25. Professor Marie Johnston, Professor Emeritus of Health Psychology at the University of Aberdeen

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Professor Marie Johnston is our guest on the first episode back, hosted by Stuart King and Dr Tiago Moutela…what a start!

Marie epitomises what this show is all about. Her passion, dedication and steadfast commitment to her values shine through as she describes her journey to where she is today. 

A Registered Health and Clinical Psychologist, and Professor Emeritus of Health Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, Marie has been at the forefront of health psychology for five decades and was described by a colleague as having “kept health psychology in the UK on a scientific foundation.”

Marie conducts research on behaviour change in health and healthcare contexts and on disability (theory, measurement and intervention). 

 
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and Honorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society, European Health Psychology Society and the Health Psychology and Public Health Network. 

 Marie shares her career journey; from the University of St Andrews, Royal Free Hospital and Oxford University, having completed her BSc at the University of Aberdeen and PhD at the University of Hull. 

 
Having had many decisions to make, Marie describes the core values that have guided her throughout:

1.     Make a difference: it must have practical implications or influence policy

2.     High quality: it must be intellectually valid and use the very best methodology

Stuart and Marie discuss a wide range of topics including:

• The role of self-efficacy in predicting health outcomes for people with impairments
• Examples of successful working between academia and medicine, resulting in significant impact
• Advice to people starting out in careers who want to get into applied behavioural psychology 
• The role of behaviour change in the reduction of COVID transmission

Ultimately Marie promotes working with quality, integrity, purpose, and mutual respect. 

Marie is not particularly active on social media, but you can contact her on her via email: m.johnston@abdn.ac.uk