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PubMed2001

Focus groups as a tool for critical social research in nurse education.

Focus groups are now widely adopted in qualitative health and social research, and have been increasingly used as a data-collection technique in nursing research. The focus group is not a new method, but its uses and procedures have been considerably revised in recent years. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the focus group as a research tool in social science literature, followed by a more considered discussion on the use of focus groups in contemporary critical social science. It draws on this work to illustrate the potential of focus groups to address some of the political issues in social research, in particular the balance of power between researcher and researched, and the empowerment of under-represented groups. Advantages of the method in connecting the researcher with group perspectives and experiences that may be unexplored by other methods of data collection are discussed, and the 'collective conscience' is put forward as an appropriate resource in data analysis. It argues that the application of focus-group techniques can build on experiences and principles of working with or participating in groups. Focus groups are particularly applicable to research in nurse education, for involving diverse stakeholders in curriculum evaluation and development, and in ongoing appraisals of the student's perceptions of their experience, for which universities have tended to rely on survey approaches and structured questionnaires. The article ends by drawing some conclusions from the health and social research literature to inform nursing education research using focus groups.

Focus Groups↗
PubMed2003

Two-dimensional gap analysis: a tool for efficient conservation planning and biodiversity policy implementation.

The maintenance of biodiversity by securing representative and well-connected habitat networks in managed landscapes requires a wise combination of protection, management, and restoration of habitats at several scales. We suggest that the integration of natural and social sciences in the form of "Two-dimensional gap analysis" is an efficient tool for the implementation of biodiversity policies. The tool links biologically relevant "horizontal" ecological issues with "vertical" issues related to institutions and other societal issues. Using forest biodiversity as an example, we illustrate how one can combine ecological and institutional aspects of biodiversity conservation, thus facilitating environmentally sustainable regional development. In particular, we use regional gap analysis for identification of focal forest types, habitat modelling for ascertaining the functional connectivity of "green infrastructures", as tools for the horizontal gap analysis. For the vertical dimension we suggest how the social sciences can be used for assessing the success in the implementation of biodiversity policies in real landscapes by identifying institutional obstacles while implementing policies. We argue that this interdisciplinary approach could be applied in a whole range of other environments including other terrestrial biota and aquatic ecosystems where functional habitat connectivity, nonlinear response to habitat loss and a multitude of economic and social interests co-occur in the same landscape.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed1994

Promoting interdisciplinary collaboration in health research in developing countries: lessons from the Triangle Programme in Sri Lanka.

The Triangle Programme (1989-1992) aimed at strengthening the institutional capacity for health social science research and intervention in Sri Lanka through the promotion of appropriate international and national partnerships. First, it involved an international partnership (Triangle 1) among two universities in the developed world, i.c. University of Antwerp in Belgium and the University of Connecticut in the USA, and one university in the developing world, i.c. the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. This partnership facilitated the transfer of knowledge, experience, skills across national boundaries and the North/South divide. Second, it developed a national/local partnership (Triangle 2) among the Faculties of Arts, Agriculture and Medicine at the University of Peradeniya by involving them in a joint programme of health social science research and training covering the entire range of activities from proposal development to dissemination of research results. Focusing on the latter aspect (Triangle 2) this paper reviews the results of the programme from the angle of cross-fertilization of disciplines through their collaboration in applied health research in a developing country setting.

Belgium↗
PubMed2006

Researching chronic childhood illness: the example of childhood cancer.

OBJECTIVES: To provide an overview of issues raised by conducting research in the area of chronic childhood illness, using the example of childhood cancer. METHODS: This literature review used informal methods. RESULTS: Children with cancer and their families may participate in a wide variety of studies in different research traditions, including social science studies, epidemiological, biological and genetic research, and clinical trials. Different concerns about research participation have been raised in these different contexts. Sociological debate has tended to characterize exclusion from research as a manifestation of assumptions of poor competence on the part of children, and to see inclusion in research as a means of restoring proper balance in power relations and giving children a voice. The ethical imperative within clinical research, on the other hand, has been in favour of protection of individuals from risk or direct harm. Lack of consensus on issues such as the status of children's consent for research participation persists, in part because debates have taken place within rather than across disciplinary boundaries, and in part because of a tendency to debate issues as ethical principles in an empirical vacuum. The lack of research on the experiences and views of those asked to take part in childhood cancer research is striking. DISCUSSION: It is important that debates about the involvement of children in research are informed by high-quality social science research and by interdisciplinary dialogue.

Child↗
PubMed1992

Emergence and human conduct.

Emergence, the occurrence of novel, unpredictable human behavior, is an inherent aspect of human experience on both the individual and collective levels. In this article, we considered the ubiquitous nature of emergent events, indicated some of the ways such events manifest themselves, analyzed the personal and interpersonal processes that give rise to them, and suggested some of their implications for psychology and the other social sciences. Given the inescapable presence of emergence in human conduct, a redefinition of the goals and scope of social science may be desirable.

Arousal↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The end of cognition? Science and technology studies challenge the concept of the cognising agent].

The concept of 'cognition' is central to a wide literature in social science and philosophy where a key assumption conceptualises the central unit of analysis as a cognising agent. However, recent developments in Science and Technology Studies (STS) question this assumption and suggest the basis for its modification. The paper describes and evaluates these developments. It examines critiques for the "received view" of science and suggests that nothing less than a full scale analytic inversion is needed adequately to confront entrenched conceptions about cognition. It surveys progressive attempts to achieve symmetry in STS. It then considers three sets of key assumptions about agency: 1. what is the agent doing?; 2. what is the nature of the agent?; and 3. why should human agents have the monopoly on human attributes?

Cognition↗
PubMed1996

Meanings of community.

Community participation in health promotion is one of the central tenets of the WHO's Health For All strategy. Throughout the United Kingdom, 'Health For All' projects have been established and efforts dedicated to the pursuit of community participation in health promotion. Despite this zeal, the deceptively simple notion of 'community' is one of the most contested in the social sciences. Taking this as its point of departure, this paper reviews the meanings of 'community' in social sciences and health literatures. Based on empirical data, it then explores meanings of 'community' for people who are involved in generating community participation in health promotion in the context of four U.K. Health For All projects. A wide variety of different meanings are found; what they share in common is that they are each constructed by people who regard themselves as 'non-members' of these 'communities' and that the views of the putative 'members' are not taken into account in their construction. This substantially differs from meanings of community constructed by their 'members', as represented by Anthony Cohen, where community members' perceptions of sharing are central to the delineation of boundaries. This paper argues that there is a fundamental difference between the construction of communities by 'members' and 'non-members'. In the former case notions are sharing are integral to the construction, in the latter case they are assumed. In the final part of the paper we examine informants daily experiences of operationalising the 'communities' which they construct and argue that commonly their assumptions of sharing prove unfounded. We conclude by arguing that recognition of the differences in the construction of communities by members and non-members is essential, not least because it demands a fundamental rethinking of the notion of community participation in health.

Community Health Services↗
PubMed1993

Inferred hemispheric thinking style, gender, and academic major among United Arab Emirates college students.

To examine the relationships between the inferred hemispheric thinking style, gender, and academic major, 190 undergraduate men and women in social science and applied science classes were administered the Your Style of Learning and Thinking to assess their thinking styles. Although endorsements of an integrated style were highest for all subjects, analysis indicated men tended to endorse the right-hemisphere style items in processing information more than women, while the latter tended to endorse items of an integrated style in processing information. Applied science majors appeared to endorse items of a more right-hemisphere style in processing information than social science majors. These results were discussed in view of contemporary biological, psychosocial, and educational perspectives.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Qualitative studies. Their role in medical research.

OBJECTIVE: To define qualitative research in terms of its philosophical roots, the questions it addresses, its methods and analyses, and the type of results it can offer. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE and CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) databases were searched for the years January 1985 to April 1998. The search strategy consisted of "textword" terms that searched in the "title" field of both databases. Qualitative research and evaluation textbooks in health and the social sciences were also used. QUALITY OF EVIDENCE: The information on qualitative research is based on the most recent and valid evidence from the health and social science fields. MAIN MESSAGE: Qualitative research seeks to understand and interpret personal experience to explain social phenomena, including those related to health. It can address questions that quantitative research cannot, such as why people do not adhere to a treatment regimen or why a certain health care intervention is successful. It uses many methods of data collection, including participant observation, case studies, and interviews, and numerous approaches to data analysis that range from the quasistatistical to the intuitive and inductive. CONCLUSIONS: Qualitative research, a form of research completely different from quantitative research, can provide important insights into health-related phenomena and can enrich further research inquiries.

Data Collection↗
PubMed1988

Just World beliefs and attitudes toward helping elderly people: a comparison of British and Canadian university students.

Social science students from a British university and a Canadian university were studied to determine the relationship between their beliefs in a just world and their attitudes toward helping elderly people who have social, economic or health needs. Approximately 30 percent of the British students (N = 71) and 50 percent of the Canadian students (N = 124) expressed a belief in a just world. In both groups, just world believers blamed elderly people for being in poor health or financial circumstances, and the Canadian just world believers also tended to dismiss the needs of elderly people for the convenience of society. These and other differences in the attitudes of the British and Canadian students toward elderly people are discussed from a social and historical context. Implications of a belief in a just world by social science students are discussed in relation to the provision of social services to elderly people.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Epilogue: drawing together the threads and perspectives on the long-term use of psychotropics.

The aims of the epilogue are to draw together the threads in this issue by reviewing some themes presented in the previous chapters and to consider the relationship between the perspectives mentioned. The implications of a multidimensional perspective for future research, treatment and prevention are discussed. It is emphasized that the social sciences have an important part to play in helping us understand long-term use of psychotropics. The social sciences provide insights of importance for research, treatment and prevention of dependency on psychotropics, and also, may help us deal better with these kind of problems in the future.

Anti-Anxiety Agents↗
PubMed1979

Nursing and the process of scientific inquiry.

Nurse education has to confront the problem of developing in students an understanding of the different perspectives put forward in nursing. However, all the perspectives adhere to the scientific method and it is therefore necessary to examine the process of scientific inquiry. As nursing occupies a position at the interface between physical and social sciences, it is also necessary to offer students an examination of the different paradigms which exist within the social sciences.

Nursing↗
PubMed2004

Parent-training programmes for improving maternal psychosocial health.

BACKGROUND: Mental health problems are common and there is evidence to suggest that the origins of such problems lie in infancy and childhood. In particular, there is evidence from a range of studies to suggest that maternal psychosocial health can have a significant effect on the mother-infant relationship, and that this in turn can have consequences for both the short and long-term psychological health of the child. The use of parenting programmes is increasing in the UK and elsewhere and evidence of their effectiveness in improving outcomes for children has been provided. Evidence is now required of their effectiveness in improving outcomes for mothers. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this review is to address whether group-based parenting programmes are effective in improving maternal psychosocial health including anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. SEARCH STRATEGY: A range of biomedical, social science, educational and general reference electronic databases were searched including MEDLINE, EMBASE CINAHL, PsychLIT, ERIC, ASSIA, Sociofile and the Social Science Citation Index. Other sources of information included the Cochrane Library (SPECTR, CENTRAL), and the National Research Register (NRR). SELECTION CRITERIA: Only randomised controlled trials were included in which participants had been randomly allocated to an experimental and a control group, the latter being a waiting-list, no-treatment or a placebo control group. Studies had to include at least one group-based parenting programme, and one standardised instrument measuring maternal psychosocial health. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: A systematic critical appraisal of all included studies was undertaken using a modified version of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published criteria. The treatment effect for each outcome in each study was standardised by dividing the mean difference in post-intervention scores for the intervention and treatment group, by the pooled standard deviation, to produce an effect size. Where appropriate the results were then combined in a meta-analysis using a fixed-effect model, and 95% confidence intervals were used to assess the significance of the findings. MAIN RESULTS: A total of 23 studies were included in the original review which was increased to 26 at the first udate (2003). Of these 20 provided sufficient data to calculate effect sizes. The 20 studies provided a total of 64 assessments of outcome on a range of aspects of psychosocial functioning including depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem, social competence, social support, guilt, mood, automatic thoughts, dyadic adjustment, psychiatric morbidity, irrationality, anger and aggression, mood, attitude, personality, and beliefs. Data sufficient to combine in a meta-analysis existed for only five outcomes (depression; anxiety/stress; self-esteem; social support; and relationship with spouse/marital adjustment). The results of the meta-analyses show statistically significant results favouring the intervention group for depression; anxiety/stress; self-esteem; and relationship with spouse/marital adjustment. The meta-analysis of the social support data showed no evidence of effectiveness. Of the remaining data that it was not possible to combine in a meta-analysis, approximately 22% of the outcomes measured, showed significant differences between the intervention group and the control group. A further 40% showed non-significant differences favouring the intervention group. Approximately one-third of outcomes showed no evidence of effectiveness.A meta-analysis of the follow-up data on three outcomes was also conducted - depression, self-esteem and relationship with spouse/marital adjustment. The results show that there was a continued improvement in self-esteem, depression, and marital adjustment at follow-up, although the latter two findings were not statistically significant. This review has been updated (2003) with the addition of 3 new included studies. A number of additional excluded studies have also been added. There is one additional study awaiting 03) with the addition of 3 new included studies. A number of additional excluded studies have also been added. There is one additional study awaiting assessment and 2 ongoing studies listed for inclusion at a future update of this review. The size of effect for the main outcomes has not been substantially altered by this update. Additional sensitivity analyses to assess the impact of quasi randomised studies on the result have also been added. Where the quasi randomised studies are excluded from the analysis, the result was found to be slightly more conservative. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that parenting programmes can make a significant contribution to the short-term psychosocial health of mothers. However, there is currently a paucity of evidence concerning whether these results are maintained over time, and the limited follow-up data which are available show equivocal results. This points to the need for further evidence concerning the long-term effectiveness of parenting programmes on maternal mental health. Whilst the results of this review are positive overall, some studies showed no effect. Further research is needed to assess which factors contribute to successful outcomes in these programmes with particular attention being paid to the quality of delivery.These results suggest that parenting programmes have a potential role to play in the promotion of mental health.

Anxiety↗
PubMed2001

[Scientific basis of measuring instruments in public health: on the example of LEP progress in the achievements of nursing].

The need for data of professional interventions in public health in general and in nursing in particular has risen sharply over the last years. When it comes to the development and the use of respective measuring instruments, their scientific foundation is normally called into question. The article deals with this problem using as an example the LEP method. The focus lies on questions of methodology and philosophy of science rather than questions concerning the sociology of organization, profession or knowledge. At first the basic problem of measurement in social sciences is outlined using the distinction of first and second order measurements. Then we introduce the construction process of LEP and show, in which way it links the two levels of measurement. In the following paragraphs questions of validity and reliability are addressed as well as the decision to use time as a yardstick. We then show that LEP is not a measuring method to test scientific hypotheses but a valid instrument constructed with the help of social sciences that instructs management decisions. As an information system it combines elements of science, practice and bureaucracy and integrates them at the same time. As a boundary object it provides the basis for a constructive dialogue between the various stakeholder groups.

Germany↗
PubMed1996

The social body and the biomechanical body: can they coexist in nurse education?

The curricula of tertiary nursing courses usually involve a number of complementary strands. These include biological sciences, social sciences, behavioural sciences, other support subjects and clinical units. These different strands each, to some extent, present the nursing student with a dilemma as they may present entirely different models of the body. Explorations of this dilemma show that students are also being presented with different models of illness and different conceptions of appropriate health care response to illness. The question is then raised as to which of these approaches most accurately reflects the realities of nursing practice.

Biomechanical Phenomena↗
PubMed1989

Chronic respiratory illness and disability: a critical review of the psychosocial literature.

The paper attempts to offer a critical review of the current psychosocial literature on chronic obstructive airways disease (COAD: emphysema, chronic obstructive bronchitis and chronic asthma) from a (medical) sociological perspective. Following a brief exposition of the clinical nature of COAD and its epidemiology the paper reviews some of the main psychosocial literature in the field. It then focuses on some of the problems concerning issues of methodology and measurement within the existing research, particularly the inadequacy of many of the 'quality of life' instruments and disability measures used; the lack of research which combines both quantitative and qualitative data; and the predominant concern with the psychological aspects of the condition to the detriment of the social dimensions involved. Using the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) as its conceptual scaffold, the paper then goes on to argue that a sociological perspective is both a necessary and essential complement to existing research in this area in order to achieve a fuller understanding of chronic respiratory illness/disability and its sequelae. Finally, the paper attempts to offer some possible reasons why chronic respiratory and disability has received relatively little attention from within the social sciences and concludes with some reflections and suggestions on possible future developments in research into chronic respiratory illness and disability from within the social sciences.

Depression↗
PubMed2003

Goethe's science: an approach to research in American Indian Studies.

In The Wholeness of Nature (1996), Henri Bortoft shows how a Goethean science of qualitative wholeness complements the analytic and causal- explanatory framework that underlies most research in the natural and social sciences. Goethe's insights and methods suggest that a better understanding of Indian tribes may occur when a tribe is regarded as its own abstraction and its own explanation. In Goethe's approach to science, the human mind is an "organ of perception" and researchers are active participants in the way they see the world. Consider an Indian tribe and the goal of Goethean science is to intuitively "see" patterns of interpenetrating relationships in a dynamic process of self-organization that is the tribe. While analytic science and Goethe's science of wholeness are incommensurable, both are true, and neither is comprehensive.

Biological Science Disciplines↗