Dr Jennifer Coe

Jennifer’s teaching expertise focuses on social, developmental, evolutionary,  forensic, abnormal, and biological psychology as well as both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Most recently Jennifer has taught on the following modules:

Level 5

• Psychological Aspects of Health and Wellbeing
• Social and Developmental Psychology (Module leader)
• Qualitative Data Analysis

Level 6

• Abnormal Psychology
• Psychology of Gender and Sexuality (Module leader)
• Psychology Project

Level 7

• Forensic Psychology (Module leader)

Jennifer is personal academic coach for Level 4, Level 5, and Level 6 students. She is also currently co-supervising two PhD student’s (One in Psychology and one in Criminology) with another (Psychology) in place for January 2024.

Jennifer completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Suffolk (partnered with University of Essex). Her research explored human attraction, sexual orientation, sex typicality and theories of biological (hormonal) and evolutionary psychology in relation to attraction patterns. Jennifer is preparing three papers from this for submission to The Journal of Sex Research.

Jennifer has extensive knowledge in the specialise research equipment for Psychology within the labs at UoS. She works with staff and students on several research projects within the undergraduate and postgraduate Psychology courses. She uses statistical software as well as software packages for experimental data collection such as SONA, Qualtrics, Inquisit and E-Prime. She also uses experimental equipment such as EEG, Eye Tracker and Neuroscan. She also has experience in suing qualitative analysis aids such as Atlas.ti and NVIVO.

Current Research Projects

Jennifer is currently involved in an education-based research project exploring different teaching pedagogy (Block and Blend) on higher education psychology students and staff at the University of Suffolk using VLE data and focus groups. .  Findings will be disseminated in a peer reviewed journal article(s), and to the British Psychological Society (BPS).

Jennifer is also co-researcher on a Social Justice Research project – When the going gets tough, the touch get going. This  project aims to  provide a valuable insight into the challenges and problems in Ipswich - as seen through the lens of service providers and service users. The research will focus upon 10 ‘Top up shops’ distributed across Ipswich which are organised and managed by a minister and volunteers of the Anglican. A conference for this is being held in The Hold on 21st June 2023.

A paper will also be written from this over the summer 2023.

Previous Research Projects

Jennifer has been involved in several quantitative and qualitative research projects and has recently published a case study on Action Research in the Higher Education Academy Action Research Practice Guide.  She has also completed several book reviews for SAGE Publications.

She was involved in a project commissioned by Suffolk County Council to review and evaluate the MyGo centre services for NEET young people, mental health and wellbeing and their routes into employment through a programme called MyLife. Jennifer attended and presented at ‘A Childs World’ conference in Aberystwyth, where an abstract was also published. 

Jennifer completed an internship at the University of East Anglia as a member of the research team for the project COURAGE. This project aided the development of a research culture and community within UoS PGR students by using several activities, workshops and support sessions as well as allowed for there to be a recognition and increase in support for PGR wellbeing. Jennifer’s report was part of a wider report produced by UEA and was presented to funding bodies.

Publications

Selected publications (see ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4422-7525 for full listing)

Coe, J. (2018). Psychology staff perspectives on students’ engagement at University of Suffolk. Guide to Undertaking Action Research, Action Research: Sector Case Studies, Higher Education Academy, 14-19.

Coe, J., and Rawlings, V. (2018) Reflective case study of the implications of children and young people exiting the education system early: NEET circumstances, low mental health and wellbeing. Presentation at the Child’s World Conference, Aberystwyth, July 2018.

Under review

Apopei, D., Coe, J., & Cordoba, S. (2023). Family, media, and peers and social comparisons, a thematic analysis of young Caucasian men’s understandings of body dissatisfaction. Under review - The Journal of Men’s Studies.

Dodgers, S., Cordoba, S., & Coe, J. (2023). Examining the role of childhood experiences in gender identity and expression: An interpretative phenomenological analysis using social learning theory. Under review – Gender Issues.

Jennifer is the Executive editor of the Journal of Suffolk Student Research. The Journal of Suffolk Student Research is an online, open access, academic, peer-reviewed journal. It is dedicated to the publication of high-quality undergraduate and taught postgraduate student research undertaken by University of Suffolk students. It aims to showcase the most outstanding primary or secondary data analysis student research undertaken at the University of Suffolk. The journal seeks to promote and recognise the exceptional student research undertaken by our students by offering valuable early experience of academic publishing and the peer review process. The journal is open to the public with the aim of providing engaging content for a non-specialist readership. In addition, an annual graduate conference, open to the public, will be held to coincide with the publication of the journal volume.

If you would like to find out more about the journal please visit the journal’s website https://libguides.uos.ac.uk/journals/studentresearch.  There is also a dedicated email address for any enquires: suffolkjournal@uos.ac.uk.

Jennifer holds the following Professional Memberships:

• Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
• Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society
• Member of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society