Listening between the lines : how a theoretical framework prevents superficial analysis in qualitative research

As quantitative methods dominate the field of clinical psychology, qualitative inquiry struggles to live up to its full potential. The ubiquitous quantitative criteria and epistemology lead to a flawed idea of objectivity, pursued by many qualitative researchers in an attempt to be taken seriously. Therefore, they try to avoid any possible theoretical influence. This often creates a fear for really interpreting data. However, it seems that instead of leading to higher quality research, this rather leads to superficial analyses. In this chapter, I show, based on my own recent research regarding the experience of negative symptoms in psychosis, how theory-use led to more in-depth analyses. Our study consisted of an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of interviews with twelve patients with psychosis about their negative symptoms. During the earlier phases of research, we stayed close to the data and tried to bracket our theoretical assumptions as much as possible. However, when coming to our final analysis, we approached the data more through a theoretical lens. This way we were able to lift our analysis from what was rather a summary of what our participants told to a deeper understanding of the process of negative symptoms

Content matters, a qualitative analysis of verbal hallucinations

Auditory verbal hallucinations have traditionally especially been researched from a formbased approach, with content getting much less attention. In this article, we argue for the importance of looking at content to get a fuller understanding of the hallucinatory experience. Guided by Lacanian psychoanalysis, we conducted a thematic and a narrative analysis on interviews with 10 schizophrenic patients about their hallucinations. We discerned five themes in the data, which were based on Lacanian theory and had to do with existential questions: parenthood and authority, sexuality and relationships, gender identity, life in the light of death, and what does the other want? Furthermore, we added a theme for unclassified content. Narratively, we found that participants constructed a story of four steps about their hallucinatory experiences. These steps were disturbing events in the past posing an existential question, triggering event, period of confusion, and hearing voices that allude to existential themes. Participants succeed in different degrees in integrating their hallucinatory experiences in their own life history. These stories can be situated on a continuum by making use of three prototypical narrating styles: the meta-delusional, delusional, and chaotic narrative type. Overall, our analysis shows that hallucinations can both be thematically and narratively organized, by making use of a theoretical framework like Lacanian psychoanalysis. Our research demonstrates that hallucinatory contents are not random but are about existential issues imbedded in a life narrative. Future research would benefit of integrating content and form-based approaches

Hot weather, hot topic:Polarization and sceptical framing in the climate debate on Twitter

Extreme weather events like the heat wave of 2018 reinforce public attention for climate change. Social media platforms facilitate, define and amplify debate about this topic. They give rise to counterpublic spaces through which counterpublics such as climate sceptics get a stage they would not easily get in mainstream media. Previous research suggests that sceptics use these spaces as safe havens, but also as bases for interventions in the hegemonic debate. Applying a multideterminant frame model, we analyse the Twitter debate among climate change ‘sceptics’ and ‘believers’. We study all tweets in which the heat wave was related to climate change and which were shared by Dutch and Flemish users between 28 July 2018 and 4 August 2018. Laying bare the worldviews underlying the frames of sceptics and non-sceptics, we first demonstrate the diversity of – unilaterally interacting – ideological interests. Building upon this analysis of the scope of the debate and analysing its form, we show that both groups mostly use similar antagonistic strategies to delegitimize and denaturalize their out-groups. We argue that these interventions promote polarization rather than a constructive agonistic debate. As such, this study refutes previous studies that consider sceptic frames as deconstructive and non-sceptic frames as constructive

Synchronisation of sedimentary records using tephra : a postglacial tephrochronological model for the Chilean Lake District

Well-characterised tephra horizons deposited in various sedimentary environments provide a means of synchronising sedimentary archives. The use of tephra as a chronological tool is however still widely underutilised in southern Chile and Argentina. In this study we develop a postglacial tephrochronological model for the Chilean Lake District (ca. 38 to 42 degrees S) by integrating terrestrial and lacustrine records. Tephra deposits preserved in lake sediments record discrete events even if they do not correspond to primary fallout. By combining terrestrial with lacustrine records we obtain the most complete tephrostratigraphic record for the area to date. We present glass geochemical and chronological data for key marker horizons that may be used to synchronise sedimentary archives used for palaeoenvironmental, palaeoclimatological and palaeoseismological purposes. Most volcanoes in the studied segment of the Southern Volcanic Zone, between Llaima and Calbuco, have produced at least one regional marker deposit resulting from a large explosive eruption (magnitude >= 4), some of which now have a significantly improved age estimate (e.g., the 10.5 ka Llaima Pumice eruption from Llaima volcano). Others, including several units from Puyehue-Cordon Caulle, are newly described here. We also find tephra related to the Cha1 eruption from Chaiten volcano in lake sediments up to 400 km north from source. Several clear marker horizons are now identified that should help refine age model reconstructions for various sedimentary archives. Our chronological model suggests three distinct phases of eruptive activity impacting the area, with an early-to-mid-Holocene period of relative quiescence. Extending our tephrochronological framework further south into Patagonia will allow a more detailed evaluation of the controls on the occurrence and magnitude of explosive eruptions throughout the postglacial

Validation of seismic hazard curves using a calibrated 14 ka lacustrine record in the Eastern Alps, Austria.

Seismic hazard maps are crucial for earthquake mitigation and mostly rely on probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). However, the practise and value of PSHA are under debate because objective testing procedures for seismic hazard maps are scarce. We present a lacustrine turbidite record revealing 44 earthquakes over the last ~ 14 ka and use it to test seismic hazard curves in southern Austria. We derive local seismic intensities for paleo-earthquakes by applying scaling relationships between the sedimentary imprint and seismic intensity of well-documented historical earthquakes. The last ~ 2.8 ka of the record agree with a Poissonian recurrence behaviour and therefore a constant hazard rate, which is the modelling choice for standard PSHA. The lacustrine data are consistent with the intensity-frequency relationship of the local seismic hazard curve, confirming the current PSHA approach for this part of Austria. On longer timescales, distinct phases of enhanced regional seismicity occurred, indicating a potential increase of seismic hazard after large earthquakes-a factor hitherto disregarded in the PSHA of the Eastern Alps. Our new method forms an independent procedure to test hazard maps in any setting where suitable lake systems are available

Subaqueous mass movements in the context of observations of contemporary slope failure

The consequences of subaqueous landslides have been at the forefront of societal conscience more than ever in the last few years, with devastating and fatal events in the Indonesian Archipelago making global news. The new research presented in this volume demonstrates the breadth of ongoing investigation into subaqueous landslides, and shows that while events like the recent ones can be devastating, they are smaller in scale than those Earth has experienced in the past. Understanding the spectrum of subaqueous landslide processes, and therefore the potential societal impact, requires research across all spatial and temporal scales. This volume delivers a compilation of state-of-the-art papers covering regional landslide databases, advanced techniques for in situ measurements, numerical modelling of processes and hazard

Holocene earthquake-triggered mass-wasting events recorded in the sediments of Lake Puyehue (South-Central Chile)

Despite South-Central Chile’s high seismicity and the occurrence of earth’s largest instrumentally recorded earthquake (AD 1960; Mw: 9.5), paleoseismic data is still scarce for this region. In this study, very high-resolution reflection seismic profiles (3.5 kHz) in Lake Puyehue (41°S) were utilized to trace giant seismic events back into time. The seismic profiles show repeated occurrences of multiple mass-wasting deposits (slumps, debris flows, homogenites) occurring at a same seismic-stratigraphic horizon, indicating that they are coeval and caused by a single mass-wasting event of basin-wide importance. An age-depth model, based on 9 AMS radiocarbon datings and varve-counting on an 11 m-long sediment core, has been used to develop a “seismic chronostratigraphy”. It allows dating of the mass-wasting events by interpolation between dated seismic horizons to the distal parts of the mass-wasting deposits. The mass-wasting events are assumed to be earthquake-triggered because:The recentmost mass-wasting events correlate with the devastating historical earthquakes of AD 1575 and AD 1960.Synchronicity of multiple slope failures (mass-wasting events) requires a strong regional trigger, such as an earthquake. Consequently, local slope oversteepening at delta fronts or local fluid expulsion could not initiate such widespread events.South-Central Chile has been historically subjected to several strong (M > 8) subduction earthquakes and subduction processes have been constantly active since Mesozoic times.Multiple slope failures occur at water depths > 70 m, which rules out shallow instability triggers, such as storm wave action and lake-level fluctuations.This study reveals nine paleoseismic events during the Holocene with a mean recurrence rate of about 1000 yr, but with an overall relatively aperiodic occurrence (ranging between 400-2000 yrs.). The most prominent event took place around 1660 cal. yr. BP, evidenced by at least 29 simultaneous mass-movements and a homogenite deposit. Quantitative comparison of mass-wasting events related to the historical earthquakes of AD 1960 and AD 1575 showed significant differences (respectively 17 and 4 observed mass-wasting deposits) although these earthquakes are assumed to have had a comparable strength. This can be attributed to a lowered sedimentation rate on the potentially unstable slopes in the period 3000 cal. yr. BP – 500 cal. yr. BP, which would have made lacustrine earthquake recording less likely in AD 1575. The absence of mass-wasting deposits associated with other historical earthquakes (e.g.: AD 1737 (Ms: 7.5) and AD 1837 (Ms: 8)) indicates that only mega-earthquakes (Mw >8.5) within a range of about 300 km are recorded in the sedimentary sequence of Lake Puyehue.Reflection seismic profiles also show vertical fluidisation structures with large-scale sediment injections, which disturb the upper sedimentary sequences. The top of these fluidisation structures and diverse deformation levels could be spatially linked to seismically induced mass-wasting deposits and consequently indicate an additional method for lacustrine paleo-earthquake tracing.Several reconaissance seismic surveys on other glacigenic lakes in the Chilean Lake District also show promising paleoseismic records, which will offer the opportunity to correlate lacustrine records to reveal South-Central Chile’s paleoseismic history in detail and the earthquake registration capacities of its glacigenic lakes

The Hazar pull-apart along the East Anatolian Fault: Structure and active deformation

Understanding the irregularity of seismic cycles: A case study in Turke

The Hazar pull-apart along the East Anatolian Fault: Structure and active deformation

Understanding the irregularity of seismic cycles: A case study in Turke