Many students struggle with group-based assessments. The pedagogic approach of the ‘compassionate... more Many students struggle with group-based assessments. The pedagogic approach of the ‘compassionate micro skills of communication’ (CMSC) aims to equip students with the skills necessary to work effectively in group settings. To this end, students studying on a core psychology module involving group-work, received structured CMSC learning in seminars. Following its implementation, analysis of data from four student and one staff focus groups, using thematic analysis, indicated support for the pedagogic approach. Four themes emerged: the use of CMSC for addressing unhelpful group behaviours; employing helpful group behaviours; enhancing inclusivity; and areas for CMSC improvement and roll out. Quantitative data collection is still on-going and will be reported elsewhere. However, our preliminary analysis of the qualitative data provides good support for utilising a CMSC pedagogic approach in Higher Education regarding both its efficacy and potential positive impact.
Background: Imposed lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the living and working h... more Background: Imposed lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the living and working habits of millions, with potentially important implications for physical, mental, and social wellbeing.Objectives: The primary objective was to investigate the impact of the pandemic on remote workers not directly affected by the virus.Methods: This was a correlational cross-sectional study (with an additional qualitative component) of 184 remote workers surveyed during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. Standard measures of mental health (Kessler-6), productivity (IAPT) and physical activity (IPAQ) were used, with respondents further surveyed on changes to their dietary, exercise, smoking, drinking and socialisation habits to produce a ‘well-being change index’.Results: Results revealed associations between sedentary behaviour and poorer mental health (τb=.14) and between poorer mental health and low work productivity (τb=-.39). However, both positive and negative lifestyle changes w...
Debate surrounds processes of visual recognition, with no consensus as to whether recognition of ... more Debate surrounds processes of visual recognition, with no consensus as to whether recognition of distinct object categories (faces, bodies, cars, and words) is domain specific or subserved by domain-general visual recognition mechanisms. Here, we investigated correlations between the performance of 74 participants on recognition tasks for words, faces and other object categories. Participants completed a counter-balanced test battery of the Cambridge Face, Car and Body Parts Memory tests, as well as a standard four category lexical decision task, with response time and recognition accuracy as dependent variables. Results revealed significant correlations across domains for both recognition accuracy and response time, providing some support for domain-general pattern recognition. Further exploration of the data using principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a two-component model for both the response time and accuracy data. However, how the various word and object recognition task...
Objectives Schools are experiencing an unprecedented mental health crisis, with teachers reportin... more Objectives Schools are experiencing an unprecedented mental health crisis, with teachers reporting high levels of stress and burnout, which has adverse consequences to their mental and physical health. Addressing mental and physical health problems and promoting wellbeing in educational settings is thus a global priority. This study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of an 8-week Compassionate Mind Training program for Teachers (CMT-T) on indicators of psychological and physiological wellbeing. Methods A pragmatic randomized controlled study with a stepped-wedge design was conducted in a sample of 155 public school teachers, who were randomized to CMT-T (n = 80) or a waitlist control group (WLC; n = 75). Participants completed self-report measures of psychological distress, burnout, overall and professional wellbeing, compassion and self-criticism at baseline, post-intervention, and 3-months follow-up. In a sub-sample (CMT-T, n = 51; WLC n = 36) resting heart-rate variab...
Literature suggests that stimuli of an emotive nature, especially those indicating potential thre... more Literature suggests that stimuli of an emotive nature, especially those indicating potential threat, are more effective in their capture of attention than non-emotive stimuli [1,2]. This is consistent with models of fear and threat processing, in which specialised (neural/ dynamic) mechanisms responsible for the enhanced processing of threat-related information are proposed [3-5]. In such models it is argued that attentional resources are preferentially allocated to threat-related cues, relative to other types of non-emotional information, given the ability to process such information efficiently poses several survival advantages. Consistent with this, much behavioural data utilizing Stroop, visual search, visual probe and rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) reliably demonstrates that when there is competition for cognitive resources, threatening information is prioritized [6-8].
Many students struggle with group-based assessments. The pedagogic approach of the ‘compassionate... more Many students struggle with group-based assessments. The pedagogic approach of the ‘compassionate micro skills of communication’ (CMSC) aims to equip students with the skills necessary to work effectively in group settings. To this end, students studying on a core psychology module involving group-work, received structured CMSC learning in seminars. Following its implementation, analysis of data from four student and one staff focus groups, using thematic analysis, indicated support for the pedagogic approach. Four themes emerged: the use of CMSC for addressing unhelpful group behaviours; employing helpful group behaviours; enhancing inclusivity; and areas for CMSC improvement and roll out. Quantitative data collection is still on-going and will be reported elsewhere. However, our preliminary analysis of the qualitative data provides good support for utilising a CMSC pedagogic approach in Higher Education regarding both its efficacy and potential positive impact.
Background: Imposed lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the living and working h... more Background: Imposed lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the living and working habits of millions, with potentially important implications for physical, mental, and social wellbeing.Objectives: The primary objective was to investigate the impact of the pandemic on remote workers not directly affected by the virus.Methods: This was a correlational cross-sectional study (with an additional qualitative component) of 184 remote workers surveyed during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. Standard measures of mental health (Kessler-6), productivity (IAPT) and physical activity (IPAQ) were used, with respondents further surveyed on changes to their dietary, exercise, smoking, drinking and socialisation habits to produce a ‘well-being change index’.Results: Results revealed associations between sedentary behaviour and poorer mental health (τb=.14) and between poorer mental health and low work productivity (τb=-.39). However, both positive and negative lifestyle changes w...
Debate surrounds processes of visual recognition, with no consensus as to whether recognition of ... more Debate surrounds processes of visual recognition, with no consensus as to whether recognition of distinct object categories (faces, bodies, cars, and words) is domain specific or subserved by domain-general visual recognition mechanisms. Here, we investigated correlations between the performance of 74 participants on recognition tasks for words, faces and other object categories. Participants completed a counter-balanced test battery of the Cambridge Face, Car and Body Parts Memory tests, as well as a standard four category lexical decision task, with response time and recognition accuracy as dependent variables. Results revealed significant correlations across domains for both recognition accuracy and response time, providing some support for domain-general pattern recognition. Further exploration of the data using principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a two-component model for both the response time and accuracy data. However, how the various word and object recognition task...
Objectives Schools are experiencing an unprecedented mental health crisis, with teachers reportin... more Objectives Schools are experiencing an unprecedented mental health crisis, with teachers reporting high levels of stress and burnout, which has adverse consequences to their mental and physical health. Addressing mental and physical health problems and promoting wellbeing in educational settings is thus a global priority. This study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of an 8-week Compassionate Mind Training program for Teachers (CMT-T) on indicators of psychological and physiological wellbeing. Methods A pragmatic randomized controlled study with a stepped-wedge design was conducted in a sample of 155 public school teachers, who were randomized to CMT-T (n = 80) or a waitlist control group (WLC; n = 75). Participants completed self-report measures of psychological distress, burnout, overall and professional wellbeing, compassion and self-criticism at baseline, post-intervention, and 3-months follow-up. In a sub-sample (CMT-T, n = 51; WLC n = 36) resting heart-rate variab...
Literature suggests that stimuli of an emotive nature, especially those indicating potential thre... more Literature suggests that stimuli of an emotive nature, especially those indicating potential threat, are more effective in their capture of attention than non-emotive stimuli [1,2]. This is consistent with models of fear and threat processing, in which specialised (neural/ dynamic) mechanisms responsible for the enhanced processing of threat-related information are proposed [3-5]. In such models it is argued that attentional resources are preferentially allocated to threat-related cues, relative to other types of non-emotional information, given the ability to process such information efficiently poses several survival advantages. Consistent with this, much behavioural data utilizing Stroop, visual search, visual probe and rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) reliably demonstrates that when there is competition for cognitive resources, threatening information is prioritized [6-8].
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