Behaviour Change

Encouraging positive life changes

Our psychologists are undertaking influential work in the field of behaviour change, finding innovative ways to encourage, enable and support people to make better choices for themselves.

With its key role in health, safety and environmental initiatives, behaviour change is increasingly significant in UK policy-making. Our emphasis on psychological theories and models paves the way to greater understanding of human behaviour and how people can make genuine breakthroughs in changing their lifestyles, even when they feel ambivalent about change.

This in-depth knowledge is brought together in our MSc Behaviour Change, the first course of its kind in the country which has filled a gap in high-quality postgraduate education in this topical subject.

Our expertise

We bridge the worlds of academia and applied professional practice, developing evidence-based interventions to support people in making positive changes with long-lasting impact. Among our experts are research-active health and cognitive psychologists and ergonomists, for example:

• Dr Andrew Baird: who works primarily in the fields of behaviour change, the psychology of pain, and health aspects of ergonomics such as musculoskeletal disorders and stress. A Chartered Ergonomics and Human Factors professional who previously worked as Director of Ergonomics for a risk management company, Andrew’s consultancy and research projects have also covered issues such as optimising human performance and reducing errors
• Dr Fiona Holland: who is a Motivational Interviewing trainer alongside her role as Senior Lecturer in Psychology. Having spent 16 years working in health promotion in the USA, her research interests include behaviour change, body esteem, breast cancer and body image, wellbeing interventions and their benefits for psychological health, and occupational wellbeing
• Dr Ruth Sims: who works primarily in the fields of social psychology, behaviour change and design ergonomics, with an interest in inclusion and accessibility. A Chartered Ergonomics and Human Factors professional, Ruth has considerable experience as a researcher on a range of projects including kitchen, toilet, vacuum cleaner, and vehicle design, transport accessibility and safety infrastructure, and co-design to reduce single-occupancy car journeys
• Dr Sigrid Lipka: who is an Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Derby with more than 20 years’ experience as a researcher. She has a keen interest in applying her research expertise in developmental and cognitive psychology, for example, encouraging children to read for fun. She also applies psycholinguistics to understanding and changing behaviours in a range of areas, such as the training of doctoral research supervisors, cognitive load and suggestibility during police questioning

Behaviour Change Services

We support a wide range of clients in designing and providing robust evaluations of behaviour change interventions as well as preparing funding bids for behaviour change projects. Specific modules from the MSc Behaviour Change can also be repackaged to meet the needs of individual organisations.

In addition, our services include training for professionals who are keen to develop their proficiency in Motivational Interviewing (MI) as a way of promoting lifestyle change. These include workshops – both introductory and advanced – and coaching led by members of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). Delegates learn how to build a more positive alliance with their clients, taking a non-judgemental approach underpinned by compassion, respect and acceptance.

As MI can be used as a tool across many professional environments – including educational, therapeutic, healthcare and community settings – we also offer bespoke MI training for specific organisations or mentoring for those interested in becoming MI trainers themselves.