Image: Supervisor Dr Alena Galilee (former member of staff) helping her student with their final year project involving an experiment our new equipment fNIRS.

Every year, our undergraduate final year students undertake a research project as an integral part of their degree. This is a pretty big but rewarding project, spanning over two semesters and allowing students to delve into their own areas of interest for conducting original research.

We are very proud of our students for producing innovative research in fascinating and diverse topics.

Take a look below at a selection of projects that were successfully completed this year.

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The Effects of Individual and Situational Factors on Unethical Workplace Behavioural Intentions

Georgia Antoniou

Supervised by Dr John Sabo

Unethical workplace behaviour is a vital social issue impacting organisations, governments, and even society. Certain situational and individual variables have been suggested to relate to an individual’s ethical disposition in the workplace. To explore this, this study replicates Jones and Kavanagh’s (1996) first experiment using a hypothetical workplace vignette study in which 86 UK-based Psychology/Management students took part. The study aims to find out whether quality of work experience, peer influence, manager influence, locus of control, Machiavellianism, and sex are predictors of ethical intentions. Whilst the overall regression model was statistically significant, Machiavellianism was the only individually significant predictor. Limitations and implications of the findings are discussed.

The Lived Experience of Personal Transformation in Women Practising Nichiren Buddhism using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Brooke Baker

Supervised by Dr Dennis Nigbur

The current study is concerned with exploring people’s experiences of practicing Nichiren Buddhism. In particular, this study aims to find out how engaging in its teachings and rituals impact on internal and external transformation; transformation meaning a significant change in an individual’s perception of themselves and their surroundings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three female participants residing in Kent with an average of more than 15 years’ experience with Nichiren Buddhism. Interview transcripts were analysed using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore how participants made sense of their transformative experiences. Three superordinate themes were discovered: ‘Perseverance and Resilience in the Face of Adversity’, ‘Internal Locus of Control’ and ‘Personal Growth through Self-Appreciation and Spiritual Practice’

Typography in Mourning: Evaluating the Impact of Typeface Appropriateness on Perception of Funeral Care Services

Rebecca Short

Supervised by Dr Britta Osthaus

The psychological effects of typefaces on consumer behaviour, such as improved mood, positive perceptions of brands, and increased demand, have been widely studied and utilised. The appropriate marketing of services and goods that are associated with negative events, such as death, is under-researched. Our study tested the perception of appropriateness of five different typefaces for a webpage of a fictitious funeral care business. The perception of professionalism, trustworthiness, empathy, attentiveness, and strong brand identity were improved when appropriate typefaces judged as mature, formal, and polite were used. Happy, exciting, youthful, and casual typefaces had the opposite effect. Surprisingly, a neutral typeface (Calibri) also improved the perception of the funeral care business. The low average age (26 years) of our sample limits the generalisability of the findings and future studies should aim to recruit from a wider age range to include the most likely customer base for this industry.

The Impact of Exposure to Nature and External Environment on the Mental Wellbeing of Individuals during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Holly Burrell

Supervised by Dr Elizabeth Roxburgh

The majority of existing research focuses on the link between lockdown and mental wellbeing or nature exposure and mental wellbeing. Therefore, this study aims to connect all three elements and explore how nature might impact mental wellbeing during the COVID-19 lockdown. Semi-structured interviewed were conducted with five university students aged 18-21 and the interview transcripts were analysed using Thematic Analysis. Findings were divided into three themes: influence of weather, identifying coping strategies and sensory experience. It was found that nature positively influenced the mental wellbeing of the participants during lockdown. However, there were some exceptions. The findings are discussed in relation to the wider literature and recommendations for future research.

Public Attitudes toward Sex Offender Rehabilitation and their Relationship with Personality Traits and Gender

Georgina Luck

Supervised by Dr Mark James

Previous studies have indicated that various factors such as personality traits and gender can influence the general public’s attitudes toward sex offender rehabilitation. However, how these factors can influence these attitudes is a point of contention. Therefore, this study examines how the personality traits and gender of respondents correlate with these attitudes. Participants (N = 148, 116 females and 32 males) recruited from Canterbury Christ Church University and social media completed a demographic questionnaire, a 12-item Public Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders survey, a 20-item Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders survey, and a 100-item HEXACO-PI-R measure of personality. High agreeableness scores were a marginally significant predictor of more positive attitudes toward sex offender rehabilitation. Those who scored high on extraversion had more positive attitudes toward sex offender rehabilitation than those who scored low. This effect was found to be substantially significant for males but only moderately significant for females. There was no correlation between the trait of openness with these attitudes. There were no gender differences in attitudes toward sex offender rehabilitation. These findings suggest that personality traits may be associated with significant societal attitudes, such as those regarding sex offender rehabilitation.

University Students’ Lived Experiences of Music and Wellbeing

Casey Watson

Supervised by Dr Amanda Diserholt

Music has been historically shown to affect people’s wellbeing. However, there are limited studies on university students who undergo a unique set of stressors and high rates of poor mental health. This study investigates experiences with consuming/participating in music and how this impacts on wellbeing. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with university students at an English university. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach was used for analysis. Results displayed two superordinate themes, 1) ‘coping mechanisms’ with the sub-themes ‘music as an emotional outlet’ and ‘increased feelings of comfort’; and 2) ‘music affecting participants sense of connection’, through the sub-themes ‘deeper friendships’ and ‘memories/nostalgia’. Results show that music enables intense experiences of these; however, such an intensity can occasionally create feelings of discomfort. The study fills a gap for understanding how the effects of music are made sense of and experienced by university students and supports the use of music as a wellbeing tool.

Is It True or Strategic? How Self-Evaluation Moderates the Relationship Between Neuroticism and Imposter Phenomenon in Undergraduate Students

Lauren Sutherland

Supervised by Dr Lance Slade

Imposter phenomenon (IP) is a widely experienced sense of self-doubt and feelings of fraud. One of the strongest predictors of IP is personality, in particular high levels of neuroticism. Further investigations into IP have identified two separate categories of IP, namely true and strategic, which differ not in severity of IP symptoms but in self-evaluations. This study addresses a gap in the literature by exploring whether the type of impostorism (true or strategic) moderates the relationship between neuroticism and IP. 87 undergraduate students completed the neuroticism subscale of the Five-Factor-Model questionnaire, the Core-Self Evaluation Scale and the Clance Impostor Scale. Results suggest a relationship between neuroticism and IP as well as core self-evaluation and IP but no moderation effect was found. Future research should investigate the possibility of this effect among working students.