158 research outputs found
"If I'm not worried, I'm nervous, does that make sense?" The use of emotion concepts by athletes in accounts of performance
Traditionally research into emotions in sport has focused on the impact of specific emotions upon performance, most notably anxiety. This paper approaches emotion from the perspective of discursive psychology, drawing on the methods of discourse analysis and conversation analysis. Using interview data from high level athletes, this paper examines the uses of emotion concepts in accounts of athletic performance. What becomes apparent through the analysis is that athletes claim that specific emotions such as nervousness are normal in sporting performance. In contrast, when accounting for failure, the athletes construct their build-up to the competition as containing no experience of these emotions. Rather than in traditional sports psychological research whereby emotions are seen to be quantifiable, this paper demonstrates how emotion terms form a rich interactional currency that are embedded within our accounting practice
Regendering care or undoing gendered binaries of parenting in contemporary UK society?
YesBoyer, Dermott, James and MacLeavy discuss the rise of fathers in primary caregiving positions within the
United Kingdom following the recessions from 2008 to 2009 and 2011 to 2012 and outline a number of key
questions. In this commentary, I consider the aims of their piece, both within contemporary parenting
culture and the negotiation of gendered binaries of care. I note that a more intersectional understanding of
the decisions that families are making with regard to combining work and childcare is timely
You don't know what's around the corner: A qualitative study of professional footballers in England facing career-transition
Career transition in sport is a rapidly growing area within the field of sport psychology. Interest in this area has been fuelled by the need for an increased number of professional athletes seeking support and assistance during transition from sport. However, whilst research in this field has focused in on a wide range of sports, specific research on retirement in professional football has been limited. Because of this it is argued that current research may fail to consider specific issues associated with the transition from professional football. Therefore, in an attempt to add to the existing body of research the current study aimed to provide an in-depth insight into how professional footballers understand their âlived-worldâ during exit from their sport. A total of eight former professional footballers, who were at the time experiencing the possibility of career-transition, were interviewed in two separate focus group discussions. The interviews were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). The key findings from the research show that a lack of control over their lives, lack of pre-planning and preparation for retirement as well as support and ability to seek it led professional footballers to experience heightened levels of anxiety, uncertainty and fear for their futures as well as an unexpected sense of rejection during career transition. These findings have implications for support organisations and those interested in the life-long welfare of professional footballers. It is proposed that an emphasis on pre-planning and preparation, provisions of support and encouraging help-seeking may aid professional footballers during the process out of their sport
âFor some people it isnât a choice, itâs just how it happensâ: Accounts of âdelayedâ motherhood among middle-class women in the UK
Over the past few decades the number of women having their first babies over the age of 35 in the United Kingdom (UK) has increased. Womenâs timing of motherhood is invariably bound up with a discourse of âchoiceâ and in this paper we consider the role choice plays in the timing of motherhood among women who have been defined as âolderâ mothers. This article is based on data from 11 semi-structured interviews that explored the transition to motherhood among âolderâ middle-class mothers. The interviews were analysed using critical discursive psychology. The women drew upon two dominant repertoires when making sense of their timing of motherhood. Within the first repertoire, âolder motherhood as circumstanceâ, older motherhood was presented as the outcome of life circumstances beyond their control, with a lack of the ârightâ circumstances facilitating âdelayedâ motherhood. Within the second repertoire, âolder motherhood as readinessâ, women constructed themselves as (now) prepared for motherhood. âReadinessâ was bound up with notions of self-fulfillment, yet also assessments of their ability to be âgoodâ mothers. We conclude that, far from a straightforward choice, the timing of motherhood is shaped by cultural definitions of the ârightâ circumstances for parenthood, but also cultural definitions of âgoodâ motherhood, which may define when women are âreadyâ
Understanding process and context in breastfeeding support interventions: The potential of qualitative research
Considerable effort has been made in recent years to gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of different interventions for supporting breastfeeding. However, research has tended to focus primarily on measuring outcomes and has paid comparatively little attention to the relational, organisational and wider contextual processes that may impact delivery of an intervention. Supporting a woman with breastfeeding is an interpersonal encounter that may play out differently in different contexts, despite the apparently consistent aims and structure of an intervention. We consider the limitations of randomised controlled trials for building understanding of the ways in which different components of an intervention may impact breastfeeding women and how the messages conveyed through interactions with breastfeeding supporters might be received. We argue that qualitative methods are ideally suited to understanding psychosocial processes within breastfeeding interventions and have been under-used. After briefly reviewing qualitative research to date into experiences of receiving and delivering breastfeeding support, we discuss the potential of theoretically-informed qualitative methodologies to provide fuller understanding of intervention processes by focusing on three examples: phenomenology, ethnography and discourse analysis. The paper concludes by noting some of the epistemological differences between qualitative methodologies and the broadly positivist approach of trials, and we suggest there is a need for
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Understanding Process in Breastfeeding Support
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further dialogue as to how researchers might bridge these differences in order to develop a fuller and more holistic understanding of how best to support breastfeeding women
Social media platforms as complex and contradictory spaces for feminisms: Visibility, opportunity, power, resistance and activism
YesThis special issue on feminisms and social media is published at a unique point in
time, namely when social media platforms are routinely utilised for communication
from the mundane to the extraordinary, to offer support and solidarity, and to
blame and victimise. Collectively, social media are online technologies that provide
the ability for community building and interaction (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), allowing
people to interact, share, create and consume online content (Lyons,
McCreanor, Goodwin, & Moewaka Barnes, 2017). They include such platforms
as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tinder, and Snapchat among others
Exploring the depths of gender, parenting and âworkâ: critical discursive psychology and the âmissing voicesâ of involved fatherhood
YesThis paper sets out to capture the missing voices of fathers in discussions around
gender, parenting and work. Using Critical Discursive Psychology (CDP), a qualitative
methodology that frames discourse, language and action as socially situated, the paper sets
out to understand the complexities of involved fatherhood. Using data from two distinct
research projects that considered managing tensions around parenting and paid work,
alongside the move to âinvolved fatherhoodâ, we examine the ways in which different
discourses are operating in order to construct stories around gender and parenting. We are
particularly interested in the ways in which participants use language and, specifically,
discourses of parenting, working and caring. Through the interview excerpts we analysed
how simultaneously participants position themselves in the discourses and were also being
positioned by the wider societal discourses. We consider how CDP can contribute rich
insights into the ways in which fathers are arranging sharing parenting caregiving
responsibilities, using these insights to inform the policy landscape. We finish the paper by
suggesting that CDP methodology can be mobilised by researchers wanting to capture
missing voices in shifting policy landscapes
Concealment, communication and stigma: The perspectives of HIV-positive immigrant Black African men and their partners living in the United Kingdom
This study explored the perspectives of Black men, originally from East Africa, living in the United Kingdom and their families on what it means to live with diagnosed HIV. This article reports on concealment of HIV-positive status as a strategy adopted by the affected participants to manage the flow of information about their HIV-positive status. Analysis of the data, collected using in-depth interviews involving 23 participants, found widespread selective concealment of HIV-positive status. However, a few respondents had âcome outâ publicly about their condition. HIV prevention initiatives should recognise concealment as a vital strategy in managing communication about oneâs HIV-positive status
Social networking technology: place and identity in mediated communities
This paper explores the rise of social networking technology as instances of mediated
communities. A dialectic between collectivity and place, resulting in the grounding of
a shared sense of the past in a particular place, is at the base of all communities. In
this sense community is, by its very definition, inherently âmediatedâ. We reformulate
the notion of a âvirtual communityâ to examine the particular modalities of mediation
across interactions occurring on Myspace. Data from two separate conversational
exchanges are taken from open access Myspace profiles. Drawing on an approach
broadly informed by the principles of Discursive Psychology (DP), we examine how
identity is constituted within interaction by drawing on symbolic resources. The
significance of place and off establishing a delicate relationship between the on-line
and off-line accomplishments is underlined. The paper develops the arguments of
Benwell & Stokoe (2006) and Dixon & Durrheim (2000) to arrive at an account of
âplace identityâ as the central dynamic in mediated community
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