1
|
Finell E, Pyysiäinen J, Walden A. Frames of agency in a school with poor indoor-air quality: A longitudinal composite narrative study. Health Place 2024; 88:103256. [PMID: 38739984 DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2024.103256] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Revised: 04/19/2024] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024]
Abstract
Problems with schools' indoor-air quality are common, and they can cause health problems to adolescents. However, no previous research has examined how adolescents make sense of such contaminated socio-material environments or what kinds of agency those environments afford. Taking an ecological psychology perspective informed by frame analysis, we analysed longitudinal focus group interviews with adolescents in a Finnish school with longstanding indoor-air problems. We constructed three composite first-person narratives that reflected different experiential frames, with corresponding forms and changes of agency. We found that our adolescents made sense of the same socio-material environment and its affordances in very different ways, and this process afforded them to develop many kinds of agency that changed over time.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eerika Finell
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, Kuopio Campus, University of Eastern Finland, PO Box 1627, 70211, Finland.
| | - Jarkko Pyysiäinen
- Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki, Latokartanonkaari 5, 00790, Helsinki, Finland.
| | - Aino Walden
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, Kuopio Campus, University of Eastern Finland, PO Box 1627, 70211, Finland.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Malo R, Prié Y. Reaching conceptual stability by re-articulating empirical and theoretical work on affordances. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1283168. [PMID: 38947904 PMCID: PMC11212831 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1283168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2023] [Accepted: 04/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Theoretical developments on affordances have proliferated, resulting in a lack of conceptual stability and a potential compromise in scientific validity. However, affordances should not be discarded, given their centrality in post-cognitive theories and their widespread reuse across various research domains. Empirical research on affordances remains sparse, out of sync with theoretical advancements, and thus unable to contribute effectively to scientific progress due to its disarticulation with theoretical work. That is why re-articulating theoretical and empirical investigations on affordances is needed to pave a more fruitful path for the concept's advancement. To accomplish this objective, emphasis must be placed on empirical research, leveraging recent theoretical propositions and devising corresponding empirical methodologies. The proposed requirements and framework represent a step in this endeavor.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Roman Malo
- Nantes Université, Laboratoire de psychologie des Pays de la Loire, LPPL, UR 4638, Nantes, France
| | - Yannick Prié
- Nantes Université, École Centrale Nantes, CNRS, LS2N, UMR 6004, Nantes, France
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Gordon-Rawlings T, Russo A. Exploring the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on people's relationships with gardens. EMOTION, SPACE AND SOCIETY 2023; 46:100936. [PMID: 36573221 PMCID: PMC9771757 DOI: 10.1016/j.emospa.2022.100936] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2022] [Revised: 10/28/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Gardens are places where science and art combine to create environments that often offer restorative and therapeutic experience to those who encounter them. During the Covid-19 pandemic, in the UK and elsewhere there has been a surge of interest in gardening. Public appreciation of gardens and other green spaces has grown and inequality of access to gardens and outdoor spaces has been extensively documented. Gardens are prevalent and of cultural significance in the UK, where their salutary properties have been documented for centuries. Yet people's relationships with gardens during the pandemic have been relatively underexplored in academia and were already under-researched prior to the pandemic's inception. This qualitative study investigates the relationships between people and gardens during the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, through thematic analysis based on in-depth interviews with 12 participants, it explores the effects that the pandemic had on people's relationships with gardens during an approximately 9-month period after the first national lockdown began in the UK. It places emphasis on health and wellbeing and garden design, using the concepts of agency and affordances as lenses through which to explore people's relationships with gardens. The results of this paper support others which have found people to be more supportive of nature-friendly garden design and to feel more connected with nature since the pandemic began.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Thea Gordon-Rawlings
- School of Arts, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, GL50 4AZ, United Kingdom
| | - Alessio Russo
- School of Arts, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, GL50 4AZ, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Watsjold BK, Ilgen JS, Regehr G. An Ecological Account of Clinical Reasoning. ACADEMIC MEDICINE : JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN MEDICAL COLLEGES 2022; 97:S80-S86. [PMID: 35947479 DOI: 10.1097/acm.0000000000004899] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The prevailing paradigms of clinical reasoning conceptualize context either as noise that masks, or as external factors that influence, the internal cognitive processes involved in reasoning. The authors reimagined clinical reasoning through the lens of ecological psychology to enable new ways of understanding context-specific manifestations of clinical performance and expertise, and the bidirectional ways in which individuals and their environments interact. METHOD The authors performed a critical review of foundational and current literature from the field of ecological psychology to explore the concepts of clinical reasoning and context as presented in the health professions education literature. RESULTS Ecological psychology offers several concepts to explore the relationship between an individual and their context, including affordance, effectivity, environment, and niche. Clinical reasoning may be framed as an emergent phenomenon of the interactions between a clinician's effectivities and the affordances in the clinical environment. Practice niches are the outcomes of historical efforts to optimize practice and are both specialty-specific and geographically diverse. CONCLUSIONS In this framework, context specificity may be understood as fundamental to clinical reasoning. This changes the authors' understanding of expertise, expert decision making, and definition of clinical error, as they depend on both the expert's actions and the context in which they acted. Training models incorporating effectivities and affordances might allow for antiableist formulations of competence that apply learners' abilities to solving problems in context. This could offer both new means of training and improve access to training for learners of varying abilities. Rural training programs and distance education can leverage technology to provide comparable experience to remote audiences but may benefit from additional efforts to integrate learners into local practice niches.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bjorn K Watsjold
- B.K. Watsjold is assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4888-8857
| | - Jonathan S Ilgen
- J.S. Ilgen is professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4590-6570
| | - Glenn Regehr
- G. Regehr is professor, Department of Surgery, and senior scientist, Centre for Health Education Scholarship, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3144-331X
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Spee BTM, Sladky R, Fingerhut J, Laciny A, Kraus C, Carls-Diamante S, Brücke C, Pelowski M, Treven M. Repeating patterns: Predictive processing suggests an aesthetic learning role of the basal ganglia in repetitive stereotyped behaviors. Front Psychol 2022; 13:930293. [PMID: 36160532 PMCID: PMC9497189 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.930293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recurrent, unvarying, and seemingly purposeless patterns of action and cognition are part of normal development, but also feature prominently in several neuropsychiatric conditions. Repetitive stereotyped behaviors (RSBs) can be viewed as exaggerated forms of learned habits and frequently correlate with alterations in motor, limbic, and associative basal ganglia circuits. However, it is still unclear how altered basal ganglia feedback signals actually relate to the phenomenological variability of RSBs. Why do behaviorally overlapping phenomena sometimes require different treatment approaches−for example, sensory shielding strategies versus exposure therapy for autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder, respectively? Certain clues may be found in recent models of basal ganglia function that extend well beyond action selection and motivational control, and have implications for sensorimotor integration, prediction, learning under uncertainty, as well as aesthetic learning. In this paper, we systematically compare three exemplary conditions with basal ganglia involvement, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Parkinson’s disease, and autism spectrum conditions, to gain a new understanding of RSBs. We integrate clinical observations and neuroanatomical and neurophysiological alterations with accounts employing the predictive processing framework. Based on this review, we suggest that basal ganglia feedback plays a central role in preconditioning cortical networks to anticipate self-generated, movement-related perception. In this way, basal ganglia feedback appears ideally situated to adjust the salience of sensory signals through precision weighting of (external) new sensory information, relative to the precision of (internal) predictions based on prior generated models. Accordingly, behavioral policies may preferentially rely on new data versus existing knowledge, in a spectrum spanning between novelty and stability. RSBs may then represent compensatory or reactive responses, respectively, at the opposite ends of this spectrum. This view places an important role of aesthetic learning on basal ganglia feedback, may account for observed changes in creativity and aesthetic experience in basal ganglia disorders, is empirically testable, and may inform creative art therapies in conditions characterized by stereotyped behaviors.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Blanca T. M. Spee
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Neurology, Center of Expertise for Parkinson and Movement Disorders, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Ronald Sladky
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Joerg Fingerhut
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Department of Philosophy, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Alice Laciny
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Christoph Kraus
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Medical Neuroscience Cluster, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Christof Brücke
- Medical Neuroscience Cluster, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Matthew Pelowski
- Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Marco Treven
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
- Medical Neuroscience Cluster, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- *Correspondence: Marco Treven,
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Alves S, Betrabet Gulwadi G, Nilsson P. An Exploration of How Biophilic Attributes on Campuses Might Support Student Connectedness to Nature, Others, and Self. Front Psychol 2022; 12:793175. [PMID: 35498153 PMCID: PMC9043241 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.793175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Accepted: 12/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
University Campuses remain important settings for nurturing and supporting student health and quality of life (QoL). Research shows the health benefits of nature experiences may be facilitated by campus spaces and activities that afford connectedness. Connectedness to nature, others, and self may allow students to cope with mental fatigue, stress, and a constant need for restoration. Despite recent encouraging trends, we still lack an integrative conceptual framework to describe the mechanisms involved in achieving connectedness for making recommendations for campus design. In this conceptual review, we examine students' connectedness in campus settings in relation to biophilic elements and attributes. We aim to understand how both direct and indirect pursuits in nature and also place-based experiences on campus foster connectedness and consequently impact students' health and QoL. Our analysis shows that connectedness seen through the lens of Kellert's biophilic design principles and aided by Alexander's pattern language provides a relational and long-term perspective on recommending strategies for connecting students to nature, to others, and to themselves in campus settings.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Susana Alves
- Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Gowri Betrabet Gulwadi
- School of Applied Human Sciences, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, United States
| | | |
Collapse
|
7
|
Williams MD, Strafford BW, Stone JA, Moran J. Parkour-Based Activities in the Athletic Development of Youth Basketball Players. Front Physiol 2021; 12:771368. [PMID: 34721090 PMCID: PMC8554233 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2021.771368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2021] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
While ideas from long-term athlete development (LTAD) models have been adopted and integrated across different sports, issues related to early specialization, such as increased risk of injury and burnout, are still common. Although some benefits may be associated with early sport specialization, sports sampling is purported to be a more effective approach to the long-term health and wellbeing of children. Furthermore, the concept of developing what are commonly referred to as "fundamental movement skills" (FMS) is central to the rationale for delaying single sports specialization. However, in place of sports sampling, it appears that the practice of strength and conditioning (S&C) has become a driving force behind developmental models for youth athletes, highlighted by the growing body of literature regarding youth athletic development training. In this perspective piece, we explore how conventional S&C practice may insufficiently develop FMS because typically, it only emphasizes a narrow range of foundational exercises that serve a limited role toward the development of action capabilities in youth athletic populations. We further discuss how this approach may limit the transferability of physical qualities, such as muscular strength, to sports-specific tasks. Through an ecological dynamics lens, and using basketball as an example, we explore the potential for parkour-based activity within the LTAD of youth basketball players. We propose parkour as a training modality to not only encourage movement diversity and adaptability, but also as part of an advanced strength training strategy for the transfer of conventional S&C training.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mark David Williams
- School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom
| | - Ben William Strafford
- Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | - Joseph Antony Stone
- Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | - Jason Moran
- School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
How far can I reach? The perception of upper body action capabilities in Parkinson's disease. Atten Percept Psychophys 2021; 83:3259-3274. [PMID: 34231163 PMCID: PMC8260152 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-021-02340-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Successful interaction within the environment is contingent upon one’s ability to accurately perceive the extent over which they can successfully perform actions, known as action boundaries. Healthy young adults are accurate in estimating their action boundaries and can flexibly update them to accommodate stable changes in their action capabilities. However, there are conditions in which motor abilities are subject to variability over time such as in Parkinson’s disease (PD). PD impairs the ability to perform actions and can lead to variability in perceptual-motor experience, but the effect on the perceptions of their action boundaries remains unknown. This study investigated the influence of altered perceptual-motor experience during PD, on the perceptions of action boundaries for reaching, grasping, and aperture passing. Thirty participants with mild-to-moderate idiopathic PD and 26 healthy older adults provided estimates of their reaching, grasping, and aperture-passing ability. Participants’ estimates were compared with their actual capabilities. There was no evidence that individuals with PD’s perceptions were less accurate than those of healthy controls. Furthermore, there was some evidence for more conservative estimates than seen in young healthy adults in reaching (both groups) and aperture passing (PD group). This suggests that the ability to judge action capabilities is preserved in mild to moderate PD.
Collapse
|
9
|
It's in your hands: How variable perception affects grasping estimates in virtual reality. Psychon Bull Rev 2021; 28:1202-1210. [PMID: 33821465 PMCID: PMC8367882 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-021-01916-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Successful interaction within one’s environment is contingent upon one’s ability to accurately perceive the extent over which actions can be performed, referred to as action boundaries. As our possibilities for action are subject to variability, it is necessary for individuals to be able to update their perceived action boundaries to accommodate for variance. While research has shown that individuals can update their action boundaries to accommodate for variability, it is unclear how the perceptual system calibrates to this variance to inform our action boundaries. This study investigated the influence of perceptual motor variability by analysing the effect of random and systematic variability on perceived grasp ability in virtual reality. Participants estimated grasp ability following perceptual-motor experience with a constricted, normal, extended, or variable grasp. In Experiment 1, participants experienced all three grasping abilities (constricted, normal, extended) 33% of the time. In Experiment 2 participants experienced the constricted and normal grasps 25% of the time, and the extended grasp 50% of the time. The results indicated that when perceptual-motor feedback is inconsistent, the perceptual system disregards the frequency of perceptual-motor experience with the different action capabilities and considers each action capability experienced as a type, and subsequently calibrates to the average action boundary experienced by type.
Collapse
|
10
|
Abstract
Humanity faces serious social and environmental problems, including climate change and biodiversity loss. Increasingly, scientists, global policy experts, and the general public conclude that incremental approaches to reduce risk are insufficient and transformative change is needed across all sectors of society. However, the meaning of transformation is still unsettled in the literature, as is the proper role of science in fostering it. This paper is the first in a three-part series that adds to the discussion by proposing a novel science-driven research-and-development program aimed at societal transformation. More than a proposal, it offers a perspective and conceptual framework from which societal transformation might be approached. As part of this, it advances a formal mechanics with which to model and understand self-organizing societies of individuals. While acknowledging the necessity of reform to existing societal systems (e.g., governance, economic, and financial systems), the focus of the series is on transformation understood as systems change or systems migration—the de novo development of and migration to new societal systems. The series provides definitions, aims, reasoning, worldview, and a theory of change, and discusses fitness metrics and design principles for new systems. This first paper proposes a worldview, built using ideas from evolutionary biology, complex systems science, cognitive sciences, and information theory, which is intended to serve as the foundation for the R&D program. Subsequent papers in the series build on the worldview to address fitness metrics, system design, and other topics.
Collapse
|
11
|
|