You are now in harmonic poise: modern dance interrogates verticality

This practice-based research project engaged with the archive of modern dance and identified the importance of the experience of weight to the ways artists from the tradition of modern dance interrogated the phenomenon of verticality. It found their artistic practices to be revelatory of the affective significance of our embodied relationship with gravity.&nbsp

Unstable sense of self in borderline personality disorder: a problem of role absorption and lack of integration?

Recent research concerning Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has focused on the role of identity disturbance and unstable sense of self in maintaining difficulties for individuals with this diagnosis. This research proposes that unstable sense of self may be underpinned by a lack of self integration, and that as a result, people with BPD may rely heavily on the views of others‟ to inform their sense of self (role absorption), making them vulnerable in relationships and presenting barriers to recovery. The present study utilised a mixed design and questionnaire methodology to investigate sense of self and discrepancies between self and anticipated other perspectives. Participants were 10 females with BPD, 10 females with anxiety and depression and 10 females with no history of mental health difficulties. Participants completed the Who Are You? questionnaire, in addition to the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading, Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory. Participants in clinical groups completed the SCID-II interview for Borderline Personality Disorder and the SCID-I Mood Episodes and Anxiety Disorders modules. Results indicate that for females with BPD, sense of self is significantly more negative in content when compared with females with anxiety and depression and those with no history of mental health difficulties. Females with BPD have significantly larger discrepancies between their sense of their appearance and their sense of how their appearance is viewed by significant others, in comparison to other participants with anxiety and depression, and those with no history of mental health difficulties. There is some evidence that females with BPD have significantly less integrated sense of self in comparison to participants with anxiety and depression, and participants with no history of mental health problems. Results do not support a role absorption hypothesis as underpinning unstable sense of self in BPD, which may have implications for current psychological conceptualisations of BPD

Contesting the term ‘compassion fatigue’: Integrating findings from social neuroscience and self-care research

Background: Nurses describe work-related distress and exhaustion as compassion fatigue and burnout. However, neuroscientists confirm compassion does not cause fatigue. Aim: This discussion paper explains contemporary social neuroscience evidence about empathy, emotion regulation, and compassion, then discusses evidence-informed strategies to cultivate effective self-care practices and compassion. Methods: The argument draws on relevant empirical evidence and literature to raise awareness, improve understanding, and spark dialogue and reconceptualisation of these critical issues within the nursing context. Findings and discussion: Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies show the debilitating condition known as compassion fatigue should be called ‘empathic distress fatigue’. This distinction matters because the strategy to ease empathic distress fatigue is compassion training. The capacity to remain clear about the ‘self-other’ distinction is called emotion regulation. Without emotion regulation skills, our ‘self-other’ distinction is blurred so we absorb another’s suffering and negative emotions as our own and experience empathic distress fatigue. Yet, much of this knowledge is not implemented within the nursing context. On the contrary, the topic of compassion fatigue continues to dominate education and research. This knowledge gap is significant because healthcare leaders cannot address the distress of its workforce and strengthen cultures without understanding its causes. Conclusion: Evidence from social neuroscience and self-care studies offers promising new knowledge to design strategies to foster self-care, self-compassion, emotion regulation, and ease empathic distress fatigue. These strategies and practices for renewal support the raison d'être of nursing which is to provide quality, safe, compassionate care for patients and their families by resilient nurses

Relational supervision as a tool to prevent early school leaving (ESL): Collaborative working to promote reflection and learning about oneself-in-role

In 2017, 66,000 people aged 16-17 years in the UK were not in education, employment or training (NEET). This was 5% of all 16-17 year olds. Studies that have explored preventing young people from becoming NEET emphasise the importance of consistent and positive relationships in programmes led by accessible, approachable and relatable adults. Many young people who leave school early or who are at risk of doing so are particularly vulnerable. This may be because of physical health problems, caring responsibilities, difficult family circumstances, mental health needs and/or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These young people’s lived experience is often very painful for the staff working with them to bear. Supportive and reflective spaces for these adults to acknowledge and process distressing feelings that are stirred up when doing this work are required. However, the current turbulent social-political and professional context in the UK, along with the historical place of supervision for teachers, often means such spaces are rare. This workshop is an attempt to explore some of the challenges facing teachers, and to offer one potential approach to facilitate practitioners reflecting on their practice, to learn about themselves and the work they do and ultimately to be sufficiently supported to provide the kinds of relationships with young people that enable educational access, participation and achievement

Ethical conduct and competence – experiences of teaching and assessing ethical sensitivity and reasoning on an initial school psychology training programme

The ethical competence of school psychology trainees and graduates is of key importance to students, training providers, regulatory bodies, employers and most importantly the public for whom we provide psychological services. In the UK, a broader national context of systemic failures, and the tragic consequences of such failures, to adhere to ethical standards across the private and public (e.g. residential care homes) sector informs approaches to and judgements of ethical competence. In this part of the symposium Dr. Emma-Kate Kennedy focuses on the experiences of one initial training provider in England following the implementation of new guidance from the British Psychological Society [BPS] on the teaching and assessment of ethics. The learning approaches highlighted in the guidance – becoming acculturated to the ethics of psychology, meeting the developmental needs of trainees and considering both the philosophical and the practical and experiential – have been applied with the most recent cohort of first year trainees across all aspects of their training (tutorial, supervision, placement, teaching seminars and workshops). Institutional perspectives on taking up the role of teachers and assessors of ethical competence are explored further in the workshop, and a critical review of strengths and areas to further enhance is provided

No significant correlation between radial velocity planet presence and debris disc properties

We investigate whether the tentative correlation between planets and debris discs which has been previously identified can be confirmed at high significance. We compile a sample of 201 stars with known planets and existing far-infrared observations. The sample is larger than those studied previously since we include targets from an unpublished Herschel survey of planet hosts. We use spectral energy distribution modelling to characterize Kuiper belt analogue debris discs within the sample, then compare the properties of the discs against a control sample of 294 stars without known planets. Survival analysis suggests that there is a significant (p ∼ 0.002) difference between the disc fractional luminosity distributions of the two samples. However, this is largely a result of the fact that the control sample contains a higher proportion of close binaries and of later-type stars; both of these factors are known to reduce disc detection rates. Considering only Sun-like stars without close binary companions in each sample greatly reduces the significance of the difference (p ∼ 0.3). We also find no evidence for a difference in the disc fractional luminosities of stars hosting planets more or less massive than Saturn (p ∼ 0.9). Finally, we find that the planet hosts have cooler discs than the control stars, but this is likely a detection bias, since the warmest discs in the control sample are also the faintest, and would thus be undetectable around the more distant planet hosts. Considering only discs in each sample that could have been detected around a typical planet host, we find p ∼ 0.07 for the temperatures