Self-harm : an investigation into disclosure, help-seeking, and implicit and explicit attitudes

Self-harm is defined as bodily harm caused intentionally by an individual without suicidal intent. Self-harm poses a significant threat to public health, with estimated lifetime prevalence rates between 13.3% and 19.6% among university students (Benjet et al., 2019; Sivertsen et al., 2019). Prior research has found that people who self-harm are 49 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population (Hawton et al., 2015), while most individuals who self-harm do not seek help, especially not from medical professionals (Fortune et al., 2008). A key concern when deciding whether to seek help is perceived stigma (Nearchou et al., 2018), although research has found discrepancies between experiences and measured attitudes: experienced responses can vary widely between gentle and hostile (MacDonald et al., 2020) while attitude research suggests tolerant attitudes towards people who self-harm (e.g., Gagnon & Hasking, 2012; Nielsen & Townsend; 2018). This discrepancy can be explained by how attitudes are measured. Attitudes can be measured either explicitly or implicitly, with explicit measures being more susceptible to biases and implicit measures being thought to measure underlying attitudes (Friese, Hofmann & Schmitt, 2008). The current thesis explored the experiences of disclosure and help-seeking of students with a history of self-harm using a semi-structured interview, analysed using reflexive thematic analysis as outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006; 2021). Interviews with 19 students produced three main themes: peers who self-harm, choice, and responses. Peers who self-harm involved reciprocal disclosure, shared experience and understanding, and self-other comparison. Choice consisted of three levels, namely being found out, compelled disclosure, and seeking support. The responses theme included immediate and long-term responses, indirect responses, and self-directed responses. Interviewees perceived public stigma towards self-harm, with experiences of indirect stigma and impulsive, immediate responses suggesting negative underlying attitudes of some respondents. However, improved responses over time could be explained by either improved understanding or more measured responses. The remainder of the thesis aimed to investigate explicit and implicit attitudes towards people who self-harm. The three quantitative chapters of the thesis used Go/No-Go Association Tasks (GNAT; Nosek & Banaji, 2001) to implicitly measure attitudes, alongside a self-harm adaptation of the Depression Stigma Scale (DSS; Griffiths et al., 2008) and attribute ratings to measure explicit attitudes towards people who self-harm. There were a total of 84 participants in Chapter 4, 101 in Chapter 5, and 115 in Chapter 6. Participants of all three quantitative studies demonstrated tolerant explicit attitudes towards people who self-harm. However, implicit measures showed largely negative associations with people who self-harm when pairing self-harm with ‘Bad Person’, ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Blameworthy’. These findings suggested negative underlying attitudes towards people who self-harm. However, in the final study, self-harming behaviours, not people who self-harm, were associated with ‘Dangerous’ attributes. This finding is discussed with regards to ambiguity within the measure, such that the GNAT could have been interpreted as danger to the self or others, along with the possibility that the learning procedure implemented was not sufficient to establish a mental association between non-word names and self-harm. The conclusion of this thesis discussed the practical and theoretical implications of the research conducted within. It was concluded that the current research supports a distinction between affective and cognitive components of attitude, and has supplied potential methods to implicitly measure attitudes towards a social group rather than the qualities which make them ‘other’. The studies within this thesis found high rates of historic selfharm, highlighting the importance of investigating self-harm among the student population. By implicitly measuring attitudes among this population, the present research can explain discrepancies between help-seeking experiences and explicit attitudes. Limitations and proposed future directions are discussed

Proceedings of the inaugural construction management and economics ‘Past, Present and Future’ conference CME25, 16-18 July 2007, University of Reading, UK

This conference was an unusual and interesting event. Celebrating 25 years of Construction Management and Economics provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the research that has been reported over the years, to consider where we are now, and to think about the future of academic research in this area. Hence the sub-title of this conference: “past, present and future”. Looking through these papers, some things are clear. First, the range of topics considered interesting has expanded hugely since the journal was first published. Second, the research methods are also more diverse. Third, the involvement of wider groups of stakeholder is evident. There is a danger that this might lead to dilution of the field. But my instinct has always been to argue against the notion that Construction Management and Economics represents a discipline, as such. Granted, there are plenty of university departments around the world that would justify the idea of a discipline. But the vast majority of academic departments who contribute to the life of this journal carry different names to this. Indeed, the range and breadth of methodological approaches to the research reported in Construction Management and Economics indicates that there are several different academic disciplines being brought to bear on the construction sector. Some papers are based on economics, some on psychology and others on operational research, sociology, law, statistics, information technology, and so on. This is why I maintain that construction management is not an academic discipline, but a field of study to which a range of academic disciplines are applied. This may be why it is so interesting to be involved in this journal. The problems to which the papers are applied develop and grow. But the broad topics of the earliest papers in the journal are still relevant today. What has changed a lot is our interpretation of the problems that confront the construction sector all over the world, and the methodological approaches to resolving them. There is a constant difficulty in dealing with topics as inherently practical as these. While the demands of the academic world are driven by the need for the rigorous application of sound methods, the demands of the practical world are quite different. It can be difficult to meet the needs of both sets of stakeholders at the same time. However, increasing numbers of postgraduate courses in our area result in larger numbers of practitioners with a deeper appreciation of what research is all about, and how to interpret and apply the lessons from research. It also seems that there are contributions coming not just from construction-related university departments, but also from departments with identifiable methodological traditions of their own. I like to think that our authors can publish in journals beyond the construction-related areas, to disseminate their theoretical insights into other disciplines, and to contribute to the strength of this journal by citing our articles in more mono-disciplinary journals. This would contribute to the future of the journal in a very strong and developmental way. The greatest danger we face is in excessive self-citation, i.e. referring only to sources within the CM&E literature or, worse, referring only to other articles in the same journal. The only way to ensure a strong and influential position for journals and university departments like ours is to be sure that our work is informing other academic disciplines. This is what I would see as the future, our logical next step. If, as a community of researchers, we are not producing papers that challenge and inform the fundamentals of research methods and analytical processes, then no matter how practically relevant our output is to the industry, it will remain derivative and secondary, based on the methodological insights of others. The balancing act between methodological rigour and practical relevance is a difficult one, but not, of course, a balance that has to be struck in every single paper

Measuring knowledge sharing processes through social network analysis within construction organisations

The construction industry is a knowledge intensive and information dependent industry. Organisations risk losing valuable knowledge, when the employees leave them. Therefore, construction organisations need to nurture opportunities to disseminate knowledge through strengthening knowledge-sharing networks. This study aimed at evaluating the formal and informal knowledge sharing methods in social networks within Australian construction organisations and identifying how knowledge sharing could be improved. Data were collected from two estimating teams in two case studies. The collected data through semi-structured interviews were analysed using UCINET, a Social Network Analysis (SNA) tool, and SNA measures. The findings revealed that one case study consisted of influencers, while the other demonstrated an optimal knowledge sharing structure in both formal and informal knowledge sharing methods. Social networks could vary based on the organisation as well as the individuals’ behaviour. Identifying networks with specific issues and taking steps to strengthen networks will enable to achieve optimum knowledge sharing processes. This research offers knowledge sharing good practices for construction organisations to optimise their knowledge sharing processes

The 45th Australasian Universities Building Education Association Conference: Global Challenges in a Disrupted World: Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Approaches in the Built Environment, Conference Proceedings, 23 - 25 November 2022, Western Sydney University, Kingswood Campus, Sydney, Australia

This is the proceedings of the 45th Australasian Universities Building Education Association (AUBEA) conference which will be hosted by Western Sydney University in November 2022. The conference is organised by the School of Engineering, Design, and Built Environment in collaboration with the Centre for Smart Modern Construction, Western Sydney University. This year’s conference theme is “Global Challenges in a Disrupted World: Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Approaches in the Built Environment”, and expects to publish over a hundred double-blind peer review papers under the proceedings

Drawing as a tool for thought: The development of the ability to use drawing as a design tool amongst children aged 6 - 8 years

My research into young children's understanding of using drawing to support designing was undertaken in a rural First School (children aged 5-9 years) across the years 1998-2002. Since little previous research had been conducted in the field, the first phase of the research aimed to discover how young children could use drawing to support designing, through analysing drawings produced in Design and Technology lessons. It appeared that below age 8, although children could record design ideas, they did not use drawing to support their design thinking or develop their ideas towards making. Understandings gained through reading, led to the belief that the metaphor of design drawing as both a Container and a Journey could be used to teach younger children to use drawing as a design tool. The second phase of the research, therefore, involved devising a Programme of four school term's duration, for a Year 2 class (average age 6.10 at start of Programme), that embedded the Container I Journey metaphor. These children's developing capability with design drawing was compared at intervals with that of a parallel class who did not receive the Programme. The evaluation of the Programme used both qualitative and quantified analysis to assess both process and products of using drawing to support designing. The analysis instrument for the products was based on a holistic view of the design process, placing Understanding the Purpose of the Drawing at the centre of capability and Dimensions of Design Drawing through which such capability were expressed in drawing as emanating from this central understanding. Besides demonstrating the success of the Programme, the analysis showed how children adapt their use of drawing for different activities (problem-solving or product design) and revealed the importance of discussion whilst drawing for the development of viable design ideas

Information & Records Management and Blockchain Technology: Understanding its Potential

This MSc dissertation researched the extent to which Blockchain technology is or might become a useful tool for information and records management (IRM). In undertaking this research, I had three aims in mind. Those were: • To explain the state of knowledge and use of Blockchain technology currently being employed within IRM around the world; • To investigate why Blockchain technology was or was not being used in the IRM community/profession; and • To explore whether there is potential for further use of Blockchain technology in IRM. This topic was selected because there is very little academic or practitioner writing on the role of Blockchain within an IRM context. The aims of this research are investigated through quantitative research methods via an online questionnaire to survey IRM professionals about their knowledge and use of Blockchain and the drivers and obstacles to such knowledge and use or their lack of such knowledge and use. My research found that Blockchain technology is a little used tool as very few people actually work with it or have experienced it as a records management tool. At this point in time it is too early to draw definitive conclusions about the degree to which Blockchain is or might become a critical tool for IRM