The academic research into the relationship between gender, gender perceptions and career progression with registered nursing in the National Health Sector in Scotland remains under-conceptualised. While the effects of gender, working hours and school aged children upon career progression have been widely discussed, their short and long-term impacts have not been quantified. An exegesis of the extant literature also reveals limited investigation of the engagement between gender perceptions. Gender perceptions are defined for the purposes of this study as a simplified and standardised conception concerning the vocational and social roles of women (Diekman & Eagle, 2000) and their impact on women's career progression. This thesis considers the impacts of these factors through a longitudinal analysis of a unique national database (NHS Scotland) of 65,781 nurses which includes 46,565 nurses who were registered over the period 2000-2008. It examines gender patterns within nursing careers in Scotland and explores the importance of various factors in explaining the influence of gender on the career progression of registered nurses. It explores the interactions between gender perceptions and professional values and how they reinforce each other to the relative detriment of women, particularly when the values and perceptions are in competition. The research was conducted in three phases. The first phase involved a quantitative analysis of the gender patterns within the entire nursing workforce in Scotland comprising 65,781 employees. The second phase consisted of a longitudinal examination which explored the composition of the workforce, working hours, dependent children, career breaks and qualifications of registered nurses. This quantitative analysis sought to discern the factors and variables that influence women's career outcomes. This third phase of the research draws upon in-depth interviews with 32 female registered nurses in hospital 'acute' nursing from grades 'D' to senior nurse manager aged between 25-65 who have been employed in a variety of contractual working conditions, areas and grades. Both phases of the research yielded a number of important findings. The quantitative study found that the influence of career breaks on career outcomes differed between female and male nurses. Career breaks had a significant detrimental impact on women's career outcomes, while in the case of men the findings revealed that they did not in general work on reduced hours and career breaks positively impacted upon their career outcomes. The findings also revealed that women with children of a school age gained less post-registration nursing qualifications and this had a negative impact on their career outcomes. The qualitative study found that perceptions concerning parenthood actively informed women's access to and receipt of training and that gender stereotypes played a significant part in women's career outcomes. Professional values appeared to compound the agency and importance of the gender perceptions with their weighting of full-time working and professional flexibility and commitment at the expense of individual requirements. The active fusion of these factors combined to reduce the career outcomes of women with children of a school age in comparison to women without childcare responsibilities and men regardless of their circumstances. The findings are relevant to the wider areas of equality of opportunity, employability as well as gender scholarship and add to the understanding of the impact of gender and gender perceptions upon career progression. They confirm that gender has a positive effect on the career progression of men and a negative effect on the career progression of women. Secondly, women's career progression in general is incrementally reduced by the presence relative to the age of the dependent children, the younger the child the greater the negative impact. For women there is a 'family penalty' in terms of career progression. It establishes that degree of impact children have upon women's career progression and outcomes. It confirms that gender perceptions and professional values work create a tension which works against women's individual requirements and career outcomes and creates unequal patterns of inclusion, particularly in relation to the access and receipt of training which is a key mechanism of the transfer of gender disadvantage. The complex relationship between dependent children, working hours, training and gender perceptions are part of a mechanism by which women's relative career disadvantages are transmitted.

This study describes relocation experiences of older people moving to supported housing in Scotland focusing on the nature of support. Using mixed methods, Phase one involved a Scottish cross-sectional survey of all people aged 65 and over moving into Coburg (Scotland) Housing Association supported accommodation during the first six months of 2008. A total of 122 respondents were included in the survey (59% response rate). People moved locally at advanced ages with moderate disability levels to achieve more manageable housing and support, suggesting ‘assistance migration'. Expectations were high, with many seeing it as a new start in life and generally positive views of moving were reported. In Phase two, five in-depth multiple-perspective longitudinal case studies were conducted to explore the experience of relocation into supported housing. In each case an older person, primary carer and the housing manager - all women – were interviewed over six months following relocation. Analysis was undertaken using a thematic framework approach (Ritchie et al., 2003). Findings suggested older women acted with agency to adapt to their new lives; recreating ‘normality' through organising space and routines. It is argued that returning to normality formed the overarching objective of the older women as they sought to feel ‘in place'. Responsibilities for meeting assistance needs were often implicit, contested and shifting, leading to fragile, uncertain and transitory arrangements. Drawing on recent advances in developmental psychology it is argued ‘longings' of older people, and others, to achieve an optimal life can relate and motivate towards actions such as relocation. Yet, personal ‘longings' can be prioritised differently and may result in disputes over goal setting and ways needs are met. Further, utopian ideals must be reconciled with the reality of daily life. Policy and practitioners could adopt broader, dignity based objectives to assist older people to identify ways of aiding such reconciliation.

Serious mental health problems among young people are on the increase in Western countries. Involving young people in their mental health care, and working in partnership with them during the treatment process, is a primary concern of all mental health services; their parents have also been promised a place in the health care team. Research into the process and outcomes of hospitalisation of young people in specialist mental health units is complex and therefore limited. Qualitative investigations into the experience of young people as users of these services are few. Making use of ethnographic methods, this study explored young people and their carers' (both parents and staft) experience regarding treatment and participation in decision-making in four Scottish adolescent inpatient or day-care mental health units. The findings suggest that the young people (n = 18) valued the personalised relationships they developed with the staff and their peers and that if these relationships were empowering, they facilitated both treatment and participation in treatment. However, the findings also show that the parents (n = 16) and staff members (n = 21) were sometimes disempowered and that this impaired the overall participative nature of the units. The unit culture was an important contributor to the effectiveness of young people and parent involvement. Making use of concepts from the neighbouring academic field of pastoral theology to interpret the findings, the study concludes with a conceptual framework of what is required for a unit to be more participative. This theoretical framework adds significant elements to the existing knowledge regarding participation in adolescent mental health units. It places relationships of justice and care between all stakeholders at the core of successful participation, hereby drawing attention to the importance of humanistic and ethical considerations in user and carer involvement.

This thesis as a case study explored the narratives of a convenience sample of four women with the disease known as lupus. The author used an ethnographic approach to investigate how these women coped and how service providers, including carers, met their needs. The author used participant observation in his role as Occupational Therapist (and son) to gain access to this sample. He asked them to keep written diaries about their day-to-day experiences of living with the illness. These diaries were later given to the author to read, study and analyse. Additionally, the author’s personal ethnography as a son was submitted as data for this study. This ethnographic writing centred on the life of one sole informant, his mother, who later died with the disease in hospital. Qualitative data analysis (QDA) techniques with grounded theory origins (Glaser and Strauss 1965,1967 and Charmaz 2007) was used to analyse the data. The techniques comprised of line-by-line analysis and coding, constant comparison of cases, thematic analysis, theoretical sampling and the development of framework tables. The study revealed a range of findings, which were later conceptualised into an ethnographic ontology of lupus. First, people encounter a daily struggle to cope with illness symptoms. Second, there was evidence of poor communication between the hospital ward staff (and carers) and failure for social workers to be the main advisor/counsellor of end of life care needs including missing referrals to hospice services. Health and social care professionals sometimes struggle to provide a basic level of service leading to a “know do” gap. This leads to an inconsistent level of end of life care for the individual and limited support for the identified carers. Narratives in diary form have a role to play in helping clinical teams develop meaningful insights into their life of their patients. Clinical teams in turn need to be forthright enough to develop “death covenants” for all patients (and their carers) with palliative care needs. Developing these tools and including them as intervention turn will lead to more cohesive practices within health and social care (Dean 1996, Dean and Melrose 1996, Mol 2008).

This research’s classic content analysis (n = 900) critically investigates the mediated dynamic of framing Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan between 2006-2011. This study found that while journalists overwhelmingly indexed their stories to elite sources, they frequently fact checked the media frames sponsored by government and military leaders. Journalists used elite criteria to evaluate and critique the media frames sponsored by military and government leaders. Most of the coverage of the conflict was hegemonic, episodic and event-oriented rather than thematic and contextual. While Canadian journalists frequently fact checked official claims of improving security, for instance, the news media’s coverage of Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan lacked broader critical appraisal. The abundance of fact checking by news professionals did not challenge hegemonic interpretations about the war, the military and Canadian foreign policy, raising questions about journalism’s normative role in Canadian democracy. This research also presents the findings of a population-based survey experiment (n = 1,131) aimed at testing the potential influence of fact checking and media discourse surrounding the news coverage of Afghanistan. This experiment found no statistically significant influence of fact checking on news consumers, suggesting journalists may wish to re-think how they challenge the media messages of officials. This study argues that the news media’s practice of fact checking – coupled with an abundance of episodic coverage – does not offer audiences sufficient information to make considered decisions about issues and events. This research found that Canadians’ attitudes about their country’s military role in Afghanistan are best understood as a confluence of media discourse, popular wisdom and experiential knowledge.

As issues of environmental degradation intensify, the interdependency between humans and the natural environment is coming more and more into focus. In particular, questions about the importance of environmental quality for human wellbeing and about how to mitigate the serious negative impacts humans are having on the environment are of ever-increasing significance. The current work addresses these issues in four empirical papers, split into two separate parts. The first section focuses on the first question, exploring the links between air quality and individual wellbeing. Paper 1 presents a spatially detailed analysis of the relationship between air pollution and a range of measures of subjective wellbeing (SWB), providing a rich picture of how the air pollution individuals are exposed to relates to how they feel. Paper 2 uses mediation analysis to investigate the behavioural production process which converts air pollution into ill-being, providing insights into the role of physical activity and visits to the outdoors play as mediators. The second part of this thesis addresses the second question. Paper 3 investigates the relationship between proenvironmental behaviour (PEB) and a range of SWB measures, shedding light on the wellbeing consequences of PEB for the individual undertaking it and providing insights into strategies to encourage it. Paper 4 tests two interventions which target electricity consumption in a hall of residence in London, providing evidence of an effective approach to reduce individuals’ environmental impact. Taken together, the results of the papers present evidence of psychological and environmental win-wins which can arise from living in and helping to create a better natural environment.

Victims of domestic violence may commonly be constructed as ‘deserving’ of state support, however the intersection of migration and domestic violence complicates such matters, often rendering migrant women with an irregular immigration status as ‘undeserving’. This thesis bridges the gap between literatures on migration and domestic violence by using the framework of ‘(un)deservingness’ to explore the lives of women with an irregular immigration status who experience domestic violence. Interviews were conducted with women with an irregular immigration status, primarily focusing on those who overstay their visas, as well as professionals who provide support to women. Drawing on interview data, the thesis explores the nuanced ways in which the intersection of migration and domestic violence plays out in the lives of women. It considers how abusive partners use the label and political context around having an irregular immigration status in the UK, as a tool to exacerbate the domestic violence. By focusing on lived experiences, the study also draws attention to women’s fears in managing the complexity around holding this immigration status in their daily lives. Moreover, the thesis explores the structural violence and other barriers which this sub-group of migrant women encounter when seeking support, which is often shaped by their social position and the nature of their immigration status, particularly for those who have No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF). The NRPF label signals that the state construes such women as ‘undeserving’, and this has very real consequences particularly in the context of domestic violence.

This thesis explores adult-child relationships and the use of touch in residential child care. The discourses surrounding touch in residential child care are distinctly polarised: touch is identified as being both fundamental to child development and also feared as a result of increasing risk aversion resulting from the legacy of abuse scandals in the sector (Cooke, 2003; Steckley, 2012). There is currently a dearth of empirical research regarding how touch is used in residential child care, particularly with regards to observations of touch in practice. This research therefore contributes to filling this gap in research by utilising ethnographic methods of participant observation, semi-structured and ethnographic interviews to explore how staff members and children conceptualise, use and/or avoid physical touch in day-to-day practice. This research is examined through a lifespace framework and draws upon theories of intimacy in order to link the findings to wider sociological theories of relationships (Smith, 2005; Jamieson, 1998, 2011). By carrying out sustained observations of practice, this research examines how touch, as a facet of adult-child relationships in residential child care, is negotiated within the lifespace. It shows how intimacy is both cultivated and inhibited, thus contributing theoretically to wider sociological debates concerning adult-child relationships and touching practices, particularly in relation to professional relationships and intimacy (Morgan, 2009; Ferguson, 2011a). The fieldwork for this project took place over 6 months at Sunnydale House, a local authority children’s home in England. The findings suggest that touch is used much more regularly than has been previously suggested in literature (Ward, 1999; Cooke, 2003), that the majority of touch is instigated by children not workers and that recent organisational culture shifts have shaped the way that workers conceptualise touch. The findings also illustrate the complex range of factors which influence how touch is inhibited, including: risk aversion, emotional burn out, bureaucracy and the construction of children in care as ‘moral dirt’ (Ferguson, 2007). The thesis concludes by producing a typology of touching practices which synthesises the range of meanings behind the uses - and avoidance - of touch in residential child care practice. This typology is also used to re-conceptualise intimacy in professional relationships in a way that accounts for the messy ambiguity of adult-child relationships in the lifespace.

A series of abuse scandals in recent years have stimulated debate regarding appropriate ways to care for people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour, with policy emphasising the need to move beyond reactive and aversive approaches. This thesis presents a qualitative study of the use of Discovery Awareness; a non-aversive video-analysis based approach to challenging behaviour which aims to improve relational aspects of care. Fieldwork was undertaken over a 10 month period in two Assessment and Treatment Units on a single site in the UK. During this period, 7 Discovery Awareness sessions were filmed and 12 interviews were conducted with staff who had experience of attending DA sessions. The filmed DA sessions were analysed using Conversation Analysis (CA) whilst the interview data explored staff accounts and perceptions of using DA in practice. The findings demonstrate that method integrity is an interactionally achieved phenomenon accomplished by the chairperson establishing interactional frameworks, shaping the conditional relevance of turns in line with the aims of the session, and through signalling transgressions in situ. There was no one interactional rule that applied to the whole DA session, making participant transgressions probable. Stance and interpretation were central actions related to video analysis in the session. Participants in DA utilised vague language to reduce the ‘degree of liability’ that a speaker may face. Participants also employed experiential formulations when interpreting the patients’ behaviour. This both minimises the basis for disagreement and enables participants to bring to the surface tacit dimensions of knowledge regarding the patient. These skills may be valuable in care environments, where staff have to make decisions based on signs interpreted from patients in the moment. The conversation analytic work also uncovered the prevalent use of ‘imagined constructed inner dialogue’, in which staff members talk as the patients’ inner voice. This formulation was used to perform a variety of actions such as evidencing participants’ stances, gist formulating the turn of another speaker, and to imagine alternative courses of events from the patient’s point of view. The use of imagined constructed inner dialogue also enabled speakers to give voice to non-aligning turns which offer alternative assessments without the need for prefacing non-alignment and minimising disagreement commonly found in every day conversations. Whilst imagined constituted dialogue fulfils an epistemic function, it also enabled participants to fulfil one of the remits of a DA session; to try to see the world from the patient’s point of view. By speaking as the patient, staff take an empathetic stance and affiliate with the patient’s imagined experience whilst keeping the patient’s voice central, and debatable, in the sessions. The interview findings suggest that DA is perceived as a valuable tool in helping staff reflect on the behaviour and personhood of the patient, as well as their own role in interactions with the patient. Whilst a variety of positive outcomes were reported, there was no consensus about how or whether these factors resulted in a reduction in challenging behaviour. However DA was perceived as having a beneficial effect on the culture of the units and in promoting recognition of personal and collective skills relating to understanding and exploring the patients’ behaviour. Possible impediments to implementation were also identified through analysis of the sessions, staff interviews, and through a literature review focusing on the factors which promote or impede the use of methods in ID practice. The findings contribute to existing conversation analytic work on studying intellectual disability services from an interactional perspective. They also build on work examining how methods are implemented interactionally. This has relevance for understanding how ID methods are implemented in real world situations, and for ID policy and practice.

When constructing lineups for suspects with distinctive facial features (e.g., scars, tattoos, piercings), current police guidelines in several countries state that the distinctive suspect must not stand out. To this end, police officers sometimes artificially replicate a suspect’s distinctive feature across the other lineup members (replication); other times, they conceal the feature on the suspect and conceal a similar area on the other members by pixelating the area (pixelation), or covering the area with a solid rectangle (block). Although these three techniques are used frequently, little research has examined their efficacy. This thesis investigates how the lineup techniques for distinctive suspects influence eyewitness identification performance and, in doing so, tests the predictions of a new model of eyewitness decision-making—the diagnostic-feature-detection model (Wixted & Mickes, 2014). The research uses a standard eyewitness identification paradigm and signal detection statistics to examine how replication, pixelation, and block techniques influence identification performance: [1] compared to doing nothing to stop the distinctive suspect from standing out; [2] in young, middle-aged and older adults; and [3] when the culprit does not have the feature during the crime. It also examines [4] how variation in the way the suspect’s feature is replicated influences identification performance. The results converge to suggest that all three lineup techniques currently used by the police to accommodate distinctive suspects are equally effective and, when the culprit has the feature at the time of the crime, all enhance people’s ability to discriminate between innocent and guilty suspects more than doing nothing to prevent a distinctive suspect from standing out. All three lineup techniques enable people of all ages to make highly confident decisions when they are likely to be accurate. These findings align with the predictions of the diagnostic-feature-detection model, which suggests that the model remains a viable theory of eyewitness decision-making.