Self-reflection Research Articles

"I see beauty, I see art, I see design, I see love." Findings from a resident-driven, co-designed gardening program in a long-term care facility.

Engagement with the natural environment is a meaningful activity for many people. People living in long-term care facilities can face barriers to going outdoors and engaging in nature-based activities. In response to needs expressed by our long-term care facility resident partners, we examined the feasibility and benefits of a co-designed hydroponic and raised-bed gardening program. Our team of long-term care facility residents, staff and researchers co-designed and piloted a four-month hydroponic and raised-bed gardening program along with an activity and educational program, in 2019. Feedback was gathered from long-term care facility residents and staff through surveys (N = 23 at baseline; N = 23 at follow-up), through five focus groups (N = 19: n = 10 staff; n = 9 residents) and through photovoice (N = 5). A qualitative descriptive approach was applied to focus group transcripts to capture a rich account of participant experiences within the naturalistic context, and descriptive statistics were calculated. While most residents preferred to go outside (91%), few reported going outside every day (30%). Program participants expressed their joy about interacting with nature and watching plants grow. Analyses of focus group data generated the following themes: finding meaning; building connections with others through lifelong learning; impacts on mental health and well-being; opportunities to reminisce; reflection of self in gardening activities; benefits for staff; and enthusiasm for the program to continue. Active and passive engagement in gardening activities benefitted residents with diverse abilities. This fostered opportunity for discussions, connections and increased interactions with others, which can help reduce social isolation. Gardening programs should be considered a feasible and important option that can support socialization, health and well-being.

ROLE OF ISLAMIC TRADITIONAL IN ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS EDUCATION TO ADRESS DEATH ANXIETY AMONG ELDERLY HOME CARE RESIDENTS IN YOGYAKARTA

The number of population of older people has risen over time. The older adults’ latent problems tremendously vary, and one of the biggest challenges for them is having anxiety about death. For this reason, it is vital to accurately identify contributing factors and then Islamic religious instructors seek a favorable treatment for encountering the problem. The lack of understanding of Islamic teachings related self is one of causal factors in this case. This study used a qualitative analysis and descriptive design with the research subject of elderly people at Budi Luhur Social Service Center (BPSTW) Budi Luhur, Kasihan, Bantul, Yogyakarta Special Region. The research sample was classified into two categories: females and the were participating in the Islamic religious teaching program. Data were collected through interview, observation, documentation of relevant written texts, and the data were analyzed using a triangulation technique. The study found that lecturing, question and answer, and private-informal conversations were effective techniques for the understanding of Islamic teachings throughout the course in regards with oneself towards dying and death.

Strengthening Collaboration through Perception Alignment: Hybrid Workplace Leadership Impact on Member Awareness, Understanding, and Learning Agility

The recent development of cross-functional project initiatives and implementation of remote technology applications is changing the leader and team member working environment that influences their interaction and collaboration with other teams/customers/stakeholders/ providers/any related parties to compete in the rising digitalization and VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) situation. This research wants to dissect how the influence of hybrid workplace leadership capabilities on the awareness, understanding, and learning agility of cross-functional project team members to foster team perception alignment and achieve strengthened collaboration. Researcher dissects individual team members' mental processes (awareness of the intended purpose, understanding of self-others, and learning agility) that connect leadership capability and team perception alignment to enhance collaboration during hybrid workplace implementation. This study is a quantitative research methodology, collecting data through a questionnaire survey and then analyzing data from 99 respondents using Partial Least Squares Structural Equations Model (PLS-SEM). Based on the result of this study, hybrid workplace leadership impacts the awareness of purpose. Then awareness affects the understanding of self and others, and both affect the learning agility of each team member, which influences the alignment of perceptions in the work team. This alignment of perceptions contributes to the collaboration process with other teams/organizations.

PERSONALITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON MEN'S DENIM JEANS: MUSIC AND FASHION PERSPECTIVE EDUCATION IN 4TH IR

When we observe people around us, one of the first things that strikes us is how different people are from one another. Some people are very talkative while others are very quiet. Some are active whereas others are couch potatoes. Some worry a lot; others almost never seem anxious. Each time we use one of these words, words like talkative, quiet, active, or anxious, to describe those around us, we are talking about a person’s personality the characteristic ways that people differ from one another. Personality psychologists try to describe and understand these differences. Recent years have witnessed the ascendance of a new way to conceptualize and investigate the acceptance of men’s denim jeans at different levels of personality and psychological describe ways in which people are different from each other. This follows Maslow concepts and psychological needs. In relation, many Malaysian artists favour jeans wearing during stage shows, drama shooting or film and daily life. For instance, both the artist and the music they sing can play a huge role in which direction the fashion industry moves. Research design is inextricably linked to data analysis. An appropriate design can ensure that the substantive and statistical assumptions for the data analysis such as the assumptions that obtained from the questionnaire distributed to respondents. The hypothesis was tested among 40 male respondents are randomly selected, aged from 23 to 30 years old near Kuala Lumpur from different background such as professional and non-professional. These results provide support for the time horizon hypothesis and suggest further attention to the factors in investigation for future research. The objectives are to understand the cutting styles that fits the person by being able to differentiate various styles available reflecting men’s personality towards jeans styles. By undertaking a quantitative method, the study was able to provide an insight into the personality of self-identity reflection towards men in Kuala Lumpur using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The study emphasizes on whether men’s personality was reflected by different styles of denim jeans. There are signs that this personality and psychological perspectives emerging as a potentially integrative paradigm for personality and psychology as well. This special issue highlights this new appearance and its relevance to a broad of topics in personality and psychology. Result from analysis proves that slim fit jeans was the type of jeans that had the best choice among respondents, followed by straight cut jeans, skinny jeans, regular jeans and tapered jeans. For section ‘denim jeans as reflection of self- identity, it was found that the highest mean score recorded was the statement ‘I like jeans as a casual wear’.

Case method in psychological counseling (on the example of psychological counseling of Muslims)

The article describes and analyzes the theoretical problems associated with the case method in both General and Social (but not classical, communicative) Epistemology. The paper discloses the author's approach in solving and presenting cases. The approach is aimed at achieving the goal, which is in-depth training of consultants in the fi eld of confession-oriented psychological counseling. The author focuses on the description of the case method as an additional way to train specialists in confession-oriented counseling, including psychological counseling of Muslims. The article discloses the ways of reaching the goal by describing the case method in general and in a viewpoint of Social Epistemology. The author shows the specifi cs of the method not so much as a tool for description, but for training specialists. Revealing the case method as a tool that helps the counseling psychologist to carry out self-refl ection necessary to recognize and maintain internal and external self-boundaries, the author derives the defi nition of the internal and external boundaries of the case naming them as cultural and personal which can lead to a voluminous understanding of the problems that arise in the process of psychological counseling for all parties involved. The author draws preliminary conclusions and off ers a number of recommendations for the training of specialists, particularly in the situation of confession-oriented counseling. The article provides general information on the current state of psychological counseling for Muslims, as well as gives a sample case with its solutions. Moreover, the paper analyses the features of perception and errors of interpretation associated with external and internal cultural boundaries misunderstanding, after which proposes some recommendations for the results practical application.

Mystical Experience

This paper proposes to study mystical experience by contrasting it with “ordinary” experience, i.e., with standard consciousness. It emphasises the construed nature of standard consciousness and the role that the mutual connectedness of mental contents plays in its construction. It then shows that removal of the factors that are responsible for the “making” of standard consciousness accounts for the principal features of mystical experience; these features are, therefore, mainly negative. Understanding mystical experience as the suppression of factors that contribute to the construction of standard consciousness, along with a discussion of the mechanism that makes this possible, permits answers to some frequently asked questions, such as: Why is mystical experience ineffable? What is its epistemic status? Does it have implications for our understanding of mind, consciousness, and self?

Engaging with research methods in comparative politics courses: practicing skills, questioning data, reflecting on positionality

This article reflects on a pedagogic experiment of engaging with research methods in the teaching of an undergraduate course on “Contemporary Russian Politics” at Newcastle University (UK). We argue that the incorporation of an explicit and systematic discussion and practice of research methods in a Comparative Politics course is important for three interconnected reasons. First, by introducing students to different aspects of the political system and processes of a state or a region, Comparative Politics courses provide a perfect structure for discussing and practicing a variety of research methods. Second, Comparative Politics courses allow us to work with different kinds of data and support our students to become more critically aware data-users. Finally, they provide us with ample opportunity to reflect on identity construction and positionality: how do we interpret the Other—whether it is a state or a region, how do different data and research methods shape our understanding and knowledge of the Other, and how are our understandings of Self linked to our interpretations of the Other?

Helicopter Stories – more than language

An exploration into Helicopter Stories where Jenni Clarke delves into the origins of this approach and the wider implications for learning, not limited to logical thinking, empathy, expression and understanding of self, exploration of others' thoughts and acceptance of differences.

Daniel Alarcón’s Lost City Radio and the work of translation

The subject of Alarcón’s English language novels is identified without difficulty in publicity materials as deeply Peruvian and yet the marketing also presents him as a ‘World’ writer. I explore how naming where Alarcón’s writing is ‘from’ and where it is going relates to the place of Latin American culture globally. Working with the idea that literature should have a ‘place’, I examine the politics of (self)translation in Alarcón with reference to the period of armed internal conflict in Peru (1980-2000) to argue that an understanding of (self)translation as a process can contribute to our idea of what World Literature is and what national literatures are from a specifically Latin American perspective. In an interplay between foreign and domestic that differs from the more familiar strategies of codeswitching in Latinx writing, Alarcón both enables and resists the translation of other parts of the world onto Peru/Latin America.

Social work students’ understanding of professional resilience

ABSTRACT Social work education is responsible for developing graduates who can practice resilience in an increasingly complex and stressful human services environment. Resilience is a frequently used concept in social work, however, its application is diverse, and meaning lacks clarity. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 23 Australian Master of Social Work (Qualifying) students, exploring their understanding of professional resilience, including the conceptualisation and perceived relevance for future practice. Critical theory guided the thematic analysis of the data, with similarities and differences noted across subjective representations. The findings identified a contemporary yet individualised and one-dimensional understanding of professional resilience, influenced by dominant discourse and context. Professional resilience was seen as an essential attribute required to protect social workers from the intrinsic complexity and resulting impacts of practice. Implications for the role of education in fostering resilience in social work students to support them to navigate future practice complexities include: facilitating the development of a multidimensional and systemic understanding of self; creating safe, relationship-based environments for shared learning and growth; and teaching critically reflective processes which consider context and environment.

Parents of Preadolescents’ Experiences of Child–Parent Relationship Therapy

ABSTRACT Preadolescence is a time of emotional, physical, social, and relational changes, which can lead to mental health concerns. Parents of preadolescents also experience changes within their roles as parents, and both parents and preadolescents experienced a wide range of changes and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This phenomenological study explored the experiences of parents of preadolescents after participating in a virtual Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) intervention. Participants were seven parents ages 35 to 56 years-old with preadolescent children between the ages of 9 to 12 years-old. Semi-structured interviews were conducted following the CPRT intervention and analyzed using an adaptation of classic data analysis. Six themes were found, including impact of group on learning, child’s engagement with parent, child qualities, parent’s understanding of self, importance of parent-child relationship, and integration of CPRT skills. The emerging themes indicated that the seven participants experienced changes in themselves, in their child, and in their parent-child relationships. Participants discussed their experiences with the virtual format and their integration of CPRT skills. The participants also reported feeling closeness and support from other group members, even with the virtual format. Findings from this study highlight several clinical implications for working with parents of preadolescents virtually using CPRT.

Counseling Mexican American Men Struggling with Paternal Postpartum Depression

Postpartum depression is generally attributed to women after bearing children. However, several studies have indicated that men face a similar condition after the birth of a child. About 10% of men experience paternal postpartum depression. Although this percentage reflects Caucasian men’s experience, studies have found Mexican American men experiencing paternal postpartum depression (PPD), too. This conceptual article addresses critical cultural aspects to consider when counseling Mexican American men struggling with PPD by providing a case study with implications for a counselor to consider when counseling Mexican American men struggling with PPD. In this manuscript, Sandtray therapy was used as an intervention to facilitate the client’s understanding of self, the surroundings, and certain parts of reality.

Psychoanalysis, the Sufi, and the Story

Psychoanalysis, the Sufi, and the Story

Building Academic Leadership Capacity Through Coaching.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of coaching in a 12-month leadership development program for nurse faculty and administrators who transition to leadership positions or who aspire to lead. There is a critical need in nursing education to build leadership capacity. One strategy to foster leadership development is through coaching. Although developmental leadership programs for nurse educators exist, limited empirical data exist in nursing academia examining the effectiveness of coaching on leadership. The design was qualitative descriptive. Using a semistructured interview guide, participants ( N = 12) responded to open-ended questions about their coaching experience. Data analysis revealed three themes: encouraging intentional reflection of self and leadership, validating perceptions of challenging professional situations, and strategizing options for action plans and behaviors. Coaching holds a great deal of promise as a means to develop the next generation of academic nurse leaders.

Norm-disruptive learning and music teacher competency development: A thematic synthesis

With an aim to inform pedagogical processes for the development of more diverse and equitable music teaching practice, we sought to uncover the nature of norm-disruptive learning for music teachers. We defined “norm-disruptive learning” as any facet of music teacher development that problematizes and expands beyond previously known philosophies, pedagogies, and repertoires. A thematic synthesis methodology was used to consolidate qualitative research that explored characteristics of norm-disruptive experiences and the competencies music teachers developed. A total of 15 sources met inclusion criteria. Findings are organized into nine analytic themes and three meta-analytic themes which encompass the nature of norm-disrupting learning and related emerging competencies. We found that norm-disruptive experiences seem most likely to influence music teacher competency development when internal and external connections are made, which can occur through experiencing with thinking and camaraderie; when dissonant in nature, but also balanced with affirmative experiences; and when of substantial duration and vividness. Norm-disruptive experience with these characteristics can deepen understanding of self and diverse others, develop appreciation for difference, expand musical and pedagogical abilities, and spark motivation to continue learning or to implement new abilities.

Indigenizing Philosophy on Stolen Lands: A Worry about Settler Philosophical Guardianship

Indigenizing Philosophy on Stolen Lands: A Worry about Settler Philosophical Guardianship

The Geological Unconscious: German Literature and the Mineral Imaginary by Jason Groves

Reviewed by: The Geological Unconscious: German Literature and the Mineral Imaginary by Jason Groves Bernhard Malkmus The Geological Unconscious: German Literature and the Mineral Imaginary. By Jason Groves. New York: Fordham University Press. 2020. x+208 pp. $105. ISBN 978-0-8232-8810-6. Human civilization's geological agency in transforming the biosphere has been reframing the epistemologies of all academic disciplines, in particular in the humanities. Reflection on what it means to be human no longer takes place on a stage for which the natural world is a mere backdrop; it is complicated by the myriad feedback loops between human cultures and anthropogenically transformed natures that mark our human condition today. The geological imaginary in the Anthropocene is closely tied to the history of Earth systems sciences that emerged during the hottest phase of the Cold War and to the epistemic construction of a global environment by the United Nations and international diplomacy. It is thus a form of planetary thinking, for which the Austrian writer and polymath Raoul Schrott has forged the new literary genre of a 'scientific epic' in his Erste Erde Epos (Munich: Hanser, 2016). However, as Jan Volker Röhnert reminds us in his Über das Gehen im Karst (Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2021), the geological imaginary has a much longer history, in particular in German-language letters. Geology is, of course, the discipline that revolutionized the human sense of time; it opened up the vista of unimaginable natural histories that allowed humans to conceive of life as an evolutionary development. Geology has also provided a plethora of metaphors for rethinking the human on the threshold to modernity; it has offered ambivalent imagery between the biotic and the abiotic, the latent and the manifest, the exploitable and the uncanny. Grounded in this ambivalence, geology in modern German literature functions also as a mode of thinking about alternative modernities. This is evident in Jason Groves's new study, which traces the signs of a planetary ecological reflexivity in the archive of German literature in modernity, aiming to unearth 'those imaginaries in which other earths emerged' (p. 1). His close readings of a 'mineral imaginary' add up to a genealogy of the discovery of a climatologically volatile and unreliable Earth. In the process, the study becomes a cryptogram of a planetary imagination that enables us to consider alternative genealogies of modernity and trace the roots of Anthropocene thinking. His point of departure is the observation that the climax of modern Subjektphilosophie coalesces with an unprecedented fecundity of scientific and imaginative thinking about minerality and geology. He thus complicates the conventional narrative of an intrinsically teleological post-Enlightenment concept of the subject by revealing the degree to which the reflection on human subjectivity around 1800 was modulated by creatureliness—and the degree to which that creatureliness encompassed both [End Page 308] animality and minerality. Intense efforts to imagine deep earth and deep time reframe the standardized genealogy of the modern subject. The Germanic obsession with foundlings, in particular, and the multiple attempts to reassemble historical narratives around these erratic witnesses to Earth's history offer a particularly compelling way of rethinking modern human self-reflection through the lens of 'the lithic' (p. 6). Groves is engaging in an exercise of ichnology; he is reading what was never written, he is tracking traces such as foundlings to piece together the hidden geology of intellectual history. In claiming a 'geophilological turn', however, he is probably overstating the case. In his Introduction one gets the impression that Groves wanted to synthesize his considerable theoretical acumen as early as possible. However, a more gradual argumentative approach that links theoretical inferences to concrete close readings and thus creates a narrative momentum would have been more reader-friendly. In spite of the apparent theoretical ambition, some of the references remain underexplored, for example trauma theory and colonialism. Some readers might find Groves's choice of authors somewhat eclectic and wonder why, for example, there are no in-depth discussions of Jean Paul and E. T. A Hoffmann or Theodor Fontane and Alfred Döblin. Others might bemoan the fact that the book does not strictly adhere to the format of a traditional academic...

Determining the Training Needs and Qualification Levels of Counsellor Candidates regarding “Therapeutic Skills” in the Process of Individual Counseling Training

This study is aimed at determining the training needs and qualification levels of counseling candidates concerning invitation to speak, reflecting feelings, minimal encouragement, reflection of content, personalization, self- addition, self-disclosure, summarization and confrontation skills during the psychological counseling process. In the present study, summative content analysis was used. 20 students (12 female, 8 male) who took Invidividual Counseling Course in the spring term of 2019- 2020 academic year constitute the study group. “Counselor Qualifications Evaluation Form” developed by Eryılmaz and Mutlu- Süral was employed to identify the qualifications regarding the skills. Supervision was observed to be sufficient in terms of developing the qualifications of minimal encouragement, reflection of content, reflecting feelings (except from counselor’s prolonged speech), summarization and self- disclosure. On the contrary, it was seen that supervision was not sufficient in developing other qualifications as personalization, initiation to speak and self- addition and it was found that candidates needed training regarding confrontation skills.

The mediating role of attachment and mentalising in the relationship between childhood maltreatment, self-harm and suicidality

BackgroundAlthough the relationship between childhood maltreatment, self-harm and suicidality is well-established, less is known about the mediating mechanisms explaining it. Based on a developmental mentalisation-based theoretical framework, childhood adversity compromises mentalising ability and attachment security, which in turn increase vulnerability to later stressors in adulthood. ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the role of attachment and mentalising as potential mechanisms in the relationship between childhood maltreatment, self-harm and suicidality. Participants and settingWe recruited 907 adults from clinical and community settings in Greater London. MethodsThe study design was cross-sectional. Participants completed self-report questionnaires on retrospectively rated childhood trauma, and current attachment to the romantic partner, mentalising, self-harm, suicidal ideation and attempt. We used structural equation modelling to examine the data and conceptualized childhood maltreatment as a general factor in a confirmatory bifactor model. ResultsThe results showed that childhood maltreatment was both directly associated with self-harm and suicidality and indirectly via the pathways of attachment and mentalising. ConclusionsThese findings indicate that insecure attachment and impaired mentalising partially explain the association between childhood maltreatment, self-harm and suicidality. Clinically, they provide support for the potential of mentalisation-based therapy or other psychosocial interventions that aim to mitigate the risk of self-harm and suicidality among individuals who have experienced childhood maltreatment via increasing understanding of self and other mental states.

Sensing Brownness

Sensing Brownness