Psychology

Psychology Club, Spring Term 2013

14^th January: “Genie” video: a case study of privation.

Organised by SBS for Year 12.

21^st January: “John goes to nursery”- the original film of a famous research study from the 1950s.

Organised by SBS for Year 12.

28^th January: How good is your memory?

Organised by Year 12 students for Years 7 and 8.

4^th February: Do you conform?

Organised by Year 12 students for Years 7 and 8.

HALF-TERM

18^th February (A level mocks): Support/revision for A-Level Psychology

25^th February: What would you do if your perception changed?

Organised by Year 12 students for Years 7 and 8.

4^th March: Born this way? Nature versus nurture.

Organised by Year 12 students for Years 7 and 8.

11^th March: No Psychology Club this week

18^th March: Support session for AS/A2 Psychology (SBS)

Revising the bible of psychiatry- DSM 5!

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental health disorders.  It is used by clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers.  The current version, DSM-IV-TR, was produced years ago, but the 5^th edition is due to be published in Summer 2013. For this, the diagnostic criteria for all conditions have been reviewed, based on the latest research, and some will be changed. We were therefore delighted to welcome a member of one of the workgroups, Dr Cynthia Graham, to OHS in November 2012 to talk about the process of revision. Dr Graham described some of the major controversies and issues that the DSM Task Force have been grappling with. It was a fascinating insight, and very timely since Sixth form students had been watching the Horizon documentaries “How Mad are You?” in Psychology Club and using these programmes as a basis for discussion of mental health conditions, the reliability and validity of diagnoses and the perception of mental health conditions in society.

Illusory Perceptions

On May 3rd 2012, we welcomed Dr Michael Pilling to Oxford High School to give a talk about illusory perceptions and the brain. Girls of all age groups in the Senior School were invited, and he certainly “wowed” them with a whirlwind of illusions (not just visual ones, but auditory and cross-modal ones).  There was a lot of pointing and exclamations of “Can you see that?” “Ooh… I get it now!” “That’s weird!” and (what psychologists are ultimately interested in) “How does that work?”  Those in the audience were left literally not believing their eyes (nor their ears, nor their nose, nor their taste…).

Sixth Form Psychology Conference 2012

Our third Sixth Form Conference, a record number of schools applying for places, and a really informative day of cutting-edge research! The undergraduate presentations covered the topics of eating attitudes and personality traits in 16-18-year-old girls and the experience of cultural transition among Hellenic immigrants in Oxford.  Workshops and activities run by current lecturers and researchers included “Who do children believe?” “The Psychology of musical preference” and “Understanding and measuring sleep”.  The keynote lecture was on “Understanding Autism” which raised some intriguing questions about creativity.

The British Psychological Society – October 2011

Mrs Nikki Newhouse spoke to The Year 12 and 13 Psychology students about how she has combined her previous career in publishing with her more recent research in Psychology, to become Editor of “Psych-Talk” (A British Psychological Society publication for Psychology students). She discussed how to write an engaging Psychology article, relevant to a wide audience of students (from A level students to post-graduates) and encouraged Oxford High School students to submit articles to her for consideration.

Sixth Form Psychology Conference 2011

We were delighted to be able to help organise this event again.  This was a highlight of the year, as it was an opportunity for around 150 students and teachers from local schools (Bartholomew, Headington, Lord Williams, Cheney, Cherwell, Abingdon-Witney College, Oxford High School) to meet with psychologists and find out about the latest developments in research in a series of workshops and lectures. It was quite an eye-opener to see the range of work taking place. We started the day with Kiera Fines, a Psychology undergraduate, describing her fascinating research project into gender differences in attitudes to organ donation and the implications for advertising campaigns.  It was inspiring for students to see someone just a few years ahead of them producing work with such a potential impact for everyday life.  Other stimulating talks during the day included current research into the use of weighted blankets to aid people with sleep disorders, and philosophical questions about consciousness raised by split brain patients.  Oxford High School students had the chance to talk with psychologists in the smaller workshops on “Reading and its challenges,” “Physical Attraction” and “How do we find out what babies know?” (which included a trip to the BabyLab with Professor Gert Westerman and an opportunity to try out the visual eye tracking equipment).

Psychology Film Night

In the run-up to A level exams, some of the Psychology students (and other interested sixth formers) took a well-earned break from revision to watch “Shutter Island”. I’m not sure whether this Psychological Thriller could be described as relaxing, but while munching on crisps, doughnuts and chocolate cake (thanks to the Year 13s for organising snacks), we did ponder everything from frontal lobotomies to the “criminally insane,” and proposed various interpretations of Martin Scorsese’s ending of the film. Thanks to all involved for a great evening. This was our second film night; in 2010 we watched “A Beautiful Mind” which also provoked interesting discussion. All suggestions for future films welcome- please share your ideas with Dr Squire.

OCD Talk

On Tuesday 26th April 2011 Dr Georgina Krebs, a clinical psychologist and a former student of Oxford High School, came to Oxford High School to talk about her work with children with OCD at a specialist clinic at the Maudsley Hospital in London. Dr Krebs gave a fascinating insight into the difficulties experienced by some of the children that she works with, described effective treatments that she helps to deliver and answered questions from the large audience of Sixth form students and staff.

Sixth Form Psychology Conference 2010

This was organised jointly between Oxford High School and Professor Margaret Harris, Head of the Psychology Department at Oxford Brookes University. We had around 150 Sixth Form Students and teachers attend from nine different schools. The day was a huge success, and included presentations and hands-on sessions from various researchers about topics as diverse as children’s belief in Father Christmas, to sleep disorders, mood, physical attractiveness, how to study whether babies understand emotions and psychological aspects of the design of the MINI E car! The conference was held on a glorious day, which provided a wonderful opportunity for students to picnic together, whilst others sought advice in a drop-in session on UCAS applications in Psychology. In the afternoon we were fortunate to be joined by Dr Simon Green, who is the chief examiner for the A level Psychology course that we follow, and who gave a helpful session on how to make the jump from AS to A2 Psychology. We are currently planning a second conference for June 2011!

Pleasure, Mobile Phones and Psychological Research!

We have had psychologists from a wide range of areas come in to tell us about their research. We were delighted that Dr Nenagh Kemp (a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Tasmania) was able to join us to tell us about how she has extended her research in children’s literacy to young people’s reading and writing of text messages: “Texting vs. txting: A study of students reading and writing text messages.” Students were actively encouraged to get out their mobiles and have a go! Dr Morten Kringelbach, from Oxford University’s Department of Psychiatry, also gave a fascinating talk on “Finding Pleasure in the Brain,” covering everything from leading treatments involving implanting electrodes in the brain, to brain activity when drinking chocolate milk versus tomato juice!

First Prize Winner of Cambridge University Psychology Essay Competition

Many congratulations to Rebecca Hewstone who won First Prize in the Cambridge University Psychology Essay Competition! This was a national competition for A level students which ran for the first time this year, and there were around 100 entries. Rebecca wrote an essay entitled: Inoculation against adolescent depression: Reality or Illusion? and she won a prize of £1000. Also congratulations to Nicola Jones, whose entry was short-listed. Oxford High School was the only school to have two essays in the “top ten.” On 12th September, Rebecca, Nicola and Dr Squire were invited to lunch at Newnham College, Cambridge, to celebrate this achievement with various prestigious members of the Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology and International Studies (PPSIS).

Shown in photo: Professor Michael Lamb (Head of the Social and Developmental Psychology Department), Professor Susan Golombok (Director of The Centre for Family Research), Dr Sarah Squire (Head of Psychology at OHS), Nicola Jones (short-listed entry), Rebecca Hewstone (Winner of first prize), Dr Claire Hughes (Reader and Member of Centre for Family Research).