Nora Skjerdingstad

I am a DPhil student in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, affiliated with The Oxford Psychological Interventions for Children and adolescents (TOPIC) research group and the Cognitive and Behavioural Approaches to Mental Health in Young People (CAMY) group. I am supervised by Dr Eleanor Leigh and Professor Cathy Creswell.

My research focuses on the maintenance of social anxiety in young people, with a particular emphasis on how digital environments and social media shape the disorder. I use ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to capture real-time processes as they unfold in individuals’ daily lives, alongside experimental methods to investigate causal mechanisms in controlled settings. Through this work, I aim to better understand how online interactions and social media use influence social anxiety and how this knowledge can inform more effective interventions.

Prior to starting my DPhil, I trained as a Clinical Psychologist at the University of Oslo. I completed a research placement at the University of Amsterdam (Psychological Methods) under the supervision of Dr Adela-Maria Isvoranu and Dr Sacha Epskamp, focusing on the application of network models in psychopathology. Additionally, I worked as a research assistant in the PROMENTA research group at the University of Oslo and as an editorial assistant in the Journal of the Norwegian Psychological Association. 

Alongside my doctoral work, I am involved in several collaborative research projects:

• Investigating individual differences in treatment response in parent-led cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for child anxiety (University of Oxford)
• Examining how loneliness experienced during adolescence and young adulthood impacts occupational functioning in adulthood (University of Oslo)
• Exploring the relationship between different dimensions of loneliness and internalising problems (e.g., depression and social anxiety) among young adults in Japan (University of Tokyo)

My research is supported by the Aker Scholarship.