social constructionism

This study presents a design-based research approach involving five iterations (semester) of implementing design thinking for engaged learning (DTEL) in an animal science capstone course. DTEL scaffolds design thinking into 10 stages for collaborative project-based learning to foster skills like problem solving and teamwork. Across five semesters (spring 2021 to spring 2023), student reflections ( n  = 276) were analyzed to identify aspects that worked well or were challenging. Network analysis visualized relationships ( P  < 0...

A shared problem in psychology, psychiatry, and philosophy is how to define mental disorders. Various theories have been proposed, ranging from naturalism to social constructionism. In this article, I first briefly introduce the current landscape of such theories, before concentrating on one of the most influential approaches today: The harmful dysfunction theory developed by Jerome Wakefield. It claims that mental disorders are hybrid phenomena since they have a natural basis in dysfunctional mental mechanisms, but also a cultural component in the harm experienced by human beings...

BACKGROUND: South African legislation promotes the accommodation of employees with disabilities through enabling modifications and adjustments in the workplace. The literature about the experiences of employees with disabilities in higher education environments regarding accommodation is scant. Filling the gap, this research aimed to explore how employees with disabilities at a South African university cope with disability management practices by means of accommodations. OBJECTIVES: The objectives entailed exploring the encounters of employees with disabilities regarding accommodation in the workplace, their beliefs about these encounters and the meaning that the employees with disabilities attached to them...

The concepts of generations and generational differences have received much attention in the academic literature, in the popular press, and among practitioners, policymakers, and politicians. Despite the continued interest, research has failed to find convincing evidence for the existence of distinct generations, commonly conceptualized as broad groupings of birth cohorts (e.g., 1980-2000) that have been influenced by a set of significant events (e.g., economic depressions) and labeled with names and qualities that supposedly reflect their defining characteristics (e...

Background: There is general agreement that trust between patients and providers influences patient knowledge, behaviors, and adherence to provider-recommendations--with subsequent impacts on patient health-related outcomes and provider practices. There is less academic agreement on the processes by which trust is formulated and changed over time and how trust with ongoing healthcare providers can influence health-related outcomes over time. Methods: This opinion draws on social constructionism and symbolic interactionism to posit the possibility that trust can emanate through the communication process, during which a patient and provider transmit and attend to words, images, and paralanguage to convey their states of being and to induce responses, usually acknowledgement, suasion, or physical behaviors, from one another...

ISSUE ADDRESSED: Three years have passed since the Australian Government's Department of Health released its National Men's Health Strategy 2020-2030. Presently, little evidence is available to show whether the strategy has achieved success in rectifying men's mental-ill health, particularly the experience of stigma when expressing vulnerable emotions such as grief. Concurrently, research within the field of psychology continues to show that men experience significant pressure to conform faithfully to their socialised gender role...

BACKGROUND: Applying simulation-based education (SBE) into surgical curricula is challenging and exacerbated by the absence of guidance on implementation processes. Empirical studies evaluating implementation of SBE interventions focus primarily on outcomes. However, understanding the processes involved in organising, planning, and delivering SBE adds knowledge on how best to develop, implement, and sustain surgical SBE. This study used a reform of early years surgical training to explore the implementation of a new SBE programme in Scotland...

Research has identified long COVID as the first virtual patient-made condition (Callard and Perego, 2021). It originated from Twitter users sharing their experiences using the hashtag #longcovid. Over the first two years of the pandemic, long COVID affected as many as 17 million people in Europe (WHO, 2023). This study focuses on the initial #longcovid tweets in 2020 (as previous studies have focused on 2021-2022), from the first tweet in May to August 2020, when the World Health Organization recognised the condition...

Recovery within mental health service delivery is no longer a new consideration in the Western world. However, it is well-documented how challenging its implementation and translation to practice and reality have been in contemporary mental health systems. In conjunction with this, mental health social work is continuously being challenged and debated in relation to its role, responsibilities, and identity in service delivery. This is largely the consequence of the continued dominance of the biomedical model in relation to service delivery...

Intersectoral collaboration (IC) plays a significant role in the delivery of diabetes care and treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes (DM2), as the treatment and care of these patients take place in both primary care and specialist settings. The collaboration involves a large number of actors from primary and secondary healthcare sectors, who are expected to fulfil various roles when they engage in IC. We explored the actors' roles by applying the framework of positioning theory with the aim of revealing seemingly embedded understandings of such roles...

CONTEXT: Assessment plays a key role in competence development and the shaping of future professionals. Despite its presumed positive impacts on learning, unintended consequences of assessment have drawn increasing attention in the literature. Considering professional identities and how these can be dynamically constructed through social interactions, as in assessment contexts, our study sought to understand how assessment influences the construction of professional identities in medical trainees...

AIM: This study aimed to explore what constitutes brilliant aged care. BACKGROUND: Although many aged care services do not offer the care that older people and carers need and want, some perform better. Rather than focus on problems with aged care, this study examined brilliant aged care-practices that exceeded expectation. DESIGN: The methodology for this study was informed by grounded theory, underpinned by constructionism to socially construct meaning...

BACKGROUND: Team-Based Learning (TBL) is an established educational strategy which has become increasingly popular in the training of healthcare professionals. TBL is highly suitable for teaching Family Medicine (FM) especially that teamwork and collaborative care, in this medical discipline, are at the core of safe and effective practice. Despite the established suitability of TBL for teaching FM, there are no empirical studies that capture the students' perception of a TBL in FM undergraduate learning experience in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA)...

This is part 1 of two articles that focus on the ideological and philosophical preference regarding how to relate to and conduct research in the field of systemic couple and family therapy. Thus, this article outlines the theoretical groundwork for part 2 of "Researching what we practice" in the same journal. Research in certain areas of systemic couple and family therapy (CFT), such as that influenced by social constructionism and postmodernism, has a different epistemological tradition than in the natural sciences...

Autism is often considered to reflect categorically 'different brains'. Neuropsychological research on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) however, has struggled to define this difference, or derive clear-cut boundaries between autism and non-autism. Consequently, restructuring or disbanding the ASD diagnosis is becoming increasingly advocated within research. Nonetheless, autism now exists as a salient social construction, of which 'difference' is a key facet. Clinical and educational professionals must influence this cautiously, as changes to autism's social construction may counterproductively affect the quality of life of autistic people...

Professing interactionist bio + social terminology, contemporary biocriminology asserts a break from its biologically essentialist past. Assurances notwithstanding, whether biocriminology has undergone a decisive paradigm shift rejecting notions of biological criminals and bad brains remains uncertain. Unfortunately, discussions of biocriminology's assumptions are mired in politics, obscuring important scientific issues. Motivated to clarify misunderstanding, I address the ontoepistemology of biocriminology from a scientific realist perspective...

BACKGROUND: Interdisciplinary interventions for school-based mental health promotion (SBMHP) for adolescents (10-19 years old) provide a unique opportunity to address the urgent mental health needs across this population. EspaiJove.net, a SBMHP programme, has delivered mental health workshops to over 24118 adolescents in Barcelona, Spain, since 2012. This study aimed to explore the perspectives from professionals involved in EspaiJove.net regarding the needs, challenges, and opportunities for adolescent SBMHP, to guide future interventions...

AIMS: To explore family carer experiences of managing the process of receiving and breaking bad news about cancer. BACKGROUND: Family carers' experiences of bad news are underrepresented in the literature. This study involved oncology staff with personal experience of caregiving and carers to develop broader insights into the range of needs and difficulties experienced by family members in the process of managing a cancer diagnosis. This can help facilitate subsequent interactions with healthcare professionals and improve continuity of care...

The integration of theories and techniques is part of family therapists' daily practice, raising the need to understand which resources are used in this professional's clinical actions. Our aim is to reflect on the use of theoretical and technical resources by family therapists in their daily practice. We developed an inquiry process inspired by collaborative action research and social constructionism. Couple and family therapy sessions were conducted by two family therapists, and we developed subsequent dialogs with them focused on describing theoretical and technical inspirations for their actions...

This study expands on current knowledge through how female entrepreneurs form and develop their networks in the Sri Lankan context. It adopts social constructionism philosophy and narrative design to explore the female entrepreneurs' networking behaviour. Thematic analysis is used to understand the life stories of fourteen women entrepreneurs in the tourism sector. Findings suggest that female entrepreneurs are likely to rely on more informal recruitment methods and informal training practices. They have strong relationships with local communities, but they focus on customers beyond the locals...