title: Limitations unlimited: Interrogating some finer points of the 'scientific study' of adolescence

authors: Payne, Monica A.

subjects: adolescence

abstract: Radical epistemological critiques of developmental and social psychology are nothing new, and major methodological debates are now common even within the mainstream literature. Yet a considerable amount of research continues to be conducted in apparent ignorance of, or with more deliberate disregard for, these challenges. Two pervasive research practices of particular concern are: (a) the espousal of conceptual frugality (authorizing avoidance of in-depth appraisal of existing theory and research), and (b) retrospective confession of methodological shortcomings (often then presumed to no longer matter). Although successful in the sense that researchers are getting their work published, such strategies typically function to sustain disturbingly unsophisticated, and frequently prejudicial, developmental discourses. This paper examines some of the effects of their use within the non-clinical research literature on adolescence.

text: Limitations unlimited: Interrogating some finer points of the 'scientific study' of adolescence Radical epistemological critiques of developmental and social psychology are nothing new, and major methodological debates are now common even within the mainstream literature. Yet a considerable amount of research continues to be conducted in apparent ignorance of, or with more deliberate disregard for, these challenges. Two pervasive research practices of particular concern are: (a) the espousal of conceptual frugality (authorizing avoidance of in-depth appraisal of existing theory and research), and (b) retrospective confession of methodological shortcomings (often then presumed to no longer matter). Although successful in the sense that researchers are getting their work published, such strategies typically function to sustain disturbingly unsophisticated, and frequently prejudicial, developmental discourses. This paper examines some of the effects of their use within the non-clinical research literature on adolescence.

year: 2001

title: Living with uncertainty: A grounded theory of psychiatric stigma when seeking or maintaining employment

authors: Mackenzie, Hamish Cameron

abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate stigma for people who have experienced psychiatric disorder. Psychiatric stigma can exclude people both from economic roles and from participation in daily community life. Social and psychological reaction models of stigma adequately explain parts of this process but do not provide an integrated account that addresses the unique illness experience of psychiatric disorder. Nor do they provide an experiential account of psychiatric stigma that reflects its unique difference in a valued life situation - employment. 

The 31 Participants had all used psychiatric services and comprised 20 men and 11 women ranging in age from 20-59 years. There were 11 Maori, 18 Pakeha and 2 Pacific Islanders. At the time of this study they were all seeking or maintaining employment. Participants completed multiple open-ended interviews over a two year period. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using Glaser’s method of grounded theory. Constant comparison within and between stigmatising events found most of the variance in Participants’ accounts was captured in the core category of uncertainty (See Table 1).

Uncertainty ruptured possibilities for health, identity, relationships and positive life trajectories. Consequently, Participants faced the task of managing a stigmatised identity by striving to resolve uncertainty. Yet the process of resolving uncertainty and negotiating a stigmatised identity had the ironic effect of creating uncertainty. This was theorised as a mutually interacting and self-generating process of creating-resolving uncertainty (see Table 2).

Utilising a psychiatric service entailed changing from a person to a patient and this was accompanied by a change in social role and personal expectations. Staff monitored their patients for illness. This implicitly trained patients to self-monitor for signs of illness and embedded a medical language to achieve it. Any behaviour or expression was perceived as indicative of their mental health status. When patients tried to become everyday people again, self-monitoring and monitoring by other people suffused any actions with concerns about their mental health.

The impact of this and living an illness-mediated life required the continuous constructing of identity. The need to monitor for illness signs ensured that Participants’ lives became marked by and marked out by their disorder, so everyday performance became a performance of mental health. This entailed a vulnerability and caution in every day life where the haunting prospect of their disorder occurring again intruded into both self-concept and self processes. Life became uncertain and this required a vigil to prospect for ‘mad’ signs and sort everyday perceptions for unreality, inappropriateness and illness related events. This was crucial within the workplace where Participants may or may not have disclosed their psychiatric history to their colleagues. Disclosure was fraught with the uncertainty of whether to display or not to display; to tell or not tell; to let on or not let on; to lie or not lie; and, in each case, to whom, how, what, when and where.

This study developed an innovative theory of psychiatric stigma that integrates the effects of illness experience on self-concept, the experiential demands of participating in employment and the interpersonal and intra-psychic processes Participants employed to resolve psychiatric stigma. Resolving and creating uncertainty explained the task of negotiating a uniquely stigmatised identity and increased understanding of the stigmatisation that could accompany other illnesses or disorders.

The theory can now be used to examine psychiatric stigma in distinct population groupings and to predict its effects in more diverse settings. Future research should aim to develop measures of its dimensions, so that it can be used to distinguish between the stigma experienced by people with psychiatric illness across time and place, among different groups. The effects of variables such as community attitude change and professional intervention could then be investigated. Thus the theory could be used to improve the quality of life for people who experience psychiatric disorder.

text: Living with uncertainty: A grounded theory of psychiatric stigma when seeking or maintaining employment The aim of this study was to investigate stigma for people who have experienced psychiatric disorder. Psychiatric stigma can exclude people both from economic roles and from participation in daily community life. Social and psychological reaction models of stigma adequately explain parts of this process but do not provide an integrated account that addresses the unique illness experience of psychiatric disorder. Nor do they provide an experiential account of psychiatric stigma that reflects its unique difference in a valued life situation - employment. 

The 31 Participants had all used psychiatric services and comprised 20 men and 11 women ranging in age from 20-59 years. There were 11 Maori, 18 Pakeha and 2 Pacific Islanders. At the time of this study they were all seeking or maintaining employment. Participants completed multiple open-ended interviews over a two year period. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using Glaser’s method of grounded theory. Constant comparison within and between stigmatising events found most of the variance in Participants’ accounts was captured in the core category of uncertainty (See Table 1).

Uncertainty ruptured possibilities for health, identity, relationships and positive life trajectories. Consequently, Participants faced the task of managing a stigmatised identity by striving to resolve uncertainty. Yet the process of resolving uncertainty and negotiating a stigmatised identity had the ironic effect of creating uncertainty. This was theorised as a mutually interacting and self-generating process of creating-resolving uncertainty (see Table 2).

Utilising a psychiatric service entailed changing from a person to a patient and this was accompanied by a change in social role and personal expectations. Staff monitored their patients for illness. This implicitly trained patients to self-monitor for signs of illness and embedded a medical language to achieve it. Any behaviour or expression was perceived as indicative of their mental health status. When patients tried to become everyday people again, self-monitoring and monitoring by other people suffused any actions with concerns about their mental health.

The impact of this and living an illness-mediated life required the continuous constructing of identity. The need to monitor for illness signs ensured that Participants’ lives became marked by and marked out by their disorder, so everyday performance became a performance of mental health. This entailed a vulnerability and caution in every day life where the haunting prospect of their disorder occurring again intruded into both self-concept and self processes. Life became uncertain and this required a vigil to prospect for ‘mad’ signs and sort everyday perceptions for unreality, inappropriateness and illness related events. This was crucial within the workplace where Participants may or may not have disclosed their psychiatric history to their colleagues. Disclosure was fraught with the uncertainty of whether to display or not to display; to tell or not tell; to let on or not let on; to lie or not lie; and, in each case, to whom, how, what, when and where.

This study developed an innovative theory of psychiatric stigma that integrates the effects of illness experience on self-concept, the experiential demands of participating in employment and the interpersonal and intra-psychic processes Participants employed to resolve psychiatric stigma. Resolving and creating uncertainty explained the task of negotiating a uniquely stigmatised identity and increased understanding of the stigmatisation that could accompany other illnesses or disorders.

The theory can now be used to examine psychiatric stigma in distinct population groupings and to predict its effects in more diverse settings. Future research should aim to develop measures of its dimensions, so that it can be used to distinguish between the stigma experienced by people with psychiatric illness across time and place, among different groups. The effects of variables such as community attitude change and professional intervention could then be investigated. Thus the theory could be used to improve the quality of life for people who experience psychiatric disorder.

year: 2002

title: Te karanga tūturu o maieke:  Ngāti Kuri women’s taiao geographies

authors: Ringham, Sandra Lee

subjects: Māori and Indigenous geographies

abstract: This research examines the relationships, identities and sense of belonging of Māori women of within the Ngāti Kuri iwi (tribe) and te taiao (the natural world, environment, nature, country) in Te Hiku o te Ika, Far North, Aotearoa New Zealand. It shows how Ngāti Kuri women and te taiao are embedded in - yet also resist - colonial and patriarchal discourses. 
The Kaupapa Māori and Mana Wahine theoretical framework decolonises and transforms the ways in which Māori women have been represented and marginalised. Pūrākau (storywork) as a theory and methodology ensures Ngāti Kuri women’s stories are told by them and for them. Indigenous relational geography is woven into the theoretical framework to further understand Indigenous relationships to place and diverse feelings of belonging and responsibility.
Whakawhiti kōrero (research conversations), wānanga (workshops) and tipi haere (mobile wānanga) were carried out with 19 Ngāti Kuri women. Approximately 40 people from the iwi and / or scientific communities contribute to the thesis through the initiatives of the Ngāti Kuri Relationship Working Group (NKRWG), the Auckland War Memorial Museum and other research partners and as conservationists. 
Findings are organised around three themes: identities; relationships; and a sense of belonging. The first theme introduces Ngāti Kuri women’s identities as leaders and drivers of change, disrupting and dismantling the intersection of patriarchal and colonial discourse. The pūrākau of Maieke, a founding ancestress of Ngāti Kuri, brings to light the reclamation and transformation of Māori women’s identities and geographies, as defined by participants. Pre-colonisation Ngāti Kuri women had the capacity and authority to become a governing force in the daily lives of the iwi. The second theme highlights colonial and patriarchal naming of our world. Ngāti Kuri women are reconfiguring relationships and representation through the scientific naming of taonga (culturally valuable objects and species). Values and principles of kaitiakitanga (inherited guardianship) and whakawhanaugatanga (relating well to others) guide the naming process. The third theme focuses on participants’ reflections and understandings of the ways in which they sense place and feelings of belonging. Participants’ engagement with te taiao - through singing, storying and sensing place – highlights the way te taiao re-centres and transforms Ngāti Kuri women’s relationships and experiences of belonging to iwi homelands.
Importantly, the thesis concludes with a discussion of the challenges, successes and actions of Ngāti Kuri women as they continue to strive for tino rangatiratanga (self-determination), social and environmental well-being. I conceptualise new geographies that account for, and celebrate, uniquely Ngāti Kuri understandings of identities, relationships and feelings of belonging. Finally, a short creative story ends the thesis in order to show the transformative power of Ngāti Kuri women’s te taiao experiences.

text: Te karanga tūturu o maieke:  Ngāti Kuri women’s taiao geographies This research examines the relationships, identities and sense of belonging of Māori women of within the Ngāti Kuri iwi (tribe) and te taiao (the natural world, environment, nature, country) in Te Hiku o te Ika, Far North, Aotearoa New Zealand. It shows how Ngāti Kuri women and te taiao are embedded in - yet also resist - colonial and patriarchal discourses. 
The Kaupapa Māori and Mana Wahine theoretical framework decolonises and transforms the ways in which Māori women have been represented and marginalised. Pūrākau (storywork) as a theory and methodology ensures Ngāti Kuri women’s stories are told by them and for them. Indigenous relational geography is woven into the theoretical framework to further understand Indigenous relationships to place and diverse feelings of belonging and responsibility.
Whakawhiti kōrero (research conversations), wānanga (workshops) and tipi haere (mobile wānanga) were carried out with 19 Ngāti Kuri women. Approximately 40 people from the iwi and / or scientific communities contribute to the thesis through the initiatives of the Ngāti Kuri Relationship Working Group (NKRWG), the Auckland War Memorial Museum and other research partners and as conservationists. 
Findings are organised around three themes: identities; relationships; and a sense of belonging. The first theme introduces Ngāti Kuri women’s identities as leaders and drivers of change, disrupting and dismantling the intersection of patriarchal and colonial discourse. The pūrākau of Maieke, a founding ancestress of Ngāti Kuri, brings to light the reclamation and transformation of Māori women’s identities and geographies, as defined by participants. Pre-colonisation Ngāti Kuri women had the capacity and authority to become a governing force in the daily lives of the iwi. The second theme highlights colonial and patriarchal naming of our world. Ngāti Kuri women are reconfiguring relationships and representation through the scientific naming of taonga (culturally valuable objects and species). Values and principles of kaitiakitanga (inherited guardianship) and whakawhanaugatanga (relating well to others) guide the naming process. The third theme focuses on participants’ reflections and understandings of the ways in which they sense place and feelings of belonging. Participants’ engagement with te taiao - through singing, storying and sensing place – highlights the way te taiao re-centres and transforms Ngāti Kuri women’s relationships and experiences of belonging to iwi homelands.
Importantly, the thesis concludes with a discussion of the challenges, successes and actions of Ngāti Kuri women as they continue to strive for tino rangatiratanga (self-determination), social and environmental well-being. I conceptualise new geographies that account for, and celebrate, uniquely Ngāti Kuri understandings of identities, relationships and feelings of belonging. Finally, a short creative story ends the thesis in order to show the transformative power of Ngāti Kuri women’s te taiao experiences.

year: 2022