Search

Background: Since the inception of Counselling for Depression (CfD) in the UK as a competence‐based training course for experienced therapists, there has been remarkably little empirical work exploring the experiences and views of trainees and those involved in course delivery. Aims: This qualitative study aimed to explore trainees', trainers' and supervisors' experiences of CfD training and their perceptions and understanding of competence in the context of CfD training and assessment. Methods: Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with 19 participants recruited from two UK training courses and the BACP Practice Network. The interviews were analysed using Template Analysis. Findings: Two key themes are reported here: tensions in the CfD competence model and tensions in CfD methods of training and assessment. Participants reported challenges in adapting to the CfD model. They felt that its use drew them away from core values in their practice so that they felt their identity as a therapist was threatened. In particular, they questioned the possibility of integrating person‐centred and emotion‐focussed approaches and felt that the directivity of emotion‐focussed therapy was out of keeping with their core practice values. They also identified a number of difficulties with the CfD training and assessment; the training period was seen as an inadequate preparation for workplace practice, and the assessment process was criticised for being too narrow and was regarded as having little connection to the competence framework. Conclusion: The findings suggest a need for changes in policy and practice, specifically in regard to training and assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue for use of the narrative concept of the “turning point” in homelessness research from a critical social psychology perspective.BackgroundTurning points are often understood as rifts in the life course followed by significant change in direction. However, within narrative theory they are not events but subjectively significant features of the person’s life-story.The turning point as narrative toolThe analysis identified how turning points were deployed by participants in a study of homelessness experiences. Participants used the turning point in constructing themselves as agentic, reformed individuals who had gained insight. However, this did not necessarily bring positive life changes. Data extracts are used to illustrate the power of adopting a constructivist, narrative theoretical orientation in understanding turning points in accounts of homelessness.Implications for practiceViewing turning points in this way may help us understand how best to provide support for people without housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents selected findings from a larger qualitative study in which 18 people recovering from an alcohol use disorder (AUD) were interviewed about maintaining long-term sobriety. The research adopted Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) as its theoretical framework. PCP focuses on personal meanings, particularly within role relationships with significant others. The findings extend our understanding of 'social support' from significant others in recovery from AUDs, and may be applicable to other Substance Use Disorders. In line with previous research, participants reported valuing practical support and general encouragement from family, friends and work colleagues. However, participants also reported changes in their sense of self, and especially valued instances where their significant others accepted and endorsed their new 'sober selves'. Participants reported that their recovery was made more difficult when significant others failed to validate their new selves, or continued to endorse their old drinking identities, and the findings are discussed in terms of the PCP concept of 'validation'. It is recommended that self-help groups provide opportunities for those recovering from AUDs to 'practise' and gain validation for their new, sober selves, and that they provide information and advice to significant others about the potential importance of validation in recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2 experiments, participants judged 2 samples of adult handwriting for gender of writer; their accuracy was significantly better than chance and improved with practice. In a 3rd experiment, participants who were not cued for gender of writer judged coded male and female scripts to be significantly different with respect to features such as carefulness, neatness, regularity, and apparent speed of execution. The participants cued for gender of writer on the basis of their judgments on stylistic features such as slope and roundness, which appeared to be subsumed within the 'higher order' dimensions of carefulness versus confidence. The results suggest that the participants cued for gender of writer may have been influenced by gender stereotypes, leading to errors in some of their judgments. Key words: gender, judgment of handwriting, stereotypes, PREVIOUS RESEARCHERS have consistently demonstrated that a writer's gender is predictable from handwriting (Hartley, 1991). Across a variety of recent studies in the United Kingdom and the United States, accuracy [...]

In their article on ethics, Raskin and Debany (this issue) raise a number of important issues that merit discussion and have implications for a constructivist stance on ethics, an issue that has dogged constructivist and social constructionist theory and has, in the past, been the focus of a good deal of debate. In my response to their article, I focus on two issues before going on to consider what these imply for a constructivist ethics. The first is the status of “reality”; drawing on the work of French philosophers, discursive psychology, and symbolic interactionism, I argue that the constructivist conception of reality has been widely misunderstood and will outline what I regard as a defensible construction of reality. The second issue concerns the relationship between the individual and the social world; drawing again on earlier work in microsociology, I argue that the “constructed” individual must be understood as emerging from the social realm rather than preexisting it, and I argue for personal construct psychology as a candidate for filling the subjectivity “gap” in social constructionism. Finally, I use these conceptualizations of reality and the person to argue for an ethical stance of “radical doubt” for constructivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades the number of women having their first babies over the age of 35 in the United Kingdom has increased. Women’s timing of motherhood is invariably bound up with a discourse of “choice”, and in this paper we consider the role choice plays in the timing of motherhood among women who have been defined as “older” mothers. This article is based on data from 11 semi-structured interviews that explored the transition to motherhood among “older” 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, “older motherhood as circumstance”, older motherhood was presented as the outcome of life circumstances beyond their control, with a lack of the “right” circumstances facilitating “delayed” motherhood. Within the second repertoire, “older motherhood as readiness”, women constructed themselves as (now) prepared for motherhood. “Readiness” was bound up with notions of self-fulfilment, yet also assessments of their ability to be “good” mothers. We conclude that, far from a straightforward choice, the timing of motherhood is shaped by cultural definitions of the “right” circumstances for parenthood, but also cultural definitions of “good” motherhood, which may define when women are “ready”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an obituary for

Over the last few decades the number of women becoming pregnant later on in life has markedly increased. Medical experts have raised concerns about the increase in the number of women having babies later, owing to evidence that suggests that advancing maternal age is associated with both a decline in fertility and an increase in health risks to both mother and baby. In recognition of these risks, experts have warned that women should aim to have their children between the ages of twenty and thirty-five. As a consequence, women giving birth past the age of thirty-five have typically been positioned as “older mothers.” In this paper we used a social constructionist thematic analysis in order to analyse how “older mothers” are represented in newspaper articles in the British press. We examined how the topics of “choice” and “risk” are handled in discussions of delayed motherhood, and found that the media position women as wholly responsible for choosing the timing of pregnancy and, as a consequence, as accountable for the associated risks. Moreover, we noted that newspapers also constructed a “right” time for women to become pregnant. As such, we discuss the implications for the ability of women to make real choices surrounding the timing of pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports findings from an empirical study examining viewers’ responses to a popular and critically acclaimed television program, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Viewers’ frames of reference were challenged when they identified strongly with characters facing complex moral dilemmas, who behaved in ways that contravened viewers’ espoused values. This sometimes led viewers to develop more inclusive, less judgmental moral frameworks. Viewers also used the program to help them imagine how to cope in difficult circumstances and found that the metaphorical and fantasy elements of the program helped them recognize previously unacknowledged aspects of themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the impact of television fiction in terms of women's sexuality and sexual oppression. It uses the cult television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as a case study. It argues that some censorships have taken the opportunity of viewers to reflect upon and debate sexual mores. It also criticizes some editorial cuts of the television series that undermine its ability to promote a discussion of male sexual violence against women. Moreover, research evidence suggests that television fiction can actively engage viewers in issues associated to them.

Social work theory and research is increasingly exploring conceptions of the family and the child and the possibilities for recognizing and responding to the ‘voice’ of young people. Media images of the family are likely to contribute to society's conception of what a family is or should be, but often fail to represent the diversity of living arrangements that actually exist today. Focusing on the popular cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer we argue that this is an example of popular culture that explores both the advantages and the dangers of non-normative family forms, specifically the non-genetic or ‘chosen’ family. We argue that Buffy endorses a non-hierarchical, ‘democratic’ vision of the family (Giddens, 1992), with relationships between friends at its centre and offers a representation of young people that includes personal agency, reflecting the real choices, tensions and conflicts for people living in today's changing family. We argue that popular cultural forms such as Buffy can generate ‘interactive social worlds’ (Plummer, 1995) that are central to the dissemination of new social practices. Implications of this analysis for social work are outlined, in terms of re-conceptualizing the notion of ‘family’ and of innovations in practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matt Hills argues that cultural theorists have been unable or unwilling to transcend a dichotomy that places academic discourse and identities in the realm of the rational or passionless, and fan identities in the realm of the immersed or open. As a result, the scholar-fan and the fan scholar have become liminal and transgressive persona. This article draws on the author's own experience, and that of 15 other delegates who participated in the Slayage Conference on Buffy the Vampire Slayer held in Tennessee in May 2004, as a basis for exploring the way in which the issues of the fan scholar identity are lived out. Questions addressed include the way in which tensions between fan and academic identities were manifested, and the ways in which individuals managed their fan and academic identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents aphenomenological, Sartrean analysis of sexual relationships as portrayed in the cult TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (BtVS). I argue that, through an examination of the differences between vampire and human characters in relationship, we gain an appreciation of the ambiguity of human sexuality as it is experienced. Through the narrative device of sexual relationships between human and vampire characters, BtVS offers a representation that potentially subverts current ideologies of love and sexuality. In addition, BtVS makes visible, although does not explicitly endorse, sadomasochistic sexual practices.

Discusses the impact of consumption on the construction of identities. Actual everyday context in which young people consume; Implication of said context on adolescent identities; Feelings adolescents get from consumption.