Academic award for Psychologist

A prestigious prize for a PhD thesis has been collected by a Research Fellow and former University of Sussex doctoral student.

Dr David Novelli won the British Psychological Society's Social Psychology Section annual award - which included £200 in cash - for the best PhD thesis.

The paper looks at the question of why people behave differently depending on what group they are a part of - and Dr Novelli will be handed his prize at the Section's annual conference this September.

He discovered that individuals dislike being close to others in some circumstances - such as while travelling on crowded public transport - yet enjoy such intimacy in other situations, at a football match for example.

Dr Novelli said: "I am very proud of my doctoral research and it's a great honour to receive this recognition."

The Society's Social Psychology Section aims to encourage social psychological research and to facilitate communication between social psychologists.