In recent years there has been increased focus on vulnerability and abuse however greater attention has been paid to this in relation to children, elders and in domestic situations. Within learning disability service there has been increasing attention on physical and sexual abuse as well as attention being given to abuse as it is perceived by people with learning disabilities. The aim of this study was to explore the views of staff working within learning disability services regarding their views of vulnerability and abuse. A phenomenological approach was adopted, as this is a subject about which little is known and the lived experiences of care staff and the meanings that they attach to them were being explored. Semi-structured interview was the chosen method for data collection. Twenty informants shared their views in this study. The data generated were themed and the findings were presented in two different but complementary styles: case studies and themes representative across the entire sample. This research has highlighted a number of important issues. There is considerable difference in the meanings given to vulnerability by care staff and the range of meanings are further complicated when notions of risk are considered. A model is presented that illustrates experiences of vulnerability and confidence of the individual the impact of various experiences on those states. For example negative experience of bullying might increase vulnerability whilst positive family support might engender feelings of confidence. The study showed that staff are more influenced by personal and family values than by policy. Though this study focused on adult protection policy it was evident that this also applied in the case of other policy. The strong influence of personal values pervades all aspects of care. This was evident in the views of informants regarding abuse. Abuse is considered to range in severity from bullying, which is seen as prevalent but to an extent unpreventable, to sexual abuse which is considered by most to be taboo. Neglect and infringement of rights were in the main not seen as abuse with both being attributed to ignorance. Power, authority and/or control are felt to be essential in the management behaviour that challenges and is justified to that end. In the context of adult protection a model for safety planning is proposed that shifts the emphasis away from risk avoidance toward an enabling person centred approach that recognises the importance to the individual of excitement in life that also may involve risk.

The original research carried out in a range of arts organisations in the UK included employees at every level within both commercial and subsidised performing arts organisations in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This thesis is based around five studies examining the psychology of interpersonal communication applied to organizational settings. The studies are designed to examine the question of how the way that people in positions of power in organizations communicate with subordinates, affects various measures of health, wellbeing and productivity. It is impossible to study modern organisational communication without recognising the importance of electronic communication. The use of e-mail and other forms of text messaging is now ubiquitous in all areas of communication. The studies in this thesis include the use of e-mail as a medium of communication and examine some of the potential effects of electronic versus face-to-face and verbal communication. The findings of the studies support the basic hypothesis that: it is not what is said that matters but how it is said. The results showed that an unsupportive, formal, authoritarian style of verbal or written communication is likely to have a negative effect on health, well-being and productivity compared with a supportive, informal and egalitarian style. There are also indications that the effects of damaging communications may not be confined to the initial recipient of the message. Organizational communication does not take place in a vacuum. Any negative consequences are likely to be transmitted by the recipient, either back to the sender or on to other colleagues with implications for the wider organisational climate. These findings are based on communications that would not necessarily be immediately recognised as obviously offensive or bullying, or even uncivil. The effects of these relatively mild but unsupportive communications may have implications for the selection and training of managers. In the final section of the thesis there is a discussion of how examples of various electronically recorded messages might be used as training material.

The basic premise of appraisal theories of emotion is that the way people interpret a situation will be critical for their emotional response to it. The key hypothesis states that others’ emotional reactions to the same situation have an influence on this appraisal process such that people tend to adopt significant others’ appraisals and emotionally converge with them. The first set of 3 experiments (N = 240) established the occurrence of such social appraisal processes using a film-viewing paradigm. Participants observed a confederate’s videotaped reactions to film excerpts. In two of three studies they simultaneously watched the films themselves. For disgust and amusement, but not for sadness and anger, results revealed that participants were able to decode the confederate’s emotional state and related appraisals from her facial expressions ad that their own feelings and appraisals converged with her response. The subsequent 2 experiments (N = 242) investigated social appraisal processes in mediated and face-to-face dyadic interactions between naïve participants. These were either friends or strangers and either could or could not see each other while watching emotional film clips. For amusement, disgust, fear, and sadness, there was support for social influence processes. Convergence in emotional responding within dyads of friends who could see each other was most pronounced in the cases of amusement and disgust. Two online vignette experiments (N = 1,710) further explored the role of possible moderators of social appraisal, including social motives within the relationship, subjective certainty about what was happening, congruence with respect to the target situation, and informational advantage of the other person. Finally, the applied relevance of the findings in relation to emotion communication in the context of negotiations, school bullying, and mass media communication is discussed.

Bullying research has provided a wealth of information and a depth of understanding that has led to the development of intervention strategies in schools. However, despite this extensive research, bullying continues to be a significant problem. It has been suggested that working with children or with schools may not be enough to solve the problem and that it may be necessary to include parents as part of the solution, especially if the antecedents originate and are consistently reinforced at home. Research that has considered factors relating to family functioning and the relationship between the caregivers and their children provide support for this argument, but research in this area is scarce. The main aim of the present research was to investigate family backgrounds, parenting styles and the personal characteristics of parents and children involved in bullying situations in order to identify effective routes for intervention. More specifically, it focused children’s attachment styles and the roles they adopted in bullying situations at school. A longitudinal design with mixed methods was adopted involving 28 pre-school children and theft caregivers. The children were ‘new starters’ at one of three schools and at the start of the investigation they were aged 4 years – 4 years and 11 months and their primary caregiver’s ages ranged between 29 and 53 years. Primary caregivers participated in interviews and exercises about themselves and theft families and observations of the children occurred in different settings at school during their first year. It was predicted that a link between the childrens’ attachment type and the roles they adopted in bullying situations would be found. However, no evidence was found to suggest a link between childrens’ attachment style and bullying. Despite this, interesting trends were found. These are considered and the difficulties and limitations of the investigation are discussed.

Aim: The aims of this study were to explore, describe and develop a greater understanding of the experiences of overseas black and minority ethnic nurses in the NHS in the south of England. Methods: This study utilised a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches underpinned by interpretive phenomenology.  The qualitative phase consisted of 12 semi-structured face-to-face interviews and the findings informed the focus group interviews, of which four were conducted.  The quantitative phase, a survey, informed by the findings of the qualitative phase was conducted with 188 overseas nurses across 15 NHS Trust hospitals in the south of England. Findings: The qualitative findings revealed five main themes such as: Being thrown into an unfamiliar world, encountering marginalisation and experiencing inequalities in the world, surviving in an everyday world, living in an everyday world and making a new world and these themes encapsulated their experiences.  Overseas nurses indicated that they had encountered discrimination, lack of equal opportunity, bullying, separateness and a host of other encounters that appeared to have affected their experiences of the NHS.  The survey showed that overseas nurses employed in NHS hospitals in London were more likely to perceive themselves to have been promoted, supported and have aggressive behaviour directed at them in comparison to those in NHS hospitals in non-London regions.  The survey also revealed that African nurses were more likely to perceive themselves as being treated less favourably than their overseas counterparts. Conclusion: Both phases showed that overseas nurses encountered difficulties and variations in treatment in the NHS in the south of England and combining the two approaches helped to confirm and reinforce the findings.  This study’s results add considerably to the body of knowledge on the experiences of overseas nurses and have significant implications for nursing practice, management and health policy.

Self-harm has been on the rise in the UK in recent years.  A review of the literature was conducted which suggested that this increase was also evident in adolescents, and possibly children.  The literature described several factors associated with self-harm, including depression, anxiety, anger, self-esteem and bullying.  Research using children in UK community samples was lacking, as well as research exploring the factors that are associated with self-harm in this age group. Therefore, the present study was carried out using a cross-sectional survey design, to measure levels of self-harm in children aged 8-11 years, and to assess which factors were associated with self-harm.  Logistic regression analyses were then used to explore independent factors influencing self-harm. These were significant differences between those children who self-harmed and those who did not in their levels of anxiety, depression, self-esteem and bullying.  There were no gender or age relationships with self-harm. The regression model successfully predicted self-harm, although was more successful at predicting the absence of self-harm.  With a significance criterion of p<0.05 only two of the five factors entered emerged as independent predictors.  These results indicated that the lower the child’s anxiety levels, and the higher their self-esteem, the less likely they were to self-harm. Further research was suggested examining the utility of the self-harm questionnaire developed, and the impact of teacher training on levels of self-harm.  Replication of the logistic regression analyses with a broader sample was recommended, as was whole school approaches designed to boost self-esteem and resilience in young people.

Bullying is currently a very emotive and well-publicised issue, featuring frequently in TV programmes and newspapers.  It is no longer accepted as an inevitable part of school life affecting only weak and inadequate victims, but, instead, as a social ill, with long-term psychological effects on both bully and victim, that needs to be eradiated from schools and work places. This research project provides a detailed exploration of fictional representations of bullying in contemporary teen fiction.  It approaches the main research question, “How is Bullying Presented in Contemporary Teen Fiction”? through four subsidiary research questions and interviews with some of the writers in the desk study, against a background of children’s/adolescent literature criticism and psychological, sociological and educational research on bullying in schools.  Thus, the research project utilises current academic thought in two different fields: English and Education. Through the first subsidiary question, the patterns in the presentation of bullying are explored.  Issues of gender, modes of aggression and types of bullying (racial, sexual and organisational) are discussed.  The focus of the research narrows into examining the construction of the bully and victim experience through the second and third subsidiary research questions respectively.  Contemporary presentations are compared with the presentations in generic boys’ and girls’ school stories and considered in the light of current thinking in bullying research.  The fourth subsidiary research question refocuses the research on the narrative design of novels in the desk study by exploring the common strategies writers use in narratives dealing with bullying and the nature of the resolutions to ending the bullying relation offered to readers.  These are considered further as Entwicklungsroman through adolescent literature criticism and notions of adolescent growth, power, maturation and alienation.

Employing the sociological concept of reflexivity throughout the research process has led me to argue that there is no one universally successful adult research role, or research tool best suited to gaining young people’s opinions. Any research techniques need to be applied critically. Further reflection on issues which arose from interaction with gatekeepers and respondents throughout fieldwork led to the recognition that emotional involvement and management are also an important aspect of research relationships. In turn this required me to question how my own values and beliefs have influenced the research process and how the research process has influenced the data collected. My research also has two key areas of originality in terms of substantive and theoretical development. On a substantive level, my findings illustrate the complex realities of identity negotiation in the lives of young Bangladeshi and Pakistani disabled people in relation to ethnicity, religion, ‘race’ and gender. This has implications for theory development within the sociology of childhood and disability studies, particularly in the areas of body, identify and self. My findings illustrate how respondents struggle to define selfhood in meaningful and fulfilling ways and show evidence of agency and ingenuity. Respondents’ identities are neither totally imposed nor are they totally chosen or discarded at will. That is, respondents were not simply involved in cultural reproduction characterised by mimicry, but capable of social action. This calls for the development of a social model of disability which is open to the diversity of all disabled young peoples’ experiences. My findings also add to existing debates in policy and practice within the context of these young peoples’ lives. Findings illustrate a need for service providers particularly within educational, health and social service sectors to re-evaluate and adapt existing policies and practice within the areas of combating bullying, communicating health problems, and improving leisure facilities and also suggest that young people would benefit from more guidance and support at school when choosing future career paths and/or academic goals. This thesis and the research on which it is based represent a challenge to previous work by focusing on Pakistani and Bangladeshi disabled young people’s own accounts of their lives.

This research explores the social organisation of bullying in UK nursing from subjective accounts of clinical nurses who were self-referred “targets” of bullying, and nurse managers (a potential “bullying group”).  Focusing on a nationwide sample of 10 clinical nurses, and 10 nurse managers from an Acute Hospital Trust, bullying is identified as a social phenomenon primarily mediated through workplace interactions.  Previous research indicating bullying as being mainly psychological/personality mediated is questioned by applying a Symbolic Interactionist approach to its study which has not previously been attempted. Using both vignettes and relatively unstructured interviews bullying is perceived as intentional and well planned, it’s temporal and processual nature established, and its impact on professional working examined. A mechanism of bullying awareness has been identified in both bullies and targets by a re-examination of Awareness context Theory (Glaser and Strauss 1965). This provided a new focus on the bullying process, enabling a more comprehensive understanding of bullying events within a specific occupational group; nurses, which had not before been attempted. Nurse accounts of bullying identify bullying negotiations in the NHS as being open to manipulation by the bully; and groups and individuals with specific agendas who may impose their definitions of the situation on to them. Such actions leave bullying targets at a distinct disadvantage in gaining redress for their perceived bullying. I conclude that awareness of such issues and examination of negotiations in context can aid in developing more effective bullying interventions and policy. These often remain inadequate, frequently being based on previous quantitative study research, which has failed to appreciate bullying as a complex interactive event in the workplace.

The theme, which I have rigorously pursued and developed during my research career, is legal protection for victims of harassment and discrimination.  These terms are used here in their broadest sense and encompass various kinds of undesirable behaviour.  The victims of these types of behaviour have been traditionally disadvantaged because their legal rights have been disregarded and consequently they have been given little or no legal protection (e.g. victims of sexual harassment or stalking). They are often the weaker party in a relationship or someone who is not afforded due care or consideration by another party whose actings adversely affect them.  As a consequence they will suffer economic loss and/or physical or mental harm to their person. Often the legal process they must follow to secure redress is weighted against them.  This could take the form of evidential difficulties (e.g. proving an employer’s vicarious liability in discrimination cases) or having to utilise judicial procedures that are inaccessible.  In some instances there are inherent inequalities between the treatment they receive (e.g. homosexuals, women) within the legal system as compared with members of other groups (e.g. men and heterosexuals). The research is intended to highlight the difficulties faced by these groups and identify possible legal solutions.  It could involve recommendation of a course of action that can be pursued on their behalf by legal practitioners (e.g. applying existing laws that are untried in a particular legal context).  Alternatively the courts handling of a case may be the subject of constructive criticism (e.g. interim relief for victims of stalking). In the context of analysis of legal protection for victims of discrimination and harassment, the Government has often been encouraged to introduce legal rules for the first time to provide protection to disadvantaged groups (e.g. protection of the employment rights of homosexuals and lesbians).  The Government or the legislature have also been encouraged to amend existing legislation to ensure better protection is available or to comply with legislation emanating from the European Union (law on sexual harassment, disability discrimination).  The Government may also be encouraged to change their social policy. This research has identified areas for social change and has either directly or indirectly led to actual or proposed changes in the law.  It has also been partly responsible for improvement in the quality of the protection for legal claimants. Legal representatives have been acquainted with the full scope of legal redress available to their clients. Another feature of my research is consideration of the appropriateness of legal tests or principles to decide an issue (e.g. comparators in discrimination cases).  A substantial part of my research has been concerned with discrimination and the need for equality of treatment within society.  More specifically it is often concerned with protecting someone against behaviour which represents an affront to their person e.g.  harassment, stalking or bullying.  The judiciary is sometimes respectfully requested to reconsider their approach to a legal issue to ensure such victims are given legal protection.

My understanding of ‘race’ and racism in Britain is that it is discussed variously. Sometimes it steals the headlines as when Stephen Lawrence was murdered (Macpherson 1999). Yet at other times there is a preference not to mention the subject at all. Public discourse on ‘race’ and racism can be reticent. Why is this? Is ‘race’ a difficult subject of conversation? The first chapter of this thesis examines the roots of ‘race’. In Chapter Two the silence and silencing at a public level but also in everyday interaction becomes the focus. Difficult conversations are considered. The dynamic of reticence and fluency in the discourse of ‘race’ is explored and conceptualised with reference to the limited material in the literature on the silence and silencing of ‘race’ discourse. This raises the question as to who is responsible for silence; and, whose interests, if any, might be served. Chapter Three presents a real world enquiry – the Swapping Cultures Initiative in Coventry and Warwickshire; involving over 1,000 children and young people that took place mainly between 2002 and 2004. It reveals that a significant proportion of participants (3 8.1 %) experienced bullying, racism, or being picked on, based on their cultural background, and that these issues are difficult matters for conversation (38%). What is revealed is both the complexity of the participants’ identities and the subtle and sophisticated ways in which their cultural backgrounds are managed through conversation. What then does silence mean when the subject is ‘race’? Certainly it is nuanced and complex. Chapter Four provides a series of concluding reflections on ‘race’ and silence, identifying the major factors when seeking to understand and address ‘race’ issues in their local context. It places centrally the ‘discourse of reticence’ as a significant, hitherto underestimated, element when considering the prevailing and pervading presence of ‘race’ and racism.

A social-psychological perspective is used to study young people’s representations of bullying across in-groups and out-groups in eight mixed-sex British state secondary schools (a total of 471 pupils aged 11-16 from Years 7, 9 and 11, 54% girls and 46% boys).  Four of the schools were from an area of high ethnic mix and low socio-economic status (SES), and four are from an area of low ethnic mix and high SES.  The study explores the usefulness of making a distinction not investigated in the bullying literature: that between abuse based on individual characteristics, and abuse in terms of group membership, such as one’s race or sex as a whole.  The literature contains an implicit value judgement that group-based bullying is worse, and therefore more difficult to cope with, because it maligns not only the individual but also the individual’s entire reference group.  The aim of this thesis is to understand children’s evaluations of the severity of the two distinguishable bases for being bullied, with a focus on victim representations.  Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used, in the form of group-interview methodology and forced-choice questionnaires administered individually to 400 pupils.  The 96 group interviews used specially designed vignettes about a male and female victim, with the ethnicity and facial expression of the models manipulated.  Responses only partially support the assumption in the literature; children mentioned many other dimensions upon which evaluations are conditional, ranging from social conventions, intention, frequency, and truth, to the type of target and the nature of the stigma.  Results are interpreted in terms of the general heightened awareness of bullying and racism that permeates schools.  This research contributes to knowledge about the complex processes through which adolescents are both susceptible to and protected from bullying.  The topic is contextualised by a wide range of literature including: bullying, gender, ethnicity, racial and sexual harassment, stigma, adolescent peer groups, identity, self-esteem, attribution theory, and cognitive coping strategies.

‘Occupational stress is a major problem in western societies, where its relationship with various diseases is becoming increasingly obvious’ (Vander Hek & Plomp, 1997). Recognising this has led to ‘increasing interest in the phenomenon of stress and a growing concern to find ways of alleviating it’ (Stuart, 1991). This interest is reflected in an ever increasing body of literature and the development of stress management interventions based on this literature. Using an interpretivist research approach and based on the aforementioned literature, a hypothesis centred on an inability of organisations in the Irish financial services industry to effectively manage stress was developed. This hypothesis would be tested by firstly examining stress levels in the industry by means of a syllogism and secondly by identifying preferred approaches to stress management. The study sought to examine the effectiveness of current stress management interventions by measuring stress levels. This was achieved through conducting a survey based on the HSE’s Psychological Working Conditions in Great Britain (2004) tailored to complement Cooper & Marshall (1976) typology relating to the causes of stress. Survey respondents indicated that stress levels were moderate and as such were not impacting on morale or organisational performance. The principal sources of stress identified were work overload and relationships with colleagues, while the main interventions employed by organisations were flexi-time, casual dress and sports sponsorship. The study also sought to identify preferred approaches to the management of stress, facilitating a comparison between current and optimal interventions. Utilising the 1994 study by Bradley & Sutherland, 16 possible interventions were put to the respondents with flexi-time and keep-fit programmes emerging as the favoured approaches, which would be seen to benefit both the individuals themselves and the organisation as a whole, while counselling and stress recognition training proved unpopular. Ultimately this study proved that organisations in the Irish financial services industry do not specifically manage stress, but the all-encompassing initiatives introduced to protect employee mental health appear to sufficiently control stress levels.

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.

Throughout its history, the activity, or profession of social work has been influenced by dominant political and social mores. This thesis charts such developments in the United Kingdom, locating them in not only the socio-economic circumstances of each period, but also in relation to changes within social theory, specifically those from a left wing political tradition. Charting the move to the contemporary period, it is argued that the current epoch is one of ‘diminished subjectivity’, where people are viewed as more objects than subjects, and are more likely to be viewed as either vulnerable or atavistic, rather than as having the potential to create a better society. The thesis starts with a history of social work from its charitable origins in the seventeenth century through to the early 1970s. It then analyses intellectual developments in the understanding of human subjectivity, in particular that of Hegel, Marx, the Frankfurt School, and the influence of postmodernism/poststructuralism to our understanding of the human subject. It is argued that a common intellectual current is one of ‘diminished subjectivity’. We return to the history of social work in chapter four, analysing the changes from the 1970s onwards, with particular emphasis on the overt politicisation of the profession. Combining this with the theoretical analysis of chapter two, the influence on social work of wider intellectual and political change becomes evident. The contention is that social work itself, for all its talk of ’empowerment’, is influenced by the tendency to view the subject with suspicion, and to demean it at the very moment it endeavours to ’empower’ it. The thesis then examines manifestations of ‘diminished subjectivity’ in the arena of social work. Four specific but interrelated areas of concern to social work are highlighted, with particular focus being on the arena of adult mental health. The first is the rise of the discourses of pathology and abuse. Whilst these increasingly common concepts have affected both social work policy and practice, social work itself is partly responsible for the popularity of such constructs. The second is the current pre-occupation with risk minimisation, or risk management, and this is analysed in relation to mental health policy and practice at the level of statutory powers and civil containment. From this focus on the more overt coercion within the mental health field, we turn thirdly to the constructions of stress and bullying. The fourth focus is on ‘identity politics’, in particular the rise of the psychiatric ‘survivor’. The penultimate chapter discusses the public/private divide as a theme which cuts across all the previous chapters, and addresses some of the implications of the erosion of this boundary. The concluding chapter summarises the thesis and discusses recent critiques of social work from within the profession. It is argued that the developments discussed within the thesis should not be seen in isolation; but rather that all share a common perception of the human subject as fragile, dangerous, or both.

Bullying behaviour is a widespread problem among primary school children that can have serious negative consequences.  However, few studies have carried out detailed investigations regarding the characteristics associated with different bullying roles.  The character profiles and individual differences associated with different bullying roles were investigated in this thesis through a series of studies that considered behaviour problems, physical and psychosomatic health, academic achievement, and emotion processing abilities.  Direct and relational bullying was considered for bully perpetrators, victims and bully/victims.  The latter category was defined as children that are involved in both bullying others, and at other times are victimised.  Overall, results revealed several distinct behavioural characteristics for direct and relational bullying roles, not previously reported.  For example, direct bully/victims had the most problematic behaviour profiles, whilst in contrast, relational bullies were intelligent, healthy individuals, with few behaviour problems.  The impact of various school factors such as class size, and school location were also investigated in association with the prevalence of bullying roles.  Findings uncovered that small school and class sizes, located in rural locations were associated with a higher incidence of bullying behaviour.  Results concerning the individual differences for bullying roles provided several implications for investigating whether they are related to school anti-bullying policies, and the development of a novel intervention programme.  A discussion of the findings is provided in light of more recent studies. Different theoretical orientations are addressed together with a review of methodological issues associated with the studies in the thesis, and future directions.