Jennifer tells us about her placement in UCL’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health…
During my week at UCL Department of Epidemiology I learnt in depth how scientific research projects on a cross-disciplinary basis are constructed and can be completed successfully. I also learnt about applying for funding and appealing to organisations such as the National institute for Health Research and looked at how current research taking place progresses and becomes published and cited in journals.
Research in the department included looking at age cohort differences in health. I found this interesting and was able to directly help Stephen Jivraj, who is carrying out the research by collecting relevant literature such as ‘Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of mental disorders ‘, which used the WHO’s World Mental Health Survey Initiative. This research opened up many further questions of curiosity such as ‘why do mental disorders arise more or less commonly in certain areas or cultures’. Learning how to find upcoming and intriguing scientific studies and research will help me to further explore my interest surrounding different areas in psychology.
By Jennifer B