The Open University

Seven fails by drivers on hands-free mobiles

9 October 2017

Using hand-held mobile phones in cars is illegal for drivers, and many people have turned to using hands-free mobiles as a safe option – but there’s mounting evidence this is just as dangerous, with drivers using their phones four times more likely to crash. Psychology expert Dr Gemma Briggs has been studying the distraction of […]

Lesbian, gay and bisexual teenagers at much greater risk of depression

30 August 2017

Adolescence can be tough for young people, but it can be especially hard for teenagers who aren’t straight. Our latest study reveals that lesbian, gay and bisexual young people (LGB or “sexual minority youth”) have about three times the risk of being depressed compared with their heterosexual peers. Our results are based on a meta-analysis […]

The real reason you can’t quit Facebook? Maybe it’s because you can judge your friends

12 July 2017

Facebook recently announced that it now has over 2 billion monthly users. This makes its “population” larger than that of China, the US, Mexico and Japan combined. Its popularity, and with it the influence it has in society, is beyond dispute. But for many the experience of actually using the site fluctuates somewhere between the […]

Selfie culture isn’t the root of all evil

12 April 2017

The idea that selfies are somehow damaging our mental health is spreading. There is concern that there may be a link between an apparent recent rise in mental health concerns in millennials and taking, editing and posting selfies online. The Open University’s Lisa Lazard and Rose Capdevila investigate if their popularity isn’t completely negative in […]

OU research highlights impact of early lectures on college and university students

11 April 2017

Research by the OU and the University of Nevada has discovered that productivity in students is much greater between the hours of 11:00am and 9:30pm than at other times of day. The study of 190 undergraduate students, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, analysed individual study patterns to determine when cognitive […]

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International Women’s Day: yes, we still need to protest this sh*t

8 March 2017

“I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit,” proclaimed a multitude of signs at a protest in London on January 21 2017. These signs, and others, were photographed, filtered, edited and uploaded to social media, linking protesters around the globe. The protests, which spread from the initial Women’s March on Washington, spurred by […]

How to avoid breaking New Year’s Resolutions – don’t make them in first place?

17 January 2017

Research has shown that the majority of British adults will break their New Year’s resolution by the second week of January. What is it about the time of year that makes us more susceptible to breaking those promises to ourselves? Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Dr Meg-John Barker, explores why we set ourselves these goals, and […]

The real reason clowns scare us

28 October 2016

This Halloween may be the scariest in a long time. Facing the usual huge crowds of zombies, witches and vampires, deep down, many of us most fear running into one of the “killer clowns” that have been spotted in creepy places across the world. I barely noticed it at first, even though I actually study […]

OU academic dispels the myths about autism

12 October 2016

What is autism? What causes it? Will there be and, indeed, should there be a cure for autism? Senior Lecturer in Psychology at The Open University (OU), Dr Ilona Roth, debunks the myths about the condition and explains how the latest research is changing our perception of autism… What is autism and what is the […]

Three OU students who are all members of the same family (daughter, husband and dad)

‘Dad kept saying why not do the OU? So I did’

17 June 2016

Yvonne Quaintrell had a rough time and school and didn’t do well. But it wasn’t until she became a parent that she found herself so motivated by her dad that she decided to sign up too. And now it’s become a family affair. Yvonne was inspired to study with the OU by her father Harry, […]

OU News

Category: Psychology