scholarly journals Autism, Expert Discourses, and Subjectification: A Critical Examination of Applied Behavioural Therapies

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia F Gruson-Wood
Keyword(s):  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Behavioural Therapy ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Environmental Modification ◽  
Knowledge Practices ◽  
Behavioural Modification ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Behavioural Therapies ◽  
Autistic Subject

Applied behavioural therapies are widely adopted interventions that have become the standard of healthcare and expert knowledge for autistic people in Canada. These therapies are methods of individualized behavioural modification whereby skills are taught, and socially “undesirable” or “inappropriate” behaviour is regulated according to expert claims that focus on correction, imitation, repetition, reinforcements, and environmental modification. Despite their prevalence, these therapies are highly controversial methods within autism communities, with mostly non-autistic parents and clinicians as their main proponents, and autistic self-activists as their critics. The ethnographic research presented will examine the culture, training, and knowledge practices of behavioural therapy providers in Ontario, to study disciplinary techniques that are used to create expert subjects. In order to operate as a technology for producing optimal results in the autistic subject, working as a behavioural therapist involves multiple techniques such as completing intensive exercises consisting of audible and textual surveillance, recorded sessions, and intra-therapeutic replicability. These techniques and exercises often work to discipline expressions of care in accordance with a “psychocentric” framework for understanding autism and supporting autistic people. 

The Limitations of Wintering Away From Customary Pastures in Relation to Dzud in Mongolia's Gobi Region

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-110
Author(s):  
Annika Ericksen
Keyword(s):  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Heavy Snowfall ◽  
Variable Environment ◽  
Migration Decisions ◽  
Complicating Factors ◽  
High Uncertainty

This article, based on ethnographic research in a Gobi district in Mongolia, focuses on herders 'wintering away' from customary winter campsites to access better pasture elsewhere. Because of the drawbacks associated with wintering at non-customary as opposed to 'home' pastures, many herders consider 'wintering away' to be a last resort. In the 2009–10 dzud (winter disaster), in Bayanlig soum, most households that wintered away were hit by unusually heavy snowfall and suffered higher livestock losses than those households that stayed at their customary campsites. While herders' migration decisions are guided by expert knowledge of the environment, complicating factors and high uncertainty can contribute to livestock losses despite their best efforts. Mobility is essential to herders' success in a variable environment, but not all forms and instances of migration are equally beneficial. This article draws on herders' accounts to explore a migration dilemma in the Gobi that may become more common.

scholarly journals Efficacy and moderators of efficacy of trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapies in children and adolescents: protocol for an individual participant data meta-analysis from randomised trials

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. e047212
Author(s):  
Anke de Haan ◽  
Caitlin Hitchcock ◽  
Richard Meiser-Stedman ◽  
Markus A Landolt ◽  
Isla Kuhn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Behavioural Therapy ◽  
Risk Of Bias ◽  
Randomised Trials ◽  
First Line ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
Individual Participant ◽  
Behavioural Therapies ◽  
First Line Treatment

IntroductionTrauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapies are the first-line treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents. Nevertheless, open questions remain with respect to efficacy: why does this first-line treatment not work for everyone? For whom does it work best? Individual clinical trials often do not provide sufficient statistical power to examine and substantiate moderating factors. To overcome the issue of limited power, an individual participant data meta-analysis of randomised trials evaluating forms of trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy in children and adolescents aged 6–18 years will be conducted.Methods and analysisWe will update the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline literature search from 2018 with an electronic search in the databases PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and CINAHL with the terms (trauma* OR stress*) AND (cognitive therap* OR psychotherap*) AND (trial* OR review*). Electronic searches will be supplemented by a comprehensive grey literature search in archives and trial registries. Only randomised trials that used any manualised psychological treatment—that is a trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy for children and adolescents—will be included. The primary outcome variable will be child-reported posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) post-treatment. Proxy-reports (teacher, parent and caregiver) will be analysed separately. Secondary outcomes will include follow-up assessments of PTSS, PTSD diagnosis and symptoms of comorbid disorders such as depression, anxiety-related and externalising problems. Random-effects models applying restricted maximum likelihood estimation will be used for all analyses. We will use the Revised Cochrane Risk of Bias tool to measure risk of bias.Ethics and disseminationContributing study authors need to have permission to share anonymised data. Contributing studies will be required to remove patient identifiers before providing their data. Results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at international conferences.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42019151954.

scholarly journals Specialist Knowledge Practices of Craftsmen and Clerics in Senegal

Africa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Dilley
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Acquisition ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Specialized Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Practices ◽  
Hierarchical Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Specialist Knowledge ◽  
Relations Of Power

This article examines the specialized knowledge practices of two sets of culturally recognized ‘experts’ in Senegal: Islamic clerics and craftsmen. Their respective bodies of knowledge are often regarded as being in opposition, and in some respects antithetical, to one another. The aim of this article is to examine this claim by means of an investigation of how knowledge is conceived by each party. The analysis attempts to expose local epistemologies, which are deduced from an investigation of ‘expert’ knowledge practices and indigenous claims to knowledge. The social processes of knowledge acquisition and transmission are also examined with reference to the idea of initiatory learning. It is in these areas that commonalities between the bodies of knowledge and sets of knowledge practices are to be found. Yet, despite parallels between the epistemologies of both bodies of expertise and between their respective modes of knowledge transmission, the social consequences of ‘expertise’ are different in each case. The hierarchical relations of power that inform the articulation of the dominant clerics with marginalized craftsmen groups serve to profile ‘expertise’ in different ways, each one implying its own sense of authority and social range of legitimacy.

Psychotherapy

2019 ◽  
pp. 881-930
Author(s):  
David Semple ◽  
Roger Smyth
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Behavioural Therapy ◽  
Object Relations Theory ◽  
Behaviour Therapy ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
History Of ◽  
Behavioural Therapies ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Background Context ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter covers the psychotherapies, a collection of treatments for mental disorders which employ language and communication as a means of producing change. It covers assessment and selection of an appropriate method for the individual patient, a history of Freud and other pioneers of psychotherapy to provide a background context, before examining different types of therapy. Briefly explaining the theory of psychotherapy, the phases of psychosexual development, and the object relations theory, it goes into detail on behavioural therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, and solution therapy. Counselling methods are described to aid the reader in developing their skills.

Screen Mediated Work in an Ethnography of Official Statistics

2021 ◽  
pp. 48-67
Author(s):  
Francisca Grommé
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Organizational Knowledge ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Official Statistics ◽  
Organizational Processes ◽  
Research Traditions ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Knowledge Practices ◽  
Digital Work

The omnipresence of screen mediated work has consequences for researchers interested in ethnographically observing digital work ‘in action’ in co-located, face-to-face, fieldwork. Researchers can encounter difficulties such as deciding how and when to observe the role of screens, and observing screen mediated work when figures and graphs appear briefly or out of view. Focussing on organizational knowledge practices, the chapter first discusses how we can conceptualize the roles of screens in digital work by reviewing five ethnographic research traditions: (1) symbolic interactionism; (2) ethnomethodology; (3) panoptic theories of power; (4) actor-network theories; (5) sociomateriality in organizational processes. Next, the chapter considers how to practically study screen mediated work via an ethnographic research project in a statistical office. On the basis of this project, we can distinguish five ‘small m’ methodological positions for conducting fieldwork in screen mediated workspaces, illustrating how ‘screen demonstration interviews’ and (participant) observation are conducted.

scholarly journals ABSTAIN OR DIE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIV/AIDS POLICY IN BOTSWANA

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUZETTE HEALD
Keyword(s):  
Good Practice ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Routine Testing ◽  
Cultural Assumptions ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
Educational Campaign ◽  
Major Argument ◽  
Hiv Aids

This paper traces the development of policies dealing with HIV/AIDS in Botswana from their beginning in the late 1980s to the current programme to provide population-wide anti-retroviral therapy (ARV). Using a variety of source material, including long-term ethnographic research, it seeks to account for the failure of Western-inspired approaches in dealing with the pandemic. It does this by looking at the cultural and institutional features that have created resistance to the message and inhibited effective implementation. The negative response to the first educational campaign stressing condom use is described and contextualized in terms of Tswana ideas of morality and illness. Nor, as was initially expected, did the introduction of free ARV therapy operate to break the silence and stigma that had developed around the disease. Take-up was very slow, and did not operate to encourage widespread testing. In 2003, key policymakers in Botswana began to argue for a break with the AIDS ‘exceptionalism’ position, with its emphasis on voluntarism, confidentiality and the human rights of patients. This resulted in routine testing being introduced in 2004. This links to a major argument running through the paper which is that the failure of policy cannot be attributed solely to the nature of local populations. Western cultural assumptions about ‘good practice’ also require critical examination.

scholarly journals Knowledge, Experts and Accountability in School Governing Bodies

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Young
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Lay Knowledge ◽  
Types Of Knowledge ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Managerial Knowledge ◽  
School Governing Bodies

School governing bodies in England have considerable powers and responsibilities with regard to the education of pupils. This article explores how power relations operate, within governing bodies, through struggles over which types of knowledge are claimed and valued. The article draws on the analysis of policy and on ethnographic research in the governing bodies of four maintained schools to explore the complex interactions between lay, educational and managerial knowledge. The article suggests that educational and managerial expertise are privileged over lay knowledge. Hence, the concept of ‘lay’ knowledge, which is attached to external governors, is easily coopted by managerial knowledge as it does not have alternative expert knowledge attached to it.

scholarly journals Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Techniques for Treating Verbal Impairments in Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder - A Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
Afreen Ahmad ◽  
Sanna Huda ◽  
Imaan Kherani ◽  
Zeba Khoja ◽  
Jasmine Nanji
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Quality ◽  
Internal Validity ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Quantitative Information ◽  
Behavioural Therapy ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Behavioural Interventions ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
Behavioural Therapies

This paper aims to provide an overview of current research in cognitive behavioural interventions which address verbal impairment in children with autism. The studies are evaluated based on methodological quality and the validity of the data collected. Studies examining behavioural interventions for children with autism were selected from a number of databases, namely Ovid, PsychINFO, and Embase. Multiple filtration rounds were conducted to ensure that papers met the inclusion criteria, followed the DSM IV autism definition, and met the methodological quality standards. A CONSORT style observational longitudinal checklist was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the studies. Criteria pertaining to study designs were more commonly addressed than those focusing on internal validity. Analysis of literature subsequent to the year 2000 demonstrated an emergence of behavioural therapies focused on remediating verbal impairment in children diagnosed with autism. Common limitations amongst all reviewed papers were discussed in terms of impact on validity and reliability. Finally, the discussion consolidated the future directives noted in all papers to discuss trajectories for further research. The chosen literature often neglected to include essential quantitative information that affected their validity. Inclusion of control groups and appropriate sample sizes should be investigated, and future directions of this research should include the use of a diverse sample that is representative of different ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses.

scholarly journals A Systematic Review of Combination Therapies for Smoking Cessation

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Nhan ◽  
Sarah B. Windle MPH ◽  
Mark J. Eisenberg MD, MPH ◽  
Caroline Franck MSc ◽  
Genevieve Gore MLIS ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Behavioural Therapy ◽  
Cochrane Library ◽  
Behavioural Intervention ◽  
Factorial Designs ◽  
Combination Therapies ◽  
Continuous Abstinence ◽  
Behavioural Therapies ◽  
The Cochrane Library

Introduction: The use of pharmacological and behavioural therapies has been shown to help smokers quit. However, the efficacy of combining smoking cessation therapies remains poorly understood. We conducteda systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with factorial designs to assess the efficacy of combination smoking cessation therapies.Methods: We performed a systematic search of the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and PubMed databases for RCTs of combination therapies for smoking cessation. We included RCTs with factorial designs,reporting biochemically validated point prevalence or continuous abstinence outcomes at 6 or 12 months.Combination therapies were either two pharmacotherapies or apharmacotherapy with behavioural therapy.Pharmacotherapies included nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), bupropion, and varenicline. Behavioural therapies included counselling and minimal intervention.Results: A total of 11 RCTs met our inclusion criteria: 4 combinations of pharmacotherapies and 7 combinations of a pharmacotherapy with behavioural intervention. Combinations were two NRTs (2 RCTs), bupropion with NRT (3 RCTs), bupropion with behavioural intervention (4 RCTs), and NRT with behavioural intervention (3 RCTs). No identified trials combined varenicline with other included pharmacotherapies. Combining pharmacotherapies did not increase smoking abstinence at 6 or 12 months, compared with pharmacologicalmonotherapies. Evidence suggests a modest yet inconsistent benefit from combining pharmacotherapy withbehavioural therapy.Conclusion: Evidence from RCTs with factorial designs does not conclusively show combination smoking cessation therapies to be superior to monotherapies. Pharmacotherapies could be prescribed without behavioural therapy, with minimal loss of treatment efficacy.Key words: Smoking cessation, combination therapy, systematic review

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