NCI Blog

This is a guest blog post written by Dr Conor Thornberry, Assistant Professor in Psychology at National College of Ireland. In this blog, NCI's Dr Conor Thornberry shares insights into his academic journey so far, detailing what aspects of Psychology interest him the most, inspiring his research, and being the key motivator behind wanting to be involved in Brain Awareness Week.

This is a guest blog post written by Dr Amanda Kracen, Associate Professor of Psychology at National College of Ireland. Unfortunately, cancer is still a leading cause of death in Ireland; the good news is that many people live with and beyond a cancer diagnosis. However, it may not surprise you that people are often affected by receiving a cancer diagnosis, coping with treatment, and learning to live as a “survivor.” People can feel scared and vulnerable. In addition to excellent medical care, it is now recognised that people with cancer benefit from excellent psychological treatment and social support.

The word psychology stems from Greek roots: “psyche” means soul or spirit; “logia” means “study of”. Psychology is the academic discipline that studies the mind and behaviour. At NCI, many different facets of psychology are explored, including biological, clinical, developmental, educational, comparative, evolutionary, and social and industrial psychology. The lecturers are all active researchers across these disciplines. We will share insight into some of this research in coming blogposts.

After completing her Leaving Certificate in 2015, Leanne Kelly felt that going straight to college was the right thing for her. However, she soon realised that joining a course she was unsure of in a big college wasn't working for her so she took a break from studying before starting her psychology journey at NCI in 2017. At that stage, she knew she had made a step in the right direction.

The BA Hons in Psychology at NCI is a psychology degree that is accredited by the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) and an approved course under SUSI’s tuition fees and grant award scheme.

At the most recent event in NCI's series, In the Psychologist's Chair, scientist, psychologist and writer Professor Ian Robertson expanded on the Actonian aphorism: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." His insights, and the mountain of data that he had to support it, were really quite impressive.

NCI was delighted to host Dr. Conor McGuckin of Trinity College Dublin today as part of the In the Psychologists’ Chair series in association with the Irish Times. Dr McGuckin spoke on the topic of applying psychology to education.

The NCI psychology department was delighted to host an international guest speaker at the college today with Dr Melissa Allen from Lancaster University giving a talk entitled Symbolic understanding of pictures in typical development and autism: divergent pathways? (Download the slides from the event