Section A situates female clinical psychologists with children within the wider socio-historical context of working-mothers. Theoretical and empirical evidence of modernist and post-modernist approaches on the development of the working-mother identity is provided. This is followed by the literature on mothers employed in the caring profession and in psychology. The review highlights the need to further explore the relationship between social, professional and personal for female clinical psychologists with children within a socio-constructionist perspective. Section B investigates the social and professional challenges encountered by female clinical psychologists with children. Clinical psychology is an increasingly female profession, and many clinical psychologists are or will be mothers. Yet, proportionately fewer reach consultant positions (Band 8c and above) compared to their male colleagues. Existing historical professional structures, and traditional societal ideologies about motherhood and employment might be continuously negotiated within broader social positionings of working-mothers. This study aimed to explore the constructions of a sample of clinical psychologists who are mothers (CP-Ms) of their social identity. Foucauldian discourse analysis was used to explore the discourses available and drawn upon by CP-Ms to construct their professional and motherhood identity, and what were the subject positions they occupied. Ten qualified female clinical psychologists with pre-school children employed in a local NHS Trust were individually interviewed. CP-Ms’ identity was constructed as either a mother or a clinical psychologist, as being similar and different to other working-mothers. CP-Ms discoursed psychological knowledge and practices as potentially damaging their motherhood experience and their social relationships; they also discoursed motherhood and psychology as mutually enriching. Motherhood and professional identity were discoursed in opposition to one another, and yet the participants also constructed their CP-M identity as a continuous dynamic journey of reframing, of which they were agentic. This study suggests that the construction of CP-Ms’ identity is complex as it involves actively negotiating contradictions and overlaps between motherhood and clinical psychology. Further research is needed. Professional and clinical implications are discussed. Section C aims to elaborate on the research skills learnt during the research process, and on the abilities that need to be further developed. It continues with a critical appraisal of the study, before reflecting on possible clinical recommendations. Lastly, a potential new project is presented.

There is a discrepancy between the life expectancy of men and women of approximately two and a half years (Taylor Nelson Sofres 2014). This suggests that women are likely to spend a period of time in the latter years of their life living alone. It is anticipated that this will lead to a unique experience of later life for women, which to date has received little attention. This study is concerned with exploring the experience of living alone for 11 women aged 70-80 years from the South East of England. A particular emphasis is placed upon the experience of being an older woman, the activities that they engage in when they are at home alone, and the environment of home as a place for occupational engagement. Influenced by interpretive phenomenology and feminist principles, this study focuses on capturing the lived experiences of the 11 women in their own images and words. To achieve this, the methods of unstructured interviews and photo-elicitation are used. The women in this study describe a predominantly positive experience of living alone in later life. They value being busy, engage in a range of meaningful activities, and maintain their independence in everyday life. They provide compelling evidence that later life is a time for self-growth and development. This appears to link to the decline in the gender related roles and occupations which are expected of them in later life. This indicates that it is essential to provide bespoke support to older women that focuses on prevention of future decline but in a way that values their ongoing abilities.

No description available.

Whilst differing perspectives can be an asset, they have also been found to lead to conflict and misunderstanding in multidisciplinary practice. Evidence suggests that different mental health disciplines hold differing attitudes towards mental disorder, reflecting differing implicit models held. To contribute to our understanding of this problem the present study investigates psychologists’ concepts of mental disorder, building on a pilot study conducted by Harland et al. with psychiatrists (2009). The Maudsley Attitude Questionnaire was used in an online survey of trainee clinical psychologists (N = 288). Principal components analysis was used to investigate implicit models. It was hypothesised that psychologists’ understandings of mental disorder would differ from psychiatrists'. The findings showed that psychologists endorsed different models for different diagnostic categories of mental disorder. Psychologists favoured the social realist model overall. Principal components reflecting a biological-psychosocial continuum, and scales of cognitive/behavioural and psychodynamic/spiritual model endorsement were revealed. The study concluded that, when compared to the findings of Harland et al. (2009), psychologists appear to make more use of psychosocial and less use of biological factors in their understanding of mental disorder than do psychiatrists. There appear to be fundamental differences in psychologists' and psychiatrists’ implicit models of mental disorder. A greater emphasis on multidisciplinary training initiatives is recommended.

Clinical leadership and compassionate care in the NHS have become priorities in influential papers and policies. There is a paucity of research to underpin conceptualisations of compassionate leadership and of leadership development in clinicians in the NHS, particularly clinical psychologists who may be able to lead in healthcare environments in unique ways due to the values and competencies of their profession. This present study sought to use a grounded theory approach to build a preliminary model of the transformational process of how clinical psychologists may evolve into compassionate leaders. Twelve clinical psychologists from varied specialities and with different years of experience took part in semi-structured qualitative interviews. Their data were analysed using a grounded theory methodology involving open, selective and theoretical coding. The findings indicate that psychologists may develop as leaders through their personalities and sense of mission, through reaching out to and being accepted by colleagues and through leading by doing. Participants who became compassionate in leadership seemed to be enabled by reflection, supervision and being treated with compassion. These findings are discussed with regard to extant theory and literature. Clinical and theoretical implications and a methodological critique are discussed.

This study investigated the prevalence of voluntary self-practice of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) by accredited CBT practitioners, and explored the ability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to predict intentions to engage in CBT self-practice. A TPB questionnaire was constructed by implementing the protocol devised by Francis et al. (2004), with content specific items generated from an elicitation exercise to obtain salient beliefs regarding CBT self-practice. A sample of 177 accredited CBT practitioners completed an online survey which included demographic items and the TPB questionnaire. It was found that 46.4% of participants intended to self-practice CBT more than once a week over the following month. While the TPB predicted intentions to self-practice CBT (R2 = .445, p < .001), structural equation modeling revealed that the theory of reasoned action (R2 = .473, p < .001) was the best model fit of the observed data (RMSEA = .00, CFI = 1.00). It was concluded that a substantial proportion of CBT practitioners intended to regularly engage in CBT self-practice, with intentions predicted by subjective normative beliefs and attitudes towards the behaviour. Implications are discussed, with calls for the study to be replicated. Potential future research is considered, with suggestions to explore the role of CBT self-practice to promote therapist wellbeing.

This study aimed to explore how the experience of previous mental-health problems affects clinical and counselling psychologists’ approach to practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six clinical and four counselling psychologists who had experienced mental-health difficulties. Data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Analysis of the interviews highlighted five master themes: Use of the personal-self of psychologist; Ambivalence; Identity as a psychologist; Psychologists as agent of change; and Finding meaning in suffering. The results of this research showed that psychologists with a history of mental-health problems actively draw upon their experience. In managing their dual identity of service-user and professional, they reported a degree of ambivalence which influenced the way that they viewed themselves and their practice. Their personal experiences seemed to be closely tied up with their professional-identity, which either conflicted with their sense of self or complemented it through highlighting how fortunate they were compared to others. The interviews frequently highlighted how psychologists’ experiences can provide an impetus to speak out for patients’ rights to ensure that they are treated with respect and dignity. A number of psychologists with an experience of mental-health difficulties felt that they might not have pursued their career had they not had previous mental-health difficulties. There appeared to be mixed findings concerning whether the participants felt that their mental-health difficulties had helped or hindered their practice.

The present study explored how authenticity is constructed by clinical psychologists and asked what might be the implications of these discourses. The study is concerned with offering a focus on the making of authenticity in discourse as well as providing an understanding of the complexity of authenticity within clinical psychology. The study used a discourse analytic approach known as critical discursive psychology to examine clinical psychologists’ talk of authenticity. Participants included twelve qualified clinical psychologists working in adult mental health services who took part in semi-structured interviews. Following a detailed critical discursive analysis of the texts, four discourses were identified with regard to the construction of authenticity. These discourses were commonly used to construct authenticity in extremely positive terms, however, some participants did draw attention to an ideological dilemma of authenticity versus professionalism. Participants used authenticity to establish their identity and manage their relationships with service users, colleagues and institutions. Drawing upon psychotherapeutic and professional discourses positioned participants as having power and being more authentic than others. Authenticity was problematised in relation to the participants need for professional boundaries. It is suggested that psychologists internalise dominant discourses of authenticity from the profession of clinical psychology, which is itself influenced by wider societal discourses around what it means to be authentic or inauthentic. Extra-discursive factors including institutions and embodiment were found to influence and constrain available discourses. The limitations of this study’s research findings are discussed as well as implications for future research and clinical psychology practice.

No description available.

<p>Primary care multi-disciplinary teams were central to recent reform plans for Canadian primary care, in response to limited resources and increasing demands. Health Information Technology was also an integral part of those plans as supporting infrastructure for the modernization of healthcare services, facilitating coordination, collaboration and access to services. As provider-centric Health Information Technology matures, attention turns to the patient. The hallmark of patient-centered applications is the electronic Personal Health Record System (PHR). These systems have grown beyond simple repositories of personal health information, extending to a range of information collection, sharing, self-management and exchange functions.</p> <p>The implementation of PHRs in primary care multi-disciplinary teams involves many stakeholders including patients, physician, allied health professionals and support staff. There is significant literature on physician and patient perspectives on all PHR functions. However, little attention has been given to the other stakeholders: allied health professionals and support staff.</p> <p>In this study, we explored the views of Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) and support staff, working in a primary care clinic adopting a patient-centered, multi-disciplinary model called the Family Health Team (FHT) model. Participants provided their insight on benefits, concerns and recommendations regarding the implementation of MyOSCAR, a PHR, at their clinic. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured one-on-one interviews that were analyzed to extract common themes and summarize participant views. Process diagrams were produced to highlight opportunities for improvement of current work processes through the integration of MyOSCAR functions.</p> <p>As more teams are created in primary care and they attempt to implement new technologies, it is important to get a complete picture of all stakeholder views. This is the first study that focuses on the views of AHPs and support staff, contributing to the literature on PHR implementations. Findings from this study can contribute to future PHR implementations by informing planning and implementation.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)