Every year we celebrate the next generation of Health Psychology professionals through an award for the best project on an MSc Health Psychology degree. Individuals are nominated by their Programme Lead. Competition is usually fierce, and this year was no exception. This year we had 12 entries for the prize, covering a range of health issues. This year the panel were impressed by the excellent work by our MSc graduates, covering important areas such as sleep, hair loss, wellbeing, young people, eating behaviours, rare diseases, sexual health and common but understudied health conditions. Methodologically we had a range of excellent qualitative methods including both interpretative phenomenological analysis and thematic analyses, quantitative analyses including surveys and interventions, and systematic reviews.
MSc Project Prize Winner announced: Congratulations to Sarah Hansen from Northumbria University!
The winning abstract decided by the panel was “An online written benefit finding intervention: investigating the effects on physical and psychological health and the moderating role of perseverative thinking in a non-clinical sample during the covid-19 pandemic” by Sarah Hansen and supervised by Dr Michael Smith.
The chair of the MSc Project Prize panel, Dr Gillian Shorter, Division of Health Psychology Research Lead said “What a fantastic year for our MSc Health Psychology graduates. Although COVID-19 has raised enormous challenges for the next generation of health psychologists and their dedicated lecturers across the UK, the panel were impressed by the quality and contribution of the all prize applicants to the field. Sarah’s work on written benefit finding for wellbeing demonstrates the potential for Health Psychologists to innovate and overcome challenges to promote health using online interventions. We look forward to her talk at the Annual Conference”.
