From paradox to pattern shift: Conceptualising liminal hotspots and their affective dynamics

This article introduces the concept of liminal hotspots as a specifically psychosocial and sociopsychological type of wicked problem, best addressed in a process-theoretical framework. A liminal hotspot is defined as an occasion characterised by the experience of being trapped in the interstitial dimension between different forms-of-process. The paper has two main aims. First, to articulate a nexus of concepts associated with liminal hotspots that together provide general analytic purchase on a wide range of problems concerning “troubled” becoming. Second, to provide concrete illustrations through examples drawn from the health domain. In the conclusion, we briefly indicate the sense in which liminal hotspots are part of broader and deeper historical processes associated with changing modes for the management and navigation of liminality

Network destabilization and transition in depression : new methods for studying the dynamics of therapeutic change

The science of dynamic systems is the study of pattern formation and system change. Dynamic systems theory can provide a useful framework for understanding the chronicity of depression and its treatment. We propose a working model of therapeutic change with potential to organize findings from psychopathology and treatment research, suggest new ways to study change, facilitate comparisons across studies, and stimulate treatment innovation. We describe a treatment for depression that we developed to apply principles from dynamic systems theory and then present a program of research to examine the utility of this application. Recent methodological and technological developments are also discussed to further advance the search for mechanisms of therapeutic change

Structural balance emerges and explains performance in risky decision-making.

Polarization affects many forms of social organization. A key issue focuses on which affective relationships are prone to change and how their change relates to performance. In this study, we analyze a financial institutional over a two-year period that employed 66 day traders, focusing on links between changes in affective relations and trading performance. Traders' affective relations were inferred from their IMs (>2 million messages) and trading performance was measured from profit and loss statements (>1 million trades). Here, we find that triads of relationships, the building blocks of larger social structures, have a propensity towards affective balance, but one unbalanced configuration resists change. Further, balance is positively related to performance. Traders with balanced networks have the "hot hand", showing streaks of high performance. Research implications focus on how changes in polarization relate to performance and polarized states can depolarize

Sync or sink? Interpersonal synchrony impacts self-esteem

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Scientific Research about Climate Change Mitigation in Transport : A critical review

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Transitions and shifting understandings of writing: Building rich pictures of how moving from school to university is experienced through exploration of students’ discourses of writing

In a time of economic constraints and increasing competition for places, negotiating “the transition” from school to university has become crucial for students’ educational success. Writing holds a dominant place in the academy as a mechanism of assessment. Therefore, exploring the writing practices of students as they move from school to university offers a valuable lens into how students negotiate the complex and multiple demands of moving between educational and disciplinary contexts. This paper will explore what insights an analysis of instantiations of students’ discourses of writing (Ivanič, 2004) can offer to develop a rich picture of how students experience their writing “in transition”. The data presented is taken from an ethnographic-style project that followed a group of British students from A-levels (HSC equivalent) to their second year of university study. Ivanič’s framework of discourses of writing offers a useful analytic tool, allowing analysis of the sets of beliefs and assumptions that students draw on when engaging in and talking about writing and can be applied to different kinds of data collected around students’ writing. Discourses of writing also provide an organising frame for exploring how students’ understandings of writing change as they move between educational and disciplinary contexts. This analysis shows that the ways students’ understand their writing are not only influenced by various discourses, which can change as students move between school and university, but understandings are individual, situated and context-dependent. The role of emotions, students’ “face work” (Goffman, 1967) and the dominant force of assessment emerge as significant areas for further development