Purva Abhyankar

I am a health psychologist by training and have many years of research experience in applied health and health services research. My research aims to help people make better decisions about their healthcare and actively manage their health and illness by engaging in healthy behaviours. It draws on the knowledge from psychological theories underpinning human behaviour and decision making, applied to improve health and healthcare delivery. I am an inter-disciplinary and mixed methods researcher, equally comfortable with qualitative and quantitative methodology.

I joined the Division of Psychology, in FNS at Stirling in June 2021. Prior to this, I spent nearly 6 years as a lecturer in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, teaching several aspects of Health Psychology (e.g. health behaviour change, clinical and shared decision making), and a wide range of research methods to nurses, paramedics and allied health professionals.

Within Psychology, I lead the third year undergraduate module Clinical and Health Psychology, along with contributing to teaching on final year electives, MSc Health Psychology and UG, PG and doctoral supervision.

I am also the convener and University representative for the Health, Families, Relationships and Demographic Change Pathway for ESRC's Doctoral Training Pathway.