Welcome to my ePortfolio, which I hope will give you an insite into my research, teaching and professional development at the University of Warwick

I am a PhD student within the Department of Psychology. My PhD research is investigating the degree to which people compare themselves to others in order to make judgements about themselves and their behaviours and how exactly they make these comparisons. I am particularly interested in the role that social comparison plays in making health related judgements and how this may affect health related help seeking behaviours. This is the main focus of my PhD although I have also spent time investigating whether people compare themselves to others to judge how satisfied they are with emotional and physical support they receive and how available they think these types of support are to them. For more information, please see the research page of this website.

I graduated with a 2:1 degree in Psychology from the University of Wolverhampton in 2005 and spent four years working in residential lettings and finance. In 2009 I decided that I wanted to pursue a more challenging career in research and started an MSc in Research Methods in Psychology at the University of Warwick. I completed this in 2010 and was awarded a distinction. I then returned to the University of Wolverhampton as a demonstrator in the Psychology Department for a year where I taught undergraduates, provided academic support to students and carried out administrative duties. I started my PhD in October 2011 and was honoured to be awarded ESRC funding under the new Social Sciences Doctoral Training Centre scheme.

As well as explaining my research in more detail, the links at the top of the page and here will give you access to my CV, information on my teaching responsibilities and publications and conference presentations to date. The personal development section has details of the training and skills courses that I have attended and you can find out more about me in the personal interests section. Thanks for taking the time and interest to have a look around this site and if you have any questions or suggestions regarding my research or my ePortfolio please don't hesitate to get in touch, my contact details are on the right hand side of this page.

Best wishes,

Karen

Karen Melrose

Department of Psychology

University of Warwick

Coventry

CV4 7AL

K dot L dot Melrose at warwick dot ac dot uk