Social and health psychology

Social psychology is concerned with ‘how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other human beings’ (Allport, 1954, p.5).  

Health psychology focuses on how social factors, along with biological and other psychological factors, affect our health and the prevention of illness. 

Our research covers a range of topics including: 

• anger and aggression in humans 
• cognitive dissonance 
• positive emotional experience and wellbeing 
• prosocial behaviour 
• body dissatisfaction, weight stigma and eating behaviour 
• mind-body interactions and health scares 
• social cognition and behaviour 
• lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in psychology.

Below you’ll find a list of people within our school involved in social and health psychology research. Explore these researcher profiles for further information including full CVs and current projects.