Psychologists' experiences of decision-making in clinical work: A thematic analysis

Within the clinical decision-making literature, one under-researched area is related to psychologists’ decision-making from the perspective of their experience. Given the varied backgrounds of clinical and counselling psychologists, insight is needed into their decision-making experiences to provide a comprehensive overview of clinical practices. This type of approach could offer a bridge between the didactic decision making literature and real world clinical psychotherapeutic work. This qualitative study aimed to explore psychologists’ experiences of clinical decision-making from a critical realist perspective. Eight clinical and counselling psychologists were interviewed, using a gradual reveal case vignette exercise and a semi-structured interview schedule. Data were analysed using Thematic Analysis and the pertinent aspects of participants’ experiences of decision-making were captured in five themes. Each of these themes contains participants’ reflections on the various foci of the therapeutic work that become the point of reference for decision-making at different stages. Additionally, participants discussed the impact of professional experience, reflexivity, and the context of decision-making. Some of the key findings in relation to the decision-making experiences of psychologists show that decision-making is overall a complex and potentially anxiety-provoking aspect of clinical practice. This complexity is a result of uncertainty in the work, which was noted as being tiring. Available literature has thus far neglected these key experiential dynamics within decision-making, creating the potential for a vast gap between theory and practice. Participants have stated that the challenges in ongoing decision-making are balanced by their collaboration with colleagues and attention to self-care. A number of theoretical and clinical implications for research and clinical practice arise as part of the findings of this study. These recommendations are offered with consideration of the cognitive implications of anxiety in clinical decision-making and contextual influences on the varied roles of psychologists

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences_Publication of Texbook Featuring Material Related to the Pandemic

Email thread featuring messages from Steven Barkan, Professor and chairperson, Sociology Department, University of Maine to Timothy M. Cole Associate Dean for Academics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Associate Professor of Political Science University of Maine and Jonathon Jue-Wong, Administrative Coordinator, The Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost, regarding the second edition of Professor Barkan\u27s textbook, Social Problems: Continuity and Change, that features material related to the COVID-19 pandemic

College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture_COVID-19 Related Work Email

Email thread featuring messages from Michael Haedicke to Steven Barkan, Professor and chairperson, Sociology Department, University of Maine and Steven Barkan to Timothy M. Cole Associate Dean for Academics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Associate Professor of Political Science University of Maine regarding articles Professor Haedicke authored on subjects related to the COVID-19 pandemic

Somatically heritable switches in the DNA modification of Mu transposable elements monitored with a suppressible mutant in maize

Many transposable elements in maize alternate between active and inactive phases associated with the modification of their DNA. Elements in an inactive phase lose their ability to transpose, their ability to excise from reporter alleles and, in some cases, their ability to enhance or suppress mutant phenotypes caused by their insertion. The maize mutant hcf106 is a recessive pale green seedling lethal caused by the insertion of the transposable element Mu1. We show that the hcf106 mutant phenotype is suppressed in lines that have lost Mu activity. That is, homozygous hcf106 seedlings are dark green and viable when transposable elements belonging to the Robertson's Mutator family are modified in their terminal inverted repeats, a diagnostic feature of inactive lines. This property of the mutant phenotype has been used to follow clonal leaf sectors containing modified Mu elements that arise from single somatic cells during plant development. The distribution of these sectors indicates that epigenetic switches involving Mu DNA modification occur progressively as the meristem ages