Chris Gibbons is Chairperson of the Association for Psychology Teachers in Northern Ireland.
For educational purposes you can freely access a selection of articles from
studies he and his colleagues have carried out in the area of stress and coping. This is likely to be of interest to those students who are considering pursuing psychology at university as well as to health practitioners and researchers in health and positive psychology.
APT Conference 2011
From left to right back row - Andrea Barber, Stephen Smyth, Kim Moore, Ogo Agunenye
From left to right front row - Chris Gibbons, Paul Gardner, Jackie Abell, Julia Willerton
From left to right back row - Andrea Barber, Stephen Smyth, Kim Moore, Ogo Agunenye
From left to right front row - Chris Gibbons, Paul Gardner, Jackie Abell, Julia Willerton
A range of papers and resources are offered below. Most I have written and some are from sources which I feel communicate areas of psychology really well but they are proving difficult to obtain in paper copy (e.g. Memory - current Issues, EWT and the readings on perception). I enclose a draft chapter I have written on models of memory (The nature of memory); a ppt on stress and coping with a focus on health professionals and dentists. These are positioned at the bottom of this page.
The list begins with a document detailing guidance notes on how to write up a scientific report. It was written with psychology thesis students in mind but the formula is the same when undertaking shorter reports, so you might find it useful in the first or second year of your studies too. This is followed by some of my studies from different areas of research I have engaged in. e.g. a study looking at the benefit of breakfast clubs on children's well-being in primary schools; a study exploring the benefits of mindfulness on well-being compared to other types of coping. Several studies exploring stress and coping in students, pre- during and post Covid. University league tables draw heavily on the National Student Survey (NSS) and course satisfaction ratings and they are increasingly important, not least because a University's position in the table is an important consideration for prospective students. These studies used these measures. The results suggest that rating a university on course satisfaction alone is, at best, an incomplete measure and that other factors should be considered when judging a course and a university.
The file from the Psychology Teaching Review Special Issue includes the paper above along with papers from colleagues exploring other areas of research linked to learning and teaching among psychology students. I have included the instrument I developed - the Index of Sources of Stress in Nursing-students (ISSN). It has been adopted by several universities in America, South East Asia, in China and Estonia for research purposes and as a means for assessing student course experience. Interested parties are welcome to use this in learning or research exercises.
The remaining papers explored different aspects of stress and coping in different groups, such as nursing students; in chefs and in lecturers. The studies in the nursing journals relate to the development and use of the ISSN.
Media work – Some of my work has been cited in the national broadsheet press e.g. Sunday Times, November 16th 2008. In October 2014 I was interviewed for Radio 4’s ‘The Food programme’ on stress in chefs. I have contributed to local radio (e.g. Queen’s Radio ‘The Mental Health scoop’, October, 2020; Ulster Radio and U105, February 2007; City Beat, October, 2008) on stress in teaching and managing stress for the National Stress Awareness Day and on coping as a student during a pandemic in 2020; and on national radio on teaching psychology to undergraduates (Material World, BBC Radio 4, August 2007). I was the lead researcher and a contributor on a series of five programmes on stress in teaching (first aired February 2007) for Teachers TV. Some of these can be viewed below:
For further information or clarification on any of the areas listed here or if you would like me to run a stress management workshop as part of your CPD please send an email to aptpsychology@gmail.com.
The list begins with a document detailing guidance notes on how to write up a scientific report. It was written with psychology thesis students in mind but the formula is the same when undertaking shorter reports, so you might find it useful in the first or second year of your studies too. This is followed by some of my studies from different areas of research I have engaged in. e.g. a study looking at the benefit of breakfast clubs on children's well-being in primary schools; a study exploring the benefits of mindfulness on well-being compared to other types of coping. Several studies exploring stress and coping in students, pre- during and post Covid. University league tables draw heavily on the National Student Survey (NSS) and course satisfaction ratings and they are increasingly important, not least because a University's position in the table is an important consideration for prospective students. These studies used these measures. The results suggest that rating a university on course satisfaction alone is, at best, an incomplete measure and that other factors should be considered when judging a course and a university.
The file from the Psychology Teaching Review Special Issue includes the paper above along with papers from colleagues exploring other areas of research linked to learning and teaching among psychology students. I have included the instrument I developed - the Index of Sources of Stress in Nursing-students (ISSN). It has been adopted by several universities in America, South East Asia, in China and Estonia for research purposes and as a means for assessing student course experience. Interested parties are welcome to use this in learning or research exercises.
The remaining papers explored different aspects of stress and coping in different groups, such as nursing students; in chefs and in lecturers. The studies in the nursing journals relate to the development and use of the ISSN.
Media work – Some of my work has been cited in the national broadsheet press e.g. Sunday Times, November 16th 2008. In October 2014 I was interviewed for Radio 4’s ‘The Food programme’ on stress in chefs. I have contributed to local radio (e.g. Queen’s Radio ‘The Mental Health scoop’, October, 2020; Ulster Radio and U105, February 2007; City Beat, October, 2008) on stress in teaching and managing stress for the National Stress Awareness Day and on coping as a student during a pandemic in 2020; and on national radio on teaching psychology to undergraduates (Material World, BBC Radio 4, August 2007). I was the lead researcher and a contributor on a series of five programmes on stress in teaching (first aired February 2007) for Teachers TV. Some of these can be viewed below:
For further information or clarification on any of the areas listed here or if you would like me to run a stress management workshop as part of your CPD please send an email to aptpsychology@gmail.com.
| Revealing the Complex Relationship between Social Media Use, Social Comparison Orientation and Optimism on Health Outcomes BMC Psychology pre-print CG & SMG |
| Understanding the role of stress, personality and coping on learning motivation and mental health in university students during a pandemic, Nov.,2022 BMC Psychology CG |
| Understanding the role of student stress personality and coping on course satisfaction April, 2022 IETI CG |
| Helping students cope – Lessons from the pandemic. TheSEDABlog April, 2022 |
| How to write a scientific report in psychology |
| Hughes and Gibbons (2018) Breakfast clubs and children's well-being, Irish Teachers Journal, Vol. 6 (1) 99-110. |
| Gibbons (2015) Stress, eustress and the National Student Survey, Psychology Teaching Review, Special Issue, 21 (2) Autumn 2015 pp 86-92 |
| Psychology Teaching Review Special issue details, 21 (2) Autumn 2015 |
| Gibbons and Morgan (2015), Mindfulness - As a coping strategy. Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, pp14-18. |
| Stress, positive psychology and the NSS 2012 Psychology Teaching Review. |
| Psychology Teaching Review - Special Issue August 2012. |
| The Index of Sources of Stress in Nursing students |
| How satisfied are students with their course and should we care. The Higher Education Academy. |
| Stress, coping and burn-out in students. International Journal of Nursing Studies. |
| Stress, coping and satisfaction in nursing students. Journal of Advanced nursing. |
| Index of Sources of Stress in Nursing students - a confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing. |
| The Index of Sources of Stress in Nursing students - an exploratory analysis. Nurse Education Today. |
| The Two Sides Of Stress, Nursing Standard Vol.3 No 44 July 8-14, 2009 |
| Stress and eustress in nursing students. Journal of Advanced Nursing. |
| McGuiness, C. & Gibbons, C (2005) Enhancing self-reflection through writing. SEDA Paper |
| Stress in the chef profession. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. |
| The effects of organisational change on occupational stress in further education lecturers. Journal of Further and Higher Education. |
| Stress and coping in dentists |
| The nature of memory. Part 1 Dr C Gibbons |
| The nature of memory. Part 2 Dr C Gibbons |
| Memory - Current Issues 2nd Ed OU Press 1993 pp33-43. |
| Psychology - Gross R. D 1992 - factors affect Eye Witness Testimony pp354-359. |
| Perception 1.pdf |
| Perception 2.pdf |
| Perception 3.pdf |
| Perception 4.pdf |
| Perception 5.pdf |
| Perception 6.pdf |
| Perception 7.pdf |
