Masculinity, Meditation, and Mental Health by Tim Lomas

'Masculinity, Meditation, and Mental Health (http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=675073).

It is said that men are ‘in crisis,’ blighted by the adverse effects of corrosive masculine norms ranging from emotional disconnection to aggression. Consequently, with men in considerable ‘trouble’ relative to their female counterparts – from higher levels of suicide, alcoholism and violence to poorer health and educational outcomes – the question of how to help men ‘change’ is a pressing one for society. This book offers one possible solution, as it shows how one group of men learned to overcome their masculine inheritance by taking up meditation. Here we follow their difficult but ultimately rewarding life journeys as they sought and found an elusive sense of wellbeing. The book interweaves these personal narratives with the very latest research and theory at the intersection of gender and mental health, together with practical recommendations for those working with men (and indeed for men themselves). The result is a powerful account of the potential for men to change and to lead lives that are more conducive to wellbeing.

Tim Lomas

Personal Consultancy, by Nash Popovic and Debra Jinks (Routledge 2013)

Making the case for an integrated approach to the practices of counselling, psychotherapy and coaching, Personal Consultancy provides a coherent and systematic framework for working with clients. Nash Popovic and Debra Jinks use their experience in the area of integrative practice to demonstrate how this wider approach can be a more comprehensive way of helping clients than coaching or counselling on its own. The authors explain how a range of techniques and approaches from various one-to-one practices can be brought together under the framework of Personal Consultancy, creating a method that is systematic, ethical and professional but not limited by any particular theoretical bias or preconceptions. With chapters by guest authors who discuss their perspectives on the approach and its application across various contexts, Personal Consultancy demonstrates that it is possible to combine the reparative work normally associated with counselling with the more proactive, goal-oriented approach of coaching. The result is a framework that allows clients to have their counselling and their coaching needs met within one relationship and that allows the practitioner more flexibility and freedom than when using a single approach.

Personal Consultancy is one of the core texts for the UEL based PostGraduate Certificate in Integrative Counselling and Coaching, the first programme of its kind in the world!

Nash Popovic

British feeding and Drinking Group Conference 2014-04-29 - conference report

Caroline Edmonds and I recently attended the Annual Meeting of the British Feeding and Drinking Group (BFDG), which was held in Portsmouth this year.  Our particular interest is the effect of drinking water on mood and cognition and it is difficult to find conferences that cater specifically to this topic. Fortunately, the BFDG presents the perfect opportunity to meet and discuss with colleagues from other universities who also investigate the effects of a variety of beverages and foods such as caffeine, glucose and grape juice on cognition and mood.  Caroline presented two posters, the first, Differential Effects of Water Supplementation on Cognitive Performance: Dose Response Characteristic, showed how memory and visual attention task performance responded differently to varying amounts of water. The second poster, Does Fasting During Ramadan Affect Children’s Cognition and Mood? A Pilot Study of Children’s Performance and Teachers’ Perceptions, showed that teachers perceived children that were fasting to have less energy during Ramadan but that it didn’t appear to affect their academic performance, while formal testing of the children showed that their visual attention was poorer if they were fasting during Ramadan.  I presented a poster, The Effect of Exposure to an Unfamiliar Fruit and Positive or Neutral Message on Consumption and Attitude Change in Young Children, and this showed that it was exposure to an unfamiliar fruit, dragonfruit, that appeared to increase consumption over time rather than exposure to a daily story which either had a positive or neutral message about eating fruit.  Our posters attracted many attendees and generated some very fruitful conversations.  Hopefully, future collaborations may arise from these discussions. 

This year a large proportion of the presentations were focussed on how public food consumption can be reduced so as to curb the increase in obesity. It seems that a lot of research is now being directed at trying to increase the feelings of satiety after eating with the inference being that food consumption will be reduced. Interventions such as increasing the thickness of drinks and soups, water loading before eating and increasing the time spent chewing were investigated and seemed to be successful, although testing under laboratory conditions when participants are aware they are being monitored is a considerable limitation. A very simple but seemingly effective idea that was presented was to graphically show ideal portion size on a packet of food rather than giving a numeric weight or volume.  Additionally, some presentations focussed on how sugar content in both foods and beverages continues to increase leading to a higher risk of weight increase, diabetes and behavioural consequences such as a decrease in memory and spatial learning. However, a study in which parents and children were asked to rate sugar content in drinks, by placing different drinks in order from high content to low content, showed that parents and even young children were very accurate in their knowledge. It is encouraging that the public seem to be more aware of what is healthy to eat and drink but as we all know this often doesn’t relate to the choices we make.  Having enjoyed two days of delicious desserts at the conference lunch and dinner I can definitely offer anecdotal evidence that this is the case.

A nice feature of this conference is that an event is always arranged for the evening so that discussion can become more informal. This year a dinner was held on board the ‘HMS Warrior’ at the Historic Dockyard. This venue was amazing and exceeded my expectation. All four decks of the ship are open to be explored and the restoration is immaculate and gives a real feel of life as a Victorian sailor. I would definitely recommend it as a place to visit particularly for those colleagues with children. 

This was my second visit to the BFDG and I hope to go again next year although, interestingly, this British event is becoming more international, with attendees coming from around the globe. Next year the conference is due to be held in the Netherlands and presumably will be renamed the IFBG (International Feeding and Drinking Group).

Paula Booth

Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies - convention report

I’ve just returned from the annual convention of the Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) held in Music City USA (Nashville, Tennessee). The convention’s theme this year was “Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies: Harnessing Synergy among Multidisciplinary Sciences.” Cognitive and behavioural therapy (CBT) is grounded in empirical findings and the scientist-practitioner model of clinical practice. Given CBT’s inherent emphasis on using scientific findings to guide and advance clinical practice, it is not surprising that numerous methodologies were presented via posters and symposia to demonstrate their usefulness for both measuring and conceptualising therapeutic change via CBT across a variety of patient issues. The scientific development of CBT serves to inform and guide clinical practice in a valuable, quantifiable ways such as the identification of active treatment components and variables that influence treatment outcomes. As the scientific discipline of CBT psychotherapy research continues to develop, scientists have added tremendous knowledge to the field, the research data has grown, and growth often begets change. In this case, change overtime in the larger body of research data on CBT calls for change in the overarching perceptions and practice of cognitive psychotherapy in the therapy room. As a result, CBT is now more diverse and flexible than ever before.

The ABCT annual convention affords its members a unique opportunity to witness discussions among leading minds in the field. I attended a clinical roundtable focusing on harnessing synergy and discussing changes in cognitive psychotherapy research overtime among three of ABCT’s leading thinkers: Drs Gerald  Davison (Distinguished academic; 8^th President of ABCT), Steven  Hayes (founder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), and Marsha Linehan (founder of Dialectical Behavioural Therapy). The panel were asked to discuss their most telling reconsiderations in the form of three simple questions: What have you changed your mind about? Why? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind? The panel discussion of experts shared their thoughts about the progress of CBT as a stand-alone psychotherapy branching from traditional behavioural therapy and emphasized how much has been gained by incorporating elements of Eastern philosophy (e.g., mindfulness, acceptance, nonjudgmental being) into traditional cognitive psychotherapy.  Notably, each panel member provided ample evidence of failed research attempts, difficulty interpreting data given prevailing theoretical beliefs, and occasional disbelief and/or inability to accept research findings. It was refreshing to learn that giants in the field are equally plagued by the complex nature of psychotherapy research. Their message was clear: it’s ok to fail as a researcher as long as you learn why you’ve failed –that’s a true scientist. As a result of the persistence of these three distinguished academics, cognitive psychotherapy has continued to expand and branch within itself, making the practice even more robust, diverse, and effective.

My primary purpose for attending ABCT was to present recent research findings on social anxiety and situational alcohol use.  My US colleague Dr Julia Buckner and I were invited by Dr Ruth Cooper at the Institute for Clinical Psychology, University of Cologne, Germany to present research findings for a symposium titled: Social Anxiety and Hazardous Drinking: Illuminating Mechanisms of Comorbidity. This symposium aimed to: 1) describe three new theoretical rationales for the highly comorbid nature of social anxiety and alcohol; 2) explain potential anxiety relieving mechanisms of alcohol consumption; 3) assess and target specific pathological processes relevant to the comorbidity; and 4) suggest future directions for research and clinical practice in this common but difficult to treat clinical comorbidity. This symposium included talks by international leaders in social anxiety research: Drs Julia Buckner (Louisiana State University, USA), Sherry Stewart (Dalhousie, Canada), Lindsay Ham (University of Arkansas, USA), and Professor Alex L. Gerlach (University of Cologne, Germany). My talk, The Role of Conformity and Coping Motives in the Prediction of Excessive Situational Drinking Among Socially Anxious Undergraduates, showed socially anxious undergraduate drinkers are more likely to drink heavily in negative emotion drinking situations (e.g., when feeling lonely, angry, sad) and drinking in these situations was moderated by coping and conformity motives (i.e., drinking to avoid negative affect and/or social scrutiny).  Thus, highly socially anxious undergraduate drinkers with strong beliefs that drinking helps reduce social scrutiny appear to be especially vulnerable to drink heavily to cope in negative emotion situations.  A paper stemming from these findings is currently in press at Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, the American Psychology Association’s quarterly addictive behaviours journal.

I also presented a paper on research findings from a longitudinal randomized control trial involving alcohol treatment for at-risk university student drinkers. The talk, Addressing Heavy Drinking among Alcohol Treatment Mandated University Students: Long-Term Clinical Outcomes of a Campus-Based Brief Alcohol Intervention, stems from a completed research project funded by the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as part of my doctoral research programme. My co-authors and mentors on the project include Drs Amy Copeland and Julia Buckner, Louisiana State University, and Professor Mary Larimer, the University of Washington Seattle. Dr Larimer is a leading researcher in alcohol prevention interventions among young people. A full length manuscript of this project is currently under review.

Overall, the convention provided an excellent opportunity to reconnect with the momentum of CBT research, network with international colleagues, and of course, listen to live country music and learn to line dance.

Meredith Terlecki

Association for Coaching conference at UEL

The School of Psychology at UEL and the Association for Coaching hosted one of the UK's largest coaching conferences at our Docklands Campus. Around 400 people attended the conference which was a highlight of the coaching calendar. UEL's School of Psychology hosts some of the world's leading postgraduate coaching and positive psychology programmes. 

There is a short film about the conference here -
http://associationforcoaching.com/videos/video/time-develop-uk-conference-2013/

Christian van Nieuwerburgh

The Freedoms of the New

UK universities exist in an ecology characterized by a number of stresses.   Resources are thinner on the ground than they once were.  Whilst students can claim funds in the form of loans, this changes their perceptions, which in turn affects recruitment and retention behaviours within universities.  Research Council funding is reduced, and that which is left has been reorganized such that new methods of extraction need to be acquired.  Universities themselves are increasingly seen as resources also, and are endlessly compared in league tables in order to discern where the richest pickings are.  And the fruits of scholarly activity are sporadically and stringently audited for their quality and (now) socioeconomic impact by protean panels.

 

As one would predict universities are in competition with one another to extract the most utility within this ecology.  Each university has its own plans but it is also the case that cooperative strategies have emerged; notably the Russell Group formed in 1994 in order to maintain the best research and teaching within the changing landscape.  A key element of this cooperative venture has been to brand 24 universities as leading.  Leading can mean guiding others, helping them to develop, a potentially beneficent act.  But, of course, it can also simply mean superior.  From our discussions with many colleagues they are all clear that the intention is firmly to brand this list as superior, and this is affirmed by the reliance on league tables and audit outcomes.  The Russell Group will lead students to opportunities, as was our own experience when graduate students, but there is little indication that they are acting to improve the circumstances of other universities.  We suspect this social norm has emerged not least because of the unfortunate use of that term – leading - for it establishes an expectation in the same breath as dashing it.  Why would we expect to be led?  What does this say about us?

 

The putative elitism that the Russell Group embodies often colours interpretations of the division between old and new universities, because old universities are seen as the stock from which they draw members, old universities are part way to that elite club by dint of their age and traditions.  We have encountered the view that life in the old university sector must be better – their access to resources greater, enabling more time to be spent on research, and their students must be more engaged and, perhaps, a little more like us in their weird intellectual fetishes.  This view needs thinking about, and more than a little excoriation.

 

It is clearly the case that the Russell Group does well on all the measures by which universities are judged.  The probability of a top UK-based scholar in any field being employed by a Russell Group university is high, but not 1.0.  If we broaden this to old university membership then the figure gets closer to perfection.  This situation can be interpreted in at least two ways.  On the one hand, the Russell Group earns its right to superiority because by all measures it is.  This will attract excellent scholars.  On the other, some see the Russell Group as setting the measurement agenda to favour themselves.  Where is the accounting for the costs of true widening participation, some might ask?  The Russell Group and the older universities do not have to deal with the same issues as the new, it is assumed.  Those issues are obstacles to enhanced performance on the league tables and new university scholars have their scholarship diluted.

 

Given that league tables are inherently limited, and therefore biased, we imagine these negative complaints can be defended statistically.  But all they amount to is a statement that there are differences: differences can present problems, but also opportunities.

 

We both work in psychology departments in new universities in London.  In this part of the world we have many close neighbours including a number of Russell Group departments.  Indeed, if we go into town for a beer we stand a high chance of seeing such colleagues and walking past their ivory laboratories.  They are hard to miss.  Not that we want to miss them, because we benefit hugely from being in a crowded niche, as we get an opportunity to hear new ideas and debate them with the leading thinkers in our field.  And here we use leading in both senses – they are doing well but they also turn up in London to teach us.  We are lucky to live here: we know it.

 

But when we come to think about life in one of those top-ranked departments we have another view.  These are places where staff are set publication and grant capture targets that are often unrealistic given the diminished resources and increasing numbers of scientists clamouring for them.  Yet those targets, when unmet, negatively impact on career progression and limit creative growth, for that is what academic hierarchies are designed to reflect and enable.

 

In order to increase the odds in the competitive market, these departments become markedly specialized, favouring only very specific subdisciplinary areas of the entire field and thereby making a decision about their net contribution to the overall development of knowledge.  This is a heinous bureaucratization of science, one that is philosophically a little hard to justify if one maintains the view that leading might mean guiding enquiry and knowledge.  Certainly, a lot of excellent, specialized work is done in these institutions but it is paradigm bound.  In the terms of our discipline, these departments are rarely places of behavioural science but instead places of specific methods and questions.  Other perspectives need not apply.

 

Old universities, not yet in the Russell Group but keen to compete, can act as if they have no choice other than to mimic this strategy.  To some extent it works and they get to join, but at the expense of their diversity we fear.  It is certainly the case that we have seen young colleagues leave our sector to take up a role, slightly more junior that their previous one, in an old, ambitious university.  Their experiences are not always happy ones.  The policies they encounter are rigid, and a handful of staff are favoured at the expense of others, as they are more likely to meet the necessary criterion to push the department and university up the tables.  In many ways, these institutions can be much tougher than those in the Russell Group.

 

Meanwhile, in the new university sector we are beset by ambitions and competition also, but the research agenda is looser: on average the strategy is to do some.  We are both involved in research management – we are concerned with REF returns, impact agendas, grants capture and increasing our departmental knowledge exchange activities etc.; all terms used across the university ecosystem.  But our experience is that we shape our policies to the interests of our colleagues.  We want to know what they want to know and then we figure out how to facilitate that in the current situation.  It has never occurred to us to create a department that is a certain flavour in order to increase our standing on a particular table.  This makes us fundamentally uncompetitive under the Russell Group rules and it gives us a freedom that is most closely associated with the concept of a university.  We are permitted to think our thoughts and follow our ideas.

 

Ideas lead to hypotheses, lead to experiments and there are costs here.  Some of the things we dream we cannot afford to follow up – but we doubt that this limitation is peculiar to our sector alone; it is just differently scaled.  We do apply for grants, and occasionally they are won and well spent.  However, a trick that we are missing is that of thrift.  Where our Russell Group neighbours might develop work around high-end technology, admittedly extending a narrow field usefully, we must learn to experiment within the limits of our extant facilities.  One of us is often heard talking with great admiration about Niko Tinbergen and his innovative ways of testing ideas in ethology, indeed he really won his Nobel Prize for this rather than for a lasting theoretical contribution.  His painted eggs and model gull heads got to the heart of some fascinating behaviours.  We believe that the current climate and our specific ecological niche will encourage this order of creativity.  There is certainly nothing hindering this other than an obsessive tendency to assess the greenness of our neighbours’ lawns.

 

So, when we hear a colleague bemoaning her lot in the new university sector and expressing a heartfelt desire to join a leading institution we will ask “why throw away your freedom and your opportunity to innovate?” 

 

Authors: Tom Dickins & Derek Moore

 

Originally published on http://tomsnonacademicwork.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-freedoms-of-new.html?m=1

Conference: Therapeutic Interventions: Actions not Words, 23rd October BPS London Offices

http://www.bps.org.uk/events/therapeutic-interventions-actions-not-words
 
This conference aims to be a refreshing, innovative and thought provoking conference that aims to highlight and enhance knowledge around culture, and black and ethnic minority issues for those involved in applied psychology.
Applied Psychologists have organised this conference. A range of speakers will address a wide range of topical issues. In addition, there will be a number of workshops. Please come along, listen, network, and contribute to the discussions of the day.
 
Dr Laura Cockburn, Educational Psychologist, working on the Doctoral Programme for Educational and Child Psychology in UEL is leading a workshop together with Ken Greaves, Educational Psychologist (and a student at UEL) and Paula Spencer, Counselling Psychologist. This workshop is about: The use of Narrative methods when trying to improve our engagement with culturally diverse populations: a workshop