bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
‘Understanding your baby’: A course for parents and carers
Authors: Hunter Rebecca , Ranger Sue
Published: January 2023

‘Understanding your baby’ is a four-week psychoeducational group for parents/carers of 0-6-month-old infants, designed to increase parental knowledge and confidence. This paper outlines the development, implementation and evaluation of the course.
Crafting psychological support for children and families
Authors: Mundy Pippa
Published: January 2023

With services facing pressure it is important to be aware of the models underpinning practice. Reflecting upon working as a psychologist in a specialist team for children with intellectual disability, some practice principles are outlined.
Research Paper 'Unless everyone's covert guerrilla-like social justice practitioners…': A preliminary study exploring social justice in UK counselling psychology
Authors: Winter Laura Anne , Hanley Terry
Published: January 2023

Background

The discipline of applied psychology has begun to reflect more explicitly on the social justice values and practices of the profession. This paper presents the first stage of research in a larger project aiming to explore ‘social justice’ in applied psychology in the UK, and takes as its focus the branch of counselling psychology.

Aim

To explore how members of the UK counselling psychology profession understand social justice, and act on their commitment to it.

Method

Interviews were conducted with six individuals who had at least a moderate interest in and commitment to social justice, as assessed by the Social Issues Questionnaire. Data were analysed using techniques from the grounded theory approach.

Findings

Themes included participants’ understandings of social justice both on a theoretical and a personal level, and the perceived fit between social justice and counselling psychology. Participants reported a perception of a lack of social justice action and reflected on potential difficulties associated with engaging in social justice action.

Discussion

Implications for the international counselling psychology profession are reflected on. Directions for further research are outlined.
Attitudes towards disability in society viewed through the lens of critical disability theory: An analysis ofMe Before You
Authors: Ingham Esther
Published: January 2023

Purpose:

Using a recent, widely-distributed film (that provoked strong reactions and protest across the globe) as its focus, this paper attempts to illustrate the construction of disability as created by the able-bodied majority to be primarily a societal issue of inequality and social justice.

Methods:

Analysis of the film is made using the component parts of Critical Disability Theory (CDT) as a framework with which to identify and disentangle factors that reveal the social construction of disability.

Results/Findings:

The paper identifies factors that, combined, form a dark and potentially sinister objective conceptualisation of disability by the able-bodied that sees disability as a fate worse than death.

Discussion/Conclusions:

By bringing to life through analysis the assertion that ‘the personal is political’, the paper suggests that maintaining a reflexive awareness of such negative portrayals of disability is an ethical obligation of counselling psychologists as ambassadors of social justice.
Counselling psychologists’ anti-discriminatory awareness and practice in the UK: Exploring the relationship between self-awareness of beliefs and attitudes in relation to difference and diversity and therapeutic practice
Authors: Campbell-Balcom Maureen , Martin-Berg Tasim
Published: January 2023

Background & Aims:

Research suggests that a therapist who works dynamically with their own explicit and implicit beliefs and attitudes, sourced in their own multilayered lived experience, may be better able to appreciate, and more accurately perceive, a clients’ lived experience. This study aims to explore counselling psychologists’ narratives around anti-discriminatory practice and to examine how counselling psychologists utilise self-awareness to make meaning of and to address the influence of potentially biasing explicit and implicit beliefs, on the therapeutic process in relation to difference and diversity.

Method:

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six qualified counselling psychologists who graduated from UK-based counselling psychology doctoral programmes within five years previous to the study. Verbatim transcripts of the interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).

Findings:

The analysis produced three master themes: ‘Views toward anti-discriminatory practice’; ‘Reflections on self-awareness of beliefs and attitudes in relation to difference and diversity’; and ‘Actively working with difference and diversity in the therapy room’.

Conclusion:

The findings substantiate counselling psychologist’s multifaceted and critical stance on anti-discriminatory practice. Participants were conscious of and sensitive to the relationship between self-awareness of potentially biasing beliefs and attitudes in relation to difference and diversity and therapeutic practice. Moreover, the findings suggest that core humanistic therapeutic skills, when aided by self-awareness and a reflective practice, can monitor potentially biasing and prejudicial attitudes in Counselling Psychology practice, thus providing a foundation for ADP from a counselling psychology perspective.
Dancing at the aliens’ ball: The waltz of the wounded healer
Authors: Bond Patricia M.
Published: January 2023

A narrative of my developmental trauma is presented. This trauma would not hit the headlines – it was ‘ordinary’, nobody’s fault, just ‘one of those things’. It did however have follow-on effects on emotional difficulties I had as a teenager and adult, on life choices, and on later becoming, and working as, a counsellor. I suggest the metaphor of dance as illustrating the benefit of having a trauma history.
My body my self
Authors: Staunton Tree
Published: January 2023

This article represents a brief overview of 40 years as a therapist, from my first role in the NHS to my work today. It describes my struggle to become embodied and to learn to understand and integrate my body’s messages over time. It suggests that the body is a vital part of the therapeutic process, encompassing concepts of embodiment and body identity, the body as character and messenger of the unconscious, the keeper of the psyche’s secrets, dreams and memories. In reflecting on our current global climate crisis it suggests how psychological insights and connection to our embodied selves can assist us to come to terms with our future on a critically endangered planet.
Promoting the emotional well-being of teaching staff in secondary schools
Authors: Salter-Jones Ellie
Published: January 2023

The emphasis on schools to promote pupils’ emotional well-being (EWB) has taken prominence in Government initiatives over the last 10 years. Initially focused within primary education, more recent publications have drawn attention to pupils’ EWB within secondary education, as well as the promotion of teaching staffs’ EWB. The prevalence of occupational stress and its negative impact upon teaching staffs’ EWB is increasing. There has been little exploration into the views of teaching staff and pupils concerning the implementation of EWB initiatives and the associated impact on teaching staffs’ daily practice and their own EWB.

This paper is based on, and includes, extracts from research carried out during initial Educational Psychology doctoral training at the University of Sheffield (Salter, 2010). This research used a grounded theory (GT) methodological approach. Category themes emerged that outlined psychosocial processes involved in the whole school promotion of pupils and teaching staffs’ EWB in one secondary school. This paper presents a summary of themes arising from the research: the stressors teaching staff face and the impact on their EWB; benefits and barriers that staff experience when promoting pupils’ EWB; examples of current practice which promote teaching staffs’ EWB; and the role of the Educational Psychologist (EP) in supporting teaching staff EWB. All of these are grounded within the sampled views and experiences of pupils, teaching staff and EPs.

Recommendations are made for EPs and secondary schools regarding the implementation and implications of associated systems which promote the EWB of teaching staff.
Pre-service teachers’ weekly commitment and engagement during a final training placement: A longitudinal mixed methods study
Authors: Durksen Tracy L. , Klassen Robert M.
Published: January 2023

Training to become a teacher is a psychologically demanding experience, with fluctuations in professional commitment and engagement in a brief but intense time frame. This longitudinal mixed methods study examines patterns of commitment and engagement during a final teaching practicum, and offers ways that educational psychologists and other professionals can support the well-being of pre-service and beginning teachers during their professional training and beyond. We examined responses to measures of professional commitment and engagement administered weekly to 150 pre-service teachers (mean age of 25.7 years) during a nine-week final teaching practicum. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant, non-linear (U-shaped) patterns for commitment and engagement, with no significant influence from the contextual factors of age, gender, or teaching level. A multiple-case qualitative design with two contrasting cases highlighted the variability of pre-service teachers’ experiences in the practicum, and also underscored the critical influence of job resources (e.g. support from education professionals) and personal resources on professional commitment and engagement. Based on our findings of the changeable nature of commitment and engagement during the practicum, we provide guidance for ways in which educational psychologists and other education professionals can provide support to novice teachers.
Pupil wellbeing – Teacher wellbeing: Two sides of the same coin?
Authors: Roffey Sue
Published: January 2023

There is now a strong body of evidence (e.g. Hattie, 2009; Roorda et al., 2011) that confirms the value of positive teacher-student relationships for learning and behaviour. The quality of relationships in a school, however, also impacts on teacher wellbeing and their ability to cope well with the many and varied stresses that are the hallmarks of the profession. Teacher attrition is a major concern in the Western world – how teachers feel makes a difference to their ability to respond effectively to the challenges they face.

This article explores issues of social capital within the learning environment and how this impacts on all stakeholders within an ecological framework. It examines how teacher resilience might be enhanced by specific actions that promote positive feelings of belonging, respect, value, and trust. The article examines international research on these issues, including a specific qualitative study in six schools in Australia. Findings are confirmed and illustrated by an online survey on student wellbeing.
A preliminary evaluation of presenter effects in the delivery of abuse prevention interventions: Teacher and survivor perspectives
Authors: Barron Ian , Matthew Laurie
Published: January 2023

Few efficacy studies have explored the differences between types of presenter delivering school-based child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention programmes. This study was motivated by research which indicated that survivor presenters received substantially more disclosures of abuse than teacher presenters. Survivor experience suggested presenter beliefs about abuse may underlie these differences. The current exploratory study seeks to compare the beliefs of teachers and adult CSA survivor presenters in delivering programmes. An exploratory in-depth quasi-qualitative analysis is conducted on interview data from three guidance teachers, three primary school teachers and three adult survivors (CSA) following delivery of the Violence is Preventable programme. Findings suggest adult survivors held a more explicit goal and higher expectations of disclosure, sought to encourage more energised and interactive group processes and were more likely to emphasise children’s rights and safety. Teachers valued having survivors available for advice but were concerned at times about pupil behaviour. Both teachers and survivors thought parents needed to be more involved in the programme. Recommendations include increased opportunity for programmes to be delivered by adult survivors alongside teachers, with evaluation embedded into everyday programme delivery.
Position paper: Universal psychology under threat? A reflection on how systems changes are impacting on communities, services and applied psychology
Authors: Rouf Khadj
Published: January 2023

This is a polemical paper rather than a ‘scientific’ paper. It focusses on how systemic changes to public services are impacting on children, families and communities. It is argued that the implementation of neoliberal ideology is rolling back the welfare state, undermining the social justice principles on which it was founded, having profound effects on the fabric of society and potentially making public services less effective in meeting the needs of vulnerable people. Psychologists have skills in working systemically and with individuals to alleviate suffering and improve life chances. It is argued that current policy of shrinking the welfare state and privatising public services is creating conditions which will increase social exclusion and have detrimental impacts on the health and well-being of many people. Economic and political policy has not been the usual territory of psychologists and there may be nervousness about straying out of our ‘neutral’ positions. However, it is proposed that psychology, in fostering universal psychology initiatives for the benefit of all, cannot afford to be apolitical as the values underlying our work are now under attack. It is suggested that we now need to act as a profession to challenge social injustice and lobby for social change. It is possible to do this without aligning to one political party, but from a values-based position. However, it is acknowledged that this is a complex position to maintain, given that some political movements are more aligned to neoliberal ideology than others.
A qualitative investigation of implementation of app-based maths instruction for young learners
Authors: Gulliford Anthea , Walton Jodie , Allison Kate , Pitchford Nicola
Published: January 2023

Aim:Tablet technology can play a valuable role in supporting learning for primary school children, but its implementation for children in the early years or for with those with learning delays has received limited focus. The aim of this study was to enhance understanding of the interaction between child, technology, and conditions for implementation; fundamental to optimising the role that technology can play in the education of young learners.

Method:Qualitative data was gathered during two controlled efficacy studies (Walton 2018; Allison 2019). Semi-structured interviews explored the perspectives of teachers and teaching assistants regarding the utility, implementation and perceived outcomes of one maths app for young learners. This interview data was synthesised here.

Findings:Thematic analysis of the synthesised data highlighted child prerequisite skills, features of the app and implementation conditions were perceived to support early learning and engagement. Critical examination yielded a model of app-based early maths learning that considers learning through the complex interaction of four key dimensions: child, app, facilitator, and learning environment.

Limitations:Findings are restricted to the circumstances of these studies, so further studies, in other contexts, are needed to explore transferability of these results.

Conclusions:This synthesis is consonant with emerging theorising for mobile technology in education (Bernacki et al., 2020), highlighting the complex interaction of technology and context in achieving educational gains. It can inform the work of educators and psychologists supporting young or delayed learners, serving as a guide to utilising technology effectively, to optimise provision and thereby the achievement of young learners.
Black feminist epistemology: An opportunity for educational psychology praxis
Authors: Mngaza Siya
Published: January 2023

Aim(s):Educational psychology, whilst a helping profession, was heavily influenced by oppressive and racist ideas during its infancy. Over the last several decades, EPs have been invited to hold a mirror up to the profession with regard to racial justice. The aim of this paper is to offer a critical exploration of epistemic issues within educational psychology, to provide an alternative and potentially impactful way of understanding the current moment of racial ‘reckoning’ that we find ourselves in.

Rationale:Educational psychologists use a range of tools and approaches within research and practice. The emergence of intelligence testing marked the spearheading of oppressive social policy worldwide. Viewing these phenomena epistemologically invites us to explore where we have committed epistemic violence, particularly in the case of black children, how blind spots may emerge again and how to build frameworks that will avoid this. The current paper presents black feminist epistemology as a framework that is inclusive, requires an interrogation of power in knowledge systems and requires practitioners to question and challenge taken for granted knowledge.

Implications:A key implication of adopting a black feminist epistemology is that educational psychologists explicitly locate the historical racial and political context of educational psychology praxis to better serve children and families.

Conclusions:At the centre of this paper, is the fallacy of objectivity. The paper attempts to unpack the ‘neutrality myth’ and how this has impacted the tools and perspectives within educational psychology. EPs are invited to explore the basic tenets of a black feminist epistemology, which enables us to ask incisive questions about our identity, our relationship to knowledge and therefore our effectiveness as relevant practitioners in an increasingly complex social world.
An exploration of strength-based consultation; The Tree of Change
Authors: Williamson LeMarra
Published: January 2023

Aims

This paper presents and evaluates the consultation model Tree of Change (ToC) which offers an alternative approach to traditional problem-solving consultation frameworks for practice in educational psychology. ToC aims to resolve many of the issues associated with the traditional deficit models by enhancing the positive developmental pathways of pupils through augmenting their strengths, as opposed to focusing solely on reducing or eliminating the stated issue of concern (Donovan & Nickerson, 2007; Nickerson & Fishman, 2013; Resiliency Initiatives, 2011).

Method

This study was set within diverse ethnic and socio-economic communities based in north and east London. The researcher used a qualitative case study design. For the purpose of this study, case studies have been defined as a strategy for carrying out an investigation of a particular occurrence within the context of ‘the real world’ (Robson, 2011). The present study fits within Robson’s notion of a ‘set of individual case studies’ because it involves the study of a common set of features (e.g. exploring the implementation of ToC) across eleven consultations: nine Educational Psychologist (EP)and two EP-Teacher-Parent-pupil consultations. In total four EPs participated in the study all of whom were female. Eleven case studies were generated as a result of this: EP A submitting one case study, EP B submitting five cases, EP C submitting three cases and EP D providing two cases. The ethnicity of the EPs were black British, white British and Italian. The ethnicity of the consultees is reported in appendix 3. Consultation meetings were facilitated by EPs using the ToC model, please refer to appendix 1.

Findings

Evaluation data revealed the ToC approach generated pupils’ strengths at different levels of ecology which influenced action plans by affecting the choice of strategy and/or target of interventions for young people.

Limitations

Data purported that information about the ToC should be shared in advance of consultation meetings so that consultees can better prepare and familiarise themselves with the process. Using the ToC virtually reportedly reduced relational connections when compared to engaging in this process face-to-face.

Conclusions

The ToC is a collaborative consultation framework which creates positive developmental pathways for pupils through augmenting their strengths and reducing the emphasis placed on their deficits. The process promotes shared understanding of pupil’s narratives and empowers marginalised voices.
Community Psychology: Why this Gap in Britain?
Authors: Burton Mark , Kagan Carolyn
Published: January 2023

Community psychology has developed in other parts of the world, but not in the UK. We contrast the development of psychology, in its wider social context, between 1960 and 1980 in the UK and the USA, in order to try to understand some of the reasons for the absence of community psychology in the UK A scheme of enquiry is proposed which includes exploration of the different social policy contexts; ways in which the ideological and theoretical character ofpsychology equipped psychologists to use opportunities arising in the broader social context; analysis of the availability of appropriately oriented psychology graduates; and the relative absence of other community orientated workers. It is argued that each of these factors illuminates key differences between the USA and the UK in terms of the development of community psychology. It is suggested that contemporary social conditions in the UK may facilitate moves towards a more community-focused psychology.
Personal Construct Theory, Phenomenology and Pragmatism
Authors: Butt Trevor
Published: January 2023

Personal Construct Theory (PCT) is unusual among personality theories in that it makes explicit its philosophical position: constructive alternativism. However, Kelly (1955) did not detail its philosophical origins. Kelly’s model of the person as an ‘incipient scientist’ followed the work of John Dewey and George Mead. It saw the person as a centre for agency, constructing theories on which action is based. The theory is phenomenological in that it sees personality in terms of the different ways in which things appear to people. It is paradoxical that while phenomenology and pragmatism are now influential in social psychology, PCT (which is in a good position to elaborate the agency/structure debate, so important in social psychology) remains a marginal theory in psychology. It is argued that Kelly’s model of ‘man the scientist’ and a lack of understanding of PCT’s philosophical roots both contribute to this. The article outlines the philosophical basis of PCT and considers an alternative model of ‘person as author’, which brings it into line with the narrative approaches that are more central to the discipline of social psychology.
Waveney Bushell: A Pioneering Black Educational Psychologist
Authors: Aiyegbayo Olaojo
Published: January 2023

This article provides a brief account of the life and work of Waveney Bushell (b.1928), one of Britain’s first black female psychologists. As an educational psychologist, Bushell affected the lives of many West Indian children in Croydon, some of whom were wrongfully sent to Educationally Subnormal (ESN) schools in the 1960s and 1970s. Waveney Bushell herself faced prejudice and discrimination during her 22-year career. She was, for example, never recommended for senior psychologist posts in the Croydon School Psychological Services, despite her impressive career record.
The Evolution of Intellect: A Brief Account
Authors: Wetherick N. E.
Published: January 2023

Organisms depend for their survival on luck and on their capacity to extract predictive rules from their own personal environment to supplement whatever innate response tendencies they were endowed with. This capacity I call “intellect” which is here a technical term applicable to all organisms. To complete the evolutionary project it will be as necessary to show how human intellect evolved from that of lower animal species as to account for human bodily structure in the same terms. The first task of intellect is to extract predictive rules from the environment – this is possible, in principle, because the external world is law-governed. The organism does this first on the basis of its successful predictions and, in mammals, on the basis of unsuccessful predictions as well. The mammal has evolved the capacity to have in mind a goal object, enabling it to perceive when the object is not present in its perceptual field as well as when it is. Possession of a mental goal object vastly increases the mammal’s predictive power and provides a foundation from which the human conscious mind can evolve. Only the human organism has evolved a capacity to form second order (internal) links between patterns of activity in the central nervous system, as well as first order links between such patterns and states of the external world (possessed by all organisms). Second order links permit language, self-awareness, hypothetical reasoning and many other specifically human capacities but they all appear to require no more than quantitative increases in the complexity of interconnections in the central nervous system.
Against Reason? Art and Psychoanalysis
Authors: Sayers Janet
Published: January 2023

In this article I demonstrate, with examples from art and psychoanalysis, ways in which (a) Freud replaced directed with non-directed free association reasoning, and (b) post-Freudians, notably Merleau-Ponty and Bion, drew attention to the inter-subjective factors involved in bringing this form of reasoning into being.
‘Where there is a will there is a way’: The late Victorians on psychology and the will
Authors: Smith Roger
Published: January 2023

The question of human agency in nature, while humans are part of nature, and the corresponding topic of the will, gave rise to perplexed comment in the Victorian period. This continues. I discuss the psychology and philosophy in central contributions to the late Victorian intellectual debate, with an eye on recent claims that the will is an illusion. The paper re-examines James Ward and G. F. Stout, in particular, to suggest that there is more of interest in their theories of mental activity than their reputation as outmoded in an age of experimental science might suggest.
Free will in the eye of neuroscientific reductionism: The need for a philosophical foundation of moral neuropsychology
Authors: Bellino Raffaello M
Published: January 2023

Folk moral psychology, conceived as theprescientific commonsense conceptual frameworkpertaining to the domain of morality and ethics, has been considered along the centuries as one of the most versatile apparatuses for the interpretation of an individual’s moral life. With the ascent of moral neuropsychology, reflection on the possibility of re-interpreting the old concepts of folk moral psychology into newer neuroscientific notions has become a matter for debate in the general scientific community, as well as in the philosophical and psychological ones. Central to the aim of the scientific comprehension of folk moral psychology are the philosophical concepts ofvoluntarinessandfree will, which seem to support the entire domain of meanings related to folk moral psychology. The thesis we want to set forth is as follows: the neuroscientific criticism of the concept of afree will, as conceived in folk moral psychology, is not based on neuroscientific data (a posteriori critique), as would be expected, but, on the contrary, it is unconsciously based on the prescientific comprehension of neuroscientific data (VorurteileandVorverständnisin hermeneutical terms), such as the principle of causal closure in the physical world (a metaphysical principle of science), which ought still to be demonstrated (a priori critique). A philosophical foundation of moral neuropsychology is thus not only an end worth wishing for, but it becomes necessary to the aim of achieving a sound practice of the neurosciences.
Notions of insanity in a seventeenth century Scottish legal case
Authors: Miller Ed
Published: January 2023

In a legal action in 1669, the will of Jean Stewart was disputed on the grounds that the testator was ‘furious’ and hence incapable of making a valid will. This raises the question as to how contemporaries conceptualised madness and how they determined whether someone was insane. By examining a pleading, that of the advocate on behalf of the will’s main beneficiary, indications are obtained as to contemporary notions of insanity based on Galenic medicine incorporating humoralism and animalistic models. The pleading also illustrates the kinds of evidence used to determine whether a person was ‘furious’ or not. In this, the views of Scottish and English jurists appear to have been very similar. Another interesting aspect of the case is that it suggests the use of medical testimony in determining madness almost a century before its first recognised use in English courts.
A Philosopher among Psychologists: The Tale of a Lion in a Den of Daniels.
Authors: Wetherick N. E.
Published: January 2023

My career in psychology began in 1960. Before that I was a philosopher mainly interested in mind and logic. In psychology I was surprised to find that, though such matters were of interest and were subjected to experimental test, the procedures employed were not usually parallel to the procedures required in real-world thinking, so the results obtained did not contribute to our understanding of the latter which was presumably the object of the exercise. I managed to publish some papers that did not have this deficit, but was unable to convince anyone else that it mattered. I shall consider several paradigms from that period – Bruner, Goodnow & Austin (1956), Wason (1960 & 1969) and Johnson-Laird (1983) among others.

At that time there was no way of investigating directly what went on in the brain, but in the last twenty years such methods have become available (principally fMRI). As a philosopher, I had taken it for granted that immaterial mind was ruled out a priori; all our behaviour and experience, conscious or other, is the result of brain activity. I find it unsurprising that workers in the area can link parts of behaviour and experience directly with activity in parts of the brain (e.g. London taxi-drivers have larger route-memory areas). It has been shown that some individual neurons are part of, e.g., a circuit corresponding to the recognition of a particular face. But how far can such investigations be carried? The complexity of these phenomena is comparable only with that of the world weather system, which we cannot predict more than about 10–14 days in advance.
Whatever Happened to Ethology? The Case for the Fixed Action Pattern in Psychology.
Authors: Salzen Eric A.
Published: January 2023

In the 1950s ethology entered British psychology as an antidote to learning theory, as a re-incarnation of instinct theory, and as a paradigm for human attachment processes. In the 1970s it became simply the study of “natural” behaviour in an evolutionary framework and was replaced by socio-biology and evolutionary psychology, in which species comparisons and evolutionary relationships enable adaptational (i.e. functional) explanations of human behaviours. Ethological theory had been abandoned. Yet the concept of the fixed action pattern (FAP) is the behavioural equivalent of the species in biology. Both identify constancies in variety. Together with the concepts sign stimulus, innate releaser, specific action potential (SAP), displacement activity, appetitive and consummatory behaviour, complex behaviour can be understood as interacting elements for which there should be neuro-hormonal and genetic systems (i.e. mechanisms). An analysis of the nature of emotion using ethological theory is presented as an example. Neuro-ethological work began in the 1960s with brain lesions and stimulation, and continues with modern technologies. For example, syllables in bird song (FAPs?) are correlated with activity in a striatal brain region (HVc) and a gene (FoxP2) – a gene that affects speech. An outline of the ethology and neuro-ethology of speech is presented.
The Recent History of Concepts of ‘Dangerousness’ in Mental Health Law in the UK
Authors: Atkinson Jacqueline M , Reilly Jacquie
Published: January 2023

This paper considers how the concept of dangerousness has been used in mental health legislation in the UK, with emphasis on the recent media interest in the public safety agenda as it relates to people with a mental disorder. The 1990s saw the media focus on the reporting of violent acts by people with a mental illness and, particularly, personality disorder and the need for the psychiatric services to manage such people. This became a major focus for the political debate in England during the review of the Mental Health Act, but much less so in Scotland, where the matter was dealt with through the separate channels of the MacLean committee. The results have led to the development of new services for people with personality disorder with the involvement of clinical psychologists. In England this is through the Dangerous and Severe Personality (DPSD) Programme and in Scotland through the Risk Management Authority.
Some Limitations of the Biopsychosocial Model
Authors: Pilgrim David
Published: January 2023

The biopsychosocial model of physical and mental health problems has developed a strong legitimacy in the academy. It is put forward episodically as a laudable holistic rationale for the study of health and as a useful bridge between psychology and medicine. It has a very strong appeal in health psychology because it is a realist paradigm (and so is consistent with the traditional objectivist aspirations of the discipline). This paper provides a critical analysis of the current status of the model, attending to its potential alignment with General Systems Theory but also drawing attention to its continuing problem with medical, especially psychiatric, constructs.
Tiny Brains, Big Psychologies: How Ants Changed Our Understanding of the Mind
Authors: Sleigh Charlotte
Published: January 2023

InMental Evolution in Animals(1883), George Romanes wrestled with the relationship between brain size and intelligence. He could not quite bring himself to say that a creature with a brain so tiny as the ant’s was truly complex in its psychology. However, Romanes was radically out of step with the psychological developments that were shortly to follow, starting in continental Europe and spreading to the US. Beginning with the Swiss psychiatrist Auguste Forel, theorists began to dissociate ants’ psychology from their (limited) physical brains. As in the nineteenth century, the family Formicidae continued to provide one of psychology’s greatest riddles, but ants’ minds now became dispersed across the colony, rather than residing in the individual brain. This paper explores how that physical unseating of the mind interplayed with human concerns of the twentieth century, and with the differing ontologies of human psychology associated with them.
Shotter’s legacy
Authors: Cromby John , Corcoran Tim
Published: January 2023

In order to mark the significance of John Shotter’s life and work, this paper sets out and reflects upon two of his central concepts and emphasises their ongoing relevance. Shotter’s work is first situated in its intellectual and cultural-historical contexts. His linked concepts of ‘joint action’ and ‘knowing of the third kind’ are then briefly explained, and their relevance for recent social science developments including the ‘new materialism’ and the ‘affective turn’ is highlighted. We conclude that, in these turbulent times, Shotter’s is a legacy of hopeful aspiration.
British Psychology and the Media: Cyril Burt at the BBC
Authors: Michael Chamarette R.
Published: January 2023

Any balanced assessment of Cyril Burt’s historical significance needs to transcend older genres of the ‘Burt Affair’ and of the ‘great man’, with their emphasis upon Burt’s agency and influence within the theory and practice of psychology in Britain in the early and mid-twentieth century. In line with more contemporary approaches, Burt provides a case study that addresses the wider question of how psychological thought and practice mediated understanding of the self, and the intersection of differing views of human nature with a range of social, economic, political and ethical issues. In particular, there are issues of the nature of psychology, the authority of its exponents, and its relevance to the anxieties and aspirations of the British public during the interwar period. Two themes exemplify this – public confusion of psychology with Freudian psychoanalysis and both with the study of sex, and secondly the role psychologists as public scientific intellectuals. Any omission of Burt from these broader considerations risks distortion of our understanding of both psychology and of Britain during this period.
A grounded theory study of the value derived by women in financial services through a coaching intervention to help them identify their strengths and practise using them in the workplace
Authors: Elston Francesca , Boniwell Ilona
Published: January 2023

Objectives:There are several definitions of strengths within psychology, united by a common theme: strengths are what people do best and most easily. Research shows that actively using strengths provides a range of benefits, and suggests that strengths-based coaching is a valuable approach. This study’s purpose was to investigate strengths-based coaching using qualitative methods, concentrating on the experience of the coachee.

Design:The study explored what happened when six women in financial services practised using their strengths at work, through a coaching intervention and the VIA strengths inventory. Through three semi-structured interviews centred around a coaching intervention, participants described their experience using strengths, and the effects of greater awareness and practice of strengths.

Methods:The data was analysed using grounded theory. The value of strengths emerged as the central phenomenon, consisting of eight sub-themes: positive emotion, inspiring action, attention to the positive, feeling authentic, awareness of own value, valuing difference, sense of achievement and positive reflections from others.

Results:The study found that all participants derived value from using strengths. This appeared to lead to a ‘virtuous circle’: this positive benefit reduced the intervening factors that previously impeded using strengths. The virtuous circle was not identical for each participant, but all experienced it.

Conclusions:The study finds ways in which women may use strengths and gain value from using strengths in the workplace. This has practical implications for those wishing to improve their workplace experience and increase engagement with work, and for those who coach and employ them.
A pilot study evaluating strengths-based coaching for primary school students: Enhancing engagement and hope
Authors: Madden Wendy , Green Suzy , Grant Anthony M.
Published: January 2023

Objective:This pilot study examines the impact of an evidence-based strengths coaching programme on male primary school students’ levels of engagement and hope.

Design:In a within-subject design study, 38 Year Five male students (mean age 10.7 years) participated in a strengths-based coaching programme as part of their Personal Development/Health programme at an independent, private primary school in Sydney, Australia.

Method:Participants were randomly allocated to groups of four or five with each group receiving eight coaching sessions over two school terms. The Youth Values in Action survey was used to highlight participant’s character strengths, and the participants were coached in identifying personally meaningful goals, and in being persistent in their goal-striving, as well as finding novel ways to use their signature strengths. They also completed a ‘Letter from the future’ that involved writing about themselves at their best.

Results:The strengths-based coaching pilot programme was associated with significant increases in the students’ self-reported levels of engagement and hope.

Conclusions:Strengths-based coaching programmes may be considered as potential mental health prevention and promotion intervention in a primary school setting to increase students’ wellbeing and may also form an important part of an overall Positive Education Programme.
Back to basics: How the discovery of transference is relevant for coaches and consultants today
Authors: de Haan Erik
Published: January 2023

Purpose:In this study the phenomenon of transference (and parallel process) is explored in terms of its historical understanding and possible occurrences in real life sessions with clients.

Design/Methodology:After a summary of the main historical breakthroughs in the discoveries of defences, resistance, transference, countertransference, working alliance and parallel process; this process of discovery itself, which parallels the discovery of these phenomena in coach training and in new client relationships, is reversed to reveal a sensible approach to working with new clients in such a way that one makes maximum use of information that comes through countertransference, transference and informing layers underneath.

Results:It is shown that Freud’s approach to the phenomenon of transference is still relevant today and particularly within organisational contexts. Moreover the article shows that the discovery process of transference, both by Freud and others and by new practitioners entering the field today, can be reversed to yield an approach to new clients which helps to understand them more fully earlier on in the relationship.

Conclusions:Transference is still a very lively and relevant topic a good century after its first discovery. Coaches would do well to notice transference phenomena within themselves and their clients.
Moderating factors of the Van Egmond Coaching Model (VECM)
Authors: Bouwer Johan , van Egmond Jacoba
Published: January 2023

Objectives:

Identifying those (moderating) factors that are instrumental in the successful completion of a coaching trajectory that is based on the Van Egmond Coaching Model (VECM).

Design:

Qualitative.

Methods:

Data were collected by means of three questionnaires: a semi-structured questionnaire for the clients; a semi-structured questionnaire for the clients’ managers; and a regular evaluation form for the coach. The authors of this paper analysed the data manually, first independently from each other and then again, in a joint session.

Results:

The most important moderating factors of the VECM appeared to be the client’s readiness to change (will), the client-coach relationship, the manager’s role and the coach’s expertise.

Conclusions:

Most of the outcomes of this study were (structurally) congruous to those of earlier studies. Remarkably, ‘relationship’ and ‘will’ were valued higher in this study, and managers assumed their own roles in the success of coaching to be more significant than was perceived by clients. Follow-up studies, particularly into the role of managers, the precise nature and role of the will of clients, the assessment of the client-coach relationship in various contexts, the effects and role of the coach’s gender and the extent to which familiarity with the theoretical building blocks of the VECM has an influence on interpreting the coaching effects are recommended.
Coaching as a learning methodology – a mixed methods study in driver development using a randomised controlled trial and thematic analysis
Authors: Passmore Jonathan , Rehman Hannah
Published: January 2023

Objectives:

This mixed methods study reviewed the role of coaching in the driver development environment. The study sought to explore the impact of coaching as a learning methodology and to compare this with an instruction-based approach.

Design:

The study involved a mixed methods sequential design. The first part of the study was a randomised controlled trial (RCT) and the second part of the study used semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis.

Methods:

The RCT element of the study involved participants being randomly allocated to one of two learning groups. In the first group participants were trained by driving instructors trained in coaching skills using a blended method of coaching and instruction. In the second group participants were trained by driving instructors using solely an instruction approach. In total 208 participants took part with 24 driving instructors delivering the coaching or instruction across the two groups. In the qualitative part of the research, four driving instructors and seven learners were interviewed using semi-structured interviews and the data analysed using thematic analysis.

Results:

The quantitative study revealed that coaching was a more effective and efficient method for learning in this context. The independent samples t-tests indicated significant differences with learners in the coaching group spending less time in training (p<0.01) and being more likely to pass their test on the first attempt (p<0.01). The coaching group also had fewer attempts to pass the assessment (p<0.01) than the instruction group. The qualitative study suggested that from this group that both learners and ‘instructors’ observed positive aspects to the coaching style of learning. This was strongest for instructors who suggested coaching facilitated an improved relationship and helped the learner to learn more quickly.
What is personality change coaching and why is it important?
Authors: Martin Lesley S. , Oades Lindsay G. , Caputi Peter
Published: January 2023

Purpose:

This article explores the concept of coaching for personality change. The aim is to evaluate the feasibility and desirability of personality change, clarify how this fits with coaching, identify a suitable personality model and measure, and propose directions for future research.

Method:

The above aim is achieved through reference to the literature around the following questions: Is personality change possible and desirable? Is coaching a suitable medium to achieve this? How does this fit with and expand upon the current coaching literature? What personality model and inventory would suit this process? What coaching resources and future research are needed?

Results:

A growing body of research suggests that personality can change in the short-term in response to life events, in different social environments and via medical, therapeutic and coaching interventions. Although intentional and targeted personality change research is limited, these findings suggest it is indeed possible. As even small positive changes in personality have been associated with widespread benefits, personality change coaching appears worthwhile. One-to-one coaching provides an environment conducive to exploring this, in populations without major psychopathology.

Conclusions:

Personality change coaching appears both desirable and possible in a one-to-one coaching setting. However, further research is needed to develop practitioner resources, test the hypothesis that coaching can achieve such change, understand and manage factors that influence change, and explore the experience from a client and coach perspective.