Dr Paul Norman BSc, PhD, CPsychol

Address
The University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2TP, UK
Tel: (+44) 0114 222 6505
Fax: (+44) 0114 276 6515
Email P.Norman@sheffield.ac.uk
Room: WB C15

Qualifications

BSc, PhD (University of Lancaster)

Teaching and administrative duties

I teach on module 239: Psychological Research Methods on the undergraduate degree. I also teach on modules 6010: Multivariate Statistics, 6070: Professional Skills for Psychologists, and 6120: Research Methods on the
MSc in Psychological Research as well as Multivariate Statistics on the DClinPsy training programme.

I also have responsibility for U/g Admissions (International Students) and HELP Liaison and Induction, and sit on the Psychology Teaching Committee and the Department Ethics Sub-Committee.

Research Interests

My main areas of research focus on (i) the application of social cognition models to the prediction of health behaviour and (ii) cognitive adaptation to serious illness.

Predicting health behaviour
My first area of research focuses on the application of social cognition models (e.g., theory of planned behaviour, health belief model, protection motivation theory) to the prediction of health behaviour. My research has been at the forefront of developments in this area over the past 10 years. I have conducted numerous applications of these models to a range of health behaviours including exercise, smoking, diet, binge drinking, condom use, road safety behaviour, attendance at screening, breast self-examination and medication adherence. This work has also addressed a number of key theoretical issues including the impact of different forms of normative influence, the relationship between past behaviour and future behaviour, and the impact of moderator variables on the strength of the intention-behaviour relationship.

Adaptation to serious illness
My second area of research is concerned with cognitive adaptation to serious illness. This work focuses on patients' beliefs (i.e., appraisals) about their illness and how these impact on coping efforts and psychological adjustment. My work in this area has applied a number of theoretical approaches (including attribution theory, coping theory, self-regulation theory, cognitive adaptation theory) to assess cognitive adaptation to the experience, and threat, of a range of serious illnesses including myocardial infarction, thrombosis, stroke and breast cancer.

Grants

Norman, P., Sheeran, P., Harris, P., Webb, T., Ciravegna, F., Meier, P., Brennan, A., Julious, S., Naughton, F., & Petroczi, A. Time to change! Using the transition from school to university to promote healthy lifestyle habits in young people. MRC/NPRI Phase 4, MR/J000450/1 (2012-2014). £369,171

Activities and Distinctions

• President, European Health Psychology Society (2010-2012)
• Editor-in-Chief of Psychology and Health (2001-2006) – the official journal of the European Health Psychology Society. The journal’s impact factor has risen from 0.705 (2001) to 1.683 (2004) during my editorship.
• I co-edited Predicting Health Behaviour which has become a key source book on work with social cognition models and health behaviour. The first edition sold over 6,000 copies and the second edition (published 2005) has already sold over 1,000 copies.
• Invited Facilitator for the CREATE Workshop for early career health psychologists prior to the European Health Psychology Society conference, Helsinki, 2004.
• Invited Keynote Speaker at the Fall Academy Meeting, Berlin, 2002.
• Secretary of the European Health Psychology Society (1996-2000).

Key Publications

Predicting health behaviour

Conner, M.T., Sandberg, T. & NORMAN, P. (2010). Using action planning to promote exercise behavior. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 40, 65-76.

NORMAN, P., ARMITAGE, C. J. and Quigley, C. (2007). The theory of planned behavior and binge drinking: Assessing the impact of binge drinker prototypes. Addictive Behaviors 32, 1753-1768.

NORMAN, P. and Conner, M. (2005). The theory of planned behavior and exercise: Evidence for the mediating and moderating roles of planning on intention-behavior relations. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 27, 488-504.

Conner, M., NORMAN, P. and Bell, R. (2002). The theory of planned behavior and healthy eating. Health Psychology 21, 194-201.


Adaptation to serious illness

Evans, D., & NORMAN, P. (2009). Illness representations, coping and psychological adjustment to Parkinson's Disease. Psychology and Health, 24, 1181-96.

Field, E., Norman, P., & Barton, J. (2008). Cross-sectional and prospective associations between cognitive appraisals and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms following stroke. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 62-70.

NORMAN, P. and Brain, K. (2007). Does dispositional optimism predict psychological responses to counseling for familial breast cancer? Journal of Psychosomatic Research 63, 247-254.

Moore, T., Norman, P., Harris, P., & Makris, M. (2006). Cognitive appraisals and psychological distress following venous thromboembolic disease: An application of the theory of cognitive adaptation. Social Science and Medicine, 63, 2395-2406.

View a full list of Paul Norman's publications.

Postgraduate Students

• Soud Alganem - PhD student (Volitional Help Sheets and Weight Loss). Funded by Kuwait University.
• Fatma Azab - PhD student (Personality and Health Behaviour). Funded by Libya Cultural Affairs.
• Rosie Webster - PhD student (Illness Representations and Psychological Distress in Non-Cardiac Chest Pain Patients). Funded by MRC/ESRC.
• Safeena Ghufran - DClinPsy student (Disturbances in Autobiographical Memory and PTSD after Stroke).
• Elizabeth Roberts - DClinPsy student (The Experience of PTSD after Stroke).