The Operative Word The Operative Word

In the 6th and final(!) Issue of Volume 1 of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Dr Andrea LaMarre calls for optimism amongst critical health psychologists - even as we continue to put our scholarship where our politics are, and dismantle power structures. Providing a meaningful and thought-provoking bookend to our first volume, she challenges us to think about how to balance deconstruction with reconstruction.

In the 5th Issue of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Dr Glen Jankowski poses a challenge to the discipline of psychology, to consider the ways in which discrimination and racism continue to be perpetuated in the ways we practice and conduct research. He argues for a focus on the effects of such discrimination for the health and wellbeing of people from BME (Black Minoritised Ethnic) groups. You can also visit his and his colleagues’ website: https://bmepsychology.com/ for more information and resources.

In this Issue of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Professor Antonia Lyons (@antoniacl) recounts some of the key points about the keynote address she delivered at the last ISCHP conference. Informed by her research programme on young adults' drinking cultures, we ask her to reflect on a broad range of issues including gender, social media identity curation, marginalised groups, and neoliberalism.

In this Issue of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Dr Brett Scholz (@brett_scholz) reflects on the power that we hold in conducting health psychology research and he encourages us to consider the role we, as researchers, can play as allies in partnering with community members. We also briefly mention some work done by Dr Britta Wigginton and Dr Jenny Setchell on researchers’ positions as insiders/outsiders: https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2016.1183065

In this Issue of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Dr Ally Gibson (@allyfgibson) invites us to be more transparent about our research processes and in doing so avoid the traps of methodological 'catch phrases'. She mentions, at one point, Kerry Chamberlain's paper on methodolatry available at: doi.org/10.1177/135910530000500306

In this Issue of The Operative Word (#TheOW), Dr Britta Wigginton (@brit_wig) challenges us to think about place, and suggests that psychological research needs to consider the role of place in health.