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Most of current research seems to proceed from a homogeneous conception of the Chinese ethnic minority in the North America and Europe. The present paper focuses on ethnic Chinese migrant children living in Northern Ireland whose parents come from Mainland China and Hong Kong, respectively, and examines their intra-ethnic and inter-generational experiences based on in-depth interviews and participant observations. The purpose is to identify and explain both historical dynamics and intra-ethnic diversities within these Chinese children’s accounts. The research employs culturally grounded versions of explanations, argumentations, narratives, ‘habitus’, etc. as analytical tools. The research discovers the changes in and differences between these two Chinese sub-groups in views and values on self-concept, norms, country of origin, host society and life-style choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conviction Narrative Theory (CNT) is a theory of choice under radical uncertainty – situations where outcomes cannot be enumerated and probabilities cannot be assigned. Whereas most theories of choice assume that people rely on (potentially biased) probabilistic judgments, such theories cannot account for adaptive decision-making when probabilities cannot be assigned. CNT proposes that people use narratives – structured representations of causal, temporal, analogical, and valence relationships – rather than probabilities, as the currency of thought that unifies our sense-making and decision-making faculties. According to CNT, narratives arise from the interplay between individual cognition and the social environment, with reasoners adopting a narrative that feels "right" to explain the available data; using that narrative to imagine plausible futures; and affectively evaluating those imagined futures to make a choice. Evidence from many areas of the cognitive, behavioral, and social sciences supports this basic model, including lab experiments, interview studies, and econometric analyses. We identify 12 propositions to explain how the mental representations (narratives) interact with four inter-related processes (explanation, simulation, affective evaluation, and communication), examining the theoretical and empirical basis for each. We conclude by discussing how CNT can provide a common vocabulary for researchers studying everyday choices across areas of the decision sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the reasons for suicide attempts among patients in Ghana. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 30 informants who had been hospitalized for attempted suicide. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the transcribed narratives, and five main themes emerged: 1) lack of support; 2) abandonment; 3) shame; 4) existential struggles; and 5) supernatural reasons. There were gender differences with abandonment reported by only women and shame associated with economic difficulties reported only by men. Findings are discussed within the context of a socio-cultural theory of suicide behaviour, and implications for the prevention of suicide and care of suicidal persons are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventions consist of conventionally accepted reasons for dereliction, deviation, distinction, or good fortune. Their use facilitates coordination of interpersonal effort through appeal to shared understandings that emerge from the push and pull of social interaction, but then constrain further rounds of that interaction. The use of conventions differs from three other well defined and widely used forms of reason giving: codes, technical accounts, and stories. All four do relational work, but conventions operate most easily and effectively when participants in social relations are simply confirming the character of those relations rather than establishing them anew, contesting them, terminating them, or transforming them. In those cases, participants are more likely to employ codes, technical accounts, or stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a model of understanding that takes into account interaction, cultural knowledge, and the constraints of organizations and institutions. It analyzes discourse and cognition in high school biology classes and clinical consultations involving discussions of genetics. The analytical lenses of constraint satisfaction, coherence-based reasoning, and collective cognition reveal multilayered social, cultural, and interactional components of authority and agency that influence understanding. The analysis reveals similarities across settings in discourse structure and the ways that participants relate to local constraints. In both types of settings, participants attempt to develop process narratives that present a sequential or causal relationship between information and lead to remembered understandings of concepts. However, the absence of certain process information that links terms or concepts functions like a missing plot point in a story, hindering the development of process narratives and understandings. In order to cover such information gaps, students and patients construct and display grey boxes. In addition to talk and text, these consist of various actions and resources specific to a local discourse framework such as pointing at graphics, tabular information, and symbols. Grey boxes satisfy the organizational constraints of time, resources, and task structure that affect interaction related to understanding concepts and procedures, but their connection to a particular discourse framework restricts the transfer of knowledge between settings. The power of medical practitioners and teachers to enhance or restrict understandings relates to the ways that they accommodate the use of grey boxes during interactions with clients and students. Professional frames of reference that teachers or practitioners apply to task interactions may constrain the ways students or clients apply grey boxes and process narratives. Awareness of the functions of process narratives and grey boxes presents opportunities to modify local discourse frameworks and increase understandings of concepts, medical conditions, and treatment options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]