What does "applied" actually mean? Reflections from the APRG
When we launched this Applied Psychology Research Group (APRG) blog in September 2024, we described ourselves as a group that embraces "varied methodological approaches to diverse domains within applied psychology." Which is true. It's also, we'll admit, a sentence that tells you almost nothing about what we actually do, where we actually do it and who we actually do it with. Eighteen months later, we think we can do better.
Looking back across nearly twenty posts, a clearer picture emerges — not just about research topics, but about something we share, beyond methodology or domain. Applied psychology brings a particular way of asking questions; questions that almost always start with a person navigating a situation, often a situation that they didn’t choose.
Sometimes that person is struggling. In Thriving or languishing? Fostering Mental Wellbeing in the Corporate Workplace, it was Susan, signed off sick with stress, with HR now involved. In Traditional hiring processes and neurodivergent job seekers, it was a candidate struggling with a system that wasn't designed with them in mind, but that could easily be made more inclusive. In Making Positive Moves, we focused on people with learning disabilities trying to build a life in the community after living in hospital. These are the kinds of people we work with and who our research is commissioned to help.
Other times, the person is doing something seemingly ordinary — exercising, going to work, watching a performer make a coin disappear — and our question may be: what's actually happening here, psychologically? What does the research really say, and does it hold up to scrutiny? The real magic of magic, More than muscle, and Why do some psychology studies not replicate well? all start from that kind of curiosity: not scepticism for its own sake, but a genuine commitment to life sciences, to understanding what the evidence tells us and remembering that the narratives will change as understanding develops.
That commitment to evidence is what unifies us most. It shows up in our post on Walk the Walk: Promoting Research Integrity, in the care our contributors take to distinguish what the data shows from what it's tempting to claim, and it shows up in the honesty with which we've written about uncertainty, including the messy, complicated reality of The Perils of Power Posing Research, where a finding that seemed revolutionary turned out to be far less certain than its viral TED talk suggested.
Applied psychology means embracing uncertainty and sitting with the tension between what people want to hear and what the evidence allows us to say; between individual experience and systemic patterns; between the urgency of real-world problems and the patience that rigorous research requires; between the rigour of the ideal study and the reality of what is possible to fund. Our post on Overwhelmed by the shifting demands of commissioned research spoke to this directly — the pressure researchers face when funders, timelines, and findings don't always align.
Looking back, we are proud of how often our posts have championed the relevance of applied psychology. Why EDI matters to me made the case that inclusion isn't a niche interest but a lens that sharpens all our work. Empowering young people: improving mental health through physical activity reminded us that some of the most effective interventions are also the most accessible. Supporting student mental health through SUNMENTORS showed what happens when you bring psychological knowledge to bear on a specific community, with specific needs.
So, this is what applied means: psychology that doesn't stay in the lab or the lecture theatre. Research that starts with real problems, engages with real people, and tries to be useful, honest, careful and compassionate.
We're proud of where our first eighteen months have taken us and we hope that you will join us in our future travels. If you're a researcher, practitioner, student, or someone who found one of our posts through a search and stayed, thank you for reading. We'd love to hear from you.
The Applied Psychology Research Group, University of Hertfordshire
An updated welcome to the APRG Blog
In light of this reflection, we also asked Claude to critique and update our original blog launch announcement post, and after adding human intervention to what it produced for us, we'd like to re-welcome you to the APRG blog!
Psychology can be applied to almost every aspect of human experience. That's not a claim we make lightly, it's something we've spent our careers testing out, one study, one collaboration, one problem at a time.
The Applied Psychology Research Group at the University of Hertfordshire brings together researchers working across occupational and organisational psychology, forensic psychology, health and wellbeing, sport and exercise, cyberpsychology, cognitive psychology, EDI, and more. What we share isn't a single topic but a common commitment: to research that starts with real questions and tries, rigorously, honestly and carefully, to be useful.
This blog is part of how we make our work more visible and more accessible. We publish a new post each month, written by members of the group and, occasionally, by colleagues and collaborators from further afield. You'll find reflections on our research, honest appraisals of evidence you might have seen reported elsewhere, and perspectives on what applied psychology looks like across the many different contexts our work touches.
We also genuinely want to hear from you. If a post raises a question, challenges something you thought you knew, or resonates with something in your own work or life, please contact us via our staff profiles to let us know. This was always meant to be a two-way conversation.
If you're new here, please start wherever your curiosity takes you, browse our previous posts, and see what catches your eye.
Author
APRG Research Fellow, Dr Han Newman
APRG Lead and Professor of Forensic Psychology, Joanna R Adler