Biomedical subjects

R G Nairn

Publications and source records attributed to R G Nairn.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

People never see us living well: an appraisal of the personal stories about mental illness in a prospective print media sample.

OBJECTIVE: Having found no discussions of self-depictions offered by psychiatric patients in the mass media we sought such items in a prospective national sample of print media and analysed how those speakers portrayed themselves. METHOD: As part of a larger study of media depictions of mental illnesses in print media all items with any mental health or illness aspect that appeared in a New Zealand publication over a four-week period were collected. The resulting collection of 600 items ranged from news briefs to full-page newspaper articles. From that set we selected and analysed items in which a person identified as having been a psychiatric patient or as having a mental disorder was either quoted by the reporter who had interviewed them, or personally described their experiences. Employing both propositional analyses and discourse analysis we explored how the speakers were positioned and identified patterns or themes in their construction of living with a mental illness. RESULTS: Only five articles (0.8%) met our criteria for a person with a mental disorder being reported directly. In those items the journalists had positioned the speakers as credible, expert sources who, in representing their lives and experiences, drew on five clusters of resources, that we titled: Ordinariness/Living Well; Vulnerability; Stigma; Crisis; and Disorder/Treatment. Ordinariness/Living Well foregrounded the role of personal strengths in living well and in overcoming adversity, particularly that associated with being stigmatized. We identified that theme as central to the ways in which these speakers depicted themselves as recognizably human and understandable. CONCLUSION: The findings are preliminary but these depictions are different from those reported by most researchers. Unlike those depictions, these speakers provided accessible and recognizably human self-portrayals. That finding intensifies our concern that most researchers appear to be unaware that these consumer voices are largely absent from mass media depictions of mental illnesses.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Media depictions of mental illness: an analysis of the use of dangerousness.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how the commonsense understanding, that those with a mental illness are dangerous, is deployed in a small sample of print media. METHOD: The print media sample was subjected to a discourse analysis informed by knowledge of media practices. Materials were read closely and references to mental illness were identified, classified and analysed. RESULTS: This non-sensational material was shown to provide repeated confirmations of the commonsense understanding that mental illnesses make people unpredictable and dangerous. Close study of the lead article suggested that it was written so that readers had to draw on such understandings to make sense of the account it presented. CONCLUSION: The study challenges the notion that media present negative depictions of mental illnesses either because journalists are poorly informed or because 'sensation sells'. It is concluded that media practices directed at engaging readers require the use of cases and a style of writing that forces readers to draw upon commonsense knowledge of mental illness to understand the text. It is argued that this is a deliberate effort to enlist readers as co-creators of the text and thereby increase their interest.

Humans↗

PubMed1995

Teaching the principles of behaviour change to medical students: evaluation of a programme.

In this paper we describe a method (the Behaviour Change Project) for teaching 'behaviour change' principles to medical students. The project involved their changing a self-identified aspect of their own behaviour. In evaluating the project by an anonymous questionnaire (response rate 84%), most students reported enjoying the project and found it helpful in some way, particularly in learning about their own behaviour and the processes of behaviour change. While nearly all listed positive outcomes for themselves or others, some also listed negative outcomes or difficulties, such as in measuring behaviours related to clinical work. Possible extensions of the project are discussed, including its application to improving relationships with patients, increasing tolerance, strengthening ethical behaviour in clinical or research contexts, and in training specific clinical skills.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1980

To define sufficient subjects.

The problem of how many subjects are required for a particular investigation can be solved. Techniques developed to allow experimenters to determine the statistical power of their experiments can be adapted to this end provided that the investigator is prepared to define the significance level and, more importantly, the minimum strength of experimental effect that is of interest. The experience described in this article demonstrates that the process demands consideration of a number of factors like the nature of the dependent variable, the form of the decision being made, and the minimum difference between conditions which has practical consequence.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗