Psychology, Sociology and Education

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5: Being Present: Intersectionality, Critical Global Citizenship Theorizing, and the Earth Charter
(2025) Gamal, Mostafa
In recent years, the discussion of Education for Sustainable Development (hereafter ESD) has become increasingly widespread, following its prominence in global policy (UNESCO, 2005; UNESCO, 2020). The call to embrace sustainability and to facilitate a global transition to sustainability are crucial interventions in centering issues of justice, equity, and ecology. Similarly, in its four principles of respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, social and economic justice, and democracy, nonviolence, and peace, the Earth Charter (2000a) is committed to an ethical framework that casts the urgency to attend to our responsibility to future generations within a wider environmental, economic, social, and spiritual context. Intersecting with these concerns is global citizenship theorizing, especially in its critical orientations (hereafter CGC) (e.g., Khoo & Jørgensen, 2021; Pashby, 2015; Stein et al., 2019; Swanson & Gamal, 2021). Although it is a contested terrain, critical global citizenship foregrounds social injustices and seeks to “unsettle the hegemonic categories that normalise an inherently unequal status” (Pashby et al., 2020, p. 154).
A discourse analytic study of ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) sufferers' experiences of interactions with doctors
(2010) Guise, J.; McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy
The aetiology, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of ME/CFS are controversial. Doctors and sufferers often have opposing perspectives, leading to problematic clinical interactions. We use discourse analysis to explore ME/CFS sufferers' descriptions of interactions with medical professionals taken from an asynchronous, online sufferers' support group. Participants described themselves as experiencing limited medical care and attention but restricted criticisms to ?legitimate?, pragmatic or ancillary matters such as a clinicians' unwillingness to prescribe untested treatments. Participants also described themselves as active in seeking a resolution to their problems. They thus attended to possible negative attributions of being ?complaining? or unmotivated to seek recovery. 2010 SAGE Publications.
A grounded theory approach to the phenomenon of pro-anorexia
(Taylor & Francis, 2007) Williams, Sarah; Reid, Marie
This research looked at the thoughts and feelings expressed by visitors to pro-anorexic websites to find out how they felt about anorexia and why they used pro-anorexic sites. Using grounded theory (Strauss A, Corbin J. 1998. Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. 2nd ed. London: Sage), the information expressed by 176 participants on two pro-anorexic message boards and one online journal over eight frequently occurring topics was analysed. People believe in pro-anorexia because they want anorexic behaviours and feel positive towards them, however, anorexia could also be considered a problem at times when for some it was constituted a disorder with negative implications. Depictions of anorexia were very diverse. It is suggested that health professionals need to take into account the anorexic individual's perspectives of their anorexia in order that more successful treatment can be given. Additional research into anorexic's perspectives needs to be conducted to further develop understandings of anorexia and the ways it is viewed by those who have it.
A picture of the contemporary combined arts festival landscape
(2009) Finkel, Rebecca
The last 10-15 years has seen the rapid growth of festivals in Britain and overseas. This article examines the current situation of combined arts festivals in the UK in an effort to understand what the British festival environment looks like in the early years of the new millennium. A number of questions present themselves regarding the history and development of the current festival structure, the number of festivals, their size, distribution, audiences, geographical locations, programming content, duration, seasonality, influences, objectives, future plans and so forth. Combined arts festivals are defined as those containing more than one genre of arts, e.g., Edinburgh International Festival. Research methods include a survey questionnaire sent to 117 UK combined arts festivals (56 per cent response rate) to discern audience demographics, programming history, funding and future plans. In-depth interviews were also conducted with festival organizers. Based on survey data, it is argued that a homogeneous combined arts festival type- is developing and replicating across the country. This argument is supported by the similarity in programming choices and festival format of a majority of the festivals surveyed. One of the main reasons for the increasing formulaic approach to festival programming and design is the increasing competition for funding as public and private funding sources expect combined arts festivals to achieve socio-economic targets and become more sustainable from one year to the next. This can be seen to be contributing to the increasing professionalism of combined arts festival organization, which has resulted in the majority of combined arts festival directors favouring safe- content options that emulate the successes of several large, long-established festivals. Such an approach has had detrimental effects on the creativity of the arts festival landscape on the whole and may also be altering the symbolic meanings of festivals for communities and places.
A preliminary study into stress in Welsh farmers.
(informa healthcare, 2002) Pollock, Leslie; Deaville, Jennifer; Gilman, Alice; Willock, Joyce
In a preliminary study the factors that cause Mid-Wales farmers most stress were investigated in a convenience sample of farmers attending the Royal Welsh Show. The results showed that government policy, finance and time pressure were the factors that farmers found most stressful. Isolation consistently achieved the lowest rating of the stressors. These results are consistent with other British studies.
A question of order: The role of collective taste as a strategy to cope with demand uncertainty in the womenswear fashion industry
(Taylor & Francis, 2015-06-03) Schulz, Susanne
Though strong branding and a distinctive product range are often identified as important factors for companies' economic success (see, e.g., Robinson [1999]) many UK womenswear retailers offer surprisingly similar products. The author argues that product sameness amongst many high street womenswear retailers in the UK is a deliberate strategy employed by industry practitioners to limit demand uncertainty. Based on an empirical study of UK high street womenswear retailers the author argues that the womenswear fashion industry, like other industries operating in markets faced by high levels of demand uncertainty (Crane 1992), has adopted strategies to minimise economic risks. The author explores how fashion information created by companies/groups in the quaternary industry sector is used as inspirational sources for fashion workers at retailing level and contributes to the development of a collective taste amongst them. Collective taste in the context of this research is seen not as a by-product of interaction as theorised by Blumer (1969), but as a strategy to cope with the inherent demand uncertainty experienced by firms operating in the womenswear market and as a means for establishing some orderliness in the fashion system.
A randomized trial of face-to-face counselling versus telephone counselling versus bibliotherapy for occupational stress.
(British Psychological Society, 2009) Kilfedder, Catherine; Power, K. G.; Karatzias, T.; Chouliara, Zoë; McCafferty, Aileen; Niven, Karen; Galloway, Lisa; Sharp, Stephen
Objective The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness and acceptability of three interventions for occupational stress. Methods/design A total of 90 National Health Service employees were randomized to face-to-face counselling or telephone counselling or bibliotherapy. Outcomes were assessed at post-intervention and 4-month follow-up. Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) were used to evaluate intervention outcomes. An intention-to-treat analyses was performed. Results Repeated measures analysis revealed significant time effects on all measures with the exception of CORE Risk. No significant group effects were detected on all outcome measures. No time by group significant interaction effects were detected on any of the outcome measures with the exception of CORE Functioning and GHQ total. With regard to acceptability of interventions, participants expressed a preference for face-to-face counselling over the other two modalities. Conclusions Overall, it was concluded that the three intervention groups are equally effective. Given that bibliotherapy is the least costly of the three, results from the present study might be considered in relation to a stepped care approach to occupational stress management with bibliotherapy as the first line of intervention, followed by telephone and face-to-face counselling as required.
A Research Report on the 2005 Religious Observance Guidelines in Scotland
(Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, 2012-08-01) Gilfillan, Paul; Aitken, E.; Phipps, A.
This article gives a brief overview of the place of religious observance RO) within Scotland's non-denominational state school sector, and the background to recent changes in educational thinking and government policy which led to new guidelines being introduced in 2005. The article reports on a study conducted in 2008 into the reception of the new RO guidelines and their implementation within three primary schools and one secondary school in a local authority area, together with empirical data from each of the four case studies and interview extracts from head teachers, RO practitioners and pupils. The article then highlights some problems arising from the new guidelines and suggests some areas for future empirical research.
A Sociological Phenomenology of Christian Redemption
(Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd., 2014) Gilfillan, Paul
A survey of brief intelligence testing in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and United States.
(American Psychological Association, 2004-06) Thompson, Anthony P.; LoBello, S. G.; Atkinson, Leslie; Chisholm, Vivienne; Ryan, J. J.
Do you use brief measures of intelligence? There is available an increasing variety of short forms and new and revised quick tests of intelligence. However, little is known about clinical practice using these abbreviated instruments. The authors report the results of a 4-country exploratory survey of the extent and circumstances of the use of short forms and quick tests. Such measures are commonly used, and practitioners generally followed literature-based advice about the role of brief measures. However, idiosyncratic subtest combinations and inappropriate prorating were also prevalent with short forms. Frequently used quick tests were identified, as were the reasons for using brief measures.
A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of virtual reality nature effects onhigher education students' mental health andwellbeing
(Wiley, 2025-09-04) Hubbard, Gill; Verde, Philip Albert; Barrable, Alexia; O'Malley, Chris; Barnes, Nicholas; Toner, Paul
Virtual Reality nature (VRn) may deliver mental health and wellbeing without being outside in real nature. The main objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to report effects of VRn on mental health and wellbeing of students in higher education. To be eligible, participants were higher education students, the intervention was VRn, the outcome variable was a mental health parameter, and the study design was experimental. Information sources were: OVID (Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO), SCOPUS, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PubMed and GreenFILE. Searches were conducted May 2023 and re-run November 2024. The modified Downs and Black checklist for randomised and non-randomised studies was used to assess risk of bias. To synthesise results, data were first extracted into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and summarised in narrative, statistical and tabular formats. Twenty-four articles were included. Two studies were ‘good’ quality, 18 ‘fair’, and four ‘poor’. Total sample size was 1,419. Two studies compared VRn versus real nature, six VRn versus no intervention, seven VRn versus flat-screen. Twelve studies included forests as the only natural environment. Thirteen of 17, seven of eight, four of five, and four of seven studies reported pre-post intervention beneficial effects on self-reported mood, anxiety, stress and cognition, respectively. Nine of 13, six of 10 and all five studies that measured cardiovascular, skin conductivity and brain activity respectively, reported pre-post intervention beneficial effects. All five studies that measured anxiety, all three studies that measured mood, and all four studies that measured stress, found no significant differences between VRn and flat-screen images of nature. Caution is required drawing conclusions due to studies' quality and sample sizes. That said, the review suggests that nature replicated in VR shows promise for benefits to mental health and wellbeing in higher education students.
A teachable moment for the teachable moment? A prospective study to evaluate delivery of a workshop designed to increase knowledge and skills in relation to alcohol brief interventions (ABIs) amongst final year nursing and occupational therapy undergraduates
(2016-09) O'May, Fiona; Gill, Jan; McWhirter, Eleanor; Kantartzis, Sarah; Rees, C.; Murray, K.
The perceived value of Alcohol Brief Interventions as a tool to address alcohol misuse in Scotland has supported the establishment of a Health Improvement, Efficiency, Access and Treatment, HEAT: H4 Standard to deliver ABIs within certain health care settings. This requires that nursing, medical and allied health professionals are appropriately skilled to deliver these interventions. This study explores the knowledge and attitudes regarding alcohol misuse and related interventions among two cohorts of final year nursing and occupational therapy undergraduate students before, during and following participation in a workshop devoted to ABI delivery. While relatively good knowledge around recommended limits for daily consumption was evident, this did not translate into competence relating to drink unit content. Although there was overwhelming agreement for the role of each profession in ABI delivery, less than half of students in each cohort at the outset of the workshop agreed that they had the appropriate knowledge to advise patients about responsible drinking. In both cohorts, at the three month follow-up stage, this percentage had almost doubled. Newly qualified practitioners perceived a wider role for motivational interviewing, and endorsed interactive delivery of alcohol education throughout all levels of the curriculum.
Abuse and Protection Issues across the Lifespan: Reviewing the Literature
(CUP, 2010-03-01) Johnson, Fiona; Hogg, James; Daniel, Brigid
Accessing the field: methodological difficulties of research in schools
(University of Aberdeen, 2016) Oates, Catriona; Riaz, Nighet Nasim
This paper aims firstly to situate educational research in the current policy context and discuss the accounts of two early career researchers where accessing the research field has been problematic. Secondly it aims to explore the ‘relational ties’ of early career researchers as they attempt to gain access to the research field and co-operation of research participants, using their experiences and literature to explain difficulties encountered in their fieldwork. Gaining access to the research field is an essential step for researchers but can be overlooked in literature and underestimated by researchers. Concern with fieldwork is typically more focused on the subsequent stages of data generation and analysis rather than with the preliminary but fundamental stage of entry which is sometimes underplayed in the research process. Some literature supports this contention (Schatzman and Straus, 1973; Johnson, 1975; Shaffir, Stebbins and Turowetz, 1980). Friedman and Orru (1991) discuss how fieldworkers have long acknowledged the problems of access but often failed to analyse them in a systematic manner. Although access and cooperation are sometimes conflated in literature (Wanat, 2008) they must be clearly understood as two distinct processes (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995; Glesne, 1999; Bogdan and Biklen, 2003; Rossman and Rallis, 2003). Indeed, gatekeeper approval for access does not de facto guarantee cooperation (Shaffir and Stebbins 1991) which can lead to tension in researcher-participant relationships. Main findings suggest that although helpful in advancing understanding of the access issue, there is still work to be done to minimise mistrust of external researchers and for them to build social and cultural capital to better negotiate spaces in the research field.
Activism, Art & Archiving at the Edge
(UHI, 2021-04-02) Johnson, Karl
Shetland’s Up Helly Aa fire festival is likely well-known to readers and contributors to the Edge blog, but they may be less familiar with the local upset caused when four schoolgirls wanted to participate in the Lerwick franchise of the event. This is a story of activism, art and archiving at the Edge of the World.
Acts of pedagogical resistance: Marking out an ethical boundary against human technologies
(SAGE, 2021-01-04) McNair, Lynn J.; Blaisdell, Caralyn; Davis, John M.; Addison, Luke J.
This article highlights an action research project that sparked transformation regarding how early years practitioners documented children’s learning. The dominant discourse of standardisation and narrowing of early childhood education, encapsulated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s International Early Learning Study, has resulted in the ‘shaping’ and ‘testing’ of young children around the globe. The OECD has become very interested in early childhood education and is a very instrumental player today (Moss, 2018). Consequently, the testing of young children has been instigated by governments to ensure children gain the accepted knowledge, skills and dispositions required to be successful learners. Situated within this context of testing and standardisation, this article will share knowledge gained from a small action research project that took place in one Scottish early years setting. The study was stimulated by the early years practitioners of the setting, who strongly opposed the ‘reductionist’ formal ‘tick-box’ assessments produced by their local authority. These types of didactic formal assessments suggest that pedagogy is underpinned by a desire to tame, predict, prepare, supervise and evaluate learning. This article is of critical importance as it examines the imposition of didactic assessment from the practitioners’ perspective. The practitioners in the study contested that ‘tick-box’ assessments diminished children’s identities down to a list of judgements about their academic abilities, or lack thereof. The introduction of the ‘tick-box’ assessments presented a dilemma for the practitioners, in terms of the different views of the government and practitioners of what knowledge is worth knowing and what individuals and groups are able to learn. Many of the practitioners from the early childcare and learning setting positioned themselves and their work as being consciously different from what was going on in the wider sector. The early childcare and learning setting employed in this article introduced a new method to capture children’s learning, which they named the ‘Lived Story’ approach. In this article, we argue that Lived Stories are a form of narrative assessment which are designed to track children’s progress whilst respecting the complexity of their learning, their position within the learning process, the flow/fluidity of their ways of being and their ability to act in radical, creative and innovative ways. We conclude that by using ‘Lived Stories’ practitioners were able to lessen the surety of the language we use. The article highlights that as practitioners write Lived Stories and assess children’s progress they are freed to use language such as ‘wondering, puzzling, thinking, exploring’. In turn, we demonstrate that this language, and the ideas it enables, are on a continuum; a journey that spans a lifetime.
Adaptive memory: fitness relevant stimuli show a memory advantage in a game of pelmanism
(Psychonomic Society, 2011-08) Wilson, Stuart; Darling, Stephen; Sykes, S.
A pelmanism (matched-pairs) game was used in order to test the hypothesis that survival-relevant stimuli that are likely to have been present during human evolution (e.g. a snake in attack position) enjoy a memory advantage over other survival-relevant (but modern-) stimuli (e.g. a threatening image of a gunman). Survival-relevant stimuli were matched for arousal, and presented in one of two 5x4 grids along with filler items. Participants were asked to match the pairs in the grids by clicking on successive squares to reveal stimuli. Participants made significantly fewer errors when matching evolutionarily relevant- survival stimuli compared to other stimuli. Additionally, on incorrect trials, attempted matches were significantly closer to the location of evolutionarily relevant targets than for other stimuli. Results suggest that objects which likely posed a consistent threat throughout human evolutionary history are better remembered than other, equally arousing and survival relevant, stimuli.
Adolescence: Traditional bullying
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2020-01-13) Jones, Sian; Hupp, Stephen; Jewell, Jeremy
This entry gives a brief overview of the field of traditional bullying in adolescence, reviewing research internationally on the topic, to outline our current understanding of the problem. The entry begins by defining traditional bullying and its prevalence. Following this is a consideration of how traditional bullying manifests in adolescence, and its potential psychological developmental underpinnings at this life stage. Attention is also paid to the risk factors that increase the likelihood of traditional bullying in adolescence, and to the social context in which it plays out. The entry concludes with a review of intervention strategies that have demonstrated some success in reducing traditional bullying in this age group.
Adult developmental trajectories of pseudoneglect in the tactile, visual and auditory modalities and the influence of starting position and stimulus length
(Elsevier, 2016-02-04) Brooks, Joanna L.; Darling, Stephen; Malvaso, Catia; Della Sala, Sergio
Pseudoneglect is a tendency to pay more attention to the left side of space, typically demonstrated on tasks like visuo-spatial line bisection, tactile rod bisection and the mental representation of numbers. The developmental trajectory of this bias on these three tasks is not fully understood. In the current study younger participants aged between 18 and 40 years of age and older participants aged between 55 and 90 years conducted three spatial tasks: 1) visuospatial line bisection - participants were asked to bisect visually presented lines of different lengths at the perceived midpoint; 2) touch-driven tactile rod bisection in the absence of vision - participants were asked to feel the length of a wooden rod with their index finger and bisect the rod at the perceived centre; and 3) mental number line bisection in the absence of vision - participants were asked to listen to a pair of numbers and respond with the numerical midpoint between the pair. The results showed that both younger and older participants demonstrated pseudoneglect (leftward biases) in the visual, tactile and mental number line tasks and that the magnitude of pseudoneglect for each group was influenced by physical or mentally represented starting side (start left versus start right) and stimulus length. We provide an exploration of pseudoneglect in younger and older adults in different tasks that vary in the degree to which mental representations are accessed and argue that pseudoneglect is a result of a right hemisphere attentional orienting process that is retained throughout adulthood. Our results indicate that, contrary to some current models of cognitive ageing, asymmetrical patterns of hemispheric activity may occur in older age.
Adult Learning on the Edge of a Precipice: an ecology of living and learning
(2022-12-23) Bainbridge, Alan
This article considers adult learning from a ‘long-life’ perspective. Stepping out of con-temporary frames that position adult learning as ‘life-long’ or even ‘life-wide’ enables a discussion of adult learning as an evolutionary informed, ecologically meaningful activity. In taking this approach, the paper shows how adult learning has evolved and been maintained by trouble, indeed how the human condition is under continual existential threat. The paper will draw on writings that discuss the evolutionary origins of adult learning, particularly the paradox that humans are both part of, and separate from, the ‘more-than-human’ world (Abram, 1997). The focus of this paper will be on the experience, conscious or unconscious, of living under the continual threat of annihilation and how this may have provided the motive for adult learning behaviours in both our hominid ancestors and contemporary society.The paper begins with a discussion to highlight the nature of human life as one that is always under threat by drawing on religious symbolism, poetry and (in the UK at least) an ever-expanding genre of ‘nature writing’. Having explored what it may feel like to live a life where survival is uncertain, the paper then draws on ecological and evolutionary principles to provide a theoretical ‘long-life’ understanding of adult learning. It is admitted at the outset that the route set out here may appear contradictory, even confusing, but the author asks the reader to first enter into an uncomfortable and troubling world, before the author, finally – despite what might sound like a bleak prospect for humanity – provides resources of hope grounded in the paradoxical potential provided by adult learning.