- B218, Portland Square, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
- +44 1752 584805
- A.M.Bacon@plymouth.ac.uk
Profiles
Dr Alison Bacon
Associate Professor
School of Psychology (Faculty of Health)
Dr Alison Bacon can be contacted through arrangement with our Press Office, to speak to the media on these areas of expertise.
- Personality
- Health psychology
- Stress
- Attitudes to health
- Vaccination hesitancy
- Correlation study
- Cross-sectional studies
- Online research methods
- Psychometrics
- Surveys
Email publicrelations@plymouth.ac.uk to enquire.
Biography
Biography
Associate Professor in Psychology
Associate Head of School: Teaching & Learning
Qualifications
BSc Psychology (First Class): 2000
Post-graduate Diploma in Psychological Research Methods (Distinction): 2001
PhD: Thesis title: "Individual Differences and Strategies for Human Reasoning": 2003
Professional membership
Associate Fellow of British Psychological Society (Chartered Psychologist)
Member of BPS Division of Health Psychology
Member of British Society for the Psychology of Individual Differences (BSPID)
Member of International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID)
Fellow of UK Higher Education Academy
Teaching
Teaching
Teaching interests
I currently teach the following,
PSYC412: Stress and Coping
PSYC514/704: Individual Differences
PSYC603: Introduction to Forensic Psychology
Research
Research
Research interests
Psychological factors in health, particularly the role of adverse childhood experiences, stress and trauma and how these manifest in health. Personality and health/ Psychological implications in chronic health conditions such as fibromyalgia syndrome. Attitudes towards health and prevention in Covid-19.
Current projects are focussed on:
The role of hypervigilance in central sensitivity and symptoms in fibromyalgia
Adverse childhood experiences and adult medical help seeking
Experiences of men with fibromyalgia
Emotional monitoring and hypervigilance in post-traumatic experiential avoidance
Attitudes towards non-mandated maskwearing in Covid-19
I am currently supervising the following PhD students:
Leah White (Biopsychosocial factors in fibromyalgia)
Joseph Lanario (Assessing the impact of severe asthma on patient's lives)
Lindsay Lenton (Anti-Social Behaviour: A Symptom of Juvenile Ageism)
Greg Gorman (Male typified expressions of neuroticism and its measurement)
Grants & contracts
BA/Leverhulme. £9,920.00. October 2019 - September 2020. Award ref SRG19\190500. Bacon, A.M. & Walsh C.R. Mental time travel: developing a measure of reflection on past actions and future change.
ESRC. £99,910. Oct 2006 - March 2008. Award no. RES000221965. Bacon, A.M. & Handley, S.J. Dyslexia and the impact of strategy preference on reasoning.
ESRC, £46,000. September 2005 to August 2006. Award no. RES000221293. Evans, J., Bacon, A. &. Handley, S. An investigation of dual processes in conditional reasoning.
ESRC funded PhD studentship, October 2000-September 2003. Award no. R42200034033.Bacon, A.M. Individual Differences and Strategies for Human Reasoning.Publications
Publications
Key publications
Key publications are highlighted
Journals
Articles
(2022) 'The association between Adverse Childhood Experiences, Self-Silencing behaviours and symptoms in women with Fibromyalgia' Psychology, Health and Medicine , DOI Open access
(2022) 'Assessing reactive violence using Immersive Virtual Reality' PLoS One 17, (5) , DOI Open access
(2022) 'The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on severe asthma care in Europe - will care change for good?' ERJ Open Research 8, , DOI Open access
(2022) 'Emotional and Behavioural responses to Covid-19: Explanations from Three Key Models of Personality' European Psychologist 26, (4) 334-347 , DOI Open access
(2021) 'Coping with Fibromyalgia during the COVID-19 pandemic: adjustment and wellbeing' Psychology and Health: an international journal , DOI Open access
(2021) 'Vaccination hesitancy and conspiracy beliefs in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic' International Journal of Behavioral Medicine , DOI Open access
(2021) 'Ethical Considerations for Committees, Supervisors, Student Researchers Conducting Qualitative Research with Young People in the United Kingdom' Methods in Psychology , DOI Open access
(2021) 'Virtually renovating the Trauma Film Paradigm: Comparing Virtual Reality with on-screen presentation of an analogue trauma' Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberpspace 15, (1) , DOI Open access
(2021) 'Virtually renovating the Trauma Film Paradigm: Comparing virtual reality with on-screen presentation of an analogue trauma' Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace 15, (1) , DOI Open access
(2020) 'Behavioural Immune System responses to coronavirus: a Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory explanation of conformity, warmth towards others and attitudes towards lockdown' Frontiers in Psychology (11) , DOI Open access
(2020) 'Trauma after childbirth: The mediating effects of perceived support' British Journal of Midwifery 28, (10) 724-730 , DOI Open access
(2020) 'Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the UK: A personality-based perspective on concerns and intention to self-isolate' British Journal of Health Psychology 25, (4) 839-848 , DOI Open access
(2020) 'Understanding Public Attitudes to Hate: Developing and Testing a U.K. Version of the Hate Crime Beliefs Scale' Journal of Interpersonal Violence 0, 0-0 , DOI Open access
(2020) 'Looking Behind and Looking Ahead: Personality Differences in Counterfactual and Prefactual Thinking' Imagination, Cognition and Personality , DOI Open access
(2020) 'Looking behind and looking ahead: personality differences in the tendency to counterfactual and future oriented thinking' Imagination, Cognition and Personality 40, (2) , DOI Open access
(2019) 'Is Nurturing Attachments training effective in improving Self-Efficacy in foster carers and in reducing manifestations of Reactive Attachment Disorder in looked after children?' Adoption and Fostering , DOI Open access
(2019) 'Experiences of youth mentoring through street dance: mentee and mentor perspectives' Youth Justice: an international journal , DOI Open access
(2019) 'At long last, a Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Explanation of Procrastination' Journal of Individual Differences , DOI Open access
(2019) 'Symptom frequency and development of a generic functional disorder symptom scale suitable for use in studies with IBS, FMS or CFS patients' Chronic Diseases and Translational Medicine , DOI Open access
(2019) 'What motivates academic dishonesty in students? A Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory explanation' British Journal of Educational Psychology , DOI Open access
(2018) 'A Qualitative Evaluation of Recovery Processes Experienced by Mentally Disordered Offenders following a Group Treatment Programme' Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice 18, (5) 352-373 , DOI Open access
(2018) 'Investigating the association between fantasy proneness and emotional distress: the mediating role of cognitive coping strategies' Personality and Individual Differences 135, 157-165 , DOI Open access
(2018) 'Risk as reward: Reinforcement sensitivity theory and psychopathic personality perspectives on everyday risk-taking' Personality and Individual Differences 128, 162-169 , DOI Open access
(2017) 'A Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory explanation of antisocial behaviour' Personality and Individual Differences , DOI Open access
(2017) 'Trait emotional intelligence and social deviance in males and females' Personality and Individual Differences Open access
(2017) 'What helps in self-help? A qualitative exploration of interactions within a borderline personality disorder self-help group' Journal of Mental Health 1-7 , DOI Open access
(2017) 'Motivating emotional intelligence: A reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) perspective' Motivation and Emotion , DOI Open access
(2016) 'Manipulative emotional behaviour and delinquency: sex differences and links to emotional intelligence' Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology (in press) , DOI Open access
(2015) 'The working life of a medium: a qualitative examination of mediumship as a support service for the bereaved' Mental Health, Religion & Culture 18, (4) 286-298 , DOI
(2015) 'Disabled or differently-enabled? Dyslexic identities in online forum postings' Disability and Society 30, (9) 1328-1344 , DOI
(2014) 'Sex differences in the relationship between sensation seeking, trait emotional intelligence and delinquent behaviour' Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology 25, (6) 673-683 , DOI Open access
(2014) 'Reasoning and dyslexia: Is visual memory a compensatory resource?' Dyslexia 20, 330-345
(2013) 'Fantasy proneness and counterfactual thinking' PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 54, (4) 469-473 , DOI Open access
(2013) 'Visuospatial memory in dyslexia: Evidence for strategic deficits' MEMORY 21, (2) 189-209 , DOI Open access
(2013) 'Dyslexia in Higher Education: the decision to study art' European Journal of Special Needs Education. 28, (1) 19-32 , DOI Open access
(2013) 'Personality and counterfactual thinking' Personality & Individual Differences 54, (4) 469-473
(2010) 'Dyslexia and reasoning: the importance of visual processes' Br J Psychol 101, (Pt 3) 433-452 , DOI Open access
(2009) 'Reasoning under time pressure. A study of causal conditional inference' Exp Psychol 56, (2) 77-83 , DOI
(2008) 'On some limits of hypothetical thinking' QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 61, (5) 784-808 , DOI
(2008) 'Reasoning strategies: the role of working memory and verbal-spatial ability' EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 20, (6) 1065-1086 , DOI
(2007) 'Reasoning and dyslexia: A spatial strategy may impede reasoning with visually rich information' British Journal of Psychology 98, 79-92
(2005) 'Connectionist modeling of linguistic quantifiers' Artificial Neural Networks: Formal Models and Their Applications - Icann 2005, Pt 2, Proceedings 3697, 679-684
(2003) 'Individual differences in strategies for syllogistic reasoning' Thinking & Reasoning 9, (2) 133-168
Chapters
(2010) 'DYSLEXIA, REASONING & THE IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL-SPATIAL PROCESSES' in Alexander-Passe N Dyslexia and creativity: Investigations from differing perspectives New York Nova Science 25-49
(2005) 'Grounding language in perception: A connectionist model of spatial terms and vague quantifiers' in Cangelosi A; Bugmann G; Borisyuk R Singapore World Scientific 47-56
(2005) 'Verbal and spatial strategies in reasoning' in Roberts M; Newton E Methods of thought: Individual differences in reasoning strategies Hove: Psychology Press. 81-105
(2004) 'Spatial prepositions and vague quantifiers: Implementing the functional geometric framework' 98-110
Presentations and posters
'Trauma after childbirth: The mediating effects of subjective experience'