Profile
Rose Turner
Psychology Researcher
My CV
-
Education:
Lympstone Primary Schoo1990-1996; Exmouth Community College 1996-2003; Lancaster University 2003-2006; The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama 2007-2008; Open University (distance learning) 2009-2013; Kingston University (PhD) 2015-present.
-
Qualifications:
9 GCSEs in English Lit & Lang., Maths, Dual Science, French, Drama, Music, Textiles; A Levels in Psychology, Theatre Studies & English Literature; BA Hons. Theatre Studies; MA Performance Practices and Research; Graduate Diploma in Psychology; currently completing PhD.
-
Work History:
Researcher and seminar tutor in Psychology; Creative Practitioner in a dementia care training company (I also make films with staff and residents in care settings), Assessor for the Prison Service; Actor and Workshop Leader with a children’s theatre company; Writer for a website producing self-help articles; Research Assistant on a project interviewing people aged over 100 about their lives. I trained in acting, so I have also done lots of different acting jobs from music videos to Shakespeare plays, to far less glamorous things like dressing up as a giant bear and wandering around a famous flat-pack furniture store!
-
Current Job:
Doctoral Researcher in Psychology; Seminar Tutor for Research Methods and Statistics for Psychology MSc; freelance Creative Practitioner and Consultant
-
About Me:
Hi! I’m a Psychology Researcher and I also work in the applied arts.
-
Read more
Although I’m originally from the seaside in Devon, I’ve found myself living the city-life in central London for the past few years. I live with my partner in a flat beneath some very noisy neighbours who spend a lot of time rapping, very loudly and very, very badly. When I’m not yelling “be quiet!” at the ceiling (in my head, I’m too afraid to do it out loud) I like to go to the theatre, to gigs, do Zumba, play tennis, watch films, hang out with friends. I play a few musical instrument (badly), and practice when I can (perhaps I should set up a band with the neighbours?!) Before I started working in Psychology, I worked as an actor and writer, and sometimes a filmmaker, and still do those things when I have the time. I also take arts projects into prisons, schools and social care.
-
Read more
Whether you prefer to read books, watch TV, films or plays, or play video games, you probably spend a lot of time absorbed in a fictional world. I know I do! As a species, we humans have spent more than 235,000 YEARS watching or reading Harry Potter alone! So it makes sense that fiction should be good for us in some way, otherwise our species wouldn’t spend so much time and money on it. I use psychological experiments to test how fiction might make us better at what psychologists call “social cognition”, which is the ability to understand what people think and feel in the real world. My research investigates questions like: Are people who enjoy comedies kinder to others? Does reading and acting make us better at understanding other people’s points of view? What stories make us more sociable?
-
My Typical Day:
Running an experiment with people in a lab then running a statistical test to analyse the data, then running to the corner shop for coffee and chocolate supplies.
-
Read more
I am a psychologist based at a university where I spend my days teaching and doing research. My research mostly involves running experiments with humans, in a laboratory. After running the experiments, I need to put all the information into a spreadsheet and then analyse it using a statistical computer program. Once you get to grips with what you need to do, this part can actually be quite good fun, because you get to see if your experiment worked, or whether anything strange/interesting happened. If it looks good I might run around the office waving my hands in the air. And if it doesn’t, I’ll go and buy coffee and chocolate supplies and try to work out what went wrong!
-
My Interview
-
How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Creative, Determined and Kind
What did you want to be after you left school?
I wanted to work in the theatre, but I didn’t know exactly what I would do.
What don't you like about your current job?
It can be quite lonely, because you’re in charge of your own project so it’s especially hard when things don’t go to plan.
-