Research Excellence

Discover more about how our culture and environment delivers world-leading research with impact.

Impact of our research beyond academia

Our research has far-reaching impact beyond academia in areas such as health, education, culture, and the economy.  Find out more about the impact of our research. 

• Reducing alcohol-related harm through “Dry January”

  Concern about the health and social impacts of alcohol use has prompted many efforts to help people to drink less. "Dry January" is a national, one-month alcohol abstinence challenge. Our research has shown that Dry January has significant and enduring benefits – better psychological and physical well-being; feeling more in control of drinking; and drinking less – and has highlighted how these benefits arise by identifying the underlying mechanisms.

  Read more about our impact on "Dry January".

• Improving crowd safety procedures and reducing risk through social psychology

  Our research on crowd psychology has enhanced crowd safety management policies, practices and training which have kept hundreds of thousands of people safer. Findings on crowd self-regulation in emergencies have informed the UK’s National Risk Assessment and the emergency plans of Local Resilience Forums. Over 700 professionals involved in emergency preparedness in the UK have thus changed how they incorporate behavioural impacts of emergencies in their planning and approach. The research has transformed guidance and training for crowd safety professionals (more than 77,000 stewards) at European football matches (average 50,000 attendees), as well as at major live events, such as large-scale music festivals (e.g. 135,000 attendees). It has also changed public health guidelines – and shaped procedures and training – for mass decontamination responses to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) incidents across the UK and USA. Implementing these communication techniques has significantly improved the effectiveness of decontamination practices of hundreds of UK Fire and Rescue Service personnel.

  Read more about our impact on crowd safety.

• Promoting mental health and well-being in schools through assessing peer group processes

  The mental health of children and young people is an increasing focus of attention for schools, but the relevance of their peer relationships was often neglected in the past. Our research produced insights into the importance of social, cognitive, and emotional processes in these relationships, and led to his creation of free online assessment resources to support schools with visualising and understanding children’s social and emotional functioning. Since 2013, these have been used by teachers and educational psychologists in over 400 schools from over 40 different UK local authorities, as well as schools in six other countries, to identify vulnerable individuals and groups, and to plan both formal and informal classroom, small-group, and individual interventions to build social skills and promote well-being. By focusing on peer relationships, our research has also changed educational policy and practice in terms of adopting a whole-class and whole-school approach to promoting well-being. His evidence-based focus on relationships is explicitly recommended in official local and national government guidance, and has shaped the core guidance on Health and Well-being in the new national curriculum for Wales.

  Read more about our impact on mental health in schools.

• Improving children’s early years reading comprehension through policy, training and practice

  By identifying the key skills and abilities that are causally linked to reading comprehension success for primary school students, our research has had significant impacts on policy in England on teaching and testing of reading skills. The research findings have fed directly into changes to the revised National Curriculum for English which came into effect in September 2014. Following that, all children are now tested on this element of reading in National Curriculum assessments (also known as Standard Attainment Tests, or SATs). As a result, impacts have followed on teaching policy, training and practice as well as requirements for teacher development and materials in this area. Successful training programmes that build on the results of this research have been developed, delivered and evaluated in the UK, USA and South America.

  Read more about our impact on children's reading comprehension.

• Transforming team performance in elite sports, the military, and business by harnessing identity motives

  Well-functioning teams are crucial for success in sporting, military and commercial domains. Sussex-led research into social identity processes and motives was adapted into a new consultancy intervention – TRIBE – which boosts team performance by developing and instilling a strong sense of shared identity among team members. TRIBE-based team-building and training interventions have been used successfully with eight elite sports teams, ten military clients, and 13 commercial organisations, leading to changes in training practices, sporting successes, adoption of the model by senior leaders, and improved satisfaction and performance in corporate teams. The same Sussex research has also underpinned separate consultancy interventions with a further 11 commercial organisations.

  Read more about our impact in team performance.

Contribution to knowledge and understanding

Our researchers publish over 150 academic papers each year, including in the leading journals in our field.  You can search or browse our publications in the University of Sussex research repository on Figshare.

 

Excellence in our people, culture, and environment

Measures of esteem in amongst our academics include prestigious prizes (e.g. from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology), journal editorships (e.g., Infant and Child Development, European Journal of Social Psychology, British Journal of Nutrition), and participation in expert panels and organisations (e.g., the Royal Statistical Society special interest group for Teaching Statistics).  Our strength in international research collaborations is recognised on metrics such as US News and World Report Global Rankings and the Shanghai Rankings. 

The School has excellent laboratory facilities to support its research. Specialist facilities include: Sussex Child Research Hub; Behavioural Neuroscience laboratories; Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre CISC (including 3T MRI); Brain and Body laboratory; Human Psychophysiology and Psychoacoustic laboratories; and Vision laboratories.

Our research is supported by a team of technical staff including several with postdoctoral research experience.  They provide both general and specialist support such as developing bespoke web applications (by our Psychology Software Team), open research, and neuroimaging analysis.

PhD students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) are fully embedded within our research activities through their membership of Subject Groups and Research Centres, and their participation in seminar series and professional development opportunities (e.g., in grant writing, public engagement).

 

 

You might also be interested in

• Research centres
• Working in the School of Psychology
• Psychology PhD opportunities.