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Keith E Rice's Integrated SocioPsychology Blog & Pages

Aligning, integrating and applying the behavioural sciences

Sociology’

2011

Change…and New Experiences! 1988-1996    1997   1998     1999     2000     2001    2002      2003     2004     2005     2006     2007     2008     2009     2010     2011     2012     2013     2014      2015     2016     2017     2018      2019     2020    2021-2023 21st Century Group     HemsMESH     Humber MeshWORKS     Humberside MESH Network January-March: Delivered Understanding Yourself & Others – an Introduction to Psychology  for Rossett’s Extended Schools Adult Education Programme. Commentary: While, obviously, I had a long track record of delivering successful workshop programmes for adults, this was my first ‘night school’ course. The initial momentum for such a course and the design of the course had come from one-time Guiseley Psychology teacher Marc Smith. However, Marc had moved on and Rossett’s Extended Schools coordinator Malcolm Howe asked me to take it over. To some extent, I was lucky. Firstly, Malcolm gave me pretty much a free hand to alter Marc’s course to suit my own preferences…so I was able to include sessions on the Gravesian approach and Hans J Eysenck’s Dimensions of Temperament which enabled me to be truly passionate about the material. Secondly, by using an NLP-based approach to getting the workshop participants engaged both with the material and with each other, those… Read More

2010

Busy!!! 1988-1996    1997   1998     1999     2000     2001    2002      2003     2004     2005     2006     2007     2008     2009     2010     2011     2012     2013     2014      2015     2016     2017     2018      2019     2020    2021-2023 21st Century Group     HemsMESH     Humber MeshWORKS     Humberside MESH Network January-June: A very busy period that saw me facilitating 4 multi-session therapy clients and, at the peak of this period, 7 Psychology A-Level tutees – plus periodic returns of ‘Julie’ (now in the final year of her degree, very focused and very determined to get a 1st) and the Open University student from the previous year. On top of this I was attending Open University tutorials myself and undertaking my first written assignments for the course as well as holding down 3 days a week teaching at Rossett and one at Guiseley. April: Accepted into the Professional Guild of NLP, recognising my qualification of ‘Master Practitioner’. Commentary: For a number of years I had been wary of being labelled an ‘NLPer’ due to my concerns about the way NLP tends to be presented and taught – see my reservations about NLP in the FAQs section. Recently, however, greater concerns had arisen with regard to… Read More

2009

A Year of Starts and Stops… 1988-1996    1997   1998     1999     2000     2001    2002      2003     2004     2005     2006     2007     2008     2009     2010     2011     2012     2013     2014      2015     2016     2017     2018      2019     2020    2021-2023 21st Century Group     HemsMESH     Humber MeshWORKS     Humberside MESH Network Gallery: Rossett Year 13 Psychology students in publicity poses taken during an actual lesson, January – all photos by Lynda Lee/Rossett School – click on photo to enlarge February: For the first time, provided general tuition support to 2 university students doing degrees in Psychology. Commentary: One was ‘Julie’, the young lady who had previously been an A-Level tutee and then come back to  me the previous August. The other was an Open University student. Both found my explanations easier to understand than their respective university tutors! March: The results from the January Psychology exams showed another good smattering of As, Bs and Cs. In the Health & Social Care results, most of the students had got their target grades while 2 had exceeded them. Commentary: Considering how fraught things had been with this very mixed ability class at times, overall these were very pleasing results. March: Asked by Spiral Dynamics… Read More

2008

Teacher, Therapist, Counsellor, Consultant and Trainer…! 1988-1996    1997   1998     1999     2000     2001    2002      2003     2004     2005     2006     2007     2008     2009     2010     2011     2012     2013     2014      2015     2016     2017     2018      2019     2020    2021-2023 21st Century Group     HemsMESH     Humber MeshWORKS     Humberside MESH Network February: Delivered interactive evening presentation, Dealing with Conflict – the Integrated SocioPsychology Approach, for the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development West Yorkshire Branch at the Holiday Inn, Ossett. Commentary: CIPD’s Jane Walton had attended a similar session I had done in January 2007 as part of the Yorkshire Leadership Programme hosted by Wakefield College and used the ideas presented to help her tackle issues in her own work team. This convinced her to ask me to make the presentation. Feedback was enthusiastic. February: Began working on a long(-ish term) counselling project with two 10-year-old boys. Commentary: Both boys displayed significant behavioural problems, resulting from deep emotional traumas. My job was to help them recognise the traumas they had been through and acknowledge them while also coming to recognise the effect on others their acting out their problems was causing. One of the boys was so severely affected by… Read More

2007

SocioPsychologist! 1988-1996    1997   1998     1999     2000     2001    2002      2003     2004     2005     2006     2007     2008     2009     2010     2011     2012     2013     2014      2015     2016     2017     2018      2019     2020    2021-2023 21st Century Group     HemsMESH     Humber MeshWORKS     Humberside MESH Network January: Accepted 2-term part-time post teaching A-Level Psychology and Key Stage 3/4 Religious Studies at Sherburn High School in North Yorkshire, covering a maternity leave. Commentary: Sherburn was a surprisingly tough school (but then its catchment area did include some wards high in the deprivation indices). The Key Stage 3/4 classes at times seemed almost as difficult as the last year at Vermuyden (though I doubt they really were!). The 6th Form, while containing some potentially-very capable students, generally lacked aspiration. Given the very mixed student population they had – with lots of disrupted PURPLE and strong but unhealthy RED – the school did very well to get the results it did. But really it needed stronger disciplinary systems than it had available at the time. The more successful teachers tended to be those whose RED was very strong – ie: they got their students to behave through sheer force of personality. My biggest regret… Read More

2017

Busy, Quiet #2 1988-1996    1997   1998     1999     2000     2001    2002      2003     2004     2005     2006     2007     2008     2009     2010     2011     2012     2013     2014      2015     2016     2017     2018      2019     2020    2021-2023 21st Century Group     HemsMESH     Humber MeshWORKS     Humberside MESH Network January: Took the decision to no longer promote my services overtly as an organisational consultant – though I would still be open to providing ‘consultancy’ in specific circumstances which would benefit from the Integrated approach. Commentary: Truth to tell, I hadn’t carried out a significant project in organisational consultancy in several years. While my skills and knowledge in areas like people management and Organisational LifeCycles were as highly relevant as ever, inevitably my knowledge of market tends and the latest in ‘management thinking’ were out of date. While wanting to hang onto the belief (schema) that I could provide consultancy advice in specific contexts that would benefit profoundly from my particular skill set, I realised it was time to let go of my ‘consultant identity’. January-March: Ran a full 10-week version of Psychology Topics #3: Crime, Depression for Shipley College. Starting and finishing 2 weeks later I also ran Psychology Topics #1: Romantic Relationships, Mental Health for Rossett.… Read More

Suicide? #2

  PART 2 The social construction of suicide Scientific and quantitative methods are completely rejected by some Phenomenologists. J Maxwell Atkinson (1978) does not accept that a ‘real’ rate of suicide exists as an objective reality waiting to be discovered. According to Atkinson, behavioural scientists who proceed with this assumption will end up producing ‘facts’ on suicide that have nothing to do with the social reality they seek to understand. By constructing a set of criteria to categorise and measure suicide – in scientific language, by operationalising the concept of suicide – they will merely be imposing their ‘reality’ on the social world. This will inevitably distort that world. As Michael Phillipson (1972) observes, the positivistic methodology employed by Durkheim and other researchers “rides roughshod over the very social reality they are trying to comprehend”. Suicide is a construct of social actors, an aspect of social reality. Official statistics on suicide, therefore, are not ‘wrong’, ‘mistaken’, ‘inaccurate’ or ‘in error’. They are part of the social world. They are the interpretations, made by officials, of what is seen to be unnatural death. Since, Phillipson argues, the object of Sociology is to comprehend the social world, that world can only be understood… Read More

SocioPsychological Factors in Crime #2

PART 2 Lower Class and Marxist Sub-Cultures Much research indicates there is a relationship between being in the lower classes and crime. Merton explores the relationship between poverty, consumerism and crime in Strain Theory. Daly & Wilson prefer to focus on the limited opportunities and limited life expectancy. Both locate their theories in lower class sub-cultures. Another lower-class sub-culture theorist is Albert Cohen (1955). Influenced both by Merton and the ethnographic ideas of the Chicago School of Sociology. he was especially interested in the fact that much offending behaviour was being simply done for the ‘thrill of the act’, rather than from economic motivations. (This is still evidenced today as, according to the Office of National Statistics (2020),  around a million offences of this type were committed in 2018-2019. Cohen does not share Merton’s emphasis on economic motivation and materialistic gain. Rather he sees deviance and crime as expressive.) According to Cohen, lower class boys strive to emulate middle class values and aspirations but lack the means to achieve success – leading to ‘status frustration’. Consequently these boys end up rejecting middle class values. Cohen (p119): “The delinquent sub-culture offers him status as against other children of whatever social level, but… Read More

Comments

Comments from letters, emails, evaluation forms, etc. Newest comments at the top; oldest at the bottom. “In 2017 you helped my daughter Olivia achieve a B grade in psychology. I just wanted to tell you that she went on to get a 2:1 in psychology from Bangor University and has now just got her Masters degree from the University of Leeds in Psychological Approaches to Health. She is working in the NHS. Thank you for you help without which she would never have achieved this!” – Lesley Griffin, parent (2022) Thank you for you help without which she would never have achieved this! “Thanks for all your help and support you gave Isabel. She was confident going into her exams which was a massive hurdle “ – Joanne Pendry, parent (2022) “Thank you so much for helping me in sociology, you’ve been great! I was 5 marks off an A!!!! I’d been getting C/D all year! Very happy!” – Holly Jeffrie, tutee (2022) “Thank you for all of your help, don’t think I could have done it without you!” – Sam Gill, tutee (2022) “Thank you very much for all your efforts tutoring Gareth over the last year. Gareth has really enjoyed… Read More

Humberside MESH Network

A Tribute to a Network that went to the Cutting-Edge…! Updated: 21 October 2017 1988-1996    1997   1998     1999     2000     2001    2002      2003     2004     2005     2006     2007     2008     2009     2010     2011     2012     2013     2014      2015     2016     2017     2018      2019     2020    2021-2023 21st Century Group     HemsMESH     Humber MeshWORKS     Humberside MESH Network “Well done, good meeting last night with good company and good learning at good value.” – Tony Cosgrove, Managing Director, Nortech Services Ltd, Hull “I enjoyed Thursday evening. A good atmosphere and excellent discussion.” – Cathy Byrne, Headteadcher, The Parks Primary School, Hull “The meetings are like a boost for me; I come away refreshed and energised.” – Helen Ezard, Driffield The Humberside MESH Network existed from July 2001 to September 2004. Its purpose was to enable members to develop further their understanding of the Gravesian approach, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and various complementary Psychology, Sociology and ‘Change’ models. At its peak there were around 30 active members from all over the Humber sub-region of the United Kingdom, with meetings attracting between 8 and 18 per session. The highly-interactive and thoroughly enjoyable meetings were held in Hull, initially at St Mary’s College… Read More