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At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed2003

Discourses of blame: accounting for aggression and violence on an acute mental health inpatient unit.

The English National Service Framework for Mental Health stipulates that the highest quality of health care should be provided for mental health service users in the most efficient and effective manner. Incidents of aggression and violence militate against achieving that goal, yet such incidents are frequently reported in inpatient settings. Traditionally, research in this area has focused on the extent of the phenomenon, the individual characteristics of those involved and precursors to the incident. For the most part the literature reflects a dualistic, perpetrator/victim conceptualisation of incidents. This study aimed to address the lack of research undertaken from a more systemic perspective by examining how all those involved understood and attributed meaning to violent or aggressive situations and how these attributions justified individual perceptions, reactions and actions. Working from the position that all behaviour, including violent behaviour, has meaning to those involved and can be understood, 16 semi-structured interviews were carried out in one mental health unit. Because only one client was both willing and able to give a full account of an incident, we focus here on two incidents in which that client was involved. Discourse analytic techniques were used to examine her account of the two incidents and those of the staff members involved. Participants discussed key themes from the interviews in terms of several dilemmas: whether the violent or aggressive behaviour was 'mad' or 'bad'; predictable or unpredictable; and had resulted from 'personality' or ' mental illness'. The client and staff discourses were strikingly similar and in each case the central concern was with the attribution of blame. The findings have implications for the professional discourse of mental health care, including the discourse of the current policy agenda, a discourse itself constructed with the primary function of exoneration from and attribution of blame.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Clinical and cultural issues in diagnosing and treating child victims of peer abuse.

Examined are clinical and cultural issues in assessing and treating child victims of peer abuse. Profiles for both victims and perpetrators are discussed as are clinical patterns that may emerge in adulthood. Clinical trauma accommodation is discussed to offer the processing and adaptation to peer victimization. A clinical algorithm is discussed to provide the clinician with a pathway for assessment, treatment and follow-up for children who experience peer victimization.

Aggression↗
PubMed1998

Self-blame and peer victimization in middle school: an attributional analysis.

Relations between characterological versus behavioral self-blaming attributions for victimization and maladjustment were examined in middle school students. Respondents completed a questionnaire that assessed self-perceptions of victim status, attributions for hypothetical incidents of victimization, and feelings of loneliness, social anxiety, and low self-worth. They also completed peer nomination procedures measuring perceptions of victimization in others, as well as peer acceptance and rejection. Self-perceived victimization was associated with characterological self-blame, loneliness, anxiety, and low self-worth. Peer-perceived victimization, in contrast, was related to acceptance and rejection. The data suggest that self-views are more predictive of the intrapersonal consequences of victimization (loneliness, anxiety, low self-worth), whereas peer views are more predictive of interpersonal consequences (peer acceptance and rejection).

Anxiety↗
PubMed2001

Being better by being right: subjective group dynamics and derogation of in-group deviants when generic norms are undermined.

The authors predicted that derogation of group deviants depends on the extent to which in-group norms or values are validated or undermined in a social context. In Experiment 1 participants were less tolerant and derogated in-group deviants more when other in-group members opposed the norm. In Experiment 2 participants derogated in-group deviants more than out-group deviants and than noncategorized individuals, but only when normative in-group members lacked uniformity. In Experiment 3 participants derogated in-group deviants more when there was uncertainty about in-group superiority. These results are consistent with previous research on the black sheep effect (J. M. Marques, V. Y. Yzerbyt, & J. -P. Leyens, 1988) and with the model of subjective group dynamics (D. Abrams, J. M. Marques, N. J. Bown, & M. Henson, 2000; J. M. Marques, D. Abrams, D. Paez, & C. Martinez-Taboada, 1998).

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Psychosocial adaptations of shunted hydrocephalic children.

The personality, psychosomatic symptoms and family characteristics of 55 shunted hydrocephalic children older than four years were studied. Hydrocephalic childrens' self-concept, measured by the Children's Appereception Test, was found to be very significantly poorer than that of the control children. They also frequently showed behaviour disorders of the MBD-type, e.g. concentration difficulties, aggressiveness, fastidious eating and nervousness. The hydrocephalic childrens' families showed very significantly more cohesion and less rigidity, and significantly less authoritarianism than average Finnish families. When examining the parents' attitudes to their sick child, one third of the children were seen to be in a healthy role, with parental expectations realistically related to the child's abilities. One third of the children were seen as "babies", with unnecessarily over-protective attitudes on the part of their parents, and one third as "scapegoats", with accusatory attitudes from their mother and father. Those in the role of "scapegoats" had the poorest perceptual skills, the highest frequencies of behaviour disorders and the poorest self-concept.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2002

If HIV/AIDS is punishment, who is bad?

HIV/AIDS strikes with the greatest frequency in sub-Saharan Africa, a region lacking resources to deal with this epidemic. To keep millions more people from dying, wealthy countries must provide more help. Yet deeply ingrained biases may distance the sick from those who could provide far more aid. One such prejudice is viewing disease as punishment for sin. This 'punishment theory of disease" ascribes moral blame to those who get sick or those with special relations to them. Religious versions hold that God punishes them in order to castigate, encourage virtue, warn, rehabilitate, or maintain some cosmic order. Its various religious and secular forms are untenable; they lack cogency, risk blaming people unjustly, and jeopardize compassionate care for people. These views are not only irrational but also dangerous because they influence policies and cost lives. We need to cooperate and respond as befits this global public-health disaster and not engage in the misguided and bad faith activity of dividing the world into the blameworthy and blameless.

Africa South of the Sahara↗
PubMed2003

Risk and panic in late modernity: implications of the converging sites of social anxiety.

Comparing moral panic with the potential catastrophes of the risk society, Sheldon Ungar contends that new sites of social anxiety emerging around nuclear, medical, environmental and chemical threats have thrown into relief many of the questions motivating moral panic research agendas. He argues that shifting sites of social anxiety necessitate a rethinking of theoretical, methodological and conceptual issues related to processes of social control, claims making and general perceptions of public safety. This paper charts an alternative trajectory, asserting that analytic priority rests not with an understanding of the implications of changing but converging sites of social anxiety. Concentrating on the converging sites of social anxiety in late modernity, the analysis forecasts a proliferation of moral panics as an exaggerated symptom of the heightened sense of uncertainty purported to accompany the ascendency of the risk society.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1989

Therapist gender and the same-sex puberty age psychotherapy group.

Puberty is considered to be the most difficult developmental period to conduct psychotherapy. Group psychotherapy has special appeal for pubescents because of the anxiety experienced in individual psychotherapy with adults, and the mutual identification and support experienced with groups of same-sex peers. Although pubescents readily form cohesive groups, the emotional stress for the group therapists is intense and many therapists are reluctant to take on such groups. Close attention to the principles of developmental ego psychology suggests that pubescent groups will be more effective if conducted by group therapists of the same sex as the patients.

Gender Identity↗
PubMed1976

Prison homosexuality and its effect on post-prison sexual behavior.

Although there has grown up to a considerable literature on sex experiences in prison, little has been written on the post-prison behavioral patterns of those who, voluntarily or involuntarily, become initiated into homosexuality while incarcerated. In the light of the considerable number of prisoners and ex-prisoners in the original Kinsey sample, it is possible that the Institute for Sex Research might have in its files material that would shed light on this problem. To date, nothing has been forthcoming. In one of the few references to the subject, Kirkham (1972, p. 42) suggests that sexual experiences in prison may have permanent effects on the lives of some of the participants: "Can such men return to conventional heterosexual lives after release, or has the experience of being forced into acts of passive homosexuality been so traumatic as to preclude the resumption of sexual relations with members of the opposite sex?" In a search for an answer to his question, the present paper studies ex-prisoners whose initiation into homosexuality occurred during prison.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1986

Genocide and mass destruction: doing harm to others as a missing dimension in psychopathology.

Psychology and psychiatry lose much of their common-sense credibility so long as they offer no way of defining execution of and participation in mass murder and genocide as pathological. This paper proposes an expansion of the standard classification system in psychopathology to include abuses and destruction of other people, so that persons who terminate the lives of others are defined as "disturbed."

Child↗
PubMed1994

Prevention of food aversions in cancer patients during treatment.

Food aversions are a common complication of cancer treatment. This study evaluated an approach for blocking the formation of aversions to dietary items in 209 cancer patients treated with chemo- and/or radiotherapy. Patients were exposed to a sensory stimulus (fruit beverage, halava, odor) before initial treatments to provide a target for aversion formation, thereby sparing dietary items. Patients who developed an aversion to the "scapegoat" stimulus experienced a statistically significant 30% reduction in dietary aversion formation relative to patients without a scapegoat aversion or those not exposed to the scapegoat. The most effective scapegoat was the beverage, probably because it was consumed in greatest quantity. Exposure of patients to a "scapegoat" food or beverage just before chemo- and, probably, radiotherapy can markedly reduce the incidence of treatment-related aversions to foods in the patients' customary diet.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

On being responsible: ethical issues in appeals to personal responsibility in health campaigns.

Appeals to personal responsibility are highly prevalent in health communication campaigns, but their use entails both moral and strategic considerations. This article provides an overview of the notion of personal responsibility as a persuasive appeal in public health communication campaigns and an analysis of concomitant ethical implications. Whereas the issue of responsibility often is acknowledged by practitioners and scholars as a perennial challenge in health interventions, conceptual tools for the identification of its subtle manifestations are not readily available. This article outlines a framework that contextualizes potentially paradoxical consequences of campaign appeals to personal responsibility that can be explained by the medieval allegory of the "Tragedy of the Commons," psychological attribution theory, and public health concerns regarding "blaming the victim." Practice-oriented questions are introduced to help identify ethical issues in personal responsibility appeals that can be utilized in the design and implementation of health campaigns.

Attitude to Health↗