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Research Profile

Dr Liz
Gulliford

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Faculty of Health and Society

  • Dr Liz Gulliford has a long-standing interest in research on human strengths and her conceptual and empirical work has been published across a range of academic disciplines, including psychology, philosophy and education. Liz strives to the highest standards of excellence in her work and she is passionate about communicating research in an accessible and engaging way to a wide and popular audience. Liz has given a number of invited presentations nationally and internationally to both academic and lay audiences. In the last year, alongside her academic publications,  she has also written four story books for children aged 7 -12 that present the topics of forgiveness, gratitude, courage and hope in a critical yet accessible way.

    Liz studied for her doctoral thesis, an interdisciplinary evaluation of positive psychological approaches to strengths and virtues, at Queens’ College, Cambridge. Liz is interested in all aspects of positive psychology and wellbeing and is particularly interested in the topics of gratitude, forgiveness, hope, optimism, courage, humility and compassion.

    Qualifications:

    • PhD Queens’ College, University of Cambridge: An Interdisciplinary Evaluation and Theological Enrichment of Positive Psychology 
    • BSc Psychology (Hons), Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, BPS accredited 
    • MPhil Theology and Religious Studies, Queens’ College, University of Cambridge
    • BA (Hons), now MA, Theology, Trinity College, University of Oxford 

  • Before taking up her post at the University of Northampton, Liz worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, based in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham (September 2012 –  August 2018). From September 2012 until the end of February 2015 Liz worked alongside Dr Blaire Morgan on the ‘Attitude for Gratitude’ project, an ambitious research project which canvassed the views of over 10, 000 individuals in the UK.

    Liz built on this foundation with ‘Gratitude and Related Character Virtues’, a theoretical and empirical research project examining the mutually reinforcing nature of allied strengths of character (forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, humility and generosity). She designed two school-based interventions to promote compassion and gratitude, in addition to publishing theoretical papers about the relationships between these strengths, one of which was recently published in Theory and Psychology.

    Immediately before she came to The University of Northampton, Liz was working on a research project which aims to investigate the factors that motivate moral action in adolescents. Specifically the project focused on the ‘gappiness problem’; addressing what bridges the gap between virtue literacy (knowledge of virtues) and virtuous moral action (acting in a virtuous way).

    • Gulliford, L. , Morgan, B. & Jordan, K. (under submission). A prototype analysis of virtue.
    • Gulliford, L. (in press). Can I Tell You About Courage? London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
    • Gulliford, L. (in press). Can I Tell You About Hope? London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
    • Gulliford, L. (in press). Cross-fertilisation in the gardens of virtue. In Roberts, R.C. & Telech, D. (Eds). The Moral Psychology of Gratitude. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
    • Morgan, B & Gulliford, L. (in press). Cultivating gratitude: Measuring gratitude and the implications for fostering gratitude in university students. In J. Brant & M. Lamb (Eds.) Cultivating Virtue in the University. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    • Gulliford, L. & Roberts, R.C. (2018). Exploring the ‘unity’ of the virtues: The case of an allocentric quintet. Theory and Psychology.
    • Gulliford, L. (May 2018). Can I Tell You About Gratitude? London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
    • Gulliford, L. (July 2018). Can I Tell You About Forgiveness? London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
    • Gulliford, L (March 2018). Concluding Remarks. In Forgiveness in Practice Ed. S. Hance. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
    • Gulliford, L. & Morgan, B. (2017). The meaning and valence of gratitude in positive psychology, in Brown, N.J.L., Lomas, T. & Eiroa Orosa, F.J. (eds) Critical Positive Psychology. London: Routledge.
    • Gulliford, L & Kristjansson, K. (in 2017). Five historic philosophers discuss human flourishing and happiness in positive psychology: A speculative dialogue in three acts, in Brown, N., Lomas, T. & Eiroa Orosa, F. (eds) Critical Positive Psychology. London: Routledge.
    • Gulliford, L. (2017). Strengths and virtues: An integrated approach, in White, M., W. Slemp, G. R., & Murray, S. (Eds.) Future Directions in Wellbeing: Education, Organisations, and Policy. Springer.
    • Morgan, B. & Gulliford, L. (2017). Assessing influences on gratitude experience: age-related differences in how gratitude is understood and experienced, in Tudge, J. & Frietas. L. (eds). Developing Gratitude, Cambridge: CUP.
    • Gulliford, L & Morgan, B. (2016). An empirical exploration of the normative dimensions of gratitude,’ in Carr, D. (ed.) Gratitude: An interdisciplinary approach. London: Routledge.
    • Morgan, B., Gulliford, L., & Kristjansson, K. (2017). A new approach to examining moral virtues: The Multi-Component Gratitude Measure. Personality and Individual Differences, 107, 179-89.
    • Gulliford, L. (2016). Psychology’s contribution to ethics: Two case studies, in Brand, C. (ed.) Can Psychology replace ethics? On the potentials and risks of empirical research into human morality for our ethical self-image. Berlin: Springer-VS
    • Gulliford, L. (2016). The word thief, in Brand, C. (ed.). Can psychology replace ethics? On the potentials and risks of empirical research into human morality for our ethical self-image. Berlin: Springer-VS.
    • Gulliford, L. & Morgan, B. (2016). Taking thanks for granted: Unravelling the concept of gratitude in a developmental cross-cultural analysis, Report for the Society for Educational Studies (SES).
    • Morgan, B., Gulliford, L. & Carr, D. (2015). Educating gratitude: Some conceptual and moral misgivings. Journal of Moral Education, 44 (1), 97-111.
    • Carr, D., Morgan, B. & Gulliford, L. (2015). Learning and teaching virtuous gratitude. Oxford Review of Education, 41 (6), 766-781.
    • Morgan, B, Gulliford, L. & Kristjansson, K. (2014). Gratitude in the UK: A new prototype analysis and a cross-cultural comparison. Journal of Positive Psychology 9 (4), 291-294.
    • Gulliford, L. (2013). The head and the heart of the matter in hope and forgiveness. In F. Watts & G. Dumbreck (Eds.), Head and heart: Perspectives from religion and psychology (pp. 273-312). West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press.
    • Gulliford, L., Morgan, B. & Kristjansson, K. (2013). Recent work on the concept of gratitude in philosophy and psychology. Journal of Value Inquiry, 47 (3), 285-377.
    • Watts, F., Dutton, K. & Gulliford, L. (2006). Human spiritual qualities: Integrating psychology and religion. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 9 (3), 277-289.
    • Schwartz, J., Gulliford, E., Stier, J., & Theinemann, M. (2005). Mindful awareness and self-directed neuroplasticity, in S.G. Mijares, & Khalsa, G. S. (Eds), The Psychospiritual Clinician’s Handbook. New York, London & Oxford: Haworth Press Inc., 281-300.
    • Gulliford, L. (2004). Intrapersonal forgiveness, in Watts, F. & Gulliford, L. (eds) Forgiveness in context: Theology and psychology in creative dialogue. London & New York: T&T Clark International. 
    • Gulliford, L. (2004). The healing of relationships, in Watts, F. & Gulliford, L. (eds) Forgiveness in context: Theology and psychology in creative dialogue. London & New York: T&T Clark International. 
    • Watts, F. & Gulliford, L. (eds) (2004) Forgiveness in context: Theology and psychology in creative dialogue. London & New York: T&T Clark International.

    Media:

    Liz is strongly committed to communicating clearly and accessibly. She is media trained and has appeared on BBC television (Midlands Today), BBC Radio and abroad.