University of Limerick Department of Psychology

02/04/2026

On March 12th the Psychology Ball 26' was held in the Castletroy Park hotel. Congratulations to the committee on organising a great night 🎉🎉🤵🏻💃

26/03/2026

Best of luck to Psychology Masters students Jordan Mangan and Emily Scally who will be representing UL today as members of Team C in the National AIPEC challenge in RCSI. 🎉

Team C previously won the Internal UL competition which took place on 25/02/2026.

26/03/2026

Congratulations to Luke Slattery, a third-year Structured PhD student from the Department of Psychology, supervised by Dr Daragh Bradshaw, Dr Aisling O’Donnell, and Dr Sarah Jay, who was awarded first prize in the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) – EHS Faculty Heat that took place on 25/03/26. We wish Luke the very best of luck in the UL wide Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Final on 30/04/26. 🎉🎉

24/03/2026

Research Week Event: Using Evidence to Influence Policy. Thursday April 30th, 11:30am – 13:00pm.

How can early and mid-career researchers meaningfully influence public policy, inform decision-makers, and contribute to evidence-informed change? As the demand for robust scientific input into national and international policy grows, researchers at earlier career stages are increasingly seeking opportunities to engage—but often lack clear pathways, access points, and examples of how to begin. This thought-provoking event is led by members of the Young Academy of Ireland (YAI) from ESRI, HIQA and UL, and aims to open up that conversation and provide practical, research-driven insights into how emerging scholars can contribute to policy processes in impactful and sustainable ways. Link to register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1982678848809

24/03/2026

Research Week Event: Building Capacity for Evidence Synthesis – a showcase of opportunities. Monday April 27th, 11am – 12:30pm.

The Glucksman Library Research Team in partnership with the School of Allied Health and Department of Psychology will showcase opportunities to build capacity in evidence synthesis (Scoping, Integrative, Rapid, Systematic literature reviews). Link to register: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/building-capacity-for-evidence-synthesis-a-showcase-of-opportunities-tickets-1982517654673

20/03/2026

All are welcome to attend an online presentation on Monday 23/3 at 1pm by Dr Mark McCann, University of Glasgow, UK

Dr McCann will speak about "Existing strategies for assessing adolescent mental health often overlook the complex social and emotional contexts that young people navigate."

You can find out more about Dr McCann's work at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/healthwellbeing/staff/markmccann/

To access the meeting, email maeve.maguire@ul.ie

13/03/2026

Our Psychology Department was represented at the 21st All Ireland Psychology Careers Event by Masters Student, Patricia Cross on March 7th in Maynooth University .

13/03/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Finn Lannon who passed his PhD viva on the 19th February.
Finn’s thesis, entitled “Unequal Action: Economic Inequality and Collective Action Intentions”, was examined by Prof. Rosa Rodriguez Bailón and Dr. Sarah Jay. His research was supervised by Dr. Jenny Roth and Prof. Eric Igou.

11/03/2026

PhD student Fay O'Donoghue recently offered insights on her research on Diabetes during pregnancy to Live 95. Link to full interview here:

https://shows.acast.com/60b372fb-6c93-4b88-85e3-09e9775d1494/episodes/69a6c41ae6002545b5b2ed4b?

11/03/2026

Dr. Aisling O Donnell recently offered insights on phone etiquette for airline passengers to Newstalk and Live 95. Links to both interviews here:

https://www.newstalk.com/news/music-out-loud-on-phone-2239276

https://shows.acast.com/60b372fb-6c93-4b88-85e3-09e9775d1494/69b02f72a1c9931634b1fcdf

27/02/2026

All are welcome to attend a presentation by our Invited Speaker
Dr András Vörös, University of Birmingham, UK in E1-022, Monday 2nd March at 1pm

‘Social contagion or behaviour spillover? The dynamics of multiple health behaviours and social networks’

Abstract: Research on social influence, or “social contagion”, in networks tends to focus on processes that shape a single behaviour at a time. However, our behaviours do not exist in isolation: they depend on some of our other behaviours. This appears particularly important in the case of health behaviours. For example, smokers tend to consume alcohol and exercise less. Therefore, to understand, and change, smoking habits, we need to understand how smoking co-depends on drinking and physical activity. Thanks to recent advances in statistical network modelling, we can take these processes into account when examining social influence on behaviours. I present an empirical showcase for studying the co-evolution of social networks and multiple behaviours in the context of adolescent health. Using data from secondary-school classrooms in the German and Swedish subsamples of the CILS4EU study, I examine how seven health behaviours related to substance use, diet, and physical activity are shaped by peer friendship networks. I apply stochastic actor-oriented models to estimate the effects of different processes of influence, network selection (e.g., homophily), and behaviour “spillover” on the studied set of behaviours. The study presents a feasible approach to developing and testing hypotheses about complex processes of behaviour change in social networks. I discuss how this may contribute to understanding the dynamics of social structure, such as group formation and polarisation.

Dr András Vörös is an Associate Professor in Quantitative Methods at the School of Social Policy and Society, University of Birmingham, UK. András's research focuses on the measurement and statistical analysis of social networks (both offline and online) in various settings. He interested in how social relations evolve over time and how they affect individual and group outcomes. He has experience collecting empirical data and modelling such phenomena in educational and professional contexts. For more information see https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/social-policy/voros-andras

24/02/2026

Dr. Ruth Melia and Dr. Daragh Bradshaw recently offered insights on the impact of social media on the mental health of youths with the Irish Times and Newstalk. For full article, please see https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/02/19/social-media-ban-not-a-logical-starting-point-for-wellbeing-of-young-people-academics-say/

Social media is 'well down the list' of factors impacting youth mental health, according to experts warning against a blanket ban for teenagers. Anton discusses this further with Dr Ruth Melia, Department of Clinical Psychology in University of Limerick.