Psychology student comes runner-up in 'Best Overall Conference Presentation' award at 2023 BPS Scottish Undergraduate Research Conference

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The BPS Scottish Undergraduate Research Conference is attended by university students from across Scotland and provides final-year psychology undergraduates with the opportunity to share their thesis research with their peers.

At the conference Albatool presented the findings from her research dissertation, “Mental Imagery’s Effect on Emotional Processing and Mental Health: A Cross-sectional Study of Congenital Aphantasia.” Under the supervision of Dr Sarah MacPherson, Albatool’s research investigated whether being aphantasic predicts higher depression and anxiety scores and whether different dimensions of emotional processing differentially mediate this relationship.

The study found that aphantasics had higher depression scores compared to phantasics, but they did not significantly differ on anxiety scores. However, emotional processing did not mediate this relationship. An alternative model is proposed with different directions in the model paths which might explain the non-significant mediations in our models.

Coming runner up for best overall conference presentation was very rewarding and exciting! It was a moment of appreciating the effort and passion of all the work spent on the dissertation as well as a moment of gratitude. I’m grateful for having such supportive supervisor, my dissertation group, the stats team and my friends for constantly believing in me!

Albatool Almubarak

Congratulations to Albatool for coming runner-up for the best overall conference presentation at the 2023 BPS Scottish Annual Student Conference. She gave an excellent presentation on her dissertation work and it’s great to see her being recognised by such a prestigious organisation that represents psychologists and psychology in the UK.

Dr Sarah MacPherson

About the BPS

The British Psychological Society is a registered charity which acts as the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK, and is responsible for the promotion of excellence and ethical practice in the science, education, and application of the discipline.

Related links:

• British Psychological Society
• Dr Sarah E MacPherson