Dr Sarah Butter

Overview

Sarah Butter is a Lecturer in Psychology at Ulster University, teaching in both the School of Psychology and the School of Medicine. Sarah completed her PhD at Ulster University in 2019 before working as a postdoctoral researcher at a number of institutions: Administrative Data Research Centre at Ulster University; the Stress, Trauma & Related Conditions lab at Queen’s University Belfast; and on the ESRC-funded COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium Study at The University of Sheffield. Since 2022, Sarah has worked as a lecturer in psychology at Ulster University

Research Focus

Sarah’s primary research interests are in the areas of mental health, particularly psychosis, as well as understanding the role of trauma and social adversity in developing mental health difficulties. Related to the topic of her PhD research, Sarah is also interested negative self-evaluative concepts (e.g., self-criticism, shame, feelings of inferiority, etc.) and their role as a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology. Her research involves using data from large-scale cross-sectional and longitudinal epidemiological surveys, and administrative data resources to examine population-level health and wellbeing using a broad array of sophisticated modelling techniques.

Teaching

Sarah teaches in both the Schools of Psychology and Medicine.

In the School of Psychology, Sarah is the module co-ordinator for PSY111 Introduction to Psychology 2 on the undergraduate psychology programme. She has also previously contributed to teaching on PSY719 Bio-behavioural Mechanisms Underlying Health and PSY717 Social, Cultural and Family Perspectives in Health Psychology on the MSc Health Psychology programme.

Sarah is the Psychology Lead for the graduate-entry MBBS programme in the School of Medicine. She also leads the Year 1 and Year 2 student-selected component (SSC) within the School, where she oversees mini research projects (literature reviews and secondary data analysis) conducted by medical students.

Research Supervision

Sarah supervises dissertation students on the BSc Psychology and MSc Applied Psychology (Mental Health and Psychological Therapies) programmes.

Memberships

Sarah is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is currently completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice.