Understanding Social Influence Differently: A Discursive Study of Livery Yards

The present thesis offers a synthetic, discursive psychological investigation into social influence, as manifested in an everyday context - a livery yard in the south-west of England. Drawing on insights from Conversation Analysis, Discursive Psychology and Critical Discursive Psychology, the thesis demonstrates the limitations of traditional social psychological approaches to social influence, especially in terms of our understanding of how influence manifests itself in everyday life. The thesis argues that in order to understand social influence in practice it is important to study language in action, that is, the discursive and interactional practices through which influence is produced and through which people orient towards the possibility of influence. Also, the thesis examines how influence is mediated by other social actions including the demonstration of competence, exercise of leadership or the production of identity. The research presented in the thesis is based on the analysis of over 200 hours of audio and video data collected over eleven months of ethnographic work in a livery yard. The livery yard was chosen as the appropriate setting because social influence, in terms of giving, accepting or resisting advice, is a frequent concern both for the owners and the users of the livery yard. Also, the nature of the interactions in a livery yard, and the complexity of the social relationships between the management, staff and the customers meant that different forms of advice giving and orientations to influence could be readily observed, recorded and analysed. By examining how social influence is produced, oriented to and resisted in an everyday context, and by promoting a synthetic discursive approach to this quintessential social psychological topic, the thesis offers a timely critique of traditional research into social influence and contributes to the broader project of re-specifying social psychology in discursive, social constructionist terms

Group Analysis in Practice: Narrative Approaches

This is the final version of the article. Available from Institut für Qualitative Forschung via the URL in this record.Working in groups is increasingly regarded as fruitful for the process of analyzing qualitative data. It has been reported to build research skills, make the analytic process visible, reduce inequalities and social distance particularly between researchers and participants, and broaden and intensify engagement with the material. This article contributes to the burgeoning literature on group qualitative data analysis by presenting a worked example of a group data analysis of a short extract from an interview on serial migration from the Caribbean to the UK. It describes the group's working practices and the different analytic resources drawn upon to conduct a narrative analysis. We demonstrate the ways in which an initial line-by-line analysis followed by analysis of larger extracts generated insights that would have been less available to individual researchers. Additionally, we discuss the positioning of group members in relation to the data and reflect on the porous boundary between primary and secondary analysis of qualitative data.With grateful thanks to the participants, without whose generosity in sharing their stories, the study would not have been possible. We are also pleased to acknowledge funding of the NOVELLA research node from the Economic and Social Research Council that enabled engagement with methodological, theoretical and substantive issues

Analysing qualitative data in groups: process and practice.

Part of the Narrative Research In Action series

What a discursive understanding of interprofessional team meetings might reveal: an exploration of intellectual (learning) disability managers' performances.

Clinical and academic understandings of interprofessional working are focused mainly on individual factors such as knowledge about different professional roles, and organisational opportunities for interprofessional working (IPW). Less research has examined what happens between people at an interactional level, that is, how interprofessional working is conducted in everyday face-to-face interactions in clinical practice. The current paper proposes a discursive framework for understanding what constitutes IPW in interprofessional meetings at this interactional level. Clinical effectiveness meetings held in intellectual (learning) disability services were used as an example site for IPW. The analysis explored how agenda change points were negotiated, appropriate as agenda change points require collaboration (or agreement) between practitioners to progress to the next point The study found changes in agenda points were accomplished by practitioners conjointly through using discursive strategies including closing questions, and resources such as professional identity and laughter. The agenda provided a frame for the institutional order of the meetings, invoking a trajectory towards timely completion. However, this institutional order was at times subordinated to an 'order of concern', which seemed to enable challenges by managers to the meeting Chair and the agenda that demonstrated adherence not only to the procedural nature of the meetings, but also to the needs of service users and the services discussed. We suggest discursive strategies, resources, and both institutional orders, and order of concerns might provide a framework for developing future training and research, that is able to illuminate how IPW might be enacted in face-to-face team meetings

A phenomenological enquiry into the longer-term impact of suicide bereavement

Doctoral student and lead Author: Ramandeep Kaur Director of Studies & Lead Research Supervisor: Dr Jacqui Stedmon, University of Plymouth, UK Second Research Supervisor: Dr Cordet Smart, Plymouth University, UKSuicide is widely known to negatively impact upon the lives of the bereaved. Traditionally, quantitative methods have been employed to study this impact, yielding limited findings that do not go beyond a symptomatic level. Further, the exploration inclines towards a limited focus upon acute grief. This narrow focus and the paucity of previous qualitative studies, has instigated the current study to explore from a phenomenological perspective, the longer-term impact of suicide bereavement. Semi-structured interviews were completed with eight suicide-survivors. The data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. A notable finding was that suicide-survivors employed defensive processes to help keep grief away, which resulted in grief becoming burdensome for up to many decades. Another key finding was that bereavement by suicide shattered the assumptive world of suicide-survivors, having a life-time impact on their ways of relating to themselves and others. The role of subsequent life events and secondary losses and gains from the bereavement was also impactful in the longer-term. This study concludes that bereavement by suicide does continue to have an impact upon the lives of survivors for five, nine and even thirty years on. Clinical and research implications are discussed

The relationship between family carers and Learning Disability services: a literature review

DClinPsych thesis minus appendices and reflective essay.Background Family carers of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) mediate contact with health and social care services. The relationships between families and services is critical, especially at transitions in the lifecycle, yet evidence for how these are experienced is limited. Method A multi-level narrative analysis was used to explore these relationships over time, applying a systemic lens to transcripts from interviews with family carers of young adults. Results Narratives were informed by a loss of relationships and structures on leaving child services, a lack of individual contact in adult services, and the consequences of mainstream societal expectations on all concerned. Conclusions Societal pressures act on families already under pressure. Systemic approaches to research and service delivery can help to unpick complex interactions within families and between them and services. A change to lifelong services is suggested

A phenomenological enquiry into the longer-term impact of suicide bereavement

Doctoral Student: Ramandeep Kaur Director of Studies & Lead Research Supervisor: Dr Jacqui Stedmon Second Research Supervisor: Dr Cordet SmartSuicide is widely known to negatively impact upon the lives of the bereaved. Traditionally, quantitative methods have been employed to study this impact, yielding limited findings that do not go beyond a symptomatic level. Further, the exploration inclines towards a limited focus upon acute grief. This narrow focus and the paucity of previous qualitative studies, has instigated the current study to explore from a phenomenological perspective, the longer-term impact of suicide bereavement. Semi-structured interviews were completed with eight suicide-survivors. The data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. A notable finding was that suicide-survivors employed defensive processes to help keep grief away, which resulted in grief becoming burdensome for up to many decades. Another key finding was that bereavement by suicide shattered the assumptive world of suicide-survivors, having a life-time impact on their ways of relating to themselves and others. The role of subsequent life events and secondary losses and gains from the bereavement was also impactful in the longer-term. This study concludes that bereavement by suicide does continue to have an impact upon the lives of survivors for five, nine and even thirty years on. Clinical and research implications are discussed

Revealing the complexities of burnout in community-based mental health services: A Critical Discursive Psychology Analysis

Burnout has been identified as a significant problem for healthcare professionals in the UK, and is associated with reduced morale, increased absenteeism and high rates of staff turnover. Although burnout was recently added to the International Classification of Diseases, the term is not used consistently within the existing literature nor in the clinical environment. This research used a critical discursive psychology approach to consider how burnout was spoken about and subsequently how the meaning of the term was socially constructed. A team focus group design illustrated seven main descriptions (interpretative repertoires) of burnout. These repertoires were often contradictory and created ideological dilemmas as participants negotiated the use of conflicting repertoires. Participants most commonly positioned burnout as unacceptable and used a variety of rhetorical devices to distance themselves from burnout. The findings suggest that the meaning of burnout is more nuanced than the literature and the ICD-11 definition implies

Media discourses on obesity in contemporary western society: A systematic review

This submission contains an empirical research paper entitled 'Conversations in weight management services that involve discrepancies between client report and clinical investigation: A narrative exploration' and a systemic review entitled ' Media discourses on obesity in contemporary western society: A systematic review'.Conversations in weight management services that involve discrepancies between client report and clinical investigation: A narrative exploration Healthcare professionals (HCPs) in weight management services can struggle to lead conversations containing discrepancies between client report and clinical investigation. This can result in a lack of shared understanding and impasses in weight loss. Understanding the complexities of these conversations is therefore important. Complexities were explored through 1) mapping sense-making of the discrepancies and 2) identifying challenges and how they were managed. Narrative analysis of twelve HCPs’ stories of such conversations showed multiple understandings of discrepancies and that shared understandings between clients and HCPs were not always reached. HCPs struggled with the thought that clients might be reporting dishonestly, and with how to address this. HCPs understanding and management of discrepancies were complicated by public discourses on obesity and professional roles. HCPs were mindful to not shame clients and wanted to appear as ‘good’ clinicians. These findings may be used to validate and normalise HCPs’ experiences of conversations containing discrepancies. Media discourses on obesity in contemporary western society: A systematic review How obesity is discussed in the media has the power to impact both public policy and the views of the general population. It follows that researchers have started to examine how obesity is ‘framed’ within television and newsprint media. This review was a meta-synthesis of the main obesity discourses reported in research on current media obesity discourses. Five databases were systematically searched to yield a sample of twelve articles that met the inclusion criteria. All articles were subject to a quality control measure to assess the methodological integrity. Five dominant discourses were identified: ‘Obesity is a burden. Obese people are a burden’, ‘Your weight is your choice… Losing weight is simple’, ‘Factors beyond your control may contribute to obesity but they aren’t excuses’ ‘Education and legislation can help reduce obesity, if you eat less’ and ‘Being fat is unhealthy, ugly and open to public comment’. These were discussed in terms of their potential impact on public policy and on individuals with obesity