Professorial Lecture Series 2026: Psychology in a changing world
About this Event
Professor Cathy Montgomery
Cathy joined LJMU in 1999 as a student and is now Professor of Psychopharmacology and Health Inequalities and Head of the Institute for Health Research. Her research focuses on the cognitive and neurobiological effects of substance use, alongside the social and structural factors that shape health and access to treatment. She works with NHS and community partners to improve outcomes for people who use alcohol and drugs particularly those from marginalised groups. Through a combination of laboratory research and applied public health work, she aims to inform more effective, equitable approaches to treatment and care.
Professor Ruth Ogden
Ruth is Professor of the Psychology of Time at Liverpool John Moores University. Her research explores how individuals experience and interpret the passage of time, and how emotion, attention, and environmental context in shaping subjective duration. Her recent research examines how disruptions to everyday life, crisis and social isolation influence temporal experience. By highlighting the impact of time poverty on health and wellbeing, she aims to improve quality of life by increasing access to time.
From the lab to the good life: applications of psychology in a changing world
"This lecture explores how psychology can illuminate and improve, everyday life in a rapidly changing world. Drawing on Ruth Ogden’s work, it shows how our experience of time is not fixed but shaped by emotion, stress, and social context, with major disruptions such as the COVID‑19 pandemic revealing how easily time can feel distorted or fragmented.
This is complemented by Cathy Montgomery’s work on substance use demonstrating how cognitive processes such as memory and executive function interact with social inequalities to influence behaviour, health, and recovery
During this lecture, these perspectives highlight a shared insight: human behaviour cannot be understood in isolation from lived experience. Whether through altered perceptions of time or the cognitive and social drivers of substance use, psychology provides powerful tools for designing more responsive, person-centred interventions."
Agenda
🕑: 05:00 PM
Welcome & Introductions
🕑: 05:15 PM - 06:00 PM
Lecture delivered by Professor Cathy Montgomery and Professor Ruth Ogden
🕑: 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Drinks reception
Where is it happening?
GBP 0.00
