Wellbeing and Applied Research in Psychology (WARP)

WARP is a research group dedicated to the investigation of psychology and its application. Psychology can be applied in almost any area of life, and our aim is to use psychology to improve people’s lives, both on an individual level and at a policy and practice level. We are a diverse group, with experts in a wide range of topics such as education, mental health, games, sports, Virtual Reality, ergonomics, pets, children, witness memory and more!

Get Involved

If you are interested in collaborating with us or are interested in any of our current projects please do get in touch. For students wanting to engage in post graduate courses, there are opportunities to work on these projects by taking either our Masters in Research (MRes) course, or a PhD . 

We are always keen to develop our students as researchers and if you are a current undergraduate you can work with one of us as a research assistant through either the VRA or SRA schemes (see PsyKey for more information).  If you are a second-year undergraduate the scheme also counts towards your work experience requirement.

We are also always happy to collaborate with external partners on research. Our WARP team have a wide set of skills and experience here, so please do contact us if you want to work with any of us. For more information about postgraduate research opportunities in any area of Psychology or collaborations please contact Dr Greg J Neil, and you can find additional information about Solent’s research programme here, or more information about our Masters in Research here .

What we do

Wellbeing
Exploring how we can support and enhance wellbeing is a priority of our group and many of our research interests coalesce around the theme of wellbeing across the lifespan. From supporting children with mindfulness in schools, to the impact of physical activity on wellbeing in patients with cancer, to engaging with heritage as a way of improving the mental health of veterans. Current wellbeing related projects in development or ongoing are:

Recycling: In this project, we are working with Test Valley Borough Council looking at people’s perceptions of and behaviours around recycling. The aim is to improve recycling rates by designing and testing evidence-based interventions

Parental Wellbeing: investigating the impact on parental mental health when their child has a mental health issue; family wellbeing when a child is living with cancer

Successful Ageing: how do older people in Southampton support their own wellbeing and how does this compare with older people living in other cities.

Resilient professionals: how mindfulness can improve psychological resilience and physiological resilience in students.

Nature: how does access to outdoor space improve mental health; do flourishing plants lead to flourishing people.

Virtual Reality: This project aims to look at ways we can use Virtual Reality to improve people’s lives, especially those with mental health difficulties or treatment requirements. 

Displacement and Mental Health: Exploring barriers to help-seeking in Southampton’s Displaced Communities

Pets
Many people like keeping pets, and the well-being of these companions is important too. Often, people find it hard to keep to treatment programmes for pets, often due to the uncooperative nature of pets, but also because of life pressures. This project looks at what can be done to improve adherence to pet treatment programs.  

Undergraduate learning and Metacognition
This project focuses on how undergraduates learn, to try and improve student outcomes. This includes the use of positive psychology to help improve student decision making, ways to improve motivation, and how to help students make better decisions about revision. 

Online learning
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, university education has embraced online learning to a level not previously seen. Questions remain however regarding how students use online learning environments and the impact of this transition on students learning and university experience. This project seeks to gather data to understand student experiences to improve university learning going forward.  

Get in touch

If you want to get in touch please email the research group lead, Dr Greg Neil, on [email protected]