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This 3-year studentship is co-funded by the Wales Doctoral Training Centre (Wales-DTC), Shell Global Solutions (UK) and the School of Psychology, Cardiff University, with joint supervision of the student provided by Dr Stephen Skippon (Shell) and Dr Lorraine Whitmarsh (Cardiff). The aim of the project is to examine effective techniques to influence car choice and use, and how sustainable habits may be formed and maintained.
A strong, but largely neglected, barrier to lifestyle change is situated in individuals’ behaviour itself, i.e., much behaviour is strongly habitual. Habitual behaviour is automatic and cued by stable (spatial, social, temporal) contexts. Consistent with this, context change (e.g., moving house or changing job) may make behaviour-relevant information more salient, which may lead to new decisions. This habit discontinuity hypothesis (Verplanken et al., 2008) implies that behaviour change interventions may be more effective if delivered at the point of context change. This studentship will examine how habit discontinuity applies to (a) vehicle purchasing decisions, and (b) driving style. These behaviours (e.g., buying a low-emission vehicle, speeding, eco-driving) have considerable environmental and safety implications. The project will be linked to an ongoing project on travel habits led by Dr Skippon, Dr Whitmarsh and colleagues at Bath University.
The successful candidate will join a vibrant research community based at Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, which is a member of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, the Climate Change Consortium for Wales (C3W) and the Sustainable Places Research Institute. Findings will be used by Shell in its efforts to help its own customers use less energy, and will be published in conferences and peer-reviewed journals.
For further information please see:
http://psych.cf.ac.uk/degreeprogrammes/postgraduate/research/specificprojects.html
Funding Notes:
Studentships commence October 2012 covering tuition fees, maintenance grant, and an additional Research Training Support Grant (RTSG). In 2011-12 the maintenance grant for full-time students was £13,590 and the RTSG was £1000.
ESRC studentships are highly competitive. Due to the limited number of awards and high standard of applications received, successful applicants are likely to have a very good first degree (1st or 2:1 BSc Honours or equivalent), and an appropriate Masters degree (with an average mark of at least 65). The +3 studentship assumes applicants will already have had research training from an ESRC Research Training recognised MSc degree.