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Dr Roy Spina

Senior Lecturer in Psychology in Cultural and Individual Differences Psychology

Roy Spina

About

After completing his BSc in Structural Engineering, Dr Spina worked as an engineer for 2 years before moving to Japan to teach English as a Second Language. Living and teaching in Japan, and subsequently travelling throughout East and Southeast Asia stimulated Dr Spina’s interest in individual and cultural differences. Upon returning from Asia, he completed his BSc in Psychology at University of British Columbia, before undertaking his MSc and PhD in Social and Personality psychology at Queen’s University (Canada), acquiring a strong background in research methodology and statistics, with an emphasis on quantitative experimental research. After completing his studies, Dr Spina held Lecturer posts at Queen’s University and Birmingham City University, before joining the University of Chichester.

MODULE TEACHING

Roy leads the following modules:

  • Being and Feeling (Foundation Year)
  • Individual Differences Psychology (Year 2)
  • Abnormal and Forensic Psychology (Year 2)
  • Cultural Psychology (Year 3)

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

In addition to being Academic Advisor and Research Degrees Co-ordinator, Dr Spina is the Research Lead for the department. He is currently Chair of the Research Degrees Group, and sits on the following committees:

  • REF Committee
  • Research and Enterprise Committee
  • Research Degrees Group

Professional

Teaching and Support

Module coordinator

Abnormal and Forensic Psychology (Year 2)

Cultural Psychology (Year 3)

Individual Differences Psychology (Year 2)

Funding

Higher Education Academy, 2011 – 2012

Individual Research Grant – £7000

Ontario Research Award, 2009 – 2010

Individual Research Grant – $15,000(CAD)

Queen’s University, 2007 – 2010

Individual Travel Grant for Doctoral Field Research – $3000(CAD)

Conference Presentations

Symposia

Spina, R., Ji, L.J., Masuda, T., Choi, I., & Liman, M.W.L. (2016, July). Invitation to present in symposium titled, ‘Current Advances in Research on Culture and Cognition.’ At the XXII Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), Nagoya, Japan.

Spina, R., Ji, L.J., Guo, T., & Kwan, V. (2010, July). Culture and Breadth of Focus: Implications for Judgment and Decision Making. Symposium chair at the XX Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Oral Presentations

Spina, R. (2016, July). Expecting a Correspondence in Magnitude Between Cause and Effect. Oral presentation at the XXII Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), Nagoya, Japan.

Spina, R. (2012, July). Cultural differences in curiosity. Presentation at the XXIst Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), The University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Spina, R. (2011, July). A debate with murderers and paedophiles:  Bringing research and practical experience into the undergraduate curriculum. Presentation at the International Conference on the Teaching of Psychology, Vancouver, Canada.

Spina, R. & Ji, L.J. (2010, July). Cultural differences in the representativeness heuristic. Presentation at the XXth Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), The University of Melbourne, Australia

Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2008, May). Cultural differences in seeking practical versus theoretical information. Presentation at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, Chicago, IL.

Spina, R. & Heine, S. J. (2005, January). Birds of a feather flock together, or do they? Cultural differences in the similarity-attraction effect. Presentation at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, New Orleans, LA.

Poster Presentations

Spina, R. (2014, May). A prison visit fostered more informed attitudes among future employees of the criminal justice system. Presentation at the 26th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Hilton Union Square, San Francisco, USA.

Sheppard, L., Acton, G., & Spina, R. (2012, August). Using Allport’s Contact Hypothesis to improve teaching methods. Presentation at the British Psychological Society Social Section Annual Conference, University of St Andrews, Scotland.

Acton, G., Sheppard, L., & Spina, R. (2012, August). Improving career decision-making among students who interacted with paedophiles and murderers. Presentation at the British Psychological Society Social Section Annual Conference, University of St Andrews, Scotland.

Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2009, January). Cultural differences in expecting a correspondence in magnitude between cause and effect. Presentation at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, Tampa, USA.

Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2007, June). Culture differences in the preference for individual consistency. Presentation at the Canadian Psychological Association Conference, Ottawa, ON.

Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2007, January). Culture and lay theories of change: Differences in the situations that attract interest and instigate a search for a cause. Presentation at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, Memphis, TN. Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2006, May). The leopard does not change his spots. Do we like him for it? Culture and a preference for consistency. Presentation at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, Chicago, IL.

Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2006, January). Cultural differences in information seeking. Presentation at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, Palm Springs, CA.

Research

  • Guo, T., & Spina, R. (2019). Cross-Cultural Variations in Extreme Rejecting and Extreme  Affirming Response Styles, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.
  • Guo, T., & Spina, R. (2019). Cultural Asymmetry Between Perceptions of Past and Future Personal Change, Frontiers in Psychology: Cultural Psychology.
  • Schmalbach, B., Zenger, M., Spina, R., Steffens-Guerra I., Kliem, S.; Michaelides, M., Hinz,  A., & Zenger, M. (2017). Gain +1 or Avoid -1: Validation of the German Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ), BioMedCentral Psychology, 5-40, 1-11. doi 10.1186/s40359-017-0207-y.
  • Schmalbach B., Spina R., Steffens-Guerra I., Franke G. H., Kliem S., Michaelides M. P., Hinz A., & Zenger M. (2017).  Psychometric Properties of the German Version of the Health Regulatory Focus Scale. Frontiers in Psychology, 8-2005, 1-10. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02005
  • Guo T., & Spina, R. (2016). Chinese are more loss averse than British. Asian Journal of Social Psychology.
  • Guo, T., & Spina, R. R., (2015). Regulatory focus affects predictions of the future. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
  • Guo, T., Ji, L.J., Spina, R. R., & Zhang, Z. (2012). Culture, Temporal Focus, and Values of the Past and the Future. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
  • Wilson, D., Spina, R. R., & Canaan, J. (2011). In Praise of the Carceral Tour: Learning from the Grendon Experience. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice.
  • Spina, R. R., Ji, L. J., Guo, T., Zhang, Z, Ye, L., & Fabrigar, L. (2010). Cultural differences in the representativeness heuristic: Expecting a correspondence in magnitude between cause and effect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
  • Spina, R. R., Ji, L. J., Ross, M., & Zhang, Z. (2010). Why best can’t last: Cultural differences in anticipating a regression toward the mean. Asian Journal of Social Psychology.
  • Heine, S. J., Foster, J., & Spina, R. R. (2009). Do birds of a feather universally flock together? Cultural variation in the similarity-attraction effect. Asian Journal of Social Psychology.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Symposia

  • Spina, R., Ji, L.J., Masuda, T., Choi, I., & Liman, M.W.L. (2016, July). Invitation to present in symposium titled, ‘Current Advances in Research on Culture and Cognition.’ At the XXII Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), Nagoya, Japan.
  • Spina, R., Ji, L.J., Guo, T., & Kwan, V. (2010, July). Culture and Breadth of Focus: Implications for Judgment and Decision Making. Symposium chair at the XX Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Oral Presentations

  • Spina, R. (2016, July). Expecting a Correspondence in Magnitude Between Cause and Effect. Oral presentation at the XXII Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), Nagoya, Japan.
  • Spina, R. (2012, July). Cultural differences in curiosity. Presentation at the XXIst Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), The University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
  • Spina, R. (2011, July). A debate with murderers and paedophiles:  Bringing research and practical experience into the undergraduate curriculum. Presentation at the International Conference on the Teaching of Psychology, Vancouver, Canada.
  • Spina, R. & Ji, L.J. (2010, July). Cultural differences in the representativeness heuristic. Presentation at the XXth Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), The University of Melbourne, Australia
  • Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2008, May). Cultural differences in seeking practical versus theoretical information. Presentation at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, Chicago, IL.
  • Spina, R. & Heine, S. J. (2005, January). Birds of a feather flock together, or do they? Cultural differences in the similarity-attraction effect. Presentation at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, New Orleans, LA.

Poster Presentations

  • Spina, R. (2014, May). A prison visit fostered more informed attitudes among future employees of the criminal justice system. Presentation at the 26th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Hilton Union Square, San Francisco, USA.
  • Sheppard, L., Acton, G., & Spina, R. (2012, August). Using Allport’s Contact Hypothesis to improve teaching methods. Presentation at the British Psychological Society Social Section Annual Conference, University of St Andrews, Scotland.
  • Acton, G., Sheppard, L., & Spina, R. (2012, August). Improving career decision-making among students who interacted with paedophiles and murderers. Presentation at the British Psychological Society Social Section Annual Conference, University of St Andrews, Scotland.
  • Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2009, January). Cultural differences in expecting a correspondence in magnitude between cause and effect. Presentation at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, Tampa, USA.
  • Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2007, June). Culture differences in the preference for individual consistency. Presentation at the Canadian Psychological Association Conference, Ottawa, ON.
  • Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2007, January). Culture and lay theories of change: Differences in the situations that attract interest and instigate a search for a cause. Presentation at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, Memphis, TN.
  • Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2006, May). The leopard does not change his spots. Do we like him for it? Culture and a preference for consistency. Presentation at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, Chicago, IL.
  • Spina, R. & Ji, L. J. (2006, January). Cultural differences in information seeking. Presentation at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, Palm Springs, CA.

PhD Supervision

  • Monica Hess: Perceptions of Romanian Immigrant Workers on Organisational Culture in Relation to Organisational Communication and Job Satisfaction (2012 – 2016)
  • Victor Meirinhos: The role of identity in relation to organisational and individual variables in safety behaviours  (2013 – 2017)

Research Output

Articles

Fontes-Perryman, E. and Spina, R. (2021) Fear of missing out and compulsive social media use as mediators between OCD symptoms and social media fatigue. Psychology of Popular Media. ISSN 2689-6567 (In Press)

Spina, R., Ji, L.-J., Guo, T., Li, Y. and Zhang, Z. (2020) Cultural Differences in the Tendency to Seek Practical versus Theoretical Information. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. ISSN 0022-0221 10.1177/0022022120933691

Guo, T. and Spina, R. (2019) Cross-cultural variations in extreme rejecting and extreme affirming response styles. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 50 (8). pp. 955-971. ISSN 0022-0221 10.1177/0022022119873072

Guo, T. and Spina, R. (2019) Cultural asymmetry between perceptions of past and future personal change. Frontiers in Psychology - Cultural Psychology, 10 (885). pp. 1-11. ISSN 1664-1078 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00885

Schmalbach, B., Zenger, M., Spina, R., Steffens-Guerra, I., Kliem, S., Michaelides, M. and Hinz, A. (2017) Gain +1 or Avoid -1: Validation of the German Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ). BioMed Psychology, 5 (40). pp. 1-11. ISSN 2050-7283 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02005

Schmalbach, B., Spina, R., Steffens-Guerra, I., Franke, G. H., Kliem, S., Michaelides, M., Hinz, A. and Zenger, M. (2017) Psychometric Properties of the German Version of the Health Regulatory Focus Scale. Frontiers in Psychology - Personality and Social Psychology section. ISSN 1664-1078 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02005

Guo, T. and Spina, R. (2016) Chinese are more loss averse than British. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 19 (2). pp. 154-162. ISSN 1367-2223 DOI: 10.1111/ajsp.12129

Guo, T. and Spina, R. (2015) Regulatory Focus Affects Predictions of the Future. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41 (2). pp. 214-223. ISSN 1552-7433 10.1177/0146167214561194

Guo, T., Ji, L.-J., Spina, R. and Zhang, Z. (2012) Culture, Temporal Focus, and Values of the Past and the Future. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38 (8). pp. 1030-1040. ISSN 0146-1672 10.1177/0146167212443895

Wilson, D., Spina, R. and Canaan, J. E. (2011) In praise of the carceral tour: Learning from the Grendon experience. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 50 (4). pp. 343-355. ISSN 0265-5527 10.1111/j.1468-2311.2011.00673.x

Spina, R., Ji, L.-J., Ross, M., Li, Y. and Zhang, Z. (2010) Why best cannot last: Cultural differences in predicting regression toward the mean. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 13 (3). pp. 153-162. ISSN 1467-839X 10.1111/j.1467-839X.2010.01310.x

Spina, R., Ji, L.-J., Guo, T., Zhang, Z., Li, Y. and Fabrigar, L. (2010) Cultural differences in the representativeness heuristic: Expecting a correspondence in magnitude between cause and effect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36 (5). pp. 583-597. ISSN 1552-7433 10.1177/0146167210368278

Spina, R., Ji, L.-J., Ross, M., Li, Y. and Zhang, Z. (2010) Why best cannot last: Cultural differences in predicting regression toward the mean. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 13. pp. 153-162. ISSN 1467-839X DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-839X.2010.01310.x

Heine, S. J., Foster, J.-A. B. and Spina, R. (2009) Do birds of a feather universally flock together? Cultural variation in the similarity-attraction effect. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 12 (4). pp. 247-258. ISSN 1367-2223 10.1111/j.1467-839X.2009.01289.x

Heine, S. J., Foster, J.-A. B. and Spina, R. (2009) Do birds of a feather universally flock together? Cultural variation in the similarity-attraction effect. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 12 (4). pp. 247-258. ISSN 1367-2223 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-839X.2009.01289.x

Spina, R., Ji, L.-J., Guo, T., Zhang, Z., Li, Y. and Fabrigar, L. (2009) Cultural Differences in the Representativeness Heuristic: Expecting a Correspondence in Magnitude Between Cause and Effect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36 (5). pp. 583-597. ISSN 1552-7433 DOI: 10.1177/0146167210368278

Other department members

Alex Rawlinson
Psychology Laboratory Technician
Benjamin Sharpe
Dr Benjamin T. Sharpe
Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology, Programme Coordinator for the BSc Criminology and Forensic Psychology, and Academic Board Member
Dr Bruno De Oliveira
Lecturer in Psychology

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