Dr Sally Adams BSc (hons), MSc, PhD, FHEA

2016 Fellowship, Higher Education Academy  

2011 PhD, University of Bristol 

2005 MSc Health Psychology, University of Bath  

2003 BSc (Hons), Psychology, Cardiff Metropolitan University

Sally earned her PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Bristol in 2011, following an MSc in Health Psychology from the University of Bath and a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from Cardiff Metropolitan University. In 2016, she was awarded a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, reflecting her commitment to excellence in teaching and student experience.

Dr Adams has held academic positions at the University of Bath and the University of Bristol, and currently serves as Deputy Director of Education for Student Experience in the College of Life and Environmental Sciences. Her leadership roles have included Head of Education, Programme Lead for MSc Mental Health, and Director of Public Engagement for the Addiction and Mental Health Group.

She has published extensively in high-impact journals such as The Lancet Psychiatry, BMJ Open, Addiction, and Psychological Medicine, with her work on alcohol hangovers receiving widespread media coverage and public acclaim. Her public engagement efforts have reached global audiences through appearances on BBC Breakfast, Radio 4, and contributions to The Guardian, The Conversation, and Mental Elf.

She has supervised multiple PhD students on topics ranging from cannabis and mental health to substance misuse in neurodivergent students and serves as an external examiner for universities across the UK, Europe, and Australia.

Sally continues to shape the future of psychological research and education through her interdisciplinary approach, commitment to public engagement, and advocacy for inclusive health interventions.

Sally teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate modules in the School of Psychology at both Edgbaston and Dubai Campuses.

Sally has supervised PhDs examining the cognitive effects of addictive behaviours and public health interventions for reducing harm from alcohol and tobacco use.

She is interested in supervising research on the effects of alcohol use and hangover on cognition and mood.

Alcohol Use and Hangovers

• Extensive work on the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural effects of alcohol hangovers (executive function, response inhibition, attentional bias, emotion regulation).
• Studies on acute alcohol consumption and its impact on food intake, disinhibition, and cognitive biases.
• Exploration of socioeconomic and workplace contexts in alcohol use, including recruitment of “hard-to-reach” populations.
• Research into autism and alcohol use, adapting therapies and examining associations between alcohol use and neurodiversity.

Tobacco Use and Control

• Investigations into health warnings on cigarette packaging, including mental health–focused warnings and cross-cultural studies (Colombia, Sudan, Bangladesh, Micronesia).
• Work on cognitive bias modification and inhibitory control training in smokers.
• Contributions to global tobacco control policy, analysing advertising bans and enforcement challenges in low- and middle-income countries.
• Psychopharmacology of tobacco–alcohol co-morbidity. 

Mental Health and Cognitive Processes

• Research on emotion recognition training and its neural and mood effects.
• Exploration of attentional bias, delay discounting, and inhibitory control in relation to substance use.