Staff profile

Dr Ian Baker


He/Him

Associate Professor of Psychology and Assistant Head of Discipline for Psychological and Behavioural Sciences

Ian standing outside, smiling.

Subject

Psychology

College

College of Health, Psychology and Social Care

Department

School of Psychology

Research centre

Health and Social Care Research Centre

ORCiD ID

0000-0002-4692-7202

Campus

Kedleston Road, Derby Campus

Email

i.s.baker@derby.ac.uk

About

I am an Associate Professor of Psychology and Assistant Head of Discipline for Psychological and Behavioural Sciences in the School of Psychology.

In terms of my research, teaching, and professional activities I have consistently found myself drawn to controversial, challenging, and difficult questions: from parapsychology, to why we believe in things, to dark personality traits, to addressing attainment gaps, the use of AI, and through to how playing roleplaying games can make us feel better.

Research interests

I have research interests in parapsychology, paranormal belief, religious belief, dark personality characteristics, how roleplaying games can have wellbeing benefits, and research into teaching and learning.

I am the Lead of the Transformational Learning Research Group at the University of Derby.

I am currently supervising the following PhD students:

I have also supervised several students to the successful completion of their MRes projects, and I have supervised four students to the successful completion of their PhDs:

Recent publications

Membership of professional bodies

Professional interests

I am the Chair of the College of Health, Psychology and Social Care's Access and Participation Plan Steering Group, where we are responsible for implementing the University's Access and Participation Plan for the College. I have been involved in institutional efforts to address awarding gaps for many years and I am passionate in trying to help address these issues.

I am part of a Task and Finish Group producing a set of Guidelines for the use of AI in Research for the British Psychological Society.

I am also the UK Representative on the Digitalisation Expert Reference Group for the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA).

Qualifications

I am qualified in psychometric test use, and I hold the following qualifications that are awarded by the British Psychological Society (BPS):

Recent conferences

During 2023-2034, Prof. Ian Turner and I have organised several online conferences exploring research into playing Tabletop Roleplay Games (TTRPGs), such as Dungeons and Dragons, as part of our D&D Research Tarvern series.

Conferences:

Experience in industry

In the media

Teaching responsibilities

I teach on a range of modules on the BSc (Hons) in Psychology degree and I lead the Philosophy of Science in Psychology module on the MRes in Psychology degree. Much of my teaching focuses on the use of quantitative research methods.

Additional interests and activities

During 2018 and 2019 I was responsible for leading the quantitative data analysis and delivering on key project objectives for the Office for Students funded “Student Attainment Project” for their “Addressing Barriers to Student Success programme”. This £683,000 project was led by the University of Derby, in partnership with Southampton Solent University and the University of West London.

I am a reviewer for the following journals:

In addition, I am an Article Editor for SAGE Open.

I have been on the conference committee (and one of the reviewers) for the annual convention of the Parapsychological Association (PA) for several years. I was the Editor of the European Journal of Parapsychology (EJP).

I have acted as an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Rapporteur.

In 2004, I received the Eileen J. Garrett Scholarship Award from the Parapsychology Foundation, New York.

I have received over £200,000 of internal and external funding to date, and I have been a BIAL Foundation Research Fellow on several occasions.

Courses