Dr Sarah Dean and Dr Amy Burton tell us about their Staffordshire University REF 2020 research scheme funded project into self-directed ageing stereotypes in older adults. The research was carried out with research assistant Weyinmi Demeyin and graduate Jessica Reeves.
Dr Sarah Dean and Dr Amy Burton
The population is ageing, but while average life expectancy continues to increase, healthy life expectancy has not necessarily matched this. Health psychologists are interested in health across the lifespan and we wanted to explore health in older adulthood to identify some of the barriers to healthy ageing, specifically those relating to ageing stereotypes.
There are lots of stereotypes surrounding ageing, which are often very negative. If an older adult internalises these negative stereotypes, meaning that they believe them to be true for themselves, this may have a negative effect on their health and wellbeing.
To explore ageing stereotypes in older adults we needed a way of measuring if people had internalised these beliefs. We found that lots of different measures existed and it was unclear which was the best measure to use. Therefore, we carried out a systematic review to identify measures of self-directed ageing stereotype in older adults and to evaluate their quality.
We identified 109 papers for inclusion in our review. Over 25 different terms were used to describe internalisation of ageing stereotypes in older adults. We therefore suggest that for consistency the term “self-directed ageing stereotype” is used and we found 40 different measures of this existed.
The most commonly used measures were the Philadelphia Geriatric Centre Morale Scale Attitude Towards Own Ageing (ATOA) subscale, Ageing Perceptions Questionnaire (APQ) and Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire. However, although it was the most frequently used, the ATOA was developed to measure morale in older adults and not self-directed ageing stereotypes.
Across measures, poor reporting of psychometric properties made it difficult to assess scale quality and more research is needed to fully assess measures before conclusions can be drawn as to the best tool; however, the Brief-APQ appears to hold most promise. Future research must address this issue before interventions to reduce negative self-directed ageing stereotypes can be developed and fully evaluated. Our research also highlighted the importance of researchers making sure that the measure they have chosen is suitable for their purpose.
We are really pleased that our article has been published in the European Journal of Ageing. The article can be accessed here if you would like to read about the research in more detail (DOI: 10.1007/s10433-020-00574-7).
Staffordshire University – The Home of Health Psychology
Supporting the changing needs and increasing dependency of someone with a learning difficulty (also known as learning disability or intellectual disability) and dementia can be challenging for carers and may impact on their wellbeing. Our own study (see Herron & Priest, 2013) has demonstrated carers’ lack of knowledge and understanding of the symptoms and progression of dementia, which may contribute to delay in referral to services, diagnosis, post‐diagnosis support and planning for life with dementia.
It is of the utmost importance that carers’ own needs are planned for and met. In reality, this may not be the case. To address the dual needs of learning difficulties and dementia, and to ensure carers are appropriately supported, some UK NHS services have developed specialised Learning Difficulty Dementia Care Pathways (LDDCPs), where existing learning difficulty staff are employed specifically in multidisciplinary teams to provide services for those service users developing dementia alongside their other non‐dementia services. We know little of how carers’ experience supporting people with a learning difficulty and dementia, and the role of LDDCPs. Therefore, this study aimed to:
Explore family and paid carers’ views and experiences of supporting someone with a learning difficulty and dementia.
Explore the role of healthcare professionals and support systems, with a focus on one Learning Difficulty Dementia Care Pathway, in the support of family and paid carers and people with a learning difficulty and dementia.
This is the first study to explore family carers, paid carers, and healthcare professionals’ views of the role of a LDDCP.
What did our research involve?
We recruited two family carers, eight paid carers and eight healthcare professionals (six DCP healthcare professionals [including a psychiatrist, community nurses and an occupational therapist] and two working in a housing and care organization [community nurses]). All participants took part in at least one interview each and were asked about their experiences and views of supporting someone with a learning difficulty and dementia, and the role of an LDDCP.
I worked closely with people with a learning difficulty to develop material for this study, which helped the study to reflect their own questions.
What were the main findings?
We used Constructivist Grounded Theory to thoroughly analyse what participants were telling us in interviews. Several findings were developed from the data.
The difficulty of obtaining a timely diagnosis and its impact on care
There were many factors which contributed to a lengthy, challenging diagnosis process which was underpinned by uncertainty for people with a learning difficulty and their carers. It was common for people to initially attribute any dementia-related changes to the person’s learning difficulty rather than dementia:
…it’s hard to know whether it’s just a problem with their [learning] difficulty…or it’s the start of dementia. I think we had a few years where we were very unsure. (Robin, Family Carer)
Carers’ lack of knowledge of the symptoms and signs of dementia also meant it was not until the later stages of dementia until a referral was made to the LDDCP.
There are many conditions which may mimic some of the symptoms of the dementia, making it a challenge to provide certainty of the underlying cause. At the time of this study, the LDDCP used a reactive approach to the assessment of dementia, which relied on carers and others noticing changes (something they found challenging), and then referring the person to the LDDCP for an assessment. However, reactive assessments may reduce the reliability and usefulness of assessments when baseline information (from when the person is healthy) is not available to compare the assessments against (BPS & RCP, 2015; McKenzie, Metcalfe, Michie, & Murray, 2018). Consequently, within the LDDCP, as baseline assessments had not been proactively obtained, it was sometimes difficult to make a clear diagnosis of dementia
The need for inclusive support
The participants highlighted the importance of meeting the person’s needs through a person-centred approach. However, not all carers found it easy to understand and implement the principles and approaches advocated within dementia support, which sometimes contradicted the support they provided to people with a learning difficulty:
…Coming from a learning difficulty background, when somebody believes or thinks something that’s not true, you try to explain to somebody that it’s not true…it kind of goes against the grain [not correcting person]…that’s a totally different way of supporting somebody…it’s something I found quite hard. (Glen, Paid Carer)
Paid carers were able to draw on a range of formal (LDDCP) and informal (peers) support which alleviated their burden and enabled them to provide the necessary dementia support. In contrast, family carer participants highlighted their challenges with accessing of formal support (LDDCP) and relied heavily on their other family members to share the burden.
Carer knowledge and training needs
Effective dementia care relied on understanding both dementia and learning difficulty. Carers and healthcare professionals illustrated the importance of proper training. Though paid carers had a developing understand of dementia care, prior to training they had poor knowledge of dementia and dementia care, and how this translated into caring for the person’s dementia needs; this had implications for support:
I didn’t understand much about dementia…in our heads it was just something that happened to old people, not younger people with learning disability and Down syndrome…I think we just managed. (Glen, Paid Carer)
Family carers, who had no support from the LDDCP, had a poorer understanding of dementia, which was reflected in their sometimes lack of understanding of how to appropriately care for their family member’s dementia needs.
Achieving “ageing in place”
Those providing care felt that the wellbeing of the person with a learning difficulty and dementia was best achieved by adapting care to the individual’s changing needs within their own home- this is referred to as ageing in place (Watchman, 2008). Participants had a strong commitment, strengthened by their close relationship the person, to ensuring they remained within their home for as long as possible, and felt that moving the individual would have a negative impact of the person’s wellbeing:
…it’s not home for them [dementia home]…they’ve all said it would have such a dramatic negative effect on their well‐being, it’s likely to increase the deterioration. (Pat, Paid Carer).
There was recognition that keeping the individual in their home was not always possible, and there may be times when the individual would need to be moved, to ensure their wellbeing. Without the necessary support, family carers did not feel they had the ability to safely support their family member in their home, and had to move them into a residential home with 24-hour support:
It was the best thing for them, you know. [Family member] was much better off. (Robin, Family Carer)
What are the recommendations of this study
There is a need for local health services to develop inclusive specialized learning difficulty Dementia Care Pathways.
There is the need to development of a comprehensive, accessible training package, which is informed by the study findings and the concept of person‐centred care (Brooker & Latham, 2016; Kitwood, 1997).
Organizations and services need to address the reactive culture that is sometimes seen and implement processes for effective dementia care planning.
To better ensure a reliable, timely diagnosis and early dementia care planning, there is a need for a combination of reactive assessments, proactive baselining and screening, and associated guidance.
If you would like to discuss any of this blog and/or my paper further, please do contact me at daniel.herron1@staffs.ac.uk or on Twitter @DannyLeeHerron
Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details and to book your place at an open day please click here.
Our Peter Macaulay writes about his recent publication on cyberbullying, looking at teachers’ perceptions of its severity and publicity, and how these influence their intervention behaviour in the school environment.
Why is this important?
Bullying in the school environment is a challenge that teachers have been expected to address within their role. There are growing fears about the rise of cyberbullying and its impact on children. My article in The Conversation suggests that children need help dealing with it and teachers have a role in addressing the issue.
The aim of this study is to
explore teachers’ perceptions towards cyberbullying, specifically addressing
the roles of publicity and severity. This is the first known study to address
teachers’ perceptions in this area.
What did our research
involve?
We recruited teachers from 10
schools in England, across primary (5 focus groups, 31 teachers), secondary (2
focus groups, 11 teachers), and college (3 focus groups, 21 teachers)
educational levels. A total of 63 teachers (10 males) participated across the
10 focus groups.
The focus groups explored teachers’ perceptions and responses towards cyberbullying, particularly around the roles of publicity and severity in cyberbullying. Prompt questions included: ‘Would you respond differently depending on how severe the cyberbullying act was, and why would you respond that way?’ and ‘What circumstances would you be more likely to intervene in an act of cyberbullying?’.
What were our main findings?
Three themes were identified
from the reflexive thematic analysis: (a) role of severity, (b) differential
roles of publicity, and (c) bystander intentions.
Theme 1: Role of Severity
We found teachers perceived
visual acts of cyberbullying as more severe, although the content of the act
was more important in determining perceived severity.
“I think
if it’s relentless as well. If it’s happened over and over again, then that
would be treated more seriously than if somebody had said one comment, it’s
still bad, but if its, more relentless then its more severe” (P7, focus group 4)
Differences in reported
management strategies according to the type of cyberbullying was also suggested
by primary school teachers.
“There’s
a difference, text-messaging, in which we would meet and do a cyberbullying
session and have a chat. But then that’s different to a photo being sent over
which is sexually explicit and actually needs a criminal investigation as well” (P6, focus group 5)
Theme 2: Differential Roles of Publicity
We found that teachers
tailored their response strategies across levels of publicity, using
discussion-based solutions for private incidents compared to whole school
strategies (e.g., assemblies) for cyberbullying incidents of wider publicity.
“[Public]
has the potential to literally go viral and to go global, but a WhatsApp
message between six friends, its semi-public. But, but more containable.
Somebody would have to step outside of that and share it elsewhere, to become
more public” (P5, focus group 2)
Although some primary
teachers respond immediately to public acts of cyberbullying due to the wider
audience and potential impact for the victim, other teachers suggested
cyberbullying perpetrated privately is just as important to address.
“Yeah, I
was just thinking like it might be a bit more, deep-seated if it’s just between
the two people and you might need to unpick it a bit more than something as
obvious as like a group and everybody’s just joined in, jumped on the bandwagon” (P2, focus group 4)
Theme 3: Bystander Intentions
We found that while most
teachers recognised the propensity for negative or positive bystander
intentions when victims are targeted in the public domain, primary teachers
suggested the challenge to support victims targeted privately.
“Although,
if its private it’s just between them, those two individuals, then nobody else
knows about it. If its public, yes, you’ve got lots of negative from other
people but there’s also the option to have support from other people as well.
Whereas if it’s just you and them, nobody else might know about it, nobody’s
there to help you” (P3,
focus group 5)
What do the findings mean for implications?
Our findings suggest those in the educational community responsible for addressing cyberbullying should take a more cautious approach when interpreting cyberbullying.
They also suggest that schools need to ensure all teachers respond to cyberbullying immediately, through appropriate reporting mechanisms. Teachers should also review the contextual information when managing different types of cyberbullying behaviours.
Our findings suggest a need for strategies to mobilise bystander support in the online environment.
As a thank you, participants who complete the study will be entered into a prize draw to win one of 2 x £50 Amazon gift vouchers.
The research team are interested in the experiences of individuals (aged 18 years or over) during the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions that have been imposed across the UK.
The research will involve providing some information about yourself, answering a questionnaire online about your wellbeing and coping, before taking photographs (using a phone or digital camera) over one week that represent your experiences of life during the Covid-19 pandemic.
You will be asked to choose and send 4-7 of these photographs to the research team and complete a further questionnaire about your wellbeing.
A selection of participants will subsequently be invited to have an interview with a member of the research team to talk about your photographs and develop an understanding of your experiences.
To get further information and take part in this study please click: covid19 photo study. If you have any questions about the research, please contact the research team at covid19photostudy@staffs.ac.uk
Our Peter Macaulay writes about his recent publication on children’s online safety knowledge and attitudes towards e-safety education.
What did our research involve?
We asked 329 children aged 8 to 11 years old to complete questionnaires which had questions on:
Perceived online safety;
Subjective knowledge of online safety and dangers;
Objective knowledge of online safety and dangers;
Attitudes towards e-safety education.
What were our main findings?
We found that the children generally reported feeling safe online.
The children perceived that they had a good awareness of online dangers and how to avoid them (subjective knowledge).
This subjective knowledge predicted the child’s perceived online safety.
However, the children tended to be poorer at saying exactly what those dangers were and how they personally could avoid them (objective knowledge).
This was especially true of boys and the younger children who took part in our research.
Together, these findings suggest that some children may think that they know how to stay safe online, but lack, or atleast may be unable to say, objective knowledge that could actually keep them safe.
How could people build on our research?
Our findings show that there is a need to assess children’s objective knowledge of online safety and dangers.
Having further insights into this knowledge will help to design and provide appropriate e-safety education for children who currently lack this knowledge.
Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details and to book your place at an open day please click here.
Psychology and Me is a fun and interactive evening where you will be given the opportunity to get hands-on with some of our state-of-the-art research resources. You will also be able to hear about the latest research findings from a variety of experts working in psychology.
Everyone is welcome, please make sure that you book your ticket(s)! These include free onsite parking and refreshments.
This year’s Psychology and Me event includes these fantastic activities:
Psychology and Me: Listen!
A series of short expert talks will explore some fascinating questions, such as:
How do we prevent dog bites in young children?
How does psychology relate to physical health?
How and why do we measure brain activity?
Psychology and Me: Hands on!
Engage in some fun equipment-based demonstrations to understand how we conduct research in psychology, such as:
How we can tell if you are stressed
How we can measure your brain activity with EEG
How we can test your reaction skills with our driving simulator
Psychology and Me: A chance to win!
Would you like the chance to win some Amazon vouchers? Take part in some of our hands-on activities and you could be in the running! Entry information and winners to be announced at the event.
How does psychology apply to you and your life? Come along and find out!
Reserve your free ticket(s) for Psychology and Me or contact psychologyevents@staffs.ac.uk for more information.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Interested in a Psychology degree? Come to an Open Day – for further details and to book your place at an open day please click here.
Some research suggests that
those who live with chronic pain are at higher risk of engaging in suicidal
behaviour.
Much work has explored how different psychological factors might influence suicidal behaviour in helpful as well as unhelpful ways. Similarly much work has looked at how different psychological factors might help as well as hinder those who are trying to cope with chronic pain. Very little work has compared both pain and suicidal behaviour research areas.
What did we focus on?
We wanted to explore this gap
and look closely at the research in the chronic pain and suicidal
behaviour fields to see if there were any common factors on which researchers
could focus their attention in future studies.
How did we conduct our searches?
Our search of the research
published between 2008 and 2018 produced 21,392 possible articles. After we had
screened the papers for their relevance we identified 52 to include in our
review. While we were reviewing them a further 17 papers were identified. This
meant that we looked in depth at total of 69 papers.
What were our findings?
We found that there were
three promising areas that cut across both the suicide and the chronic pain
research fields:
Future Orientation: How people feel about their expected and imagined future
Mental Imagery: How certain kinds of images in our mind’s eye can impact on how we feel.
Psychological Flexibility: How our ability to accept our situation can impact on how we feel.
How you could use this research:
We suggest that greater cross
over between the chronic pain and suicide research fields is really important
if we are to increase our understanding of why some people with chronic pain
are at greater risk of engaging in suicidal behaviour. These three areas would
be a good place to start.
Dr Katie Wright-Bevans, a Lecturer in Social Psychology from Keele University, joined us on 23rd January 2020 to deliver an insightful visiting speaker talk on bisexuality and health promotion.
What type of Psychologist is Katie?
Katie is a critical social, health and community psychologist. Therefore, Katie draws upon a variety of perspectives when looking into different topic areas.
What kind of approaches does Katie take?
Drawing upon her perspectives
Katie uses social representation theory, qualitative measures and action
research approaches when designing and analysing her research.
But what does this mean?
The foundations to Katie’s
research enable her to:
Gain
understanding of the mechanisms behind health and social inequalities;
Facilitate
positive social change.
Katie’s bisexuality and health promotion research:
Katie approaches her research into the LGBTQ+ community with an apolitical stance. Katie worked alongside colleagues from other institutions on the research project she talked about. This was inspiring as it allowed people to work together to design and analyse the research project so that it was considered from many points of view. You can read national reports on bisexuality and health promotion from Stonewalland the Government.
How many participants?
840 individuals from around the globe participated in Katie’s research. This led to over a thousand pages of open-ended survey responses!
Key themes from the research:
Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. This is the process of reading through people’s responses and drawing on commonalities and differences across the data set. These responses are explored to see whether any key messages can be found from within the data.
Katie is continuing to
analyse the dataset. To date she has found that sexual identities mostly hinge
upon the degree of empowerment or oppression experienced within the social
institutions in an individual’s life. She also found a strong theme across
participants that the pursuit of wellbeing was the ultimate goal.
Key messages from the talk:
Bisexuality and health promotion is a key area for research due to the findings from recent reports because:
Lower mental health compared with other LGBTQ+ groups.
Sense of isolation from LGBT and straight communities.
Working in research teams allows Psychologists to conduct research from a range of perspectives and approaches.
Thank you to Katie for sharing her research with us and we look forward to hearing more about the research in the future!
I am a Trainee Clinical Psychologist working in the NHS and am currently looking for participants to take part in my research study. I am interested in exploring your experiences of managing mood symptoms.
Due to the under-representation of men in this type of research, I am looking for male participants only. This is to make sure that male voices and perspectives are heard.
You will be asked to take some photographs which represent your experiences of managing mood symptoms. You are encouraged to be as creative as you like with this! These photographs will then be used to guide an interview about your experiences.
If this sounds like it might be for you (or you would just like to know a bit more) then please contact me by either email (c.burman@student.staffs.ac.uk) or by phone (07547 330408). Please be aware that my research phone will only be turned on Monday to Friday from 9am-5pm.
Please note participants must be at least 18 years old to take part. To make sure that I am studying a relatively similar sample, participants must also have been diagnosed within the last 5 years.
Many thanks for taking the time to read this advert.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Craig
The Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research is home to research activity in the Psychology Department at Staffordshire University. The Centre houses a number of research-active psychologists who are engaged in research across a wide range of psychological subdisciplines.
For more details about the Centre, its research activities, events and consultancy, please visit our website (click here).
The BPS Undergraduate Assistantship Award marks out a student as a future researcher and potential academic. It allows students to work alongside a senior researcher to develop skills in research development as well as research measures. With the support and supervision of Dr. Sarah Rose, I decided to apply for this Award to carry out research into the potential of mindfulness colouring for reducing exam anxiety among A-Level pupils.
Although I was nervous when applying for the Assistantship, the application process was also exciting as I could focus on a topic that was of great interest to me. My interest in reducing anxiety felt by A-level pupils preparing for their exams came in part from my own experience. A-level exams are one of the most crucial points in education; pressure to do well is increased as the next stages is to move on to study at University, apply for a job or for an apprenticeship, all of which require good grades. The colouring aspect of this research came from the expertise of Dr Sarah Rose. Sarah’s expertise gave me the confidence to want to assess mindfulness-based colouring as a means of reducing the anxiety induced by exams.
As I prepared the application form, I enjoyed carrying out in depth reading about exam anxiety and mindfulness-based colouring interventions. It was also a great opportunity to put my knowledge of research design that I had already developed during the first 18 months of my degree in Psychology and Child Development into practice. I not only to think of what research I wanted to conduct but, also how I would go about measuring and collecting the data from participants. In particular, the experience that I had gained during the Research Assistantship Module, which had allowed me to develop skill in data collection, helped me to plan what I would need to do.
When choosing the materials for the study I wanted to take measures as accurately as possible, so I decided to combine self-report measures and physiological measures. This led me to use a BioPac, this was a great opportunity to learn about a new piece of equipment under the guidance of Paul Gallimore, one of the Psychology Technicians. Under the guidance of Dr. Sarah Rose, I selected questionnaires to assess state anxiety and mindfulness. The conditions were constructed based on past research and past interventions including mindfulness colouring. This led me to use mandala colouring, both with and without the addition of mindfulness instructions, and a control condition in which participants spent time doing a free drawing.
Originally we had planned to try and collect data from 90 A-level pupils but due to various delays this was not possible as the exam period was almost over when we began data collection. So, although I collected a small amount of pilot data which gave me valuable experience in working with colleges, I plan to collect data again next summer.
To make the most of the Research Assistantship we decided to write up our plan for the research as a preregistered report. This means that we have submitted the introduction and method sections to a journal and are now awaiting their feedback. Writing this was interesting as it differed more than I expected to the write up of a laboratory report. It requires a lot more references to past research as well as a description of how we intended to analyse the data.
We have also submitted a poster for the BPS Annual conference next year. I found this more interesting and fun to create as I was able to think about how to make the deign engaging. The poster required an outline of why the research was being conducted, what we expected to find, how we were going to collect and analyse the data. Both the preregistered report and the poster have helped me to learn how to write more concisely and to report research in an accurate and detailed manor. The Research Assistantship has given me an insight into what being a researcher is like and helped me to develop skills that will be useful for my third-year project and my future research career.
