Intuition is a concept that can provoke different reactions. It has been well researched in the field of cognitive psychology, but has been viewed with apprehension by clinical psychology. Research in the field of nursing has established a role for intuition in important aspects of clinical practice such as decision making, assessment, planning and implementing interventions. However no such investigation of intuition in clinical psychology has been made. The aims of this study were to explore how clinical psychologists construct intuition in their talk, specifically relating to clinical practice. Individual interviews were conducted with eight clinical psychologists. A grounded theory approach was used to develop three main categories from the interview data. The first category described how this group of clinical psychologists talked about 'doing' intuition. The second described participants' attempts to define intuition in context and the third category described how their views and use of intuition related to their 'being' a clinical psychologist. The findings of this study illustrate that participants constructed intuition as a valid concept with a significant role in clinical psychology practice. It was most readily discussed as a process, and participants found a notable difficulty in providing a concrete definition of intuition. Core elements of intuition and its use were located within a variety of contexts of the individual and system, the relationships to which were complex and diverse. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed along with suggestions for further research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:532866 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Tovey, Heather |
| Publisher | University of East London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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