Debra Gray

A journey to citizenship: Constructions of citizenship and identity in the British citizenship test

The British Citizenship Test was introduced in 2005 as one of a raft of new procedures aimed at addressing the perceived problems of integration and social cohesion in migrant communities. In this study, we argue that this new citizenship procedure signals a shift in British political discourse about citizenship - particularly, the institutionalization of a common British citizen identity that is intended to draw citizens together in a new form of political/national community. In line with this, we examine the British Citizenship Test from a social psychological perspective to interrogate the ways in which the test constitutes identity, constitutes citizenship, and constitutes citizenship-as-identity. Analysis of the test and its associated documents highlights three ways in which Britishness-as-identity is constituted, that is, as a collective identity, as a superordinate and national identity, and finally as both a destination and a journey. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for models of citizenship and models of identity.

'Oh my god, we're not doing nothing': young people's experiences of spatial regulation.

Social psychologists have become increasingly concerned with examining the ways in which social practices are interrelated with their location. Critical perspectives have highlighted the traditional lack of attention given to both the collective aspects of spatial identities, together with the discursive practices that construct the relationships between people and places. In this article, we draw together the developing discursive work on place with work on childrens geographies, in order to examine young peoples accounts of spatial regulation. Adopting a discursive approach to the analysis of focus group discussion, we illustrate a variety of concerns managed in relation to spatial practices by 41 young people living in a large city in the South of England. Our findings suggest that everyday use of public space by young people is constructed at a nexus of competing concerns around childhood/adulthood, freedom, and citizenship, and illustrate the dynamic nature of place, and its regulation, as a resource for constructing identities.

The validity and reliability of measures of right-wing authoritarianism in South Africa

In this article we examine the findings of three studies of right-wing authoritarianism conducted in South Africa. The main aim of the article is to report on the validity and reliability of measures of right-wing authoritarianism across three samples, namely a group of police officers, a group of students at a historically English university and a group of students at a historically Afrikaans university. Two measures of authoritarianism were used: the 30-item version of Altemeyers (1981, 1988) Right-wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale and the 14-item version of Altemeyers RWA scale developed by Duckitt (1993a) for use in South African samples. Participants were also given measures of conservatism, prejudice and political beliefs. These scales were then subjected to analyses of internal consistency, factor analysis and correlational analysis. The findings depart somewhat from previous studies in this area in that they do not show the levels of validity and reliability reported in other contexts, nor do these measures perform as theoretically indicated by Altemeyer (1981, 1988) and Duckitt (1989, 1991a). Across all three samples, low correlations were found with measures of prejudice, conservatism and political party preferences. In addition, the three-component model (authoritarian aggression, authoritarian submission and conventionalism) proposed by these authors did not emerge in factor analysis. These findings cause the authors to question the use of RWA scales in South Africa, with a number of implications for authoritarian research in this context.

Stepping Back and Listening: Staff Experiences of Using a Coaching Approach in an Acute Rehabilitation Ward for Older Adults

Previous research has highlighted that acute care provision can lead to a loss of confidence, control, and independent functioning in older adult patients. In addition, it is recognized that interactions between patients and health care staff are central to the prevention of functional decline in patients. In this study, we aimed to affect the staff–patient relationship by implementing a coaching intervention in an older adult acute care setting. Here, we report on staff experiences of this coaching approach. Data were collected from 16 members of staff via semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed using thematic analysis. Four themes were identified: Putting a Label on It, Stepping Back and Listening, Identifying the Opportunities, and Working as Team. Our findings show that a coaching approach can be successful in getting staff to reconsider their interactions with patients and to focus on strategies that foster the independence and autonomy of older adult patients.

Collecting Qualitative Data: A Practical Guide to Textual, Media and Virtual Techniques

Is there more to qualitative data collection than (face-to-face) interviews? This book answers with a resounding yes, and introduces the reader to a range of exciting, often novel, techniques for collecting qualitative data in the social and health sciences. Collecting qualitative data provides a practical and accessible introduction to everything from gathering blog data to asking participants to write stories in response to a researcher-designed story ‘cue’; the story completion method. The book is divided into three sections – textual, media and virtual – and provides stepwise guidance on methods that are under-utilised within qualitative research, or that offer new and interesting angles to qualitative researchers. Contributors from a wide range of disciplines share their experiences of implementing a particular technique and highlight both its potentials and pitfalls. What unites all the methods featured in this book is that they are ideally suited to student projects and other time- and resource-limited research. The book is written both for readers new to qualitative research and for established researchers seeking to broaden their methodological repertoire or seeking inspiration to get out of an interviewing treadmill!

Innovations in Qualitative Methods

In this chapter, we explore four particular ways in which innovation has pushed qualitative data collection beyond the familiar focus on face-to-face interviews. We have chosen these methods both for their practicality and because they are tools and techniques we have used ourselves; as committed qualitative researchers, we can attest to their value. First, we identify the way innovation has occurred in response to rapidly changing socio-technological contexts: adaptations and expansions of traditional modes of researching, such as interviewing and focus groups, to utilise the potential of the connected, online worlds we increasingly live in. Second, concurrent with, but not synonymous with, theoretical shifts that have argued against a focus just on ‘the text’, we discuss the blossoming of pluralistic or multi-modal forms of interviewing and focus group research. These two offer examples of how traditionally qualitative methods have expanded beyond their origins; the next two offer examples of techniques which have been released from their quantitative moorings: qualitative surveys offer researchers access to familiar forms of data—personal accounts, perspectives and so on—often conceptualised as ‘representing the self’, somehow; story completion tasks, in contrast, provide something radically different: a window into the social meaning worlds of our participants. Read on—we hope you are inspired!

Assessing the possibilities and challenges of patient involvement in sexual, reproductive and HIV/AIDS services

BACKGROUND Patient and public involvement (PPI) is a key feature of healthcare services in the UK. Sexual and reproductive health and HIV (SRHH) services face unique PPI challenges, as the anonymity and confidentiality required by service users can be a barrier to attracting patient input. PPI could improve sexual health services, through increased trust in services and the ability to tackle sexual health inequalities. However, specific practical guidance on how to address PPI in sexual health and the evidence to support it is sparse. METHODS This research aims to begin building an evidence base for PPI in sexual health services through: 1) an audit of PPI in SRHH in the Bristol region; and 2) a parallel survey of potential users of sexual health services about their experiences of PPI. For the audit, 18 SRHH organisations from all those in the region invited complete a short online survey, representing a range of different service providers. For the survey, participants, through a convenience sample via the University of the West of England and social media, were invited to complete an anonymous online survey of their experiences of PPI in SSRHs; 96 people responded. RESULTS Reliance on customer satisfaction approaches and patients not being asked for feedback or what PP is for are reported. Services cite under-resourcing and a lack of time as barriers. CONCLUSIONS Improving the use of patients voice in SRHH could be supported through clarity of purpose (measured against outcomes), better communication with patients, and the need for flexible methods.

Collecting Textual, Media and Virtual Data in Qualitative Research

Qualitative research textbooks in the social and health sciences are dominated by a focus on data analysis – the uninitiated could imaging that data collection is simple, straightforward, and probably limited to interviewing either individuals or groups (the latter often referred to as ‘focus group’ discussions). This chapter outlines our rationale for focusing not only exclusively on data collection, but also on methods that are under-used within qualitative research, or that offer new and interesting angles for qualitative researchers. The chapter situates and overviews the chapters in the book, highlighting our focus on textual, media, and virtual modes of data collection. The pedagogical features of the book are outlined, and general introductory readings signalled.

A Systematic Review of Symptoms and Quality of Life Issues in Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumours

Purpose: Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (pNETs) are rare neoplasms, in that they may only present symptoms of the hormone secreted, without any generic cancer issues. It is thus important to measure quality of life (QoL) in these patients by evaluating issues relevant and important to them, as opposed to general cancer issues. This paper systematically reviews papers addressing the symptoms and QoL implications of pNETs, and evaluates each subtype separately, with the aim to create a list of QoL issues relevant to these patient groups. Methods: Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Web of Science, Scopus, OpenGrey, and the Cochrane Library were searched for publications (1990-2016) reporting symptoms and QoL issues in pNETs. Results: Following screening of 2,797 papers, 69 articles were eligible for data extraction. From these papers, 84 different symptoms or QoL issues were extracted: 21 for gastrinoma, 18 for glucagonoma, 50 for insulinoma, 10 for VIPoma and 15 for non-functioning pNETs. No issues were reported for somatostatinoma, PPoma or ACTHoma. The most frequently reported symptoms vary by subtype. Conclusions: This review emphasises the need to develop a QoL measure for pNETs with specific items relevant to the different subtypes, due to the distinct symptoms reported. Following from this review, patient and healthcare professional interviews will be conducted in large cohorts across many different countries to collect more data on QoL issues specific to pNETs. This data will all be collated with the aim to create a QoL measure for pNETs.