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Grace Williams BSc (Hons), MSc

Grace Williams

(she/her)

BSc (Hons), MSc

Teams and roles for Grace Williams

Overview

Grace is a first-year PhD student at the School of Psychology, Cardiff University. She holds a BSc in Psychology with Professional Placement and an MSc in Children’s Psychological Disorders, both from Cardiff University.

Her PhD research focuses on the treatment experiences of gender diverse and neurodiverse individuals with eating disorders. By conducting interviews with individuals who have lived experience and healthcare professionals, as well as liaising with academics and support organizations, she aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the treatment experiences and the barriers to support faced by this population.

Grace is committed to actively participating in the university community. During her undergraduate degree, she served as President of the Psychology Society for two years and also held roles as an academic representative and Equality and Diversity representative. Continuing her involvement during her PhD, she has taken on the role of academic representative for the first-year cohort, as well as a graduate teaching assistant role in the Children's Psychological Disorders MSc course. 

Research

Current Project

In contrast with her MSc dissertation, Grace's PhD project adopts a more qualitative approach to investigate the experiences of gender diverse and neurodiverse individuals with eating disorders. Gender diverse and neurodiverse individuals are at increased likelihood of experiencing eating related psychopathology (Diemer et al., 2015; Nazar et al., 2016; Westwood et al., 2017) and are more likely to experience barriers to treatment (Heiden-Rootes et al., 2023; Cooper et al., 2023). However, there is currently a lack of research exploring the treatment experiences of these overlapping populations. Grace’s PhD project aims to address this gap.

Past Projects

In her Msc dissertation, Grace’s research explored the relationship between eating disorder symptoms and autistic traits in gender diverse individuals. Her study found that higher autistic traits were linked to lower social support and higher eating disorder symptoms. Additionally, social support partially mediated this relationship, highlighting the need for tailored interventions that addressed both neurodiversity and social support needs in this population

For her undergraduate dissertation, Grace explored how the order of presenting choices affects decision-making in reinforcement learning. Her research revealed that participants often chose less optimal but more frequently presented options, especially when these were introduced early in the training process. This finding sheds light on the primacy effect in learning and challenges existing reinforcement learning models.

Biography

Postgraduate Education

2024-Present: PhD Psychology Student, Cardiff University.

2023-2024: MSc Children’s Psychological Disorders, Cardiff University.

 

Undergraduate Education

2019-2023: BSc Psychology with Professional Placement (First Class Honours), Cardiff University.

(2021-2022: Research Assistant, Social Cognitive Development Lab, Yale University.)

Contact Details

Email WilliamsG85@cardiff.ac.uk

Research themes

Specialisms

  • Eating Disorders
  • Gender Identity
  • Neurodivergence