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The purpose of this paper is to investigate psychometric properties of the Self-Efficacy for Therapeutic Use of Self (SETUS) scales, a questionnaire based on the Intentional Relationship model, and to investigate the factor structure and internal consistency of the English version of three-part SETUS questionnaire in occupational therapy students.

The sample of this cross-sectional study included 155 students with age range 18–30 years, of which 95% were women. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was performed on the questionnaire scales, including the Self-Efficacy for Therapeutic Mode Use (SETMU), Self-Efficacy for Recognizing Interpersonal Characteristics (SERIC) and Self-Efficacy for Managing Interpersonal Events (SEMIE). The internal consistencies were calculated. Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the strength of correlation among the scales.

The PCA confirmed that the items of each of the three proposed scales loaded strongly on one factor (self-efficacy for three factors of therapeutic mode use, recognizing interpersonal characteristics and managing interpersonal events). The Cronbach’s alpha for the SETMU, SERIC and SEMIE was 0.85, 0.95 and 0.96, respectively. The three scales significantly inter-correlated strongly (r ranging 0.74–0.83, all p < 0.001).

The SETUS questionnaire comprises three valid and reliable scales. It can be used by occupational therapy supervisors as a means to reflect on students’ self-efficacy in components of therapeutic use of self.

This case study describes how threats to stab people, in a client with learning disabilities, may have been inadvertently reinforced during detention in a medium secure unit by over‐looking borderline personality traits. Formulating the case from the biopsychosocial model of borderline personality disorder (Linehan, 1993), the article illustrates how an invalidating environment provided by learning disability services may have interacted with underlying difficulties in emotion regulation to reinforce challenging behaviour. Explaining threats to stab purely in terms of learning disability accidentally invalidated the client's emotional distress, so the only way he could convey how he was feeling was by escalating challenging behaviour. Risk management procedures also strengthened the client's belief that he was a dangerous person, and reinforced the challenging behaviour by gaining interpersonal attention. The need for learning disability services to be aware of how personality features contribute to learning disability presentations and to formulate from an interactive perspective is highlighted.

Client engagement increases substantially when staff teams implement active support. The impact of active support on challenging behaviour is less clear. There are grounds for believing that active support procedures could in some cases neutralise environmental conditions known to evoke challenging behaviour. We implemented a three‐phase clinical intervention to increase engagement and reduce passive and challenging behaviour. In phase 1 we trained staff to deliver inviting activity‐based instruction at eye level. In phase 2 we introduced activity support plans to increase client choice and control. In phase 3 staff used peer‐monitoring procedures to consolidate implementation. We measured staff behaviour and client outcome across the three phases of intervention and at follow‐up. Staff provided warm and inviting activity‐based instruction at eye level more frequently after participating in phase 1 on‐site training. The proportion of activity‐based interactions with choice increased when activity plans were introduced in phase 2. Engagement replaced passive and challenging behaviour. Staff observations suggested changes were maintained over the short run. Our own observations indicated decay at 22 months. Our data suggest that active support procedures can make challenging behaviour less likely by altering antecedent conditions that reliably evoke such behaviour. Without sustained effort, interventions are susceptible to decay.

The aim of this research is to draw from a project sponsored by the Higher Education Academy and undertaken jointly by researchers at the University of Southampton and The Knowledge Partnership UK, which aimed to investigate the likely impact of the recently introduced new fees regime on students' attitudes to HE and to issues of debt.

Based on a sample of 64 students approaching the end of their A level study in four Further Education Colleges in the South and North of England, the research utilised focus group interviews to seek views about the new fees regime which were to be introduced in September 2006 throughout the country.

The research found that, while the issue of debt was a significant concern for many students, the desire to go to university either immediately or in the long term, remained a strong priority for the students. Different types of debt aversion, including risk debt aversion, sticker type debt aversion, value‐based debt aversion and life‐style debt aversion, were evident from the students' discourses.

Overall, sufficient evidence was not found to support the general belief that issues of student debt would significantly dissuade students from participating in HE. Rather, it was found that students were more likely to be rational in their decisions, as long as the increased fees would add value to their HE experience. Significantly, the research discovers a new form of debt aversion among the participants. HE institutions need to be aware of the variety of forms of debt aversion in order to plan for more strategic recruitment in a new fees and debt economy.

A group of users, academics and suppliers of virtual reality systems and equipment — about 35 people — got together on Monday and Tuesday 6 and 7 September 1993 at the University of Reading to assess the progress and prospects of virtual reality as applied to engineering. The event was organized by the computing and control division of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. It had been advertised as a workshop but there was little scope for hands‐on participation by delegates. There were 16 lectures and a small exhibition by suppliers and by the host university department.

Background As most readers will by now be aware, the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) has installed the LIBERTAS integrated library system from SWALCAP Library Services (SLS) Ltd as part of a progression towards a polytechnic — wide integrated information system. To appreciate both the reasons for the selection of LIBERTAS and the contribution it is expected to make to the new approach to delivery of information and computing services, some background information on PCL is necessary.

Research suggests that prison‐based therapeutic communities (TCs) have a positive impact on inmates and recidivism. This study sought to establish the benefits of being in a prison‐based TC rather than a normal wing. A semi‐structured interview was conducted with an inmate on the TC at HMP Wymott in Lancashire and then analysed using thematic analysis.Eight themes emerged, suggesting that TCs are a better environment with better interpersonal relationships, have more help available, are safer, are more structured and hierarchical, have groups and group work, are more challenging, provide confrontational assistance and have various incentive schemes. Such factors brought real benefits to the research participant.Research on the efficacy of TCs is considered, as are the implications of this study's findings for the future of prison‐based TCs. Despite the positive findings, they should nonetheless be cautiously applied.

Phenomenology is widely recognised for its power to generate nuanced understanding of lived experience and human existence. However, phenomenology is often made inaccessible to prospective researchers due to its specialised nomenclature and dense philosophical underpinnings. This paper explores the value of the researcher’s lived experience as a pathway into phenomenological inquiry. The purpose of this paper is to improve the accessibility of phenomenology as a method for qualitative analysis. It achieves this by aligning Husserl’s concept of phenomenological epoche, or bracketing of preconceptions, and the author’s lived experience as a practitioner of kendo, or Japanese fencing.

The paper employs the narrative vignette as a means of illuminating the intersections between kendo practice and the application of phenomenological epoche as it applies to the understanding of embodied sensemaking. Reflections on the narrative vignette identified a suite of techniques from kendo practice that were applied to a phenomenological approach for critical incident interviews. These techniques were then applied to 30 critical incident, semi-structured interviews as part of a PhD research project into embodied sensemaking.

The results from these interviews suggest that the kendo-derived techniques were effective in generating thick narratives from participants during semi-structured interviews. Examination of the results provided insights into the linkage between phenomenology as a continental philosophy and eastern perspectives such as those found within the Zen traditions and other aesthetic practices.

This research suggests that lived experience such as kendo practice can provide a ready-to-hand pathway to phenomenological inquiry.

This chapter describes the efforts of a team of health care workers to make a sub-acute health care facility (SCF) serving profoundly damaged children into a high reliability organization (HRO). To obtain this goal, the health care team implemented change in four behavioral areas: (1) risk awareness and acknowledgment; (2) defining care; (3) how to think and make decisions; and (4) information flow. The team focused on five reliability enhancement issues that emerged from previous research on banking institutions: (1) process auditing; (2) the reward system; (3) quality degradation; (4) risk awareness and acknowledgment; and (5) command and control. These HRO processes emerged from the change effort. Three additional HRO processes also emerged: high trust, and building a high reliability culture based on values and on beliefs. This case demonstrates that HRO processes can reduce costs, improve safety, and aid in developing new markets. Other experiences in implementing high reliability processes show that each organization must tailor make processes to its own situation (e.g. BP, U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazards Board, Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Navy Aviation Program, and Kaiser Permanente Health Care System). Just as in the flexibility called for in organizing for high reliability operations, flexibility is called for in deciding which HRO processes work in specific situations.