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        <title>School of Psychology - Stories</title>
        <description>Stories posts from School of Psychology</description>
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            <title>School of Psychology - Stories</title>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/anderson-prize-winner-msc-psychological-studies-allison-gouskos/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Anderson Prize Winner MSc Psychological Studies: Allison Gouskos]]></title>
            <pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Eagerly checking my university email account in the hopes of finding news about final grades, I was pleasantly surprised by an email announcing that I had been awarded the Anderson Prize. Although I was unaware of this prize&rsquo;s existence, it was major validation I didn&rsquo;t know I needed&hellip; the need for which I should probably speak with my therapist. I digress. What made this achievement all the more rewarding was the hard work and dedication I saw from so many of my peers, some of whom were also navigating a new country, culture, educational system, and/or work. In short, the&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/postgraduate-prize-for-outreach-2025-claire-robertson/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Postgraduate Prize for Outreach 2025: Claire Robertson]]></title>
            <pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Hi, my name is Claire, and my PhD research focused on how health comics can be used to communicate health information. There are many challenges of communicating complex health information to the population, and poorly communicated health information can create distrust, confusion and risky health behaviours. Comics can meet these healthcare challenges by engaging and catering to a diverse population with differing needs. As part of my PhD project, I wanted to create a health comic from scratch, not only to experience leading and developing a comic from the initial stages through to the launch and distribution, but also be&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-internship-janhvi-ghotey/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Internship: Janhvi Ghotey]]></title>
            <pubDate>Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[In the summer of 2025, I was fortunate to be offered my first research internship within the School of Psychology. My project, which lasted six weeks, focused on exploring the impact of generative AI on underrepresented groups in higher education. This internship caught my eye immediately, as being part of an underrepresented group myself, I was eager to explore how technology could promote more inclusivity. Everyone deserves the best chance at education, yet many students face challenges in their everyday lives that can hinder their potential for success. These challenges can range from, but are not limited to, physical disabilities,&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-internship-grace-vickers/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Internship: Grace Vickers]]></title>
            <pubDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[
I did an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion internship with the university over the summer of 2025. My internship topic was evaluating accessibility and inclusivity in teaching materials, supervised by Dr Zeshu Shao. This is something that I&rsquo;m passionate about because,&nbsp;being neurodivergent, I understand how important it is to access equal learning opportunities which take individual differences into consideration. Furthermore, it is also important to feel represented within teaching practices.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;


My first task was to create a Content Review Checklist which I could use to review materials. I decided to focus on the Level 2 and 3 methodology courses, as methodology&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-internship-caitlin-mckenzie/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Internship: Caitlin McKenzie]]></title>
            <pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Caitlin McKenzie, a third-year Neuroscience and Psychology student, completed a summer internship project titled &ldquo;Do Autistic Women Experience Menopause Differently?"&nbsp;Caitlin carried out this project under the supervision of Linda Engles, CPsychol (School of Psychology) and Dr Shannon Babbie (School of Education). Find out about their findings below.
Introduction
Menopause is an important and inevitable life stage for most women, transgender men and non-binary people assigned female at birth; however, until recently, there was little research looking into how autistic women experience menopause. Do they experience it differently from neurotypical women? Do they have different symptoms, or do they have more&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/anderson-prize-winner-msc-psychology-20242025-qi-chen/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Anderson Prize Winner MSc Psychology 2024-2025: Qi Chen]]></title>
            <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Reflections on My MSc Journey in Psychology 
I&rsquo;m deeply honoured to have won the Anderson Prize for the highest performing student in MSc Psychological Studies in the 24-25 academic year. This recognition is both humbling and deeply meaningful to me&mdash;it reflects not only personal effort, but also the incredible support, inspiration, kindness, and encouragement I&rsquo;ve received from my peers and lecturers throughout the programme. Their kindness and guidance shaped my journey in ways I&rsquo;ll always be grateful for, and I truly wouldn&rsquo;t have reached this point without their unwavering support.
Studying in the School of Psychology has been an enriching&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-internship-skye-duncan/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Internship: Skye Duncan]]></title>
            <pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[My EDI internship in the School of Psychology, ran from June to August 2025, and involved conducting an evaluation of Aurora: Women&rsquo;s Leadership Development Programme which has been delivered at the University of Aberdeen since 2013 with over 100 delegates having particpated. The aim of the programme is to address women&rsquo;s underrepresentation in leadership roles in higher education. This was a piece of work following on from a quantitative analysis conducted within the school in 2024 by Abigail Flores, as part of her MSc thesis project. Abigail evaluated the programme by surveying participants. The results found that participants did not&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/john-shepherd-prize-and-the-anderson-prize-winner-mres-psychology-20242025-pepita-alex/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[John Shepherd Prize and the Anderson Prize Winner MRes Psychology 2024-2025: Pepita Alex]]></title>
            <pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[I feel honoured to have been awarded both the John Shepherd Prize and the Anderson Prize for the best thesis and highest performance in the MRes Psychology 2024-2025.  My thesis, "Conditioned Delusions", examined predictive processing during naturalistic reading using eye-tracking. We explored how reading behaviour changes when the text doesn&rsquo;t match expectations, and how readers balance adapting their reading with updating their beliefs. It was a challenging but incredibly rewarding project, and I couldn&rsquo;t have done it alone. I owe so much to the support and encouragement of many brilliant people.  First, thank you to my amazing supervisors: Anastasia Klimovich-Gray,&#8230;]]></description>
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            <title><![CDATA[John Shepherd Prize for best MRes Psychology Thesis]]></title>
            <pubDate>Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[I am honoured to have been awarded the John Shepherd Prize for best MRes Psychology thesis in 2024-25, titled &ldquo;Improving the Diagnostic Value of Person Descriptions&rdquo;. This recognition means a great deal to me, as it marks the culmination of a challenging but rewarding year of study.
This award feels especially meaningful as Professor John Shepherd was a pioneer of face recognition research here at Aberdeen, particularly in the context of eyewitness memory and person perception. He, along with colleagues Donald Christie and Haydn Ellis, played a central role in developing many of the paradigms that continue to shape the&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/postgraduate-prize-for-outreach-sanni-ahonen/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Postgraduate Prize for Outreach: Sanni Ahonen]]></title>
            <pubDate>Tue, 12 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[I was delighted to learn I had been selected as the joint winner of the School of Psychology's Postgraduate Prize for Outreach! I'm grateful to the prize panel for this recognition, and I was particularly touched that the panel commended my leadership in organising &ldquo;Perceptio-Nite&rdquo; at the European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP) 2024.
This event was a major undertaking, but a wonderful experience on reflection. Together with a committee of incredibly hard-working and motivated PhD and MRes students, we were able to create a unique networking opportunity for the ECR community attending ECVP. After many months of planning, seeing&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/postgraduate-prize-for-outreach-matt-johnson/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Postgraduate Prize for Outreach: Matt Johnson]]></title>
            <pubDate>Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Winning the Postgraduate Prize for Outreach for my contributions to Illusion Night&mdash;part of the European Conference of Visual Perception (ECVP)&mdash;is truly an honour. ECVP was a tremendous success, not only for the School of Psychology and the University of Aberdeen, but for the city of Aberdeen as a whole.
Illusion Night, in particular, was a standout event. It offered a unique opportunity for members of the public to engage directly with experts in vision science through hands-on, interactive displays. It was a real pleasure to be involved in organising the event and to contribute my own installation to the diverse&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/alan-b-milne-prize-and-henry-prize-winner-2025-veronika-wendler/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Alan B Milne Prize and Henry Prize Winner 2025: Veronika Wendler]]></title>
            <pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[I am honoured to have received the Alan B. Milne Prize for the highest-rated psychology bachelor&rsquo;s thesis at the University of Aberdeen, the Henry Prize for achieving the top course grades among psychology students, and to be currently nominated for an undergraduate award from the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS). I am deeply grateful to my academic supervisors and to my friends (especially those at BECYCLE Aberdeen) who have supported me throughout my undergrad, and I remain profoundly thankful for the exceptional research opportunities, both local and international, that the University of Aberdeen has made possible.
I am especially grateful to&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/anderson-prize-winner-2025-annabel-nicolson/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Anderson Prize Winner 2025: Annabel Nicolson]]></title>
            <pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[I&rsquo;m incredibly honoured to receive the School of Psychology&rsquo;s Anderson Prize for the best performing Level 3 Psychology student in the 2024&ndash;25 academic year. This award means a great deal to me, especially as it reflects the dedication and growth I&rsquo;ve experienced throughout my degree so far.
One of the reasons I chose to study psychology is because of how deeply applicable it is to everyday life. The more I&rsquo;ve learned during my time at university, the more I&rsquo;ve come to see the world through a psychological lens. From understanding behaviours to uncovering the complexity behind what seems like simple&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/dr-eva-rubnov-and-thomas-alexander-complete-principles-of-learning-and-teaching-in-higher-education-plthe-course/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Dr Eva Rubínová and Thomas Alexander complete Principles of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PLTHE) Course]]></title>
            <pubDate>Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Dr Eva Rub&iacute;nov&aacute; and Thomas Alexander from the School of Psychology recently completed the Principles of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PLTHE) course run by the University&rsquo;s Centre for Academic Development. Eva teaches classes on L4 Investigative Interviewing (Forensic Psychology) and L2 Applications of Research in Individual Differences, in addition to research-based tutorials and undergraduate and postgraduate supervision. Thomas primarily teaches methods workshops for L1 and MSc students and provides drop-in support for L4 thesis students through the Peer Assisted Learning scheme.
The PLTHE covers both classic and contemporary pedagogical research and promotes best practices in teaching and assessment&#8230;]]></description>
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            <link>https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/stories/have-you-ever-wondered-how-menopause-affects-women-at-work/</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[Have You Ever Wondered... How Menopause Affects Women at Work?]]></title>
            <pubDate>Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Since Davina McColl put the subject of menopause firmly on the map, it has been great to see and hear how this has progressed to being a much less taboo subject. Have you, however, thought about the impact that menopause symptoms have on women (including transgender and non-binary*) in their workplaces?&nbsp;
Menopause occurs due to a decrease in the hormones oestrogen and progesterone. This ultimately results in periods stopping. However, the reduction in hormones can cause many symptoms, some of which can severely impact. Symptoms include hot flashes, palpitations, anxiety, brain fog, joint stiffness, to name but a few. Existing&#8230;]]></description>
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