Search

This essay looks askance at how robot-assisted childcare is constructed in the public domain of the Internet. Complex interactions of rhetorical manoeuvres, narratives and postnarrativity, and semiotic slippages may channel the apperception of this application of robotics. The prospect of robots in childcare roles is exceptionally contentious, for it connotes interference with the child-caregiver attachment bond. The industry's response to psychology-informed concerns is to 'rebrand' the product as a robot companion for a child or as a home robot for the family. A technocentric bias in information disseminated online creates an illusion of expertise and may endorse technology-driven morality., Author(s): Raya A. Jones [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0001 0807 5670, grid.5600.3, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, , Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, CF10 3WT, Cardiff, UK [...]

The article presents a descriptive review of the various patterns of association with school bullying that were revealed in a survey of over 26,000 children aged 11-16 in South Wales. The survey examined risks and protective factors for young people and included a question about being a bully and another about being bullied. Following regression analyses, significant associations were found between being a bully and various attitudinal and behavioural factors. There was a modest but ambiguous association with socio-economic status, and no independent association with minority ethnicity. There was a strong independent association between being a bully and being bullied. Some comment is made about the implications of the findings for policy, including the apparently positive effect (as revealed in the survey data) of schools being perceived by children as having clear rules on bullying. (Contains 6 tables and 5 notes.)

This paper presents a critique of the educational model of emotional and behavioural difficulties in British education. In the wake of strong criticisms of the so-called medical model of maladjustment (pre-1980s), educational policies have defined the "disturbing" pupil as having emotional and behavioural difficulties, and have more recently shifted towards reconstructing such difficulties as matters of discipline within school. The arguments from social science, semantics and ethics that were brought into play in the anti-medical critique are considered here in view of their consequences today for the construction of the "disruptive pupil" and dilemmas for practitioners.

To offset the loss of explanatory power of Kelly's repertory grid when used with children, adapted the School Behaviour Game (SBG) to examine children's perceptions of school. Results show that the SBG enables children to articulate their tacit understanding of a concept. The SBG's potential for guidance and counseling are considered. (RJM)

Viewing psychology as a cultural activity associated with technologies of the self, and noting the cultural phenomenon of the Jungian movement internationally, this paper presents a reading of Jung's 'A Study in the Process of Individuation' through the lens of dialogism. Jung's study pivots on the interpretation of paintings by a middle-aged American woman, 'Miss X', whom he treated in 1928. The present paper critically examines dialogical aspects of the Jungian text, such as Jung's metaphor of a dialogue with the unconscious, how he and his patient co-constructed her 'inner' dialogue, and the text's dialogue with its audience. It is concluded that the process of individuation described by Jung is fundamentally dialogical, evincing the human capacity to co-construct meanings of self-experience and thereby to change how we experience our own selves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]