Profile
Kareena McAloney-Kocaman
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About Me:
I am from Northern Ireland, living in Scotland with my husband, who is from Turkey. I spend a lot of time in my garden, and with my nose in a book reading.
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I am Northern Irish, and have been living in Scotland for the last ten years with my husband. I spend a lot of time in the garden, and in our greenhouse, looking after our vegetable plants throughout the summer.
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I am a social psychologist who is interested in how our identities, and the experiences we have because of those identities, influence our physical and mental health. I started my career looking at how living in Northern Ireland during and after the Troubles – the fighting between terrorist groups in Northern Ireland that was based on religion and national identity, impacted on people’s health. Since then I have been interested in how things like discrimination and racism, and our own beliefs and identities (our religion, our skin colour, our ethnicity, our migration status) influence our experiences in life and our health.
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My Typical Day:
First thing in the morning I try to make sure I do some stretches before I go downstairs for breakfast, and coffee. I am still working at home most days, so am in my living room on the computer for 8am. I will usually then do some analysis of data and then have some lunch, and end the day with writing up the results of my analysis. I normally finish work a little after 5pm.
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I tend to start my day by checking my emails, and making sure I answer any emails to students who have questions about their classes, or their own research. I spend a lot of time then doing the analysis of data that has already been collected, either by me, or by someone else, and writing reports for other people about what those results are. I will spend a lot of time between September and December teaching classes at my University. I teach a lot of classes on statistics, but I also teach some classes on racism and discrimination, and on addictions.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
Run an event for children and young people on the importance of identities and how discrimination impacts on health and wellbeing
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Education:
School – Cambridge House Grammar School, Northern Ireland
University – University of Ulster, University of Manchester
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Qualifications:
GCSEs – English, French, Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Double Award Science, English Literature, History, Information Technology
A-levels -Biology, Chemistry and Physics
BSc (Hons) Social Psychology
PG Diploma Health Care Ethics and Law
PhD Social Psychology
PG Certificate Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
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Work History:
Before I moved to Scotland 10 years ago I had jobs as a:
Research Fellow in the University of York
Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast
Assistant Statistician at Queen’s University Belfast
Tutor at University of Ulster
Assistant Clinical Psychologist at Homefirst Community Trust
And sales assistant, secretary and activity therapy jobs before I graduated with my first degree.
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Current Job:
I am now a Reader in Applied Health Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University, and before that was a Senior Lecturer, and a Lecturer.
Reader doesn’t mean much outside universities but it really just means that I am a teacher who does a lot of research!
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
statistic-loving social psychologist
What did you want to be after you left school?
Barrister
Were you ever in trouble at school?
No
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Pink
What's your favourite food?
Soup
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
To be able to stop time - I'd get so much more done. To have a massive library of books. To speak another language fluently.
Tell us a joke.
What should you do when a lemon gets sick? Give it lemon-aid
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