Interactions with the world
Lab Overview
The Interaction with the World Lab is a social-development group dedicated to investigating and exploring human interaction with the world. Our investigations span a variety of contexts, including community, healthcare, and education, to examine how social identities influence group members' perceptions and experiences. We explore how identities can facilitate or inhibit behaviour, as well as how groups can support or undermine individual and collective resilience. We aim to understand why people behave as they do and how their attitudes and behaviours may evolve over time due to life experiences.
Our research champions a wide array of topics, such as personal and group identity, cultural heritage, wellbeing, workplace culture, community dynamics, equality and inequality, belief systems, the built and natural environments, media and social media, and life experiences and growth.
Lab Leads
Dr Deborah Earnshaw, Dr Olga Fotakopoulou and Dr Josephine Cornell
Team Members
Dr Aaisha Connor, Dr Anusnigdha, Dr Athfah Akhtar, Professor Craig Jackson, Dr Greg Westerman-Hughes, Dr Iris-Anda Ilies, Dr Ivana Babicova, Kirsten Antoncich, Dr Mariel Marcano-Olivier, Dr Marisa Kolovos, Dr Mona Wong, Dr Nazli Akay, Dr Pravinath Ramachandran, Dr Richard Fereday, Katie Saunders, Lauren Gillespie, Natasha Ikhlaq, Paige Clarke-Jeffers, Roshni Kumari, Sarah McBrearty
Recent projects
- Student identification of and feelings of belonging on-campus (Dr Deborah Earnshaw and Dr Josephine Cornell)
- Student Attendance and Engagement (Dr Athfah Akhtar and Dr Aaisha Connor)
- Exploring children's understanding of conflict and conflict resolution (Dr Olga Fotakopoulou)
- One size does not fit all: What Wellbeing initiatives do university students want? (Dr Athfah Akhtar and Dr Aaisha Connor)
- University Students' Perception of Gender Equality in the College of Psychology (Dr Chunyang Liang and the Athena Swan team)
- Exploring Students’ Experiences of Belonging and Identity in the College of Psychology (Dr Josephine Cornell, Dr Harvey Regan and Athena Swan team)
- Drawing a scientist: young children’s representations and aspirations (Dr Olga Fotakopoulou & Dr Jane O’ Connor)