This research addresses the question, ‘what is the relationship between young peoples’ consumption of branded goods and their sense of identity’?  It reveals consumption to be some way from the picture presented in postmodern type analyses, which emphasise pleasure and play.  Amongst my sample of twenty focus groups of late teenage students, concern about class and gender position, status and ‘distinction’ (Bourdieu 1986) emerges as the key framework which informs their ‘choices’ as consumers, and their subjective sense of identity. The judgements they make about self, other and group identity suggest consuming brands is a cultural practice which is marked by strong discursive, scopic and classificatory dimensions.  These inform a series of popular stereotypes from ‘Townies’ and ‘Skanky birds’ to ‘Essex boys.’ Such categorisations are materialised in, and embodied by, teenagers’ taste in, and use of, branded goods.  They affect, not just those who are ‘othered’, but those who do the ‘othering’, reducing choice and contributing to forms of class and gender invective, social distancing and to wider processes of ‘symbolic violence’ (Bourdieu 1977). In the context of these dimensions, and the prevalence of talk about bullying, my findings support the need for a more critically circumspect approach.  Such a framework, needs to be one which is able to take full account of consumption as an embodied set of classed and gendered, material and symbolic, emotional as well as reflexive practices.  Consuming Brands shows, young people’s negotiation of the dilemma of a ‘personalised versus commodified’ experience of the self (Giddens 1991:196), is one fraught with social risks and emotional stresses.  These are unequally shared in class and gender terms.  The accounts given, of being addressed, and acting, as consuming subjects, reveal the contradictory nature of the subjective experience of consumption, psycho-socially, and the limited choice and agency, it affords.

This thesis reports a study which explored children’s understanding and experience of spina bifida. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 children aged 8-11 years with spina bifida. A grounded theory approach was used to develop ‘theories’ from the data. Analysis of the data suggest that all participants were aware of ‘being different’ from their “normal” able-bodied siblings and peers and that many identified themselves in terms of having spina bifida; they spoke about being picked on, teased and about other types of bullying; and all of them disliked their physical appearance. Several ways of coping with spina bifid a were also talked about by the children. Knowledge about spina bifida tended to be functional and obtained from parents; most of the participants reported that little information about treatment was given by medical professionals which seemed to contribute to anxiety regarding treatment and hospitalization. The implications of the findings for clinical practice and further research are considered.

Research into interventions in workplace bullying appears to be largely under researched despite widespread acceptance that action is required.  Many studies exist that have explored what needs to occur to deal with workplace bullying.  It is apparent however that there is a general struggle over what people should actually do, making the absence of intervention studies somewhat puzzling.  This thesis studies a microcosm of what interventions may take place through a national helpline run by Acas, a UK based Government funded organisation with a remit to help resolve workplace relations conflicts. Adopting a framework of social construction, this thesis, using interviews and focus groups, has sought to answer the question, What role does the Acas helpline fulfil when intervening in cases of alleged workplace bullying? This thesis finds a relatively uniform response from participants which shows a lack of clarity of understanding as to what bullying at work means.  Participants also demonstrate the impossible task of providing a singular route to intervention because of the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon.  Similarly, the capacity for interventions to provide solutions that satisfy the callers’ expectations falls someway short of what was hoped for.  This is not a failing of Acas as an organisation.  Rather, it illustrates the complexity of providing interventions for complex subjective situations, such as workplace bullying, using a telephone helpline.

Research in the field of developmental psychopathology has suggested that the effects of trauma experienced in childhood and/or adolescence can remain with an individual for a number of years. This thesis reports on a three year study focusing upon the experiences of bullying at school for a non-probability sample of lesbians, gay men and bisexual men and women, and explores the psycho-social and long-term implications such events have for their development. Data collection consisted of four elements: a survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered adults’ experiences of bullying at school (N= 190); an assessment of the reliability and stability of participants’ memories (N=60); a study of their life-experiences post school (including measures of bullying in adulthood, negative affect, relationship status and post traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]; N=119); and a series of in-depth interviews (N=16). The results suggested that participants’ experiences of bullying at school were both regular and long-term (mean: 5 years), with name-calling and ridicule being the most frequently cited forms of abuse. Over 50% reported contemplating self-harming behaviour or suicide as a result of bullying at school, with 40% making one or more attempts. As adults, they were found to exhibit indices of depression and anxiety when compared to samples of heterosexuals or lesbians, gay men and bisexual men and women not bullied at school. In addition, 17% were found to meet the criteria for the diagnosis of PTSD. However, for the majority of participants, there was little evidence of low self-esteem in adulthood, or discomfort with being lesbian, gay or bisexual. Similarity, in terms of insecurity within relationships, while participants expressed concerns about the nature of their relationships with significant others, there was no evidence to suggest that their fears had become realities. The results also suggested that social support mechanisms and personal resilience played a valuable role in mitigating against potential long-term effects. The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to current literature in the field.