Profile

I am currently a senior lecturer at Bournemouth University in the Psychology department. My research is currently exploring online gambling and trying to find ways to design, enhance, and promote responsible online gambling. This research includes lots of exciting methodologies including eye-tracking research and longitudinal online studies.

Before working at Bournemouth University, I completed my PhD at the University of Southampton in the Psychology department. My research explored personality (in particular, narcissism – think Donald Trump) and how individuals high on narcissism interact with members of their team (either at work or in daily life) to get jobs done. I was very lucky to produce some exciting research here, including the use of an escape room to test my research questions.

Other things about me: I am a massive fan of cats…at one point I even had 8! I love to read exciting books and my favourite author is Stephen King. I really like to teach and enjoy working with students.

My current research aims to design, enhance, and promote responsible online gambling. During the pandemic, more people than ever gambled online. As such, it is our goal (I am part of a very exciting research group) to ensure that people are aware of ways to gamble safely and responsibly. As part of our research we have sent evidence and reports to government to help change policy, as well as share our work on TV (Channel 4) and at big events (public engagement activities and conferences).

My PhD research was all based on personality (in particular, narcissism) and how this influences the way in which we interact with others (at work or in daily life). It looked at different team dynamics, including team cohesion (how much we get on with other members of our team), team conflict (how much we don’t), and team performance. As part of this research, we put lots of strangers into a local escape room and watched how they interacted and completed (or not) the tasks.

I wake up and have breakfast (usually overnight oats and a coffee). I start work about 8am, where I am either applying for research grants, writing journal articles, organising ethics applications, or preparing materials to teach. I try to have a lunch break everyday by popping to the gym for an hour (I love the stair machine). Then it is back to work, where I am either attending meetings (normally about research), running some statistics (psychology is very much about analysing research data), or completing some tasks on pending projects. I like to finish work about 6pm, eat and then relax for the evening with my cats!