Bio
Claire Haworth is Reader in Behavioural Genetics at the University of Bristol. Her role is split between the School of Psychological Science and the Bristol Medical School, and she is a member of the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit. With Dr Oliver Davis she co-directs the Dynamic Genetics Lab. Claire studied Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford and completed her MSc and PhD at King’s College London (KCL). Following her PhD she was funded by two consecutive fellowships; an interdisciplinary fellowship from the MRC and ESRC, and a research fellowship from the British Academy. She held academic positions at KCL and the University of Warwick before moving to Bristol in 2015.
Research interests
Claire's work focuses on why people are different from one another. In particular she is interested in what factors influence our mental health and wellbeing across the life course. She uses a range of techniques to investigate individual differences, including genetically informative studies that tell us about the role of nature (genes) and nurture (environments) in creating these differences between us. For example, Claire has done work on how genetic and environmental influences may change across development, in different environmental contexts, and in response to interventions.
A key new direction in Claire's research is the use of information from social media platforms, and what benefits and challenges social media use has for mental health and wellbeing. As well as the importance of considering the ethical perspective of using digital technologies to understand, explore and promote mental health.
Achievements and awards
Claire was awarded the British Psychological Society's Spearman Medal in 2017 for outstanding published work in Psychology, and a Philip Leverhulme Prize in Psychology in 2018.