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Rusi Jaspal

Professor of Psychology

School of Social Sciences

Role

Rusi Jaspal is Professor of Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, where he also leads the Identity Change Research Group. He also sits on Nottingham Trent University Shadow Executive Team. Rusi Jaspal is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Rusi Jaspal studied at the University of Cambridge, the University of Surrey, and Royal Holloway, University of London. After his PhD, he completed an ESRC post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Nottingham. In 2015, Rusi Jaspal was awarded a personal chair in Psychology and Sexual Health at De Montfort University Leicester and became the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at the same institution in 2018. From 2016 until 2019, he was Adjunct Professor of Minority Research at Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland. He served as the Social Isolation Advisor to Wandsworth Borough Council 2019-20. Rusi Jaspal joined Nottingham Trent University in 2020.

Prof Jaspal serves on the following editorial boards:

Prof Jaspal is a member of many national committees and boards, including:

Rusi Jaspal has won several awards for his research, including:

  • British Psychological Society, Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section’s Outstanding Research by an Early Career Scholar Award. Read more here
  • nOSCARS 2019 for his research into HIV prevention in the British South Asian community. Read more here
  • Ten Out of Ten Award for research into HIV prevention in BAME communities. Read more here

Research areas

Professor Jaspal's research cuts across the fields of psychology and public health, focussing particularly on social psychological approaches to promoting good psychological and physical health outcomes. He has developed the Health Adversity Risk Model (HARM) to predict the impact of social and psychological stressors and identity threat on health outcomes. Much of his research using the model has focused on HIV prevention, HIV care and mental health.

Rusi Jaspal has contributed to the development of Identity Process Theory.

Additionally, Professor Jaspal has conducted extensive research into aspects of psychological wellbeing among gay men, the management of identities in conflict, prejudice and discrimination, and public understanding of science, technology and medicine. Rusi Jaspal is the author or editor of 6 books, and has written over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and several reports for the Department of Health. He continues to supervise and examine PhD students in his areas of expertise.

He is the author of The Social Psychology of Gay Men (Palgrave, 2019).

Current projects include:

  • The relationship between conspiracy theory and sexual risk-taking among gay and bisexual men.
  • The impact of coming out as gay on identity processes.
  • The development and validation of measures of COVID-19 perceived risk and preventive behaviours.
  • The role of identity resilience in coping with psychological adversity.

Recent projects include:

Publications

BOOKS

Jaspal, R. (2020). Trans Women and HIV: Social Psychological Perspectives. London: Palgrave. BUY

Jaspal, R. & Bayley, J. (2020). HIV and Gay Men: Clinical, Social and Psychological Aspects. London: Palgrave. BUY

Jaspal, R. (2019). The Social Psychology of Gay Men. London: Palgrave. BUY

Jaspal, R. (2018). Enhancing Sexual Health, Self-Identity and Wellbeing among Men Who Have Sex With Men: A Guide for Practitioners. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. BUY

Jaspal, R. (2014). Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism: Representation, Cognition and Everyday Talk. London: Routledge. BUY

Jaspal, R. & Breakwell, G.M. (eds.) (2014). Identity Process Theory: Identity, Social Action and Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. BUY

See all of Rusi Jaspal's publications...