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Em P Ian Donald
BA; MSc; PhD; CPsychol; AFBPsS

Research

Research Interest 1

I have research interests in Social, Organizational and Environmental Psychology with a broad social science background. I have worked extensively on cross- disciplinary research with engineers, computer scientists, biologists, vets and medics. My main areas of expertise are in identifying the factors underlying human behaviour, behaviour change, attitudes and attitude measurement. My research has been conducted in a variety of significant substantive areas of societal importance. This has included working with vets examining farmers’ behaviour and attitudes in relation to bovine TB. In particular this work looked at the relationship between policy and regulation and behaviour. I have recently published a major DfT supported study of transport mode choice, modelling the role of habit in relation to attitudes and behaviour. I currently have a significant interest in the social and psychological drivers underlying Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). I was a member of the ESRC’s 2014 working group on AMR, which led to the publication, Anti-Microbial Resistance: Setting the Social Science Agenda. I was the ESRC’s consultant in producing the research priorities for Theme 4 of the cross-council AMR research initiative. I authored the ESRC 2015 publication, Anti-Microbial Resistance: Behaviour within and Beyond the Healthcare Setting. I am a member of the NERC assessment panel for stage one of theme 3 applications. I was also a member of Nesta’s advisory group for the Longitude Prize 2014 on Antibiotic Resistance. In December 2015 I took part in international workshops on AMR sponsored by the Uk research councils an the Natural Science Foundation of China. The workshops took place in Shanghai with the aim of developing priorities of the Newton Fund and the NSFC.

I have conducted extensive funded research in industry looking at attitudes and safety as well as occupational stress. This follows on from international research I carried out in Hong Kong and China looking at worker stress.

I have been involved in extensive collaborations within the University, nationally and internationally. I would welcome future possibilities - I particularly like working in areas where it is not at all obvious that psychology has something to contribute. It almost always turns out that it has.
I am happy to consider PhD proposals from students. Recent students have examined issues such as domestic violence, volume crime, elder homicide, stress, environmental cues and arson, organizational risk culture, safety performance in industry, attitudes towards illicit drug use, and employee stress. My students have a very strong track record of successful completion of PhDs within deadline.

Research grants

SCORE (Sensing Changes in Operational Risk)

ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

August 2001 - April 2004

Intra-individual communication behaviour in conflict negotiation.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

January 2004 - December 2004

Value in People Award 2005.

WELLCOME TRUST (UK)

October 2005 - September 2009

Staff Well-Being

5 BOROUGHS PARTNERSHIP (UK)

April 2011 - March 2017

Stop and search research project.

MERSEYSIDE POLICE (UK)

August 2004 - December 2004

Workplace Stress and Employee Absenteeism: Development and Empirical Test of A Process Model.

MERSEY CARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST (UK)

September 2012 - July 2017

Identification of changes in individual and global farmer behaviour relating to the movement and management of cattle in the UK with particular reference to the introduction of bTB control measures.

DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS (UK)

April 2007 - September 2009

    Research collaborations

    Dr Joseph Savirimuthu

    Developing work on Big Data and its implications

    Professor Werner Hofer

    Joint grant writing and discussion of research and teaching on sustainability

    Professor Yi Huang

    Developing research proposals bringing together psychology and engineering systems for sustainability

    Professor Paul Taylor

    Lancaster University

    Security. Communication. Safety. Joint grant applications and publications

    Dr Margaret Wilson

    Imperial College London

    Security

    Dr Stacey Conchie

    Lancaster University

    Research on safety, leadership, trust. Joint grant applications and publications

    Dr Xu Zhu

    Research on sustainability through electronic and psychological systems and processes.

    Professor Kenton Morgan

    Joint grant applications.

    Professor Cary Cooper

    The University of Lancaster

    European-wide research on occupational stress.

    Dr Rob Christley

    Joint publications and grant applications. Farmer behaviour/ food security.

    Dr Simon Cooper

    Liverpool John Moores University

    Research on attitudes and the development of the Theory of Planned Behaviour model