Dr. Christine Simmonds-Moore
Room: HCA AEW024
Telephone: (0151) 291 2158
Email:simmonc@hope.ac.uk
Office Hours mondays 2-3.30 and wednesdays 11-12.30
Research Interests
My main research interests fall into the areas of parapsychology, psychology of anomalous, spiritual and peak experiences, dreams, nightmares and sleep related experiences, states of consciousness such as dreaming and hypnagogic thinking, and related personality types, mental health and transcendence.
Areas of research for Dissertation supervision
The majority of my research has taken a quantitative approach, although I have recently undertaken some qualitative research. As such, I could supervise students adopting either research perspective. This year, I willing to supervise a project investigating one of the following areas:
- ESP/subjective paranormal experiences and personality (in particular boundary related personality types; Hartmann’s Boundary Questionnaire, Thalbourne’s Transliminality, The schizotypy construct).
- Handedness/laterality and subjective paranormal experiences/ESP performance.
- Mental health/life adjustment and paranormal experiences/ESP.
- Do sleep variables (sleep quality, sleep length, etc.) correlate with subjective paranormal experiences/ESP performance?
- Addressing the interactions between personality, type of psi task and ESP performance
- Time of day and ESP performance.
- Extrasensory perception and emotional intelligence
- Gender role and paranormal experiences
- The phenomenology of ‘psychic’ experiences (e.g., psychokinesis, ‘spiritual healing’, precognition, etc.).
Anomalous and transcendent experiences
- What is the nature of the ganzfeld state of consciousness? (assessment employing the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory)
- An exploration of hallucinations (such as hearing voices) in the normal population.
- how do hallucinations relate to sleep patterns?
- Belief in the paranormal/personality and hearing sounds in random noise
- Belief in the paranormal/ personality and seeing shapes in random noise<
- Intrusive thoughts and the hypnagogic state of consciousness
- Can the ganzfeld be useful as a therapeutic tool, e.g., in increasing relaxation, reducing anxiety, etc.?
- Synaesthesia and creativity/anomalous experiences/personality
- The “flow” state
- Gender role and spirituality
Personality/mood
- Exploring schizotypy as a personality construct
- Healthy aspects of schizotypy
- Schizotypy and creativity
- Schizotypy and mental health
- Schizotypy and sleep patterns
- Healthy aspects of schizotypy
- Body image and mood. Does body image shift according to the mood one is in?
- Correlates of Hartmann’s boundary questionnaire (e.g., sexuality, Emotional Intelligence, creativity).
- The effects of geomagnetism/weather on emotionality/personality (e.g., temporal lobe lability)
- Exploring autism as a personality dimension
- Boundary thinness and subliminal perception/detection of signals hidden amid random noise
Sleep, Dreaming and the hypnagogic state
- Assessing hypnagogic experiences during the daytime
- Flying dreams and personality
- Nightmares, personality, mental health
- Lucid dreaming and mental health
- Lucid dreaming and the control of nightmares
- Meditation and its relationship to nocturnal sleep patterns
- Meditation and personality boundaries
- Meditation and mental health
Teaching responsibilities
Perspectives on anomalousexperiences (third year option course)
Biological psychology
Human Development, Personality and Individual Differences co-module leader)
Foundations of psychology - seminar
Foundations of psychology - Research Methods
Dissertation module leader
Supervision of third year dissertations
Applications of psychology
Publications
Roe
Simmonds, C. A. & Fox, J. (2004). Note: A pilot investigation into sensory noise, schizotypy and extrasensory perception. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 68, 253-261.
Simmonds, C. A & Roe C. A. (2000). Personality correlates of anomalous experiences, perceived ability and beliefs: Schizotypy, temporal lobe signs and gender. Journal of Parapsychology, 64 (3), 252-253.
Sherwood S.J., Roe