The Way We See It – A Qualitative Exploration of Life With Visual Impairment

Living with visual impairment is associated with numerous psychological challenges, including experiencing negative emotions, difficulty with social interaction, disclosing impairment to others, and the struggles of being confronted with a new identity. If visual impairment occurs during childhood, these same psychological challenges are also extended to the child’s family, particularly parents. In considering support systems for visually impaired children experiencing psychosocial challenges, qualified teachers for visually impaired children (QTVIs) are often the primary source of expertise in this regard. Building on prior empirical research, this thesis aims to generate an in-depth understanding of the complexity of living with a visual impairment, through three qualitative studies, each focusing on a specific aspect of visual impairment. Within the first study, a focused exploration of psychological wellbeing in visually impaired adults following diagnosis of sight-loss was undertaken. Findings yielded themes relating to emotional response to diagnosis, social interaction, identity perceptions, and re-building life after sight-loss. The second study was concerned with how childhood visual impairment was psychologically experienced by mothers, where findings revealed issues during the diagnosis process, impacted relationships with the child and other family members, as well as social interactions and support beyond the family system. The third study investigated the psychological experiences of QTVIs working with visually impaired children. Findings highlighted the importance of maintaining positive and supportive relationships with the child, their family, and classroom teachers. Promoting wellbeing and social development was stressed, along with rewards and challenges to the QTVI service provision. Findings from all three studies are discussed in relation to prior literature, and their implications for medical, social, and educational practise

Autoethnography in occupational science: me, we or they?

Studies of engagement in occupation have involved small group of individuals (Carin-Levy and Jones, 2007), ‘they’ or the occupational scientist/therapist themselves, (Taylor, 2008), ‘me’. My PhD research into “creative writing as an occupation” proposes an integrated approach combining autoethnography with collaborative group exploration of narratives to gain the perspective of the ‘we’. The exploration of an occupation by those who participate in it, including one who has a perspective as an occupational therapist will contribute to a deep understanding of the range of personal and sociocultural meanings (Creek, 2010) and will seek to frame the findings in occupational terms. This approach steps into a wider debate about ‘Heartful’ autoethnography, where evocative narratives ‘create the effect of reality’ (Ellis, 1999, p. 669) versus analytic autoethnography, where the researcher, a member of the research group has the specific aim of developing theoretical understanding (Anderson, 2006). Ellis and Bochner (2006) challenge the need for this analytical shift arguing that theorising or generalizing from autoethnography by using traditional analysis negates the way stories work. Through framing questions in occupational terms the narrative stories gathered will both speak for themselves and highlight occupational experience in a way that is immediately relatable to practising therapists. Anderson, L. 2006. Analytic Autoethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(4), 373-395. Carin-Levy, G. and Jones, D., 2007. Psychosocial Aspects of Scuba Diving for People with Physical Disabilities: an occupational science perspective. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(1), 6-14. Creek, J., 2010. The Core Concepts of Occupational Therapy: a dynamic framework for practice. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Ellis, C. 1999. Heartful Autoethnography. Qualitative Health Research. 9(5), 669-683. Ellis, C.S. and Bochner, A.P. 2006. Analyzing Analytic Autoethnography: an autopsy. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(4), 429-449. Taylor, J. 2008. An autoethnographic exploration of an occupation: doing a PhD. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71(5), 176-184

Development of a low-cost marine pCO2 sensor to characterise the natural variability of coastal carbonate chemistry in the context of global change

Increasing concentrations of CO2 are being released into the atmosphere from anthropogenic sources which consequently dissolves into the ocean creating carbonic acid. The effect of this is to decrease seawater pH and change the composition of marine carbonate chemistry as a whole. In certain areas of the world’s ocean, there is already a substantial natural variability in carbonate chemistry which, in some cases, can exceed the projected figures for long-term anthropogenic acidification. This is especially true of coastal areas which can be subject to increased human activity but also a larger variation of naturally forced biological activity and hydrographically induced fluctuations of water column properties. Anthropogenic acidification will therefore be layered on top of this natural variability and this could have potentially adverse effects on the marine ecosystem. Studies of coastal areas can aid in ocean acidification research by highlighting how organisms cope under the decreasing levels of alkalinity. Because of this, it is vital that we characterise and quantify the drivers of the natural patterns in the marine carbonate system as well as the anthropogenically forced changes that are now evident. Partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) is one of the most important parameters to be measured in conjunction with ocean acidification and carbonate chemistry research. High frequency temporal and spatial measurements of pCO2 will provide some understanding of the fluxes and their variability and forcing parameters. To aid the investigation into natural variability of coastal carbonate chemistry, pCO2 sensors are an invaluable tool for ease of in-situ data collection. However, these sensors can require not only specific expertise of utilisation but are also inaccessible to many due to high cost. In lieu of an expensive sensor, the most common way to measure pCO2 in seawater is with discrete sampling of water and subsequent analysis for two of the three parameters of the carbonate system (dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), Total alkalinity (AT) or pH) which is then used to calculate a final pCO2 value. This method requires a substantial amount of cost, time and labour to not only retrieve seawater from depth, but also employ precise expertise in analyses with each step being potentially fraught with human error. This research addressed these issues by developing a low-cost, easy-to-use sensor which efficiently and accurately measured coastal marine pCO2. This required a research and development stage where the sensor and housing design was tested at The University of Glasgow (Chapter 2 and 3) and also deployed in a temperate (Chapter 4) and tropical (Chapter 5) field environment. Seawater samples were also taken and their carbonate chemistry analysed in conjunction with sensor readings to calibrate and confirm the accuracy of the sensor. Along with the developed sensor and the collection of in-situ pCO2 data, other marine variables were also measured (pH, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, salinity, temperature, depth, photosynthetically active radiation, dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity) to obtain a characterisation of the areas and an analysis of the drivers behind these variables. The observed variability in the temperate area of Caol Scotnish, Loch Sween, Scotland was shown to be highly dependent on biological activity and the tidal action which exchanged different water masses into and out of the site. The observed variability in the tropical area of El Quseir, Egypt was shown to be highly dependent on biological activity, temperature and weather events. The sensor coped well in characterising the concentrations of pCO2 in both sites. There is a larger fluctuation of pCO2 in the tropical site than compared with the temperate site which is dictated by the relative hydrography in each area and the particular weather conditions experienced. This research provides industry, scientists and interested parties with a means of monitoring pCO2 levels in the marine environment in an efficient, easy and low-cost manner and contributes to the demand for the development of these sensors to monitor anthropogenically-forced global change which is layered over already in-flux natural carbonate chemistry

Communication, trust and dental anxiety:a person-centred approach for dental attendance behaviours

Effective communication forges the dentist-patient treatment alliance and is thus essential for providing person-centred care. Social rank theory suggests that shame, trust, communication and anxiety are linked together, they are moderated by socio-economic position. The study is aimed to propose and test an explanatory model to predict dental attendance behaviours using person-centred and socio-economic position factors. A secondary data analysis was conducted on a cross-sectional representative survey of a two-stage cluster sample of adults including England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Data were drawn from structured interview. Path analysis of proposed model was calculated following measurement development and confirmation of reliable constructs. The findings show model fit was good. Dental anxiety was predicted negatively by patient’s trust and positively by reported dentist communication. Patient’s shame was positively associated with dental anxiety, whereas self-reported dental attendance was negatively associated with dental anxiety. Both patient’s trust and dentist’s communication effects were moderated by social class. Manual classes were most sensitive to the reported dentist’s communications. Some evidence for the proposed model was found. The relationships reflected in the model were illuminated further when social class was introduced as moderator and indicated dentists should attend to communication processes carefully across different categories of patients.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe