After graduating from UEL in June 1994 with a degree in Psychology, I was lucky enough to get a job in the Psychology Department working as a Research Assistant to Dr. C.P. Dancey. The project I was employed to work on was a retrospective study, in which I got to interview young adults and teenagers about their experiences of living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome in childhood. I thoroughly enjoyed this work, and realised that working directly with the public in a health field was where I hoped my future lay.
IBS was a subject that I enjoyed researching. It is a relatively new area of research, especially in the psychological arena. In September 1996, my collegue and friend, Rachel Fox and I were fortunate enough to attend the tenth European Health Psychology Society Conference, in Dublin. We had a great time networking and socialising!
EDUCATION:
SEPT 91-JUNE 94 The University of East London BSc (Hons) Psychology; Upper Second.
Options taken in final year included; Health Psychology, Counselling Psychology, Physiological Psychology and Psychogenetics, and Families and Development. Third Year Dissertation: Focused on the development of children's sex roles and sex role stereotypes. Children with older, same- and opposite-sex siblings, and only children were interviewed.
OTHER QUALIFICATIONS AND AFFILIATIONS:
A Levels; Psychology, English Literature, Business Studies and General Studies
Cambridge Information Technology (CIT) certificates in; Computer Literacy, Word Processing, Databases, Computer Art and Design.
Eight GCSEs, including English Language, English Literature, and Mathematics.
I possess a clean driving licence.
Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society.
I am on the board of Trustees for the IBS Network.
WORK EXPERIENCE:
MAY 97-PRESENT Part-Time Administrative Assistant
Employed by the Head of the Department. Duties include, compiling two booklets, containing information about (1) the Psychology Department and (2) the BSc undergraduate course. Also to create a test library and to update the website on the internet.
MARCH 97-MAY 97 RAF (Bar) Accountant and Evening Receptionist
Employed by the Mess Manager. Duties included, stocktaking, ordering stock, updating the accounts ledger, and Officers' bar books, creating accounts on Excel, and covering the reception desk.
FEB 96-FEB 97 Research Assistant
Working on the project "Inhibitory Processes in Picture Naming", funded by the ESRC. My post involved helping to design and run experiments using the PsychLab Software. I recruited over 300 subjects for experiments ranging from 25 to 45 minutes, and I helped in the analysis of the data.
SEPT 94-SEPT 95 Research Assistant
Working on the project "Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in Childhood", funded by the HEFCE. I helped with the design of the study, which included travelling to Exeter for meetings, and liaising with the leading gastroenterologists, GP's and the IBS Network. I travelled to subjects homes throughout the South east to conduct semi-structured interviews with adult IBS sufferers. These interviews were later transcribed by me, and then subjected to qualitative analysis.
SKILLS GAINED: An ability to work both independently, and supervised. Working to tight deadlines by prioritising my workload. Remaining calm under pressure, working systematically, but remaining flexible. Effective use of various software packages; Word, WordPerfect, SPSS, Excel, MS Publisher, PowerPoint, and information retrieval systems; BIDS, CD ROM, and the Internet.
Dancey, C.P. and Rutter, C.L. Experiences of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Childhood; a retrospective study (in preparation)
Dancey, C.P., Rutter, C.L., and Fox, R. (1996). Conference Report. Journal of the IBS Network, Issue 21.
Rutter, C.L. (1996). Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Childhood: Remembered experiences and adult lives. The BPS Developmental Psychology Section Newsletter, 43, Summer 96.
Rutter, C.L. (1995). Gut Reaction Interview; Learning to live with Invisible Chronic Illness. Journal of the IBS Network, Issue 19.
Rutter, C.L. (1995). What are the psychological effects of living with IBS in childhood? Journal of the IBS Network, Issue 17.
Vitkovitch, M., and Rutter, C.L. Inhibitory Processes in Picture Naming (in preparation)
Toner, B. and Rutter, C.L. (1997). Psychological Treatments of IBS. In IBS. A Complete Guide to Relief from Irritable Bowel Syndrome by Dancey, C.P., and Backhouse, S. Robinson. London.
Dancey, C.P., Fox, R., and Rutter, C.L. (1997). IBS among children and Teenagers. In IBS. A Complete Guide to Relief from Irritable Bowel Syndrome by Dancey, C.P., and Backhouse, S. Robinson. London.
Toner, B. and Rutter, C.L. (1995). Mending the mind: Psychological Treatments of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. In; Treating IBS by Backhouse, S. and Dancey, C.P. Robinson. London.
I was born and bred in Stockton On Tees, you may have heard about Stockton as it was the first place (along with Darlington of course) to be connected to another town via a railway (the Sockton to Darlington Railway, 1825).
Although I moved to London to undertake my degree, and now live in London (for the time being at least), I do still miss my home town. I am an avid football fan, with my team being BORO a great team who had a few problems last season, with certain players, and the football league (a matter of 3 points, I'm not bitter!).
When I was growing up, I loved watching films, with one of my earliest memories of my dad and uncle taking me to see the Jaws Double Bill (Jaws 1 & 2), at the local Stockton cinema, (which has now sadly closed down). I must have been around 7 years of age and after this I was hooked, it was my favourite film then, and still is now. Click here for more info, and more links to the best film of all time The Jaws Homepage
These days I still enjoy quite a range of different films my tastes change day to day, I suppose it's because I am a gemini! I'll watch most films, and my current favourites include Romeo and Juliet, Dusk till Dawn, Pulp Fiction, Resovior Dogs, Circle of friends, Superman, Halloween, Green Card, Star Wars, the list goes on and on.
My music tastes could probably be classified as indie with Oasis as my top band!
If you have any comments, advice etc about my research or interests, email me. My address is C.L.Rutter@uel.ac.uk