Learning From Others: Writing a Qualitative Dissertation

Author(s):  
Judith Hold
Author(s):  
John Kekes

The hard questions are: Is there an absolute value? Must we conform? Do we owe what our country asks of us? Is justice necessary? How should we respond to evil? Is it right to forgive wrong actions? Is shame good? Should we be true to who we are? Do good intentions justify bad actions? Should moral evaluations be overriding? These questions are hard because each has several reasonable but conflicting answers. Their conflicts show that we are ambivalent about what answer we should give when we have to make important decisions whose consequences affect us, our relationships, and our attitude to the society we live in. The aim of this book is to show how hard questions can be reasonably answered. Comparisons are central to the approach of this book. Each chapter is concerned with two conflicting answers that have been given to one of the hard questions by those who had to face the question in different anthropological, historical, and literary contexts. These comparisons are central to the evaluations of the answers. They enable us to learn from the successes and failures of others how we can form a deeper understanding of the reasons for and against the answers we might give. The comparisons enlarge how we see the possibilities and limits of life. By learning from others, we can decide more reasonably how we should respond to the hard questions we face.


BMJ Leader ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. leader-2020-000344
Author(s):  
Taylor C. Standiford ◽  
Kavya Davuluri ◽  
Nicole Trupiano ◽  
David Portney ◽  
Larry Gruppen ◽  
...  

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic impacted many aspects of normal operations in academic medicine. While effective leadership is always important, the intensity and urgency of COVID-19 challenged academic medicine leaders to find new ways to lead their institutions and manage their own experiences of the pandemic.MethodsSixteen physician leaders from Michigan Medicine took part in semistructured interviews during April and May 2020. Participants were asked open-ended questions about the attributes and techniques that were important to effectively lead during a crisis. The authors analysed the interviews using thematic analysis.ResultsParticipants described three overarching themes of leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) bringing together a diverse team with clear, shared goals; (2) using a range of strategies to tend to their teams’—as well as their own—well-being; and (3) engaging in leadership reasoning as a way of learning from others and reflecting on their own actions to inform their future leadership practice.ConclusionThe results of this study reveal several salient themes of crisis leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also highlight the role of leadership reasoning, a reflective practice employed by leaders to understand and improve their leadership skills. This finding presents leadership skill development as part of lifelong learning in medicine. Findings may be incorporated into best practices and preparations to inform future healthcare leaders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Canteloup ◽  
Mabia B. Cera ◽  
Brendan J. Barrett ◽  
Erica van de Waal

AbstractSocial learning—learning from others—is the basis for behavioural traditions. Different social learning strategies (SLS), where individuals biasedly learn behaviours based on their content or who demonstrates them, may increase an individual’s fitness and generate behavioural traditions. While SLS have been mostly studied in isolation, their interaction and the interplay between individual and social learning is less understood. We performed a field-based open diffusion experiment in a wild primate. We provided two groups of vervet monkeys with a novel food, unshelled peanuts, and documented how three different peanut opening techniques spread within the groups. We analysed data using hierarchical Bayesian dynamic learning models that explore the integration of multiple SLS with individual learning. We (1) report evidence of social learning compared to strictly individual learning, (2) show that vervets preferentially socially learn the technique that yields the highest observed payoff and (3) also bias attention toward individuals of higher rank. This shows that behavioural preferences can arise when individuals integrate social information about the efficiency of a behaviour alongside cues related to the rank of a demonstrator. When these preferences converge to the same behaviour in a group, they may result in stable behavioural traditions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanjin Zhou ◽  
Avery O’Hara ◽  
Emily Ishado ◽  
Soo Borson ◽  
Tatiana Sadak

Abstract Background and Objectives Caring for a person living with dementia requires resilience, the capacity to recover and grow from challenging situations. Despite the increasing interest in assessing and promoting resilience for dementia care partners, behaviors that indicate this attribute are not well known. The goal of this study is to synthesize the literature to identify resilience-related behaviors and develop a new framework for future validation and intervention research. Research Design and Methods We searched English-language peer-reviewed articles (January 1991 – June 2019) reporting qualitative or quantitative descriptions of resilience-related behaviors among dementia care partners. Thematic analysis was used to categorize behaviors into domains, identify the relationships among them, and generate a thematic map. Results Sixteen articles were identified according to predefined inclusion criteria. Four domains emerged: (1) problem-response behaviors (problem-solving, problem-distancing); (2) self-growth behaviors (self-care activities, spiritual-related activities, and developing and maintaining meaningful social relationships); (3) help-related behaviors (help-seeking and help-receiving), and (4) learning-related behaviors (learning from others and reflection). Definitions of each domain, identification of corresponding behaviors, and formulation of Care Partner Resilience (CP-R) behavioral framework were informed by this mixed research synthesis and other relevant literature. Discussion and Implications The CP-R framework emerged as a result of a new focus on identifying and cultivating strengths instead of evaluating strain and burden. It serves as a useful foundation for understanding the impact of specific behaviors on dementia care partner resilience. Once validated, this framework will inform the development of future measures, research, interventions, and policies for dementia care partners.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096372142199311
Author(s):  
Andrew Whiten

Culture—the totality of traditions acquired in a community by social learning from other individuals—has increasingly been found to be pervasive not only in humans’ but in many other animals’ lives. Compared with learning on one’s own initiative, learning from others can be very much safer and more efficient, as the wisdom already accumulated by other individuals is assimilated. This article offers an overview of often surprising recent discoveries charting the reach of culture across an ever-expanding diversity of species, as well as an extensive variety of behavioral domains, and throughout an animal’s life. The psychological reach of culture is reflected in the knowledge and skills an animal thus acquires, via an array of different social learning processes. Social learning is often further guided by a suite of adaptive psychological biases, such as conformity and learning from optimal models. In humans, cumulative cultural change over generations has generated the complex cultural phenomena observed today. Animal cultures have been thought to lack this cumulative power, but recent findings suggest that elementary versions of cumulative culture may be important in animals’ lives.


2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Graeme Sullivan
Keyword(s):  

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 696-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Coticchia ◽  
Francesco Niccolò Moro

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-13
Author(s):  
Ngo Phan Trong

This study was conducted on 1170 students at 10 secondary schools in 5 provinces in Vietnam. Survey results determined student's clarity on others at medium level. The Clarity to others of surveyed students was correlated with factors such as: communication style, communication trends and temperament of students in communicating and learning from others. The results of multiple linear regresion model of factors have been determined the prediction of the effects of the above factors. The predictive discovered models in the study have been useful suggestions for parents, teachers and students, helping them to improve Clarity in social intelligence of secondary school students.


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