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Research demonstrating student mental distress typically focuses on mental wellbeing by combining questionnaire responses from students studying a variety of disciplines [see Ibrahim, A. K., S. J. Kelly, C. E. Adams, and C. Glazebrook. 2013. "A Systematic Review of Studies of Depression Prevalence in University Students." "Journal of Psychiatric Research" 47 (3): 391-400; Bewick, B., G. Koutsopoulou, J. Miles, E. Slaa, and M. Barkham. 2010. "Changes in Undergraduate Students' Psychological Well-being as they Progress Through University." "Studies in Higher Education" 35 (6): 633-645]. Little is known about how student mental health varies as a function of degree type. Psychology students are of interest here, as Psychology is one of few degrees where mental health is a topic of study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 undergraduate psychology students with mental health difficulties from a UK University. Thematic analysis showed that previous mental health problems were a motivator for studying psychology. The delivery of taught mental health content exacerbated pre-existing symptoms, induced concern and challenged perceptions of treatments. Students also experienced unique challenges when accessing a variety of University support networks. Findings can be used to inform policy changes to improve these students' university experiences.

This article contributes to a social psychological understanding of identity by identifying some features of the interactional organization of self-praise. Early conversation analytic work on the epistemics of self-assessment and constraints against self-praise has shown that praising oneself is an interactionally delicate matter that may leave one vulnerable to "unfavorable character assessment" or accusations of bragging (Pomerantz 1978:89). Drawing on data examples from a range of settings, this article develops Pomerantz's work and examines the role of reported third-party compliments (e.g., "she... said "you look really lovely"") in objectifying self-praise. Analyzing instances in which speakers initiate repair on their self-descriptions in favor of reported third-party compliments, I provide evidence of practices suggesting a norm against direct self-praise and an interactional preference for embedding positive self-descriptions within a third-party attribution. I consider the implications of these analyses for a social psychological understanding of identity and its measurement. (Contains 10 extracts and 9 footnotes.)

The psychological concept of "microaggression" has refocused interest on what counts as prejudicial action. It redirects attention from standard socio-cognitive explanations of overt prejudice among social groups toward recipients' perspectives of largely unwitting and subtle everyday racism. Microaggression studies define common implicit identity challenges faced by minority groups, including kinship carers. However, criticisms of the "microaggressions program" raise difficulties inherent in establishing prejudicial action from accounts of necessarily ambiguous actions, and contend that reliance on self-reporting inevitably lacks validity. This conversation analytic (CA) study offers a complementary approach: from videos of ten kinship carer support groups it shows how participants construct accountabilities for prejudicial actions in their retrospective reports of questions, challenges and suspicions in ways that build these actions as microaggressive. It addresses methodological shortcomings in microaggression studies, and extends CA research on accountability in offense construction, and on prejudicial social actions that are contested and difficult to analyze. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disputes about parenting, including investments of time, can arise when families break apart. One such context is that of kinship care, where relatives (typically grandparents or siblings) take over parenting responsibilities for a child. However, little is known about the discursive processes by which 'good' and 'bad' parental identities are constructed. From a corpus of video–recordings of kinship carer support groups, we examine how time references feature in carers' complaints about birth parents. Using Conversation Analysis, we identify two forms of reference: (i) reference to "child's time", a shared cultural device concerning children's experience, and (ii) juxtaposing reported events on a timeline to infer consequentiality, thus attributing unparental motives to the birth parent. Both forms of time reference substantiate carers' inferences about birth parents' ineligibility for membership of the "good parent" category, and thus affirm their own entitlement as members, as key actions in the formulation of their complaints. We consider the implications of these findings for understanding co-constructed time-referenced devices such as "child's time", and how Conversation Analytic studies could usefully investigate what other event-relative devices may be used to accomplish different social actions, and what identities might get constructed in the process. • Time reference can be used as a members' resource to cast identity in talk. • "Child's time" operates as a cultural "device" in ascribing good and bad parenting. • Motive can be inferred by the juxtaposition of time references on a single timeline. • The design of time reference can establish common cause and peer identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast asymmetry is a common post‐operative outcome for women with breast cancer. Quality of cosmetic result is viewed clinically as a critical endpoint of surgery. However, research suggests that aesthetic standards governing breast reconstruction can be unrealistic and may problematically enforce feminine appearance norms. The aim of reconstructive procedures is to help women live well with and beyond breast cancer. Therefore, understanding how patients and clinicians talk about surgical outcomes is important. However, we lack evidence about such discussions. Objective: To examine clinical communication about breast symmetry in real‐time consultations in a breast cancer clinic. Design: Seventy‐three consultations between 16 clinicians and 47 patients were video‐recorded, transcribed and analysed using conversation analysis. Results: In most cases, patients do considerable interactional work to persuade clinicians of the validity of their concerns regarding breast asymmetry, and clinicians legitimize these concerns, aligning with patients. In a significant minority of cases, patients appear more accepting of their treatment outcome, but clinicians prioritize symmetry or treat symmetry with the presence of breast tissue as normative, generating misalignment between clinician and patient. Conclusion: Current clinical communication guidelines and practices may inadvertently reinforce culturally normative assumptions regarding the desirability of full, symmetrical breasts that are not held by all women. Clinicians and medical educators may benefit from detailed engagement with recordings of clinical communication like those analysed here, to reflect on which communicative practices may work best to attend to a patient's individual stance on breast symmetry, and optimize doctor‐patient alignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Method of levels (MOL) is a cognitive therapy with an emerging evidence base. It is grounded in perceptual control theory, and its transdiagnostic nature means techniques are widely applicable and not diagnosis‐specific. This paper contributes to psychotherapy process research by investigating a key technique of MOL, asking about disruptions, and in doing so aims to explore how the technique works and aid the understanding of related techniques in other psychotherapies. Method: Conversation analysis (CA) is applied to asking about disruptions in 12 real‐life therapeutic interactions. Findings: Analyses explore how and when therapists ask about disruptions, with examples presented according to their degree of adherence to the MOL approach. The majority of identified instances project responses consistent with MOL aims, encouraging further talk, focused on the client's problem, and with a shift to metalevel commentary. Also presented are examples of therapist and client influence on disruptions. Conclusion: The paper provides support for a number of MOL practices, with clinical implications and links to other psychotherapies highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes a computer program designed to manage statistics about online searches which reports the number of searches by vendor, purpose, and librarian; calculates charges to departments and individuals; and prints monthly invoices to users with standing accounts. (CLB)

Describes a study that examined the necessity for prerequest bibliographic verification for interlibrary loans by identifying request error patterns and critical bibliographic elements. The discussion analyzes the effectiveness of a modified verification process, in which the interlibrary loan technician decides which requests to verify, in terms of accuracy and time. (CLB)

Background: Cognitive behavioural treatments are recommended for people with psychosis. Core beliefs regarding the self and others are a key part of the models underpinning cognitive behavioural therapy but detailed understanding of these putative beliefs in people with psychosis are limited. A greater understanding of these mechanisms is necessary to improve and refine treatments. Aims: This study utilized a qualitative approach to explore core schematic beliefs in psychosis (strongly held positive and negative beliefs about the self and others) and their relation to hallucinations and delusions. Method : Twenty individuals with psychosis participated in individual semi-structured interviews. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews. Results : Four emergent themes were identified: (i) the solidity and permanency of core beliefs, (ii) the causes and development of core beliefs, (iii) a synergistic relationship between core beliefs and symptoms, and (iv) core beliefs associated with images and their influence on psychotic symptoms. Conclusions : This study provides new insights into the range and character of core beliefs in psychosis and provides important data to guide ongoing and future development of treatment approaches for psychosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Self‐deprecation' (SD) is widely understood within social psychology and popular culture as a form of self‐talk that reflects a cognitive state, such as low self‐esteem or negative self‐regard. However, most research on SD suffers theoretical and methodological problems that fail to account for how its cognitive and linguistic aspects can be reconciled. We know little about SD as it occurs in interactional settings. Utilizing a conversation analytic (CA) perspective that brackets cognitive explanations for linguistic phenomena, this paper draws on more than 100 hours of transcribed recordings of interactions from diverse settings to systematically examine the form and function of a common class of SD: critical comments by a speaker on their current talk or actions (self‐deprecatory meta‐comments; SDMCs). Analyses demonstrate that SDMCs are used in environments of possible or actual interactional trouble, and manage this trouble in different sequential positions. The paper shows that SDs can be treated as a communication practice. Rigorous analysis of SDMCs can enrich understanding of the construction of 'identities' in talk. It advances a CA understanding of the ascription of social actions, and the preference for self‐criticism over criticism by others. Findings suggest that widespread advice to self‐deprecate less may be invalid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Effective clinical communication is fundamental to tackling overweight and obesity. However, little is known about how weight is discussed in non-weight-specific settings where the primary purpose of the interaction concerns clinical matters apparently unrelated to weight. This study explores how mental health clinicians initiate discussions about a patient's possible weight problem in the non-weight-specific setting of a UK NHS Gender Identity Clinic (GIC), where weight is topicalized during discussions about the risks of treatment.Design: A conversation analytic study.Methods: A total of 194 recordings of routine clinician-patient consultations were collected from the GIC. Weight talk was initiated by four clinicians in 43 consultations. Twenty-one instances contained reference to a possible weight problem. Transcripts were analysed using conversation analysis.Results: Clinicians used three communication practices to initiate discussion of a possible weight problem with patients: (1) announcing that patients are overweight; (2) asking patients whether they are overweight; and (3) deducing that patients are overweight or obese via a body mass index (BMI) calculation. Announcing that patients are overweight is the least aligning practice that denies patient's agency and grammatically constrains them to agree with a negative label. Asking patients whether they are overweight treats them as having limited agency and generates comparatively aligning, but occasionally resistant, responses. Jointly deducing that patients are overweight or obese via a BMI calculation is the most aligning practice, which deflects responsibility for labelling the patient onto an objective instrument.Conclusions: Small differences in the wording of turns that initiate discussions about a possible weight problem can have significant consequences for interactional alignment. Clinicians from different specialities may benefit from considering the interactional consequences of different practices for initiating discussions about weight during the kinds of real-life discussions considered here. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? There is a correlation between clinical communication about weight and patient weight loss. Clinicians from all specialties are encouraged to discuss diet and exercise with patients, but communication about weight remains problematic. Health psychologists have identified an urgent need for communication training to raise sensitive topics like weight without damaging the doctor-patient relationship. What does this study add? Clinicians in a non-weight-specific setting use three communication practices to introduce the possibility that a patient's weight may be a problem. These practices have varying consequences for the interaction and doctor-patient relationship. Conversation analytic findings may be useful in training clinicians how to initiate discussions about weight with patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flirting is typically regarded as an ambiguous social action, which, in the absence of members’ orientations, is subject to multiple interpretations and hard to pin down analytically. This article demonstrates a methodological technique for identifying the interactional practices that constitute vehicles for “possible flirting” by examining instances that contain (a) “endogenous” orientations to flirting, (b) orientations to flirting that are “exogenous” and post hoc, and (c) no orientations. Analyses suggest that flirting practices are oftennotambiguous to members and involve the flirting party claiming epistemic rights to greater familiarity or intimacy with the flirt recipient than the interactional context, or the status of the speakers, might otherwise make procedurally relevant. Data are in British English. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I discuss the contribution of the articles to existing literatures, and their implications for (1) our understanding of the analytic tractability of -isms, and (2) managing and challenging -isms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To explore transsexual patients' perceptions of communication with psychiatrists in a Gender Identity Clinic and advance understanding of patient centered communication (PCC) in psychiatric, 'gatekeeping' settings. METHODS: 21 qualitative interviews with a convenience sample of clinic patients. Interviews were coded at a semantic level and subject to an inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Patients' perceptions clustered into three themes: (1) aspects of communication that patients described liking; (2) aspects of communication that patients described disliking; and (3) aspects of communication that patients deemed challenging but necessary or useful. CONCLUSION: Patients described liking or disliking aspects of communication that reflect existing understandings of PCC. However, a striking feature of their accounts was how they were able to rationalize and reflect pragmatically on their negative communication experiences, welcoming doctors' challenges as an opportunity to consider their life-changing decision to transition from their natal gender. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: In certain clinical settings, current operationalizations of PCC may not apply. Patients' perceptions of communication may be enhanced if an analysis of their experiences formed part of the professional training of doctors, who could be invited to consider the functional specificity of communication across settings and the consequences (both immediate and post hoc) of their communication practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-seven adult females' responses from an online qualitative questionnaire were analyzed to explore their views on being recovered from an experience of sexual assault, and identify aspects of their postassault health service encounters that facilitated or impeded their recovery process. Being recovered involved accepting the experience, being freed from negative states, regaining control and trust, and receiving help from and being believed by others. Participants predominantly reported negative experiences with health services. Factors perceived as impeding the recovery process include health professionals' inexperience in dealing with survivors of sexual assault, adhering to rape myths and stereotypes, and disrespectful or inconsiderate treatment of survivors. We argue that these postassault negative experiences revictimized survivors. Addressing these factors may reduce revictimization, facilitate recovery, and decrease assaulted women's long-term use of health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypothetical questions (HQs) are a special class of conditional question that seek a response by proposing a “what-if” situation. It is not clear to what extent view testing HQs represent a generic conversational device that operates in a similar way across contexts. I conduct a comparative analysis of HQs across four different interactional settings: ordinary conversations, research interactions, broadcast news interviews, and doctor–patient consultations. I show that while the practice of using HQs to test recipients' views and commitments is generic, or context free, both the form and function of HQs and the precise way they run off in each case are attentive in their detail to the interactional demands and affordances of the setting. I suggest that in the future, both “applied” and “basic” conversation analysis (CA) might benefit from conducting comparative analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I provide a summary and evaluation of some of the key features of Sims-Schouten, Riley and Willig's multi-level, 'critical realist' approach to discourse analysis, as exemplified in their study of mother- hood, childcare and female employment. I argue that (i) their analyses recruit and depend on arguments and techniques from the very perspectives they criticize, and (ii) those techniques are deployed in a somewhat ad hoc fashion. Consequently, I suggest that the authors fail to provide a distinctive or systematic operationalization of a critical realist discourse analysis. I end by arguing that if critical realists really want to understand what (purportedly extra-discursive) factors account for why participants say what they do, then they need to begin by adopting a more reflexive approach to their data, and pay serious attention to analysing the interview as an interview, and as an occasion for interaction in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on discourse and conversation analysis (CA), ideology, and ontological status of hegemonic masculinity. Form of intellectual imperialism discourse and conversation analysts seek to counter; Misrepresentation on CA; Justification on the concept of hegemonic masculinity.

This article provides a critical review of Wetherell and Edley's (1999) discursive reformulation of the concept of 'hegemonic masculinity'. While I retain some familiar features from Wetherell and Edley's approach, I develop a discursive perspective that is located more firmly in the technical, conversation analytic tradition--as outlined in the recent exchange between Schegloff (1997, 1998) and Wetherell (1998). In particular, I argue that previous research is based on the assumption that we need to venture further than the limits of the text to explain why participants say what they do, and go beyond participants' orientations to be able to say anything politically effective. Using data from two semi-structured interviews with men in their early 20s, I explore how participants construct masculinity and situate themselves (and others) in relation to those constructions. This involves an analysis that is more attentive to participant orientations and gendered category membership than that used in the analysis of masculinity so far. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of this approach for feminist psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Follows the history and treatment of a 40-year-old female who was surprised when she was diagnosed as obese. Terms and definitions related to obesity; Causes of obesity as seen in case presentations; Patient selection; Physician's role in the management of obesity; Patient education and treatment options.

The article discusses the role of physicians in improving the quality of patients' diets and reducing food-related health risks. Eating in fast-food establishments accounts for much of the excess calorie consumption among U.S. citizens. The increasing prevalence of obesity correlates strongly with the increasing popularity of dining out. There are several strategies that clinicians can introduce to help patients improve the nutritional content of their meals, including urging them to say no to fried foods.