MSc by Research Student

Course Start: March 2019

Supervisor: Dr Angel Chater
Supervisor 2: Kevin Wyld

Working thesis title

Understanding and improving the health behaviours and psychological wellbeing of the Bedfordshire Police Force using brief positive psychological interventions.

Abstract

Aim:This study is aimed to assess the current psychological wellbeing (Self-efficacy, Mood, Depression, Anxiety, work-related and general stress levels, positive and negative affect) and a variety of health behaviors (Physical activity levels, sitting times, breakfast consumptions, fruit and vegetable consumption, alcohol consumption, substance use, sleeping times) of the Bedfordshire Police Force.

Method & Procedure:The study applies mixed methods, both qualitative (questionnaires) and quantitative (interviews) to gain in-depth understanding of the current wellbeing, health behaviors and barriers to change their current health behaviors. Following baseline assessment, Police staff will be invited and randomized into one of three groups; 3 good things (writing down 3 good things that happened in the day), positive mantras (changing work and personal passwords to positive, meaningful phrases) or no intervention. Questionnaires will be repeated at the end of intervention (4 weeks’ time point) and at 3 months. A small sample of participants will be invited for interviews post-intervention.

Results:it is expected that results will evidence improvement on some of the measures post-intervention and possibly the long term implementation of these methods in staff members’ everyday lives.

Research Questions

• Are Positive Psychological interventions effective in improving Police Force staff’s psychological wellbeing?
• Are Positive Psychological interventions effective in improving Police Force staff’s health behaviours?

About Me

My name is Dora, I am a former art student turned trainee health psychologist. I obtained my BSc in Psychology in 2015 and my MSc in Health Psychology in 2016 at the University of Bedfordshire. I am currently undertaking my Stage 2 training in Health Psychology as well as my Masters by Research with Dr Angel Chater. I have gained experience in research through a variety of Research assistant roles in different studies including developing a visual personality testing tool, helping adolescents to avoid/reduce alcohol consumption via role-play based methods, evaluating the effectiveness of behaviour change methods based program that aimed to help obese people to improve their physical activity called the Active Herts Programme. Currently as part of Masters by Research I am hoping to help Bedfordshire Police Force Staff’s physiological and physical wellbeing and possibly set the base for further research that could produce more impact and bring about more prominent improvements. I am also acting as a research assistant in the ERA Trial run by Newham Social Psychiatry (NHS) that is comparing art therapies to talking therapies in a mixed diagnosis group.

Contact Information

E: dora.kukucska@study.beds.ac.uk
M: +447398988827