Dr Rebecca Owens

With my background in evolutionary psychology, I like to contribute to teaching this in our undergraduate provision where I can. I also lead a stage 3 optional module in Male Psychology. I am available to supervise research projects at both undergraduate and postgraduate, and I currently have a number of PhD students.

I am interested in supervising projects informed by an evolutionary perspective. There are three broad areas of research I am interested in:

Male psychology

Male Psychology is my primary area of interest. For me, it is important that male psychology is informed by biological and evolutionary psychology rather than solely being focused on proximate factors.

Mating behaviours, preferences, and strategies

Sex differences in mating behaviours and preferences, costly signalling behaviours, including competitiveness, risk-taking, and the role of testosterone in such behaviours.

Body image/identity and wellbeing

I am interested in the motivations for, and perceptions of those who engage in various body modifications. Body modifications vary widely in both form and quality, and I am interested in why there is such variation, whether this contributes to wellbeing, and what they signal about an individual.

I bring an evolutionary perspective to all aspects of my work. My PhD research involved taking an evolutionary perspective on competitiveness and risk taking behaviours. This involved considering the role of mating motivations and dominance striving, how such factors vary over the lifespan and are responsive to external cues in the environment, as well as the suggested biological underpinnings of such fluctuations of testosterone levels. This led me onto the area of Male Psychology generally.

Male Psychology is a relatively new area of research and involves considering and integrating biological and evolutionary perspectives on sex differences and similarities with the areas we typically consider, such as social and developmental, to better understand issues that primarily or exclusively affect men and boys. This often also uncovers areas relevant to people who are not male as well, which is also helpful!

I am also interested in body image and representation in terms of body modifications. I am interested in the motivations people have for engaging in various forms of body modifications and to different extents, and how this is perceived by people who are not familiar with the industry. Furthermore, I am interested in the impact that engagement in body modifications has on individual mental health and wellbeing, and whether this is sometimes seen as therapeutic.

• Psychology
• Evolutionary psychology
• Individual differences
• Male Psychology
• Mating behaviours and relationships
• Sex differences
• Tattoos and body modifications