I joined the University of Bath as a lecturer of psychology in June 2014. I completed my PhD at Swansea University (2010). This research investigated the generalisation of self-efficacy judgements to novel stimuli after evaluative learning.  I studied the mechanisms involved in the generation and transfer of negative and positive self-evaluations through derived stimulus relations. My aim was to provide a better model of how such evaluations about many aspects of people’s lives (the future, the environment etc.) are common place in people who are suffering from depression and anxiety disorders. 

From 2010 to 2014 I worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry and a Research Associate at University College London on two interdisciplinary programme grants funded by the NIHR. Both projects were to develop, evaluate and implement complex health interventions in NHS settings. Safewards is an intervention designed to reduce conflict and containment within acute psychiatric wards and ‘HeLP-Diabetes’ is an internet intervention designed to improve self-management skills in people with type 2 diabetes in primary care.  

My research interests include: the role of evaluative learning and environmental contingencies in the development of preferences; the factors involved in caffeine consumption; stimulus equivalence and Relational Frame Theory; complex health interventions (with special interest in the self-management of long term conditions and mindfulness and acceptance based interventions). I am part of the editorial board for the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science which is the official Journal for the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science.

Research interests

• Evaluative Learning, Preference and Self-efficacy
• Behaviour Change Interventions
• Use of Mobile Technology for Health Applications
• Self-management of Long Term Conditions
• Patient and Public Involvement in Research/Participatory Design
• Relational Responding and Relational Frame Theory