Reviews

This paper links participant observation as a research method to the assessment of student social workers' practice through observation. In order to provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their competence to the best of their ability without diminishing the quality of their service to users, the observer must be able to function at different points along the continuum between participation and observation. The styles recommended for this purpose are: ” the quiet participant in energetic groups; ” the interested observer in quiet activities; and ” the respectfully distant observer of conversations. Comparisons between this research method and the practice of observation highlight the marginalisation of service users. Key issues include: ” fully informed consent; ” conditions for intervention by the observer; ” respondent validation; and ” ownership of assessment reports. Micro- and macro-level strategies to remedy these issues are considered. The distinction between collaboration and partnership is considered. Examining the position of service users as participants in research highlights a hierarchical web of power relations in observation. Whilst this can be addressed in individual practice, such practice can only be fruitful in a culture that truly values service users as partners in social work education.     

The experience of teaching and learning in social work. The teaching of young child observation: A historical overview

This paper describes the setting up in 1989 of the Tavistock/CCETSW course in young child observation for social work tutors and practice teachers, against the background of the immense pressures on social workers, particularly in the field of child protection. The paper summarises the potential learning from young child observation, and its contribution within social work training. It outlines the issues which faced the social work trainers as they went on to introduce and teach observation on their courses, and draws on an evaluative study in which the members of the course participated, giving their views on the value of observation training.     

Resolving Some Therapeutic Impasses by Disclosing Countertransference

Clinical social workers have been shifting their conceptualization of countertransference from the traditional classical modal of a one-person psychology nearer to a two-person psychology, thereby moving the ideal of the blank screen model to one of participant observation. With a two-person psychology now more in vogue, clinical social workers feel much more inclined to share some of their countertransference responses with their patients. Where there is limited consensus is embodied in the question: “Under what circumstances is countertransference disclosure most helpful to our patients?” This paper is an attempt to demonstrate through case vignettes how countertransference disclosure can resolve certain types of therapeutic impasses.     

Views of a Structured Assessment Tool for Observing Practice

Assessment of learning in practice through observation is a key part of social work training in the UK. There is no evidence of systematic dissemination or evaluation of observation tools in social work training. The Assessment of Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS-CETL) programme developed observation tools intended to provide comprehensive assessment through the collection of analytic student reflection, alongside commentary from practice assessor, professional colleague and service user. These ALPS tools were further developed to include specific social work assessment criteria. The purpose of this study was to establish student and practice assessor views about how the tools had been used and to understand their effectiveness, or otherwise, in practice. Through analysis of student focus groups, practice assessor interviews and completed ALPS tools, this paper evaluates the use of the social work adapted ALPS tools on an undergraduate social work programme in an English university. The findings of this study support the view that the ALPS tools can be used to promote reflective writing and support students in obtaining formative and summative evidence of their progress. In addition the tools appear to promote a student-led process of observational assessment thereby potentially helping to address the issue of power in the student/assessor relationship.     

Social reward,conflict, and commitment: A theoretical model of gambling behavior

A theoretical model of gambling behavior is introduced which examines the linkage between regular gamblers, the gambling institution, and outside society. This model is based on participant observation in an urban casino and a review of the related literature. The intention is to explore the structural and cultural factors operating both in society at large and in a gambling institution and to connect them with the personal characteristics of avid regular gamblers to explain their gambling behavior and its consequences. The main conclusion is that the gambling institution with its social rewards and the perceived threatening nature of the wider social structure are the dominant forces in attracting gamblers and in shaping their subsequent gambling entanglement.     

Patterns of Field Learning Activities and Their Relation to Learning Outcome

Field practicum is an active learning process. This study explores the different learning stages or processes students experience during their field practicum. First-year master's of social work students in field practica were asked how much they had engaged in educational learning activities such as observation, working independently, process recordings, and conceptual linkage activities for their practice. Forty-eight students completed a questionnaire three times over the first-year field practicum. The results showed that observation and process recording decreased over the time points. However, most of the participatory activities and conceptual linkage activities increased. Conceptual linkage activities were more strongly related to learning outcomes than observational or participatory activities. The discussion includes suggestions for enhancing student learning over the course of the field practicum.     

Tape-recorded cuing for time-sampled observations of nonverbal behavior

While much research on nonverbal components of social interaction effectively employs film or videotape recording, a variety of circumstances preclude their use. For those situations that require direct observation of ongoing interactions, a simple technique is proposed that facilitates the reliable judgment of diverse behaviors on a time-sampling basis. This particular technique involves the tape-recorded cuing of exact observation times and instructions, which direct the observer's visual attention to the critical behaviors of specific subjects. The implementation of this technique in one setting and its potential application are briefly discussed.The author wishes to thank Paul Ekman for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Moving as a family affair: Applying the SOC model to older adults and their kinship networks

In cases where moves are voluntary, older adults may decide to move as a strategy to optimize their living experiences. Older adults may voluntarily move as a strategy to optimize their living experiences. We use the Baltes and Baltes (1990) model of selection, optimization with compensation (SOC) to understand the impact of moving on a family network. Extending the SOC model beyond individual analysis offers an innovative addition to the literature. Moving may serve to optimize one’s life by enriching one’s emotional and physical reserves, but relocation may also challenge the older adult and their kin with other demands and frustrations. While moving can be optimal in some ways, it is also important to consider how the act of moving may be exchanged for future emotional and instrumental support from spouses and kin. To complete this ethnographic project, the researcher conducted interviews, participant observation of the moving process (packing, garage sales, moving day, adjustment) and document review with older adults (n = 81), members of their kin network (n = 49) and supportive professionals (n = 46). This approach allowed for the possibility of tracking a network through the moving process, using formal interviews, participant observation and document review to find out if and how moving optimizes lives.     

Infant and child observation as preparation for social work practice

This paper argues that infant and child observation is not only valuable as part of social work training for work with children and families but that it has a wider value in equipping workers with assessment skills relevant in all areas of social work, including care management. It describes the introduction of infant and child observation as a required component of the BA/Diploma in Social Work at The University of Reading and the effect on students' learning and their practice skills. It shows how child observation festers the development of reflective practice, enabling workers to look beyond the presenting problem and to understand the situation as a whole. The resulting intervention is then more likely to be appropriate in meeting a client's needs.     

Visualising traditional performance: ‘co-directed observation’ as an ethnographic tool

‘Co-directed observation’ is a methodology in photography in which a cultural performer is interviewed while co-directing his/her performance for the camera. This method, discovered in research on ritual wailing of Yemenite-Jewish women in Israel in 2001–2005, tackles the fact of the decline of this cultural phenomenon, its stereotyped social images and, above all, the character of the women performers who identify with and are immensely knowledgeable about it. Co-directed observation (CDO) makes its main contribution by adding a dynamic dimension to the documentation in a way that applies the photo-voice orientation in visual anthropology. CDO proves to be an especially effective ethnographic tool for the collection of data in situations where performers find it difficult to explain their performative knowledge. This article describes the CDO method as discovered in and applied to the research topic – characteristics of the Yemenite-Jewish wailing culture – and reports the specific findings that this method elicited. It also discusses main characteristics and advantages of the method.     

The Professionalization of Medical Students: Developing Competence And A Cloak of Competence*

This paper describes how medical students in an innovative educational setting adopt a cloak of competence as a critical part of the professionalization process. Faced with inordinate and variable expectations to develop and display competence, students professionalize by distancing themselves from those they interact with and by adopting and manipulating the symbols of their new status. Students were observed to engage in impression management to convince others and themselves that they are competent and confident to face the immense responsibilities of their privileged role. The data were collected by means of participant observation and interviews.     

INFANT OBSERVATION AS RESEARCH: CROSS‐DISCIPLINARY LINKS1

Infant observation has long been an essential part of many clinical trainings, as well as a component of some academic courses in applied psychoanalysis, but its research potential is just beginning to be tapped. This paper reviews some of the literature on infant observation as a research method. This type of naturalistic observation is compared and contrasted with empirical research in the laboratory with regard to the results which may best be obtained by each method. Strategies for the retrieval of information from process recordings are discussed, and the importance of convergent findings from different lines of enquiry and of theoretical triangulation is considered. Observations illustrating language development are used as an example of the further dimension which naturalistic observations can contribute to formulations deriving from clinical practice and empirical laboratory research. It is argued that convergences with psychoanalytic theory and with formulations from other disciplines, such as literary criticism, strengthen the confidence which may be accorded to formulations deriving from infant observation.     

Thinking about gender, thinking about a common space of observation and discussion of the work activity of the other: the case of bus drivers

The work activity of urban bus drivers is held in the public space and characterized by a constant vigilance, but the moments of observation the colleagues' work are scarce. This fact results in a paradox--it is a work activity that is more visible to "outsiders" than to "insiders"--which has an important impact on the debate of the work activity from a perspective of gender and the women's work in a predominantly male context. Ergonomic analysis of work and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 urban public transport drivers, 16 women and 16 men. The results reveal the lack of conditions for the drivers' knowledge of the activity of another, especially when that other is a woman--while men attribute characteristics to women based on gender stereotypes and an extension of their role in the private sphere, women relate them with the need to prove their competence and be recognized. It is proposed the development, in the context of training, of a space for debate and knowledge of the activity of the other and for the creation of conditions for another integration of women in the profession and for another visibility of their work.     

Fear of people with mental illnesses: the role of personal and impersonal contact and exposure to threat or harm

Vignette and laboratory experiments suggest that negative reactions to people with mental illness are a direct consequence of their symptomatic behavior, but because of their poor external validity, these studies cannot tell us whether widespread negative public reactions to people with mental illness actually result from observation of symptomatic behavior. Focusing on perceived danger, we use a large national survey to test the "behavior hypothesis" in the general population. We reason that, if this hypothesis is correct, contact with people with mental illnesses should be associated with more perceived danger, and exposure to threat or harm should mediate this association. On the contrary, respondents with more personal and impersonal contact perceive people with mental illness to be less dangerous. Exposure to threat is more common among people with more contact, but this exposure explains very little of the variance in perceived danger. These findings do not support the conclusion that public fear of people with mental illness is due to the observation of violent behavior.     

THE CONTRIBUTION OF PSYCHOANALYTICAL OBSERVATION IN CHILD PROTECTION ASSESSMENTS

In this paper I describe my role in undertaking child protection assessments for children in my work for a Family Centre managed by a national voluntary child care organisation. I explore how psychoanalytical observation provides additional knowledge informing assessments of risk for children. In an example that I discuss in some detail, I show how observation provides a means for assessing relationships between children and parents which leads to informed recommendations to court. In a second example I show how observation can be linked with a therapeutic approach to generate necessary change in parenting capacity. I conclude that observation is an important and effective training for professionals responsible for protecting children from harm.     

School-based,blacklight handwashing program can improve handwashing quality and knowledge among pre-school aged children

In the United States, lack of proper handwashing is associated with respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses. Interventions to improve handwashing practices have led to an increase in handwashing knowledge and behavior, and decreases in gastrointestinal illnesses. Most studies have evaluated their interventions in the context of reported handwashing rates by observation, reduction of illnesses, as well as reduced absences, however none of these studies examined handwashing quality or knowledge as outcome measures. The objective of this paper is to present the results from a handwashing program with a special focus on the evaluation methods.A pre-post design was used to evaluate a handwashing program that took place in two pre-schools the northeast of the United States. The program utilized a black light technology to demonstrate to children the importance of good quality. The evaluation consisted of assessing knowledge and quality of handwashing using a linear puzzle and individual handwashing observation, respectively.Students from both schools improved on both knowledge and quality over time (p-values 0.071 and <0.001, respectively). The present study demonstrates that the use of black light technology as an educational tool may help to improve handwashing quality among pre-school aged children, even after only one instructional session.     

Involving Young Disabled People in the Research Process: The Experiences of the PIE Research Project Team

Young disabled people are still rarely involved in the research process, despite an increasing emphasis on their inclusion as participants. The Participation in Education (PIE) project examined how disabled children with little or no speech could be involved in their education. The project team worked with an existing group of young disabled people to develop ways in which they could take part in the research process. The group was involved in developing the methodology, group work, observation, commenting on findings and in the dissemination process. Their involvement undoubtedly enriched the research and the benefits of working with an established group were manifold.     

“We're Not Old!”: Older Women's Negotiation of Aging and Oldness

This article is based on participant observation research at a seniors' center in central Canada in which the writer sought to acquire an understanding of how older adults define, interpret, and negotiate their realities and identities. Through activity and group membership, the center members — the majority of whom are single, older women between the ages of 50 and 90 — seek to distance themselves from the category of “old” and the accompanying ageist stereotypes. Striving to establish and preserve their precarious membership in the “not old”, center members struggle to reconcile their belief and experience of older adulthood as a time of activity, health, and happiness with their ever-present fear of declining health and the realities of widowhood and the loss of youthful attractiveness.     

Sighs,smiles, and worried glances: How the body reveals women caregivers' lived experiences of care to older adults

This article reports on findings from microethnographic research that examined the lived reality of women caregivers through detailed observation of their everyday, embodied experiences. The research, which was rooted in the trend in social gerontology to emphasize subjective experience, focused on five women who were providing care to an older adult with a chronic illness or impairment. Four of the five women were caring for a spouse; one was caring for a parent. Observing the women's daily realities revealed tensions and contradictions between their subjective lived experiences and the pressures of the system in which they were functioning. The data revealed a caregiver habitus characterized by the performance of emotional labor. Performance was visible through dissonance between the caregivers' verbal and nonverbal expressions, and pointed to a high degree of emotion and body management. The women consistently put aside their own needs, in what can be considered a divestment in health capital. There was also evidence of merging between the caregiver and care receiver, made visible through tandem movements. The findings lead to implications for practice and for future aging research, including the benefits of observation for enhancing understanding of clients' experiences.