Isabella McMurray

Principal Lecturer in Psychology, Undergraduate Portfolio Lead

I am a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society in Teaching and Research. In collaboration with colleagues within the School of Psychology and wider university I have worked on projects relating to housing needs of teenage parents, the development and resilience of looked after children, parenting projects in the community, the student experience, student employability and evaluating road safety campaigns in Luton and Bedfordshire.

I have undertaken consultancy work relating to different aspects of research methods and analysis and children’s resilience. I enjoy working with charities and organisations in the local community and seeing how our students develop from excited, sometime nervous first years to confident, informed graduates.

I teach Foundation year students at Level 3, and also at level 4, 5 and 6 through to MSc students. I have supervised MSc by research students and PhD students.

Chartered Psychologist in Teaching and Research – British Psychological Society
Fellow of Higher Education – Higher Education Academy
Postgraduate Certificate of Higher Education - University of Bedfordshire
MSc Psychology (by Research) - University of Bedfordshire
BSc Psychology and English Language – University of Luton

PhD Supervision
I also teach on the following units:

Atypical child and adolescent development
Developmental Psychology
Foundations to Psychology
Psychology of Everyday Life
Psychology in Practice
Social processes and lifespan development
Psychological Understanding of Individuals in Society

Teaching and learning (the student experience and employability)
Developmental (parenting, fathering and children’s resilience)
Applied psychology (driving attitudes and behaviour, evaluating services)
Research methods (different research designs and analysis, research ethics)

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Member of the BPS Developmental Psychology Section
Member of the BPS section on Social Work
External Examiner: BSc Psychology Marjon University (2018-2022)
External Examiner: MSc Psychology (conversion course) Marjon University (2018-2022)
Member of the University of Bedfordshire CATS Faculty Teaching Quality Standards Committee board
External validation panellist for BSc (Hons) Applied Psychology, Great Yarmouth College, University of Suffolk February 2017
Ethics Committee Member, UNILEVER, Colesworth, Bedfordshire (2009-2011)
Reviewer for: Children and Society, Child and Family Social Work, Cyberpsychology and Behaviour, Psychology Teaching and Learning Journal

McMurray, I and Roberts, P (2012) Evaluation of Families Feeling Safe Programme
McMurray, I and Roberts, P (2012) Evaluation of Caring Dads Programme.

McMurray, I and Roberts, P (2016) Families Feeling Safe. INPACT Conference, Portugal (Oral Presentation)
McMurray, I and Roberts, P (2015) CAFCASS Parenting programmes intervention evaluation. European Congress of Psychology Conference, Milan (Oral Presentation)

Wood. L. & McMurray, I. (2018) "Perceptions of alcohol use in UK 12–14 year olds", Drugs and Alcohol Today,18, (4), pp.262-271, doi.org/10.1108/DAT-12-2017-0063
McMurray, I., Rafferty, C., Sutton, C and Patel, S. (2017) Using dissertation projects to facilitate transitions to university and employment: an exploratory case study. Journal of Further and Higher Education. 41 (3) 273-285
Horan, L., Baldwin, M., and McMurray, I. (2017). The Honest Truth Campaign. Bedfordshire and Luton Casualty Partnership.
Horan, L., McMurray, I., and Turek-Odushote, A. (2017). ‘OSCAR and The School Run’. Central Bedfordshire Council.
Edwards, S. and McMurray, I. (2017). Type of leisure activity adolescents with Developmental co-ordination disorder participant in: The impact on their perceived freedom of leisure and life satisfaction. Dyspraxia Foundation Professional Journal. 14, 21-36.

Books

Hinton, P and McMurray, I. (2017) Presenting Your Data with SPSS Explained.
Kinman, G., McMurray, I. and Williams, J (2014) Enhancing Self Knowledge, Coping Skills and Stress Resistance in developing resilience for Social work practice.