Who Are We
Annah McCurry, PhD student
Annah McCurry is a PhD student at the University of St Andrews, studying under Dr. Robert May and Prof. David Donalson. She recently moved to St Andrews from Canada with her canine sidekick, Sherlock. During her undergrad and before moving, Annah worked as a front-line support worker at a domestic violence shelter, helping partners, their kids, and their pets flee from domestic abuse.
Annah’s PhD research focuses on the role of emotion in intimate conflict. She is curious about the impact of both the experience of one’s own emotions and the perception of another’s emotion. Annah uses predominantly behavioural measures, including measures like the revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2), and the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). She is also interested in investigating potential biomarkers of reactive aggression with physiological measures (namely EEG).
Dr. Robert May, PhD
Dr. Robert May is a lecturer in Psychology at the University of St Andrews. Robert’s PhD was on the role of sex and gender in aggression, with a particular focus on impulsivity (the tendency to act without thinking). This led to a broader interest in how the apparent effects of sex and gender on behaviour are malleable: They have used experimental methods, agent-based models, and meta-analysis of historical datasets to show that sex/gender differences in behaviour change according to: the riskiness of action or inaction; the information available to individuals; and changes in social norms over time.
Robert holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Aggression Management and Therapy and is particularly interested in the prevention of violent behaviour. Robert also has a passion for public engagement with research: they have worked with schools, science festivals, community groups, the Scottish Prison Service, and a couple of Edinburgh Fringe venues. Robert’s latest interdisciplinary collaboration with the School of English – which resulted from one of their public engagement events – is a qualitative exploration of domestic violence representations in contemporary literature.
Prof. David Donaldson, PhD
Prof. David Donaldson is a Professor of Psychology at the University of St Andrews with a background in Cognitive Neuroscience. David’s research originally focused on using behavioural and neural measures (particularly EEG) to examine psychological models of memory (particularly episodic memory). This initial focus eventually led him to a broader interest in how we can a) use cognitive neuroscience methods to identify specific cognitive processes, b) characterise the role that processes play in behaviour, c) use this knowledge to affect change in real world contexts. These combined interests resulted in David developing several new strands of research, including the use of mobile EEG to examine cognitive processes such as memory and attention during real world activity, an interest in discovering ‘biomarkers’ that could be used to measure specific processes, and an interest in how emotion (as well as cognition) acts to drive behaviour. David’s current collaboration brings these different interests together, focusing on the desire to understand the cognitive and emotional processes that drive aggressive behaviour in intimate partner conflict.
Lizzie Dillon, MS student
Lizzie Dillon is an MSc Psychology student at the University of St Andrews, conducting a research project under the supervision of Dr Robert May. She aims to study how aggression manifests in intimate relationships, with the hope that the research will aid the future development of strategies to combat domestic abuse and violence.
Prior to her MSc, Lizzie studied Archaeology and Anthropology at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University, and is interested in applying her background in evolutionary studies to the modern context.