Peter Carr

Photo of: Peter Carr

Position

Doctoral Student

Cohort year

2019

Partner Institution

Bio

Peter started his academic career at the University of Warwick studying Psychology (BSc). During his time there he gained a keen interest in quantitative approaches to psychology and solving societal problems using insights gained from this approach. Following on from his time at The University of Warwick, Peter studied “Psychological Research Methods with Advanced Statistics” at The University of Sheffield. His master’s dissertation was focussed on the role of practice specificity in skill acquisition using a large naturally occurring set of tournament chess games.

After graduating from The University of Sheffield, Peter joined The Open University as a statistical analyst in the Strategic Analysis and Advanced Analytics team. Peter worked on several projects during his time at The Open University. These projects primarily consisted of integrating institutional and national data on students to review The Open University’s policy and strategy. Examples of projects include producing an analysis for a five-year action and participation plan commissioned by The Office for Students. This involved identifying how student characteristics, such as age, gender and ethnicity, affect their performance at the university from entry to progression and success after completing their studies.

Research interests

Peter is interested in quantitative approaches to psychological phenomena. He is predominantly interested in human decision-making, perception and validating psychological phenomena outside of laboratory settings.

Peter has worked on several projects, as a research assistant and statistical analyst, with The Open University’s School of Life, Health and Chemical Sciences. He has worked on a diverse range of projects as both a research assistant and statistical analyst. These projects include identifying individual variation in pathogen disgust responses, exploring the impact of shift working on cognition  and establishing how many cortisol measurements are necessary for identifying adrenal insufficiency.

In addition to his interest in quantitative approaches to psychology, Peter is interested in using insights from psychology, economics and computer science to influence human behaviour in positive ways, such as nudging. Peter’s project at The Alan Turing Institute explores the relationship between perceptions of time and space with happiness.  The project aims to inform individuals, businesses and policymakers how to improve their urban wellbeing.