I am a qualitative, social psychologist, specialising in group interaction processes. My PhD was focused on investigating the dynamics of in-group teasing though analysing talk-in-interaction, to demonstrate how such practices can facilitate pro-social behaviour (building cohesion, addressing group norm violations).

My research methodologies of choice are discursive psychology and conversation analysis which are focused on studying how psychological matters are constructed, understood and displayed in interaction. Such approaches aim to re-evaluate the way that psychology topics have been studied in the field, emphasising the impact and importance of considering interaction with the social world, arguing that because talk is functional, language shapes reality, and as such talk should be conceptualised as the event of interest in itself. Therefore, traditional psychological concepts become something people do (i.e. remember) rather than have (i.e. memories), made relevant in interaction to achieve certain functions.

Recent research activities include unpacking the dynamics of problem-based learning, focusing on topic shift interactions, the impact of mobile technologies in the tutorial group, and how to manage social loafing. In addition, I am interested in various aspects of health psychology and have been involved with projects focusing on access: community inclusion for inviduals with dementia and learning disabilities, and inclusion for deaf students in higher education.

I teach on the Psychology programme from L7 to L11 including Applying Psychology, Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods, Individual Differences, and Social Psychology. My teaching expertise lies with qualitative psychology and the dissertations I supervise are primarily qualitative.