By David Murphy and Susan Llewelyn
Psychology must be one of the most diverse disciplines there is; it encompasses understanding language development in infants, techniques to help sports competitors improve performance, the psychology of conflicts, therapy for mental health disorders, and selection techniques for business amongst many others. The BPS Annual Conference is probably the best chance to witness the breadth of the discipline each year in the United Kingdom.
Things to do at the conference
This year’s conference in Birmingham has some fantastic highlights. The session on psychology in the military is highly topical and has some leading figures in the world speaking such as Keynote speaker, Professor Simon Wessely. There is a great deal of research looking at aspects of parenting throughout the conference as well as sessions covering a range of areas including mental health, diet, managing physical illness and educational attainment among others. Professor Sergio Della Sala is a neuropsychologist who has a great ability to communicate information about brain functioning in an easily understandable and entertaining fashion; his talk is sure to be a high point.
However, sometimes at the BPS conference its worth just going with the flow and attending talks in areas that you aren’t very familiar with, you will hopefully find them very interesting, and they may well give you new ideas which could even be a turning point for your career to go off in a new direction, or help you think in a new way about your own area of research or study.
Things to do in Birmingham
Birmingham has a range of extraordinary heritage, so the Museum & Art Gallery should be top of the list for those wanting to fully appreciate the scope of the city’s history.
It is also thought that some of Birmingham’s sights and history inspired the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit fans among us might want to take the Tolkien Bus Tour the weekend after the conference.
We hope to see you at the conference this year, do come up and say hello if you are attending.
Susan Llewelyn is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford University, and Senior Research Fellow, Harris Manchester College, Oxford. David Murphy is the Joint Course Director of the University of Oxford Clinical Psychology Doctoral Training Programme. They are co-editors of What is Clinical Psychology?
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Image Credit: St Martins church and Bullring -Birmingham -England (G-Man). Public domain.
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