by rbartels | Oct 2, 2015 | Conferences / Events
FCRG members Dr Hannah Merdian and Danielle Kettleborough (PhD student) recently returned from the annual conference of the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers (NOTA) held in Dublin (16-18th Sept 2015).
The conference was very informative, and included a number of high-profile key-note speakers, including Michael Seto (Assessment and Management of Online Sex Offenders), Duncan Sheppard and Mark Blandford (The ARMS Project: Standardising Police Risk Assessment and Management of Sexual Offenders across England and Wales), and Marie Keenan (Restorative Justice and Adult Sex Offenders).
Danielle – who was this year’s recipient of the NOTA research grant – presented initial findings from her PhD in a talk entitled ‘An Application of the Motivation-Facilitation Model to offences relating to Child Sexual Exploitation Material’, which was very well received.
Hannah Merdian, Derek Perkins (NHS West London Mental Health Trust & University of Royal Holloway), Maggie Brennan (University College Cork), and Jon Brown (Head of NSPCC) jointly hosted a consultation session on their International Working Group on Best Practice in the Management of Online Sex Offending, to further the development of evidence-based guidelines on the management and prevention of online sex offending.
Overall, both FCRG members found this year’s NOTA conference to be a great opportunity to network, hear about the latest research findings, – and to learn how to dance a Ceilidh 🙂
by rbartels | Sep 9, 2015 | Conferences / Events, Funding Success
Congratulations to PhD student Craig Harper and Dr. Ross Bartels who have each successfully received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant (Nunes & Hermann, 2015) and the Department of Psychology at Carleton University in Canada.
The funding will aid Craig and Ross in attending a pre-conference seminar entitled “Connecting Theory With Research: How to Test Theoretical Assertions About the Causes of Sexual Offending” at the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) Conference in Montreal on Wed 14th October, 2015.
This pre-conference seminar – run by Dr. Kevin Nunes and Chantal Hermann – will see major theorists in the field (inc. Profs. Anthony Beech, Michael Seto, & Patrick Lussier) discuss their theoretical work and how to go about conducting empirical research to effectively test the assumptions of these theories.
Ross and Craig will also be presenting at the ATSA conference themselves (more on this in a future FCRG post).
by rbartels | Sep 4, 2015 | Funding Success
We’d like to give Aislinn Herlihy – an MSc student on the Forensic Psychology course at the University of Lincoln – a big congratulations for being awarded the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) Pre-Doctoral Research Grant.
Along with her supervisors Dr. Hannah Merdian, Dr. David Dawson, and Dr. Alex Schmidt, Aislinn is conducting a study that examines the validity and reliability of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP; Barnes-Holmes et al., 2006) and the Explicit and Implicit Sexual Interests Profile (EISIP; Banse et al., 2010). The successful grant will be used to facilitate the collection of data for this study.
Again, well done Aislinn! We wish you all the best with your research and look forward to hearing about the results!
by rbartels | Jul 9, 2015 | Forensic
On 14-19th July, Dr. Dave Dawson, Dr. Nima Moghaddam, and Dr. Aidan Hart will be attending and presenting at the 13th Association for Contextual Behavioural Science (ACBS) World Conference in Berlin, Germany. The ACBS is dedicated to the advancement of functional contextual cognitive and behavioral science and practice so as to alleviate human suffering and advance human well being. A core interest of this conference relates to research and practice associated with ‘Acceptance and Commitment Therapy’; an evidenced based psychological therapy designed to increase ‘psychological flexibility’ through mindfulness and behavioural change strategies.
Dr. Dawson and Dr. Moghaddam will be presenting 4 research posters at the ACBS conference (all of which were led by trainees enrolled on the Clinical Psychology Doctorate at the University of Lincoln). These include:
1) “Developing a new repeatable measure of ACT processes”. This poster will report on the development of the ‘Complete measure of ACT Processes’ (CompACT); a new measure of the core processes underpinning psychological flexibility (a central tenet of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). The core features (i.e., scoring, items, factor structure) and psychometric properties of the CompACT will be presented. It is hoped that this new measure will be a valuable contribution to the ACT (and clinical psychology) literature.
2) “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Public Speaking Anxiety – a Case Series Study of Effects on Self-reported, Implicit, Imaginal, and In-vivo Performance Outcomes”. This poster will report a multiple case experimental design looking at the efficacy of self-help Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in treating public speaking anxiety. Treatment-based change was evaluated using the above-mentioned ACT process measure and the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). The findings have implications for the delivery of ACT in a self-help format for client’s wishing to address their public speaking difficulties independently (or for clients with wider social anxiety who do not seek treatment).
3) “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A case series approach”. This poster will report a multiple single case series approach to the efficacy of using ACT to treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; a disabling and not uncommon disorder associated with a poor reported quality of life. Treatment-based change was assessed over-time using self-report, the IRAP, and behavioural activity measured via wearable technology. The results provide valuable insight into the use of ACT with this particular disorder.
4) “Regulating Eating through Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (RE-ACT)”. This poster will report a study using AB single case series design to evaluate the effectiveness of a guided ACT self-help intervention for weight management of emotional eaters. Six participants took part in a five week guided self-help ACT intervention involving the completion of a range of implicit, explicit, and behavioural assessments. Preliminary results indicate that the intervention resulted in increased values pursuance, with participants reporting positive experiences about treatment.
In addition, Dr. Hart will be presenting a poster entitled “Using Implicit Measures to Predict Known Groups: An IRAP v IAT Comparison“. In conjunction with his co-author (Dr. Ross Bartels), Dr. Hart used the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) to measure women-sex and men-sex associations in a sample of self-identifying heterosexual women (n = 92) and men (n =91). The scores from each measure were subjected to binary logistic regression and discriminant function analysis to determine their ability to differentiate between groups (i.e., heterosexual women and men). The results contribute to the known-groups validation of each measure and provide further insight into the beliefs underlying sexual interest in non-offending heterosexual men and women.
We wish the speakers all the best at the ACBS conference!
by rbartels | Jun 27, 2015 | Forensic
Next week (1-3rd July) is the Division of Forensic Psychology Annual Conference in Manchester. We are pleased to announce that 2 of our PhD students (Craig Harper & Lauren Mumby) and 2 undergrad students (Gemma Stirland & Katie Boardman) will present at the conference, along with Prof. Todd Hogue & Dr. Ross Bartels.
Craig will be convening a symposium entitled ‘Attitudes Towards Sexual Offenders: Theory and Measurement‘ on the first day. In this symposium, Craig will be giving two talks based on his doctoral research; one entitled ‘The Perceptions of Sex Offenders Scale: Development and validation of a new measure‘ and ‘Sexual crime prototypes and their link to public and political discourse’.
In the same symposium, Gemma Stirland (finishing 2nd year undergrad) will be presenting the main results from a systematic review in a talk entitled ‘Attitudes toward sexual offenders: What do we know, and why are they important?‘ In addition, Prof. Hogue will present a talk entitled ‘Attitudes to Sex Offenders Scale: Development and validation of a 21 item short form’.
On the first day of the conference, Lauren Mumby (PhD student) will be presenting a poster entitled ‘Attributes Associated with Homelessness in Offenders’.
In addition, Katie Boardman (finishing 3rd year undergrad) will present the results of her dissertation research in a poster entitled ‘The Ads May Work: Public Perception of Sexually Deviant Males‘ (along with Dr. Bartels).
The DFP programme and keynote talks look to be really interesting this year. We wish all presenters the best of luck at the conference and look forward to hearing how the presentations went.
