Ian Stephen

Ian Stephen

  • Associate Professor of Psychology
  • Poole House P116, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
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Biography

I joined Bournemouth University as an Associate Professor in 2024. Before that, I held academic positions at Nottingham Trent University, Macquarie University (Australia) and The University of Nottingham (Malaysia) and research posts at the University of Bristol and the University of St Andrews. I hold a BSc (Hons) from UCL, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD from the University of St Andrews.

Research

My research focuses on person perception, which I approach from two main angles:

1. I am interested in understanding what aspects of physiology and psychology are reflected in our faces and bodies, and how our brains extract this information to form judgements. For example, is our health reflected in cues in our faces and bodies, and how do we use those cues to form perceptions of health and attractiveness?

2. I am interested in understanding the mechanisms that underlie our perceptions of our own and others' bodies. By understanding how these perceptions are formed, updated and maintained, we aim to provide the scientific basis for new treatments for body image disturbance and related mental health issues such as body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, and muscle dysmorphia.

I have supervised projects on these topics at undergraduate, honours, masters, and PhD level, and would be interested in hearing from prospective students with interests in these areas.