Alienation and emotion: social relations and estrangement in contemporary capitalism

YesIn this article I look at the emotional effects of alienation in modern capitalist societies. I begin by considering Marx’s theory of alienation, focusing especially on the alienation between people and between them and the social institutions to which they should be connected. In this way, alienation is understood as a form of estrangement within social relations and I draw out the emotional implications of this, in terms of the relations between people and in the way people feel about their own self. This is enhanced through an understanding of emotions as relational phenomena, a position highly attuned to Marx’s own mode of social analysis. I then illustrate and develop this understanding of alienation and emotion by drawing on the empirical examples of political relations and property relations in the UK, concluding with a discussion of what this tells us about alienation and emotion in contemporary capitalist societies

Embodiment, lived experience and anorexia: the contribution of phenomenology to a critical therapeutic approach

In this piece we will consider the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty as it relates to critical psychology & also discuss the possibility of its use as a theoretical framework for empirical studies. We will focus specifically on Merleau-Ponty's concepts of perception & embodiment & ask what these may add to perspectives within critical psychology. In terms of these concepts, Merleau-Ponty offers a radically different view of perception from that which is common in mainstream psychology, along with a radically different view of human embodiment. Given this, we believe that many of his ideas are important for critical psychology & could give it an alternative direction. Phenomenological perspectives are also of use in critical, empirical studies, & here we use the concepts of perception & embodiment to reassess the literature on anorexia nervosa. It is our contention that these concepts allow us to rethink the embodied nature of anorexia, particularly in terms of the way that the body is conceptualised in the clinical literature, but also the absence of a notion of the lived body from some feminist accounts

Embodiment, Lived Experience and Anorexia: The Contribution of Phenomenology to a Critical Therapeutic Approach

En este articulo nos proponemos recuperar el trabajo de Merlau-Ponty como un instrumento válido para la elaboración de una psicología crítica ya sea en como referente teórico o en sus aplicaciones prácticas. En concreto, nos vamos a centrar en los conceptos de percepción y corporalidad y como Merleau-Ponty los define de forma radicalmente distinta a la psicología convencional. Complementariamente, reflejamos el carácter crítico de las perspectivas fenomenológicas mediante la aplicación de los conceptos de percepción y corporalidad a la concepción clínico-teórica de la anorexia nerviosa. Este artículo constituye un punto de partida que nos permita repensar la naturaleza encarnada de la anorexia nerviosa, tanto a partir de una crítica fenomenológica al concepto de corporalidad en la concepción de los desórdenes alimentarios de la psicología clínico-conductual como la ausencia de la noción de cuerpo encarnado en algunas perspectivas feministas.In this piece we will consider the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty as it relates to critical psychology and also discuss the possibility of its use as a theoretical framework for empirical studies. We will focus specifically on Merleau-Ponty’s concepts of perception and embodiment and ask what these may add to perspectives within critical psychology. In terms of these concepts, Merleau-Ponty offers a radically different view of perception from that which is common in mainstream psychology, along with a radically different view of human embodiment. Given this, we believe that many of his ideas are important for critical psychology and could give it an alternative direction. Phenomenological perspectives are also of use in critical, empirical studies, and here we use the concepts of perception and embodiment to reassess the literature on anorexia nervosa. It is our contention that these concepts allow us to rethink the embodied nature of anorexia, particularly in terms of the way that the body is conceptualised in the clinical literature, but also the absence of a notion of the lived body from some feminist accounts.En este articulo nos proponemos recuperar el trabajo de Merlau-Ponty como un instrumento válido para la elaboración de una psicología crítica ya sea en como referente teórico o en sus aplicaciones prácticas. En concreto, nos vamos a centrar en los conceptos de percepción y corporalidad y como Merleau-Ponty los define de forma radicalmente distinta a la psicología convencional. Complementariamente, reflejamos el carácter crítico de las perspectivas fenomenológicas mediante la aplicación de los conceptos de percepción y corporalidad a la concepción clínico-teórica de la anorexia nerviosa. Este artículo constituye un punto de partida que nos permita repensar la naturaleza encarnada de la anorexia nerviosa, tanto a partir de una crítica fenomenológica al concepto de corporalidad en la concepción de los desórdenes alimentarios de la psicología clínico-conductual como la ausencia de la noción de cuerpo encarnado en algunas perspectivas feministas

Emotions, Social Activity and Neuroscience: The Cultural-Historical Formation of Emotion

YesThis article challenges the use of cognitive-behavioural psychological models underpinning many of the dominant and popular accounts of emotion in the neurosciences. Acknowledging that neurobiology is important for any understanding of emotion, an alternative model of neuropsychology is sought in the work of theorists of the cultural-historical school, particularly A. N. Leontyev and A. R. Luria. The importance of their work in stressing the key role of intentional social activity, culture, and language in the formation of human neuropsychological functions is developed into a theory of emotions that can provide an alternative for emotion studies. In this theory, activity, culture, history, and individual ontogeny play the defining role in structuring the neurobiological systems that underlie emotions, as opposed to the evolution of behaviours that are hard-wired into the brain and function as automatic responses. Instead, it is understood that there is a continuum between evolution and human social and cultural development

An investigation of dendritic delay in octopus cells of the mammalian cochlear nucleus

Octopus cells, located in the mammalian auditory brainstem, receive their excitatory synaptic input exclusively from auditory nerve fibers (ANFs). They respond with accurately timed spikes but are broadly tuned for sound frequency. Since the representation of information in the auditory nerve is well understood, it is possible to pose a number of questions about the relationship between the intrinsic electrophysiology, dendritic morphology, synaptic connectivity, and the ultimate functional role of octopus cells in the brainstem. This study employed a multi-compartmental Hodgkin-Huxley model to determine whether dendritic delay in octopus cells improves synaptic input coincidence detection in octopus cells by compensating for the cochlear traveling wave delay. The propagation time of post-synaptic potentials from synapse to soma was investigated. We found that the total dendritic delay was approximately 0.275 ms. It was observed that low-threshold potassium channels in the dendrites reduce the amplitude dependence of the dendritic delay of post-synaptic potentials. As our hypothesis predicted, the model was most sensitive to acoustic onset events, such as the glottal pulses in speech when the synaptic inputs were arranged such that the model's dendritic delay compensated for the cochlear traveling wave delay across the ANFs. The range of sound frequency input from ANFs was also investigated. The results suggested that input to octopus cells is dominated by high frequency ANFs

Relational agency: Relational sociology, agency and interaction

yesThis article explores how the concept of agency in social theory changes when it is conceptualised as a relational rather than an individual phenomenon. I begin with a critique of the structure/agency debate, particularly of how this emerges in the critical realist approach to agency typified by Margaret Archer. It is argued that this approach, and the critical realist version of relational sociology that has grown from it, reifies social relations as a third entity to which agents have a cognitive, reflexive relation, playing down the importance of interaction. This upholds the Western moral and political view of agents as autonomous, independent, and reflexive individuals. Instead of this I consider agency from a different theoretical tradition in relational sociology in which agents are always located in manifold social relations. From this I create an understanding of agents as interactants, ones who are interdependent, vulnerable, intermittently reflexive, possessors of capacities that can only be practiced in joint actions, and capable of sensitive responses to others and to the situations of interaction. Instead of agency resting on the reflexive monitoring of action or the reflexive deliberation on structurally defined choices, agency emerges from our emotional relatedness to others as social relations unfold across time and space

Decentring emotion regulation: from emotion regulation to relational emotion

YesThis article takes a critical approach to emotion regulation suggesting that the concept needs supplementing with a relational position on the generation and restraint of emotion. I chart the relational approach to emotion, challenging the ‘two-step’ model of emotion regulation. From this, a more interdisciplinary approach to emotion is developed using concepts from social science to show the limits of instrumental, individualistic and cognitivist orientations in the psychology of emotion regulation, centred on appraisal theory. Using a social interactionist approach I develop an ontological position in which social relations form the fundamental contexts in which emotions are generated, toned, and restrained, so that regulation is decentred and seen as just one moment or aspect in the relational patterning of emotion

Are categorical deniers different? Understanding demographic, personality, and psychological differences between denying and admitting sex offenders

The purpose of this study was to establish whether there were demographic, personality, or psychological differences between a sample of 40 incarcerated sex offenders in categorical denial and 37 sex offenders admitting responsibility in an Australian minimum-security unit. Categorical deniers had lower IQs, were older, and were more likely to be child molesters. Criminogenically, there were no differences between categorical deniers and those who admitted their offences in relation to Static-99 risk scores. Psychologically, offenders denying their offences were significantly more shame-prone, and likely to use externalization as a method of impression-management. They were also more compulsive than those admitting their offences, but less antisocial and sadistic, when compared on personality indices. The study is limited by the small sample size however implications for further research and the treatment of categorical deniers are discussed

Sport, genetics and the `natural athlete': The resurgence of racial science

This article explores the ethical implications of recent discussions that naturalize the relationship between race, the body and sport within the frame of genetic science. Many suggestions of a racially distributed genetic basis for athletic ability and performance are strategically posited as a resounding critique of the `politically correct' meta-narratives of established sociological and anthropological forms of explanation that emphasize the social and cultural construction of race. I argue that this use of genetic science in order to describe and explain common-sense impressions of racial physiology and sporting ability is founded on erroneous premises of objectivity and disinterest, and inflates the analytical efficacy of scientific truth claims. I suggest that assertions of a value-free science of racial athletic ability reify race as inherited permanent biological characteristics that produce social hierarchies and are more characteristic of a longer history of `racial science'

Use of communities of practice in business and health care sectors: A systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Since being identified as a concept for understanding knowledge sharing, management, and creation, communities of practice (CoPs) have become increasingly popular within the health sector. The CoP concept has been used in the business sector for over 20 years, but the use of CoPs in the health sector has been limited in comparison.</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>First, we examined how CoPs were defined and used in these two sectors. Second, we evaluated the evidence of effectiveness on the health sector CoPs for improving the uptake of best practices and mentoring new practitioners.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a search of electronic databases in the business, health, and education sectors, and a hand search of key journals for primary studies on CoP groups. Our research synthesis for the first objective focused on three areas: the authors' interpretations of the CoP concept, the key characteristics of CoP groups, and the common elements of CoP groups. To examine the evidence on the effectiveness of CoPs in the health sector, we identified articles that evaluated CoPs for improving health professional performance, health care organizational performance, professional mentoring, and/or patient outcome; and used experimental, quasi-experimental, or observational designs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The structure of CoP groups varied greatly, ranging from voluntary informal networks to work-supported formal education sessions, and from apprentice training to multidisciplinary, multi-site project teams. Four characteristics were identified from CoP groups: social interaction among members, knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, and identity building; however, these were not consistently present in all CoPs. There was also a lack of clarity in the responsibilities of CoP facilitators and how power dynamics should be handled within a CoP group. We did not find any paper in the health sector that met the eligibility criteria for the quantitative analysis, and so the effectiveness of CoP in this sector remained unclear.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is no dominant trend in how the CoP concept is operationalized in the business and health sectors; hence, it is challenging to define the parameters of CoP groups. This may be one of the reasons for the lack of studies on the effectiveness of CoPs in the health sector. In order to improve the usefulness of the CoP concept in the development of groups and teams, further research will be needed to clarify the extent to which the four characteristics of CoPs are present in the mature and emergent groups, the expectations of facilitators and other participants, and the power relationship within CoPs.</p