Tag: PhD Research

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The Big Race: Artificial Intelligence and Healthy Ageing  

Research stream: Social Structures

Author: Ilia Marcev, PhD Candidate at the Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, and a Research Assistant with the ALL Institute’s SHAPES Project 

Ilia Marcev

Unless your internet connection has been as unreliable as the weather forecast, or you were marooned on a desert island over the past few weeks, there is a strong chance you heard of the alleged “alien” bodies discovered in Mexico recently. While this strange discovery made international news, it drew very poor engagement and attention from the average UFO-enthusiast, let alone the average person like you and me. I believe it is fair to say that ten years ago this story would have exploded like a supernova across the internet, but today, the majority of people seem rather unconcerned with this novel development in humanity’s timeline. I can only speculate that the reason the world is unconcerned with potentially discovering our Martian neighbours is because, as exciting as alien intelligent life may sound, we are likely far closer to discovering new intelligent life here on Earth that would rival our own. This new intelligence is better known as – Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). 

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Oppenheimer on the Responsibilities of Psychologists

Social Lives

Author: Rachel Brown is a PhD candidate at the Department of Psychology, Maynooth University and a Research Assistant with the ALL Institute’s SHAPES project

Rachel Brown
Rachel Brown

Like many of you, I recently watched Christopher Nolan’s biographic film documenting theoretical psychist Robert Oppenheimer’s involvement in the Manhattan Project and the creation of the first nuclear weapons. Although I enjoyed the film, I was left with a strange sense of unease about scientific knowledge and the power that knowledge has to change the world, and not always for the better. As I drove home, I considered my own responsibilities regarding the knowledge my research will produce. Needless to say, the 20-minute car journey home from the cinema felt very long that day.

Shortly after seeing the film, I came across Oppenheimer’s 1956 address to the American Psychological Association (APA) entitled Analogy in Science. It was an engaging and eloquently written speech and I assure you it is well worth the read. Intriguingly, he gives a stern warning to the field of psychology, while given at the height of behaviourism with widespread fear of mind control over individuals and society, 68 years on Oppenheimer’s warning seems just as relevant now as it did then.

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Blog 3: Systems Thinking in Research: Considering Interrelationships in Research Through Rich Pictures

Stories/Lived Experiences

Authors: Bob Williams, Systems Thinking Practitioner, Trainer and Evaluator – Consultant. Joan O’Donnell, Systems Thinking Trainer and PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute, Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

1st year ADVANCE CRT Student Induction, Cork January 20 A number of people are standing in a circle, one of them is speaking.
1st year ADVANCE CRT Student Induction, Cork January 2023

Let’s start with a true story. It follows on from our last blog about focus and scope. But it highlights our tendency to start with focusing in on the subject of our research–with boundary setting­–rather than considering the wider scope, especially when faced with ‘a problem’ that we hope our research will address. Stating that something is a ‘problem’ is a form of boundary setting, as we will see.

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