News
Gemma and Zain present at the RHUL Doctoral School Conference
Last month, Gemma and Zain presented some of their PhD work at the Royal Holloway Doctoral Conference. This conference invites PhD researchers across all the Royal Holloway departments to showcase their work and learn about the fascinating projects going on across campus. This also created a space for interdisciplinary networking and future collaboration between researchers!
Gemma presented some of her research exploring adolescents perceptions of social media use, and Zain provided an overview of her PhD and plans for future research.
Soc Dev Lab at BPS Developmental & Cognitive Conference
In early September, Prof. Dawn Watling and Dr. Beatrice Hayes presented their research at the British Psychological Society’s Developmental and Cognitive Sections Annual Conference which took place at the University of Bristol. Prof. Dawn Watling presented her research on children’s wellbeing when in nature; this project is in collaboration with Kew Wakehurst. Prof. Watling’s presentation was part of a symposium organised by an ex-lab member, Dr. Rachel Nesbit, who is now a Lecturer at the University of Exeter. Dr. Beatrice Hayes also presented her research on higher education students’ online self-disclosure and impression management behaviours. Dr. Hayes is also a member of the British Psychological Society’s Developmental Committee and enjoyed assisting with the organisation and running of the conference. As well as listening to a whole host of fascinating talks that took place over the 4-day conference, Prof. Watling and Dr. Hayes enjoyed the Conference Social which consisted of a barbecue and karaoke! Dr. Hayes, alongside RHUL PhD student, Amrita Bains, proudly represented the Developmental Section during the karaoke!
Prof. Dawn Watling and Dr. Beatrice Hayes also presented this research at the European Conference of Developmental Psychology which took place in August in Turku, Finland.
Soc Dev Lab at Science Festival 2023!
The Soc Dev Lab was thrilled to be back at Royal Holloway’s Science Festival on Saturday 27th May 2023!
A day of science exploration and discovery, Royal Holloway showcased it’s thriving science community, with a huge variety of hands-on demonstrations and activities for visitors to take part in. The Social Development Lab kept busy with our two research activities led by PhD students, Zain Khan and Gemma Rides, with support from Prof. Dawn Watling and Abigail Keizner.
Zain led a demonstration titled ‘Recognising emotions in faces – can conflicting information impact processing of information?’ – This demonstration was really popular with parents, and their children, with some parents wanting to try repeat the task multiple times to try and gain a better emotion recognition accuracy! Check out Zain’s blog post to read more about her Science Festival experience.
Gemma led a demonstration titled ‘ Why doesn’t anyone ‘like’ me? – Links between social media interactions and feelings of social anxiety’. This task involved participants interacting with a mock social media site that Gemma uses in her research. Gemma had some interesting discussions with parents and children about their thoughts and feelings whilst online, and linking this to some of the physiological responses we might experience when using social media platforms.
We all had a great day and are looking forward to seeing everyone again next year!
April and May Soc Dev Lab Meetings
Exciting things to come in the Social Development Lab!
In April’s meeting, Dr Joe Bathelt, presented research plans for an exciting upcoming project. Joe is collaborating with a number of other experts in his field on this exciting research. More information coming soon!
In May’s meeting, Gemma Rides provided an overview of her second PhD study that focuses on adolescent social media engagement. Gemma presented preliminary findings from her research and discussed plans for data analysis and ideas for future studies. Gemma will be continuing her data collection in schools later this term.
Watch this space for updates later this year!
Social Development Lab’s Christmas Outing!
On November 30th, 2022, members of the Social Development Lab had their Christmas outing at Genevieve’s Gallery in Englefield Green. The outing was full of laughter and Christmas cheer as the lab members spent the evening painting pottery.
After an introduction from Genevieve, the lab members selected a piece of pottery from the selection, ranging from mugs, spoon holders, or even a Christmas gnome! Everyone got stuck in and was excited to show their creative side using the wide range of paints and tools to create their unique pottery piece.
The evening was a great success and gave everyone the opportunity to celebrate the lab’s achievements of 2022. We look forward to all the exciting projects that are to come in 2023!
September & October’s Soc Dev Lab Meetings
It’s been a busy few months in the Soc Dev Lab.
In our September Soc Dev Lab meeting, our Undergraduate Research Assistant, Sania Fatima, presented their findings regarding students’ perceptions of emojis, memes and gifs in higher education. Supervised by Beatrice, Sania conducted one-to-one semi-structured interviews with UK university students before undertaking a Thematic Analysis in NVivo software. The paper is now under review; watch this space! If you would like to find out more information about this project, please contact Beatrice: beatrice.hayes@rhul.ac.uk
In our October Soc Dev Lab meeting, Dawn and Aysha presented preliminary findings from their wellbeing in nature research project in collaboration with Kew Wakehurst. With the help of Research Assistant, Dr Adam Levent, Dawn focused on the findings from data collected with children. With the help of Research Assistant, Ryan Jefferies, Aysha focused on the findings from data collected with adults. If you would like to find out more information about this project, please contact Dawn: dawn.watling@rhul.ac.uk
Soc Dev Lab at BPS Dev 2022!
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!
August’s Soc Dev Lab Meeting
PhD student, Gemma Rides, took on August’s Soc Dev Lab meeting!
Gemma provided the theoretical background to her PhD which focuses upon the social and physiological effects of adolescents’ interactions with ‘reactions’ on social networking sites. Gemma’s first study comprised focus groups with 11-15 year-olds where she found that ‘reactions’ (such as ‘likes’, ‘comments’ and ‘shares’) as well as the lack of these reactions are viewed as social currency and are impactful upon peer relationships and social status. As a lab, we provided feedback on her results and worked together to synthesise clear themes adopting a Thematic Analysis approach.
We were also the lucky audience of receiving the inside scoop on her upcoming studies! All shall be revealed in due course…
New paper! Adolescents’ perceptions of the risks and benefits of social networking site use
Published paper alert!
© Common Sense Education
Dr Beatrice Hayes and Professor Dawn Watling have recently published an empirical paper entitled ‘Adolescents’ perceptions of the risks and benefits of social networking site use’ in the International Journal of Cyber Behaviour, Psychology and Learning. Read it here: https://www.igi-global.com/article/adolescent-perceptions-of-the-risks-and-benefits-of-social-networking-site-use/306646
We explored 13-18 year-olds’ online risk concern and the perceived risks and benefits around social networking site use. Our findings highlight that adolescents perceive bonding social capital with friends (strengthening their pre-existing friendships) and presenting the self online as benefits of social networking site use. In terms of the risks, we found that bonding social capital with family was perceived as risky. In fact, females with higher concern around online risks were the most likely to perceive bonding social capital with family as risky. These findings highlight the importance of socialising online for adolescents and maintaining social autonomy.
Would like to know more? Pop us an email! beatrice.hayes@rhul.ac.uk or dawn.watling@rhul.ac.uk
July’s Soc Dev Lab Meeting
Whilst some were celebrating Independence Day on July 4th, Soc Dev Lab members were enjoying refreshments and exciting updates on projects! We discussed current research projects taking place within the lab, with input from our research assistants, as well as upcoming projects. If you would like to find out more about our current research projects, please see our ‘Research’ and ‘Recruitment/Consultancy’ tabs, or feel free to pop us an email.
Next month, PhD student Gemma Rides will be updating us on her PhD research so far. Plus, she will give us a VIP preview of her next study… stay tuned!
Thank you to our research assistants for attending: Aiman Suleiman, Sania Fatima, Abigail Keizler, Tiffany Dashtizadeh, Leila Warmann and Nusayba Saeed.
