Rulla Bhattacharya
Rulla is currently a PhD student and Psychology Technician at UWL. She also teaches on some of our Psychology undergraduate modules and runs data analysis and workshops. Rulla completed both her BSc in Psychology and her Foundations in Clinical Psychology Masters at Goldsmiths University of London, before joining UWL in 2021.
-
Qualifications
BSc Hons Psychology (Goldsmiths University of London)
MSc in Foundations in Clinical Psychology (Goldsmiths University of London)
-
Memberships
Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
Teaching
Rulla mainly teaches on our statistics and further research methods modules for our undergraduate Psychology course. Rulla also runs a number of workshops and seminars assisting students in the use of apparatus and software for their own research.
Research
-
Research and publications
Rulla's PhD aims to investigate the use of virtual reality (VR) to improve interactions between victims of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) and police officers during investigations to ensure that survivors' experiences within the criminal justice system do not compound their trauma.
Rulla's PhD will explore the issues found currently in police DVA investigations, the role that gender (officer and victim) plays in the investigative process, and whether the use of VR can improve officer's empathy. The overall objective of this thesis is to thus create a novel VR experience for use in the Metropolitan Police Service and beyond.
During her PhD, Rulla will hold deliberative inquiry groups with victims and DVA charities to assess the methodologies, potential benefits, and the effectiveness of VR training to improve upon police investigations of DVA and officer attitudes towards both male and female victims. This will include gathering officer feedback on the VR experience and evaluating the efficacy for its use in future police training.
