Alexandra Bates

Alexandra Bates is a doctoral researcher at the School of Psychology, University of Sussex, supervised by Dr. Elian Fink and Dr. Kathryn Lester. Her work examines how young children apply theory of mind understanding behaviorally in social contexts like pretend play, with a focus on mental state talk. She has prior experience as an early years teacher in London, Brighton, and the Channel Islands.

• MSc in Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex (2018-2019)
• PGCE in Early Years Education, University of Warwick (2008-2009)
• BA (Hons) in English and French, University of Warwick (2004-2008)

Alexandra's research interests center on peer influence in socio-cognitive and linguistic development, childhood friendship dynamics, pretend play as a developmental context, and teacher strategies for fostering peer relationships. Her recent work explores trends in peer dyads' mental state talk, linking it to social interactions but not theory-of-mind understanding.

She teaches undergraduate modules in Developmental Psychology and Psychology of Childhood at the School of Psychology, and contributes to the Children and Young People's Health and Wellbeing module in the School of Education and Social Work. Alexandra also works part-time as a research assistant for the National Institute of Teaching, co-designing evaluations of professional development interventions for multi-academy trust CEOs and studying early career teachers in rural and coastal schools.