Dr Victoria Senior
BSc Hons (Edinburgh), MSc (Hull), PhD (London)
Senior Lecturer
I am the Course Director for the Postgraduate Certificate in Health Psychology Practice, the module convenor for M12: Chronic Conditions which is a core component of the MSc in Health Psychology and for the Health Psychology Module taken by final year undergraduate students. I am also a member of the Health Psychology Research Group. I supervise undergraduate, MSc, PsychD, and PhD students and trainees.
Research interests
I am interested in how people make sense of a threat to their health and how these lay understandings of illness influence the actions that people take to manage or avoid an illness. The health psychology models that I generally employ are attribution theory and the self-regulatory model of illness (see Jane Ogden’s Health Psychology: A Textbook for more information about these models). My primary research interest is in risk communication in healthcare contexts.
My primary research interests are in communicating health risk information to both patients and the general public and how best to do this in order to change behaviour. I have conducted research on whether genetic testing for disease results in people becoming more fatalistic about their risk and less likely to engage in behaviours that may reduce their risk. The finding from a randomised controlled trial with people who have an inherited predisposition to high cholesterol levels putting them at risk of coronary heart disease suggested that they did not become more fatalistic. Rather the findings suggest that identifying predisposing genes may reinforce the belief that medication is the best way to treat the condition. The findings from this research are listed in the publications below. PDF versions of the PowerPoint conference presentations of these findings can be found here [vspres1][vspres2]
Related to this interest in genetic testing for disease, I have conducted research funded by the ESRC with colleagues in the School of Human Sciences on public attitudes to genomics. This research has its own webpage which can be found here [link to webpage]. In addition I have conducted research on communicating with patients undergoing nuclear medicine procedures with colleagues in the Psychology Department and at the Royal Surrey County Hospital. One aspect of this study was an analysis of the written information given to patients attending nuclear medicine departments nationally and a presentation of these findings can be found here [vspres3].
Currently I am particularly interested in the impact of using visual images for risk communication. For example, I have supervised student dissertations investigating the health warnings on cigarette packs and whether using visual images has more impact on people that the standard written health warnings. In patient groups, I am also investigating how patients with hypertension respond to seeing images of their carotid arteries. From the perspective of the self-regulation model of illness, we would expect patients who are shown evidence of atherosclerosis in their arteries to have a more coherent and concrete understanding of their disease and to be more motivated to engage in risk-reducing behaviours. Research on both of these topics is currently underway.
Research funding
Shepherd R.S. (PI), Coyle A.G., Sturgis P., Barnett J., Fife-Schaw C., Senior V., & Moran-Ellis J. Understanding public attitudes to Genomics. ESRC, 2003 – 2006. 703k.
Barnett J. (PI), Shepherd R.S., Senior V., & Vincent, J. Communicating Uncertainty: Mobile Telecommunication Health Risks. Department of Health, 2004-2006.
Hinton P. (joint PI), Senior V. (joint PI), Greaves C., Barnett J., & Clark M. Information to accompany patients undergoing nuclear medicine procedures. HSE, 2004-2005
Cropley, M. (PI), Ogden, J., & Senior, V. Communicating with patients: User testing patient information sheets. Pfizer, 2006-2007.
Journal articles
Sissons Joshi, M. & Senior, V. (1998). Journey to work: the potential for modal shift? Health Education Journal, 57, 212-223.
Senior, V., Marteau, T.M., & Peters, T.J. (1999). Will genetic testing for predisposition for disease result in fatalism? A qualitative study of parents responses to neonatal screening for familial hypercholesterolaemia, Social Science & Medicine, 48, 1857-1860.
Senior, V., Marteau, T.M., & Weinman, J. (2000). Impact of genetic testing on causal models of heart disease and arthritis: an analogue study, Psychology & Health, 14, 1077-1088
French, D.P., Marteau, T.M., Senior, V., & Weinman, J. (2000). Perceptions of multiple risk factors for heart attacks, Psychological Reports, 87, 681-687.
Marteau, T.M., Senior, V., & Sasieni, P. (2001). Women’s understanding of a “normal smear test result”: experimental questionnaire based study, BMJ, 322, 526-528.
French, D.P., Senior, V., Weinman, J., & Marteau, T.M. (2001). Causal attributions for heart disease: a systematic review, Psychology & Health, 16, 77-98.
Newton, JT., Constable, D., & Senior, V. (2001). Patients’ perceptions of MRSA and source isolation: a qualitative analysis of source isolated patients, Journal of Hospital Infection, 48, 275-280.
Sissons Joshi, M., Senior, V., & Smith, G.P. (2001). A diary study of the risk perceptions of road users, Health, Risk, & Society, 3, 261-279
Millward, ML., Kelly, P., Deacon, A., Senior, V., & Peters, TJ. (2001) Self-rated psychosocial consequences and quality of life in the acute porphyrias, Journal of Inherited Metabolic Diseases, 24, 733-747.
Senior, V., Smith, J., Michie S., & Marteau, T.M. (2002). Making sense of risk: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of vulnerability to heart disease, Journal of Health Psychology, 7, 157-168.
French, D., Marteau, T.M., Senior, V., & Weinman, J. (2002). Eliciting causal beliefs about heart attacks: A comparison of implicit and explicit methods, Journal of Health Psychology, 7, 433-444.
Senior, V., Weinman, J., & Marteau, T.M. (2002). The influence of perceived control over causes on responses to health threats: a vignette study, British Journal of Health Psychology, 7, 203-211.
French, D.P., Marteau, T.M., Senior, V., Weinman, J. (2002). The structure of beliefs about the causes of heart attacks: A network analysis, British Journal of Health Psychology, 7, 463-479.
Michie, S., Smith, J.A., Senior, V., & Marteau, T.M. (2003). Understanding why negative genetic test results sometimes fail to reassure, American Journal of Medical Genetics, 119A, 340-347.
Marteau, T.M., Senior, V., Humphries, S.E., Bobrow, M., Cranston, T., Crook, M.A., Day, L., Fernandez, M., Horne, R., Iversen, A., Jackson, Z., Lynas, J., Middleton-Price, H., Savine, R., Sikorski, J., Watson, M., Weinman, J., Wierzbicki, A.S., & Wray, R. (2004). Psychological impact of genetic testing for Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) within an aware population: a randomised controlled trial, American Journal of Medical Genetics, 128, 285-293.
French, D.P., Marteau, T.M., Weinman, J., & Senior, V. (2004). Explaining differences in causal attributions of patient and non-patient samples, Psychology, Health & Medicine,9, 259-272.
Senior, V., Marteau T.M., & Weinman, J. (2004). Self-reported adherence to cholesterol-lowering medication in patients with Familial Hypercholesterolaemia: the role of illness perceptions, Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy, 18, 475-481.
Senior, V., Marteau, T.M., & Weinman, J. on behalf of the Genetic Risk Assessment for FH Trial (GRAFT) Study Group (2005). Perceptions of control over heart disease in people with an inherited predisposition to raised cholesterol, Psychology, Health & Medicine, 10, 16-30.
Shennan A, Jones, G., Hawken, J., Crawshaw, S., Judah, J., Senior, V., Marteau, T., Chinn, S., & Poston, L. (2005). Fetal fibronectin test predicts delivery before 30 weeks of gestation in high risk women, but increases anxiety, BJOG – An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 112, 293-298.
French, D.P., Marteau, T.M., Senior, V. & Weinman, J. (2005). How valid are measures of beliefs about the causes of illness? The case of myocardial infarction. Psychology and Health, 20, 615-635.
Humphries, S.E., Cranston, T., Allen, M., Middleton-Price, H., Fernandez, M.C., Senior, V., Hawe, E., Iversen, A., Wray, R., Crook, M.A., & Wierzbicki, A.S., (2006). Mutational analysis in UK patients with a clinical diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia: relationship with plasma lipid traits, heart disease risk and utility in relative tracing, Journal of Molecular Medicine-JMM, 84, 203-214.
Sutton, V., Robbins, I., Senior, V., & Sedwick, G. (2006). A qualitative study exploring refugee minors’ personal accounts of post-traumatic growth and positive change processes in adapting to life in the UK, Diversity in Health and Social Care, 3, 77-88.
Barnett, J., Timotijevic, L., Shepherd, R., & Senior, V. (2007). Uncertainty and precaution: public responses to information about the possible health risks of Mobile Phones, Health Policy., 82, 240-250.
Senior, V. & Marteau T.M. (in press) Causal models of raised cholesterol and perceptions of effective risk-reduction: Self-regulation strategies for an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, Psychology & Health.
Book Chapters
Marteau, T.M. & Senior, V. (1997). Illness representations after the Human Genome Project: the perceived role of genes in causing illness. Chapter in K.J. Petrie & J.A. Weinman (Eds.), Perceptions of Health & Illness: Current Research and Applications (pp. 241-266). Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers
Senior, V. & Cropley, M. (2007). Genetic testing and stress. Chapter in Fink G. (Editor in Chief). Encyclopedia of Stress 2nd Edition, Academic Press: Oxford. . California: Elsevier inc
