David F. Marks is a
psychologistA psychologist is someone who studies the human mind and behavior. Research psychologists study human perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, personality, behavior and interpersonal relationships...
and professor at
City UniversityCity University London is a British university based in Northampton Square, Islington, London. The university has a research experience of over 100 years and has often been highly ranked for its graduate employability and graduate salaries...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. Marks is largely concerned with three areas of psychological research -
health psychologyHealth psychology is concerned with understanding how biology, behavior, and social context influence health and illness. Health psychologists work alongside other medical professionals in clinical settings, work on behaviour change in public health promotion, teach at universities, and conduct...
,
cognitive psychologyCognitive psychology is a discipline within psychology that investigates the internal mental processes of thought such as visual processing, memory, problem solving, and language....
, and
parapsychologyParapsychology is a controversial discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and life after death using the scientific method...
.
After completing a BSc at Reading University and a PhD at Sheffield University he migrated to New Zealand where he taught at the
University of OtagoThe University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 20,000 students enrolled during 2006.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...
. In 1986 he returned to the UK as Head of the School of Psychology at Middlesex Polytechnic before moving to
City UniversityCity University London is a British university based in Northampton Square, Islington, London. The university has a research experience of over 100 years and has often been highly ranked for its graduate employability and graduate salaries...
in 2000.
David F. Marks is a
psychologistA psychologist is someone who studies the human mind and behavior. Research psychologists study human perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, personality, behavior and interpersonal relationships...
and professor at
City UniversityCity University London is a British university based in Northampton Square, Islington, London. The university has a research experience of over 100 years and has often been highly ranked for its graduate employability and graduate salaries...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. Marks is largely concerned with three areas of psychological research -
health psychologyHealth psychology is concerned with understanding how biology, behavior, and social context influence health and illness. Health psychologists work alongside other medical professionals in clinical settings, work on behaviour change in public health promotion, teach at universities, and conduct...
,
cognitive psychologyCognitive psychology is a discipline within psychology that investigates the internal mental processes of thought such as visual processing, memory, problem solving, and language....
, and
parapsychologyParapsychology is a controversial discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and life after death using the scientific method...
.
Career
After completing a BSc at Reading University and a PhD at Sheffield University he migrated to New Zealand where he taught at the
University of OtagoThe University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 20,000 students enrolled during 2006.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...
. In 1986 he returned to the UK as Head of the School of Psychology at Middlesex Polytechnic before moving to
City UniversityCity University London is a British university based in Northampton Square, Islington, London. The university has a research experience of over 100 years and has often been highly ranked for its graduate employability and graduate salaries...
in 2000. He founded and edits the
Journal of Health PsychologyThe Journal of Health Psychology is an interdisciplinary, international journal that deals with psychological approaches to health, illness and health policy.The journal is an international forum for research and debate in health psychology...
(Who's Who, 2007).
Health psychology
In his work on
health psychologyHealth psychology is concerned with understanding how biology, behavior, and social context influence health and illness. Health psychologists work alongside other medical professionals in clinical settings, work on behaviour change in public health promotion, teach at universities, and conduct...
Marks advocates a greater understanding of the socio-political context affecting individual behaviour (Marks et al., 2005). With
Michael MurrayMichael Murray or Mike Murray may refer to:* Michael Murray , health psychologist at Keele University, England* Michael Murray , American-born organist...
and colleagues he has actively promoted a critical-theoretical approach, including the foundation of the
International Society of Critical Health PsychologyThe International Society of Critical Health Psychology is a society devoted to debate about critical ideas within health psychology and developing new ways of health psychology practice.-History:...
. This organisation has included the consideration of social justice, community approaches, and arts projects for the reduction of health inequalities. Marks has also been interested in new research methods for
clinical psychologyClinical psychology includes the scientific study and application of psychology for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...
and
health psychologyHealth psychology is concerned with understanding how biology, behavior, and social context influence health and illness. Health psychologists work alongside other medical professionals in clinical settings, work on behaviour change in public health promotion, teach at universities, and conduct...
(Marks & Yardley, 2004).
Marks has promoted the use of cognitive behaviour therapy as an effective clinical approach to smoking cessation. This research began in New Zealand where Paul Sulzberger and he developed the Isis Smoking Cessation Programme (Sulzberger & Marks, 1977). After returning to England in 1986 Marks developed a UK-version of the programme which was originally published by the
British Psychological SocietyThe British Psychological Society is the representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. The BPS is a charity and, along with advantages, this also imposes certain constraints on what the society can and cannot do...
in 1993 as The QUIT FOR LIFE Programme (Marks 1993). The approach was developed further and re-published in the Overcoming series by Robinson as "Overcoming Your Smoking
HabitHabits are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly, tend to occur subconsciously, without directly thinking consciously about them. Habitual behavior sometimes goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting them, because it is often unnecessary to engage in self-analysis when undertaking in routine...
" (Marks 2005).
Cognitive psychology
Marks' research into
cognitive psychologyCognitive psychology is a discipline within psychology that investigates the internal mental processes of thought such as visual processing, memory, problem solving, and language....
and mental imagery led to the development of the
Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ)The Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire was published in 1973 by the British psychologist David Marks . The VVIQ consists of 16 items in four groups of 4 items in which the participant is invited to consider the image formed in thinking about a specific scenes and situations. The vividness...
, a tool for the assessment of individual differences in visual imagery. Marks (1973) reported that high vividness scores correlate with the accuracy of recall of coloured photographs. In 1995 he published a new version of the VVIQ, the VVIQ2. This questionnaire consists of twice the number of items and reverses the rating scale so that higher scores reflect higher vividness. Rodway, Gillies and Schepman (2006) found that high vividness participants were significantly more accurate at detecting salient changes to pictures compared to low vividness participants, replicating an earlier study by Gur and Hilgard (1975). Recently Cui et al. (2007) found that reported image vividness correlates with increased activity in the visual cortex. This study shows that the subjective experience of forming a mental image is reflected by increased visual cortical activity.
Parapsychology and skepticism
With
Denis DuttonDenis Dutton is an academic, web entrepreneur and libertarian media commentator/activist. He is a professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand...
Marks co-founded the
New Zealand SkepticsThe New Zealand Skeptics comprises a network of New Zealanders including magicians, teachers, scientists, health professionals and many others from all walks of life...
in 1986. In his work on
parapsychologyParapsychology is a controversial discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and life after death using the scientific method...
Marks adopts a sceptical analysis of
paranormalParanormal is a general term that describes unusual experiences that lack a scientific explanation, or phenomena alleged to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
claims. For example, Marks said that the original claims of
remote viewingRemote Viewing is the purported ability to gather information about a distant or unseen target using paranormal means or extra-sensory perception. Typically a remote viewer is expected to give information about an object that is hidden from physical view and separated at some distance...
experiments were based on flawed experimental procedures. Marks also said that
Uri GellerUri Geller is an Israeli British entertainer well known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other physical effects. Geller has throughout the years claimed that he achieves these effects through psychokinesis and telepathy, though critics say they are easily replicated...
was able to hoodwink scientists, journalists and the many members of the public with a series of simple but audacious sleights of hand. Marks book, co-authored with the late Richard Kammann,
The Psychology of the PsychicThe Psychology of the Psychic is a work by David Marks and Dr Richard Kammann, written while both were lecturers in psychology at New Zealand's University of Otago....
(Marks & Kammann 1980; 2nd edn. Marks 2000; Forewords to both editions by
Martin GardnerMartin Gardner is an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, pseudoscience, literature , philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion...
) describes these case studies of paranormal claims together with a set of principles for explaining how people may believe so strongly in paranormal claims, such as psychological phenomena for the generation of paranormal beliefs is
subjective validationSubjective validation, sometimes called personal validation effect, is a cognitive bias by which a person will consider a statement or another piece of information to be correct if it has any personal meaning or significance to them...
, a process through which people find a correspondence between randomly paired events, including coincidences (Marks, 2000).
External links