Claire Lawrence

Claire Lawrence

I am a Chartered Psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and hold a Certificate of Competence in Occupational Testing:Level A (Ref:T9692).

Research

My main interests lie in three areas-all relating to the study of aggression.

Individual Differences and Aggression

I am interested in the following question: Why do some people appear to get aggressive in response to a certain trigger (e.g. insult or frustration) while other people, in the facce of the same situation do not. To this end, I have developed the Situational Triggers of Aggressive Responses (STAR) scale (Lawrence, in press), which measures the propensity for individuals to two main types of trigger: (1) provocations from other people and (2) frustrations. I am currently evaluating the validity of the STAR scale experimentally, and in offender populations. In addition, I am examining the behaviour of psychopathic individuals within secure settings, to examine the impact of therapeutic and other interventions on daily behaviour over time. This work is being conducted with Chris Beeley and Todd Hogue at Rampton Hospital and Eamonn Ferguson. Finally I am looking at the relationship between psychopathy and empathy, perspective taking and risk taking in general populations (with Nadja Heym).

Aggression and Stereotypes

I examine (with Kate Threapleton) the extent to which the activation of aggressive stereotypes or other aggressive primes influence the way in which we attend to, encode and remember related information using dot-probe tasks, identification of subliminal stimuli and dual task methodologies. In addition, I have examined the role of sterotype inconsistent information on the memory for aggression related material (Lawrence and Leather, 1999)

Contextual influences on the perception of aggression

Prison Crowding and perceived aggression

I have also examined the impact on crowding in prison environments on the perception of aggressive incidents and general well-being (Lawrence & Andrews, 2004). This is the first work to demonstrate the influence on perceived crowding on the interpretation of an aggressive episode-suggesting a cognitive as well as an arousal route between crowding and aggression.

Environmental influences on perceived aggression

The role of environmental incivilities on the fear of crime has been established. In the work I have conducted to date, this research has been extended to demonstrate that in poorly maintained environments, aggression is perceived and understood differently. (Lawrence and Leather, 2003;Leather and Lawrence,1999, Lawrence and Green, in press).

Car type and responsibility for accidents

I have recently examined the way in which responsibility judgements following road accidents are made as a function of (amongst other dimensions) car type. (Lawrence and Richardson,in press)

Relevant Papers

Fossi, J., Clarke, D.D. & Lawrence, C. (2005). Bedroom rape: Sequences of sexual behavior in stranger assaults. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 20, 11,1444-1466

Lawrence, C. & Green, K. (2005). Perceiving classroom aggression: The influence of setting, intervention style and group perceptions. British Journal of Educational Psychology.75,4,587-602

Lawrence, C.(in press). Measuring individual responses to aggression-triggering events: Development of the Situational Triggers of Aggressive Responses (STAR) Scale. Aggressive Behavior.

Lawrence, C.& Richards, J. (in press). Gender based judgements of traffic violations: The moderating impact of car type. Journal of Applied Social Psychology,

Lawrence C. & Andrews, K. (2004). The influence of perceived prison crowding on male inmates’ perception of aggressive events. Aggressive Behavior 30, 273-283.

Lawrence, C. & Leather, P. (2003). Perceiving Violence: The influence of motivational status and environmental setting. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33,9,1796-1818.

Ferguson, E., Lawrence, C., & Matthews, G. (2000).  Associations between primary appraisals, life events while controlling for depression. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 39, 143-155

Lawrence, C. & Leather, P. (1999) Stereotypical processing: The role of environmental Journal of Environmental Psychology, 19, 383-395.

Beale, D., Clarke, D., Cox, T., Leather, P.J. & Lawrence, C. (1999). System memory in violent incidents: Evidence from patterns of re-occurrence.  Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 4, 3, 233-244.

Beale, D., Cox, T., Clarke, D.Lawrence, C. & Leather, P. (1998).Temporal architecture of violent incidents. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 3, 1, 65-82.

Leather, P.J., Pyrgas, M., Beale, D. & Lawrence, C. (1998). Windows in the workplace: Sunlight, view and occupational stress. Environment and Behaviour. 30, 6, 739-763

Leather, P., Lawrence, C., Beale, D., Cox, T. & Dickson, R. (1998).  Exposure to occupational violence and the buffering effects of organizational support.  Work & Stress, 12, 2, 161-178.

Leather, P., Beale, D. & Lawrence, C. (1997).  Effects of exposure to occupational violence and the mediating impact of fear.  Work and Stress, 11, 4, 324-340.

Leather, P.J. & Lawrence, C.(1995). Perceiving pub violence: the symbolic influence of social and environmental factors. British Journal of Social Psychology  34,395-407.

PhD Students

• Julia Fossi (1999-2003)
• Kate Threapleton (2002- )
• Chris Beeley (2004- )
• Nadja Heym (2004 - )

 

 

Grants

I currently hold an HSE grant with Professor Eamonn Ferguson and Peter Bibby examining lay perceptions of occupational diseases.

I also hold an ESRC CASE Studentship award for Chris Beeley (2004-2007) with Todd Hogue, DSPD unit, Rampton Secure Hospital.