On Tuesday 25 June, 33 Year 12 Psychology students attended the sixth Psychology Conference, as part of the Long Eaton Partnership. We are fortunate to be invited to collaborate with the staff and students over at Trent College for two conferences per academic year. The theme on this occasion was, ‘How Crime Happens Through Social Influence’.
We spent the day in the Thai Lecture Theatre, starting with an interactive lecture on Forensic Psychology, delivered by Dr Jenny Mackay form Nottingham Trent University, which included discussion on taking a trauma informed approach to understanding offending behaviour. Hannah Smith, a former Trent College student, narrated her 10 year pathway from studying A-Level Psychology to becoming a soon to be qualified Doctor of Forensic Psychology. Hannah also explained in detail about her work in both children’s secure units and the prison system. Students participated in an interactive session on deindividuation and conformity, showing how group behaviour can be easily impacted by the power of social influence. Beccie Davis-Yates, a senior lecturer in Educational Psychology at Nottingham Trent University introduced some cognition based revision strategies and inspired a number of our students with her personal story of how her route through psychology combined with her passion for sport has shaped her life.
Reflections from our students included;
  • ‘I felt informed with useful information about a variety of career paths and options in the field of psychology’.
  • ‘It was interesting learning about how trauma can cause a person to behave in different ways’.
  • ‘The day educated me on the depths of forensic psychology’.
  • ‘It was interesting to see the things we’ve learnt in our psychology lessons spoken about in context of real-life situations’.
  • ‘It encouraged me to look further into jobs within both forensic and criminal psychology’.
  • ‘I was intrigued by the lecture on deindividualisation and conformity as it’s a common event we see daily’.
We look forward to the seventh Psychology conference in the Autumn term.