Email: portico-services@ucl.ac.uk
Help Desk: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/portico/helpdesk
- Lecturer in Psychology
- IOE - Psychology & Human Development
- UCL Institute of Education
I am a developmental psychologist and criminologist, lecturer, and podcast host at the UCL Institute of Education. I received my BA (Hons.) in Psychology and MA in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania and PhD in Psychology from the University of Cambridge. During my PhD, I developed the first dimsensional measure of childhood paranoia, Social Mistrust Scale, which is free to use in research, schools and clinics and is available in 8 languages. Prior to joining UCL in 2018, I was the Cambridge Betty Behrens Research Fellow (Clare Hall) where I researched the causes of antisocial behaviours and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders using virtual reality.
Leadership
Currently, I am co-Director of the Centre for Education in Criminal Justice System (ECJ), which provides a knowledge exchange platform for both academics and practitioners in the criminal justice system. I am PI of the UCL-Penn Global COVID Study (GlobalCovidStudy.com), an online survey on the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health and social trust, which has informed UK policy discussions. I was co-chair of the IOE Early Career Network (@IOE_EarlyCareer; 2019-21), host of the official IOE podcast Research for the Real World, and sat on the Athena Swan Silver Award Self-Assessment Team. I currently host and founded the official IOE podcast for early career academics, Academia et al. (2021).
Consultancy
I am available for consultancy, invited talks, and anything where it means I can share my knowledge more widely and have engaging conversations. Just email me with your idea.
Prospective Masters/PhD students:
Please email me directly.


Research focus:
- Middle childhood
- COVID, adults, families, BAME youths, child mental health
- Developmental causes and dimensional assessments of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, crime, youth mental health
- Cross-cultural studies
Active projects (PI):
- BEST-EdCrim Research England funded seminar series on education in the criminal justice system.
- COPE-WELL Study Research England funded project with JEDelve charity on the impact of COVID on BAME 12-15-yo's mental health and co-producing life-skill workshops together.
- TEACH-WELL Study Centre for Teachers & Teaching Research funded project to co-produce mental health resources with trainee teachers to better cope with the pandemic on their placement year (Dr Kitto; co-I).
- Vax-Pac Study UCL-Osaka Strategic Partnership funded project on the reasons behind vaccine hesitancy in UK and Japan families (Prof Miura; co-I).
Completed:
- BE-Well Network NERC funded project to facilitate new collaborations between researchers in built environment & health (Dr Morhayim; co-i)
- UCL-Penn Global COVID Study (PI; 20/21) UCL Global Engagement Funded project examining the impact of COVID19 on adult's social trust, mental, & physical health. Results published as 5-peer-reviewed UCL Open Environment Special Issue with 8 discussant papers from industry experts.
- ARTSMH (co-PI; 20/21) UCL ChangeMakers funded on destigmatising mental disorders through art.
- CUES Study (PI; 21/22) UCL ChangeMakers funded project on co-produced support for the causes of low student engagement in careers development workshops.
My research is support by:
UKRI Research England, UKRI Natural Environment Research Council, Cambridge Betty Behrens Fellowship, Cambridge Overseas Trust Award, Morris Viteles Award, Whitehead Fund Research Award, William T. Grant & Society for Research on Adolescence, W. Wing Yip & Brothers, Psi Chi, PsyPag, Vagelos Award, Guarantors of Brain, Grindley Grant, Cambridge Philosophical Society, Hewlett Award for Innovation in Research.
I lead, lecture and supervise across various undergraduate and master's modules:
- Module Leader: Psychological Research, Personality and Individual Differences, Building Resilience and Mental Health, Criminal Journeys.
- Lecturer: Social & Developmental Psychology, Research Methods & Statistics, Brain & Behaviour, Cognitive Psychology, CBT for Psychosis, Applied Social & Developmental Psychology, Atypical and Typical Development, Methods of Enquiry.
- Tutor & Research Dissertation Supervisor: 84 BA Cambridge students (2010-2018), 54 BSc dissertation students (2018-22): 11 (2018-19), 8 (2019-20), 9 (2020-21), 8 (2021-22), and 3 MPhil/MSc students (2018-22).
Current PhD/DClinPsy students:
- Abbey Jones (DClinPsy, 2022-25)
- Tom Milson (Part-Time PhD, 1st, 2019-24)
- Tammy Hung (DClinPsy,1st, 2021-24)
- Abigail Burgess (PhD, 2nd, 2019-22)
- Pengjie Yang (PhD, 2nd, 2019-23)
SEP-2018 | Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Psychology | Department of Psychology and Human Development | University College London, Institute of Education, United Kingdom |
AUG-2015 – SEP-2018 | Betty Behrens Research (JRF) Fellow | Department of Psychology | University of Cambridge, United Kingdom |
2010 | Master of Arts | University of Pennsylvania | |
FHEA | ATQ03 - Recognised by the HEA as a Fellow | ||
2014 | Doctor of Philosophy | University of Cambridge | |
2010 | Bachelor of Arts (Honours) | University of Pennsylvania |