Professor Ian Albery

I joined LSBU from the University of Kent in 1999 having previously worked at the University of Reading and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College, London. I am Professor of Psychology, Director of Research and Enterprise for the School of Applied Sciences, and founding head of the University’s Centre for Addictive Behaviours Research.

This centre is one of only a few in the country that takes as its starting point an understanding of addictive behaviours from a psychosocial perspective. We think about and study addictive behaviours beyond simplistic biomedical perspectives to include approaches that tap psychosocial aspects of those behaviours that involve the ingestion of a drug (e.g. alcohol, nicotine via cigarettes or other nicotine delivery systems, opiates, prescription drugs, etc), and the so-called behavioural addictions (e.g. gambling, eating, internet and social media use, sex, etc). I also designed and founded the highly successful MSc in Addiction Psychology and Counselling at LSBU.
My own current research interests focus on how people’s self-image or identity derived from their group membership affects their addictive behaviour and how the types of messages we use to try to get people to think about and change their behaviours operate. So why it is that people are influenced by and have a preference for certain cues in their environments, and how this influences what they do. Why some people recognise that they have a problem but others do not. And all this assumes people may not be aware of what they are thinking when making a decision. I am also working to understand how alcohol impairment affects how people report their memories after witnessing a crime. So, if you thought intuitively a sober witness is more reliable, my research challenges you to think again! Away from addiction, I have a long-standing work programme studying why it is that people think that they are less vulnerable to negative outcomes relative to others, and why that is important when people are deciding healthy or unhealthy decisions.

Course Leader of the MSc Addiction Psychology and Counselling.

Addiction psychology, social psychology, health psychology