Study for a PhD with our passionate and expert Winchester Psychology team. Located in the historic city of Winchester, often considered one of the most desirable places to live in the UK, the Department of Psychology has grown rapidly in recent years, developing a vibrant, inclusive research culture. Reflecting this growth, in the REF2021 results we achieved the 7th largest increase in UoA4 research power (out of 93 units) and 64% of our research outputs were judged world-leading or internationally excellent.
We now invite prospective PhD students to join one of our psychology research groups/centres and help shape the next generation of psychological research. Details of our research groups and staff can be found by visiting our webpages. Highlights include:
Centre for Forensic and Investigative Psychology
Our Centre for Forensic and Investigative Psychology seek students to work on “The Psychology of Interviewing in Investigative and Security Contexts”. This project will expand the evidence base for ethical, effective interviewing/information elicitation practices, focusing on topics such as interviewing vulnerable or intoxicated witnesses/victims or detecting deception. Supervision is also available in areas relating to: vulnerable witnesses and investigative interviewing; memory for recurring events (e.g. domestic abuse); eye witness identification; detecting deception; psychology of offending behaviour.
Engaging Communities Research Centre
The Engaging Communities Research Centre brings together researchers conducting research and knowledge exchange at the interface of social, community, health, and occupational psychology. Our work seeks to makes a difference by developing psychologically-and-community-informed solutions to contemporary social issues. We would be interesting in talking to self-funded applications about the following active research areas: The value of volunteering to wellbeing & communities and Application and evaluation of brief interventions to improve health & wellbeing.
Healthy Lives Research Group
Our Healthy Lives Research Group adopts a broad, holistic approach to research, looking at optimising health and wellbeing in relation to the wide range of aspects of living such as organisations, environments, social and political systems, and working practices. The group is able to provide supervision in areas including: health behaviours and behaviour change; patient decision-making; healthy working practices in organisations and schools and improving health across the lifespan.
Social and Organisational Research Group
Our Social and Organisational Research Group has diverse interests and supervision is available in: Organisational: any area of organisational behaviour and occupational psychology; organisational nostalgia; leadership; women at work; graduate transitions and early careers; teaching employability. Social: political and civic engagement; peer relationships in childhood and adolescence; consumer behaviour; narcissism; social transmission of information online and in person; conspiracy theories. We are particularly interested in talking to any applicants looking to research the links between parasocial relationships with political figures and voting intentions.
Brain and Cognition Research Group
Our Brain and Cognition Research Group seeks students to work on: (1) Alcohol intoxication or mental health effects on perception, attention and social evaluation of face and/or body images. (2) Developing a strategic metacognitive approach to detecting deception. (3) The influence of cognitive biases (e.g. for emotional or threatening content) on the social transmission of information including the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Supervision is also available in creative thinking, spatial cognition, social cognition, mental health, and head injury.
Childhood and Youth Psychology Research Group
Our Childhood and Youth Psychology Research Group seeks students to work on topics relating to its focus on children’s and adolescents’ social, emotional and cognitive development with the aim of improving psychological wellbeing, relationships at home and school, academic achievement and wider school outcomes, such as skills, competencies and character dispositions. In particular, we welcome applications relating to understanding and addressing barriers to education, investigating ways to support and enhance children’s wellbeing in school, and fostering creativity and critical thinking through education.
Get in touch!
To find out more about Postgraduate Research at Winchester and how to apply please visit our webpages, email our Postgraduate Research team (Doctoralschool@winchester.ac.uk).
To learn more about PhD opportunities in the Department of Psychology contact the Psychology PhD Lead, Dr Margaret Husted: margaret.husted@winchester.ac.uk
Applicant notes
Applications deadlines are 30th April (September start) and 31st August (January start).
Applicants will normally have a first or high upper-second class undergraduate honours degree and/or a master's degree in psychology or a cognate discipline. We welcome international applicants.
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