From ‘What’s Wrong with You?’ to ‘What’s Happened to You?’: an Introduction to the Special Issue on the Power Threat Meaning Framework

The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), published by the British Psychological Society (BPS) in 2018, is an attempt to address the question of how we might understand what Harry Stack Sullivan called ‘problems in living’ other than by using psychiatric diagnostic systems. How might we best conceptualize emotional distress and behaviour which might concern or trouble others? We describe the context within which the PTMF was developed and explain some of its key elements before giving an overview of the articles in this special issue

Diagnosis special issue - Introduction: Moving beyond diagnosis: Practising what we preach

John Cromby, Dave Harper and Paula Reavey introduce the special issue

Diagnosis special issue - Part 6: Don’t jump ship! New approaches in teaching mental health to undergraduates

Dave Harper, John Cromby, Paula Reavey, Anne Cooke and Jill Anderson with some pointers

Paranoia and social inequality

How might we make sense of the findings of epidemiological research showing the effects of social inequalities without accepting the validity of problematic diagnostic categories used by psychiatric epidemiologists (Rogers & Pilgrim, 2003)? How might we make sense of processes happening at a community and systemic level without neglecting individual experience? How should we conceptualise experiences which are embodied (i.e. felt and transmitted through our biological systems) without falling prey to dualistic or biologically reductionist thinking? In this article, we hope to examine the links between social inequality and paranoia without falling into such traps. We use the term 'paranoia' broadly. Although single symptom research into psychosis has made great strides (e.g. Bentall, 2004) we feel there is benefit to be gained from taking the experience of paranoia as a starting point rather than beginning with an unnecessarily narrow operational definition of, for example, the diagnostic criteria for persecutory delusions. Paranoia, of course, is well-represented in psychiatric diagnostic categories (e.g. paranoid schizophrenia, delusional and personality disorders) and is in some measure a feature of many people’s everyday lives. However, focusing on such categories assumes that the differences between them are both valid and more important than the commonalities in the experiences they represent. Accordingly, we begin by presenting a brief critique of psychiatric thinking about paranoia, followed by a re-theorization that focuses on the social and material constitution of experience through feelings. We end by outlining some implications for intervention

Paranoia: a social account

Both psychology and psychiatry are dominated by individualistic accounts of paranoia (and, indeed, other forms of distress). As a corrective to these, this paper provides a social account of paranoia grounded in a minimal notion of embodied subjectivity constituted from the interpenetration of feelings, perception and discourse. Paranoia is conceptualized as a mode or tendency within embodied subjectivity, co-constituted in the dialectical associations between subjectivity and relational, social and material influences. Relevant psychiatric and psychological literature is briefly reviewed; relational, social structural and material influences upon paranoia are described; and some implications of this account for research and intervention are highlighted

Methodological pluralism in qualitative research: Reflections on a meta-study

A short report is provided of a meta-study of methodological pluralism in qualitative research; that is, of the use of two or more qualitative methods to analyse the same data set. Ten eligible papers were identified and assessed. Their contents are described with respect to theory, methods and findings, and their possible implications discussed in relation to a series of wider debates in qualitative research more generally

Refining Anger: Summarizing the Self-Report Measurement of Anger

The current paper presents a five-factor measurement model of anger summarizing scores on public-domain self-report measures of anger. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of self-report measures of anger (UK, n = 500; USA, n = 625) suggest five replicable latent anger factors: anger-arousal, anger-rumination, frustration-discomfort, anger-regulation, and socially constituted anger. Findings suggested a 5-factor interpretation provided the best fit of the data. We also report evidence of measurement invariance for this 5-factor model of anger across gender, age, and ethnicity. The findings suggest a useful and parsimonious account of anger, summarizing over 50 years of research around the self-report measurement of anger

Young women with a disorder of sex development: learning to share information with health professionals, friends and intimate partners about bodily differences and infertility

Aim: To understand the experiences of young women with a disorder of sex development when sharing information about their body with healthcare professionals, friends and intimate partners. Background: Disorders of sex development are lifelong conditions that create bodily difference such as absence of reproductive organs which can impact on young women's fertility and sexual experiences. Design: Interpretive phenomenological analysis with thirteen young women (14-19 years old) with a disorder of sex development. Methods: The young women chose to participate in either a face-to-face semi-structured interview or to complete a paper diary between 2011-2012. Results: A superordinate theme focusing on the meaning bodily differences held for these young women is presented through three themes: self-awareness and communicating this to others; actualizing intimacy; and expressing meaning of altered fertility to self or professionals or partners. During early adolescence, the young women were guarded and reticent about sharing personal information about their disorder of sex development but as they moved towards adulthood, some of the young women learnt to engage in conversations with more confidence. Frustrations about their bodily differences and the limitations of their bodies were talked about as factors which limited physical spontaneity, impacted on their perceived sexual fulfilment and challenged the development or sustainability of close friendships or intimate partnerships. The young women wanted empathic, sensitive support from knowledgeable health professionals to help them understand their bodies. Conclusion: Attachment and a 'sense of being' were the concepts that were closely linked to the young women's development of a secure identity

Methodological pluralism in qualitative research: Reflections on a meta-study

A short report is provided of a meta-study of methodological pluralism in qualitative research; that is, of the use of two or more qualitative methods to analyse the same data set. Ten eligible papers were identified and assessed. Their contents are described with respect to theory, methods and findings, and their possible implications discussed in relation to a series of wider debates in qualitative research more generally

Moving lessons: teaching sociology through embodied learning in the HE classroom

This chapter outlines an approach to classroom teaching that makes use of physical movement alongside more traditional lecturing methods when delivering lessons on abstract theoretical material. It develops the notion of embodied learning as a 'physical metaphor', outlining some examples of this practice that we have used in our recent work with a class of first year undergraduates. We argue that conceptualising students as embodied subjects, whose capacity to learn extends through and beyond their physical selves, educators are able to enhance classroom delivery by diversifying teaching activities and creating opportunities for enjoyable and memorable learning experiences. We advocate the reflexive, contextually-sensitive and level- appropriate use of this method, arguing that despite some limitations it can animate students' understanding of academic ideas in uniquely personalised ways