Revisiting the Social Determinants of Health: understanding stress & trauma

At this one-night only event, join us to hear influential and top ranked scientist Professor Orla Muldoon unpack and update some of the great debates regarding mental health.

Research in psychology, medicine and psychiatry has consistently highlighted the importance of both demographic variables and social relationships to the management of stress and health.

One way in which these social relationships can be theorised is through a social identity framework.

Whilst an understanding of the impact of social factors, and social identities in particular, on psychological stress has emerged, the extensive social-psychological literature on the nature of social relationships has not been integrated into our understanding of physiological stress responses.

This talk will cover how group memberships and social connectedness are key to understanding cardiovascular, immunological and hormonal stress responses and considers how these findings add value in health policy and practice.

Program:

• 5:30 - 6:30pm: Public Lecture
• 6:30 - 7:30pm: Networking and poster presenations (in the Foyer)

Biography

Stanford Ranking 2024 of the World's Top Scientists ranks Professor Muldoon in the top 2% of Scientists worldwide. At this one-night only event, join us in hearing this influential scientist unpack and update some of the great debates regarding mental health.

Professor Muldoon completed her Bachelors and PhD degree in the School of Psychology at Queens University Belfast. completed an advanced methods training in the University of Michigan on completion of my PhD thanks to a JFK travel Scholarship. She has engaged in research in psychology as an academic since 1996 having held positions at Ulster, Queens University Belfast and University of Limerick.

She is a social psychologist which means that she is interested in how social contexts and in particular social systems and structures can shape behaviour, attitudes and particularly health. In the USA and elsewhere this is often called political psychology as many of our systems and structures are shaped by power, status and cultural forces. These same cultural forces, are often not interrogated because they are assumed and acceptable in wider society. Social psychology allows us to interrogate these processes and lay them bare. in so doing we can understand them and attempt to improve on systems that may inadvertently harm ourselves and others.

As well as undertaking teaching and research in this area, she regularly contributes to the news media and in particular offer opinion editorials in the Irish Times. In these pieces, she uses a social psychological lens to attempt to understand a particular social phenomena. She was awarded the Nevitt Sandford award from the International Society of Political Psychology in 2020 an award given to those offering practical application of political psychological principles and creating accessible knowledge. She is a current European Research Council Advanced awardee which has allowed open access publication of my recent book The Social Psychology of Trauma: connecting the Personal and the Political. She is a current member of the Irish Medical Council and served previously on the Behaviour and communications committee advising the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) and the Irish Research Council.