Psychology

Profile

Background

Prior to studying psychology I trained as a radiographer in Northampton, and worked for a number of years at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. I studied for my first degree in psychology and my PhD here at Portsmouth.

Whilst studying for my PhD I worked as an associate lecturer with the Open University, which I still continue to do. As a senior lecturer in the department of psychology at Portsmouth, I am responsible for the minor pathway in psychology. I am also the Erasmus/Socrates co-ordinator, disabilities co-ordinator and a member of the department’s ethics committee.

Teaching Responsibilities

On the minor pathway I coordinate and teach units entitled 'The developing person' and 'Personality and social behaviour'.In 'The developing person', as well as teaching child development, I also teach development across the lifespan, including development/decline in the elderly. On the BSc I co-ordinate and teach 'Health psychology' which I have recently revised and separated into two units; 'Health and well-being', which includes an introduction to positive psychology, and 'The psychology of chronic illness'. I supervise projects in both developmental and health related topics.

Research

I continue to be interested in number development, particular the social construction of conceptual knowledge, which was the focus of my PhD. More recently, however, I have been involved in collaborative research with Simon Easton examining the relationship between emotional states and pain disability, particularly in relation to chronic whiplash injury. We are currently involved in interviewing individuals who experience both pain disability following a whiplash injury and phobic avoidance of travelling in motor vehicles. We hope to examine, using discourse analysis, how these individuals conceptualise their problems and how their beliefs, and the associated behaviours, impact upon their every day lives.

In future I would like to combine my interests in developmental and health psychology to explore in more detail the social construction of pain behaviours, and beliefs about pain disability.

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Publications before 2006

O’Neill, M., Bard, K., Linnell, M. Fluck, M (in press) Maternal gesture with 20-month-old infants. A case for gesturese.   Developmental Science.

Fluck, M. Linnell, M. & Holgate, M. (2005) Does counting count for 3- to 4-year olds? Parental Assumptions about pre-school children’s understanding of counting and cardinality. Social Development. 14 (3). 496-513.

Featherstone, P., Smith, G. Linnell, M., Easton, S. Osgood, V. (2005) Impact of one-day professional course (ALERT) on attitudes and confidence in managing critically ill patients. Resuscitation. 65, 329-336.

Linnell, M. & Easton, S. (2004). The relationship between Phobic Travel Anxiety and the Physical Symptoms of Whiplash injury. Rehabilitation Psychology. 49 (4). 317-320.

Linnell & Fluck (2001) The effect of maternal support for counting and cardinal understanding in pre-school children. Social Development. 10 (2). 202-220.