Social Science Academicians – Successful Bps Nominations

Professor Andrew Whiten’s research into the understanding of social or ‘Machiavellian’ intelligence, theory of mind and social learning and culture has been published in four books and in numerous articles, with wide impact in the social and natural sciences. The breadth of his contribution embraces field research on African monkeys and apes, as well as more controlled behavioural experiments with children and non-human primates. His work has received recognition from the international academic community through the award of the prestigious 2001 Jean-Marie Delwart International Scientific Prize from the Academic Royale des Sciences de Belgique. During 2003 he gave invited public lectures at venues as diverse as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the CosmaCaixa Science Museum in Madrid and the Wildlife Conservation Society of New York. He has been recognised by the UK social science community through elected fellowships of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the BPS. In 1999 Professor Whiten was the first psychologist to receive a British Academy Research Readership; he currently holds a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, pursuing comparative studies on ‘social learning and the transmission of culture’. For more information see psy.standrews.ac.uklpeople/lectlaw2.shtml

There are few scientists able to claim that they have been instrumental in introducing a new and powerful therapy regimen to the UK, but Professor Mark Williams has done so on two occasions. In the 1980s he was a key figure in the introduction of Beck’s cognitive therapy for depression, and in the past few years he has been the focus of the development in the UK of Kabat-Zinn’s mindfulness-based stress reduction. Professor Williams also played a key role in the development of the profession of clinical psychology when he masterminded the creation and accreditation of the UK’s first practitioner doctorate in the subject, at the University of Wales Bangor. Whilst there he also served as Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, orchestrating a successful submission to the 2001 RAE. For more information see cebmh.warne.ox.ac.uklcsrl

Professor Nicholas Emler’s work has led to his appointment on the Executive Committee for the Centre for Social justice Research and on the Executive Committee of Laboratoire Europeen de Psychologic Sociale. He has been the recipient of numerous grants, and his publication profile contains an impressive mix of academic journal articles, books and book chapters. His book Adolescence and Delinquency: The Collective Management of Reputation (co-authored with Steve Reicher) was given the Best Book Award 1996 by the Society for Research in Adolescence. Professor Emler is also a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. For more information see www.surrey.oc.uk/Psychology/staff/NEm/er.htm

Professor Robin Dunbar has studied how evolutionary pressures influence mate choice and kinship relations in humans, by analysing historical records of pre-industrial societies, and by analysing ‘lonely hearts’ columns in modern newspapers. His work has also connected evolution to cognitive psychology, pointing out the link between the evolution of increased memory capacity on the one hand, and the increasing size of social groups on the other. Professor Dunbar has applied these links by noting that evolved social and cultural structures such as laws and religions may result from these psychological changes. Professor Dunbar’s work is characterised by original and insightful thought, but also by its high accessibility and readability. As a result, several of his works have disseminated evolutionary psychology much wider than the academic world. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy. For more information see www.liv.ac.uk/wwwlevolpsyclrimd.htm

Copyright British Psychological Society Mar 2004