Top level recognition for leading Psychology academic staff
Three academics from Psychology have been recognised for their achievements in this year’s prestigious University of Southampton Vice Chancellor’s Awards and Teaching Awards. They are Roger Ingham, Professor of Health and Community Psychology, Dr Denis Drieghe, Associate Professor and International Tutor, and Dr Nick Maguire, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology and Director of Programmes.
The awards encourage staff to develop innovative teaching methods and further research, education and enterprise both within their discipline and throughout the University.
Professor Roger Ingham won a Vice Chancellor’s Award for helping to develop a system of ethics approval for research in Psychology that has now been adopted across the University. He is also part of an eight strong interdisciplinary team awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Award for the popular Curriculum Innovation module Ethics in a Complex World which brought together teaching staff from Medicine, Health Sciences, Law and Philosophy as well as Psychology and students from a range of disciplines.
“Multidisciplinary teaching is valuable because it encourages students to challenge common assumptions and consider subjects from different viewpoints,” explains Roger. “In the context of the changing world we face, we will need people who can think broadly about important issues and concepts and make informed and ethical decisions.”
Roger heads the interdisciplinary Centre for Sexual Health Research studying topics including sexual behaviour amongst young people, contraception use, risk perception, attitudes to services and sex education.
Dr Denis Drieghe received a Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Award for developing a pioneering, three day course in Statistical Programming delivered to postgraduate students and academics from Psychology and several other disciplines.
“Offering this module in an intensive manner was a challenge but we got good feedback from the psychology, linguistics, chemistry, geography, medicine and electronics and computer science students, and also from members of staff who have taken the course over the past years because it covered everything that people wanted to know over a short space of time, and it allowed otherwise very busy staff members to reserve the time to take the course” says Denis.
At Southampton, his research is on how people read by studying the linguistic processing of words embedded in sentences through examining people’s eye movements while reading.
Dr Nick Maguire won a Vice Chancellor’s Award for contributing to a leadership course for senior managers at the University of Southampton. Exploring the concept of whether good leadership could be taught, he encouraged academic and professional services staff to consider how managers with a developed ability to reflect on their decisions can be more effective.
“There is scientific evidence that the way we think of the world influences what we do. If we can become more aware of our internal experiences, it can benefit us in our managerial and leadership roles.” This course is now being developed for external use.
Nick is a qualified Clinical Psychologist and researches homelessness issues, in addition to taking a psychological approach to good management and leadership.
