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Dr Jean McAvoy

Profile summary

Professional biography

I am the Head of School for the School of Psychology & Counselling in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

My research interests are in the social construction of subjectivities, identities and moral orders.  I supervise PhD students studying the construction of identities, subjectivity, gender and transgression.  My teaching specialism is research methods and methodology.

In addition to a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, MSc in Psychological Research Methods and PhD in Psychology I also hold a BA (Hons) in Classical Civilisations. I am a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.  I have previously sat on the Executive Committee of the Association for Psychosocial Studies.

Research interests

My current research interests focus on the construction, constitution and experience of subjectification and subjectivity. I work within a framework of critical social psychology. I am interested in what resources people have for making sense of their lives, how this is shaped within particular social and cultural practices. My particular interests lie in what kinds of moralities are produced, and how concepts of rights and wrongs are established, consolidated, or challenged. I am interested in what gets accomplished at personal, interpersonal and institutional levels when concepts such as good or bad, successful or failing, legitimacy, deficiency and deviancy are applied to people and behaviour.

Methodologically I work with a broad understanding of discourse analysis. This broad approach allows epistemological investigations of how knowledge and understanding is worked up at a local and more macro levels, and explorations of the ontology of subjectivity and relationality and the nature of interiority and experience.

PhD supervision

Marie Paludan (co-supervision with Dr Stephanie Taylor, Psychology): “Performing Young Womanhood in Neoliberal Britain: Discursive Constructions of New Femininities.” (Completed)

Lisa Scott (co-supervision with Dr Rose Capdevila): “Family talk: Irish women across generations negotiate single motherhood.” (Completed)

I am interested in supervising research in critical social psychology, particularly around areas of subjectivity and subjectification, discourse theory and methods, explorations of moralities and inequalities, understandings of justice and injustice, constructions and constitutions of emotion, and studies in affective practices more broadly.

Teaching interests

I have been Programme Director and subsequently Director of Teaching for the School of Psychology with a particular interest in developing teaching support and quality enhancements beyond module level and focusing on a 'whole qualification' approach.  

I have worked in production and presentation roles on a wide range of modules across the psychology programme.  I co-chaired production with Jovan Byford of the 60-credit Level 1 psychology module DE100 Investigating psychology 1, and contributed methods teaching on DE200 and DE300.  Previously I was a member of the module team for production and presentation chair for DSE141 Discovering psychology.  I have also contributed to presentation teams for DSE212 Exploring Psychology; the residential school psychology project module DXR222, and the online project module DZX222.

In addition I present workshops and seminars for post-graduate students on advanced qualitative research methods and methodological theory.

Teaching publications

Byford, J., McAvoy, J. and Banyard, P. (2014). Investigating Intelligence. Milton Keynes: The Open University.

McAvoy, J. and Brace, N. (eds) (2014). Investigating Methods. Milton Keynes: The Open University. (DE100).

McAvoy, J. (2012) ‘Exposing the authoritarian personality’ in Brace, N & Byford, J (eds) Investigating Psychology: Key Concepts, Key Studies, Key Approaches, Oxford: Oxford University Press and Milton Keynes: The Open University.

Research groups

NameTypeParent Unit
Centre for Citizenship, Identifies and Governance (CCIG)CentreFaculty of Social Sciences
Social Psychology Research GroupGroupFaculty of Social Sciences

Publications

Doing reflexivity in psychological research – What’s the point? What’s the practice? (2020)
Lazard, Lisa and McAvoy, Jean
Qualitative Research in Psychology, 17(2) (pp. 159-177)


Researching the Psychosocial: An Introduction (2015)
Taylor, Stephanie and McAvoy, Jean
Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(1) (pp. 1-7)


From ideology to feeling: discourse, emotion, and an analytic synthesis (2015)
McAvoy, Jean
Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(1) (pp. 22-33)


Supporting team teaching of collaborative activities in online forums: a case study of a large scale (2018-06-28)
Cuffe, Paige and McAvoy, Jean
In: Baxter, Jacqueline; Callaghan, George and McAvoy, Jean eds. Creativity & Critique in Online Learning: Exploring and Examining Innovations in Online Pedagogy. (pp. 191-217)
ISBN : 978-3-319-78297-3 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham | Published : UK


Introduction to Chapters: Creativity and Critique in Online Teaching and Learning: Innovations in Online Pedagogy (2018-06-28)
Baxter, Jacqueline; Callaghan, George and McAvoy, Jean
In: Baxter, Jacqueline; Callaghan, George and McAvoy, Jean eds. Creativity & Critique in Online Learning: Exploring and Examining Innovations in Online Pedagogy (pp. 1-12)
ISBN : 978-3-319-78297-3 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham


The Future of Online Teaching and Learning and an Invitation to Debate (2018-06-26)
Callaghan, George; Baxter, Jacqueline and McAvoy, Jean
In: Baxter, Jacqueline; Callaghan, George and McAvoy, Jean eds. Creativity & Critique in Online Learning: Exploring and Examining Innovations in Online Pedagogy (pp. 261-278)
ISBN : 978-3-319-78297-3 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham


Psychological Theory, Research, Methodology, and Feminist Critiques (2016-04-21)
Capdevila, Rose and McAvoy, Jean M.
In: Naples, Nancy ed. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies
ISBN : 9781405196949 | Publisher : John Wiley & Sons | Published : Oxford


Postmodern feminist psychology (2016-04-21)
Lazard, Lisa; McAvoy, Jean and Capdevila, Rose
In: Naples, Nancy; Hoogland, Renee C.; Wickramasinghe, Maithree and Wong, Wai Ching Angela eds. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies
ISBN : 978-1-4051-9694-9 | Publisher : Wiley Blackwell


Discursive psychology and the production of identity in language practices (2016-02-18)
McAvoy, Jean
In: Preece, Siân ed. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Identity. Routledge Handbooks in Applied Linguistics (pp. 98-112)
ISBN : 978-1-138-77472-8 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon


Psy disciplines (2014)
McAvoy, Jean
In: Teo, Thomas ed. Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 1527-1529)
ISBN : 978-1-4614-5582-0 | Publisher : Springer | Published : New York


Creativity & Critique in Online Learning: Exploring and Examining Innovations in Online Pedagogy (2018-06-28)
Baxter, Jacqueline; Callaghan, George and McAvoy, Jean eds.
ISBN : 978-3-319-78297-3 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham | Published : UK


Constructing Subjects, Producing Subjectivities: Developing Analytic Needs in Discursive Psychology (2007)
McAvoy, Jean
In : 6th Annual Conference of the Narrative and Memory Research Group (8 Apr 2006, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield) (pp. 53-62)


[Case Study] Embedding methods within topics for a distance learning programme (2017-04)
McAvoy, Jean
The British Psychological Society