Carole Sutton

How quick to heroin dependence

In the popular press, and to some extent in the academic literature, there is an assumption that heroin can almost instantly addict a novice user. In this Digest, based on a paper presented at the 2005 APSAD Conference, Coomber & Sutton have extracted quantitative data from their qualitative study of a sample of ‘street’ heroin users to investigate how rapidly they became physically dependent. They suggest that the period from first use to addiction and regular use to daily use may be longer than many assume and that beliefs about ‘instant addiction’ are a harm reduction issue. Although small in scope, the study raises questions about the myth of instant heroin addiction which have implications for treatment, prevention and policy. Simon LentonEditor, Harm Reduction Digest

Empowering depressed women: Changes in 'individual' and 'social' feelings in guided self-help groups in Finland

The Women and Depression Project began in 1994 within a Finnish national research programme. We developed professionally guided self-help groups as a therapeutic intervention in mental health clinics. Through a gender lens, we explored the effect of group participation on depressed womens ‘individual’ and ‘social’ feelings over three time periods. The central research question was: were there significant changes in members’ individual and social feelings between these time periods? Using an innovative, culturally sensitive measurement tool, we measured these changes. We analysed quantitative data from the feelings questions on Questionnaires 1, 2 and 3 and qualitative data from the question, ‘How has the group helped you to create changes in your life?’. We applied the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks z-test to the quantitative data to assess statistically between the time periods. Responses to the open-ended question generated qualitative data that were mainly descriptive, an important contribution considering the paucity of information on depressed women. Our findings advance, albeit in a small way, an understanding of how women accepted managed or healed their depression as they broke down the public and private boundaries of their emotional lives. Members became empowered to understand themselves and believe in their potential as social individuals through their participation in the group. In the long term, they altered their feelings and relationships to themselves and their environment.

Can’t Count or Won’t Count? Embedding Quantitative Methods in Substantive Sociology Curricula: A Quasi-Experiment

This paper reports on a quasi-experiment in which quantitative methods (QM) are embedded within a substantive sociology module. Through measuring student attitudes before and after the intervention alongside control group comparisons, we illustrate the impact that embedding has on the student experience. Our findings are complex and even contradictory. Whilst the experimental group were less likely to be distrustful of statistics and appreciate how QM inform social research, they were also less confident about their statistical abilities, suggesting that through ‘doing’ quantitative sociology the experimental group are exposed to the intricacies of method and their optimism about their own abilities is challenged. We conclude that embedding QM in a single substantive module is not a ‘magic bullet’ and that a wider programme of content and assessment diversification across the curriculum is preferential.

Gaining agency through healthy embodiment in groups for depressed women

The paper explores the effect of group participation on depressed womens ‘doing depression’ and ‘doing pleasure’ in Finland over three time periods. Quantitative data and qualitative data are analysed. To assess statistically the differences between the time periods, the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks z-test is applied to the quantitative data. Coping with emotions through self-focused attention, depressed women are reluctant to initiate instrumental behaviour. They tend to respond to their lives in a ruminative way. Moving towards pleasure rather than depression characterized womens activities as a result of the group process; they learned to embody health, while envisaging hope for the future. Our emphasis on embodiment allows us to consider agency as a contemporary group therapeutic effect as well as to contextualize psychotherapy research within post-modern thinking. While the findings do not provide an indisputable list of the ways womens activities changed over time or all the advantages of group participation, they do suggest areas for future exploration in connection with depressed womens healthy embodiment in a healing group context and advance an understanding of how the experience and duration of depression can be altered if the public and private boundaries of depressed womens embodied routines are broken down and self-isolation is challenged.

Research methods teaching in vocational environments: developing critical engagement with knowledge?

Knowledge of research methods is regarded as crucial for the UK economy and workforce. However, research methods teaching is viewed as a challenging area for lecturers and students. The pedagogy of research methods teaching within universities has been noted as underdeveloped, with undergraduate students regularly expressing negative dispositions to the subject. These are challenges documented in university-based higher education (HE), yet little is known of the practices and pedagogies of research methods teaching in the college-based HE setting, where the delivery of HE has grown in prominence in recent years. Because college-based HE is widely regarded as primarily vocational, incorporating research methods into curricula may be seen as an additional level of complexity for staff to negotiate. In this article, we report on the data collected within a study to examine research methods teaching in social science disciplines on HE programmes taught in college-based settings in England. Drawing on data obtained from college-based HE lecturers and students, we discuss features of research methods teaching and how these may be applied with a diverse student body, within vocationally focused institutions. Issues of institutional culture, resourcing and staff development are also considered as these are identified as integral to the successful embedding of research methods teaching.

Exploring the potential of using undergraduates’ knowledge, skills and experience in research methods as a proxy for capturing learning gain

Abstract Learning gain is a politicised concept within contemporary HE, and as such has been aligned with agendas of teaching excellence and learning outcomes but the extent to which it captures actual learning has yet to be clarified. Here, we report the outcomes of a learning gain study which examines how students’ knowledge, skills and experiences as researchers develops throughout their studies. We examine data from a self-reporting survey administered across a university and college-based HE providers during students’ second year of undergraduate study. The data highlight disciplinary differences in student engagement with research methods and the significance of perceived relevance of research methods to students’ learning. These findings do have a bearing on the development of measures of learning gain as they are demonstrating the complexity of capturing student learning across disciplines. Our findings can be employed to develop a method of capturing learning gain that can be integrated into undergraduates’ research methods education.

Student experiences of research methods education in college-based higher education

ABSTRACT Research methods education is a challenging area for lecturers and students to engage with; students regularly demonstrate negative dispositions to research methods and lecturers struggle with issues such as curriculum marginalisation. However, employers increasingly demand graduates equipped with skills as researchers. Consequently, in university-based higher education, there has been investment to support research and good practice in this area. In contrast, limited attention has been paid to research methods education in college-based higher education. We report the outcomes of a small-scale national study designed to capture contemporary insights in research methods provision in college-based higher education. Drawing on data from two national surveys, we report student attitudes to, and experiences of, research methods and strategies employed by lecturers to teach and assess research methods. Students demonstrate positive attitudes to research methods, receptive to their research methods education and can see their applicability to ‘real life’ situations. However, the data demonstrate that the breadth of their research methods education is limited, potentially having implications for the development of skills such as critical evaluation of research outcomes, and students longer-term development as researchers. We conclude by highlighting future research directions and curriculum development to promote research methods education in college-based higher education.