News and Media, June 2010

Social science and family politics

The British Academy has published a working party report highlighting the importance of social science to policy making in relation to families. Chaired by Sir Michael Rutter of the Institute of Psychiatry, the working party was dominated by psychologists: Professor Jay Belsky of Birkbeck, University of London; Professor Judith Dunn of the Institute of Psychiatry; Dr Brian D'Onofrio at Indiana University; Professor Terrie Moffitt of Duke University and the Institute of Psychiatry; and Professor Frances Gardner of the University of Oxford. Other members had expertise in economics and law.

Entitled Social Science and Family Policies, the 184-page report provides an authoritative, up-to-date overview of research in several areas, including: the effects of family break-up; abuse and neglect; resilience; non-parental child care; institutional deprivation; interventions such as Sure Start; the effects of drugs and alcohol; and the roles of communities.

The tone is upbeat. The 'social/behavioural sciences are now riding high with a range of most ingenious techniques available to tackle complex and difficult questions,' the report says. Interventions such as parenting programmes can be beneficial, it argues, but common sense isn't a good enough guide to what works. Well-intentioned programmes can be ineffective or even harmful, as in the case of the Cambridge-Somerville delinquency intervention. 'Policy-makers need to appreciate that there is no disgrace in having an intervention that does not work,' the report says. '…What is a disgrace is to persist with interventions that have been shown to be ineffective or even harmful.'
While recognising that it is for policy makers to choose which values to champion and which problems to prioritise, the report illustrates why policy makers need social science – for example, to demonstrate when the same factors can have different effects on different people; to provide evidence on the likely effectiveness of policy choices; to help distinguish between cause and correlation, and to identify bi-directional causal relationships.

Elsewhere, the report highlights the importance of replicating findings and drawing on multiple methodologies. The Dunedin study in particular has shown the benefits of a multidisciplinary approach in relation to gene–environment interactions and resilience. Maltreatment can lead to increased risk for antisocial behaviour and depression, but the level of risk depends on a child's genotype. And the effects are highly specific. Different genes are implicated for depression and for antisocial behaviour. 'Social and behavioural scientists must be prepared to collaborate with biological scientists in order to examine key questions,' the report says.

Whilst 'policy-makers need social sciences', the social sciences in turn depend on funding. 'Good commissioning requires an understanding of multiple methods of analysis … particularly on a topic as complex as the way in which parenting works,' the report says. 'Progress often means addressing enduring social problems by means of interventions that take time to establish and evaluate.' The report also warns against investing exclusively in tried and tested methodologies. 'What is needed,' the report concludes, 'is a balanced portfolio of low, medium and high risk research. With respect to the last, we wish to emphasise the need to reward creative, innovative thinking if it carries the potential for moving things forward in a dramatic way.'

Sir Michael Rutter, a Fellow of the British Academy, said: 'Social scientists and politicians have distinct, but equally important roles. This new report sets out what those are and examines how these two professions can work together to create successful policies for families and young people.' CJ
-    Download the report: http://bit.ly/9aPPZs

 

Wiley Prize winner

Dr Essi Viding, a developmental psychologist from University College London, has been named by the British Academy and Wiley-Blackwell as the winner of the 2010 Wiley Prize.

The Academy's Wiley Prize in Psychology, worth £5000, was created in 2009 as an annual award to recognise outstanding contributions in a field of psychology. The prize alternates annually between 'lifetime achievement' and 'outstanding promise', and for the first time this year it rewards research by a UK-based psychologist within five years of receipt of doctorate whose research and achievements show exceptional promise.

Dr Viding's work brings together genetics, social development and cognitive neuroscience in innovative ways to explore the causes of violent antisocial behaviour in young people. She was appointed Reader in Developmental Psychopathology at UCL in 2008 and is heavily committed to translating her basic science findings into practice with advisory roles for school-based interventions and government policy.

On receiving the award, Dr Viding said: 'It is a great honour that the British Academy and Wiley-Blackwell have recognised the research I conduct with my team and collaborators. I have been fortunate that UCL have strongly supported my early career development. This prize is also a testament to the wonderful mentoring I have been lucky to receive throughout my career.' JS

 

New child development unit

The Psychology Department at the University of Kent has launched a new Child Development Unit jointly headed up by the psychologists Dr Kirsten Abbot-Smith, Professor Adam Rutland and Dr Erika Nurmsoo. The unit will run experiments on children aged between 12 months and 10 years, with a particular focus on language, cognitive development and group behaviour. Other unit members include Dr Lindsey Cameron and BPS members Professor Dominic Abrams and Dr Mike Forrester.

Key questions the unit aims to answer include: How do children learn their first language? How do children decide who to learn from? Why and when do they learn from their peers? and How do young children learn conversational conventions?

The department has created a new child-friendly entrance, waiting area and testing rooms for the Unit. Abbot-Smith (pictured) and Nurmsoo, both of whom have experience of research with pre-school age children, are newly recruited and two new Tobil eye-trackers, one for use in the Unit and one for use in schools, have been purchased.

'The main advantage to having a dedicated child unit,' Abbot-Smith told us, 'is that a researcher can test children in the lab, rather than in schools or nurseries. Our lab testing environment is quiet, which cannot be said of most schools and certainly not of nurseries! Lastly, when using certain types of equipment, such as eye-trackers, it is really a lot easier to keep the equipment in place, using particular settings, than to have to drag it all over town.'

The most difficult challenge for a new child development unit, Abbot-Smith said, is recruitment of children. 'The most effective methods we've found are speaking to parents one-to-one in situations where they are not stressed out, so avoid parent-toddler groups. Examples include approaching parents in queues for the National Childcare Trust Nearly New Sales (held twice a year in most English towns), and having a stall in the town centre. Both of the latter involve having at least three "recruiters" present – also to help carry all the leaflets etc down – so that usually means me going as well. When in the town centre, one of us wearsa rabbit costume so that toddlers drag their parents over to us.' CJ

Royal Society Brain Waves project

What implications do existing and future findings in brain science have for society and ethics? The Royal Society plans to find out via a new 'Brain Waves' project, to be chaired by Professor Colin Blakemore of the University of Oxford.

The project will take place in five modules, the first of which will focus on implications for public policy and report this autumn. Psychologists and BPS members are well represented on the project's main steering group and on the working groups for the various modules. Indeed, the second module on neuroscience, education and lifelong learning is chaired by BPS Fellow Professor Uta Frith; the third module on neuroscience, conflict and arms control is chaired by BPS Fellow Professor Robbins, and the fourth on neuroscience, responsibility and the law is chaired by former British Psychological Society President's Award Winner Professor Nicholas Mackintosh. The final module 'Lessons for the governance of novel areas of science and new technologies', which aims to bring together findings from modules one to four, is due to conclude in summer 2011.

Professor Blakemore said that advances in our understanding of the brain are helping improve treatments for neurodegenerative disease and mental illnesses, and will also increase our insights into normal human behaviour and mental well-being. 'We need to do something that scientists usually don't like to do – to speculate about the future,' Blakemore said. 'There's a lot to think about and we must begin now the process of providing the best possible information in areas of public policy such as health, education, law and security. Progress in neuroscience is going to throw up all sorts of questions about personality,  identity, responsibility and liberty. We need to be prepared to answer and respond to those questions.' cj
I    For further information see http://royalsociety.org/brainwaves or
e-mail [email protected]
I    www.kent.ac.uk/psychology/childdevelopmentunit

 

 

MEDIA

Elections, volcanoes and hypnotised rabbits?

Owen Hughes on how the Society's Annual Conference pushed through the media mêlée and embraced new ways of engaging the public

There are times when you may be forgiven for thinking that someone somewhere doesn't want you to get the word out about the British Psychological Society's Annual Conference. It was always going to be a challenging year when the prime minister called a general election a couple of weeks before the conference, sparking pages and pages manifesto and debate talk in the newspapers. Then a certain Icelandic volcano decided to eject tons of ash into the skies above Europe. As if this wasn't enough the media was treated to a story about a man who was able to hypnotise aggressive rabbits so that the vet could treat them.

Before and during many of the British Psychological Society's conferences a great deal of time and effort goes into letting the public know about what is being presented. The aim is to raise the profile of the profession and inform people about the fascinating work that goes on, often behind closed doors, helping us understand human psychology better. The gauntlet was well and truly down. The BPS press office, supported by the Media and Press Committee, had prepared over 20 media releases to be distributed to a huge range of media outlets from newspapers to radio stations and the growing number of online news sources. Despite the competing stories three journalists from national publications were present throughout the conference, with other national and local newspapers carrying stories.
In response to the times it was decided to embrace some of the new social networking tools that are available as well. The top of the tree at present, rather appropriately, is Twitter. The Society's conference team had already set-up a Twitter account for the conference. We decided to enhance this with input from the PR team and committee to inform, educate and connect those at the conference with the wider world. Twitter allows the user to send a message of a maximum of 140 characters which can then be read or retweeted by those who have chosen to follow the user, online or on smart phones. Now if you are under 30 I am probably preaching to the converted, but venturing into the Twitter-verse was quite a novel experience for many of the press committee.

The joy of social networking is that it allows an immediate reaction to a given presentation. It allows people who are not physically at the conference to follow what is happening in real-time and read what they are missing. It may have even encouraged some people to attend the conference next year.

It is true that not all tweets were related to ground-breaking psychological research. The immediacy of the format makes it ideal for updating conference attendees on housekeeping items, so alongside news of what was discussed in sessions, media releases and coverage and retweets of anything 'tagged' with #bps2010, people following in the ether were treated to information about where they could find coffee. As an egalitarian form of communication Twitter allows anyone who can confine their thoughts to 140 characters to join in the conversation. As more people started to follow the conversation Twitter enhanced the sense of community at the conference. We are living in the internet age and this has had a big impact on how we get our news. The very definition of news has changed so what was once the preserve of politicians and celebrities is now open to everyone. You can become the news yourself and allow anyone with a computer to keep up with what you had for breakfast. Can't find a newspaper or magazine to publish your musings? Worry no more, the blog is here, allowing you to post whatever opinions or interesting things you have discovered to an immediate audience. Many blogs take a more serious approach and have become respected in their own right as a source of information. Media releases are targeted at them and they have even become the topic of research themselves. Several authors presenting at the conference were happy to speak to blogs as a way of publicising their work.

Traditional forms of media were still to the fore of course:?John Marzillier, who did a workshop during the conference to launch his new book, was interviewed by Libby Purves during her midweek programme on Radio 4. Other papers which grabbed media attention were Oliver Robinson's research that having friends, rather than family, is the key to a happy retirement, and Iain Greenlees' research that red is the best colour shirt to wear if you are a goalie. Elizabeth Loughren's work had topical interest a couple of weeks before the London Marathon with her finding that men run marathons to compete, women to feel good.

This year's Annual Conference was the first to hold a public engagement event on the evening before the conference proper. The subject this year was the psychology of music and consumer behaviour, wittily titled 'The tills are alive...'. Lectures are normally sober affairs but on this occasion, while Adrian North told the audience about how supermarkets can shape whether you by French or German wine by playing the appropriate music, David Hargreaves gave the audience examples of music on his keyboard.

So this year's Annual Conference was one of firsts. A conference during which the BPS embraced new media like never before, raising the profile of the Society and giving it a more friendly face. There are many ways to judge success in public relations, but if communicating with new audiences and getting a mention on Have I Got News for You is any sort of measure then this year's conference was a success.