describe how groups culturally maintain practices that manage selfinterested behaviours that are detrimental to the group. The evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson stated, ‘In groups that strongly implement the CDPs, it is difﬁcult for members to beneﬁt themselves at the expense of each other, so that the only way to succeed is as a group’ (p.121, 2019). But if the CDPs are so critical for groups, why aren’t they universally implemented? The reason is that selection not only operates at the group level, but also operates on individuals within the group. This leads to a constant seesaw struggle between the expression of selfinterested behaviours on the one hand and cooperation on the other. Sometimes the conditions favour the former and at other times the latter.

Towards a prosocial world Prosocial behaviour is everyday cooperative behaviour that benefits other people or the wider group. It includes win-win interactions and also altruistic behaviour that benefits others more than the individual engaging in it. Examples are volunteering, giving directions to a stranger, donating to a charity, random acts of kindness, or just following social norms like standing in a queue or opening a door for someone. In evolutionary terms, prosocial behaviour involves an individual giving up time and/or resources for no immediate benefit, so why do people do it? MLS argues human groups culturally evolved high levels of cooperative behaviour because it gave them a competitive advantage over groups that did not behave in this way. Groups encourage and support prosociality with their language, values, stories, social rules, laws and reward systems, or what we broadly refer to as culture. David Sloan Wilson understood how the CDPs were part of the MLS story, as they described how groups could organise themselves to tip the balance in favour of greater internal cooperation thereby increasing their competitive advantage relative to other groups (Wilson, Ostrom & Cox, 2013). The challenge was how to change people’s behaviour to implement the CDPs and once again Wilson turned to evolution science. In partnership with Paul Atkins and Steven C. Hayes, Wilson combined Ostrom’s CDPs with techniques from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes et al., 1999) to develop the Prosocial training programme (www.prosocial.world; Atkins, Wilson & Hayes, 2019). Evolution science tells us we respond to the environments we are in and that we can also change those environments. We can shape our niche and this in turn shapes us. The challenge Prosocial has embraced is how to use our understanding of evolution

science to do this on a planetary wide basis to create a fairer and more sustainable global society (Wilson et al., 2013). Prosocial aims to train thousands – in time hundreds of thousands – of groups to use ACT processes to implement Ostrom’s CDPs. Each of these groups can then build cooperative relationships with other groups using the same CDPs as they scale the principles from groups to groups of groups to create extended prosocial communities. Robert Styles, for example, used Prosocial to increase the use of Ostrom’s CDPs by leaders at two state run organisations, the Museum of Australian Democracy and the Property and Construction Division of the Australian Finance Department. Pre-post employee census data (independently collected by the Government) showed signiﬁcant increases in perceived levels of service performance and functioning as well as increased staff morale and wellbeing. In fact, every questionnaire item showed improvement over the course of 12 months and this was sustained 12 months later (Styles, 2018). Essentially Prosocial can be deployed wherever we want to improve team functioning. In Bristol, we are using it to support cooperation and improve outcomes across a range of settings, such as in schools, multiprofessional liaison and CAMHS family network meetings. To take one example, we delivered it virtually via four 1.5-hour sessions to help a specialist sensory support team respond to an Ofsted review requiring them to better evidence their impact on children’s learning. We’ve also built it into in a regional pilot for supporting care teams to implement Positive Behavioural Support with up to 60 people with complex mental health and behavioural needs. And in Scotland, clinical psychologist Dr Jim Lemon and his team are using Prosocial across the whole NHS Trust to support staff wellbeing and team performance. The Covid-19 pandemic shows how quickly prosocial behaviours can emerge when the situation demands. When the crisis began, incentives for selfinterested actions held sway and we saw some people ignoring social distancing rules, hoarding toilet rolls and vital supplies. But very quickly our cultural messages and sanctions changed and prosociality increased. In 48 hours, more than 750,000 people volunteered to support the NHS and across the country community groups sprang up to support more vulnerable people. Within a week a ‘clap for carers’ campaign began to recognise and thank those in frontline services and the news was ﬁlled with reports of fundraising and acts of kindness. This is exactly what we’d expect based on MLS – external challenges changing the internal selection pressures to increase prosocial behaviour. The philosopher Francis Bacon said, ‘Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed’. By observing the rules of nature described by evolution science, Prosocial is using them to increase the levels of cooperation and altruistic behaviour in an effort to build a more prosocial world.

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‘Communicating can create a virtuous circle’ Ian Florance meets Linda Kaye, Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Cyberpsychology Section

In Spring 2019, Ian Florance interviewed Simon Bignell about a number of things, not least the establishment of a Cyberpsychology Section within the Society (of which Simon was a founder). Ian decided to talk to Linda Kaye, the Chair of the Section, to see how it has developed – and how her interest in the area grew. Much popular media coverage of digital technologies is unremittingly negative: tales of online addictions, dark web recruitment to sects and cults, the effect of unremitting Zoom conferences on individuals increasingly isolated by lockdowns. I put it to Linda that her research interests stress the positive: for instance ‘how online settings can promote social inclusion and wellbeing’. ‘I suppose I’m just an optimistic person and my work reflects this,’ she replies. However, she also notes that her own focus on the positives does not preclude that there are harms associated with digital technologies. Linda’s early training and education don’t suggest that she was going to move into this exciting new area of psychology. ‘I come from a fairly traditional academic background. I enjoyed psychology at A-level although my original choices did not actually include psychology – I had picked Drama, Biology, Physics, and English Literature. But there was a clash and I dropped Biology and took on Psychology as a replacement.’ That range of courses suggests a real mix of humanities and sciences. ‘My Dad is a pharmacist, my Mum is a music teacher by training, so that reflects my upbringing and what appealed to me about psychology: it’s rooted by scientific enquiry but can be creative.’ She goes on to say that this hybrid of interests plays out in her enthusiasm for creative scientific communication; ‘how do you disseminate scientific findings in a way which really engages people?’ Linda’s YouTube channel shows she has grasped how to do this effectively in the various selfmade animations of her research studies.

‘I did my first degree in Leeds and over the first two years decided the practitioner route wasn’t for me. But in the third year I found increasingly that I loved presenting as well as doing my own dissertation research. I knew that if I was going to go into lecturing, I would need to do a PhD anyway. Alongside that I did my postgraduate certificate in learning and teaching in higher education. My enthusiasm for teaching has been such a key part of who I am; starting from my previous job as a gymnastics coach to my lecturing career. ‘In deciding a topic for my PhD, I got interested in gaming: why was it so popular? I wanted to try to understand the positive experiences involved in gaming rather than simply re-emphasising harm, aggression, addiction, and other negatives. Of course people can experience harm from their online experiences but that’s not the whole story.’ This interest in the psychology of digital gaming has remained a core part of Linda’s research activities and she continues to explore how our social experiences related to gaming are important for identity and wellbeing. The Society website summarises what the Cyberpsychology Section is about: ‘Cyberpsychology exists to pursue and formalise a scientific understanding of the impact, dynamic processes and outcomes that democratised digital technologies have enabled in individuals, groups and the wider society. By investigating issues around gaming, social media, virtual reality, online learning, and virtual interest groups, we hope to raise (and answer) questions about the motivations, experiences, and effects surrounding the interactions between humanity and technology. Cyberpsychology also includes the study of the psychological ramifications of cyborgs, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality amongst other things.’ Linda stresses that ‘Cyberpsychology can cross over with areas such as artificial intelligence and humancomputer interaction. At its base is the question, “What can we understand about the human experience from online behaviour?”’ She explains the attraction this area holds for her. ‘First you have a very wide group of stakeholders, not least the general public. We can establish ourselves as a genuine source of scientific information for the media and other outlets, on issues

the psychologist october 2021 careers

such as well-being, gaming, and social media. This is particularly relevant now. Covid has affected people’s views of social media for instance: increased use of social media platforms has shown certain groups that they’re a great way to keep in touch – at work and in your personal life. On the other hand, there’s ongoing concern about the mental health implications of this. This leads on to another of the key stakeholder groups: policy makers. I was invited to be the BPS representative, giving oral evidence to the House of Lords Covid-19 committee.’ It is clear from reports of this committee meeting that Linda stressed the need for better designed research to really understand the motivations and effects of life online. She argued that technology companies need to be more open to sharing data for research and that organisations need to look at their employees’ health and safety more carefully. ‘Which stresses an even wider range of stakeholders – including charities and commercial companies.’ This and other experiences of communicating with diverse groups perhaps underlies Linda’s ‘2021 Cyberpsychology Tour’. It offers 10 lessons from cyberpsychology which she has presented many times over the last few months, including in Manchester, Leeds, Staffordshire, Bristol, Nottingham, Bournemouth and Belfast. ‘This talk really helped me draw together a lot of issues which had been buzzing around in my head from the different activities I’ve been involved in. It included issues such as why dichotomies between online vs. offline are becoming problematic in the context of interconnected living, and how understanding technology use must go beyond volume (e.g. time spent using social media) to help us understand anything psychologically interesting. I love doing these sorts of things: I’ve presented at events like Psychology in the Pub and SciBar and that sort of outreach is something I really enjoy doing. Communicating in this way has a cumulative effect and can create a virtuous circle: the interest generated by public engagement raises new questions, which lead into new research projects, the findings of which can, in turn, be communicated widely.’ All these points – the importance of communicating, the diversity of stakeholders, the particular relevance of cyberpsychology now – are reflected in the Section, whose first conference took place online in the Summer. ‘The Section and its conference are about connectedness – bringing people together to talk about key issues. It’s interdisciplinary with people in the community who represent a range of subject areas and who work in a range of sectors. The obvious point is that we’re not a Division so we’re open to members from other member networks. Certainly, there is a large cross-over with members who are also in the Defence and Security Section and who work in this sector.’ I’m an associated member of the coaching psychology special interest group, where the issue

of how non-psychologist coaches get involved is a topic of debate and specific proposals. Should non-psychologists be allowed to join the cyberpsychology section? ‘It’s a bone of contention at the moment: having non-psychologists involved would be invaluable. We certainly welcome people from other networks and the wider community and this might, in the end, result in subfields – clinical, education and occupational cyberpsychology for instance. We hope that our membership will reflect the diversity of our audience and the issues we look at, which cross divisional boundaries. We’ll see.’ Presently Linda is involved in further research into emoji, such as asking what may seem like an obvious question: ‘Are emoji emotional?’. Linda says she is working with collaborators in Madrid, Australia and the UK to run a series of experiments which measure processing of emoji stimuli and whether this is similar to how we process other emotional stimuli such as faces or emotional words. ‘So far, we are finding that emoji aren’t processed at an automatic level in the way we may expect from emotional stimuli, so maybe they aren’t as emotional as we thought! Maybe they just operate at a social processing level.’ Linda is also working with her PhD researchers on topics related to digital gaming. ‘One of these projects is studying digital games with a purpose and how these may help receptivity of prosocial messages. The gaming industry is huge and games have a significant potential to be powerful tools to support the way we work, live and function. Why wouldn’t we want to capitalise on those opportunities?’ And outside work? ‘I sing in two community choirs and love walking in nature. If the sun is out; I’m out.’ To conclude, Linda returns to her recent experiences. ‘As you can see, I’ve become more proactive in working with the media and communication experts to get key messages out there rather than waiting to be contacted. Working with people who understand communications both in my university and in the BPS has been invaluable. I must say that the policy and media teams at the BPS have been brilliant on this. Using non-traditional media – YouTube and Twitter for research findings – is also critical to getting to wider and non-academic audiences. And this activity has positive implications for the university. Our recent Research Excellent Framework (REF) submission included an impact case study based on much of this outreach work. A lot of the media and public engagement has been a catalyst for my work being visible to key stakeholders. This has led to opportunities to work with charities and practitioners who are looking for technological solutions which apply (cyber)psychology insights. All these activities can help evidence the wider impact of our work to non-academic stakeholders, and highlights the value of being proactive on this not just for me personally, but the cyberpsychology field and my university.’

‘Kill your selves’ every day Dr Nic Hooper on students and self-stories

Words matter. The words in my title could be seen as insensitive to those who’ve been touched by suicide. And yet I’ve used them, because they have had such a lasting impact on my life. First told to me by Steven C. Hayes (the main creator of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT), they urge us to kill the stories we’ve built about ourselves, because of the prison they can create for us. It’s not just me, however. I’ve noticed that the concept has a powerful impact on others too. This happened recently when I asked my students to review an early copy of my latest book, The Unbreakable Student, which provides those at university with an evidence-based guide for psychological wellbeing. The pattern in the feedback was remarkable. Speciﬁcally, it was in Chapter 3, where I covered self-stories, that most of my students reported having their ﬁrst Eureka! moment. I sometimes ask myself why. Why would learning about self-stories be such a meaningful experience for people? The best answer I can come up with right now concerns the notion of freedom. Learning about selfstories, and being able to spot them, releases us from their shackles, giving us more freedom to choose the things we do in our lives.

‘You’ll embarrass yourself…’ I’ll give an example to illustrate this: Imagine that you’re accepted to a university that’s far from your family home. You wake up on the day of the move. You can see pride but nerves in the body language of your parents (although you know that terror is hiding beneath the surface also, as they send their child out into the world to fend for themselves). You yourself feel that strange mix of excitement and nerves. You arrive at the halls of residence. You make your way to your new room. You exchange niceties with people you pass. You say goodbye to your parents (who are now crying) and you sit on your bed. Just you. By yourself. In your new room.

You then hear voices in the corridor. Other students are moving into their rooms nearby. You think you’d like to leave your room and say ‘hello’, but you hesitate. The voice in your mind has stepped into the silence. It feeds you this thought: ‘You’re not a socially conﬁdent person, you’ll embarrass yourself if you go out there.’ Based on your understanding of who you truly are, you know that your mind is right. You sit down on your bed and check social media. Evening comes and goes. You wake up the next morning having not left the safety of your own room. In the example, a self-story hindered freedom, it restricted behaviour, and it limited potential progress towards meaning (in the shape of developing human relationships). It’s this that I think makes the concept of self-stories so powerful for people: when we know that self-stories are a thing, we immediately begin to ask ourselves how our own self-stories may have held us back, and we begin to think about how to lessen their impact going forward. This was the experience that my students reported. However, they had a couple of questions that are important to explore…

Surely self-stories exist because they’re true? Self-stories are built from our true and real experiences, and therefore it feels right that they should have the power to deﬁne who we are and what we do. However, are they built from all our experiences? Let me explore what I mean here. If you have an ‘I’m not the academic type’ self-story, then that story probably exists because you have a history of either being told that you’re not the academic type or experiencing yourself to not be the academic type. But the human mind is imperfect. It’s likely that you’ve done well academically on many occasions but that such instances were discounted because they didn’t ﬁt into your story

the psychologist october2021 books (there’s a conﬁrmation bias). With this in mind, how much weight should you give your self-stories, and especially your restrictive ones, when they’re likely to be built from a distorted representation of reality? Should you, for example, use this story to inform a decision not to apply for university? Another note on this. Imagine that there was a selfstory God. She came down from the heavens and told you ‘No, really now, you’re actually, truthfully, inherently, not the academic type’. Should you still use such a story to inform your behaviour? If you do then you’re in a selfstory prison. That is, you don’t get to go to university, you don’t get to apply for certain jobs, you don’t get to begin a new business, and all because you’re just not the academic type. Your freedom has been limited by a selfstory, and living in that psychological space isn’t going to be good for your mental health. The reality, of course, is that there’s no self-story God, there’s no way to ﬁnd out if our self-stories are true and stable parts of us. What this means is that you get to make a choice about self-stories. Either you choose to believe them, or you choose not to. And let me tell you, if you choose the latter then the number of things you can do with your life will open right up.

What can you do about self-stories? The ﬁrst thing that you’ll need to do is to become aware of your selfstories. There are a few ways to do this. Firstly, look at yourself in a mirror and then list what are essentially your personality characteristics and your abilities. Secondly, in everyday conversation, a great cue for a selfstory is any sentence that begins with the words ‘I am’. For example, I am geeky. I am not funny. I am not sporty. I am rude. I am boring. I am not a good public speaker. If you look out for those words, then you’ll learn your selfstories in no time. Finally, a slightly more complex way to learn about your self-stories is to keep asking yourself to distinguish between sentences that are self-evaluation versus those that are self-description. For example, there’s a difference between ‘I am not good at dancing’ versus ‘I am six feet tall’. One of those sentences is a selfevaluation and the other is a self-description. Once you’re aware of your self-stories, you need to explore how they function within your life. For example, if you have an ‘I am kind’ self-story then it’s likely that the story will help you to function in the world effectively. But what about an ‘I am anxious’ self-story? Does that story help you to do more things that you’d like, or does it restrict your behaviour? So, it’s really about answering this question – do some of your self-stories stop you from doing things that would be important to your long-term psychological health?

Hold your stories lightly You may have guessed by now that I’m not just plucking this stuff out of the air. I learned all about self-stories from ACT. And in ACT, clinicians train clients to see the difference between their self-as-story and their observer self. These concepts can be tricky to understand, but the clinician will help the client to contact their ongoing and stable sense of self that’s detached from any self-story that exists. To illustrate this idea, here’s a well-known metaphor taken from my book (p.73-74): We’re like the sky. Our self-stories are like the weather. The weather changes constantly. Sometimes there’s sunshine and sometimes there are clouds, rain or storms. Our self-stories are like this. Sometimes they’re positive and sometimes they’re self-defeating, restricting and negative. There are a couple of important things to know about the relationship between the sky and the weather. Firstly, the weather can never hurt the sky in the same way that our self-stories can never hurt us. They’re stories, and only that. Secondly, the sky can always hold the weather no matter how bad it is. We’re the same. We can always make room for tricky self-stories no matter how powerful they seem. We often forget that the sky is there (perhaps sometimes it’s hard to see the sky through the weather). When this happens, it’s easy to believe that the weather and the sky are one and the same – or it’s easy to believe that we are our self-stories. However, every now and then we notice the sky: stable, broad, limitless and pure. The observer self involves learning to access the sky more, and seeing it as a place where we can make room for and watch our selfstories, rather than be deﬁned by them. Every day that I worked on my book, my ‘I am not smart enough to do this’ self-story was in the room with me. But I was able to spot the story, to hold it lightly and to keep my feet moving towards something that was important to me. I interacted with my self-story in such a way that it didn’t impact my freedom, and this is just one of many times in my life where I’ve chosen to do wonderful things, in the presence of negative selfstories. That’s why I used the words ‘lasting impact’ in that opening paragraph, and that’s why I tell every person I can about this topic. Dr Nic Hooper is author of The Unbreakable Student and Senior Lecturer of Psychology at the University of the West of England. See also our collection of resources for new university students via https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/freshersguide-psychology

We dip into the Society member database and pick out… Ray Bobrownicki Lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland

One film It’s probably not much of a surprise for those who know me; Back to the Future for the win here. One moment that changed my career Ivy League track and field championships in 2006. It can be difficult for those that haven’t experienced US university sports to understand, but conference championships such as this can come with considerable pressure and expectations. I began to realise that it wasn’t just how well athletes prepared physically, technically, and tactically for these championships, but there was a psychological side that wasn’t getting as much attention. I became fascinated by the mental factors that influence performance, which led to postgraduate study and a career in performance psychology. One lesson learnt When wearing a suit and tie, don’t assume you can move in the same way as you can in your normal clothes or sports kit. As a fairly athletic youngster, I could do backflips and jump over all sorts of things and, because of this, I tried to pull off a backflip at a high school dance while in the centre of a dance circle. The landing wasn’t completely disastrous, but this is probably the first time in nearly 20 years I’m publicly acknowledging the incident…

One thing I couldn’t do without If we are talking objects rather than people, I’m probably choosing my ﬁlm cameras (of both still photography and motion picture varieties). I have a range of decades-old cameras that I use regularly for shooting photographs and movie footage. If I had to

one on one

actually narrow it down to just one of those though, I’m not sure I could do it…

One thing psychologists could do better As a Chartered Psychologist, athletics coach, and former athlete, I think there is an important relationship between scholarship and application. As part of this, I think it is critical for researchers in sport and performance psychology to consider how their research impacts and links to real-world practice and performance (e.g. answering questions that are meaningful to coaches and performers, using experimental and comparison groups that are representative of real-world sport, etc.). In some recent research, particularly relating to motor learning and control, I think these links have been tenuous. As Professor Dave Collins put it in his keynote presentation to the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology in 2008, we need to ensure we are doing psychology for sport rather than through sport. One song Those who know me would expect a song from the 1980s and I am not going to disappoint. I will go with Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears for listening. I do like to play Patrice Rushen’s Forget Me Nots terribly on my bass guitar though.

coming soon… we explore the uncanny; hear from speakers at next year’s EAWOP conference; 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… …October 2014, our special issue on autism …Search it and so much more via www.bps.org.uk/thepsychologist the

One alternative career path I enjoy creative endeavours such as photography, movie making, drawing, and bass playing, but I (1) probably didn’t have the confidence to pursue some of these when I was much younger and/or (2) didn’t even know that I had an interest in some of these until I was older. Knowing what I know now, I would have certainly considered pursuing photography or film making, although I’m not sure I definitely would have chosen any of these as a profession in the end. One thing is for certain, if I had found some of these interests earlier, my travel photographs/videos from before 2013 would be much improved! More at thepsychologist.bps.org.uk

psychologist vol 27 no 10

october 2014

Autism: Myth and reality Uta Frith introduces the issue

Incorporating Psychologist Appointments £5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society

news 730 eye on fiction 768 careers 786 looking back 796

big picture centre interview: with Francesca Happé 762 looking in: my son’s not Rainman 766 one on one: with Simon Baron-Cohen 800

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

Find out more online at www.bps.org.uk

President Katherine Carpenter President Elect Dr Nicky Hayes Honorary General Secretary Christina Buxton Honorary Treasurer Dr Roxane Gervais Chair, Education and Training Board Professor Niamh Stack Chair, Practice Board Alison Clarke Chair, Member Board Professor Carol McGuinness Chair, Research Board Professor Andrew Tolmie Trustees Dr Peter Branney, Dr Esther CohenTovee, Dr Adam Jowett

Chief Executive Sarb Bajwa Change Programme Director and Deputy CEO Diane Ashby

society notices

society vacancies

Practice Board Awards nominations See p.16 BPS conferences and events See p.39

Election of President 2023-24 See p.8 Practice Board recruitment of two members See p.43 British Journal of Psychology and the Journal of Neuropsychology recruitment of editors See p.44

Director of Communications and Engagement Rachel Dufton Director of Finance and Resources Phil Hodgett Director of IT Mike Laffan Director of Knowledge and Insight Dr Debra Malpass Director of Membership, Professional Development and Standards Karen Beamish Head of Legal and Governance Christine Attﬁeld

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