Department of Psychology University of Surrey

Environmental Psychology Award
Jonathan Sime Award

Dr. Jonathan Sime, a former MSc and PhD student, Research Fellow and Associate Lecturer worked in the area of environmental psychology in the department at Surrey. He specialised in the area of risk and people’s behaviour in fires and emergency situations. Tragically Jonathan died suddenly in January 2001, aged just 50. The Jonathan Sime Dissertation Award has recently been inaugurated and funded by a friend of Jonathan since his teenage years.
The Award is available to students who have completed an undergraduate degree and produced a dissertation in a subject area related to environmental psychology. It is open to students from any UK university and administered by David Uzzell, Birgitta Gatersleben and Gerda Speller. Gerda played a key role in securing this Award and ensuring it was associated with the Department. Dissertations will be considered if they describe a piece of empirical work in the field of people-environment studies. This includes subjects such as environmental perception and cognition, environmental stress, personal space, territoriality, crowding, work, learning or residential environments, the natural environment, sustainability, environmental risk and disasters, environmental problems and behavioural solutions, children and the environment, crime and the environment, architectural perceptions and preferences, etc. Both qualitative and quantitative pieces of work will be considered.
The Award Panel includes Sue Ann Lee (formerly of Kingston University and Secretary of IAPS)
Clinical and Forensic Psychology
Dr Dora Brown and Dr Vicky Vidalaki had been awarded funding by the Fund for Strategic Development of Learning and Teaching to study clinical trainees’ perceptions of the usefulness of different types of feedback during their training course.
The research aims to identify Clinical Psychology trainees’ perceptions of the impact of Case Discussion Group (CDG) on their training with a view to promote a reflective practice virtual module to aid the development of competence in clinical skills. Reflective practice has been described as something more than an examination of personal experience and has been located in the political and social structures which are increasingly hemming professionals in.
Trainees in the Clinical Psychology course produce a reflective account of their work on CDG which is assessed and included in their final portfolio. This research will explore the trainees’ understanding of the impact of CDG on their clinical work, and may be used to promote self assessment in future marked assignments. Dora and Vicky hope that the research will strengthen theory to practice links which will impact on staff and the delivery of the clinical curriculum.