Using health psychology to help patients: promoting wellbeing

This article explores the construct of wellbeing. Research concerning the relationship between subjective wellbeing and health is discussed. Key components of wellbeing that are important to health include ‘sense of coherence’, ‘optimism’ and ‘benefit finding and post-traumatic growth’. A range of positive psychology interventions that aim to increase positive thoughts, feelings and emotions in order to improve wellbeing have been developed. Mindfulness-based approaches to improving wellbeing are especially popular and are evidence based. These focus on helping the individual to develop an awareness of the present with acceptance and attention. Instead of trying to change uncomfortable thoughts or feelings, the individual practices accepting these, without judgement. Nurses can draw on the information in this article to provide evidence-based advice and guidance to help improve their patients' and their own wellbeing

Ethnography, ethics and ownership of data

© The Author(s) 2019. Establishing trust and obtaining informed consent with participants is reliant upon on a process whereby unequally positioned agents constantly re-negotiate (mis)trust and consent during ethnographic encounters. All research has been increasingly subject to an intensification in ethical regulation, within a context whereby Eurocentric norms and ethical guidelines arguably diminish individual accountability under the guise of quasi-contractual relationships. This phenomenon has particular implications for ethnography and its management of ethics, given its intimate, longitudinal and receptive nature. Two expert ethnographers working with children and young people draw upon their work to reveal how issues of informed consent and data ownership can shift and be a source of tension and unequal power dynamics. The ethnographer requires autonomy while managing ethics soundly in situ to work within the messiness and unpredictability of participants’ everyday lives

Why familiarise?

Becoming familiar with the field location is a topic within anthropology that has been widely discussed over the years and is thought to aid the quality of ethnographic outputs. Components of familiarisation are also at times used as good practice within other research strategies. This update will explore how familiarisation can aid a range of research strategies to enhance the quality of data that are collected.</p

Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links between Action and Institution

Institutional theory and structuration theory both contend that institutions and actions are inextricably linked and that institutionalization is best understood as a dynamic, ongoing process. Institutionalists, however, have pursued an empirical agenda that has largely ignored how institutions are created, altered, and reproduced, in part, because their models of institutionalization as a process are underdeveloped. Structuration theory, on the other hand, largely remains a process theory of such abstraction that it has generated few empirical studies. This paper discusses the similarities between the two theories, develops an argument for why a fusion of the two would enable institutional theory to significantly advance, develops a model of institutionalization as a structuration process, and proposes methodological guidelines for investigating the process empirically

The New Crafts: On the Technization of the Workforce and the Occupationalization of Firms

[Excerpt] In the late 1960s and early 1970s American students were told that the value of a college education was declining (see Freeman 1976). Although liberal arts students were particularly discouraged by reports of recent graduates driving taxicabs, even the demand for engineers and other technical specialists seemed bleak. Two decades later, the headlines have reversed. Study after study proclaims that American children are performing more poorly on achievement tests than the children of most other industrialized nations. Employers complain of a shortage of skilled workers: young people are said to be ill-prepared for the demands of the workplace and older workers are said to lack the educational background requisite for retraining (Johnson and Packer 1987). Studies by labor economists have largely confirmed the employers\u27 contentions and foretell of even greater shortages of skilled labor in the near future (Bishop and Carter 1991)

Supporting young children in multi-lingual settings

Following on from last month's article, Ruth Barley explores children's views on culture and identity, and how home or first language plays a significant role when it comes to defining friendship groups

A Mixed-Method Investigation into Therapeutic Yoga as an Adjunctive Treatment for People Recovering from Substance Use Disorders

© 2020, The Author(s). Mind Body Connect (MBC) is a charity which uses therapeutic yoga as a vehicle of change for marginalized populations. Alongside MBC, Sheffield Hallam University’s SHU Strength researchers carried out this study aiming to: (1) Gauge the impact of therapeutic yoga classes upon the mood state of people with a Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and (2) Explore the perceived benefits of therapeutic yoga class participation. An adapted shortened Profile of Mood States (POMS) was completed before and after each yoga class. A comparison of means with paired sample T-Test and Cohen’s D was then carried out. Participants who attended 6+ classes were interviewed. Findings were then converged. Before and after measurements of anger, sadness, tiredness, worry, confusion, energy and relaxation were taken, Classes were held at SHU for service users from a Phoenix Future’s (PF) rehabilitation centre. A single yoga class significantly relaxed participants and reduced negative mood states. Interview data covered a range of perceived benefits including the use of yogic down-regulation techniques as daily coping strategies. The MBC yoga programme appears beneficial as an adjunctive therapy for PF residents. Future SHU Strength research shall focus on the mid-long-term exercise habits of the recovery community and the impact of the MBC yoga programme upon the early recovery period of detoxification

Using health psychology techniques to manage chronic physical symptoms

Chest pain and palpitations, non-malignant pain, breathlessness and fatigue often endure despite the receipt of appropriate nursing and medical care. This is distressing for patients, impacts on their quality of life and ability to function and is associated with high healthcare usage and costs. The cognitive behavioural approach offers nurses a model to understand how people's perceptions and beliefs and their emotional, behavioural and physiological reactions are linked. Common ‘thinking errors’ which can exacerbate symptom severity and impact are highlighted. Understanding of this model may help nurses to help patients cope better with their symptoms by helping them to come up with alternative more helpful beliefs and practices. Many Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services offer support to people with chronic physical symptoms and nurses are encouraged to sign post patients to them

Participatory visual methods: exploring young people’s identities, hopes and feelings

Using visual ethnography as a participatory method that places children’s and young people’s everyday experiences at the centre of research is discussed in this paper. The strengths and challenges of using participatory visual methods as a way of eliciting the thoughts, feelings and identities of young people within various education and training contexts in England are presented through the reflection of two ethnographies’ that encouraged the use of participatory visual techniques to facilitate the gathering of data. Participatory visual approaches capture meaningful child-centred and child-generated perspectives of their everyday lives in situ (Oh 2012). The participatory visual method is a powerful instrument within the plethora of methods available to the ethnographer. By offering reflexive accounts of doing ethnography in an unobtrusive and child respectful way the power of ethnography is revealed via its versatility