Dr Liz Whelen | University of Chester

Senior Lecturer

Liz Whelen is a Chartered Health Psychologist. She is also the Psychology Undergraduate Programme Leader and teaches on the Undergraduate Programme and the MSc Psychology (Conversion) course.

Prior to joining the University of Chester Liz worked within the NHS and also taught at Liverpool Hope University and for the Psychology and Medical School at the University of Liverpool. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has been involved in research with them within the School of Psychology at Chester. In the past she was involved in setting up the successful dietetics programmes at the University of Chester and delivered the psychological teaching on their undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Liz’s main teaching is in the health and social psychology areas. She is the Module Leader for the third year Health Psychology module, the second year Social and Individual Psychology module; the Social Psychology module on the MSc Psychology Conversion programme and the Applied Psychology in Context module on the MSc Applied Psychology programme. She also contributes to the first year Core Topics and Psychological Well-Being modules, the second year Psychological Therapies module, and the Individual Differences module at master’s level.

Liz's research interests include social media use and body image; internet usage in healthcare; the experiences of patients with chronic illnesses, and the effect of vaping on smoking initiation and quitting.

Hulbert-Williams, N. J., Hulbert-Williams, L., Whelen, L., & Mulcare, H. (2019). The Psychological Impact of Cancer (PIC) Scale: development and comparative psychometric testing against the Mini-MAC Scale in UK and Australian cancer survivors. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice, 1(2), e8. https://doi.org/10.1097/OR9.0000000000000008

Whelen, L., & Wearden, A. (2006). Illness perceptions, health-related coping and quality of life after cardiac surgery. Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, Warsaw, Poland, August 2006.

Clarke, L. M., & Whelen, L. (2002). The efficacy of distraction on cold pressor tolerance times, in the context of individual coping styles of pain. Proceedings of the 16th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, Lisbon, Portugal, October 2002.

Davies, A. D. M., Whelen, L., & King, D. (2000). Oral control and body dissatisfaction in older adults: A note of caution. European Eating Disorders Review, 8(4), 315-320. https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-0968(200008)8:4<315::AID-ERV352>3.0.CO;2-E

Whelen, L., & Cawthray, S. (1999). An evaluation of crisis services for the mentally ill in Wirral. Commissioned Report.

Liz has an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Maths, followed by an MA in Psychology from the University of Liverpool. She undertook an MPhil at Liverpool looking at mental health diagnosis in primary care while based at the Clinical Psychology department in the Wirral. Liz also has a PhD from the University of Manchester, where she studied the effects of prior illness beliefs on post-surgery outcomes in elective cardiac surgery patients. She is a Chartered Health Psychologist and is a registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council.