Albino Claudio Bosio

The Influence of Setting on Findings Produced in Qualitative Health Research: A Comparison between Face-to-Face and Online Discussion Groups about HIV/AIDS

The authors focus their analysis in this article on online focus groups (FGs), in an attempt to describe how the setting shapes the conversational features of the discussion and influences data construction. Starting from a review of current dominant viewpoints, they compare face-to-face discussion groups with different formats of online FGs about AIDS, from a discourse analysis perspective. They conducted 2 face-to-face FGs, 2 chats, 2 forums, and 2 forums+plus+chat involving 64 participants aged 18 to 25 and living in Italy. Their findings seem not only to confirm the hypothesis of a general difference between a face-to-face discussion setting and an Internet-mediated one but also reveal differences among the forms of online FG, in terms of both the thematic articulation of discourse and the conversational and relational characteristics of group exchange, suggesting that exchanges on HIV/AIDS are characterized by the setting. This characterization seems to be important for situating the choice of tool, according to research objectives, and for better defining the technical aspects of the research project.

‘Engage me in taking care of my heart’: a grounded theory study on patient–cardiologist relationship in the hospital management of heart failure

Objective In approaching the study and practice of heart failure (HF) management, authors recognise that the patient–doctor relationship has a central role in engaging patients in their care. This study aims at identifying the features and the levers of HF patient engagement and suggestions for orienting clinical encounters. Design Using a grounded theory approach, we conducted 22 in-depth interviews (13 patients with HF, 5 physicians and 4 caregivers). Data were collected and analysed using open, axial and selective coding procedures according to the grounded theory principles. Settings All interviews were conducted in an office in a university hospital located in a metropolitan area of Milan, Italy. Participants The data comprised a total of 22 patient, hospital cardiologist and caregiver interviews. Patients aged ≥18 years with New York Heart Association (NYHA) Functional Class of II or III were eligible to take part. Patients were recruited primarily through their referral cardiologist. Results The HF patient engagement process develops in four main phases that are characterised by different patients’ emotional, cognitive and behavioural dynamics that contribute to shape the process of a patients meaning making towards health and illness regarding their care. The emerging model illustrates that HF patient engagement entails a meaning-making process enacted by the patient after the critical event. This implies patients’ ability to give sense to their care experience and to their disease, symptomatology and treatments, and their changes along their illness course. Doctors are recognised as crucial in fostering patients’ engagement along all the phases of the process as they contribute to providing patients with self-continuity and give new meaning to their illness experience. Conclusions This study identifies the core experiential domains and the main levers involved in driving patients with HF to effectively engage in their disease management. The model emerging from this study may help clinicians think in a fresh way about encounters with patients and their role in fostering their patients’ health engagement.

Temporary employment, job insecurity and their extraorganizational outcomes

Research on job insecurity has traditionally focused on organizational consequences. The present study explores potential extraorganizational outcomes (employees’ consumption and life projects) of job insecurity in terms of both subjective perception and objective condition. Results are based on the secondary analysis of two large data sets: a tracking study with representative samples and a survey, both conducted on Italian employees. The findings suggest that job insecurity (especially the subjective perception, rather than the objective condition) may be associated with sacrifices of daily consumption (e.g. buying groceries, apparel, or entertainment) and life projects (e.g. buying a home, marrying, or having children).

Face-to-Face versus Online Focus Groups in Two Different Countries: Do Qualitative Data Collection Strategies Work the Same Way in Different Cultural Contexts?

Recently there has been renewed interest in cross-cultural qualitative research underscoring the epistemological and methodological pitfalls implied in this kind of research. In particular, focus groups, because of their intrinsically relational nature, require an accurate analysis of how the setting influences interpersonal exchanges and people’s attitudes toward participation and, thus, the results achieved. In this chapter, the authors consider how the data collection medium framed the results of a study involving 16 focus groups on HIV/AIDS, 8 conducted with Italians and 8 with Canadians aged 18 to 25. The focus groups were designed to reflect four techniques (face-to-face, online forum, online chat, online forum+chat) and were distributed equally in the two countries. Data were analysed using software-based content analysis (T-lab), psychosocial discourse analysis, software-based discourse analysis (Atlas.ti), and conversational analysis. The different techniques had specific influences on the findings production, which were fairly consistent between the two countries. The authors discuss the importance of these findings in cross-cultural qualitative studies, as researchers frequently make situated choices regarding data gathering in various settings according to their research objectives.

La costruzione sociale della domanda di aiuto psicologico in Italia

I rapporti tra senso comune, domanda di aiuto psicologico e azione clinico-terapeutica sono qui indagati sia sul piano teorico, sia sul piano empirico. In particolare, si e inteso esplorare, su vasta scala, le dimensioni e le modalita con cui la domanda di aiuto psicologico viene costruita a livello naif, ancorando tale costruzione alla questione aperta relativa alla professionalizzazione della psicologia. L’indagine di tipo quantitativo e stata condotta su un campione casuale di 2000 casi, rappresentativo della popolazione italiana, ed ha considerato 5 aree di analisi: (1) natura e frequenza del malessere psicologico a livello demoscopico; (2) principali interlocutori della richiesta di aiuto; (3) strategie di fronteggiamento in risposta al malessere; (4) propensione verso la consultazione psicologica; (5) confronto con le modalita di gestione della salute a fronte di problemi bio-fisici (disturbo, malattia cronica). I risultati mostrano come l’esperienza del malessere psicologico sia non solo ampiamente diffusa e frequente, ma anche prevalentemente gestita sulla base del senso comune e di un orientamento per lo piu inerziale. La prospettiva di un incontro con una risposta specialistica emerge come un evento minoritario, di gran lunga piu contenuto rispetto a quanto si osserva in riferimento alla gestione dei problemi di salute fisica. Il segmento di popolazione orientato alla consultazione dello psicologo si delinea come piu evoluto nelle aspirazioni e propensioni in materia di salute e benessere.

Lay People Representations on the Common Good and Its Financial Provision

The financial contribution to the common good is a relevant issue to contemporary societies, especially in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. In the economic literature, taxes and monetary donations have been regarded as two complementary ways of financially providing for the common good. In the psychological literature, instead, they have not been studied in conjunction. In-depth interviews have been conducted using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach and a photo-elicitation technique to investigate the representations people share on the financial provision for the common good. Results suggest that both taxes and donations are seen as indirect, rather than direct, ways of providing for the common good. From a formal and cognitive level, paying taxes and making donations can be seen as two sides of the same coin, but they present differences at the affective level. When paying taxes, people are concerned mostly about the effects and expect a material exchange in return; when making a monetary donation, people are concerned mostly about the motivations and expect an emotional exchange in return.

L'efficacia della pubblicità nella prospettiva delle neuroscienze

Questo contributo esplora quanto offerto dalle neuroscienze all’indagine sull’efficacia della comunicazione pubblicitaria. La chiave di lettura e insieme storica e prospettica: l’obiettivo non e solo evidenziare il valore aggiunto apportato dalle nuove strumentazioni alla valutazione dell’efficacia pubblicitaria, ma anche individuare gli sviluppi recenti potenzialmente piu rilevanti per gli anni a venire.