Doing fence sitting: a discursive analysis of clinical psychologists’ constructions of mental health

Lofgren, A., Hewitt, V. and das Nair, R., 2015. Doing fence sitting: a discursive analysis of clinical psychologists’ constructions of mental health. Qualitative Health Research, 25 (4), pp. 470-485. ISSN 1049-7323

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Abstract

A growing body of research indicates that the way health care professionals conceptualize mental health might have important clinical implications. We adopted a discursive psychology approach to explore clinical psychologists' accounts of mental health and its effects. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 11 clinical psychologists in the East Midlands region of the United Kingdom. The participants constructed mental health through building up biological factors and psychosocial aspects as opposite ends of the same spectrum, and then positioned themselves as distant from these extremes to manage issues of stake and accountability. A discourse of moral concern for service users was used to negotiate the implications of having different views of mental health from service users, enabling clinicians to manage issues of accountability and demonstrate their ability to be helpful. This suggests that clinicians should be mindful of the effects of their use of language and make the contingent nature of their knowledge explicit.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: Qualitative Health Research
Creators: Lofgren, A., Hewitt, V. and das Nair, R.
Publisher: Sage
Date: 1 April 2015
Volume: 25
Number: 4
ISSN: 1049-7323
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.1177/1049732314549479DOI
1491369Other
Divisions: Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by: Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added: 12 Nov 2021 15:26
Last Modified: 12 Nov 2021 15:26
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/44749

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