Department of Psychology

Alice Jones, BSc PhD

Position held:
Senior Lecturer and Director of Unit of School and Family Studies

Phone:
+44 (0)20 7919 7887

Fax:
+44 (0)20 7919 7873

Email:
a.jones (@gold.ac.uk)

Website:
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/alicejones/

Address:
Whitehead Building, Room 203/4
Psychology Department,
Goldsmiths, University of London,
New Cross, SE14 6NW

Office hours:
By appointment

Summary of Research

  • Neuropsychological and neuroscience investigations of antisocial behaviour in children and adolescents, including callous-unemotional traits and early psychopathic behaviour.
  • Empathy and emotion processing in children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural problems and in children involved in bullying.
  • Social inclusion of children and adolescents with developmental disorders in mainstream education.

Academic qualifications

BSc Applied Psychology (Cardiff)

PhD Psychology (Kings College London)

Teaching

1st year undergraduate: 

Psychology of a Person

3rd year undergraduate:

Psychology & Education (course co-ordinator), Behavioural Genetics

Postgraduate courses:

Co-Director of MSc Science of Psychology, Genetics and Education

MSc Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience

Areas of supervision

I supervise students interested in psychology applied to education, particularly focused on school achievement and behaviour. 

Grants & awards

2011:   Nuffield Foundation Small Grant to study neuropsychological profiles of students in PRUs (£14,340).
2011:   Participant in Royal Society MP-Scientist Pairing Scheme.
2011:   Learning and Teaching Fellowship from Goldsmiths for production of employability resources (£1998).
2010:   Learning and Teaching Fellowship from Goldsmiths for teaching-linked animations (£1850).
2009:   Awarded funding from Goldsmiths Department of Psychology for bullying research (£3537).
2009:   Awarded Local Authority funding for evaluation of intervention programme (£40,000).
2008:   Awarded funding from the Central Research Fund at the University of London (£2303).
2008:   Awarded ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship award for 12 months (£76,944).

 

 

Professional activities

I am also interested in science communication. I took part in the Royal-Society's MP-Scientist Pairing Scheme in 2011, and presented at the British Psychological Society's Psychology4All day in March 2011. I was also interviewed for Brain Culture aired on BBC Radio 4 on 15th November 2011.

Research interests

My research is interdisciplinary and I have published experimental, behavioural genetic, and neuroimaging investigations of conduct problems, callous-unemotional traits, and autism spectrum disorders.

The main focus of my work has been on emotion processing and understanding and empathy in children and adolescents with antisocial behavioural problems. Specifically, I am interested in comparing children with callous-unemotional traits (or early psychopathic behaviours) with other children with antisocial behavioural problems, and with other children with empathy difficulties. I started this work with Young Offenders, and have continued to study children and adolescents in mainstream and in special education settings.

I received a first-class BSc from Cardiff University in 2003, and a PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London in 2008. My PhD was supervised by Professor Essi Viding (UCL) and Professor Francesca Happe (KCL) and focused on emotion processing and empathy in children with antisocial behaviour and callous-unemotional traits. Part of my thesis used fMRI to investigate the neural correlates of fear processing in these children compared to typically developing children, and follow-up work aims to investigate the neural correlates of empathy and social information processing in this population. I have also used behavioural genetic methods to examine the relative genetic and environmental influences on psychopathic tendencies.

Previously, I worked as an assistant clinical psychologist in the Social Communication Disorders unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital. I am still interested in autism spectrum disorders, and have spent the several years looking at social inclusion and outcomes for students with ASD in mainstream education. This work was done in collaboration with Professor Norah Frederickson at UCL.

I am currently heading three major projects:

1) A project funded by the Nuffield Foundation to investigate the neuropsychological and mental health profiles of those students referred to specialist educational provisions for behavioural difficulties (Pupil Referral Units/SEBD schools). This work started in September 2011 and will intially run for one year. 

2) An evaluation of an intervention programme for children with chronic and severe behavioural and emotional difficulties. This project is taking place in a primary school for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, and I am working alongside Educational Psychologists and teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of this novel programme. 

3) An investigation of the neuropsychological, behavioural and personality correlates of bullying. This study aims to use earlier work on callous-unemotional traits and emotional processing and empathy to refine the profiles of children and adolescents involved in different types of bullying behaviour.

Selected publications

Number of items: 20.

Article

Smith, Hannah, Polenik, Kaja, Nakasita, Shamim and Jones, Alice P.. 2012. Profiling social, emotional and behavioural difficulties of children involved in direct and indirect bullying behaviours. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 17(3-4), pp. 243-257. [Article]

Smith, Peter K. and Jones, Alice P.. 2012. The Importance of Developmental Science for Studies in Bullying and Victimization. International Journal of Developmental Science, 6(1-2), pp. 71-74. [Article]

Jones, Alice P., Happe, Francesca, Gilbert, Francesca, Burnett, Stephanie and Viding, Essi. 2010. Feeling, caring, knowing: different types of empathy deficit in boys with psychopathic tendencies and autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51(11), pp. 1188-1197. ISSN 0021-9630 [Article]

Frederickson, Norah, Jones, Alice P. and Lang, Jane. 2010. Inclusive provision options for pupils on the autistic spectrum. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 10(2), pp. 63-73. ISSN 14713802 [Article]

De Brito, S. A., McCrory, E. J., Mechelli, A., Wilke, M., Jones, Alice P., Hodgins, S. and Viding, E.. 2010. Small, but not perfectly formed: decreased white matter concentration in boys with psychopathic tendencies. Molecular psychiatry, 16(5), pp. 476-477. ISSN 1476-5578 [Article]

Rijsdijsk, Fruhling V., Viding, Essi, De Brito, Stéphane, Forgiarini, Matteo, Mechelli, Andrea, Jones, Alice P. and McCrory, Eamon. 2010. Heritable variations in gray matter concentration as a potential endophenotype for psychopathic traits. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67(4), pp. 406-13. ISSN 0003-990X [Article]

Jones, Alice P. and Frederickson, Norah. 2010. Multi-Informant Predictors of Social Inclusion for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders Attending Mainstream School. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, ISSN 0162-3257 [Article]

Jones, Alice P., Laurens, Kristin R., Herba, Catherine M., Barker, Gareth J. and Viding, Essi. 2009. Amygdala Hypoactivity to Fearful Faces in Boys With Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits. American Journal of Psychiatry, 166(1), pp. 95-102. ISSN 0002-953X [Article]

Jones, Alice P., Larsson, H., Ronald, A., Rijsdijk, F., Busfield, P., Mcmillan, A., Plomin, R. and Viding, E.. 2009. Phenotypic and Aetiological Associations Between Psychopathic Tendencies, Autistic Traits, and Emotion Attribution. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 36(11), p. 1198. ISSN 0093-8548 [Article]

De Brito, Stephane A., Hodgins, Sheilagh, Mccrory, Eamon, Mechelli, Andrea, Wilke, Marko, Jones, Alice P. and Viding, Essi. 2009. Structural Neuroimaging and the Antisocial Brain: Main Findings and Methodological Challenges. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 36(11), pp. 1173-1186. ISSN 0093-8548 [Article]

Viding, E. and Jones, Alice P.. 2008. Cognition to genes via the brain in the study of conduct disorder. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61(1), p. 171. ISSN 1747-0218 [Article]

Viding, Essi, Jones, Alice P., Paul, J. Frick, Moffitt, Terrie E. and Plomin, Robert. 2008. Heritability of antisocial behaviour at 9: do callous-unemotional traits matter? Developmental Science, 11(1), pp. 17-22. ISSN 1363755X [Article]

Viding, Essi, Larsson, Henrik and Jones, Alice P.. 2008. Quantitative genetic studies of antisocial behaviour. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1503), pp. 2519-2527. ISSN 0962-8436 [Article]

De Brito, Stephane A., Mechelli, Andrea, Wilke, Marko, Laurens, Kristin R., Jones, Alice P., Barker, Gareth J., Hodgins, Sheilagh and Viding, Essi. 2008. Size matters: Increased grey matter in boys with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits. Brain, 132(4), pp. 843-852. ISSN 0006-8950 [Article]

Jones, Alice P. and Viding, Essi. 2007. Psychopathic traits in young children. Netherlands journal of psychology, 63(4), pp. 107-114. ISSN 1872-552X [Article]

Lawrence, K., Jones, Alice P., Oreland, L., Spektor, D., Mandy, W., Campbell, R. and Skuse, David. 2007. The development of mental state attributions in women with X-monosomy, and the role of monoamine oxidase B in the sociocognitive phenotype. Cognition, 102(1), pp. 84-100. ISSN 00100277 [Article]

Jones, Alice P., Cork, Christine and Chowdhury, Uttom. 2006. Autistic spectrum disorders 1: Presentation and assessment. Community Practioner, 79(3), pp. 97-98. ISSN 1462-2815 [Article]

Jones, Alice P., Cork, Christine and Chowdhury, Uttom. 2006. Autistic spectrum disorders 2: Diagnosis and management. Community Practitioner, 79(4), pp. 128-130. ISSN 1462-2815 [Article]

Book Section

Viding, Essi, Larsson, H. and Jones, Alice P.. 2009. Quantitative genetic studies of antisocial behaviour. In: Sheilagh Hodgins, Essi Viding and Anna Plodowski, eds. The Neurobiological Basis of Violence: Science and Rehabilitation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 251-263. ISBN 978-0-19-954353-3 [Book Section]

Report

This list was generated on Tue Jun 18 23:03:37 2013 BST.


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