psychologistthe

psychology4graduates 2015www.thepsychologist.org.uk

special digital edition

Digital editionArchive pieces from some of thespeakers at this year’s events inLondon (2 December)

John Amaechi 2015for more information, seehttp://www.bps.org.uk/events/conferences/psychology4graduates-2015

Jamie Hacker Hughes 2015Carolyn Mair big picture 2013

George Kitsaras Society’s 50,000th memberRob Yeung 2005

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the two, as it often is, but the rigours ofdeployment – particularly repeated andprolonged tours where there is daily ornear daily exposure to death and injury(and this has certainly been the case inAfghanistan) – absolutely take their toll,however prepared and resilient theindividual concerned.

There’s also the question of whether it is the service that’s the issue, or thecoming back to ‘civvy street’. I noteyour paper on deployment in Iraqactually being associated withimproved mental health.The paper that I wrote about how goingto war can be good for you followed agroup of specially selected, highly trained,highly motivated soldiers (paratroopers)on their first deployment to Iraq in 2003.They went to carry out tasks that theyhad been specifically trained for, carriedthem out successfully, with minimum lossof life and limb and returned to the UKrelatively quickly, and yes, their scores onpen and paper measures indicated thattheir mental health had improved overtheir deployment. But that is, sadly, notthe norm, and our research indicates thattroops exposed to danger on a regularbasis suffer the consequences, especially ifthey are young, junior and inexperienced.

Coming back to ‘civvy street’ is indeeda huge problem. I found it difficult enoughreturning from Belfast to Birmingham in1981 after less than five years’ service. For people who have given 22 plus yearsof service the necessary adjustments areimmense. You are leaving behind not just a job, but a way of life where everythingis provided – food, entertainment, pay,clothing, accommodation – and whereyour whole social network is based. It’s a huge wrench.

Alcohol must play a part… I have readsoldiers’ accounts describing life as ‘a bunch of lads’ playing ‘the ultimateextreme sport’, ‘drinking and drinkingand drinking and having a laugh’. It’s true that drinking huge amounts ofalcohol has been considered as normal forfar too long and, in many cases, isexpected and forms part of initiationrituals, rites of passage, celebrations andcommiserations. The MoD and the threeindividual services – Navy, Army and AirForce – are finally beginning to get themessage; things are changing slowly.When I was a young cavalry officer, a ginand tonic before lunch was common onweekdays in the mess. That’s almostunheard of nowadays.

Are veterans more receptive to someforms of mental health intervention

How did your own military serviceinfluence your later career and

philosophy?I served as an army officer on a shortservice commission with The Queen’sDragoon Guards, in England, Germany(during the ‘Cold War’) and NorthernIreland (at the time of the H-block riotsand Bobby Sands’ hunger strike). I didn’tknow it at the time, but it was the bestpossible preparation I could have had formy later life as a military psychologist.From the moment I graduated fromUniversity College London in 1990 I wasknocking on the army’s door telling themthat they needed to put psychologists intouniform (the last uniformed psychologistsserved in World War II). I’m delightedthat, nearly 25 years later, in April lastyear, Captain Duncan Precious becamethe first-ever clinical psychologist to becommissioned into the British Army [seetinyurl.com/captdpr].I’m absolutelyconvinced about therole that psychologyand psychologists haveto play in defence.

What’s the extent ofthe problem withveterans’ mental health? 'It’s big. Our research tells us that up to 20 per cent of veterans suffer frompsychological health problems. That’s overhalf a million people from an estimatedthree million veterans according to theBritish Legion. A worryingly largenumber, given that service personnel startout as fit, healthy and selected throughrigorous training. Veterans are alsostrongly represented in the criminaljustice system and in the homelesspopulation. And the tragic thing is thatthere is no one person in the Westminstergovernment who’s coordinating all this. Itfalls between several stools of the Ministryof Defence, the Department of Health, theDepartment of Justice, and so on. And theother problem is that the vast majority ofpeople in the NHS and the Third Sector,

on whom the care of veterans falls whenthey leave the services, know very littleabout what a veteran is, what experiencesthey have had, and what their needs are.

In 2010 the Coalition’s ‘programme forgovernment’ promised extra supportfor veterans’ mental health needs. Arethey delivering on that promise?Partially. Yes, there is extra funding forCombat Stress Community Mental HealthNurses and a 24-hour helpline, and thereis some specialist commissioning fundingfor a residential Combat Stress pilottreatment programme too. But when itcomes to delivering equity and parity ofNHS and local authority veteran mentalhealth and support services, we’ve still gota long, long way to go. Veterans, in theory,get priority treatment in primary care (butseldom do in practice) and do not get anypreferential treatment in secondary care,

where it is needed. Thereis widespread agreementthat the Armed ForcesCovenant is not deliveringwhat it could or should.

To what extent can youdetermine – and to what

extent is it important –whether it is service that causesmental health problems, or that thoseattracted to the armed forces may bepredisposed to such issues?That’s a good question and, aspsychologists, we know a good deal aboutpredisposing and vulnerability factors,provoking factors and precipitatingfactors. It’s true that the armed forces,particularly the army and particularly the‘teeth arms’ such as infantry, traditionallyrecruit from areas of high unemploymentand social deprivation when individualsmay be seeking to leave behind abusiveand difficult pasts in the search for abetter future, let alone a wage. At thesame time, many parts of the forcesrecruit robust, balanced individuals totrain for some of the more demandingroles. So, of course, it’s a combination of

“It’s going to be a heck ofa year, but I’m going togive it my best shot”

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From civvy street to theatre of war Jon Sutton talks to Jamie Hacker Hughes, incoming Society President, Militaryand Veteran Specialist and Visiting Professor at Anglia Ruskin University

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than others? I note you use EMDR,which has often been controversial.I do use EMDR, and when I first heard of it 20 years ago I was hugely sceptical...until I started using it. I’ve been using itever since, and it’s a most remarkableform of therapy and, in my experience,much more powerful than the CBT inwhich I had been trained in initially –although it is my view that EMDR is, in fact, a particular type of cognitivebehavioural intervention rather thansomething completely different. Themilitary and veterans respond extremelywell to EMDR because you don’t have tospeak if you don’t want to, and it isparticularly effective for the treatment oftrauma where flashbacks and nightmarespredominate, although it can also be veryeffective in more complex cases whereshame and guilt are involved. The MoDlove it too because it’s a NICE-approvedintervention for the treatment of trauma,along with trauma-focused CBT.

Some years back we discussed aspecial issue of The Psychologist onmilitary health, but it was scupperedwhen colleagues in the MoD raisedconcerns about how it would bereceived. Is this still an issue thatprevents psychologists in the areasharing their good practice?No. Not at all. Things have moved onmassively and there is now a proposal toform a Military and Defence PsychologySection in the British PsychologicalSociety, which would be a real result aftersuch a long campaign to have one. Just intime, too, as we celebrate a century ofmilitary psychology in the UK in 2015.Military and defence psychologists, of allhues, are often right at the cutting edge of practice, as you would expect, and theformation of a Section, amongst otherthings, would really help in thepromotion of our area of work.

Presumably psychologists of manydifferent persuasions have a role to play in veterans’ mental health. You’re absolutely right. When I wasappointed head of clinical psychology for the MoD, we expanded the service to include counselling psychologists andhealth psychologists in addition to theclinical, forensic and neuropsychologiststhat we already had. And there are hugenumbers of occupational and researchpsychologists in the MoD too – in theRoyal Navy, British Army and Royal AirForce, in MoD Main Building and in thevarious research and trainingestablishments. It’s absolutely fascinatingand highly rewarding work, and I wouldcommend it to anyone.

And perhaps input doesn’t have to be‘formal’ psychology – is there a role forinnovative therapies such asgardening, running, et cetera?Of course. Perhaps running isn’t thatinnovative after all though. It’s one of the things that all military people do, andthey are very good at knowing when theyneed to go for a long therapeutic run orto ‘beast’ themselves in the gym. Whendeployed out in theatre, in an alcohol-freeenvironment, ‘fizz’, as physical training isknown, is incredibly popular as peopleengage in ‘Op Massive’ in the gym in

order to return to the UK with a muscle-bound, honed, tanned body to impresstheir partners with. Gardening, though,is, actually, really beneficial as well. I’mmainly involved in veteran psychologicalhealth and social care research anddelivery these days and am a supporter of two charities that have projects up anddown the country where veterans workalongside horticultural therapists. I’veseen them at work and am a big fan.

I know you’re a religious man. Do youever find it hard to reconcile this withyour military involvement and scientificbeliefs?I am. I happen to be a Christian and an Anglican Franciscan Tertiary (that is to say a lay member of a religious orderwithin the Church of England), but I really do believe that everybody has a spiritual side to them regardless ofwhether they have a faith or not, and thatthe ‘spiritual’ in ‘biopsychosociospiritual’is an extremely important, and oftenforgotten, component. No, I don’t find itdifficult to reconcile my faith with myscientific beliefs at all. I’m not afundamentalist and I am absolutely surethat the God that I believe in worksthrough science and that science providesa way in which we can, perhaps, also

learn more about God. With regard to my work with the

military, I very much believe in the ‘justwar’ philosophy and that it is, sadly,necessary to have an armed forceavailable to use as a last resort to preventterror or tyranny. I really felt that when I was a soldier in the Cold War. Thepresence of very large numbers ofconventionally armed troops in Germanywas a real deterrent to any conflict, and I am pleased to have played my verysmall part in all that.

Do your own personal and professionalinterests chime with your prioritiesfor the next year, as incomingPresident of the British PsychologicalSociety?In much the same way as I’ve beenfighting over the last quarter of a centuryfor a resurgence in military psychology,I’m going to use my term as President toseek a higher profile for the profession, astronger voice for psychology and greaterinfluence on policy and practice. But I’dalso like to see better access, equality andtransparency for our Society too.

What do you think is holding us backfrom having this profile, voice andinfluence?’Perhaps it just hasn’t been seen as apriority. But I know, from what severalmembers of the Society have said to mesince I was elected as President Elect, that they would like the BPS to be moreprominent, not only in the media buthaving a real voice and influence onpolicy and legislation. This is all now inthe Strategic Plan and we have thenecessary mechanisms to underpin it. We just need to be a lot more reactive,and much quicker at reacting too, tellingpeople what we, as psychologists, knowabout an issue in question anddemonstrating what psychology has tooffer in the area. And, of course, this willrequire a lot of proactivity and planningand targeted communication too. I see theSociety’s Boards as having a crucial role,as well as our policy advice and pressteam and, of course, The Psychologist.

Sounds like you’ve got your work cutout! How are you going to find any timefor yourself? I’m ruthless about the way in which Ihandle e-mails and social media and havevery firm boundaries. Downtime, alone orwith family and friends, is incrediblyimportant. I find running and singing andplaying music really restorative and enjoylearning foreign languages for fun too. It’sgoing to be a heck of a year, but I’m goingto give it my best shot.

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and have a number of good friends inwheelchairs. So I recognise physicaldisability as inconvenient. But ‘losing mymarbles’ would be devastating, especiallyif I knew it was happening.

Which psychologists have influencedyou?The professor when I was doing my MScon marriage and family therapy in theStates was Will Stillwell. He was oldenough to have been a student of CarlRogers, so he’s been around for a while. It was the first time I’d sat down withsomeone and used a therapeutic methodwhich was open and reflective and tookinto account the lies of humanism, whichwas that you don’t interject anything ofyourself. It was exactly what I hadimagined psychology would be when I was seven. When I was seven I thoughtpsychology was like being a Jedi. In away, we are all either Jedi or Sith.

Is that a bit of a primitive split?It might be, but – and this is why I loveStar Wars – the moment you realise thathow people fall into being Sith is actuallynot as simple as ‘are they evil or are theygood?’… If you read the books, a lot ofJedi are not very nice people! And there’sSith, the Anakin Skywalker narrative ofhow he transitions. It’s about watchingthe vigilance that you have to have overyourself. I know very well that my lifecould be easier, more abundant in termsof cash and many other things, if I usedmy skills in a slightly different way. Thereare regularly pieces of work where I say‘you don’t need me for this’. I have a timelimit on all my coaching – we’ll do sixmonths, then we’ll do another sixmonths, and then I have to be sure that I am not then becoming a consistent crutchfor a person. Some of my peers are onfour years of coaching. If it’s mentoring,that’s a different thing. If it’s just sittingdown with a glass of wine, then fine, butif it’s directive… I worry about that.

So your perspective is more aboutactivating their resources in a long-term way.We all have those moments when we aresitting across from somebody or a coupleand we think, ‘I know exactly what theproblem is with you, why don’t you justdo this?’ In your head you’re screaming it.But you have to stop, because it’s notabout me, it’s not about us, it’s aboutthem and what process will help them getto the best solution. You need to nudgepeople towards that ‘Eureka!’ moment oftheir own, that gives them not just thatanswer, but ‘wow, I came up with thatanswer!’

Tell me about your time at school inStockport.

I hated school. I hated Stockport. Theschool I went to had perhaps ideas aboveits station, in terms of the type of school itshould be – a grammar school thatthought that kind of emotionally illiterate,highly didactic method of teaching wasrighteous, because it somehow separatedthe wheat from the chaff. In other words,kids who could learn thatway were clever andworthy, and kids thatcouldn’t learn that waywere stupid and unworthy.I flirted with worthinessthrough extreme effort, butfundamentally it’s not howI learnt well.

Yet you’ve beensuccessful in anacademic sense?When I got to take thesubjects I wanted to take.I’m quite jealous when I hear of people who tookpsychology for A-level.That wasn’t an option. I had one option, in orderto read psychology atuniversity, and that was todo biology, chemistry andphysics. I took subjects I hated… I got to America,and they believe in thisbreadth of education, soyour first year you need totake French again… my second year at university, I’m taking abnormalpsychology, experimental psychology, a statistics class…

So what is it about psychology?I wanted to be a psychologist since I wasseven. I watched my mother as a doctor,as a GP, and I realised very quickly when I went on visits with her that the vastmajority of her job didn’t seem to beanything to do with medicine. It seemedto be her ability to help people be resilient

through long-term disease or illness. My mother worked a lot in palliative care,and she also worked in a psycho-geriatrichospital. My first job at eight years oldwas as an occupational aide there!Typically it started off as teas and coffees,but even then they were so understaffed it was interacting with adults who weren’tquite there. As a youngster I rememberbeing terrified. ‘How come I’m young,

they’re old, old people are supposed to bethere?’ And you realise the adult is reallyrelating to you on your own level, drivenby how frightening it is…

So you had an understanding of thefallibility of mind at quite a young age?Yes. I mean, my body is wrecked, throughyears of doing too much with it and nownot doing enough with it. But the onlything that really frightens me about myfuture is the idea that one day my mindwill go. I work with a disability charity

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‘We’re all Jedi or Sith’ Miles Thomas meets John Amaechi OBE – psychologist, organisationalconsultant, high-performance executive coach and former NBA basketball player

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You want the person to be the powerfulone, to go away and do things, not toinvest too much in you. I’m suspiciousof the charismatic, the powerfulcoach… My son once told me a lovely thing… inbasketball there’s a backboard and a hoop,and you shoot off the backboard into thehoop, and it’s just a universal truth thatsome backboards are soft, you hit themanywhere and it’ll go in… a ‘forgiving’backboard. My son once told me that I was a forgiving backboard… wheneverhe would throw his words and ideas atme, they would go in the hoop. That’s asmuch credit as you can give me – you’rethe one aiming, you’re the one shooting,I’m just a forgiving backboard. Butsometimes you can’t control whetherpeople find youcharismatic, and for methat is not helped by thefact that I am unusuallooking. Thejuxtaposition of that andwhat I do for a living issomehow odd andenticing for people. I’m fairly esoteric, soif people listen to me on the radio it’s notwhat they’ve normally heard before, theway I use words has an impact. Thesearen’t affectations I use for my work, it’show I talk to my kids and my grandkids,everybody. I make points by tellingstories. So there’s some combination ofthis and the weird CV that I have thatmakes that happen a lot of the timewithout me wanting it to.

Your Twitter feed says that ‘the mostunlikely of people in the mostimprobable of circumstances canbecome extraordinary’…What could be more unlikely that a 17-year-old who read Asimov and ate steakslices, in six years, playing in the bestbasketball league in the world, havingnever touched a ball before? It seemsremarkably unlikely. For other people, it’s even more unlikely to them thatsomebody who played professional sportswould end up being a psychologist. Before the age of 17 I thought I wouldhave a desperately lonely life. I thought I was a monster when I was 11 years old.

So 1981, in Stockport, in yourbedroom. You described yourself as a ‘fat freak’. Did you have an epiphany?I don’t know if epiphany is the rightword… it’s the first time I interacted withpeople who didn’t treat me like a monster.I very much enjoy the idea of the looking-glass self concept. I looked in people’sfaces, and reflected back was that I was amonster. When I was given the Hunchback

of Notre Dame to read, I thought ‘thatmust be what people see when they seeme’. There’s a sense of fear of the monster,but also ridicule and mockery. That’severyday. If we walk up and down thisstreet, you watch – people will be on theirphones not paying attention, and they’llget up close and see me and they’ll freakout. Or, if you walk past, turn around andthree or four steps away people will bepointing and laughing.

Because of your size?It’s a combination of height and size, and colour. That combination to people is apparently terrifying, and mockery-worthy.

And the discrimination is overt – youwere refused entry toa club for being ‘toobig and too black’? It happens all the time.The other night I was in Soho, my two friends

went in first, they werewearing Chuck Taylors. I’d

come from work and was wearing a suitand tie. They looked at my shoes. It reallypissed me off. I’m not blind, I can seewhat you’re doing, it’s blatant and it’srude. But I can’t do anything about it,because as soon as I lose my temper I ‘fittype’. So I’m mandated not to… it justcedes. I’m not allowed to lose mytemper… I’ve known that since I was six. I can’t afford to lose control, because I can accidentally hurt people just byturning around, so imagine what I can doif I really intended to. It would only takea second.

Your mum was a GP, so I suppose from early on you had a model of theHippocratic Oath, ‘do no harm’.Yes, and the way I physically manifest on the world around me is about doingno harm. I talk a lot with senior peopleabout their responsibility to do no harm,and part of that is about recognising yoursize. If you don’t realise you’re a giant,you do accidental damage all the time.The moment you accept the fact that youhave power, you wield it differently. Thatwielding tells you something about theperson. Once you realise you’re a giantand you still walk through the worldknocking people left and right, then youcan say something about that character.

You ‘came out’ in the NBA, where youwere the first and only Briton to havehis jersey hung in the US BasketballHall of Fame. Do you feel that part ofyour role is to liberate people?Oh no, that’s too much. I recognise the

limits. I had meetings arranged withactivists in China [when working for the BBC during the Beijing Olympics, and as a global ambassador for AmnestyInternational] and I cancelled them. It would have been informative andperhaps even empowering to meet them,but I couldn’t account for their safetyafter I left.

I get some stick from the LGBTcommunity because I advise people that if they’re likely to get fired from their job,who am I to tell them to come out for thebetterment of society? People like PeterTatchell are right that there’s a collectiveresponsibility, but I lived in Utah, whichhas a large youth culture out on thestreets because they have a religiousculture which says your children mustlive the life, and if you don’t disown themyou will be disowned by the church… sowhat kind of person would tell a 14-year-old to come out, you’ll feel better, you’llbe a great role model… but you’ll also betrying to find somewhere to sleep tonight.

Do your beliefs as a psychologisttrump your political ones, in terms ofsafety, where people are at… Rather stupidly, I had not considered that.It would be nice if that was true. It’ssomehow noble, and that of courseappeals to me. But I’m always cautious ofthings that appeal to me too much.

Hmm, is compromise around politicalbelief really noble?People who are zealous, I am immediatelyfearful of them. As staunch as I am insome of my beliefs, I am not a zealot. I am not interested in sacrificial lambs,that’s so medieval. There are some peopleout there, John Fashanu for example[whose brother Justin killed himself afterhomophobic bullying as a professionalfootballer], some people don’t seem tocare how many have to come out, bepilloried, kill themselves for theirparticular cause. I do – the body countmatters.

You adopted two children, and nowthey have their own children. How does it feel to be a granddad?I’m very comfortable with it, but it’s a strange situation, to have essentially no family and yet lots of family. I live on my own, there’s no partner with me,there’s no evidence of kids in the house,yet somehow I have this massive familythat’s in another country.

Is that through circumstance, or isthere an element of choice in livingalone?In a work sense, interpersonally, I am Jedi

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quality! But in a socialsense I’m useless, I findsocial interactionspainful. I’m an INTJ, an extreme introvert, all social interactions are painful. I noticeeverything. Beingintrovert is not about an inability to interact,it’s about how energy-expensive it is. As I walkdown the street I knoweveryone who is looking,everyone who ispointing, and I only have a certain amount of energy for that. So I stay in my house.

I don’t live anywhere,most of the time. I havesome duties inManchester, I’m an NHSTrustee. That’s five days a month. ThenI’m in New York or Connecticut, withclients, five days a month. I have a charityin Manchester as well. I built a centre in1999 that we opened in 2000. We haveabout 2500 kids a week going throughour doors. I’m a little disappointed in it atthe moment to be honest. I’m interestedin a place that helps young peoplebecome more emotionally literate, thathelps them be a bit more personallyinsightful. When we started we used todo MBTIs for young people, not because I think it’s the most accurate, but becauseany tool that’s simple enough for youngpeople to do, that allows them to gain anunderstanding about how they operateand how other people operate and whythey might find certain types of peopleirritating and others not, is a really goodthing. I had to fight to get that done, andnow I can’t get it done, and they just wantto do a high-quality basketball centre andI don’t care about that.

What do you care about, in terms ofpressing issues for psychologists?In the community sense, there is acomplete mismatch with how we look at psychological maladies and physicalmaladies. We’ve got hospitals, GPs andadvice lines overrun with people withnothing wrong with them in a physicalsense. And yet we have certaincommunities – men, minority groups –who just don’t access these services. They find themselves in a justice-systemresponse to their situation.

One of the biggest problems is thatpeople just don’t take these issuesseriously. Ridiculous people like KatieHopkins continue to talk aboutdepression as if it’s just a bit of sadness,

‘why don’t you suck it up?’ This narrativeresonates with too many people. Thereare schoolteachers you talk to who seesomeone coming in, they say ‘he’s just a bit sad’ – no, sadness for six months?Not sad.

What are your aspirations?I’d like to be in the House of Lords, I’dlike to be a cross-bench peer. I’ve alreadybeen rejected once. I really fit because I don’t care whose idea is a good idea, I care if it works. This is one of the thingsthat I love about science, the idea thatevidence counts. The rationality of it.What works, counts. Whether I like it ornot. If something I’m doing doesn’t work,I must stop doing that. Even if I’m reallyattached to it.

People chase their losses though.I don’t. The moment that somebody cansupply me with evidence, I’m notprecious about it, it’s gone.

Is there a ruthless aspect to you?I ruthlessly chop away people who betrayme. There’s no second chance. You’redone. But not in a really proactive sense, I can’t imagine a proactive way that I’mruthless.

It’s a defence, isn’t it?Accidental harm, I think people do that. Even intentional harm, out of thatmoment of loss of control, even that…betrayal is different, and I feel verydifferent about betrayal.

The Lords … you’re not going to giveup, are you?No. They’re wrong. I mean objectivelywrong. Stack my CV up against 90 per

cent of people in the House ofLords. They don’t see me asanything but a sportsperson.That’s normal.

What should they see you as?Who talks about themselves aswhat they were 10 years ago?Who does that? Let’s talk aboutwhat I do now. I work with eightof the top 10 businesses in theworld, in terms of any measureyou would like to use. And I’mnot cheap. They can’t all be idiots.

The annoying part is that I’mfairly sure that if I want tobecome a Labour or Lib Dempeer, there’s a pathway for that tohappen. I just think it would bedisingenuous to do that, becausewhat I really want to do is be part

of that core of backbenchers who arecharged with looking at policy for

unintended consequences, for rationale,for efficacy, without the lens of whocomes out looking good if this policygoes through. I think this is such animportant thing, especially as I lived inAmerica and I’ve seen the Senate there…they should wear uniforms like Nascardrivers, because really they have specialinterests all over them. There’s notransparency with what they do. In theHouse of Lords, those cross-benchers area voice of reason, rationality, and that’s areally powerful thing and I would like tobe a part of that.

I think something about your story,being a big character, is ‘noisy’ forpeople, even for me as a psychologist.How often do people meet ‘John’?Rarely I would imagine. I have a lot ofcolleagues. There’s professional distancewith that. But I have a small group offriends, and we are very much ourselvestogether.

I’m a spiky individual. Difficult tograb hold of. I’m not warm and fuzzy, inmost people’s estimation. Professionally I am direct, firm, people recognise that I am pragmatically harsh when necessaryand pragmatically warm when necessary.But in my house, with a glass of red, I’mwatching cartoons.

I John Amaechi OBE is a psychologist (anda Society member), organisationalconsultant and a high-performanceexecutive coach. He is a New York Timesbest-selling author and former NBAbasketball player. He was awarded anHonorary Doctorate by the University ofEast London, where interviewer MilesThomas works on the Doctorate inEducation and Child Psychology.

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836 vol 28 no 10 october 2015

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january 2015www.thepsychologist.org.uk

vol 28 no 1

The ‘streetchildren’ of LatinAmericaGraham Pluck with a story ofchallenge and survival for millions

radical behaviourism 24mindfulness in psychology 28mental illness – head to head debate 34looking back: Asch’s line studies 72

letters 2news 8

interview 40reviews 66

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march 2015www.thepsychologist.org.uk

vol 28 no 3

Words andsorcerySimon Oxenham and Jon Suttonconsider the causes of bad writingin psychology, and its impact

eldercare: the new frontier 202sweet memories 206sexual identity at work 212masculinity, trauma and ‘shell shock’ 250

letters 172news 184

careers 236reviews 244

psychologist

thefebruary 2015www.thepsychologist.org.uk

vol 28 no 2

The surprisingworld of synaesthesia

Jack Dutton investigates

how relationships help us to age well 110

does our unconscious rule? 114

interview: Robin Dunbar 126

viewpoints: ‘let down by psychology’ 128

letters 78news 90careers 148looking back 166

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ers an

dpractitione

rs. It’s con

ceived

an

d de

livered

by the Ce

ntre fo

rSu

staina

ble Fa

shion at Lon

don

Colle

ge of F

ashion

(www.fa

shion.arts.ac.uk

). Th

ecolle

ge is com

mitted

to its ‘Better

Lives’ age

nda, using

fashion to

drive de

bate and

cha

nge the way

we live with

the aim of d

evelop

ing

a more ethical fashion

indu

stry

concerne

d with

promoting well-

being throug

h fashion.

Fashion is with

out d

oubt

a fascinating an

d im

portan

taspe

ct of o

ur lives. And

fashion,

like psycho

logy, is inhe

rently

concerne

d with

beh

aviour.

Before becom

ing an

acade

mic

(I am

now

a Cha

rtered

Psycho

logist), I w

orke

d as a visua

lmerchan

diser, grap

hic de

sign

er,

dress maker and

portrait a

rtist.

Now

I’m develop

ing the first ever

Psycho

logy and

Fashion

master’s

prog

ramme, to

start in

2014 at

the Lo

ndon

College

of F

ashion

.Fo

r more inform

ation contact m

eon

c.m

air@

fashion.arts.ac.uk

.

Reference

Hajo, A. &

Galinsky, A.D.

(201

2). E

nclo

thed

cogn

ition

. Jou

rnal

of E

xper

imen

tal

Soci

al P

sych

olog

y, 4

8, 9

18–9

25.

You are what you wear?

Photo by S

ean

Mic

hael; designer K

arin

a M

iche

l; text by C

arol

yn M

air.

E-mail jon.sutton@

bps.org.uk with your ‘Big picture’ ideas

psy 09_13 pi_iv bigpic_Layout 1 19/08/2013 17:11 Page ii

www.thepsychologist.org.uk

psy 09_13 pi_iv bigpic_Layout 1 19/08/2013 17:11 Page iii

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 1

society

Society’s 50,000thmember: George KitsarasThe Society has welcomed its 50,000th member: Mr GeorgeKitsaras, Assistant Psychologist at Royal Berkshire NHSFoundation Trust, who joined soon after his graduation and arrival in the UK.

George is currently taking a master’s degree in clinical psychology at the University of Reading. He said: ‘I wasaware of the importance of BPS before coming to the UK. Joiningwas my first goal after my graduation back in Greece becausemany of my colleagues highly recommended it. One of thereasons I became a member is that I believe a career inpsychology in the UK is linked with BPS membership due to theunique networking opportunities that the Society offers and itsinternational prestige. Also the access to a wide range of journalsand reductions on training opportunities are particularly valuableat this point in my career.’

George is looking forward to his prize of attendance at theSociety’s 2015 annual conference in Liverpool (5–7 May). He alsoreceives a year’s free Society membership.

The milestone continues the yearly growth that has seenmembership rise from over 10,000 in the early 1990s. SocietyPresident Professor Dorothy Miell said: ‘All of our members –from those who have been loyal activists for years to those joiningnow– are the lifeblood of the Society. As a membership

organisation our strength comes from the effect thateach and every one of our members can make in theirwork promoting psychology – whether by teaching,practising or researching in so many different settings.We are proud to welcome each new member and tooffer them support in their work.’

The Society has also celebrated another milestone,the 50th anniversary of the granting of our Royal Charter – the principal governingdocument, which established the objectives by whichthe Society still operates today. To mark the occasion,the President, Professor Dorothy Miell, has sent amessage of Loyal Greeting to Her Majesty the Queen onbehalf of all members.

The Charter has undergone a number of revisionsover the course of the last 50 years – perhaps mostnotably in 1987, when we gained authority to run aRegister of Chartered Psychologists. The currentversion can be read at www.bps.org.uk/what-we-do/bps/governance/royal-charter-statutes-rules/royal-charter-statutes-rules.

The Society’s Royal Charter

psy 04_15 p304_307 society_Layout 1 19/10/2015 17:11 Page 1

CHOOSING to do a PhD just over10 years ago was a bad decision.I’m not saying that I’m now

unhappy with my chosen career. Far fromit – applying psychology to practicalproblems in the workplace is interestingwork.

But it was my decision-making processthat was bad. If I’m honest, I did a PhDbecause I didn’t know what else to do. I’dbeen to careers seminars, but nothing reallyappealed. Then an advert for an industry-sponsored scholarship caught my eye. So, lo and behold! I was being paid to be a postgraduate.

While my career has turned out OK,that was over 10 years ago – and the jobmarket has changed a lot since then.Nowadays I talk to students embarking onPhDs and MSc courses, and I have a wholedifferent perspective on it all.

Talk to practising professionalsSpeak to at least half-a-dozen people whowork in the field before embarking on yourcourse. Don’t rely on course tutors to tellyou how the job is – they are effectively on commission to sell the course (and itsfees) to you. Speak to practisingpsychologists. What are the highs and lows of doing it day in, day out? Is theremuch administration and form-filling? Do they work for an employer or are they effectively self-employed?

But ask about the lifestyle too. What are the hours like? What is the salary like?What are the prospects for careeradvancement and pay increases? How easy is it to take maternity leave?

Understand that experience is moreimportant than qualificationsIt’s a situation that most clinicalpsychologists are familiar with. You can’tget a place on a clinical course unlessyou’ve got some experience. Unfortunately,the same is rarely true of occupational andhealth psychology courses around thecountry, some of which hand out placeseven though the competition for jobs is sofierce that only a percentage will end up asactual psychologists.

For example, if you look at firms thatemploy occupational psychologists, theyusually say the same thing – they all want

people with work experience. So make sure that you get some. Take a gap year or two before doing an MSc. If there is a good employer, offer to work for free

for a couple of months to get valuableexperience on your CV. Even if you can’twork as a psychologist – having someexperience of working in a professionalenvironment will stand you in better steadthan having simply studied for your entireadult life.

Choose your dissertation topic carefullyDon’t plump for a dissertation simplybecause it is interesting to you. Considerwhat potential employers are interested in –are there hot topics that they are wrestlingwith at the moment?

Even better, to demonstrate that you arenot a crusty old-school academic, try to getinvolved with organisations other than youruniversity. Think of ways to make yourresearch as broad as possible. Can you doyour clinical research across a number ofhealth authorities? Can you test yourworkplace stress intervention in a businessrather than on students? Can you getsponsorship – even if it’s only to pay thepostage costs for your survey – todemonstrate that you can forge partnershipsacross organisational boundaries?

These are all key skills that will makeyou more employable after your course of study.

Build your contacts‘It’s not what you know but who youknow.’ Having a qualification and a goodunderstanding of your field is important.But employers often recruit the people theyalready know.

Presenting a paper at conference is a good way to get your name embeddedinto employers’ minds. Finding out aboutother professional associations andattending their events is another way. Forexample, in addition to the BPS Division of Occupational Psychology, there is theAssociation of Business Psychologists(www.theabp.org).

Even if you only manage to meetsomeone for two minutes, that could makea difference when they are interviewing youfor a job a couple of years down the line.

So don’t let yourself get too focused onyour postgraduate research and study. Keepan eye on the future as well, and what youneed to do to get the job you want.

■ Dr Rob Yeung is a director ofTalentspace, a business psychologyconsultancy (www.talentspace.co.uk).

January 2005

37

The Psychologist Vol 18 No 1

BY ROB YEUNG

STUDENTS

Associate Editor: Nicola Hills Short articles (around 600 words), news, tips, quotes, cartoons and other contributions of particular relevance to students are mostwelcome. Send to: Nicola Hills, c/o the Society’s Leicester office. E-mail: Nicola_Hills@hotmail.com

BEHIND THE NAMEby Noel Sheehy

GORDON ALLPORT pioneered an approach to the study of personality that emphasises theinfluence of social processes on personalitydevelopment and stresses the importance of freewill and personal responsibility. His simpleProtestant upbringing imbued values of cleanliness,piety and virtue.Allport met with Freud on onlyone occasion during which he told Freud a storyabout early onset of phobia. It was about a four-year-old boy Allport had seen on the tram on theway to visit Freud. Allport reckoned Freud might beinterested in this young fellow’s fear of dirt. Freudlistened, fixed his therapeutic eye on Allport andenquired ‘Was that little boy you?’

Further reading: Nicholson, I.A.M. (2002).Inventing personality: Gordon Allport and the science ofselfhood.Washington, DC:American PsychologicalAssociation.

Thinking about a postgraduate degree?