title: Māori men: An indigenous psychological perspective on the interconnected self

authors: Rua, Mohi

subjects: Māori men

abstract: The positive relational practices of Māori men are seldom explored in academic research. Responding to this gap in the literature, this article explores how Māori men negotiate a positive sense of self and relationships. This research is guided by kaupapa Māori research practice, Māori cultural concepts, and relational understandings of identity and wellbeing. Our ethnographic approach involved direct observations, engagement in shared cultural practices and narrative interviews. During these interactions, participating men invoked a positive sense of self through accounts of belonging, reciprocity, dialogue, intimacy, and care for themselves, their whānau, and traditions. We found that Māori men's identities are negotiated through interactions with whānau (immediate and extended family), and particular places and practices. Our participants demonstrated how Māori men’s positive self-constructions are fundamentally interconnected with other people, cultural traditions, socio-cultural practices, physical and symbolic places, as well as their own health and the health of those around them.

text: Māori men: An indigenous psychological perspective on the interconnected self The positive relational practices of Māori men are seldom explored in academic research. Responding to this gap in the literature, this article explores how Māori men negotiate a positive sense of self and relationships. This research is guided by kaupapa Māori research practice, Māori cultural concepts, and relational understandings of identity and wellbeing. Our ethnographic approach involved direct observations, engagement in shared cultural practices and narrative interviews. During these interactions, participating men invoked a positive sense of self through accounts of belonging, reciprocity, dialogue, intimacy, and care for themselves, their whānau, and traditions. We found that Māori men's identities are negotiated through interactions with whānau (immediate and extended family), and particular places and practices. Our participants demonstrated how Māori men’s positive self-constructions are fundamentally interconnected with other people, cultural traditions, socio-cultural practices, physical and symbolic places, as well as their own health and the health of those around them.

year: 2017

title: Street-level bureaucracy and occupational therapy practices in Aotearoa New Zealand. A genealogical critique.

authors: Silcock, Elizabeth Mary

subjects: power

abstract: As a human science that is also part of administering and supporting bureaucracy, occupational therapy functions in multi-layered networks of power  that support many different social structures. Occupational therapists’ work often involves operationalising health, education and social services at the street-level, positioning them between the aspirations of both policy and social activism and material life outcomes. Through a genealogical critique, this thesis problematises the practice of occupational therapy through a Foucauldian lens that views everything as dangerous. By viewing occupational therapy practice as dangerous, the power relations at the street-level of the mundane and taken-for-granted have been problematised as part of much larger social structures of power and discourse. 
Several Foucauldian tools were deployed in order to ensure that a focus on occupational therapy practices was maintained; three distinct research methods were utilised to access a range of heterogeneous genealogical information.  Firstly, an historical archival analysis of the four iterations of the Competencies for Registration for occupational therapists document (1990 to the current day) produced by the regulatory authority, the Occupational Therapy Board of New Zealand, was carried out.  Secondly, practice observations of occupational therapists working in different practice settings were analysed as three individual case studies. Concurrently with these two methods, a critical action method using a research blog was developed to create a medium for public discussion of practice through an open engagement with the profession. The combination of these three methods enabled access to a range of elements for analysis.  Many of these elements inter-linked, overlapped and connected to historically contingent networks of dominant power that have formed through the processes of colonisation, the establishment of the health system and normalised medical practices, and economic forms of governance. The nuances of how occupational therapy is practised at the street-level offered opportunities to contest the dominance of these networks. In all three case studies there was an unspoken understanding and a normalisation of materiality as an accepted and significant element of how the profession practised.  The material regimes of knowledge and material practices in these unspoken norms were highly productive and able to contest other lines of power.  Along with this alternate network of power, the most recent version of the Competencies for Registration offers a further opportunity for occupational therapists to contest dominant power relations in a way that could capitalise on the secure position the profession has developed through its material network of power.  Opportunities for alternate pathways of practice which privilege Te Ao Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi are a possibility in the legally sanctioned Competencies. The close connection of occupational therapy practices to real life material outcomes for other people, position the street-level doing of occupational therapists at a juncture where action and decision making can re-configure power relations. Re-thinking practice in terms of what the doing of occupational therapy does in relation to networks of power, is an opportunity for practitioners to enact policy at the street-level in ways that use their ability to influence power from the bottom up whilst being alert to the dangers presented by doing so.

text: Street-level bureaucracy and occupational therapy practices in Aotearoa New Zealand. A genealogical critique. As a human science that is also part of administering and supporting bureaucracy, occupational therapy functions in multi-layered networks of power  that support many different social structures. Occupational therapists’ work often involves operationalising health, education and social services at the street-level, positioning them between the aspirations of both policy and social activism and material life outcomes. Through a genealogical critique, this thesis problematises the practice of occupational therapy through a Foucauldian lens that views everything as dangerous. By viewing occupational therapy practice as dangerous, the power relations at the street-level of the mundane and taken-for-granted have been problematised as part of much larger social structures of power and discourse. 
Several Foucauldian tools were deployed in order to ensure that a focus on occupational therapy practices was maintained; three distinct research methods were utilised to access a range of heterogeneous genealogical information.  Firstly, an historical archival analysis of the four iterations of the Competencies for Registration for occupational therapists document (1990 to the current day) produced by the regulatory authority, the Occupational Therapy Board of New Zealand, was carried out.  Secondly, practice observations of occupational therapists working in different practice settings were analysed as three individual case studies. Concurrently with these two methods, a critical action method using a research blog was developed to create a medium for public discussion of practice through an open engagement with the profession. The combination of these three methods enabled access to a range of elements for analysis.  Many of these elements inter-linked, overlapped and connected to historically contingent networks of dominant power that have formed through the processes of colonisation, the establishment of the health system and normalised medical practices, and economic forms of governance. The nuances of how occupational therapy is practised at the street-level offered opportunities to contest the dominance of these networks. In all three case studies there was an unspoken understanding and a normalisation of materiality as an accepted and significant element of how the profession practised.  The material regimes of knowledge and material practices in these unspoken norms were highly productive and able to contest other lines of power.  Along with this alternate network of power, the most recent version of the Competencies for Registration offers a further opportunity for occupational therapists to contest dominant power relations in a way that could capitalise on the secure position the profession has developed through its material network of power.  Opportunities for alternate pathways of practice which privilege Te Ao Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi are a possibility in the legally sanctioned Competencies. The close connection of occupational therapy practices to real life material outcomes for other people, position the street-level doing of occupational therapists at a juncture where action and decision making can re-configure power relations. Re-thinking practice in terms of what the doing of occupational therapy does in relation to networks of power, is an opportunity for practitioners to enact policy at the street-level in ways that use their ability to influence power from the bottom up whilst being alert to the dangers presented by doing so.

year: 2018

title: Non-suicidal self-injury and outward-directed injury: An exploration into commonalities in engagement and function within an Aotearoa New Zealand youth sample

authors: Trappitt Smith, Anita

subjects: NSSI

abstract: This research explores two detrimental issues confronting an increasing number of young people: non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and outward-directed injury (ODI). Researchers and service providers often approach these behaviours in vastly differently ways. NSSI is understood as the direct and deliberate destruction of one’s own skin tissue, unsanctioned socially or culturally, occurring in the absence of suicidal intent. This behaviour is often associated with depressed or highly distressed females. Self-directed injury (SDI) of this type often evokes sympathy from others and can result in increased care and support for those engaging in these behaviours. Outward-directed injury (ODI) is a novel term explored through this study and intended to capture harmful behaviours which are directed externally or outward, potentially causing injury to another or damage to an object, seemingly in an aggressive act, with the intent to injure oneself. Examples of ODI include: wall- / object-punching, fighting or other aggressive acts. Stereotypically, ODI behaviours are more often associated with males and tend to be viewed with derision and punitive responses. NSSI and ODI both appear to be predicated by strong emotions and may be used to regulate these. The current study uses an established survey containing two well-validated measures to explore NZ respondents' engagement in and perceptions of these behaviours. Survey data is analysed according to gender, emotional distress, and behaviour functionality. Gender was found to play a significant role in both classes of behaviours with females endorsing SDI more frequently than males and males endorsing ODI more than females. This study also found that people who hurt themselves through either SDI or ODI report more psychological distress than those who do not engage in any self-injurious behaviour. This study also found those who engage in ODI are significantly more distressed than those who engage in SDI, whilst those with dual engagement (employing both SDI and ODI) are most distressed of all. Study findings also showed emotion regulation to be a primary function for both SDI and ODI engagement.

text: Non-suicidal self-injury and outward-directed injury: An exploration into commonalities in engagement and function within an Aotearoa New Zealand youth sample This research explores two detrimental issues confronting an increasing number of young people: non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and outward-directed injury (ODI). Researchers and service providers often approach these behaviours in vastly differently ways. NSSI is understood as the direct and deliberate destruction of one’s own skin tissue, unsanctioned socially or culturally, occurring in the absence of suicidal intent. This behaviour is often associated with depressed or highly distressed females. Self-directed injury (SDI) of this type often evokes sympathy from others and can result in increased care and support for those engaging in these behaviours. Outward-directed injury (ODI) is a novel term explored through this study and intended to capture harmful behaviours which are directed externally or outward, potentially causing injury to another or damage to an object, seemingly in an aggressive act, with the intent to injure oneself. Examples of ODI include: wall- / object-punching, fighting or other aggressive acts. Stereotypically, ODI behaviours are more often associated with males and tend to be viewed with derision and punitive responses. NSSI and ODI both appear to be predicated by strong emotions and may be used to regulate these. The current study uses an established survey containing two well-validated measures to explore NZ respondents' engagement in and perceptions of these behaviours. Survey data is analysed according to gender, emotional distress, and behaviour functionality. Gender was found to play a significant role in both classes of behaviours with females endorsing SDI more frequently than males and males endorsing ODI more than females. This study also found that people who hurt themselves through either SDI or ODI report more psychological distress than those who do not engage in any self-injurious behaviour. This study also found those who engage in ODI are significantly more distressed than those who engage in SDI, whilst those with dual engagement (employing both SDI and ODI) are most distressed of all. Study findings also showed emotion regulation to be a primary function for both SDI and ODI engagement.

year: 2025-01-24