Sociocultural Context and the DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorder: Comment on Widiger & Hines

Widiger and Hines provide a brief overview of the development of the Alternative Model of Personality Disorder (AMPD) housed within Section 3 of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). They highlight eight issues and controversies related to the AMPD in need of resolution for improvement of both the AMPD model itself as well as the field of personality disorders more broadly. In this brief commentary, I add a ninth issue in need of attention both with respect to the AMPD but also within the field of personality disorders more broadly: 9) How is sociocultural context to be accommodated in AMPD—and more generally personality disorder—theory, research, and treatment? The historical intra-individual, deficit-based models for conceptualizing personality disorders linger in current personality disorder discourse. However, failure to appropriately consider sociocultural context that systematically predisposes wide swaths of the population to unequal access to resources and exposure to psychological stressors, which can impact the appearance of personality pathology, serves to stigmatize minoritized individuals. The personality disorder field, and the AMPD discourse, must appropriately contend with sociocultural context in its models otherwise it risks developing models with limited generalizability and which hold potential to adversely affect sexual and gender minoritized populations, among others.

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: A TEACHING APPROACH WHERE LEARNING COMES ALIVE

“Doing projects” is a long-standing tradition in American education. According to Buck Institute for Education (BIE) (www.pblworks.org) the roots of PBL lie in this tradition. But the emergence of a method of teaching and learning called Project Based Learning (PBL) is the result of two important developments over the last 25 years. First, there has been a revolution in learning theory. Research in neuroscience and psychology has extended cognitive and behavioral models of learning—which support traditional direct instruction—to show that knowledge, thinking, doing, and the contexts for learning are inextricably tied. We now know that learning is partly a social activity; it takes place within the context of culture, community, and past experiences.

The Future of ‘Digital Research'

Sociology is a discipline inevitably based on interpretative categories of social reality derived from a specific historical phase. In a period that is increasingly defined as a new era or digital society, can sociological knowledge not be upset by this overload of changes of every kind and nature? And can these changes not involve all identity components of sociology, namely theory, research, and the usability of its knowledge? Given this, it seems rather evident that this volume is the sign of the times and testify the variety and flexibility of digital methods. The author limits to dealing schematically with two methodological components that are constitutive of the digital revolution: the shift from the traditional and glorious ethnography to the new and emerging netnography, especially as regards the qualitative side, and, on the more properly quantitative side, the overwhelming and boundless spread of big data. A brief and selective description of these “transitions” will be complemented by a thoughtful evaluation of their potential for the future in the peculiar field of inquiry.

Motivation

This chapter explores a management framework created primarily by Gary P. Latham's Work Motivation: History, Theory, Research, and Practice (2012). Several other important works are examined to enhance the value of the analysis. One benefit of teleworking consistently expressed by teleworkers is increased employee happiness, so the authors explore the reasonable connection to motivation. The chapter examines the history and background in the field to trace the development of workplace motivation theories and offers a framework that provides insights for the analyses in this book. They study motivation before they move on to issues of productivity in the next chapter. The framework presented sheds light on the human elements of motivation and leads to reference points necessary to develop effective trustworthiness and improved performance studied throughout the book. Through a detailed examination of the role of motivation in the management framework presented, leaders will understand that many theorists argue that current theories of motivation focus on different aspects of the process.

Salutogenesis as a Theory, as an Orientation and as the Sense of Coherence

In this chapter, the authors convey some of the main ways the term ‘salutogenesis’ is used today. Antonovsky introduced the term salutogenesis in his 1979 and 1987 books on the Salutogenic Model of Health, but salutogenesis subsequently has come to refer to a core concept in the model in particular; the sense of coherence. This usage has advanced to the point that some writers have coined the term ‘sense of coherence theory’. The term salutogenesis is also frequently used to refer, more generally, to an approach to health theory, research and practice emphasising resources that people may call on to improve health.

Narrative Analysis of Employment Support for Students With Developmental Disabilities

The text data regarding the free-expression answers on the employment support provided to students with developmental disabilities (unsure students are included) were defined as the narrative. The aim of this research was to obtain suggestions regarding business solutions that could be used to provide employment support for students with developmental disabilities by conducting text mining and narrative theory analysis. Furthermore, the “narrative generation system” is advocated as a comprehensive framework which organically unifies the whole “narrative phenomenon” from various sides. Furthermore, these researches apply the knowledge of other fields, such as pedagogy on developmental disability, personal support, text mining, and a narratology; psychology; engineering; and literature. Therefore, the authors believe that this research corresponds to “narrative generation system” theory research. Thus, it may be possible for suggestions regarding narrative generation to be produced as a secondary result of this chapter's process of analysis.

The Grounded Theory Methodology in Organization Studies Within Qualitative Research

It is believed that the grounded theory (GT) approach works best for researchers who are concerned about the gap between academic and practical research because of the importance they place on applied research. The chapter aimed to explain the GT methodology and identify its application in organizational research context. In this regard, the theory-research-development-practice cycle, the factors affecting the choice of organization research methodology, and the types of qualitative research methods have been studied by comparing four qualitative methods of case study, GT, phenomenological study, and content analysis. Also, in this regard, the four main GT schools including Glaserian classic GT, Straussian GT, Charmazian constructivist GT, and Clarkeian situational GT, as well as the GT process involving the phases of data collection, coding, memo-ing, sorting, and validation are discussed in detail.