Hosted at the Royal Victoria Crowne Plaza hotel in Sheffield, the British Psychological Society’s Developmental Psychology Section Annual Conference took place this September. Professor Dawn Watling, Dr. Beatrice Hayes and, PhD student, Gemma Rides were excited to be in attendance! As well as enjoying talks by developmental researchers across the globe, we also presented findings from our research.
Dawn presented a study which explored adolescents’ online self-presentation behaviours and impression management tactics and to what extent these are associated with social anxiety. Further, Dawn acted as a discussant for a symposium entitled “Adolescent’s social networking site use” which was chaired by Dr. Michaela Gummerum. In fact, Dr. Beatrice Hayes gave a talk within this symposium where she presented findings from two studies: 1) a study from her PhD research concerning adolescents’ perceptions of the risks and benefits of social networking site use, and 2) a qualitative study exploring emerging adults’ motivations behind online impression management tactics.
Gemma Rides presented a 5-minute flash talk on the findings of her qualitative study concerning adolescents’ perceptions of and motivations behind ‘reactions’ (e.g., likes, comments, shares) on social networking sites.
As well as presenting timely research from our lab. The Soc Dev Lab extended further success at the conference whereby Dr. Beatrice Hayes was elected as a new committee member of the Developmental Section! A fantastic time was had by all. Until next year!