About Me

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I’m a proud dad of 2 daughters (soon to be 3 children!), husband of long suffering wife, have a go psychologist, occasional media sub z-list commentator, music-obsessed, wine loving, cooking-addicted, frustrated gardening, argumentative, coffee-making (in D5 MBS East if you’re about) kind of guy.

I’ve been mad on all things psychology (including very early forays into clinical) since I was about 13.  Firmly empirical, but not a logical positivist (how dare you!).  My interests wend, wave, focus and drift in and around creativity, divergent thinking, selection & assessment,  personality theories, mild psychopathologies, identifying esoteric talent, music consumption and preference, consumer psychology, theories of motivation, understanding financial behaviour, Darwinism in relation to individual/team/organisation and fear of the recession.

I love music and find the question “what’s your favourite kind of music” slightly disturbing.  I (used to) play the guitar and Djembe – but would rather chase around with the kids in the garden!

The more I read about wine, the more I realise that I’m totally clueless.  For reds I tend to prefer a nice Rioja, Ribero Del Deuro, what little French I can afford :@(   In the Summer I like a chilled Pinot Noir or anything from the Beaujolais region.  Whites-wise currently too fond of Rieslings (Polish Hill River from Oz or Dr Loosen), French Sauvignon (gone off the Marlborough Sav Blanc) or Marsanne and Viogner.  In the summer I love the ultra-cheap Chateau Guiot rose.  I’ve enjoyed cooking since I was a kid and love cooking everything savoury.  A favourite is my high-heat slow-roasted pork belly (the secret is scoring the skin very deeply, laying the belly on a bed of fresh herbs and filling the roasting dish with wine just up to the level of the crackling.  That way the meat of the belly gets cooked slowly and the tops crackles up really well). Just learning about the “dark arts” of baking.  This autumn has seen us make homegrown and homemade Christmas Plum Jam, Spiced Pear Chutney, Pear and Apple Christmas Chutney.

On the gardening front I “enjoy” the challenges of attempting to get tropical plants to flourish in the NW of England.  Living in a clay rich soil area I’m none too fond of slugs.  This year we have been mainly growing tomatoes, mange tout, spring onions, lettuce, rocket, chicory, coriander and strawberries.  The courgettes, asparagus beans (and most non-pot attempts at lettuce) did not fare so well.

I mainly spend my time when I’m not at work playing with the kids and like nothing more than good company and a good debate.

The Formal part..

Mark Batey is a lecturer in Organisational Psychology at Manchester Business School, a Chartered Psychologist and Co-Director of the Psychometrics at Work Research Group. He holds a degree in psychology from the University of York, a Masters in Occupational Psychology from the Institute of Work, Health and Organisation at the University of Nottingham and a PhD from University College, London. His PhD involved the psychometric investigation of creativity. He is a Level A (ability) & B (personality) qualified trainer.  Mark has held teaching posts in Work Psychology at University College London and Birkbeck College, London.  He also works as an independent consultant

Mark is a member of the British Psychological Society, European Association for Personality Psychology, International Society for the Study of Individual Differences, American Psychological Association and APA Division 10: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts.

He an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Creativity and Problem Solving as well as a regular reviewer for international journals such as Personality and Individual Differences, British Journal of Psychology and the Creativity Research Journal.

Dr Batey is the Academic Director of the Halliwells Management Development Programme which he co-directs with Dr Maria Stafylarakis.  He has worked as an independent consultant since 2002.  Mark has worked on projects involving:

Leadership training
Creativity training and assessment
Selection & Assessment
Managerial selection/induction/performance assessment/succession-planning systems
Personality-based coaching

His clients have included Anhueser Busch InBev, G4S, PZ Cussons, Merck, Sharp & Dohme, Johnson & Johnson, Halliwells LLP, Rolls-Royce, Sony Music Entertainment, M-Real, Novar, Beaverbrooks, Greater Manchester Police and Reading Football Club