Staff Profile

Roles

I teach on the MSc in Foundations in Clinical  Psychology. I also supervise Undergraduate and Postgraduate dissertations.

Qualifications 

BEd/MA English Literature: Aberdeen University

BA  Psychology: Cardiff University

DPhil: University of Oxford ,

Previous Academic Positions  

I worked at the Universities of Oxford, Greenwich and Surrey before taking up my post here in Newcastle 

Professional Affiliations

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

I teach on the MSc in Foundations in Clinical Psychology course. I am the module leader for the Cultural issues in Clinical and Health Psychology and the Professional Issues modules and supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations in the broad area of the cognitive processes involved in anxiety disorders, particularly obsessions, phobias and hoarding.

My research has been broadly based around cognitive processes in anxiety - particularly in Specific Phobias and OCD.  I am also interested in Evolutionary approaches to psychopathology.  More recently I have become interested in issues around hoarding behaviour and contamination obsessions as well as problems related to the compulsive use of mobile phones and social media.

My Google Scholar page can be found here: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=1bIV-BEAAAAJ&hl=en

• Thorpe S, Bolster A, Neave N. Exploring aspects of the cognitive behavioural model of physical hoarding in relation todigital hoarding behaviours. Digital Health 2019, 5(1), 1-8.
• Vasileiou K, Barnett J, Thorpe S, Young T. Characterising and justifying sample size sufficiency in interview-based studies: systematic analysis of qualitative healthresearch over a 15-year period. BMC Medical Research Methodology 2018, 18(18), 148.
• Perera-Delcourt R, Nash R, Thorpe SJ. Priming Moral Self-Ambivalence Heightens Deliberative Behaviour in Self-Ambivalent Individuals. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy 2013, 12, 1-11.
• Lee M, Shafran R, Burgess C, Carpenter J, Millard E, Thorpe SJ. The induction of mental and contact contamination. Clinical Psychologist 2013, 17(1), 9-16.
• Cropper J, Edwards L, Hearst D, Durling E, Ward C, Albon H, Roberts C, Thorpe S, Murray J. Factors associated with a difficult induction of general anaesthesia. Cochlear Implants International 2011, 12(s2), s30-s32.
• Dittner A, Rimes KA, Thorpe S. Negative perfectionism increases the risk of fatigue following a period of stress. Psychology & Health 2011, 26(3), 253-268.
• Thorpe SJ, Barnett JC, Friend K, Nottingham K. The Mediating Roles of Disgust Sensitivity and Danger Expectancy in Relation to Hand Washing Behaviour. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy 2011, 39(2), 175-190.
• Lewis JR, Gold A, Thorpe S. The Contribution of Religion to Culture: British Muslims’ Representations of Chronic Pain. In: Chybicka, A., Safdar, S., Kazmierczak, M, ed. Culture and Gender: An Intimate Relation. Gdansk: GWP, 2009, pp.58-75.
• Cougle JR, Salkovskis PM, Thorpe SJ. “Perhaps you only imagined doing it”: Reality-monitoring in obsessive-compulsive checkers using semi-idiographic stimuli. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 2008, 39(3), 305-320.
• Thorpe SJ, Salkovskis PM, Dittner A. Claustrophobia in MRI: the role of cognitions. Magnetic Resonance Imaging 2008, 26(8), 1081-1088.
• Thorpe SJ, Brosnan MJ. Does computer anxiety reach levels which conform to DSM IV criteria for specific phobia?. Computers in Human Behavior 2007, 23(3), 1258-1272.
• Brosnan MJ, Thorpe SJ. An evaluation of two clinically-derived treatments for technophobia. Computers in Human Behavior 2006, 22(6), 1080-1095.
• Thorpe SJ, Ahmed B, Steer K. Reasons for undergoing cosmetic surgery: a retrospective study. Sexualities, Evolution & Gender 2004, 6(2-3), 75-96.
• Simonds LM, Thorpe SJ. Attitudes toward obsessive-compulsive disorders - An experimental investigation. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 2003, 38(6), 331-336.
• Salkovskis PM, Thorpe SJ, Wahl K, Wroe AL, Forrester E. Neutralizing increases discomfort associated with obsessional thoughts: An experimental study with obsessional patients. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 2003, 112(4), 709-715.
• Thorpe SJ, Patel SP, Simonds LM. The relationship between disgust sensitivity, anxiety and obsessions. Behaviour Research and Therapy 2003, 41(12), 1397-1409.
• Thorpe SJ, Salkovskis PM. Recall and recognition memory for spider information. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 2000, 14(4), 359-375.
• Salkovskis PM, Wroe AL, Gledhill A, Morrison N, Forrester E, Richards C, Reynolds M, Thorpe S. Responsibility attitudes and interpretations are characteristic of obsessive compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy 2000, 38(4), 347-372.
• Simonds LM, Thorpe SJ, Elliott S. The Obsessive Compulsive Inventory: Psychometric properties in a nonclinical student sample. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy 2000, 28(2), 153-159.
• Thorpe SJ, Salkovskis PM. Selective attention to real phobic and safety stimuli. Behaviour Research and Therapy 1998, 36(5), 471-481.
• Thorpe SJ, Salkovskis PM. Studies on the role of disgust in the acquisition and maintenance of specific phobias. Behaviour Research and Therapy 1998, 36(9), 877-893.
• Thorpe SJ, Salkovskis PM. Animal Phobias. In: Davey, G.C.L, ed. Phobias: A Handbook of Theory, Research and Treatment. Chichester; New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 1997, pp.81-106.
• Thorpe SJ, Salkovskis PM. Information processing in spider phobics: The stroop colour naming task may indicate strategic but not automatic attentional bias. Behaviour Research and Therapy 1997, 35(2), 131-144.
• Thorpe SJ, Salkovskis PM. The effect of one-session treatment for spider phobia on attentional bias and beliefs. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 1997, 36(2), 225-241.
• Thorpe S. [Book review] Eysenck, MW (ed.) 'The Blackwell dictionary of cognitive psychology' Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1994. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 1996, 41(4), 385.
• Thorpe S. A day in the life of a PhD Student. The Psychologist 1995, 8(7), 301.
• Thorpe SJ, Salkovskis PM. Phobic beliefs: Do cognitive factors play a role in specific phobias?. Behaviour Research and Therapy 1995, 33(7), 805-816.