Evanthia Lyons | Kingston University, London (original) (raw)

Papers by Evanthia Lyons

Research paper thumbnail of Analysing Qualitative Data in Psychology

Research paper thumbnail of “The world would just fall apart if there’s no respect at all”: children’s understandings of respect for diversity in a post-conflict society

Journal of Peace Education

Research paper thumbnail of Stigma and self-esteem across societies: avoiding blanket psychological responses to gay men experiencing homophobia

The Psychiatrist, May 14, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of How Irish citizens negotiate foreign policy: a social representations approach to neutrality

The present study investigates the relationship between the foreign policy orientation of Irish n... more The present study investigates the relationship between the foreign policy orientation of Irish neutrality and national identity using a social representations approach (Elcheroth, Doise, & Reicher, 2011; Moscovici, 1961/76). In four focus groups conducted in the Republic of Ireland, 22 participants discussed vignettes in which hypothetical conflicts were described. The findings pointed towards the dynamic relationship between neutrality and Irish national identity and more generally to the importance of macropolitical phenomena for identity construction. The process of categorization was key to participants' decision making regarding the hypothetical conflicts; the decision to support or oppose the Irish state's involvement in the conflicts frequently revolved around a reconsideration of the boundaries of the ingroup. Furthermore, social representations were laden with the possibility of social change; the construction of neutrality as morally ambivalent, motivated by pragmatism rather than principles, opened up a space for younger participants to resist dominant, pragmatic interpretations of the policy and offer alternatives. Theoretical and empirical implications of the findings are discussed. Taken together, the findings demonstrate the critical potential of extending a social representations approach to issues of political psychological significance.

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring violence from the perspective of the perpetrator: an interpersonal communication?

Research paper thumbnail of There you are man': men's use of emotion discourses and their negotiation of emotional subject positions

Research paper thumbnail of Young British-Muslims perceptions of the Muslims reaction to the "Danish cartoons affair

Research paper thumbnail of Identity and support for military intervention: data from two qualitative studies in the UK and the Republic of Ireland

The role of identities, such as national and religious identity, in shaping individual and group ... more The role of identities, such as national and religious identity, in shaping individual and group positions towards military intervention, has been relatively underexplored. Study 1 (O’Dwyer, Lyons & Cohrs) explored the relationship between national identity and support for military intervention in the Republic of Ireland by elaborating on the social representation of the foreign policy orientation of Irish neutrality. 22 people participated in four focus groups, in which participants were asked to three vignettes in which hypothetical conflict events were described. A thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2001) revealed the existence of four themes: constraint versus agency, universal versus conditional acceptance, moral ambivalence and projecting national identity. In Study 2 (Lyons & Wilson), the role of religious identity and socio-political beliefs on support for military intervention was examined. 32 students (16 Muslim and 16 Christian) in the UK participated in four focus groups. As in Study 1, the discussions centred around three vignettes and participants’ views about involvement in the hypothetical conflicts. Focus group data were analysed using Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Corbin & Strauss, 2007). The analysis revealed the anchoring role of religious identity and socio-political beliefs in individual and group positions’ towards military intervention. Implications for research on foreign policy orientations are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of La construcción social del paro femenino, argumentos para la discriminación

Psicologia Social Y Problemas Sociales Vol 3 2005 Isbn 84 9742 452 2 Pags 337 344, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of Doing qualitative research : initial questions

Research paper thumbnail of How Irish citizens negotiate foreign policy: dilemmatic and identity-related aspects of social representations of neutrality

Research paper thumbnail of The function of changing social representations of neutrality for Irish national identity

Research paper thumbnail of Constraint' and lay foreign policy decision making: the dilemmatic and functional nature of Irish neutrality

Research paper thumbnail of Analysing qualitative data : comparative reflections

Research paper thumbnail of Self-generated expressions of residual complaints following brain injury

NeuroRehabilitation, 2009

Following brain injury there is often a prolonged period of deteriorating psychological condition... more Following brain injury there is often a prolonged period of deteriorating psychological condition, despite neurological stability or improvement. This is presumably consequent to the remission of anosognosia and the realisation of permanently worsened status. This change is hypothesised to be directed partially by the socially mediated processes which play a role in generating self-awareness and which here direct the reconstruction of the self as a permanently injured person. However, before we can understand this process of redevelopment, we need an unbiassed technique to monitor self-awareness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 individuals with long-standing brain injuries to capture their spontaneous complaints and their level of insight into the implications of their difficulties. The focus was on what the participants said in their own words, and the extent to which self-knowledge of difficulties was spontaneously salient to the participants. Their responses wer...

Research paper thumbnail of A jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces: an argument for the systematic explanation of the relationship between processes of representations and identity

Research paper thumbnail of 11 Analysing Qualitative Data: Comparative Reflections

Analysing Qualitative Data in Psychology, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of The study of collective action among older people: a social psychological perspective

mariecurie.org

... Evanthia Lyons, E.Lyons@surrey.ac.uk, Social Psychology European Research Institute, Universi... more ... Evanthia Lyons, E.Lyons@surrey.ac.uk, Social Psychology European Research Institute, University of Surrey, UK. Glynis M. Breakwell, G.Breakwell@bath.ac.uk Vice-Chancellor's Office, University of Bath, UK. ∗ This article is adapted from part of the first author's doctoral thesis. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Perceptions of (in) compatibility between identities and participation in the national polity of people belonging to ethnic minorities

Identity and participation in …, 2010

... and that, if people did not share the ethnicity of the majority, they would be in conflict, u... more ... and that, if people did not share the ethnicity of the majority, they would be in conflict, unable to show loy-alty to ... is research reporting negative correlations between minority ethnic identification and national identification (Abu-Rayya & Abu-Rayya, 2009; Verkuyten & Yildiz 2007 ...

Research paper thumbnail of The psychological effects of organizational restructuring on nurses

Journal of Advanced Nursing, 2006

Aim. This paper reports a comparison of nurses affected by the restructuring associated with hea... more Aim. This paper reports a comparison of nurses affected by the restructuring associated with healthcare organization mergers (1998–2000) in the United Kingdom and those of non-affected nurses in the UK.Background. Restructuring, a feature of healthcare organizations for decades, has been associated internationally with negative outcomes for nurses. Despite this, no model to evaluate management of change factors and psychological stress processes has been operationalized and tested.Method. A sample of 351 Registered Nurses was recruited from southern England. Participants either worked in organizations that were within 6 months of merging or were not affected by mergers. On two occasions, 6 months apart, all were sent a questionnaire that had been formulated for the study. Questions related to the parts of the model being tested: restructuring initiatives (i.e. stressors) information and participation, coping action, and coping effectiveness (i.e. outcomes). The data were collecte...

Research paper thumbnail of Analysing Qualitative Data in Psychology

Research paper thumbnail of “The world would just fall apart if there’s no respect at all”: children’s understandings of respect for diversity in a post-conflict society

Journal of Peace Education

Research paper thumbnail of Stigma and self-esteem across societies: avoiding blanket psychological responses to gay men experiencing homophobia

The Psychiatrist, May 14, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of How Irish citizens negotiate foreign policy: a social representations approach to neutrality

The present study investigates the relationship between the foreign policy orientation of Irish n... more The present study investigates the relationship between the foreign policy orientation of Irish neutrality and national identity using a social representations approach (Elcheroth, Doise, & Reicher, 2011; Moscovici, 1961/76). In four focus groups conducted in the Republic of Ireland, 22 participants discussed vignettes in which hypothetical conflicts were described. The findings pointed towards the dynamic relationship between neutrality and Irish national identity and more generally to the importance of macropolitical phenomena for identity construction. The process of categorization was key to participants' decision making regarding the hypothetical conflicts; the decision to support or oppose the Irish state's involvement in the conflicts frequently revolved around a reconsideration of the boundaries of the ingroup. Furthermore, social representations were laden with the possibility of social change; the construction of neutrality as morally ambivalent, motivated by pragmatism rather than principles, opened up a space for younger participants to resist dominant, pragmatic interpretations of the policy and offer alternatives. Theoretical and empirical implications of the findings are discussed. Taken together, the findings demonstrate the critical potential of extending a social representations approach to issues of political psychological significance.

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring violence from the perspective of the perpetrator: an interpersonal communication?

Research paper thumbnail of There you are man': men's use of emotion discourses and their negotiation of emotional subject positions

Research paper thumbnail of Young British-Muslims perceptions of the Muslims reaction to the "Danish cartoons affair

Research paper thumbnail of Identity and support for military intervention: data from two qualitative studies in the UK and the Republic of Ireland

The role of identities, such as national and religious identity, in shaping individual and group ... more The role of identities, such as national and religious identity, in shaping individual and group positions towards military intervention, has been relatively underexplored. Study 1 (O’Dwyer, Lyons & Cohrs) explored the relationship between national identity and support for military intervention in the Republic of Ireland by elaborating on the social representation of the foreign policy orientation of Irish neutrality. 22 people participated in four focus groups, in which participants were asked to three vignettes in which hypothetical conflict events were described. A thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2001) revealed the existence of four themes: constraint versus agency, universal versus conditional acceptance, moral ambivalence and projecting national identity. In Study 2 (Lyons & Wilson), the role of religious identity and socio-political beliefs on support for military intervention was examined. 32 students (16 Muslim and 16 Christian) in the UK participated in four focus groups. As in Study 1, the discussions centred around three vignettes and participants’ views about involvement in the hypothetical conflicts. Focus group data were analysed using Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Corbin & Strauss, 2007). The analysis revealed the anchoring role of religious identity and socio-political beliefs in individual and group positions’ towards military intervention. Implications for research on foreign policy orientations are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of La construcción social del paro femenino, argumentos para la discriminación

Psicologia Social Y Problemas Sociales Vol 3 2005 Isbn 84 9742 452 2 Pags 337 344, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of Doing qualitative research : initial questions

Research paper thumbnail of How Irish citizens negotiate foreign policy: dilemmatic and identity-related aspects of social representations of neutrality

Research paper thumbnail of The function of changing social representations of neutrality for Irish national identity

Research paper thumbnail of Constraint' and lay foreign policy decision making: the dilemmatic and functional nature of Irish neutrality

Research paper thumbnail of Analysing qualitative data : comparative reflections

Research paper thumbnail of Self-generated expressions of residual complaints following brain injury

NeuroRehabilitation, 2009

Following brain injury there is often a prolonged period of deteriorating psychological condition... more Following brain injury there is often a prolonged period of deteriorating psychological condition, despite neurological stability or improvement. This is presumably consequent to the remission of anosognosia and the realisation of permanently worsened status. This change is hypothesised to be directed partially by the socially mediated processes which play a role in generating self-awareness and which here direct the reconstruction of the self as a permanently injured person. However, before we can understand this process of redevelopment, we need an unbiassed technique to monitor self-awareness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 individuals with long-standing brain injuries to capture their spontaneous complaints and their level of insight into the implications of their difficulties. The focus was on what the participants said in their own words, and the extent to which self-knowledge of difficulties was spontaneously salient to the participants. Their responses wer...

Research paper thumbnail of A jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces: an argument for the systematic explanation of the relationship between processes of representations and identity

Research paper thumbnail of 11 Analysing Qualitative Data: Comparative Reflections

Analysing Qualitative Data in Psychology, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of The study of collective action among older people: a social psychological perspective

mariecurie.org

... Evanthia Lyons, E.Lyons@surrey.ac.uk, Social Psychology European Research Institute, Universi... more ... Evanthia Lyons, E.Lyons@surrey.ac.uk, Social Psychology European Research Institute, University of Surrey, UK. Glynis M. Breakwell, G.Breakwell@bath.ac.uk Vice-Chancellor's Office, University of Bath, UK. ∗ This article is adapted from part of the first author's doctoral thesis. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Perceptions of (in) compatibility between identities and participation in the national polity of people belonging to ethnic minorities

Identity and participation in …, 2010

... and that, if people did not share the ethnicity of the majority, they would be in conflict, u... more ... and that, if people did not share the ethnicity of the majority, they would be in conflict, unable to show loy-alty to ... is research reporting negative correlations between minority ethnic identification and national identification (Abu-Rayya & Abu-Rayya, 2009; Verkuyten & Yildiz 2007 ...

Research paper thumbnail of The psychological effects of organizational restructuring on nurses

Journal of Advanced Nursing, 2006

Aim. This paper reports a comparison of nurses affected by the restructuring associated with hea... more Aim. This paper reports a comparison of nurses affected by the restructuring associated with healthcare organization mergers (1998–2000) in the United Kingdom and those of non-affected nurses in the UK.Background. Restructuring, a feature of healthcare organizations for decades, has been associated internationally with negative outcomes for nurses. Despite this, no model to evaluate management of change factors and psychological stress processes has been operationalized and tested.Method. A sample of 351 Registered Nurses was recruited from southern England. Participants either worked in organizations that were within 6 months of merging or were not affected by mergers. On two occasions, 6 months apart, all were sent a questionnaire that had been formulated for the study. Questions related to the parts of the model being tested: restructuring initiatives (i.e. stressors) information and participation, coping action, and coping effectiveness (i.e. outcomes). The data were collecte...