Dr Anna Doering

I am Reader in Psychology and PhD Coordinator in Social Sciences at the University of Westminster. 

My research focuses on the development of personal values from early childhood through adolescence to adulthood. I am the developer of the Picture-Based Value Survey for Children (PBVS-C), which is the first instrument to measure children’s through self-report. The PBVS-C has been adapted for application in 13 countries, and there are more adaptations ongoing. Based on this line of research, I published my Habilitation thesis entitled “Value Development in Childhood and Adolescence: Insights into an Emerging Field”, and I was awarded the Venia Legendi for Psychology by the University of Muenster, Germany.

We are currently running a 4-year international project project on 'The Formation of Children's Values in School', funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation / the ESRC:

https://bildungswissenschaften.unibas.ch/en/research/value-formation-in-school/

My teaching covers BSc, MSc, and PhD programmes and is mainly in developmental and personality psychology as well as statistics and research methods. I am also PhD supervisor, currently supervising three PhD students. 

I am passionate about how we can teach psychological research methods and statistics in a way, so that the learning process is joyful and inspiring instead of stressful and frustrating. This has given rise to my second new strand of research on challenges and innovations in teaching psychology.

My academic journey has taken me…

… from the University of Muenster, Germany, where I studied psychology

… to Macquarie University Sydney, Australia, where I completed my MSc project on programme evaluation

… back to Muenster to complete my PhD (psychology & educational sciences) wherein I developed the first instrument to assess children’s values… and then stayed as Postdoc to take this line of research further. During this time, I also had the opportunity to contribute to managerial tasks (e.g., ERASMUS teaching exchange, organisation of scientific conferences)

… to Royal Holloway, University of London, as research fellow in my own project on ‘The Development of Children’s Values’ and later as Postdoctoral Teaching Associate

...and now to Westminster where my work has a very international outlook. My list of publication shows my collaborations on value development, values education, and cross-cultural assessment with researchers in the UK, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Austria, Brazil, Poland, New Zealand, the US, the Netherlands, and Israel.

My research has been funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) / the ESRC, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Quintin Hogg Trust, and the German-Polish Research Foundation (Deutsch-Polnische Wissenschaftsstiftung).

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.