scholarly journals A critical narrative analysis of psychiatrists’ engagement with psychosis as a contentious area

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (7) ◽  
pp. 724-730
Author(s):  
Therese O’Donoghue ◽  
Jon Crossley

Background: Psychosis, characterised by altered perceptions or interpretations of reality, remains a contested area. Lately, perspectives and conceptualisations of psychosis that have traditionally been more peripheral have gained greater recognition. Both the British Psychological Society and Critical Psychiatry Network have highlighted some contentious areas in recent publications. Aims: The aim was to use critical narrative analysis to consider what facilitates and inhibits medical professionals with clinical experience of psychosis to engage with the topic of psychosis as a contentious area. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 medical professionals, who were at trainee or qualified level with a minimum of 6 months’ clinical experience within psychiatry, across three Trusts within the United Kingdom. This purposive sample had a diverse range of perspectives regarding psychosis. Critical narrative analysis comprising six distinct stages, informed the analysis. Results: Participants positioned themselves broadly within one of three groups: biological psychiatrists, critical psychiatrists and those more conflicted. Narrative analysis was undertaken for each participant before being integrated for this article. The research highlighted several factors which either limit or facilitate opportunities within the psychiatric profession to engage with a plurality of views regarding psychosis. These included the significance of power and hierarchy within the profession, the role of dialogue and the prevalence of reflexivity within the profession. Conclusion: A pattern was identified of psychiatrists generally associating with like-minded others and not engaging with wider evidence regarding psychosis, partly as a result of the inherent threats to the power and hierarchy of the profession. This led to new ideas being widely unknown or undervalued, potentially to the disservice of clinical practice.

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Clarke

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of the “capability approach” as an alternative framework for understanding and conceptualising the role of Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs) and other providers for groups conventionally considered “hard to reach”. Design/methodology/approach – A study of the education services of RCOs, drawing primarily on semi-structured interviews with 71 users, is put forward as a case study for how the capability approach can be operationalised. Findings – The capability approach is found to offer various valuable insights, relating to its appreciation of the multi-dimensional nature of human wellbeing, the significance of individual diversity, and the importance of human agency. Research limitations/implications – The case study is based on a relatively small purposive sample, and may have limited external validity. As the research design proved strong for exploring how RCOs develop their users’ capabilities but weak for exploring if and how they may also constrict them, further research in this area is required. Practical implications – A number of valuable attributes of the capability approach are highlighted for broadening the understanding, the role of RCOs and other service providers. Social implications – The paper outlines the potential of the capability approach to contribute to policymaking related to RCOs and other providers, and to debates relating to social exclusion, cohesion and integration. Originality/value – The paper draws attention to the value of the capability approach within the field of migration research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 1528-1551 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLAIRE PRESTON ◽  
STEPHEN MOORE

ABSTRACTThe drive to deliver services addressing loneliness in older people by telephone and online makes it increasingly relevant to consider how the mode of communication affects the way people interact with services and the capacity of services to meet their needs. This paper is based on the qualitative strand of a larger mixed-methods study of a national phoneline tackling loneliness in older people in the United Kingdom. The research comprised thematic analysis of four focus groups with staff and 42 semi-structured interviews with callers. It explored the associations between telephone-delivery, how individuals used the services and how the services were able to respond. To understand these associations, it was useful to identify some constituent characteristics of telephone communication in this context: namely its availability, reach and non-visual nature. This enabled various insights and comparison with other communication media. For example, the availability of the services attracted people seeking frequent emotional support but this presented challenges to staff. More positively, the ability of the services to connect disparate individuals enabled them to form different kinds of satisfying relationships. The evolution of mixed communication forms, such as internet-based voice communication and smartphone-based visual communication, makes analysis at the level of a technology's characteristics useful. Such a cross-cutting perspective can inform both the design of interventions and assessment of their suitability for different manifestations of loneliness.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priya Gunesh ◽  
Vishwas Maheshwari

PurposeThe paper aims to demonstrate the utilization of banks’ career website for publicizing the employer branding strategy to enable effective strategic talent relationship management through talent attraction, engagement and retention.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach using purposive sample comprising HR professionals involving HR directors, reward managers and talent relationship managers, participated in semi-structured interviews.FindingsThis paper provides empirical insights on the use of career websites to disseminate the employer brand. The findings reveal the presence of recruitment orientation career websites across the banking sector. It also conveys HR practitioners’ suggestions for revamping the banks’ career websites to a more screening orientation approach for greater interactivity by both the internal and external talent pools.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper depicts the importance attributed around the utilization of career websites in promoting the employer brand by the HR community across the banking sector. It provides clear insights about the specific contents of career websites to enable sustainable talent attraction, engagement and retention.Originality/valueThis paper provides a qualitative insight to the study of employer branding and career websites. Whereas most previous research on career websites have been of a quantitative nature relying predominantly on fictitious websites, having mostly undergraduate students as research participants. This study contributes enormously to the existing literature and practice by unveiling the perceptions of HR professionals on the dissemination of the employer brand through the career website.


2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 1522-1538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willam Joseph Pirie

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the key determinants of organisational silence from the perspective of non-standard workers (NSWs). The study focuses on three research themes: first, analysing the experiences motivating NSWs to remain silent; second, analysing the role of the NSW life cycle in the motivation to remain silent, the final theme is evaluation of the impact on organisational voice of an organisation employing a workforce in which NSWs and standard workers (SWs) are blended. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilises a phenomenological approach, as defined by Van Manen (2007), to collect and analyse the phenomenon of organisational silence from the perspective of NSWs. The NSWs are defined as individuals operating via Limited Liability UK registered companies created for the purpose of delivering services to organisations via a contract of services. This study employed a combination of phenomenology and hermeneutics to collect and analyse the data collected from the NSWs using semi-structured interviews (Lindseth and Norberg, 2004). Findings – The study concludes with three core findings. NSWs experience similar motivational factors to silence as experienced by standard workers (SWs). The key differential between a SW and a NSW is the role of defensive silence as a dominant motivator for a start-up NSW. The study identified that the reasons for this is that new NSWs are defensive to protect their reputation for any future contract opportunities. In addition, organisations are utilising the low confidence of new start up NSWs to suppress the ability of NSWs to voice. The research indicates how experienced NSWs use the marketing stage of their life cycle to establish voice mechanisms. The study identified that NSWs, fulfiling management and supervisory roles for organisations, are supporting/creating climates of silence through their transfer of experiences as SWs prior to becoming NSWs. Research limitations/implications – This study is a pilot study, and the findings from this study will be carried forward into a larger scale study through engagement with further participants across a diverse range of sectors. This study has identified that there is a need for further studies on organisational silence and NSWs to analyse more fully the impact of silence on the individuals and the organisation itself. A qualitative phenomenological hermeneutical study is not intended to be extrapolated to provide broad trends. The focus of the phenomenological hermeneutic research methodology is on describing and analysing the richness and depth of the NSW’s experiences of silence in organisational settings. Originality/value – This paper draws together the studies of worker classification, motivators for organisational silence, and the impact of blending SWs and NSWs in an organisational setting. The study demonstrates that academic research to date has focused predominantly on SWs to the exclusion of the 1.5 million, and growing, NSWs in the UK. This study examines these under-represented workers to analyse the participants’ experiences of organisational silence, and its consequences in organisational settings, demonstrating a need for further studies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Núñez Asomoza

ABSTRACT Within a framework of transnationalism, and through narrative analysis using the Labovian model, this paper offers a discussion of the role of social and sociocultural remittances in the identity construction of transnational youth pursuing tertiary education in a public university in central-north Mexico. Through the exploration of oral data from semi-structured interviews the discussion aims at providing evidence of the ties and engagement that the participants develop on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border through the exchange of goods, values, worldviews, attitudes, practices and linguistic elements, and how these impact their personal identity construction. The data presented in this paper come from a portion of qualitative corpora of a study in progress conducted by the author as a Ph.D project at Trinity College Dublin.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 205520761988807
Author(s):  
Lauren Georgia Bussey ◽  
Elizabeth Sillence

Objective Internet resources remain important for health information and advice but their specific role in decision-making is understudied, often assumed and remains unclear. In this article, we examine the different ways in which internet resources play a role in health decision-making within the context of distributed decision-making. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 people in the United Kingdom who reported using the internet in relation to decision-making, and representing a range of long- and short-term health conditions. The interviews focused on decision-making activities across different settings and in relation to different stakeholders to understand how internet resources play a role in these activities. We carried out a thematic analysis of the interviews. Results We identified three main ways in which internet resources played a role in health decision-making. A supportive role (as a decision crutch), a stimulating role (as a decision initiator), and an interactional role (impacting on the doctor–patient relationship). These three roles spanned different resources and illustrated how the decision-making process can be impacted by the encounters people have with technology – specifically internet based health resources – in different ways and at different time points. Conclusions Examining health decisions with respect to internet resources highlights the complex and distributed nature of decision-making alongside the complexity of online health information sourcing. We discuss the role of internet resources in relation to the increasing importance of online personal experiences and their relevance within shared decision-making.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062199282
Author(s):  
Kirsten Loach ◽  
Jennifer Rowley

As organisations that collect and maintain cultural artefacts, independent libraries make important contributions to cultural sustainability. Surfacing and elaborating on these contributions has the potential to establish their value to wider sustainable development agendas. However, sustainability policy and research across the gallery, library, archive and museum sectors tends to focus on environmental, social and economic concerns. The small number of studies that do consider cultural sustainability tend to focus on the role of galleries, libraries, archives and museums in heritage preservation, without consideration of their role in sustaining culture through the three other key areas of preserving and promoting cultural identity, cultural diversity and cultural vitality. In addition, previous studies do not consider the role of culture in enabling sustainability at an organisational level. Complementing previous research on the relationship between museums and cultural sustainability (conducted in Australia, Cyprus and Romania), this study seeks to expand understanding of the relationship between galleries, libraries, archives and museums and cultural sustainability in the context of the independent library sectors in the United Kingdom and the United States. Semi-structured interviews conducted with professionals from independent libraries in both countries employed a card-based game method to explore the key areas of cultural sustainability in which their organisations can contribute. Interviews also explored the challenges associated with achieving organisational sustainability, together with the organisational values that impact the sustainability of independent libraries. The research identifies a series of supportive and conflicting relationships between the contributions that independent libraries make to each of the four key areas of cultural sustainability, as well as the organisational values that can inhibit or assist organisational sustainability. Resulting in a framework to assist in the management of internal organisational sustainability and contributions to external cultural sustainability agendas in independent libraries, it provides a new perspective to support understanding of the relationship between galleries, libraries, archives and museums and cultural sustainability.


Author(s):  
Claire C. Millar

AbstractTimor-Leste’s long history of colonisation and occupation has posed significant welfare challenges for the small, half-island nation nestled between Asia and the Pacific. Since independence in 2002, a budding pattern of migration has emerged, with increasing numbers of Timorese living and working in the United Kingdom. This chapter seeks to understand how the welfare concerns of these migrants shape their decisions about geographical mobility and vice versa. Analysing semi-structured interviews and overt participant observation conducted in England in 2017 and drawing on an extended version of the welfare resource environment framework, it explores the role of market, state and family-based welfare provisions in this migration trend. It finds that Timorese migrants in England utilise migration – and the market and state-based welfare provisions it brings – in service of their own, family-based social protection system. Migration between welfare contexts allows increased access to new and varied sources of welfare, valued for how they support a family-based framework founded on interdependence, relationships with others and responsibility. By querying the mobility of Timorese migrants in England in light of their welfare concerns, this chapter elucidates the culturally embedded ways in which migrants and their families piece together unique protection packages.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 1476-1488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Biraghi ◽  
Rossella Chiara Gambetti

Purpose Extant branding literature is dominated by a metaphorical view of value co-creation in which the roles of brand actors remain unspecified. To help provide clarity, the purpose of this paper is to critically appraise how brand professionals understand brand value co-creation and perceive their role in facilitating it, with the aim of questioning its viability in day-to-day brand management practices. Design/methodology/approach Building on brand professionals’ reflexivity, the study develops a qualitative methodological glance via semi-structured interviews based on confrontational techniques with a purposive sample of 28 experienced brand decision-makers. Findings Brand professionals perceive accessibility, reciprocity and citizenship as the gateways provided by the firm for value co-creation to happen. Despite their enthusiastic rhetorical afflatus in making explicit their viewpoints about how firms can facilitate value co-creation, the current translation into practice of the role of the firm does not seem to be able to overcome the sender-biased approach that still resides in brand management. Practical implications To go beyond the limits of rhetorical representations and make brand value facilitation more actionable, the authors provide guidelines on how firms can create and enhance the circumstances for the co-creation of brand value to occur in interactions with consumers and stakeholders. Originality/value This study contributes to the critical actionability of the brand value co-creation by elucidating how firms currently perceive their facilitation role. The paper provides strategic recommendations to put co-creation rhetoric into practice by reframing and expanding the scope and the significance of brand management.


Author(s):  
Eve Riachi ◽  
Juha Holma ◽  
Aarno Laitila

AbstractThe development of psychological disorders has been explained by several psychological theories and remains under debate. Psychotherapists, however, have insights into the emergence and development of psychological disorders that stem from both theory and practice. The constantly evolving field of psychotherapy prompts reconsideration, specifically when psychotherapists’ views on the development of disorders impacts their treatment approach. In addition, theoretical orientation and years of clinical experience, while known to influence psychotherapists’ viewpoints also merit further study. Applying Erving Goffman’s frame analysis, semi structured interviews with psychotherapists were conducted to determine their perspectives on the emergence of mental disorders. Biological, environmental, and psychological factors were mentioned both separately and in combination by the therapists. These factors, or frames, were then analyzed in relation to the therapists’ therapeutic approaches and length of clinical experience. The analysis showed that the frames employed by the therapists were influenced by several therapeutic orientations. Moreover, therapists with more than ten years of clinical experience mentioned a combination of factors slightly more often than single factors alone. In sum, the findings showed that therapists perceived the development of mental disorders as highly complex and as an outcome of multiple factors. War was also mentioned as an environmental factor in the development of mental disorders. As this finding was clearly a country-specific environmental factor, future studies should explore the possible role of country-specific environmental factors in different countries.


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