Annual Conference 2005 - More from Manchester
Adaptive thoughts – A penny for them?
Julie Morgan reports from the May Davidson Award Lecture.
AT some time or another we all experience repetitive thinking about
upsetting events. Can this type of thinking ever be helpful, or will it
always put us in a negative mood? This year’s winner of the May
Davidson Award, Ed Watkins (University of Exeter), believes it’s not
what we think but how we think that can affect our mood and the way we
deal with our problems.
Persistently going over negative events tends to make us feel worse,
and it’s this type of ruminative thinking which forms a core process in
the onset and maintenance of depression and anxiety. Individuals may be
caught in a loop of asking themselves, ‘Why did this happen to me? Why
can’t I do anything right?’ This can lead to
a vicious cycle of ruminating in response to a negative mood, and a negative mood increasing the tendency to ruminate.
But it’s not all bad news. According to Watkins, in some circumstances
ruminating can be a good way of working through and making sense of our
problems, eventually making us feel better – hurray! But what
determines whether rumination is adaptive or maladaptive? Watkins
argues that there are two distinct styles of processing in rumination:
abstract-evaluative thinking and concrete process-focused thinking.
The former refers to an analytical ‘why’ style of thought, whilst the
latter focuses on the process of ‘how’ things happened. It’s this
latter form of thinking that may hold the key to unlocking a more
positive style of coping.
Watkins found that these two forms of thinking have differential
effects on how well people solve social problems and on the speed of
recovery from depressed mood. Training people to think about ‘how’ a
particular event happened, and asking them to focus on answering
questions such as ‘How can I deal with this and change my mood?’ can
lead to better problem solving, faster recovery from depressed mood,
and a decrease in the amount of time spent ruminating.
In terms of approaches to treatment, this style of thinking is much
more beneficial to patients who are high ruminators. Coaching patients
to shift away from the harmful effects of over-analysing and evaluating
the causes and consequences of negative events, whilst relieving some
of the symptoms of depression, could leave the patient asking one
question: what will I do with all this extra time I have on my hands?
Attitudes to Islam
Paul Redford reports.
ALTHOUGH only recently appearing
in the Oxford English Dictionary ‘Islamophobia’ has become an important
political issue in the past few years. Adrian Brockett (York St John’s
College) explored islamophobia through a study of the prevalence and
content of attitudes towards Muslims and Arabs amongst young people
from a number of schools and FE colleges around York.
Brockett found that there were small gender differences, with female
students holding slightly more positive attitudes than male students.
Knowing Muslims or Arabs personally also had an effect of increasing
positive attitudes, providing support for the contact hypothesis.
Changes in attitudes were also explored – although there was a small
shift, the majority of students reported that events such as the
September 11 attacks within the US had not influenced their attitudes
towards Islam or Arabs. Further, attitudes such as the wearing of
headscarves, knowledge of the British National Party and attitudes
towards inter-ethnic marriage were also explored. Although some
negative attitudes were demonstrated, on the whole young people
reported attitudes that were tolerant and positive.
However, Brockett then examined whether students had witnessed
religious victimisation, an indirect measure of attitudes. 17 per cent
of young people reported having witnessed religious verbal
victimisation outside of the school grounds and 8.4 per cent reported
witnessing it within school grounds. This demonstrates that although
the majority of attitudes were reasonably positive, rates of
victimisation based on religion are high. This provides worrying
indication that although reported attitudes were tolerant, religious
intolerance is prevalent, particularly outside of school premises.
Social support and health
Katie Sowerby reports on a joint Division of Health Psychology and Social Psychology Section symposium.
A WEALTH of research indicates the importance of social support for
health, but like so many pieces of psychological research it tells us
simply of an association between two factors rather than providing a
more useful and colourful picture of the mechanisms and mediating
factors that influence the association.
For example, knowing that a particular behaviour has benefits for health gives us
a useful awareness of a broad association. However, understanding the
physiological mechanisms enables us to use the association
advantageously. Additionally, to be fully effective in using this
association we need to understand any mediating factors. Such a deep
understanding enables us to tailor programmes or interventions to bring
about change at an individual level. The joint symposium held by the
Division of Health Psychology and the Social Psychology Section
attempted to address
a number of these previously unanswered questions.
Andrew Steptoe (University College London) helped to clarify some of
the psychobiological pathways linking social isolation and health.
Following up on the Whitehall Study three years earlier, a subsample of
individuals defined as being highly socially isolated (living alone,
little or no contact with relatives and friends) was selected. Social
isolation has previously been linked to cardiovascular disease and
premature mortality; however through this investigation Steptoe and
colleagues demonstrated the specific biological processes that linked
social isolation and the negative impact on health.
For instance, changes in the typical pattern of cortisol levels
(nicknamed the ‘stress hormone’) were recognised in socially isolated
individuals. Although
all individuals display a cortisol waking response (higher levels of
cortisol in the morning), it seems that this response is heightened,
and the decline is slower,
in socially isolated individuals. Also of interest was the finding that
over a three-year period socially isolated individuals showed an
increase in systolic blood pressure whilst other individuals showed no
change (or in some cases a decrease). Surprisingly, these results
remained even when adjusted for age, gender, socio-economic status,
smoking and body mass.
So we have a little more insight into the psychobiological mechanisms
that link social support and health. But life is never that simple,
and, thankfully, David Sheffield (Staffordshire University) stepped up
to explain some of the factors mediating the relationship. Drawing on a
number of laboratory-based studies, he argued that such factors were
crucial to develop both the ecological validity of research and our
ability to develop effective interventions.
A few findings seemed to make intuitive sense – active support is of
greater benefit than passive, evaluative support is less helpful than
non-threatening or non-evaluative support, and friends tend to be
better supporters than strangers. It may have been harder to predict,
however, that emotional support reduced systolic blood pressure in
women, and that instrumental
or practical support had the same effect in adolescent boys. There was
no effect of either in adolescent girls. Additionally, women benefited
from the support of either sex, whilst men supported by men actually
displayed increased blood pressure.
Most important (although somewhat unsurprising!) was the finding
that perceptions of support were at least as significant as actual
support. Picking up on this theme, Nancy Pistrang (University College
London) used a variety of health-related contexts (such as transition
to parenthood and diagnosis of breast cancer) to further understand the
nature of the interaction between the individual and their helper. The
idiographic approach she employed using stimulated recall enabled
detailed moment-by-moment accounts regarding perceived intention and
meaning of support from both parts of the dyad. Taken in association
with Kevin McKee’s (University of Sheffield) thorough demonstration
that carers and caregivers actually perceive problems differently, it
seems that the relationship between social support and health is far
from being
a simple one. It, like most psychological phenomena, requires an understanding
at all levels in order for it to be fully utilised by researchers and applied psychologists.
In brief
Humour and laughter are associated with increased lecturer
effectiveness, claims recent research from Australia. Lynleigh Cleve
and Angus McLachlan (University of Ballarat) video-taped 19 university
lecturers to see how much humour they used, and asked their students to
evaluate them. On average lecturers used 7.5 instances of humour during
every 50-minute lecture. It seemed that the more humour the lecturers
used, the more the students found their lectures interesting.
Ecstasy users may have experienced low parental warmth; similarly
children raised in households that they perceive as neglectful are at
particular risk from using the recreational drug. Researchers at
Liverpool John Moores University found that regular Ecstasy users
scored significantly lower than non-users on questionnaire ratings of
parenting style.
Psychologists who use online personality tests should be cautious with
their results. New research from Tom Buchanan at the University of
Westminster indicates that web-based questionnaires are not comparable
to their traditional pencil-and-paper equivalents. Comparisons of the
two showed that depression scores were higher in online tests, a
finding that should be considered when using online tests in applied
settings.
Patrick Leman (Royal Holloway University of London) explored how
ethnicity and gender influence children’s conversations when choosing a
playmate. In mixed ethnic groups, white girls justified their choice of
playmate more in terms of appearance (for example, ‘she is prettier’)
whereas Asian girls justified their choices more in terms of
personality (for example, ‘she seems friendly’). In same ethnic groups,
black girls used more affiliation than white girls when discussing
preferences – they explained friendship choice in terms of belonging to
the same ethnic group.
A bout of intense exercise can reduce the symptoms of panic disorder. Researchers
at Newcastle’s Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies Centre found that
people affected with the disorder felt feelings of positive engagement,
revitalisation, and tranquillity following just a single period of
acute exercise. This non-pharmacological treatment may be a useful
short-term strategy for people with panic disorder to self-regulate
their feelings.
Listening to asylum seekers
Fatima P. Covacha reports.
A 35-year-old Serbian doctor, well respected in her community, runs
a children’s clinic. She is asked to join the local political party,
which she does. Some time later, the opposing party asks her to leave
the local party and even though she wants to, she is pressurised into
staying. One day three men walk into her clinic, shoot a number of
people and demand that she leave her community, otherwise she and her
daughter will be killed. Both flee to the UK. A Kurdish farmer has
lived a life of harassment and abuse, both verbal and physical. He is
only 25 years old and tells how he already been detained five times and
held where he hears others like him being tortured. He too has fled to
the UK.
These two accounts represent those of over 100,000 people who sought asylum
in the UK in 2002/3, explained Craig McNulty (The City Practice,
London). And as asylum remains a hot political issue, drawing tons of
attention and spurring prominent debate, what, or who, is an asylum
seeker? According to Simon Goodman (University of Manchester),
depending on the category used, asylum seekers are either seen as
deserving or undeserving of sympathy and support. Goodman analysed data
from the public sphere, such as newspapers, political debates,
interviews and election publications, and identified three ways in
which asylum seekers are recognised. Firstly, asylum seekers are
distinguished from ‘economic migrant’ and seen as either legitimate,
or, more usually, not. Secondly, both categories (asylum seekers and
economic migrant) are joined together. Thirdly, the above two
categories are used interchangeably. As a result, more often than not,
asylum seekers are doubted and treated with contempt.
The symposium ‘Clinical, legal and ethical issues in the assessment and
treatment of asylum seekers in the UK’ presented another picture.
Asylum seekers are often people who have suffered serious levels of
physical and psychological harm, such as from persecution, torture,
war, oppression, violence, loss and bereavement. The legal system is
therefore increasingly seeking the advice of clinical psychologists
working in a therapeutic setting. Clinicians are asked to produce
reports about the extent to which symptoms of psychological distress
are consistent with biographical accounts, together with
recommendations for treatment and intervention. And according to Jake
Bowley (Haven Project, Pennine Care NHS Trust, Rochdale), clinicians
too are becoming increasingly pressurised. As McNulty highlighted,
clinicians often have to work through interpreters, assessments are
brief and resources limited. Sarah Woodhouse (Birnberg, Pierce and
Partners, London) further confirmed that recent changes to the
structure of immigration appeals has meant that reports have to be
written in a very tight timeframe and for low pay.
Carmen Kearney (Asylum Aid), in discussing the impact of the appeals
process on asylum seekers’ mental health, summarised the new appeals
structure with these simple words: ‘Say it all, say it now, say it
quickly.’ Where the old system, characterised by excessive delay, led
to frustration, hopelessness and depression, the new system, in its
attempt to speed up the process, has given lawyers and clinicians
inadequate time to prepare their cases and reports. Asylum seekers also
have less opportunity to be linked to therapy and in some cases are
even likely to get no access to a lawyer. As Woodhouse further
highlighted, asylum seekers are also faced with a ‘culture of
disbelief’: small discrepancies are magnified and most accounts are not
taken seriously and deemed inherently implausible.
Bowley did manage to offer a number of strategies and rules of thumb.
Firstly, he emphasised that anyone working with this client group can
adopt a helping role, something that is indeed universal. Secondly,
cultural and linguistic differences can be overcome by adopting a
‘coping with adversity model’ and a phased model of recovery (Herman,
1997, Trauma and Recovery). Thirdly, in writing psychological reports,
clinicians need to remain objective.
The message from this symposium was loud and clear – the legal system
needs to be explicit in its instructions as to what it expects from
clinicians. Psychologists need to adjust their own practices in order
to help the legal process. One way of doing this has been their call
for mandatory training so that they understand the legal system. Let’s
hope their voice, together with the voices of the asylum seekers
themselves, is heard.
Confident and Persuasive
Simon Bignell went to find out whether confident communicators
are more persuasive.
EVER heard of an unconfident world leader, salesperson or estate agent?
Well that’s probably because confidence is the key to persuasion,
according to new research by Briony Pulford and colleagues at the
University of Leicester. They have shown that people tend to use
judgements about how confident someone is about an issue as a guide to
how reliable the information is. This ‘confidence heuristic’ allows us
to make snap decisions when we do not have time to think or lack the
knowledge to come to reasoned decisions.
They tested whether judgements about the reliability of what a person
has to say relate to the confidence with which they say it. Using a
‘Police and Suspects’ game they gave pairs of participants
an array of photographs each and asked them to decide together which
one most looked like a police ‘suspect’ E-fit. They were not allowed to
see each other’s E-fits and had two minutes to discuss which photograph
to choose. If they both agreed on which photo was the best likeness to
the suspect then they each received a cash reward, but if they
disagreed they both got nothing. What they didn’t know was that one of
them received a very good E-fit likeness to one of the photographs and
the other
a very poor likeness.
On most of the trials the pairs managed to reach agreement and so got
the cash reward. The person with the better E-fit was much more likely
to persuade the one with the poorer likeness to agree to the correct
photograph. In other words, the most persuasive was nearly always the
person who was the most confident that they had the better likeness. A
key finding was that men who have less of a need to think things
through were much more persuasive. However, some of the people involved
did not fit neatly into this pattern and managed to be persuasive even
when they lacked good evidence.
In short, confident communicators are much more persuasive, part of the
communication we project to others is the confidence we hold about
issues and in this way confidence acts as a reliable cue to the
validity of information. However, history has taught us to be cautious
of trusting those who seem the most confident of their beliefs.
Caring in the community
Fatima P. Covacha found out about two innovative projects involving educational psychologists.
IT’S always a pleasure to attend talks demonstrating how
psychologists are out there making a real difference to people’s lives.
Here were two prime examples.
In the first, Juliet Starbuck (West Sussex Youth Offending Team) and
Vanessa Wood (West Sussex Educational Psychology Service) discussed the
role of educational psychologists (EPs) working with community groups.
Their project involved EPs in a youth offending team community
initiative in West Sussex supported by the Children’s Fund. The
community groups ranged from a breakfast club at a junior school to
peer mediation schemes in junior and secondary schools. After initial
meetings, the EPs and community groups decided that their main
objective was the development of evaluative skills. The project used
Fetterman’s empowerment model together with process consultation in the
mould of Edgar Schein. Group communities kept ownership of their
projects while developing their own skills, and these could be used in
future programmes once the EPs had left.
Once the process of consultation was complete, feedback from the
community groups was positive. They had developed sharper objectives,
better criteria for evaluation and even a clearer understanding of the
programmes they were running. The EPs were described as helpful and
their services considered beneficial and vital.
Having brought EPs into the community, it was now the turn to bring
Arsenal Football Club to Manchester. Kairen Cullen ([email protected]
Educational Psychology Service) and Joyce Monroe (Surrey Educational
Psychology Service) were also demonstrating the significant role that
psychological theory and practice can play in successful community
projects.
Cullen and Monroe developed a 12-week long pilot study run by an
educational psychologist working in a secondary pupil referral unit and
Arsenal Football Club’s ‘Sport in the Community’ programme. Their
hypothesis was that both the student group and the unit as a whole
would benefit from a regular, structured programme. After initial
consultations with both the Arsenal programme and the pupil referral
unit, weekly football sessions were planned, and at the end of the
programme evaluation data collected – semi-structured interviews,
observation sessions, examination of attendance and exclusion reports.
Results showed that staff morale improved, levels of collaboration
increased between all involved, and individual students’ behaviour and
attendance improved.
Human rights meeting
AT the inaugural BPS meeting on human rights, speakers discussed
psychological perspectives on issues as diverse as torture, refugees,
asylum and mental health legislation. Professor Peter Kinderman
outlined the activities and policies of the BPS in this area, and he
made it clear that the BPS has been very proactive, with published
policies on topics ranging from gender recognition and same-gender
relationships, through the establishment of a Commission for Equality
and Human Rights, to mental health legislation and the mistreatment of
people in Abu Ghraib. He suggested that human rights are understood by
psychologists as those shared social rules that govern how people
collectively pursue their basic human needs.
Dr Jim McManus outlines the legal background – the Human Rights Act
1998 – and placed special emphasis on the European Charter of
Fundamental Rights. He suggested that the latter was particularly
relevant to psychologists involved in social issues. Dr Nimisha Patel,
who works with the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of
Torture, discussed the impact of human rights abuses in Britain and
around the world, and proposed that psychologists take a public stand
against such abuses. Finally, Dr Dave Harper discussed how
psychological principles of human rights have informed the BPS
discussions around the proposed changes to the Mental Health Act, and
commented that, as psychologists become involved, they face
professional and ethical challenges of their own.
The meeting included the formal publication of a declaration by the BPS
condemning torture and all other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,
and further condemning the misuse of psychological knowledge and
techniques in the design and enactment of torture (see The
Psychologist, April 2005).
The afternoon ended with a plenary discussion about how the BPS might
take matters forward. Everybody agreed that the issues were important
to psychologists, that psychological perspectives could add to the
debate and that the BPS should develop a programme of work in the area.
The meeting was told that the BPS hosts an e-mail discussion group for
members and colleagues interested in psychology and human rights
([email protected]) and that the BPS
has offered financial support for future meetings. There was general
support for plans to hold a conference for psychologists and policy
makers later in the year in London, and it was agreed that further
discussion should take place on the e-mail discussion
group.
Report authors
Simon Bignell is at the University of Essex
Fatima Covacha is at the Open University
Julie Morgan is at the University of Sussex
Paul Redford is at University College Winchester
Kathryn Sowerby is at the University of Newcastle
(Please note that some pictures may have been removed for copyright reasons)
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