New professor bridges lab and real-world in psychological research
Christine Parsons, director of Interacting Minds Centre, has been appointed professor of translational psychological science at Aarhus University as of 1 June. Her research focuses on combining measures from the lab and the real world to further our understanding of mental health and well-being in a range of situations.
Most parents have had sleepless nights, kept awake by their crying infants, asking themselves; is my baby supposed to cry this much?
Parents’ sleep patterns and understanding of their infants crying are just some of the many areas of research, which occupy newly appointed professor Christine Parsons. She is director of the interdisciplinary research centre Interacting Minds at Aarhus University and is particularly interested in research methods that triangulate patients’ experiences by combining different ways of measuring symptoms.
“Mental health is complex, and we've traditionally relied on patients’ recollections of their symptoms to measure it. My work uses different methods to capture symptoms, such as “in-the-moment” measures, where people report their current experiences via their phones,” says Christine Parsons, who is affiliated with the Department of Clinical Medicine.
Both her research centre and professorship are also based in part at the School of Culture and Society, and the new professor’s work is interdisciplinary at its very core.
“I work with the precision of lab experiments and the messiness of data from the real world. The aim is to inform and ultimately improve mental health treatment by helping clinicians and researchers understand exactly how psychological treatments bring about changes in patients’ symptoms and behaviour," explains Christine Parsons.
Contact
Professor Christine Parsons
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine,
Interacting Minds Centre
Phone: (+45) 87 16 21 27
Mail: christine.parsons@cas.au.dk