Mood & Anxiety
Research in the School of
Psychology
Graham Davey
grahamda@sussex.ac.uk
Research Groups
 Developmental & Clinical Psychology
 Behavioural & Clinical Neuroscience
 Cognitive Psychology
 Social & Applied Psychology
Developmental & Clinical
Psychology - Scope
 The Developmental and Clinical Psychology research group
has a common aim of advancing theoretical approaches to
development and clinical understanding through the study of
social, emotional and cognitive processes. We have a strong
history of achieving new understanding by working with
practitioners and service users in applied settings
Developmental & Clinical
Psychology - Members
Faculty
Research Fellows
Susan Ayers
Robin Banerjee
Sam Cartwright-Hatton
Kate Cavanagh
Graham Davey
Andy Field
Frances Meeten
Mark Wright
Alexandra Sawyer
Clinically-Related Research in the School of
Psychology – Developmental & Clinical
Psychology
 Graham Davey: Experimental psychopathology and anxiety
disorders, including conditioning models of anxiety and fear;
evolutionary vs acquired models of specific phobias, the causes of
perseverative psychopathologies such as pathological worrying
and obsessive-compulsive checking, and the role of the disgust
emotion is psychological disorders.
 Susan Ayers: Trauma and childbirth; psychological factors in
obstetrics and gynaecology; stress and coping with health events;
psychological outcome following health events.
 Kate Cavanagh: The role of cognitive biases and reasoning
processes in the emotional disorders (including psychosis) and
increasing access to psychological therapies, in particular, the role
of information technology and computer aided psychotherapies.
 Andy Field: Anxiety in children, the role of childhood experience in
phobia acquisition; whether induced fear beliefs (i) persistent over
time (ii) create cognitive biases in the processing of fear-relevant
information; and (iii) are mediated by dispositional factors
Child Anxiety Theory and Treatment Lab at
the University of Sussex (CATTLab)
 Focuses on the environmental (e.g., learning, parenting, media
exposure) and individual factors (e.g. temperament, cognitive
development) that affect children's developing emotional
responses (especially fear and anxiety). Most of the Lab’s work
explores the causal influences on children’s emotional
development and how they interact with cognitive development
and cognitive processes (such as learning, memory,
interpretation) to create subjective feelings of fear, avoidance
behaviour, physiological responses and attentional biases to
threat. Recent work explores the link between cognitive and
emotional development, and the emotional impact of ‘scary’
television on children
CATTLab Members
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Andy Field (Director)
Kathryn Lester
Zoe Nightingale
External Collaborators
Suzanne Broeren (Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Dr. Sam Cartwright-Hatton (University of Sussex)
Dr. Cathy Creswell (University of Reading)
Dr. Ben Dyson (Ryerson University)
Dr. Jorg Huijding (Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Prof. Peter Muris (Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Prof. Lynne Murray (University of Reading)
Dr. Helena Purkis (University of Queensland)
Prof. Shirley Reynolds (University of East Anglia)
Behavioural & Clinical
Neuroscience - Scope
 The behavioural and clinical neuroscience research group at Sussex University has
interests in:
 the application of basic neuroscience and behavioural techniques in rodents to study
the neural bases of drug addiction
 the application of human psychopharmacology techniques to explore the detailed
effects of drugs on human behaviour and cognition, as well as both preclinical and
clinical investigations of the cognitive and other psychological deficits associated with
long-term use of drugs such as ecstasy and alcohol
 the neurobiology of motivation, with specialist interests in the control of ingestion
 the cognitive neuroscience of human memory and attention, and especially research on
deficits associated with disorders such as dementia and schizophrenia
 There is a close inter-relationship between animal, human and clinical work. On the
animal side, the Sussex group is one of the strongest groups in any UK university for
the behavioural characterisation of transgenic mice, and enjoys collaborative links with
molecular geneticists in the School of Life Sciences, with the neighbouring Sussex
Centre for Neuroscience, and with the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. On both
the human and animal side, the group has long-standing links with clinical health
professionals across the county.
 There is a dedicated unit for the laboratory study of rodents, and a human
psychopharmacology laboratory, including facilities for the study of eating behaviour,
and alcohol and smoking use, and incorporating a bedded unit should participants need
to stay overnight.
Behavioural & Clinical
Neuroscience - Members
Faculty
Research Fellows
Dora Duka
Sarah King
Michael Morgan
Jennifer Rusted
Dai Stephens
Leanne Trick
Claire Dixon
Yolanda Pena-Oliver
Clinically-Related Research in the School of
Psychology – Behavioural & Clinical Neuroscience
 Dora Duka - Alcohol and nicotine addiction: human studies of
conditioning, implications for alcohol and nicotine effects; alcohol
craving in humans, adaptive mechanisms, emotional and cognitive
factors. Psychopharmacology of cognition: alcohol and related drugs,
emotional and cognitive effects.
 Sarah King - Molecular and behavioural effects of chronic nicotine
exposure; developing novel strategies (RNAi and viral mediated
gene transfer) to study aspects of drug addiction in cell culture and
in vivo
 Michael Morgan - Aspects of substance misuse and dependence, from
cigarette craving to persistent neuropsychological sequelae of ecstasy
and other polydrug use; impulse control in adolescence and adulthood,
psychopathology and substance misuse; human
neuropsychopharmacology
 Jennifer Rusted - Psychopharmacology of human memory; prospective
and action-based memory in ageing and dementia; drug models of
dementia; behavioural and drug interventions for people with dementia.
 Dai Stephens - Neurobiological and behavioural mechanisms underlying
drug dependence, particularly mechanisms of behavioural and brain
plasticity underlying sensitisation to abused drugs. Behavioural
neuroscience of GABAergic and glutamatergic systems.
Susan Ayers
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Postnatal affective disorders and memory biases (Suzanne Foley)
Screening for postnatal distress (Rose Meades)
Impact of postnatal mental health on family relationships and infant
development (Ylva Parfitt)
Use of internet self-help tools for postnatal illness (Donna Moore)
 I am also working on the following using a series of UG and PG
projects:
 Postnatal mood, attentional biases for infant emotion recognition and
the mother-baby bond.
 Web-based self-help exercises for postnatal mood and PTSD
Robin Banerjee
 Various ongoing research studies on indices of emotional functioning
(including anxiety and depressive symptoms) and peer relations in
children and adolescents, particularly in the context of Local Authorityfunded projects on mental health, early intervention, and social and
emotional learning in schools (current projects are running in Bracknell
Forest, Brighton & Hove, Derby, Bridgend + Vale of Glamorgan)
 Leverhulme Trust funded project on consumer culture values and
children's well-being, including attention to life satisfaction, anxiety, and
depressive symptoms (with Helga Dittmar at Sussex)
 The self-presentational and social-cognitive dimensions of social
anxiety in children with various collaborators
Kate Cavanagh
 The role of the therapeutic relationship in computerised cognitive behavioural therapies
- Kate Cavanagh, Natalie Barazzone, Rebecca Grist (University of Sussex)
 Exploring Social Networks to Augment Computerised Therapies (ENACT), EPSRC
funded - Shaun Lawson (PI; University of Lincoln), Conor Linehan (University of
Lincon), Kevin Morgan (Univeristy of Loughborough), Niro Sarawanda (University of
Lincoln), Kate Cavanagh (University of Sussex), Charlie Martin (Ultrasis plc).
 The Implementation of computerised cognitive behavioural therapies in a service userled, third sector Self Help Clinic - Kate Cavanagh, in collaboration with Nic Seccombe
and Nicky Lidbetter from Self Help Services (www.selfhelpservices.org.uk)
 The role of attachment orientation in engagement with self-help resources - Kate
Cavanagh (University of Sussex), Angela Rowe (University of Bristol), Kathy Carnelly
(University of Southhampton), Rebecca Grist (University of Sussex), Jackie NobrePeres (University of Sussex), Vicky Alvarez-Ude (Univesrity of Sussex), Ali Argo
(University of Sussex), Abi Millings(Ultrasis plc).
 Project in development: The use of low-intensity therapies for common mental health
problems across Sussex Partnership Trust – implementation models, decision making
and effectiveness - Fergal Jones (SPT), Kate Cavanagh (University of Sussex), Monica
Urbanek (Univeristy of Surrey), Herman van der Walt (University of Surrey), Peggy
Papada (University of Surrey), Becky Grist (University of Sussex), Nicola Jarrett (SPT)
Graham Davey
 Mechanisms of Catastrophic Worrying – Funded by ESRC –
Research Fellow: Frances Meeten
 Mood-as-input Hypothesis and Perseverative
Psychopathologies
 Perseverative Worrying & Information Processing Style –
DPhil student: Suzanne Dash
 The Bidirectionality Hypothesis: Causal Interactions Between
Mood, Symptoms & Clinical Constructs – DPhil Student:
Gary Britton
 Embodied Cognition & Anxiety
Zoltan Dienes
 the relationship between anxiety and sexual fantasy content.
Dora Duka
 The effects of negative mood on addictive behaviours BBSRC case studentship with Johnson & Johnson
Pharmaceutical Research and Development (Thomas
Steckler). Student: Claire Mathers
 Sensitivity to threat related stimuli (emotional startle
response) as a contributing factor to addiction in GABAalpha2 risk for addiction polymorphism. MRC cluster grant
(with Dai Stephens and Sarah King). Research fellow:
Leanne Trick
Andy Field
 The impact of 'scary' TV on children's emotional development
and resilience.
 Environmental influences on the development of fears in
children.
 The role of Information processing in the development and
maintenance of anxiety (with Saied Rohani & Dr. Helena
Purkis)
Sam Hutton
 The effects of social anxiety on face processing
 The relationship between state anxiety and pupilliary dilation
 Oculomotor indices of checking behaviour
Michael Morgan
 Pirona A, Morgan MJ An investigation of the sub-acute
effects of recreational ecstasy use on neuropsychological
performance, sleep and mood. J Psychopharm 24: 175–185,
2010
 O. S. Findley, M. J. Morgan Social Anxiety and Problematic
Alcohol Use: Investigating the Role of Drinking Motives and
Alcohol Expectancies
 L. Homman, M. J. Morgan The sub-acute effects of
Mephadrone
Dai Stephens
 Sensitivity to threat related stimuli (emotional startle response) as a contributing factor
to addiction in GABA-alpha2 risk for addiction polymorphism. MRC cluster grant (Dai
Stephens, Dora Duka and Sarah King) - Research fellow: Leanne Trick
 Effects of early life stress on adult emotionality and addictive behaviours in mice with
genetic manipulations of GABAA receptors - MRC Cluster grant (Dai Stephens, Dora
Duka and Sarah King) - Research fellow: Claire Dixon.
 Investigation of genes involved in anxiety using BxD recombinant inbred mouse strains
- EU FP7 Grant "Imagen". This is a very large multicentre European study that
concentrates mostly on 14-year olds who are characterised using questionnaires,
psychological tests, fMRI and a genome-wide scan. The idea is to provide a data base
that can be interrogated for associations, and will eventually be used to investigate
mental disorders arising in early adulthood for potential predictive antecedents. Our
role is to make some predictions as to which genes may be of particular interest in
anxiety, impulsivity and drug abuse. (Dai Stephens) - Research Fellow: Yolanda PenaOliver.