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1 – 10 of over 14000The medicalization thesis derives from a classic theme in the field of medical sociology. It addresses the broader issue of the power of medicine – as a culture and as a…
Abstract
The medicalization thesis derives from a classic theme in the field of medical sociology. It addresses the broader issue of the power of medicine – as a culture and as a profession – to define and regulate social behavior. This issue was introduced into sociology 50 years ago by Talcott Parsons (1951) who suggested that medicine was a social institution that regulated the kind of deviance for which the individual was not held morally responsible and for which a medical diagnosis could be found. The agent of social control was the medical profession, an institutionalized structure in society that had been given the mandate to restore the health of the sick so that they could resume their expected role obligations. Inherent in this view of medicine was the functionalist perspective on the workings of society: the basic function of medicine was to maintain the established division of labor, a state that guaranteed the optimum working of society. For 20 years, the Parsonian interpretation of how medicine worked – including sick-role theory and the theory of the profession of medicine – dominated the bourgeoning field of medical sociology.
This chapter introduces readers to a complex adaptive systems approach for integrating research on genes, behavior, and social structures/institutions. Until recently…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter introduces readers to a complex adaptive systems approach for integrating research on genes, behavior, and social structures/institutions. Until recently, scientists have resorted to reductionism as a decoding and epistemological strategy for understanding human health. The complex bonds among health’s biological, behavioral, and social dimensions, however, cannot be fully grasped with reductionist schemas. Moreover, because reducing and simplifying can lead to incomplete understanding of phenomena, the resulting deficient knowledge has the potential to be harmful.
Methodology/approach
To achieve its purpose, this primer will: (1) introduce fundamental notions from complexity science, useful for inquiry and practice integrating research on genes, behavior, and social structures; (2) outline selected methodological strategies employed in studying complex adaptive/dynamic systems; (3) address the question, “Specifically, how can a dynamic systems approach be helpful for integrating research on genes, behavior, and social structures/institutions, to improve the public’s health?”; and (4) provide examples of studies currently deploying a complexity perspective.
Originality/value
The originality/value of this primer rests in its critique of the research status quo and the proposition of an alternative lens for integrating genomic, biomedical, and sociological research to improve the public’s health. The topic of complex adaptive/dynamic systems has begun to flourish within sociology, medicine, and public health, but many researchers lack exposure to the topic’s basic notions and applications.
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Inclusion and participation have become key values steering the policies of many governments. Hence, partnerships are now considered increasingly prominent vehicles for…
Abstract
Inclusion and participation have become key values steering the policies of many governments. Hence, partnerships are now considered increasingly prominent vehicles for stakeholder synergy, added value, collaborative advantage and building local capacities to address health and social concerns. However, generally leadership across organisational boundaries has received little attention, and particularly partnership leadership represents a central challenge in any collective undertaking.As an example, this paper starts by shedding light on the meaning of partnership. It then poses several questions in order to navigate the partnership‐leadership mantra. The paper examines the skills of leaders in five South African community partnerships as reported from the perspectives of each partnership and each participating stakeholder group. It describes the uniqueness of how each partnership views its leaders and the distinctiveness of how each stakeholder appraises its leadership. It highlights diffuse and shared leadership in collaborative settings, and it encourages the nurturing of emergent leaders. It concludes that one size of leadership does not fit all partnerships.
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Conference proceedings are difficult to acquire due to the lack of adequate bibliographic control. The procedures used by the Lending Division to overcome the problems are…
Abstract
Conference proceedings are difficult to acquire due to the lack of adequate bibliographic control. The procedures used by the Lending Division to overcome the problems are described and the major bibliographical tools are evaluated. The most useful are the ‘Directory of Published Proceedings’ and ‘World Meetings’ but these are far from comprehensive. Conference proceedings are expensive to acquire, but expenditure on them by the Lending Division is justified by the demand, 170,000 requests in 1978. A useful spin‐off from the Lending Division's collection is the ‘Index of Conference Proceedings’ which, although it does not give publication details, is the most comprehensive list of published proceedings available.
Effect size is an important determinant of statistical power. However, very few experimental studies in international marketing (IM) report effect sizes and no…
Abstract
Purpose
Effect size is an important determinant of statistical power. However, very few experimental studies in international marketing (IM) report effect sizes and no meta‐analysis work in this regard has been done. The main objective of this paper, therefore, is to quantitatively document effect sizes of experiments in IM and to provide directions for further methodological improvement.
Design/methodology/approach
All articles published in the top three marketing journals and the top six IM‐related journals during the period 1992‐2005 were screened; this yielded 35 experiment‐based papers within the domain of IM. For each study, ten methodological characteristics relevant to IM experimental designs were coded.
Findings
The 35 studies reported 68 experiments, which produced a total of 1, 074 observations. Results reveal that, on average, for experiments in international business marketing, about 2.89 percent of the variance in a dependent variable (DV) is accounted for by experimental treatments, and a variance of 3.61 percent is shared by the independent and DV for experiments in international consumer marketing. Sampling method, type of subjects, type of design and number of countries are found to have significant influences on effect sizes.
Originality/value
This paper provides a quantitative, state‐of‐the‐art review of effect sizes in IM experiments, points out problems such as inappropriate reliance on an overall effect size index, and further offers useful suggestions on how to report and improve effect sizes.
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For the interested teacher, teacher educator and educational researcher seeking an entry point into how mindfulness relates to teachers’ work, the burgeoning and divergent…
Abstract
Purpose
For the interested teacher, teacher educator and educational researcher seeking an entry point into how mindfulness relates to teachers’ work, the burgeoning and divergent appeals for the relevance of mindfulness to teachers can be bewildering. The purpose of this paper is to offer teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers a conceptual framework for understanding the different orientations and sources of mindfulness as it has been recommended to teachers.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Foucault’s (1972) concept of “discursive formations” as a heuristic device, this paper argues that mindfulness as pitched to teachers can be helpfully understood as arising from three distinct orientations.
Findings
Statements about mindfulness and its relevance to teachers emerge from three distinct discursive formations – traditional, psychological and engaged – that each constitute the “problem” faced by teachers respectively as suffering, stress or alienation. Specific conceptions of mindfulness are then advanced as a solution to these problems by certain authoritative subjects and institutions in ways that are taken as legitimate within each discursive formation.
Originality/value
Apart from offering a historical and discursive mapping of the different discursive formations from which mindfulness is pitched to teachers, this paper also highlights how each of these orientations impies a normative view of what a teacher should be. Suggestions for further historical research are also offered along the lines of genealogy, epistemology and ontology.
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Marcel Bastiaansen, Xander Dennis Lub, Ondrej Mitas, Timothy Hyungsoo Jung, Mário Passos Ascenção, Dai-In Han, Teemu Moilanen, Bert Smit and Wim Strijbosch
This paper aims to stimulate the discussion in the fields of hospitality, tourism and leisure on what exactly constitutes “an experience” and how to measure it; the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to stimulate the discussion in the fields of hospitality, tourism and leisure on what exactly constitutes “an experience” and how to measure it; the authors unpack the experience construct into its core constituent elements, namely, emotions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience that define experiences as a fine-grained temporal succession of emotions that occur during an experiential episode. Limitations of current methods for measuring experiences are discussed, after which biometric and neuroscientific methods are reviewed that are optimally geared toward measuring emotions, as they occur during an experience with fine temporal detail.
Findings
An overview is presented of the available studies within the fields of hospitality, tourism and leisure that use these methodologies. These studies show that using these methodologies provides a fruitful methodological approach to measuring experiences in real time.
Practical implications
Companies are constantly seeking to create memorable experiences for their customers. The proposed research methodologies allow companies to get a more fine-grained image of what impacts customers over the course of their experience and to actively integrate the use of emotions into creating experiences, as emotions are key to making them memorable.
Originality/value
The paper sketches the contours of a rapidly emerging framework that unpacks memorable experiences into their constituent element – emotions. It is proposed that this will contribute to a deeper understanding of how consumers experience offerings in the hospitality, tourism and leisure industry.
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Andria Hanbury and Hannah Wood
This paper aims to develop a behavioural science informed communication strategy aimed at health professionals and patients promoting best practice recommendations…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a behavioural science informed communication strategy aimed at health professionals and patients promoting best practice recommendations regarding the use of specialist liquid medicines for elderly people with swallowing difficulties.
Design/methodology/approach
The medicine prescribing, formulation and administration related challenges and experiences of health professionals and elderly patients with swallowing difficulties were identified through a pragmatic literature search. Key findings across the papers were synthesised into themes, before being linked to domains from a behavioural science framework. Published recommendations for behaviour change techniques that can be used to target the domains were then mapped to the domains. Guidance on how to develop a communication strategy, drawing on the insight gained from the literature review and the behavioural science recommendations, and designed to stimulate change in health-care professionals’ and patients’ behaviours, was then developed.
Findings
In total, 13 themes emerged across 15 papers, including “patient and health professional roles and remits”. These themes were linked to nine domains from the framework, highlighting the range of individual, social and environmental factors influencing patients’ and health professionals’ perceptions and experiences. A summary table, mapping the domains and underpinning themes to recommended behaviour change techniques, was used to develop the subsequent communication strategy recommendations. Recommendations include using techniques such as providing social processes of encourage, pressure and support to change patients’ and health professionals’ perceptions of their roles/responsibilities in medicines prescribing and administration, delivered via, for example, an educational leaflet and/or online training.
Practical implications
The summary table and guidance can inform development of an evidence-based strategy for communicating best practice recommendations regarding the use of liquid medicines for elderly patients with swallowing difficulties, tailored to the perceptions and challenges identified.
Originality/value
The behavioural science approach is less established within the pharmaceutical industry for promotion of best practice recommendations and related products, yet it offers a framework for an evidence-based and systematic approach that goes beyond a literature review or focus group.
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Eric S. Williams, Thomas R. Konrad, William E. Scheckler, Donald E. Pathman, Mark Linzer, Julia E. McMurray, Martha Gerrity and Mark Schwartz
Health care organizations may incur high costs due to a stressed, dissatisfied physician workforce. This study proposes and tests a model relating job stress to four…
Abstract
Health care organizations may incur high costs due to a stressed, dissatisfied physician workforce. This study proposes and tests a model relating job stress to four intentions to withdraw from practice mediated by job satisfaction and perceptions of physical and mental health. The test used a sample of 1735 physicians and generally supported the model. Given the movement of physicians into increasingly bureaucratic structures, the clinical work environment must be effectively managed.