Chris McVittie

Identities in Context: Individuals and Discourse in Action

About the authors. Preface. Acknowledgments. 1. Introduction. 2. National identities. 3. Ethnic and religious identities. 4. Gender identities. 5. Health identities. 6. Identities and the law. 7. Organizations, work and identities. 8. Virtual identities. Afterword. Glossary. References. Author Index. Subject Index.

A discourse analytic study of ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) sufferers’ experiences of interactions with doctors

The aetiology, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of ME/CFS are controversial. Doctors and sufferers often have opposing perspectives, leading to problematic clinical interactions. We use discourse analysis to explore ME/CFS sufferers’ descriptions of interactions with medical professionals taken from an asynchronous, online sufferers’ support group. Participants described themselves as experiencing limited medical care and attention but restricted criticisms to ‘legitimate’, pragmatic or ancillary matters such as a clinicians’ unwillingness to prescribe untested treatments. Participants also described themselves as active in seeking a resolution to their problems. They thus attended to possible negative attributions of being ‘complaining’ or unmotivated to seek recovery.

Using topic control to avoid the gainsaying of troublesome evaluations

Previous writers have examined how topic and disagreement in assessments are managed within everyday conversation. This work, however, has focused on two-party interaction and little research has examined these issues in the context of multi-party discussion. In this article we examine these issues in the context of discussion by the admissions group of an arts and crafts guild. Analysis of the group’s discussions shows that on occasion group members find themselves in outright disagreement in assessment which leads to what is here described as ‘gainsaying’. However, a number of other instances reveal that the group is able to avoid problematic conversational structures of this sort by deploying a variety of topic control devices: insertion of collusive laughter, conversation restart and topic flow manoeuvres. The article concludes by drawing out some analytic distinctions between two-party and multi-party interactions.

Ethical and practical issues in using visual methodologies: the legacy of research-originating visual products

Psychology to date has made use of visual methodologies primarily in well established and tested ways. The development and greater use of such methodologies has the potential to enrich psychological understanding of many aspects of human experience. This development however needs to be accompanied by awareness and discussion of ethical and practical issues surrounding such methodologies, particularly when visual items are produced in the course of conducting research. In order to explore these issues, we examine the understandings of professionals who regularly work with visual items, namely art therapists. The data came from semistructured interviews conducted with six art therapists. Participants experienced a lack of professional guidance relating to enduring visual products, viewed their roles in relation to these items as changing on the completion of the therapeutic process and commonly experienced a sense of loss on the destruction of visual products. Often participants looked to the enduring visual products themselves for resolution of the attendant ethical and practical dilemmas. Similar dilemmas, until and unless resolved, are likely to accompany any greater involvement of psychology with visual methodologies.

‘Just choose the easy option’: students talk about alcohol use and social influence

Previous research into young people’s drinking behaviour has studied how social practices influence their actions and how they negotiate drinking-related identities. Here, adopting the perspective of discursive psychology we examine how, for young people, social influences are bound up with issues of drinking and of identity. We conducted 19 focus groups with undergraduate students in Australia aged between 18 and 24 years. Thematic analysis of participants’ accounts for why they drink or do not drink was used to identify passages of talk that referred to social influence, paying particular attention to terms such as ‘pressure’ and ‘choice’. These passages were then analysed in fine-grained detail, using discourse analysis, to study how participants accounted for social influence. Participants treated their behaviour as accountable and produced three forms of account that: (1) minimised the choice available to them, (2) explained drinking as culture and (3) described resisting peer pressure. They also negotiated gendered social dynamics related to drinking. These forms of account allowed the participants to avoid individual responsibility for drinking or not drinking. These findings demonstrate that the effects of social influence on young people’s drinking behaviour cannot be assumed, as social influence itself becomes negotiable within local contexts of talk about drinking.

The Select Committee Report on Obesity (2004): The significant omission of parental views of their children's eating

Many studies have reported increasing levels of obesity and overweight in children. Recent policy developments have examined a range of influences on childrens eating habits but have left largely unexamined the role of parents in general and mothers in particular. In this study we examined mothers’ understandings of healthy eating and of their influence on their childrens eating patterns. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine mothers of children aged between 4 and 12 years of age. Interviewees displayed knowledge of recommended eating practices for their children but distinguished this knowledge from actual eating practices. Avoidance of negative social perceptions, pleasure in eating and opportunities for fast food were regarded as more important than eating in accordance with recommended nutritional guidelines. Moreover, the food choices made were viewed as positive alternatives to eating based on nutritional balance. These views pose a challenge for policy initiatives to address obesity and excess weight in children. Future initiatives should have increased regard for the everyday contexts within which childrens eating patterns are understood and justified.

Cancer-related psychosocial research: What are the perspectives of cancer care centre users on participation?

PurposeTo explore the perspectives of cancer care centre users on participation in psychosocial research to inform research design and ethics.MethodsThe study is based on a qualitative research design. Fourteen semistructured interviews were carried in people diagnosed with cancer and carers. The interview included four main questions about practical barriers to participation, types of research design, motivating factors and the conduct of research in a cancer care support setting. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.ResultsInterviewees demonstrated a willingness to participate in psychosocial research within certain circumstances. There were no practical barriers identified, although they considered payment for research-related travel important. The most acceptable research design was the face-to-face interview and the least preferred was the randomised control trial. The factors that motivated participation were altruism, valuing research, and making a contribution to the centre. Interviewees supported the conduct of research in cancer care support centres conditional upon delaying recruitment during the initial months of users’ visits and its need to be discreet to avoid deterring visitors from accessing the centre.ConclusionsThe study concludes that the personal interaction between participants and researchers is the most important feature of decision-making by patients/carers to join studies. Taking into account the perspectives of people affected by cancer during the early stages of research design may enhance recruitment and retention and can contribute to the development of research protocols and ethics.

Aspects of identity in a British Christian sample

Quantitative studies on religiosity and identity appear to be generally absent. In the present study we investigated this relationship, and predicted that personal identity would be positively associated with church attendance, and mainly intrinsic and quest Christian religious orientations, while social identity would exhibit a positive association with extrinsic orientation. A total of 161 British Christian adults took part in the study and responded to standardized measures of Christian religiosity and identity. The predicted relationship between religiosity and aspects of identity was to an extent supported. As expected, personal identity showed a positive association with quest, while social identity was positively related to extrinsic-personal, and negatively to intrinsic. Counter to our predictions, church attendance had an inverse association with social identity, while it lacked an obvious association with personal identity. It appears that the social expressions of Christians are more likely to be concerned with broad inclusive collective identities.

When 2-3% really matters: The (un)importance of religiosity in psychotherapy.

Previous research suggests that clients’ religious beliefs are commonly excluded from therapeutic practice. Often, this exclusion is attributed to practitioners’ lack of knowledge or appropriate skills. Such analyses, however, have little regard for the interactional aspects of the therapist/client encounter. Drawing upon work within discursive social psychology, we argue that the exclusion of religious beliefs does not reflect therapists’ lack of knowledge or awareness but can more usefully be seen as the discursive accomplishment of marginalizing clients’ beliefs. Six practising psychotherapists were interviewed about religious beliefs within the therapeutic process. Participants construct religious beliefs as important but relevant only to restricted categories of clients. They rework religious beliefs as compatible with accepted practice, or construct particular groups of clients as incompatible with the process. Training and other requirements are reformulated in terms of spiritual beliefs rather than religious beliefs. These constructions display awareness of religious beliefs while marginalizing their relevance in practice. Inclusion of clients’ religious beliefs to best effect will require more psychotherapy to engage more constructively with religion than it does at present.

Critical Health Psychology, Pluralism and Dilemmas: The Importance of Being Critical.

Hepworth (this issue) argues for critical health psychology (CHP) to move on from binary opposition to mainstream health psychology (MHP) and to engage with other researchers in projects of common interest. In doing so, CHP can take up Murray and Campbell’s earlier ‘call to action’ and avoid the risk of isolation. However neither action nor cross-subject collaboration are necessarily appropriate strategies for all elements of a pluralistic CHP that encompasses a diversity of epistemological positions. Conducting research on others’ terms also holds risks for the development of work that remains critical. The potential contributions of a pluralistic CHP, by way of action or otherwise, might usefully be judged in relation to both the distal and proximate contexts of health issues.