Dr Laura Longstaff

Assistant Professor

School: Psychology

Dr Laura Longstaff is a Chartered Psychologist and Fellow of The Higher Education Academy. She is a Senior Lecturer in Occupational and Organisational Psychology at Northumbria University, where she is the Module Leader for the MSc module Workplace Wellbeing. She was the Psychology departments Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion from 2019-2021 and was also the Chair of the departments Athena SWAN team, leading to a successful Bronze Award in 2019.

At Northumbria university Laura has completed a BSc (hons) in Psychology, an MSc in Occupational Psychology and a PhD in Occupational Health Psychology. Laura's PhD combined the fields of Sleep Medicine and Occupational Health Psychology, focusing on occupational well-being and the interaction between sleep, work and health, which she completed in 2014.

Laura has also worked within the Organisational Development team of a North East Council and as a Research Assistant for Professor Jason Ellis, within the Psychology department at Northumbria University, where she assisted with the opening of the Northumbria Centre for Sleep Research. Following the completion of her PhD Laura worked as a Senior Learning and Development Advisor within a North East Housing Association, as a Lecturer at Sunderland University, and as an Organisational Psychologist for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, prior to returning to Northumbria University as a Lecturer in 2016.

Laura has also been a volunteer committee member for The British Psychological Societies Division of Occupational Psychology Committee and their North East Branch as well as the Chair of the Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group (PSYPAG 2013-2015). Laura also works on consultancy projects alongside the Vitalwork Psychology consultancy team at Northumbria and has worked with organisations such as Northumbria Police, Nissan UK and the NHS North East Leadership Academy. She is also a qualified test user in Occupational and Ability assessment.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Laura's main research interests surround occupational well-being, employee selection and assessment and equality, diversity and inclusion. She is currently working with a large police force to research aspirations and expectations of White and BAME female Police Officers' career progression and co-supervising a PhD student investigating Prison Officer wellbeing and a PhD student developing and evaluating an evidence based intervention for workplace bullying in healthcare. She is also interested in improving Musicians' wellbeing and working on the development of a research programme in this area.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Uncovering Gender and Temporal Dynamics: Career Resources Impacting Career Success, Malkowska, W., Elsey, V., Longstaff, L., Arnold, J. 12 Jan 2026, In: Administrative Sciences
The prevalence of depression, anxiety, stress and their relationship to length of service in the UK police force, Gullon-Scott, P., Longstaff, L. 1 Mar 2024, In: Police Journal
Becoming a professional: The five pillars of identification in Occupational Psychology in the UK, Elsey, V., Thompson, N., Sillence, E., Longstaff, L., Moss, M. 18 Jun 2020, In: InPractice: The EAWOP Practitioners E-Journal
Collaborative Leadership in Systems: Evaluation report on Pilot Development Centre and Coaching, Elsey, V., Carter, M., Longstaff, L., Thompson, N., Wheatman, A. Jun 2020
Development of Competency Framework for Collaborative Leaders in Systems, Elsey, V., Carter, M., Longstaff, L., Thompson, N., Wheatman, A. Jun 2020
Prolonged Low-Level Exposure to the Aroma of Peppermint Essential Oil Enhances Aspects of Cognition and Mood in Healthy Adults, Hoult, L., Longstaff, L., Moss, M. 21 Jun 2019, In: American Journal of Plant Sciences
Exploration of potential objective and subjective daily indicators of sleep health in normal sleepers, Allen, S., Elder, G., Longstaff, L., Gotts, Z., Sharman, R., Akram, U., Ellis, J. 27 Sep 2018, In: Nature and Science of Sleep
The anticipation and consequences of an acute stressor on sleep quality, Neale, L., Moss, M., Barclay, N., Ellis, J. 11 Jun 2012, 26th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies
The natural history of insomnia: Focus on prevalence and incidence of acute insomnia, Ellis, J., Perlis, M., Neale, L., Espie, C., Bastien, C. 2012, In: Journal of Psychiatric Research
Characterising insomnia subtypes in older adults, Neale, L., Moss, M., Ellis, J. Jun 2011, 25th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies