PSYCHOLOGY CONFERENCE TRIP DECEMBER 5^th 2013

Thirty plus students attended a very informative Psychology conference in London. The programme was very varied as shown below:

Obedience in the 21st Century; Milgram’s classic study of obedience to authority was hailed by many as one of the most significant social psychological studies of the twentieth century. Was this accolade deserved and does this research still resonate fifty years on?

Forensic Science:Thanks to the popularity of forensic science programmes like CSI and Bones, more and more people are fascinated by the uses of biometric technology to identify humans. But how good is the science behind them? Are fingerprints really unique, and what would a universal DNA database mean for the Criminal Justice System? This session will explore the statistical and theoretical knowledge - and lack of knowledge - informing widespread use of biometrics and asks, can we ever really know who we are?

Brooke Magnanti, research scientist, blogger and author of the ‘Belle de Jour’ book.

Questionable Research Practices in Psychology: Time to Clean Up our Act?

The discipline of Psychology has recently been rocked by several high-profile cases of scientific fraud. At the same time, the field has been going through a period of critical self-reflection (or, as some see it, “a crisis of confidence”) relating to replication issues and publication bias. These issues will be discussed and a number of initiatives that have been implemented in order to improve research integrity within Psychology will be described.

Becoming a Clinical Psychologist; Many students are interested in Clinical Psychology as a career. Lauren will outline potential routes into the profession and talk through case studies relating to clients she has treated. She uses a combination of CBT, systemic and psychodynamic models of therapy.

Mindset - The Talent Myth.This session aims to change the way you think about your own successes and failures. Did you know that Walt Disney was fired from his first job because he had no good ideas and went bankrupt several times in his early career (as did Simon Cowell). This session looks at the psychological research that explains why some people become successful while others remain failures.

Words from an addict. Jake will describe his experiences and his view of addiction. The short talk will tell how he started gambling and how he lost £200,000 over the years eventually culminating in a suicide attempt. Students will then have the opportunity to question Jake and learn what goes on in the mind of a gambling addict.

All the students had enjoyed the day, the favourite talk being the words from an addict.