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Thinking About the World

Health Behaviour

A woman standing outside on a pink mat, holding a yoga pose on one leg with her other foot behind her head. High-rise buildings are visible in the background.

Keeping our bodies healthy can be a case of mind over matter

How do we understand the health threats our bodies face?

What motivates us to quit smoking?
How does stress affect our ability to remember things?
How do we form habits?
Does regular bowel screening help detect colorectal cancer?
How can maths anxiety impede understanding of numerical health risks?
What are the emotional processes associated with trauma?
What happens in the brain when we feel pain?

These and other questions are addressed as part of our health behaviour work using a variety of different approaches and leading edge methodologies. We also work closely with academics in related areas such as risk, judgement and decision making, and well-being.

Our health behaviour projects

A nature-based intervention to improve mental health

A nature-based intervention to improve mental health

This collaborative project, run by the Department of Psychology, the School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences, and iCARP CIC, is looking at how the mental health and wellbeing of military veterans living with PTSD can be improved through angling in peaceful settings.

Recent papers

2023

Juanchich, Marie and Sirota, Miroslav and Holford, Dawn Liu (2023) How Should Doctors Frame the Risk of a Vaccine's Adverse Side Effects? It Depends on How Trustworthy They Are. Medical Decision Making, 43 (7-8). pp. 835-849.
Murray, Sandra L and Xia, Ji and Lamarche, Veronica M and Seery, Mark D and McNulty, James K and Ward, Deborah E and Griffin, Dale and Hicks, Lindsey L (2023) Sensitizing the behavioral-immune system: The power of social pain. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 14 (4). pp. 371-380.
Sirota, Miroslav and Habersaat, Katrine Bach and Betsch, Cornelia and Bonga, Daniela Lejla and Borek, Aleksandra and Buckel, Anica and Butler, Robb and Byrne-Davis, Lucie and Caudell, Mark and Charani, Esmita and Geiger, Mattis and Gross, Marina and Hart, Jo and Kostopoulou, Olga and Krockow, Eva M and Likki, Tiina and Lo Fo Wong, Danilo and Santana, Ana P and Sievert, Elisabeth DC and Theodoropoulou, Andriana and Thorpe, Alistair and Wanat, Marta and Böhm, Robert (2023) We must harness the power of social and behavioural science against the growing pandemic of antimicrobial resistance. Nature Human Behaviour, 8 (1). pp. 11-13.
Skaczkowski, Gemma and Orbell, Sheina and Wilson, Carlene (2023) "Life Without Symptoms" or "Being Able to Enjoy Life": What does it Mean to be "Well" After Cancer? Journal of Cancer Education, 39 (2). pp. 204-210.
Stoet, Gijsbert and Holt, Richard IG (2023) Characteristics of People with Optimally-Managed Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes Epidemiology and Management, 12. p. 100153.
Wicks, Claire and Barton, Jo L and Andrews, Leanne and Orbell, Sheina and Sandercock, Gavin and Wood, Carly (2023) The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on the Contribution of Local Green Space and Nature Connection to Mental Health. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20 (6). p. 5083.

2022

Boldina, Anna and Hanel, Paul HP and Steemers, Koen (2022) Active Urbanism and Choice Architecture: Encouraging the use of challenging city routes for fitness. Landscape Research, 48 (3). pp. 276-296.
Coelho, Gabriel Lins de Holanda and Hanel, Paul HP and Byrne, Aideen and Hourihane, Jonathan and DunnGalvin, Audrey (2022) The Food Allergy COPE Inventory: Adaptation and Psychometric Properties. The World Allergy Organization Journal, 15 (2). p. 100626.
McMichael, Alan J and Kane, Joseph PM and Rolison, Jonathan J and O'Neill, Francis A and Boeri, Marco and Kee, Frank (2022) Implementation of personalised medicine policies in mental healthcare: results from a stated preference study in the UK. BJPsych Open, 8 (2). e40-.
Meadows, Angela and Higgs, Suzanne (2022) Challenging oppression: A social identity model of stigma resistance in higher-weight individuals. Body Image, 42. pp. 237-245.
Shaw, Sebastian Ck and Meadows, Angela (2022) First do no harm: reconsidering our approach to weight in primary care. British Journal of General Practice, 72 (716). pp. 102-103.
Valentini, Elia (2022) Neurological Markers of Maladaptive Brain Activity in Fibromyalgia and their Relationship with Treatment Effectiveness. Journal of Trial and Error, 2 (1). pp. 92-98.
Wicks, Claire and Barton, Jo and Orbell, Sheina and Andrews, Leanne (2022) Psychological benefits of outdoor physical activity in natural versus urban environments: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of experimental studies. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 2022 (3). pp. 1037-1061.

2021

Alleva, Jessica M and Karos, Kai and Meadows, Angela and Waldén, Moon I and Stutterheim, Sarah E and Lissandrello, Francesca and Atkinson, Melissa J (2021) '"What can her body do?" Reducing weight stigma by appreciating another person's body functionality.' PLoS One, 16 (5). e0251507-e0251507. ISSN 1932-6203
Brosowsky, Nick and Van Tilburg, Wijnand and Scholer, Abigail and Boylan, James and Seli, Paul and Danckert, James (2021) 'Boredom proneness, political orientation and adherence to social- distancing in the pandemic.' Motivation and Emotion, 45 (5). pp. 631-640. ISSN 0146-7239
Gardner, Benjamin and Arden, Madelynne and Brown, Daniel and Eves, Frank and Green, James and Hamilton, Kyra and Hankonen, Nelli and Inauen, Jennifer and Keller, Jan and Kwasnicka, Dominika and Labudek, Sarah and Marien, Hans and Masaryk, Radomir and McCleary, Nicola and Mullan, Barbara and Neter, Efrat and Orbell, Sheina and Potthoff, Sebastien and Lally, Philippa (2021) 'Developing habit-based health behaviour change interventions: Twenty-one questions to guide future research.' Psychology and Health. pp. 1-23. ISSN 0887-0446
Hagger, Martin S and Orbell, Sheina (2021) 'The common sense model of illness self- regulation: a conceptual review and proposed extended model.' Health Psychology Review. pp. 1-31. ISSN 1743-7199
Holford, Dawn Liu and Sirota, Miroslav and Juanchich, Marie (2021) 'Ambiguity and unintended inferences about risk messages for COVID-19.' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. ISSN 1076-898X (In Press)
Keech, Jacob J and Orbell, Sheina and Hagger, Martin S and O'Callaghan, Frances V and Hamilton, Kyra (2021) 'Psychometric properties of the Stress Control Mindset Measure in University students from Australia and the UK.' Brain and Behavior, 11 (2). e01963-. ISSN 2162-3279
Meadows, Angela and Daníelsdóttir, Sigrún and Goldberg, Daniel and Mercedes, Marquisele (2021) 'Fighting for a (wide enough) seat at the table: weight stigma in law and policy.' Fat Studies, 10 (2). pp. 101-124. ISSN 2160-4851
Osa, Maggie L and Siegel, Jaclyn and Meadows, Angela and Elbe, Connor and Calogero, Rachel M (2021) 'Stigmatizing effects of weight status on lay perceptions of eating disorder-related distress.' Eating Disorders. pp. 1-11. ISSN 1064-0266
Sirota, Miroslav and Thorpe, Alistair and Juanchich, Marie (2021) 'Explaining and reducing the public’s expectations of antibiotics: A utility-based signal detection theory approach.' Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. ISSN 2211-3681 (In Press)
Stephenson, Peta and Yuen, Eva and Skaczkowski, Gemma and Spelten, Evelien R and Orbell, Sheina and Wilson, Carlene (2021) 'The impact of illness perceptions and coping strategies on use of supportive care for cancer.' Cancers, 13 (10). p. 2501. ISSN 2072-6694
Thorpe, Alistair and Sirota, Miroslav and Orbell, Sheina and Juanchich, Marie (2021) 'Effect of information on reducing inappropriate expectations and requests for antibiotics.' British Journal of Psychology, 112 (3). pp. 804-827. ISSN 0007-1269
Wolfe, Kelly and Sirota, Miroslav and Clarke, Alasdair DF (2021) 'Age differences in COVID-19 risk-taking, and the relationship with risk attitude and numerical ability.' Royal Society Open Science, 8 (9). 201445-. ISSN 2054-5703

2020

Rolison, Jonathan and Morsanyi, Kinga and Peters, Ellen (2020) 'Understanding health risk comprehension: The role of math anxiety, subjective numeracy, and objective numeracy.' Medical Decision Making, 40 (2). 222 - 234. ISSN 0272-989X
Thorpe, Alistair and Sirota, Miroslav and Juanchich, Marie and Orbell, Sheina (2020) 'Action bias in the public’s clinically inappropriate expectations for antibiotics.' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. ISSN 1076-898X
Thorpe, Alistair and Sirota, Miroslav and Juanchich, Marie and Orbell, Sheina (2020) '‘Always take your doctor’s advice’: Does trust moderate the effect of information on inappropriate antibiotic prescribing expectations?' British Journal of Health Psychology. ISSN 1359-107X
Valentini, Elia and Fetter, Eleonora and Orbell, Sheina (2020) 'Treatment preferences in fibromyalgia patients: A cross‐sectional web‐based survey.' European Journal of Pain. ISSN 1090-3801

2019

Clarke, Richard M and Paterson, Pauline and Sirota, Miroslav (2019) 'Determinants of satisfaction with information and additional information-seeking behaviour for the pertussis vaccination given during pregnancy.' Vaccine, 37 (20). 2712 - 2720. ISSN 0264-410X
Clarke, Richard M and Paterson, Pauline and Sirota, Miroslav (2019) 'Do previously held vaccine attitudes dictate the extent and influence of vaccine information seeking behaviour during pregnancy?' Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, 15 (9). 2081 - 2089. ISSN 2164-5515
Liu, Dawn and Juanchich, Marie and Sirota, Miroslav and Orbell, Sheina (2019) 'People Overestimate Verbal Quantities of Nutrients on Nutrition Labels.' Food Quality and Preference, 78. ISSN 0950-3293

Academics

Dr Liam Chawner

Lecturer

Department of Psychology, University of Essex

Also interested in: Well-being; Development.

Dr Nicholas Cooper

Senior Lecturer

Department of Psychology, University of Essex

Also interested in: Risk, judgement and decision making; wellbeing.

Dr Katie Daughters

Lecturer

Department of Psychology, University of Essex

Also interested in: Emotion; well-being; relationships, sex and attraction.

Dr Helge Gillmeister

Senior Lecturer

Department of Psychology, University of Essex

Also interested in: Emotion; motivation; interoception.

Dr Angela Meadows

Lecturer

Department of Psychology, University of Essex

Also interested in: Justice, fairness and equality; wellbeing.

Professor Sheina Orbell

Professor

Department of Psychology, University of Essex

Also interested in: Relationships, sex and attraction.

Dr Jonathan Rolison

Senior Lecturer

Department of Psychology, University of Essex

Also interested in: Risk, judgement and decision making.

Dr Elia Valentini

Senior Lecturer

Department of Psychology, University of Essex

Also interested in: Emotion; interoception.

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