10. Miracles

https://crossworks.holycross.edu/poetry2021/1009/thumbnail.jp

Language and perceptions of identity threat

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.This study explores how a group of British South Asians (BSA) understood, defined and evaluated languages associated with their ethnic and religious identities, focusing upon the role of language in the negotiation and construction of these identities and particularly upon strategies employed for coping with identity threat. Twelve BSA were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. Transcripts were subjected to qualitative thematic analysis. Participants’ accounts were explored through the interpretive lens of identity process theory. Four superordinate themes are reported: “Maintaining a sense of distinctiveness through language use”, “Exclusion of others and personal claims of belonging”, “Deriving a sense of self-esteem from the knowledge of one’s threatening position” and “Two identities, two languages. Searching for psychological coherence”. While identity principles may be cross-culturally universal, coping strategies are fluid and dynamic. Individuals will act strategically to minimise identity threat. Some of the coping strategies manifested by participants are discussed.http://www.psychologyandsociety.org/__assets/__original/2009/11/Jaspal_Coyle.pd

Discourses of friendship between heterosexual women and gay men:mythical norms and an absence of desire

Gay men and heterosexual women may share some common interests in critiquing hetero-patriarchy. However feminism and gay liberationist politics do not always coincide and the role of individual subjectivities in recognising oppressive discourses of normativity remains debated. Interviews were conducted with seven friendship dyads of heterosexual women and gay men. Transcripts were subjected to discourse analysis, which suggested extensive management of heterosexist norms in the friends' accounts of friendship. The analysis highlighted ambiguity over the 'male' status of gay men, a concern with constructing the friendships as legitimately asexual, and the use of parody in the face of homophobia to disrupt normative assumptions. Although we primarily considered the role of heterosexist discourses, there is also evidence that other dimensions of non-normativity (for example, gender and ethnicity) are implicated in friendships constructed around shared otherness and mutual non-normativity

A qualitative analysis of psychosocial needs and support impacts in families affected by young sudden cardiac death (YSCD) : the role of community and peer support

Background Young sudden cardiac death (YSCD), often occurring in previously healthy individuals, is a tragic event with devastating impact on affected families, who are at heightened risk of posttraumatic stress and prolonged grief and may themselves be at risk of YSCD. Previous research suggests that surviving family members’ psychosocial support needs are often unmet. Purpose This study sought to identify how YSCD-affected families experience dedicated community and peer support in light of their psychosocial support needs. Methods The study used a qualitative design, employing a thematic analysis of focus group and interview data. Three focus groups and five individual interviews were conducted with affected family members ( N = 19). The sample was drawn from a UK-based charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young. Audio-recordings of the focus groups and interviews were transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis. Results Three super-ordinate themes were identified: 1. YSCD community support as offering a place of safety, 2. YSCD community support as fostering sense-making, 3. YSCD community support as facilitating finding new meaning. Conclusions YSCD-affected families can benefit from access to dedicated community and peer support that offers a safe environment, provides affiliation, understanding and normalisation and enables sense-making and the rebuilding of a sense of self. Dedicated community support can facilitate meaningful re-engagement with life through helping prevent YSCD and through memorialisation and legacy-building to maintain a continuing bond with the deceased. Clinicians need to be aware of the need to incorporate available community and peer support into patient pathways

Toward a framework for Islamic psychology and psychotherapy : an Islamic model of the soul

A uniquely Islamic theoretical framework for an Islamic psychology has yet to be established. To do so requires that we understand how human beings are conceptualized within the cosmology that characterizes the Islamic tradition. This paper presents a model of the soul from within an Islamic paradigm, generated through a grounded theory analysis of interviews with 18 key informants with relevant academic or religious expertise. The model elaborates aspects of a mechanism for the development of the soul that constitutes a potential foundation for an Islamic theory of human psychology and has particular relevance for Islamic approaches to psychotherapy

Alternative "Lives Matter" formulations in online discussions about Black Lives Matter : use, support and resistance

open access articleThroughout its history, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has elicited strong opposition that risks stifling anti-racist progress. This paper examines how support for BLM is argued about and challenged in online settings, focussing on the use of alternative ‘Lives Matter’ hashtags and slogans. BLM and anti-BLM material from 2020 was identified across six online platforms, which generated 1242 data items. Data were subjected to discourse analysis informed by critical discursive psychology. Arguments over the context of racism were a recurrent feature of responses to BLM-supporting posts. The analysis demonstrates the varying ways that alternative ‘Lives Matter’ formulations can be used to display opposition to and undermine BLM. Of these, ‘All Lives Matter’ was used most prominently but also ‘White Lives Matter’ and others. All alternatives to BLM function to obscure or deny the discrimination that Black people face, and so work to maintain the racist status quo