'I was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to BBC Panoramas 'Undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices
This paper draws upon discourse analytic techniques and discursive psychology to examine how care workers build accounts of viewing the BBC Panorama programme “Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed” which graphically documented the abuse of people with learning disabilities in a residential care settin...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
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SAGE
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37624/ |
| _version_ | 1848795500087607296 |
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| author | Patterson, Anne Fyson, Rachel |
| author_facet | Patterson, Anne Fyson, Rachel |
| author_sort | Patterson, Anne |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This paper draws upon discourse analytic techniques and discursive psychology to examine how care workers build accounts of viewing the BBC Panorama programme “Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed” which graphically documented the abuse of people with learning disabilities in a residential care setting. 56 interviews were conducted as part of a project concerning adult safeguarding. The analysis considers how careworkers report their reactions and the interactional strategies they use to construct themselves as shocked and disbelieving and thus, as oppositional to the extreme practices in the programme. Their role as careworkers, and therefore as ‘insiders’ of the industry that allowed such abuse to happen, makes matters of stake and agency live issues for this particular group; and constructions of ‘shock’ and ‘disbelief’ are potential ways for participants to distance themselves from the abuse shown in the programme. More broadly, these data show how the invocation of mental states contributes to the management of other discursive business, namely, that of fending off any association with the aforementioned extreme practices. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:33:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-37624 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:33:04Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | SAGE |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-376242020-05-04T20:00:11Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37624/ 'I was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to BBC Panoramas 'Undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices Patterson, Anne Fyson, Rachel This paper draws upon discourse analytic techniques and discursive psychology to examine how care workers build accounts of viewing the BBC Panorama programme “Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed” which graphically documented the abuse of people with learning disabilities in a residential care setting. 56 interviews were conducted as part of a project concerning adult safeguarding. The analysis considers how careworkers report their reactions and the interactional strategies they use to construct themselves as shocked and disbelieving and thus, as oppositional to the extreme practices in the programme. Their role as careworkers, and therefore as ‘insiders’ of the industry that allowed such abuse to happen, makes matters of stake and agency live issues for this particular group; and constructions of ‘shock’ and ‘disbelief’ are potential ways for participants to distance themselves from the abuse shown in the programme. More broadly, these data show how the invocation of mental states contributes to the management of other discursive business, namely, that of fending off any association with the aforementioned extreme practices. SAGE 2016-11 Article PeerReviewed Patterson, Anne and Fyson, Rachel (2016) 'I was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to BBC Panoramas 'Undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices. Discourse & Society, 27 (6). pp. 607-623. ISSN 1460-3624 Careworkers Abuse Discourse Shock Disbelief Discursive psychology Distancing Stake Agency. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926516665555 doi:10.1177/0957926516665555 doi:10.1177/0957926516665555 |
| spellingShingle | Careworkers Abuse Discourse Shock Disbelief Discursive psychology Distancing Stake Agency. Patterson, Anne Fyson, Rachel 'I was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to BBC Panoramas 'Undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices |
| title | 'I was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to BBC Panoramas 'Undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices |
| title_full | 'I was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to BBC Panoramas 'Undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices |
| title_fullStr | 'I was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to BBC Panoramas 'Undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices |
| title_full_unstemmed | 'I was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to BBC Panoramas 'Undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices |
| title_short | 'I was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to BBC Panoramas 'Undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices |
| title_sort | 'i was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to bbc panoramas 'undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices |
| topic | Careworkers Abuse Discourse Shock Disbelief Discursive psychology Distancing Stake Agency. |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37624/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37624/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37624/ |