A Mobile App Delivering a Gamified Battery of Cognitive Tests Designed for Repeated Play (OU Brainwave): App Design and Cohort Study

Background: Mobile phone and tablet apps are an increasingly common platform to collect data. A key challenge for researchers has been participant “buy-in” and participant attrition for designs requiring repeated testing. Objective: The objective of this study was to develop and asses the utility of 1 – 2 minute versions of both classic and novel cognitive tasks within a user focussed and driven mobile phone and tablet app designed to encourage repeated play. Methods: A large sample (N = 13,979 at first data collection) participated in multiple, self-paced, sessions of working memory (N-back), spatial cognition (Mental rotation), sustained attentional focus (Persistent Vigilance task), and split attention (Multiple object tracking) tasks along with an implementation of a novel action learning task. A full morningness-eveningness questionnaire was also included. Data was collected across an 18 month period. While the app prompted reengagement at set intervals, each participant was free to repeatedly complete each task as many times as they wished. Results: We found a significant relationship between morningness and age (r = 0.298, n = 12755, p Conclusions: Using extremely short testing periods and permitting participants to decide their own level of engagement - both in terms of which gamified task they played, and how many sessions they completed - we were able to collect a substantial and valid dataset. We suggest that the success of OU brainwave should inform future research oriented apps - particularly in issues around balancing participant engagement with data fidelity

Silencing accounts of silenced sexualities

About the book: Feminist research is informed by a history of breaking silences, of demanding that women's voices be heard, recorded and included in wider intellectual genealogies and histories. This has led to an emphasis on voice and speaking out in the research endeavour. Moments of secrecy and silence are less often addressed. This gives rise to a number of questions. What are the silences, secrets, omissions and and political consequences of such moments? What particular dilemmas and constraints do they represent or entail? What are their implications for research praxis? Are such moments always indicative of voicelessness or powerlessness? Or may they also constitute a productive moment in the research encounter? Contributors to this volume were invited to reflect on these questions. The resulting chapters are a fascinating collection of insights into the research process, making an important contribution to theoretical and empirical debates about epistemology, subjectivity and identity in research. Researchers often face difficult dilemmas about who to represent and how, what to omit and what to include. This book explores such questions in a fascinating collection of essays from international scholar

Art as a pathway to impact: Understanding the affective experience of public engagement with film

The need for social as well as academic impact in social science research is now well established. Art is increasingly being explored as a means of generating social impact, most commonly as a means for engaging the public with research findings, but to date with little exploration of the process of engagement itself. In this study, we set out to explore the power of art to engage the public. We do this by examining the ‘affective’ experience of engagement through a qualitative investigation using one-to-one interviews and a modified visual matrix exercise. In this article we report on the findings from our analysis of the affective experience of watching a film series, and through this discuss the use of film to communicate research findings and value of a novel qualitative psychosocial methodology for exploring the process of public engagement

Existential Coaching Psychology

In this article I seek to elaborate a model of existential coaching psychology that is both grounded in existentialphenomenological philosophy but also informed by work in coaching. To date, many attempts to develop anexistential approach to coaching have – in my view – described an approach to coaching that is either indistinguishablefrom existential counselling and psychotherapy or a rather crude form of technical eclecticism.In this article, I discuss the key elements of existential coaching, as I understand it, and the need to modify theexistential therapeutic approach for coaching practise. To this end, I draw on extant work on coaching and,in particular, the need for both a goal and solution directed approach if an existential model of psychologicalcoaching is going to provide the basis for effective practise

The Psychology of Puppy Play:A Phenomenological Investigation

This article presents a phenomenological investigation into the experience of engaging in a sexual practice known as “puppy play,” where participants role-play being puppies or handlers (those that look after or own puppies), often within a dominance/submission sexual context. Only one previous study has been conducted on this phenomenon and the present study sought to provide new knowledge about the meaning of this practice for participants. We conducted a qualitative analysis of data derived from 68 individual experience descriptions and 25 semi-structured interviews with puppies and handlers. Through the use of a phenomenological methodology focused on experience, we have identified the key constituents that comprise this phenomenon and help make sense of peoples’ desire to participate. The five themes include: (1) sexual pleasure; (2) relaxation, therapy and escape from self; (3) adult play and vibrant physicality; (4) extending and expressing selfhood; (5) relationships and community. We discuss this practice/identity in the context of enjoyment of the dominant/submissive sexual element, the perceived benefits of a form of mindful adult play, the opportunity to explore aspects of selfhood, and the value of relationships and community membership

What are the ‘active ingredients’ of interventions targeting the public's engagement with antimicrobial resistance and how might they work?

Objectives. Changing public awareness of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a global public health priority. A systematic review of interventions that targeted public AMR awareness and associated behaviour was previously conducted. Here, we focus on identifying the active content of these interventions and explore potential mechanisms of action. Methods. The project took a novel approach to intervention mapping utilizing the following steps: (1) an exploration of explicit and tacit theory and theoretical constructs within the interventions using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDFv2), (2) retrospective coding of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) using the BCT Taxonomy v1, and (3) an investigation of coherent links between the TDF domains and BCTs across the interventions. Results. Of 20 studies included, only four reported an explicit theoretical basis to their intervention. However, TDF analysis revealed that nine of the 14 TDF domains were utilized, most commonly ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Environmental context and resources’. The BCT analysis showed that all interventions contained at least one BCT, and 14 of 93 (15%) BCTs were coded, most commonly ‘Information about health consequences’, ‘Credible source’, and ‘Instruction on how to perform the behaviour’. Conclusions. We identified nine relevant TDF domains and 14 BCTs used in these interventions. Only 15% of BCTs have been applied in AMR interventions thus providing a clear opportunity for the development of novel interventions in this context. This methodological approach provides a useful way of retrospectively mapping theoretical constructs and BCTs when reviewing studies that provide limited information on theory and intervention content

A visual affective analysis of mass media interventions to increase antimicrobial stewardship amongst the public

Objectives: In an innovative approach to improve the contribution of health psychology to public health we have analysed the presence and nature of affect within the visual materials deployed in antimicrobial stewardship interventions targeting the public identified through systematic review.Design: A qualitative analysis focused on the affective content of visual materials garnered from a systematic review of antibiotic stewardship (k=20).Methods: A novel method was devised drawing on concepts from semiotics to analyse the affective elements within intervention materials.Results: Whilst all studies examined tacitly rely on affect only one sought to explicitly deploy affect. Three thematic categories of affect are identified within the materials in which specific ideological machinery is deployed: (1) monsters, bugs and superheroes; (2) responsibility, threat, and the mis-use/abuse of antibiotics; (3) the figure of the child.Conclusions: The study demonstrates how affect is a present but tacit communication strategy of antimicrobial stewardship interventions but has not – to date – been adequately theorised or explicitly considered in the intervention design process. Certain affective features were explored in relation to the effectiveness of AMR interventions and warrant further investigation. We argue that further research is needed to systematically illuminate and capitalise upon the use of affect to effect behaviour change concerning antimicrobial stewardship

Effectiveness of interventions to improve the public’s antimicrobial resistance awareness and behaviours associated with prudent use of antimicrobials: a systematic review

Background: A global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) awareness intervention targeting the general public has been prioritized. Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of interventions that aim to change AMR awareness and subsequent stewardship behaviours amongst the public. Methods: Five databases were searched between 2000 and 2016 for interventions to change the public’s AMR awareness and/or antimicrobial stewardship behaviours. Study designs meeting the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care (EPOC) criteria, non-controlled before-and-after studies and prospective cohort studies were considered eligible. Participants recruited from healthcare settings and studies measuring stewardship behaviours of healthcare professionals were excluded. Quality of studies was assessed using EPOC risk of bias criteria. Data were extracted and synthesized narratively. Registration: PROSPERO international prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO 2016: CRD42016050343). Results: Twenty studies were included in the review with nine meeting the EPOC criteria. The overall risk of bias was high. Nineteen studies were conducted in high-income countries. Mass media interventions were most common (n = 7), followed by school-based (n = 6) and printed material interventions (n = 6). Seventeen studies demonstrated a significant effect on changing knowledge, attitudes or the public’s antimicrobial stewardship behaviours. Analysis showed that interventions targeting schoolchildren and parents have notable potential, but for the general public the picture is less clear. Conclusions: Our work provides an in-depth examination of the effectiveness of AMR interventions for the public. However, the studies were heterogeneous and the quality of evidence was poor. Well-designed, experimental studies on behavioural outcomes of such interventions are required