DAVID F. MARKS was born in Petersfield, England and lives in Provence, France. David graduated from the University of Reading and completed his PhD in mathematical psychology at the University of Sheffield. He held positions at the University of Otago, New Zealand and at University College London. He served as Head of the School of Psychology at Middlesex Polytechnic, and as Head of the Department of Psychology at City, University of London, UK. As a Visiting Professor, he carried out research in the Department of Neurosurgery at Hamamatsu School of Medicine and at the Department of Psychology, at Kyushu University, in Japan, at the Universities of Oregon and Washington, in the USA, and taught health psychology at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Tromso, in Norway. In addition to five previous editions of this book, David has published 25 books including: The Psychology of the Psychic (1980, with R. Kammann), Theories of Image Formation (1986), Imagery: Current Developments (1990, with J.T.E. Richardson and P. Hampson), The Quit For Life Programme: An Easier Way to Stop Smoking and Not Start Again (1993), Improving the Health of the Nation (1996, with C. Francome), Dealing with Dementia: Recent European Research (2000, with C.M. Sykes), The Psychology of the Psychic (revised edition, 2000), The Health Psychology Reader (2002), Research Methods for Clinical and Health Psychology (2004, with L. Yardley), Overcoming Your Smoking Habit (2005), Obesity: Comfort vs. Discontent (2016), Stop Smoking Now (2017), A General Theory of Behaviour (2018) and The Psychology of the Paranormal: Exploring Anomalous Experience (2020). MICHAEL MURRAY is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Keele University, UK, where he was Head of the School of Psychology. Previously, he was Professor of Social and Health Psychology at Memorial University, Canada, and held positions at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, London, UK and at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. He has published over 200 books, chapters, journal articles and reports on various issues in social and health psychology. His previous books include Smoking Among Young Adults (1988, with L. Jarrett, A.V. Swan and R. Rumen), Qualitative Health Psychology: Theories and Methods (1999, with K. Chamberlain) and Critical Health Psychology (2004, 2015). He also edited with Kerry Chamberlain the collection New Directions in Health Psychology (Vols. 1-5) (2015) and with Liz Peel and Carol Holland Psychologies of Ageing: Theory, Research and Practice (2018). Michael has been Associate Editor of the Journal of Health Psychology and of Psychology and Health and an editorial board member of Health Psychology Open, Health Psychology Review, Psychology, Health and Medicine and Arts and Health. He was Chair of the Health Psychology Section of the Canadian Psychological Association for which he edited Canadian Health Psychologist/Psychologue Canadien de la Sante and a founding member of the International Society of Critical Health Psychology. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Canadian Psychological Association and the Academy of Social Sciences. In 2017 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society. His current research interests include the use of participatory and arts-based methods to promote social engagement among older people. BRIAN EVANS is a Visiting Lecturer at Middlesex University, UK, having previously served there as programme leader of the MSc degree in Health Psychology. Brian has also held positions at City University and the University of Sussex, UK, and at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. He is interested in the analysis of psychological research and theory in its socio-political context and his previous publications include IQ and Mental Testing: An Unnatural Science and Its Social History (1981, with B. Waites). Brian is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Health Psychology. Professor Carla Willig graduated from the University of Manchester in 1986. She then embarked upon postgraduate studies at the University of Cambridge where she was awarded an MPhil in Criminology in 1987. She stayed at Cambridge in order to conduct her doctoral research into the 'Social Construction of AIDS Knowledge' which she completed in 1991. Professor Willig has held teaching positions at the University of Plymouth (1991-3) Middlesex University (1993-9) and City University London (1999 onwards). From 2001, she undertook additional training at Regents College, London, and qualified as an Existential Counselling Psychologist in 2005.
