School of Psychology PhD Studentship: The impact of a materialistic value orientation on children’s well-being (2018)

Supervisors: Dr Helga Dittmar (University of Sussex) and Dr Megan Hurst (University of Sussex)

A materialistic value orientation (MVO) is the long-term endorsement of values, goals, and associated beliefs that centre on the importance of acquiring money and possessions that convey status. We know from a recent meta-analysis that MVO is robustly linked to lower personal well-being, including lower subjective well-being, more negative emotions, more negative self-appraisals, greater mental health symptoms, and worse physical health (Dittmar, Bond, Hurst, & Kasser, 2014, JPSP). The great majority of studies carried out to date is correlational and uses adults. This project addresses two major research gaps by examining MVO in children and using a combination of longitudinal and experimental designs to address the causal direction of the MVO-well-being link and underlying psychological processes. Children's well-being in the UK is particularly low, and materialistic values were flagged up as an important putative cause in a UNICEF-funded project (www.unicef.org.uk/publications/ipsos-mori-child-well-being/), and have already been shown to damage children's learning and school performance (Ku, Dittmar, & Banerjee, 2014, JPSP). The project will be carried out within the Identity, Consumer Culture, and Well-being research lab (www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/cciwell/), and builds on the Children's Consumer Culture Project (www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/consumercultureproject/), both headed by Helga Dittmar.

Applications should be made by Sunday 21st January 2018

What you get

£14,553 tax-free bursary per annum, plus a fee waiver

Type of award

PhD studentship available for September 2018

Eligibility

Eligibility requirements for potential candidates:

  • Studentship awards will be based on a competitive process, including interview. There are two types of awards available: +3 studentships, which fund a three-year full-time PhD, and 1+3 studentships, which fund a one-year Master's degree followed by a three-year full-time PhD. Full-time studentship covering tuition fee, and a maintenance allowance (currently £14,553 per annum).
  • The competitive awards are funded by the School of Psychology (+3, eligibility: Home or EU residency); the ESRC (1+3 or +3, eligibility at South-East Network for Social Sciences (SeNSS); or the Chancellor's International Research Scholarship (+3, eligibility at Chancellor's International Research Scholarship (2018).
  • Candidates must have, or expect to obtain, a First or a high Upper Second Class Honours undergraduate degree, or equivalent qualification, and/or a Master's degree in Psychology or a related discipline.

Deadline

21 January 2018 23:59

How to apply

Guidance for applicants:

  • Application procedures can be found here.
  • Please submit your application online for the 'PhD in Psychology' programme for September 2018 through this link.
  • In the 'Supervisor suggested by applicant' section of your application form, please put name of supervisor
  • In the 'Proposed source of funding' as School of Psychology and/or SeNSS, or CIRS).

Candidates should provide:

  • A research proposal that outlines your knowledge of the research area, hypotheses that could be addressed in your PhD, and an outline of potential methods. Your answer should not exceed 2 pages including references, be set at minimum 10-font type with margins a minimum of 1cm.
  • Current degree transcript(s) with full details of performance on all completed courses.
  • Two academic references.
  • An up-to-date CV.

Sponsors

The School of Psychology is one of the largest centres for the study of psychology
in the UK. We have nearly 40 academic faculty, about 100 research students and
the same number of postgraduate students taking Master's degrees. Our
undergraduate intake is about 250 a year, which gives us an academic community
of nearly 1000 people working in a rich and supportive learning environment.

Psychology is a diverse discipline and our size means that we span major
research areas in social, cognitive, biological, developmental and clinical
psychology. Psychology at Sussex was rated 10th in the UK for research in the
2014 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). 91% of our research at Sussex is
ranked as world-leading or internationally significant.

Contact us

For queries with respect to the application process please send an email for the attention of 'Postgraduate Coordinator' to: psychologyphd-enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

To discuss the details of this PhD project further, please contact Dr Helga Dittmar via email: H.E.Dittmar@sussex.ac.uk

Timetable

Deadline for applications: Sunday 21st January 2018

Availability

At level(s):
PG (research)

Application deadline:
21 January 2018 23:59 (GMT)
the deadline has now expired