Affordances

Affordance

An affordance is a perceptual pattern with survival significance. Affordances are relational, rather than objective or subjective properties. As Gibson, who coined the term, observes, 'An important fact about the affordances of the environment is that they are in a sense objective, real, and physical, unlike values and meanings, which are often supposed to be subjective, phenomenal and mental. But, actually, an affordance is neither an objective property nor a subjective property; or it is both if you like. An affordance cuts across the dichotomy of subjective-objective and helps us to understand its inadequacy' (Gibson 1979, 129). 
[Proust, Glossary, p.309.]

 

INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

subjective	objective

Re. 'Survival significance' ...

Does this make affordances relevant in clinical education, and education more generally?

What of assisted dying in theory, policy, law and practice?

Are there any implications for the models employed by artificial intelligence - LLMs, neurosymbolic reasoning / AI (wave x)?

Source: Joëlle Proust (2013). The Philosophy of Metacognition: Mental Agency and Self-Awareness.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN: 978-0-19-960216-2

Précis of The Philosophy of Metacognition:
https://joelleproust.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/pdf15.pdf 

See also: 'subject' : 'object' : 'affordance' : 'interface'

Hornberger (1989) 'Continua of Biliteracy'. Review of Educational Research

The axes of Hodges' model present a problem in:

• theory
• practice
• evidence - research terms (data!).

The easiest to resolve is practice, which is were Hodges' model can lay claim to being a pragmatic solution. Of course, it isn't the axes that are the difficulty, it is the labels that Brian Hodges originally applied in the early-mid 1980's, followed by other users of the model since. From:

INDIVIDUAL <> GROUP - variations here in 'Welcome to the QUAD' [W2tQ] Patient <> Carer - Family : Client <> Health professional. You can progress to the "patient zero" and a population in an pandemic.

These are fundamental elements in clinical encounters, whether face-to-face, online, and across settings.

The same applies to the horizontal axis: HUMANISTIC <> MECHANISTIC.

As presented - in the sidebar, and the two-by-two table found in many posts - the model has a distinct dichotomous quality. It seems to set up, or invite opposition, or polarities. Sometimes I've viewed the axes as continua, but they are not graduated, incremental in a quantitative sense.

Do the axes of Hodges' model serve a need (do their work) by allowing the user to differentiate through opposition and relational appraisal (testing)? Perhaps, qualified in a respective profession / subject area, the user of Hodges' is employing other axes?

This brings us to intersectionality and the cognitive work of placing the person (couple, family, community ... biosphere) at the centre of our deliberations.

In biliteracy studies, Hornberger (1989) is perhaps more accurate in seeing a series of multidimensional and interrelated continua (p.273) which form a framework.

There are three figures in this paper and many other points of use:

"Contexts of biliteracy are defined, then, by these three continua. Any particular instance of biliteracy is located at a point of intersection among the three." p.280.

In health care this is readily understood given the varied contexts of the centre, the nexus of Hodges' model. When we say Hodges' model is situated, the centre of the model is the sweet and sour spot. For Hornberger, the context determines the use and significance of the continua.

This opens up Hodges' model as a potential tool to better understand the dimensions of diversity, inclusion and intersectionality.

Hornberger, N. H. (1989). Continua of Biliteracy. Review of Educational Research, 59(3), 271–296. https://doi.org/10.2307/1170183

No! This post hasn't been in draft since 1990. ;-)

"No argument, we should teach critical thinking" by Julian Richer

Spring and summer reading includes Our Housing Disaster. Julian Richer's weekly column in the Sunday Times is very interesting; business yes, but socially oriented and positive in the values conveyed.

I'm 100 pages into The Systems View of Life, posts to follow, but before getting to OHD, I noticed another of Richer's columns:

#36 "No argument, we should teach critical thinking"

Sunday 14th July 2024

"... all the successful bosses I’ve ever worked with encourage an open flow of communications in all directions (internally — up, down, across — and with the outside world, too) with no taboos. They try to surround themselves with good people who can see the world independently, draw their own conclusions and have the confidence to express their ideas."

"It’s very difficult to craft a culture of critical thinking and open debate in a business unless it’s been taught at school, as our parents tend to be more stuck in their ways. Unfortunately, schools spend so much time on teaching and testing reading, and particularly writing, that they don’t have enough time to teach thinking and speaking. These require practice, too. And they are also very important life and business skills."

 

The discussion on Parallel Histories reminds me of philosophical talk, virtue-seeking is not enough. It needs to applied practically, if it is to make a difference.

 

"An added benefit is that kids who have learnt calm and reasoned debate will use this knowledge to help them in their adult life. Certainly, those going on to join the business world will be very pleased to have received these negotiating and people skills, both essential."

Hodges' model provides a structure for reflection, reflective practice, and critical thinking and inevitably light-weight can be carried as lifelong learning resource and tool.

What sort of field is 'nursing'? (i)

. . . It is NOT 'relaxed'.

My copy of Harris (2015) is secondhand, £8.50 from 'Green Ink' in Hay-on-Wye last November. 

Apparently, the (professional - high-level) study of mathematics is a relaxed field. McCleary reviews the book and the good, truth, and beauty of mathematics; 'relaxed field' relates to the latter:

Mathematics without Apologies:
Portrait of a Problematic Vocation

"That leaves beauty, the deepest source for Hardy, and the most challenging motivation for mathematical activity. Challenging because it calls into question how external support of mathematics is justified. Hardy tells us that “a mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns.” Throwing mathematicians in with the painters and poets leads to justification of mathematics as an art. Harris situates his discussion of beauty in the notion of play. Play needs to take place in a “relaxed field,” a notion introduced by ethologist Gordon Burghardt to describe animal behavior when not preoccupied with food, mating, territory, or predators—'the opposite of stress.'"

John McCleary, Book Review, NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 65, NUMBER 10 pp.1280-1283. https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/201810/rnoti-p1280.pdf 

Talk of absolutes is common in mathematics. There is absolutely no mathematician involved in the writing of this post and others. That said, I have been privileged to work in a 'relaxed' manner.* When I trained mental health and then general nursing, we were part of the 'numbers' on the duty-rota. Your presence was not just a matter of learning, there were concrete things - tasks - to do. Completing the Community Psychiatric Nursing Certificate course 1987-8, involved a secondment to another community team (thank you Bolton!). My caseload was left to the support of colleagues, so I could concentrate on the course. A course in which Brian Hodges (not Wilfred Hodges - the  logician) taught his eponymous model. Post-Project 2000 with nurse education an undergraduate pursuit, students were designated supernumerary. Student nurse finances are precarious, worthy of a post in itself. 

If relaxed and stress are opposites, nurses would seek to be 'relaxed'** suffice to have the time and resources to deliver care safely, professionally and to a high standard. Adequate time + resources also brings a dividend: person-centredness, health promotion and education, preventing relapse. As it stands, however, for nurses be they students or qualified, nursing is far from relaxed.

tbc... ii

Harris, M. (2015) Mathematics without Apologies: Portrait of a Problematic Vocation. Princeton University Press.

*But without the charisma Harris describes.

**The notion of slack resource could be applied, space for creativity and innovation in assessment, planning, interventions (case formulation) and evaluation.

See also: 'Four Fields'

Books: Psychiatry and Technology - Phillips, ed. (2008)

Despite the necessity of new (inc. secondhand when possible) titles, the overall push is to reduce the shelf and box count. This means that:

Phillips, James (ed.) (2008). Philosophical Perspectives on Technology and Psychiatry. Oxford University Press.

- will soon have a new home. Before that another look to support the effort here:

"It hardly needs stating that treatment algorithms, the evidence-based approach, and treatment manuals are useful tools in psychiatric practice. What issue is then being addressed in referring to them as examples of technical reason? The issue is that they, and other examples of the technical approach, can at their worst turn psychiatric treatment (or medical treatment for that matter) into a mechanical procedure. The patient becomes an instance of a diagnostic category, and the treater becomes a generic treater. Follow the technicized approach too literally, and one schizophrenic becomes interchangeable with the next, and one psychiatrist with another. In this situation of the fungible patient and the fungible treater, the individuality of both is lost, and the need for individual judgement on the part of the psychiatrist is rendered obsolete." p.9. Introduction.

Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model
Axes and Care (knowledge) Domains

"Qualified users [of technology] have a professional responsibility to be reflective users. They should be 'thinkers'. Reflective use means being able to step back and become more conscious of one's professional activity." p.46. Chapter 2 Examples from Psychiatry.

"A concern for objective truth is at the heart of the scientific enterprise. An unfortunate consequence of the rigid dichotomies associated with a scientistic epistemology is that objective truth is defined in opposition to subjective values. The result is the 'Either/Or' thinking characteristic of the 'science wars' where science is either reduced to a relativistic exercise of political power or characterized as a value-neutral exercise progressing in an inevitable fashion determined solely by the facts." p.120. Chapter 6 Rational Argumentation.

Is there an implicit theory in Hodges' model? ii

Is there an implicit theory in Hodges' model?

— Peter Jones (@h2cm) October 4, 2022

More to follow, including what is proving a real yet enjoyable challenge.

Descartes' asunder c/o Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine

 I THINK therefore I AM       

INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

Original image: MindBody

© Pain Scale for Chronic Patients ‘MindBody’ by Sal Marx Fall 2021

In Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine
Copyright ©2022  ISSN 2766-628X

Previously: 'Cartesian'

Endurance: Trapped in the ice (and other thoughts ..?)

"'What the ice gets, the ice keeps,'^*

The Agulhas II frozen as fast — and in the same spot — as Endurance was in 1915

GETTY IMAGES

... said Ernest Shackleton of his ship Endurance as he saw it lost to the Antarctic. History came eerily close to repeating itself on Monday when the Endurance 22 expedition, which is searching for Shackleton's lost ship, became stuck in the Weddell Sea. The mission ran into trouble overnight when the SA Agulhas II, a South African icebreaker, became trapped and the temperature plummeted to minus 10C. The historian Dan Snow, who is on the expedition, said it happened on the spot where Shackleton's ship was last seen in 1915.

Unlike Endurance, which sank after months stuck in the ice, modern technology allowed Agulhas II to escape in hours. Its crane held a container full of aviation fuel over the side and swung it back and forth to wriggle the ship free.

It is late summer in Antarctica and winter is coming, meaning the team's time is limited. 'In a few weeks, it all starts freezing up,' said Mensun Bound, the director of exploration. 'In a few days we have to get our tails out of here.'" p.23.

<>

When person-centred, integrated, and holistic care is the mission; care that takes into account physical and mental health, demands additional degrees of freedom to assure success. If we get stuck, by a blank page, or too much information then swinging the axes into thought plus the dichotomies inherent in the health career model, can come to our rescue and facilitate creativity and progress.

     Self - NORTH - Person

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

EAST - HUMANISTIC -----------------------------------  MECHANISTIC - WEST^{^}    

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

Community - SOUTH - Population   

 

Previously:

'compass'

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=compass

'line [of sight]'

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=line+of+sight

'south'

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=south

My sources:

Image: The Times.

22 February 2022, BBC Radio 4, PM, 1743 Dan Snow interviewed by Evan Davis, Antarctica expedition to discover Endurance.

Plus: Blackburn, J. Shackleton quest stuck in ice that sank Endurance, The Times, 23 February, 2022, p.23. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/endurance-22-nearly-meets-same-fate-as-shackleton-ship-after-becoming-trapped-in-ice-wxmjbtxbk

^* Is climate change going to subvert many timeless quotations?
^{^} 'Proper' east and west in relation to Hodges' model [discuss]?

The Fact/Value Dichotomy in Economics

Convenor: Catarina Tello de Castro and Julian Reiss

All inquiries about the panel should be sent to
catarinatellodecastro AT gmail.com and julian.reiss AT jku.at.

 

Participants in this panel will include Julian Reiss.

 

Website: https://12bragameetings.weebly.com

Panel link: https://12bragameetings.weebly.com/panel-15---the-factvalue-dichotomy-in-economics.html 

 

Much of modern economics follows the scientific method to have a grip on human conduct so that useful predictions are possible. This way, economics as a discipline distanced itself from moral philosophy as it was firstly thought by Adam Smith. Nevertheless, this presumption of objectiveness has been accused of being very little objective, separating economics into normative and positive economics as well as originating the fact-value dichotomy. These distinctions are now being disputed by the proposal of an entanglement of both facts and values (Putnam, 2002; Dasgupta, 2005; Kincaid, Dupré, & Wylie, 2007; Reiss, 2008; Putnam & Walsh, 2011; Hausman, McPherson & Satz, 2017, et al.). As so, it is possible to think about ways of doing economics with moral, ethical or any other normative criteria.

 

This panel seeks to promote an interesting debate between any scholar or student (undergraduates included). We welcome works on subjects such as value theory, normative economics, positive economics, economic transformations in contemporary times, rational choice and utility maximization, scientific method on economic theories, and others regarding the main areas and topics proposed.

 

If you want to apply, please submit an abstract, of 400-500 words along with five keywords, of your paper prepared for peer review by 5 April 2022. We will respond by 28 April 2022. All proposals must be submitted online through our website using the Abstract submission Form (please, click “Submit Abstract” and fill the form).

12th Braga Meetings on Ethics and Political Philosophy

Prof. Dr. Julian Reiss, lic. oec. HSG
Institute for Philosophy and Scientific Method

JOHANNES KEPLER
UNIVERSITY LINZ
Altenberger Straße 69
4040 Linz, Austria
Phone +43 732 2468-3681

julian.reiss AT jku.at
www.jreiss.org

Administrator: Evelin Stockinger
T +43 732 2468-3680
philo AT jku.at

My source and in liaison with the panel convenors:

Philos-L "The Liverpool List" - Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/

Law 'in' Hodges' model (Discuss?)

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

	SUPPLY
DEMAND	unfair competition environmental   consumer protection competition

In demand and supply also consider this within the sociological and interpersonal domains in the context of COVID? 

If people 'behave' themselves*, i.e. do not 'raid' the shelves there will (should) be sufficient supply for all. 

In political terms, what happens when a government raises the prospect (the dichotomy) of supply chain problems and potential shortages?

The 4Ps are relevant here:

intra- interpersonal - PURPOSES

sciences - PROCESS (mechanistic)

sociology - PRACTICE (gone awry)

political - POLICY (discipline in communications)

*UK context - acknowledging the global audience.

 

Thanks to:

Malinauskaite, Jurgita, and Fatih Buğra Erdem. 2021. “Planned Obsolescence in the Context of a Holistic Legal Sphere and the Circular Economy.” Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 41 (3): 719–49. https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqaa061.

See also:

Myers-Briggs 'in' Hodges' model (Discuss?) 

 

Multivariate Testing - meet - Multivariate Care ...

aka: socio-technical?


SELF - individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - POPULATION

creativity	MULTIVARIATE TESTING
The human side of data	"Data testing more or less works from a mathematical base using dichotomy and statistical averages. So it trends towards value. but this just promotes uniformity and means it will become a struggle to differentiate yourself,"p.3

[ ... and a way to define what person-centredness is not in a big-data world? ]

Charles Orton-Jones, Uncovering the human side of data, Raconteur, Future of Data, (Distributed with The Times) 26/03/19.

"Study in blue" Dictyota dichotoma

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

	Anna Atkins (1799-1871) Dictyota dichotoma, in the young state & in fruit,  from Part XI of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions 1849-1850 Cyanotype
family tree

Chuang, J. (2019) Study in blue, FT Weekend Magazine, January 5-6th, pp.32-35.

'Dead End Tunnel Folded Into Four Arms With Common Walls' by Bruce Nauman

‘Dead End Tunnel Folded Into Four Arms With Common Walls’ (1980), by Bruce Nauman
Photo: Hauser & Wirth

My source: FT Weekend, Collecting, 28-29 April 2018, p.3.

InSight: Mars in Mind

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

insight [full <--------> none]
I am NOT ill ! You are ill !	Place of safety Local vs 'Out-of-area'

Due South - 360 degree perspectives

Andy Goldsworthy "Touching North" (1989)

Being a cultural theorist the concept of ‘the south’ is particularly interesting to me (as are the other points of the compass, since they are often set in binaries and have values attached to them when set in opposition – for example the North/South divide in Britain). Coverley begins the introduction by showing us a 17th century map of the south pole and then describes the work by the artist Andy Goldsworthy entitled Touching North (1989) (see below). Touching North was situated at the North Pole, with the four individual parts of the sculpture facing each other and also outwards, with holes in the centre providing them with an opening which enabled them a space accessible from anywhere and everywhere. Coverley says that the sculpture “demonstrates how the directions of the compass may effectively be rendered meaningless: emerge through any of the four arches and one finds oneself heading south” (page 9). From:

http://particulations.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/south-by-merlin-coverley.html

INDIVIDUAL

|

interpersonal : science

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

sociology : political

|

GROUP and POPULATION

	N S
	NORTH? SOUTH?

Photo: "Touching North" from:
http://beautifuldecay.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/goldsworthy-andy-1989-touching-north.jpg

Additional link:
http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/

Lines, opposites and unity

"The point, then, is that lines join the opposites as well as distinguish them. And that precisely is the essence and function of all real lines and surfaces in nature. They explicitly mark off the opposites while at the same time time they implicitly unify them. For example, let's draw the line representing a concave figure, as follows: 

concave  )  (convex) 

But notice immediately that with the very same line I have also created a convex figure. This is what the Taoist sage Lao Tzu meant when he said that all opposites arise simultaneously and mutually." (p.25)

Wilber, K. (2001) No Boundary,  Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth. Boston: Shambhala.

Related posts

Queen of Katwe: Searching for a chess board

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

(Robinson Crusoe & Friday) #OscarsSoWhite Group Psychology Behavioural Economics	Queen of Katwe

My source:
Gilbey, R. (2016) Leading the race for the Oscars, Culture, The Sunday Times, pp. 6-7.

#OscarsSoWhite

Dualistic- thinking checks and balances [III] (or: The-hyphen)

While dualistic thinking is positive as a means to explain Hodges' model, if a form of thinking (reasoning as ego-defence) is relied upon to excess and not balanced by other evidence then this can contribute to psychological problems. As Johnson (1994) also indicates, the three forms of thinking we are discussing in this series of posts are progressive. Compared to dualistic, Johnson states that multiplistic and relativistic thinking represent a more complex level. Appreciating that there are other sources for answers, possibly more than one answer and a need to relate things together.

Dualistic thinking epitomizes the categorical invitation that Hodges' model affords. In its most primitive form it has to be ready to hand and with the mind in an instant it is: the duality of fight or flight. A reflex arc circumvents the dualistic in an effort of instant reduction to survival.

Of course, the model is not intended to encourage thinking in extremes, polarised and absolutist. This property*, however, affirms the model's potential as a health promoting, educational and self-care resource.

There is another form of dualism that is given to us by life not model. It is the dichotomous variety that often influences and shapes attitudes to others, discourse and debate within our many cultures, politics and religious affairs.

The additional set of axes related to disciplines, for example, psych-social - referred to in the previous post [II] tempers the risks above in two ways:

1. by virtue of the learner expanding their knowledge and hence the number of concepts they understand and in-form their community of practice.
2. there is a space between the disciplines and concepts that might further support the structure, content and utility of Hodges' model.

The space lies in the '-', the hyphen, which can represent a middle ground (Assad, 1999). The axes of Hodges' model could be said to present a continuous hyphen. A cognitive pause (check): a token to collect as we reflect, especially if we cross disciplinary thresholds consciously or unconsciously. This can counter the aforementioned excesses of dualistic thinking with the addition of assessment and supervision.

I started these posts with what Hodges' model declares from the outset. This is the model's structure, the configuration of the axes the appearance of the (empty) quadrants. But as experience is gathered so the axes fade into the distance. They become grey and blue as in a background, a template we start to take for granted and work around, with and within. Content in the form of concepts and associated meaning can then populate the foreground that holds the promise of becoming increasingly more integrated which is stimulated by a shift from dualistic thinking to more pluralistic thought.

Assad, M.L. (1999). Reading with Michel Serres: An Encounter with Time. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Johnson, D.D. (1994) Dualistic, Multiplistic, and Relativistic Thinking as it Relates to a Psychology Major. Honors Theses. Paper 202.
http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/uhp_theses/202/

*There are many tools that permit us to compare another duality: the binary. The presence or absence of phenomena, for example, a bone injury, or a new star, comet or asteroid.

See previous posts: Michel Serres

See also bibliography item:

Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109.

Dualistic- thinking checks and balances [II]

Continuing from Thinking checks and balances [I] how can Hodges' model help us understand and provide ready access to three forms of thought: these being -

1. Dualist
2. Multiplistic
3. and Relativistic thinking?

To recap, resort to dualist thinking might be a pathway to evidence for Hodges' model building the case for the model in education, healthcare theory, practice and policy making ... Taking each form of thinking in turn, dualist thinking in Hodges' model can be identified in six ways. Before discussing these, there are some general observations to make.

The axes provide an initial compass for differentiation.

The model is first situated (as per B.E. Hodges).

Situation precedes person but should not subvert the latter when the model is applied.

Upon arrival in any context it is what we draw in the sand.

The most obvious influence on thinking is in what the model gives to us through its structure - the two axes. Firstly, the individual - group axis can stand for the many variations of self and other: from patient - health care team; patient - family; citizen - civil society; person - friends (work colleagues); child - parents (or guardian - a status vested legally by others); clinical case - demographic (world) population. This might be considered a compound view, potentially incorporating scope and roles (as per the context).

Secondly, the individual aspect of the vertical axis also serves the reductive requirement of movement between many-one. Reductivism is a fundamental approach in scientific enquiry and quantitative research. There is in the above the reduction to the individual in the intra- interpersonal domain. Reductive descriptions and phenomena from the sciences can then be ascribed to the individual as per the conceptual content of the sciences domain.

The third factor is derived from the first and is evolutionary and developmental. It has a certain irony in also being a child's developmental milestone - the so-called 'terrible twos'. Whatever age an infant starts to assert their independence, establishing, coming to terms with their difference from the adult figures in their lives - this is a pivotal moment. As they set out to become them-selves, we can say that developmentally they, this nascent individual is drawn out of this particular axis. The axis is first of all then not dualist. The self is always a product of the group (even if the latter is absent). The individual, the self emerges from the other. This is an extended dynamic action, through our first 2-3 years. Self flows from otherness.

Illness, disease disruptions what should be the expected relation, crises whether of temperature or emotion places self-other in contention on a temporary or more permanent basis. The ‘health career’ in the full title of Hodges’ model is also pertinent, as this refers to life chances and the life course.

Perhaps, to borrow a term from genetics / chemistry the vertical axis represents a bivalent quality? The vertical axis has that telescopic property. The vertical axis is reflective the individual sees the group; the group sees the individual. Even as we contemplate the patient in person-centred care, what, who are we - the observers?

The fourth cognitive prompt utilises the model's horizontal axis which spans dualist thinking defined by the categories of humanistic and mechanistic. This can also be viewed as human - machine. This axis also gives an indication for the final, fourth type of dualistic thought. Since the 1960s this axis can also be described as the social - technical, or socio-technical (Baxter and Sommerville, 2011). The notion of machine logic then suggests objectivity and the contrast with subjective types of knowledge. This is a fundamental dualism that is debated by philosophers.

The fifth type a dualistic thinking could be described as replacing the axes above and inviting a free-for-all. Is this where creativity and innovation lie? Does this dualistic form open up conceptual probes and avenues to insight (association and relation)? There are a great many dualities, dichotomies, polarities that can (literally) be shot through the model. Through the centre, between adjacent care domains, within domains: consider, for example; demand-supply, mind-body, public sector-private sector-third sector and voluntary admission-sectioned.

Finally and sixth there is a translation, a progression from the axial duality to the epistemological background of the care domains. This can be constructed from the founding (root) disciplines of Hodges' model:

• Psycho-Social
• Psycho-Somatic
• Physico-Political
• Socio-Political

Superimposed on Hodges' model there is then another set of axes. This could be a means to explain Hodges' model. These trace out the domains of Hodges' model. Is this self-referential quality a coincidence or evidential towards making the case for Hodges' model? These axes act as either, or both a bridge and a brace. Since structure is all about geometry we can close at this point by noting that the strength of the triangle. In Hodges' model there are several diametrical dualities (oppositions), for example:

medicine - society*

individual - political involvement

a society's engagement in - the sciences

individual (demand) Political - health services (supply)

the individual who is mentally ill and the State, Mental Health Act legislation

As we see in this post in addressing dualities Hodges' model is concerned with DISCIP-LINES.

*Medicine and society represent a duality and an established discipline in medical sociology? Socio-technical is not a discipline in this sense and might provide a theoretical contrast - marker?

(The above and posts to follow are a work in progress and will form a larger - referenced - whole in terms of studies.)

Baxter, G. Sommerville, I. (2011) Socio-technical systems: From design methods to systems engineering. Interacting with Computers, 23 (1): 4-17 doi:10.1016/j.intcom.2010.07.003
http://iwc.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/1/4.full

Newton and Einstein had it right - Reflection in H2CM

In the New Year I've a series of posts that almost seemed to write themselves after reading:

Johnson, D.D. (1994) Dualistic, Multiplistic, and Relativistic Thinking as it Relates to a Psychology Major. Honors Theses. Paper 202. http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/uhp_theses/202/

What (I believe) Hodges’ model does provide through its combined structure and care (knowledge) domains is ready cognitive access to three forms of thought as discussed by Johnson:

1. Dualist
2. Multiplistic
3. and Relativistic Thinking

In selected papers within the bibliography and here on W2tQ since 2006 I've made many claims about Hodges' model. The old website (defunct) introduced Hodges' model from the standpoints of patient (intra- interpersonal); carer (sociology); student - life long learner (sciences); lecturer, institution (political - did I mention 'citizen' in there?).

Johnson has provided a fresh impetus to consider the model anew and with it threshold concepts and other ideas. In the posts to follow there are for example at least four ways in which Hodges' model supports dualist thinking and (importantly) mitigates against its possible excesses.