This aim of this study is to understand the professional identity of careers advisers in UK universities, at a time of unprecedented interest in employability across the sector following an increase in undergraduate tuition fees in England. The research question is “What is the professional identity of careers advisers in higher education in the ‘new’ employability climate? Opportunities and challenges for careers service leaders and managers.” Here, professional identity is defined as ‘the experience and self-understanding of those fulfilling a particular occupational role’. The study is qualitative, using the methodological approach of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The areas of literature that have been reviewed relate to the nature and development of the professions and the development of individual and collective professional identity. The history of the careers adviser role within the UK education system also provides context. Data was collected in summer 2012 through interviews with 21 careers advisers from 14 universities across England, Wales and Scotland using a stratified sample based on league table data. This study makes a contribution to knowledge by suggesting a professional identity for careers advisers which is Undefined, Parochial, Unrecognised and Unconfident yet Dedicated, and by making recommendations for leaders and managers, and careers advisers themselves, to consider in their approaches to staff development, (self-) advocacy and connection with broader institutional priorities. Such approaches do not conflict with a primary purpose of ‘helping students’ and can serve to strengthen the impact and influence of careers advisers as experts who address the increasingly critical employability agenda.

Bakgrund:  Långvarig smärta är idag ett mångfacetterat folkhälsoproblem. Smärtupplevelsen är komplex och påverkar människan utifrån flera dimensioner. Det vardagliga livet påverkas vilket skapar problem på såväl individ- som samhällsnivå. Sjuksköterskans roll är betydelsefull angående bemötandet och för patientens fortsatta utveckling av smärtupplevelsen. Syfte: Att beskriva patienters erfarenheter av att leva med långvarig muskuloskeletal smärta.  Metod: Littereraturöversikt baserad på tio kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar framsökta i databaserna CINAHL Complete och PubMed. Artiklarnas resultat analyserades och granskades utifrån skriftliga sammanfattningar och teman framställdes med hjälp av färgkodning. Resultat: Centrala erfarenheter som framkom var att deltagarna upplevde sig känslomässigt involverade, vilket även visades påverka smärtupplevelsen. Inställningen till och hanteringen av smärtan, livet och framtiden påverkades av yttre faktorer och förmågan till acceptans. Analysen genererade fem teman: smärtans påverkan i vardagen, smärtans påverkan av självbilden, strategier, bemötandet från hälso- och sjukvården och balans mellan hopp och förtvivlan. Diskussion: Livet med långvarig smärta innebär ofta ett stort lidande för människan. Eriksson beskrivning av livslidande, vårdlidande och sjukdomslidande ligger till grund för resultatdiskussionen. Även betydelsen av acceptans, omvårdnaden och hoppet diskuteras i förhållande till relevant forskning och litteraturöversiktens resultat.

There are a considerable number of children who fulfil a young carer role for a parent, sibling or relative. Research into the experiences of young carers is growing, and has explored the areas of supporting parents and siblings with physical and mental health difficulties. Although research into the experience of adult carers of individuals with psychosis-related difficulties is well established, the experience of young carers supporting a parent with a psychosis-related difficulty are yet to be studied. The aim of this study was to gain a richer understanding of the lived experience of young carers supporting a parent with a psychosis-related difficulty from a retrospective position. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven adults who were young carers for a parent with a psychosis-related difficulty. The interview transcripts were split into two parts and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Part one explored the experience of caring at the time, with two themes emerging from participant's accounts: 'Feeling isolated and alone' and 'Caring was taking the parent role'. Part two explored the integration of the experience into the current self, with two themes emerging: 'Understanding the experience is an ongoing struggle' and 'Making sense of the person I have become'. The findings are discussed in light of the current research literature and show both areas of agreement and unique insights into the experiences of this particular group. Clinical implications in light of the findings and future research suggestions are also considered.

Aim: Knowledge of the experience of qualified BME clinical psychologists in clinical practice is currently lacking in the research literature. The aim of the current study was to explore the lived experience of qualified BME clinical psychologists currently employed in the National Health Service (NHS). By investigating this under-researched topic, the study hopes to shed light on the impact on clinicians' personal and professional identity of practicing within a profession that lacks cultural diversity. It is hoped that the results of this study will contribute to ongoing efforts to diversify the profession, improve our knowledge of the experience of BME groups in the helping profession and also challenge current misconceptions concerning the BME experience. Method: A mixed method qualitative approach was employed for this study. Repertory grids and semi-structured interviews were conducted with six female qualified BME clinical psychologists who are currently working in the NHS. They had been qualified between three and sixteen years. Their repertory grids were analysed using Idiogrid and their accounts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results: Four master themes emerged from the analysis and were supported by the findings from the repertory grids showing that BME clinical psychologists feel that they stand out as different on account of their ethnic difference. The analytic procedure also highlighted how participants have to find a way to negotiate their cultural and professional values whilst also sitting with the uncertainty of their experiences in the profession. The final theme relates to the privilege that participants held in making it as a clinical psychologist. Implications: Initiatives to increase cultural competency and sensitivity need to be addressed by the profession. Efforts to increase ethnic diversity should be followed through to ensure practitioners are not left on the fringes of the profession on account of their minority ethnicity.

Background and Aims Estimates suggest more than three million children and young people (CYP) live with a parent experiencing mental distress (PEMD). It is suggested that CYP are often left to make sense of the uncertain nature of mental distress on their own. Furthermore, the existence of stigma can silence CYP and their families, as they try and hide from the view of others. CYP have voiced their desire for support. However, there are few services available to them in the UK, despite developments in policy highlighting the need for support. As CYP grow up, greater emphasis gets placed on relationships with friends. Therefore, CYP's peer group may provide a valuable source of support. This research aims to explore how CYP living with a PEMD gaining support from their friends. Methodology This research used a qualitative design to explore CYP's lived experiences. A purposive sample of six CYP who were living with a PEMD were recruited. CYP were invited to take part in semi-structured interviews, which were then transcribed. Analysis and Findings The interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The analysis revealed three superordinate themes: 'Fitting the puzzle together', 'Finding the experience of talking risky', and 'Coping with the up and down rollercoaster'. The findings support research recognising the importance of understanding mental distress, but CYP's accounts in this study provide further insight into the intricacies of what is meant by understanding. Furthermore, the research brings to light the challenges that CYP face when trying to build trusting relationships, in order to confide in their friends about their parent's experience of mental distress. Clinical implications, including recommendations for possible interventions are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.

The present research investigated paternal filicide in South Africa. It aimed to understand the factors underlying fathers killing their child/children. Study one explored paternal filicidal offenders' processes of construction, construing of events leading to the filicide, and meanings of their lived experience of killing their child/children. Study two examined the filicidal offenders' extended families' construction processes, construing of events before the killing, lived experience and construing of filicide, and construing of the filicidal offenders' construing of the filicide. Four paternal filicidal offenders and nine family members of the offenders who had different backgrounds (i.e., age, racial, ethnicity, cultural, educational, occupational, and the nature of the filicide) were purposively sampled and recruited into the research. Personal construct theory (Kelly, 1955) underpinned this research. A semi-structured individual interview which was structured according to the Experience Cycle Methodology (ECM) interview proforma (Oades & Viney, 2012), Perceive Element Grid (PEG) (Procter, 2002), and the ABC model (Tschudi, 1977), were administered to the filicidal and family participants. Data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) and personal construct analytic methods (diagnostic construct analysis, PEG, ECM, and the ABC model). The analysed themes suggest that filicide might co-occur with familicide and attempted suicide by the offender in some instances. While in many filicidal cases intimate/marital problems might be contributing factors, in a few cases filicide might be accidental in which it might not be precipitated by intimate/marital discord. Most filicidal offenders who tend to only construe their partners/wives and intimate/marital relationships in terms of positive construct poles might slot rattle when encountering invalidations of constructions. The encountered problems might trigger threat, anxiety, in which the problems are experienced as unconstruable, and anger which might lead to hostility. The filicidal offenders might lack constructions to deal with the issues which might result in unaddressed problems which might lead to a sense of being overwhelmed and feelings of hopelessness. The filicidal offenders might broaden or delimit their perceptual field or fluctuate between constriction and dilation to construe and cope with the situation. They might exceed their inhibition ability which might result in the avoided issues and inhibited feelings exploding in violence. The extended family members might not intervene in the couples' problems, if intervening might be possible, because of an unawareness of issues as a result of submergence and constriction in which they avoid construing the couples' problems, limit their views to issues, and minimise the seriousness of the construed problems. Psychological support, personal construct family therapy and Employee Assistance Program, might help the filicidal offenders cope with their intimate/marital problems, and therefore might prevent filicide. Considering the implications of the filicide on the offenders' identities, relations, and relationships, and also the relationships of their families, intervention programs such as Restorative Justice and sport might help the offenders re-establish their sense of self, find commonality and sociality while rebuilding the damaged relationships.

Research with refugees tends to be dominated by mainstream medical and trauma models. However, development of resilience theories and research on coping increasingly find that such constructs can open up currently limited understandings of the refugee experience. This research took a culturally relativist approach to explore experiences of coping in young unaccompanied refugees in the UK. Following extensive consultation, five young refugees were recruited, who were living independently or semi-independently having arrived in the UK without their family, at the age of 15 or 16. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to explore experiences and understanding of 'coping', whilst acknowledging the relative contributions of their own and my own cultural frameworks and the limitations of language; three participants made use of having an interpreter present. The accounts are presented idiographically, under three major themes that were apparent on multiple levels of the refugees' lives, from the individual to the cultural: 'Adaptation in the context of hardship and loss', 'Beliefs and worldview in shaping a new life', and 'Building strength and self-reliance'. These findings contribute to research finding resilience in refugee lives, whilst not to the detriment of incredible loss and pain. The research attests to the significance of cultural frameworks in refugee coping, with religion playing a key role. The themes are discussed in relation to existing literature and relevant texts, with implications for further research and clinical practice. The role of professionals as allies of refugees is suggested, in promoting socially inclusive practices that involves work both in the clinic and on community and social levels.

This thesis explores the relatively under-researched experiences of module design of academics employed within one UK university. In all, 96 people responded to an initial e-questionnaire survey, and 23 of these participated in follow-up semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data collected from both sources is the main focus of discussion. The thesis contextualises the research by presenting a brief description of the university of study and a sense of the social and political context of higher education in the few years preceding the onset of the project. Following this, there is a review of the existing literature around module and curriculum design. A separate chapter outlines the mixed methods employed to collect the data and the form of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) used to theme the qualitative data provided by the survey and interviews. The findings supported previous studies, but there was some contradictory data concerning assessment design, the value of the institutional approval procedures, and the usefulness of involving students in the design process. This study found that, as a result of the effect of institutional processes and documents on design, the consequence of changing student profiles (particularly around assessment), and the obligation staff feel to their students (despite their expressed lack of available time and resources), module design (and redesign) is more situation-informed than evidence-informed. It concludes that module designers employ a realistic and pragmatic approach to the process, even when their views, attitudes, and consciences around the rights and wrongs of the design process are sometimes questioned.

This research used interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology to explore the experiences of care staff who attended systemic consultations within an Intellectual Disability (ID) service. A systematic literature review revealed limited research in the area of systemic approaches used with people with IDs and their networks. Research questions encompassed 'How do care staff experience systemic consultations that they have attended in ID services'?, 'What do care staff find helpful in systemic consultations'?, and, 'What do care staff find unhelpful in systemic consultations'?. Seven participants were interviewed, and interview data was transcribed and analysed using IPA. Five superordinate themes emerged; 'Not knowing what to expect; it was something different', 'Our relationships improved', 'An outside person shone a new light enabling us to think and work differently', 'Making sense of what we have achieved', and 'They made us feel validated'. The research findings highlighted important clinical implications. These included a need for the context to be 'warmed' and relational reflexivity (Bunham, 2005) to be applied in order to help care staff prepare for systemic consultations and feel supported. Future research directions are also discussed in order to develop the evidence-base for systemic approaches within ID services.

Objectives: To explore how adjustment to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) can be understood using psychological (in)flexibility, the theoretical model underlying acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The specific research questions are: (a) what are participant experiences of adjustment and coping in T2DM? and (b) how can participant experiences be understood in terms of the processes underlying the model of psychological (in)flexibility? Design: This interview study utilised a cross-case qualitative methodology. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 purposively recruited individuals with a diagnosis of T2DM. Interview transcripts were subjected to an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) methodology. Results: Three primary themes were identified from the IPA: (a) ‘Eating myself into diabetes’: Managing the self in relation to perceived diabetes stigma; (b) My other illness is the real problem: diabetes minimised in the context of co-morbid diagnoses; and (c) Knowledge reduces attachment to the patient-role self-story. Conclusion The interpretation of the qualitative data generated suggests that adjustment to a diagnosis of T2DM is a complex process incorporating intra-individual and systemic factors. Whilst psychological flexibility may be a useful model for understanding and supporting adjustment, interventions are required that also address wider systemic issues such as the integration of care, health-related stigma and relationships with health professionals.