| |
| Project title |
Someone
To Talk To Study |
| Funding details |
Funded by the ESRC |
| Research
team |
Dr Julie Brownlie,
University of Stirling and Scottish Centre for Social Research/National
centre for Social |
| Dates |
2007 to 2010 |
| Type of project |
|
| Keywords |
Emotions talk, emotional culture,
researching emotional lives, therapeutic professionals |
| Project
description |
We are told that we now live
in an emotionally open society and that we are increasingly
comfortable talking about our emotions, both to those we know
and to professionals ‘trained to listen’. But is
this actually the case? Moreover, how do we understand or engage
with those aspects of ‘therapy culture’ which are
broader and more diffuse than recourse to therapeutic professionals?
What is the role of support offered by family and friends, and
how does it relate to use of formal services? What are prevailing
beliefs towards what might be termed 'emotions talk'? If people
are not talking about their emotions, how else are they ‘getting
through’? These are some of the questions that have been
addressed by the Someone To Talk To study (STTTS) – an
examination of contemporary views and experiences of emotional
support and emotions talk, funded by the Economic and Social
Research Council. The study is anchored around a 40-item module
on the 2007 British Social Attitudes survey and a series of
52 qualitative follow-up interviews with survey participants.
It also sought to use other methods – post interview notes,
telephone interviews, textual methods (including mappings and
timelines) and memory work – to explore the possibilities
of a multi-dimensional approach to studying emotional lives. |
Publications/
dissemination |
www.someonetotalkto.info/ |
| Contact |
Dr
Julie Brownlie |
|
