Investigating AVHs narratives through text analysis: the proposal of Dialogic Science for tackling stigmatization.

BACKGROUND: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are a significant symptom of various psychological conditions, often stigmatized and misunderstood. Moving beyond traditional psychological, psychotherapeutic and psychiatric approaches, recent research shifts focus on understanding AVHs through community perspectives and the resulting stigmatization. This research approach is crucial for better support and understanding of AVHs, however it still suffers from the lack of a rigorous and shared methodology for studying and reducing stigma. METHODS: Our study, part of the Italian "PsicoVoice" project, aims to investigate community discourses on AVHs, in order to observe whether and to what extent they are drivers of stigmatisation processes. Engaging 268 participants with direct (hearers) and indirect (such as relatives and professionals) experiences of AVHs, the research analyzes a corpus of 54,320 instances using MADIT: a text analysis methodology which is both qualitative and quantitative. MADIT allows for an innovative examination of the rhetorical-argumentative structures within narratives, producing an index for measuring the narratives' practical impact on people' interactions around AVHs. RESULTS: The analysis revealed that the overall community discourses are predominantly shaped by absolute and personal belief-driven modalities. This way of conveying sense, even with non-necessarily-judgmental words, contributes to a stigmatizing environment for individuals with AVHs, cementing a static representation dominated by personal opinions and reducing the potential for more nuanced, diverse interactions about AVHs. CONCLUSION: The study's findings underscore the importance of addressing the narrative structures within community discourses. By intervening in these narratives, there is potential to shift towards a less stigmatizing social construction of AVHs. Thus, the article concludes using the results to provide some insights on how to generate these interventions. This approach could significantly impact how communities understand and interact with individuals experiencing AVHs, promoting more inclusive and supportive environments and interventions.

Pupils' inclusion as a process of narrative interactions: tackling ADHD typification through MADIT methodology.

BACKGROUND: ADHD is the most common childhood neurodevelopmental disorder. The symptomatology makes the management of ADHD particularly demanding in school, so teachers' training programs have been widely implemented. Nevertheless, these interventions could lead teachers to concentrate on the dysfunctional elements of these students, exposing them to the risk of stigmatisation. Conceptualising stigma and inclusion as narrative processes, the present study observed how teacher ADHD training texts, endorsed by the Italian government, impact on the inclusion process of students. METHODS: The research analysed a corpus of N = 31,261 text occurrences and focused on three areas: (1) ADHD as a clinical condition; (2) the impact of ADHD characteristics in the scholastic setting; (3) interventions to manage ADHD criticalities in school settings. To observe the interactive processes fostered by the narratives under scrutiny, we used Dialogic Science and MADIT methodology, since they allow us to measure the language use modalities through an index: the Dialogical Weight (dW). The value of dW ranges between 0.1 (min) and 0.9 (max) and is linked to the potential outcomes of inclusion for students with ADHD. A low dW accounts for narratives entrenched in personal beliefs presented as absolute truths, undermining inclusion of students with ADHD. In contrast, high dW signals language interaction relying on sharable elements, able to foster social unity and diminish stigma. RESULTS: The results yielded a critical discursive configuration, both in general and for the three distinct areas. We measured an overall Dialogical Weight of 0.4dW and, for the three areas (1) = 0.3dW; (2) = 0.3dW; (3) = 0.4dW. The analysed text does not maximise the triggering of inclusive interactions, as they rely on individual references and present one's narrative as the sole plausible perspective: reinforcing already existing positions and exposing to the risk of stereotyping of the pupils. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlighted how the ADHD training materials analysed, focusing on a purely informational and clinical approach, lose in effectiveness with respect to generating inclusive school settings. Finally, to promote the inclusion of these pupils, elements are offered for outlining an approach based on fostering active participation by all roles involved.