Social Psychology Research Lab

On 9th Feb, 120 second year undergraduate students presented their primary research on topics such as: Decision regrets and its impact on psychological health, the role of a growth mindset in young adults, the impact of ageism on job satisfaction and hiring, medical trust and artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector, and indirect aggression strategies used by males and females. 

The Department of Psychology at Middlesex University Dubai values student research engagement, and we believe that this student conference is an important learning experience for them.

The Social Psychology Research Lab (SPRL) organised a virtual Student Research Conference on 11th February 2022 from 10 AM to 12:30 PM UAE. This year, we also had a keynote address from Dr. Adam P. Natoli, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology & Philosophy at Sam Houston State University, named ‘Personality Functioning Scale – Brief Form 2.0: Comparison Across Seven Countries’. The Lab’s international academic collaborations inspired some of the research ideas. Our students conducted some excellent impact-based research projects!

We conducted four parallel sessions, where 106 second-year Psychology students presented 18 research projects in the form of an academic poster. Students presented on a range of research topics such as: Body image and Nature, Faulty Memory on Other Ethnicity Faces, Associations between Personality and Eating Behaviour, and Mechanisms of Prosociality in the Dark Triad.

In collaboration with Department of Psychology, Middlesex University Dubai, Social Psychology Research Lab (SPRL) organized an online Student Research Event, to be held on 11th Feb, from 11 AM to 1 PM (see weblinks). The Lab’s international academic collaborations inspired some of the research ideas.

The event included six parallel sessions, where 158 second- and third-year Psychology students, will be presenting 27 research projects, in the form of an academic poster! Students presented on a range of research topics such as: Young people's preferences around mental health services; Personality and choice of environment and activities; Moral dumbfounding attitudes and behaviour; Understanding misinformation at the time of the pandemic; Effectiveness of peer support messages related to COVID-19; Relationship between social class and self-and-other oriented positive emotions; Student perceptions of teaching styles and implicit biases; and Cross-cultural assessment of emotions experienced and well-being during the pandemic.

Join the first research seminar in this new series hosted by our Social Psychology Research Lab (SPRL). SPRL is headed by Dr Nishtha Lamba, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, and focuses on conducting research about social processes, mental health, interpersonal relationships, and psychological wellbeing.

Our first guest speaker is Dr Lucy Blake, author of the book “No Family is Perfect: Embracing the Messy Reality”. Dr Blake is a developmental psychologist who studies family relationships. She particularly focuses on family estrangement in which a negative, distant, or inactive relationship with a family member affects people’s lives. Lucy completed her PhD and postdoctoral research at the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge. She is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of the West of England (UWE) and has studied family relationships for two decades and her first book, No Family is Perfect, was published by Welbeck in January 2022. 

In this session, Dr Blake will share more about her book and her research into family relationships. Join us online via Zoom by clicking the link below, or view the live stream on campus in the Oasis Theatre, Block 16, Dubai Knowledge Park.

Did you know that a potential career option for graduates of psychology (and related) programmes is user experience (UX) research in industry? 

Join the Social Psychology Research Lab on Friday 9 December from 4-5PM GST online or in the Oasis Theatre in Block 16, Dubai Knowledge Park to hear from Dr Sandrine Muller, Quantitative User Experience Researcher at Google, who will explain how UX research plays a critical role in how design teams create products that provide meaningful experiences. 

Dr Muller will also share her experiences of how UX research compares to academic research and discuss what to expect during the application and interview process when pursuing a career in the field.

About Dr Sandrine Muller

Sandrine Müller is a Quantitative User Experience Researcher at Google in New York. She holds undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and Psychology from the Hamburg School of Business Administration and the Dresden University of Technology, as well as a Master's and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Cambridge. Before joining Google, Sandrine was a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University in New York. Sandrine worked with companies such as Beiersdorf and The Walt Disney Company and also spent a year as a Visiting Researcher at Stanford University.

This accredited professional development SEN (Special Education Needs) training course is presented by Middlesex University’s Social Research Psychology Lab, which is a member of and associated with CPD-UK Certification Services. The course has been designed to aid those working in the education field, specifically teaching assistants, shadow teachers and teachers in training, to explore relevant topics pertaining to teaching and supporting students of determination. It will help attendees to understand how to communicate and support children of determination, especially in a mainstream classroom, within the context of the UAE.

Dr Nishtha Lamba and Miss Angelique Van Tonder administered a series of special education needs trainings for 83 teaching assistants, learning support assistants, and shadow teachers at GEMS World Academy Dubai. Over 95% of the teachers were deeply satisfied with the training and felt it had expanded their knowledge set significantly.

Please email us if you would like a similar customized training for the learning support assistant at your school.

Special Needs Education Workshop for shadow teachers and learning support assistants administered by Miss Angelique Van Tonder and Dr Nishtha Lamba at ERPBSS 2022. It was attended by 135 shadow teachers and learning support assistants who work with children with special needs in the UAE.

Hosted special track sessions ‘Impact-based studies on under-represented samples’ at ERPBSS 2022. In this special track, we showcased impact-based research administered on populations that are usually under-represented in social sciences. Academics from the UAE, UK, India, and Indonesia presented their distinct theoretical or methodological driven research work on gender stereotyping, elder financial abuse, recent military rule in Myanmar, the psychological and economic impact of the pandemic, identity and hijab, ‘third culture’ children, and anomalies in online data collection.