Join us to rediscover the multifaceted world of Psychology. Our researchers will showcase their exciting work on finding your ideal partner, regret, overdose prevention and Parkinson's. This event will run from 5 pm - 7 pm with registration being held from 4:30 pm

Professor Teresa McCormack: The development of regret

"Regret is a very commonly experienced emotion, but it is also one that requires certain thinking skills. In particular, it involves thinking about ‘what might have been’ and evaluating alternative potential outcomes. Research with adults suggests that it is also an important emotion in that can have an impact on decision making. I will talk about our experiments that have examined when children first start experiencing regret, and will also consider whether children’s decision making improves once they are capable of feeling regret."

Dr Mihalis Doumas: Parkinson’s@NI: Building a community

"Parkinson’s profoundly affects the lives of those living with the condition, their family, carers, and impacts health services and the economy. While there is world-leading Parkinson’s research being conducted in the UK, Northern Ireland (NI) is under-represented in this effort. In this talk I will summarise our work on Parkinson’s research here in NI and I will discuss our plans for developing Parkinson’s@NI, a network of people living with the condition, carers, researchers, clinicians, companies and policy makers."

Dr Tanja Gerlach: What we want in a partner: The psychology of ideal partner preferences

"What we want in a partner has fascinated scholars and laypeople for decades. In this talk, I will discuss the content of ideal partner preferences - that is, which attributes and characteristics people hope to find in a romantic partner. Drawing on results from our longitudinal studies, I will then talk about how stable vs. malleable those ideas about an ideal partner are across time and the factors associated with changes in people´s partner preferences."

Dr Gillian Shorter: How overdose prevention centres save lives

"I will discuss the importance of supporting people who are at risk of harm, or are currently experiencing harm from alcohol and drugs but who are not seeking formal treatment. Drawing on my experience of evaluating the UK’s first overdose prevention centre in Glasgow, I will describe the unexpected benefits and wins for communities, businesses, healthcare professionals, policy makers, politicians and people who use drugs by providing much needed space for some of the most vulnerable members of our society."