By Mrs Harrold (Head of Psychology)

The Sixth Form Psychology students enjoyed a day out for the Psychology in Action lectures on Thursday 27th December. 28 students and two Psychology teachers made their way to London to explore topics that expanded far beyond the A-Level specification, covering fascinating areas of study that gave insight into experiences reflective of our lives – and areas that we are fortunate not to have experienced directly!

Katie Daubney started the day with an interesting overview of how the competing demands on brains that evolved to deal with far fewer stimuli daily than we now experience might be affecting the neural development of children. This was followed by Patrick Fagan’s ‘Mind Games’ talk which illustrated the impressive subtly, concerning personalisation and sheer amount of manipulation we undergo from advertisers whilst engaging with the internet. He was kind enough to share some of his professional expertise, as a jobbing applied behavioural scientist, on how to influence parents to go along with your suggestions when they are not automatically inclined to do so. Apologies about that!

Other lectures covered how to build a healthy brain and some of the most important questions about ADHD and autism. One scheduled lecture was sadly cancelled at short notice, leaving Mrs Lincoln and I particularly disappointed to hear that we wouldn’t be finding out the answer to ‘Is my teacher a psychopath?’ However, the replacement talk ‘Mad or Bad?’, also on Forensic Psychology, by Dee Anand was very engaging and informative, with many students citing it as their favourite of the day. Overall, another successful Psychology in Action trip that has left the department keen for our visit next year.