Cognitive strain in Parliament: How can we reduce psychological stressors to improve policy-making? Andrew Baldwin, Cynthia Pinto, Saskia Perriard-Abdoh, & Ashley Weinberg October 2020 PSYCHOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL GOVERNMENT BPS POLICY TEAM DIRECTORY KATHRYN SCOTT Director of Policy NIGEL ATTER Policy Advisor, Children and Young People ANDREW BALDWIN Policy Advisor, Work JOE LIARDET Policy Coordinator, Consultations
[email protected] NIC MURRAY Policy Advisor, Social Justice SASKIA PERRIARD-ABDOH Policy and Government Relations Manager, Health and Psychological Government Programme Lead GEORGE WILKINSON Policy Officer
[email protected] © 2020 The British Psychological Society All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Contents About the British Psychological Society 5 Acknowledgements 5 About the Psychological Government Programme 7 Introduction 8 Occupational psychology and politics 9 Psychological stressors in Parliament? 10 Expectations 10 The pressures of social media 12 Distrust 13 Political labour 14 Organisational culture 16 Leadership 18 Temporal 19 Lifestyle 20 Control 21 Skills 21 Conclusion 22 COGNITIVE STRAIN IN PARLIAMENT STRAIN IN COGNITIVE Recommendations 22 Appendix A 24 A note on methodology 24 Interview guide 24 References 25 3 Psychological Government COGNITIVE STRAIN IN PARLIAMENT STRAIN IN COGNITIVE 4 Psychological Government About the British Psychological Society The British Psychological Society (BPS) is We support and enhance the development the representative body for psychology and and application of psychology for the greater psychologists in the UK. We are responsible public good.