Empathy as a Desideratum in Health Care – Normative Claim or Professional Competence?

This article investigates the possible functions of empathic interpersonal engagement in the context of medicine and health care. While empathy can be understood in different ways on a theoretical level – as an embodied process of resonance and synchronization, as an affective process of emotional sharing, as a cognitive process of understanding the other, or as a narrative process of externalizing and communicating personal experiences – it is often called for on a normative level as a desideratum in the competence of medical professionals. We address this issue by introducing different models of the relationality between doctors and patients, in order to clarify which dimensions of empathy are relevant in which model and raise the question whether empathy is more than a nice-to-have virtue on the side of the professionals.

Caregivers' Loss of the Dyadic Experience After Their Care Partner's Death

One emerging dyadic concept is the experience of family caregivers when their care partner dies and their dyadic relationship comes to an end. This study qualitatively examined and characterized the loss of the dyadic experience for the caregiver after the death of their care partner. Data was accrued as part of a randomized clinical trial in 29 older hospice caregivers. Iterative thematic analysis focused on dyadic processes before, during and post death. Using two relational parameters from Relational Turbulence Theory resulted in a preliminary characterization of a new concept - dyadic dissolution as a cognitive and affective process whereby a remaining member of a dyad experiences relational uncertainty and partner interference while adapting (or not) to the death of their care partner. Findings suggest that asking several open-ended questions about the dyadic relationship will enable assessment for any continuing impact of relational uncertainty and partner interference on bereaved caregivers.

An Experimental Investigation of Body Displacement Theory in Restrained Eaters

Body Displacement Theory posits that individuals with eating and weight concerns may mislabel feelings of ineffectiveness as feeling fat. Study 1used a non-clinical sample to create an Implicit Association Test for body image (IAT-BI) to measure implicit body dissatisfaction, as body displacement is thought to be an automatic cognitive/affective process. The IAT-BI was moderately and significantly correlated with explicit measures of body dissatisfaction, body shame, and restrained eating. In Study 2, an experimental manipulation was used to induce ineffectiveness in a non-clinical sample, and effects on implicit and explicit body image and related variables were measured. Contrary to hypotheses, feeling ineffective did not lead to feeling fat in comparison to those in a control condition. These findings may suggest that body displacement was not successfully induced by the manipulation, or that body displacement may be process unique to those with eating disorders. The implications of the study are discussed.

An Experimental Investigation of Body Displacement Theory in Restrained Eaters

Body Displacement Theory posits that individuals with eating and weight concerns may mislabel feelings of ineffectiveness as feeling fat. Study 1used a non-clinical sample to create an Implicit Association Test for body image (IAT-BI) to measure implicit body dissatisfaction, as body displacement is thought to be an automatic cognitive/affective process. The IAT-BI was moderately and significantly correlated with explicit measures of body dissatisfaction, body shame, and restrained eating. In Study 2, an experimental manipulation was used to induce ineffectiveness in a non-clinical sample, and effects on implicit and explicit body image and related variables were measured. Contrary to hypotheses, feeling ineffective did not lead to feeling fat in comparison to those in a control condition. These findings may suggest that body displacement was not successfully induced by the manipulation, or that body displacement may be process unique to those with eating disorders. The implications of the study are discussed.

Construction of borders: Intra-psychological dynamics of emerging national identity

Border-making is an inevitable experience in human life. Borders can be viewed as part of an external sociocultural structure that guides the dynamics of dialogues between persons and institutions. However, in addition to the interpersonal and societal level of analysis, borders can be conceptualized as an intra-psychological process of identity formation that is involved in meaning making and in organizing experiences with the world. Within the framework of cultural psychology, this article will provide an account of the process of bordering, using the example of Estonian identity that is approached as an affective process of semiotic construction of borders between us and the “other” (i.e., “non-us”). Using the dialogical self theory, it will examine how different I-positions (e.g., I-as-Estonian) related to collective and personal past experiences are involved in the construction of borders. The tendency to incline toward re-creation of the established structure of borders with the potential to renegotiate them is also revealed in this study.

Caregivers’ Loss of the Dyadic Experience after Their Care Partners’ Death

Little is known about the experience of family caregivers when their care partner dies and their dyadic relationship comes to an end. This study qualitatively examined and characterized the loss of the dyadic experience for the caregiver after the death of their care partner. Data was accrued as part of a randomized clinical trial in 29 older hospice caregivers. Iterative thematic analysis focused on dyadic processes before, during and post death. Using two relational parameters from Relational Turbulence Theory resulted in a preliminary characterization of a new concept—dyadic dissolution as a cognitive and affective process whereby a remaining member of a dyad experiences relational uncertainty and partner interference while adapting (or not) to the death of their care partner. Findings suggest that asking several open-ended questions about the dyadic relationship will enable assessment for any continuing impact of relational uncertainty and partner interference on bereaved caregivers.

Unsettling bodies of knowledge: Walking as a pedagogy of affect

In this article, we connect with recent attempts to rethink management learning as an embodied and affective process and we propose walking as a significant learning practice of a pedagogy of affect. Walking enables a postdualist view on learning and education. Based on course work focused on urban ethnography, we discuss walking as affect-pedagogical practice through the intertwined activities of straying, drifting and witnessing, and we reflect upon the implications for a pedagogy of affect. In conclusion, we speculate about the potential of a pedagogy of affect for future understandings and practices of management learning.