EHS Knowledge With Impact Lecture Series: ‘the Social Psychology of Trauma: Connecting the personal and the political’

WATCH IT BACK: Knowledge with Impact: ‘the Social Psychology of Trauma: Connecting the personal and the political'

The Faculty of Education and Health Sciences at University of Limerick hosted the fifth and final public lecture in the Knowledge with Impact series for this academic year, presented by Orla Muldoon, Professor of Psychology. This event coincided with the 6th International Conference on Social Identity and Health, also being held at the University from 18-20 June 2024.

The title of Professor Muldoon's lecture is ‘the Social Psychology of Trauma: Connecting the personal and the political.'

Professor Deirdre McGrath, Dean at the Faculty of Education and Health Sciences opened the lecture and Dr Elaine Kinsella, Assistant Dean Research, facilitated a Q&A session.

Lecture description: Many of us have been affected by trauma and struggle to manage our health and well-being. The social psychological approach to health highlights how social and cultural forces, as much as individual ones, are central to how we experience and cope with adversity. This social identity approach to trauma integrates psychology, politics, and medicine to offer a new understanding that speaks to the causes and consequences of traumatic experiences. Connecting the personal with the political, this talk will detail evidence that traumatic experiences can, under certain conditions, impact people's political positions and appetite for social change. This perspective reveals trauma as a socially situated phenomenon linked to power and privilege or disempowerment and disadvantage. The talk will interest those affected by trauma and those supporting them, as well as students, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers in social psychology, health and clinical psychology, and political science.

Speaker's bio: Orla Muldoon is Professor of Psychology at University of Limerick. She was the first appointment to the department in 2007 and the inaugural Chair and Head of Department. She is immensely proud of the Department, its graduates and the colleagues that have worked to develop make the Department a major force in Psychology internationally. She is particularly proud of its influence on the discipline in Ireland as well as its impact on public policy. Orla’s research highlight the value a collective approach to adaptation to stress and trauma. Her current work is particularly related to collective basis of post traumatic growth and physiological responses to stress. In 2020 she was awarded a prestigious ERC advanced grant that has given rise to a book on The Social Psychology of Trauma (cambridge.org). It is available free to download from April 1 2024.