Sharon Cahill graduated from the University of Teeside in 1994 with a degree in Psychology. Her PhD entitled “Women’s experience(s) of anger: social and personal perception” using Q-methodology and a thematic discourse analysis was completed in 2002.

As a postgraduate researcher Dr Cahill worked at the HRSD at the Institute of Psychiatry (Kings College London) for three years as a research fellow, managing two research projects focusing upon developments in service provision for mental health patients. Outcomes include: a valid and reliable mental health assessment tool - the Threshold Assessment Grid (the ‘TAG’), used for referral purposes across a range of mental health services; FOCUS randomized control trial, notable for its inclusion of the patient and practitioner as raters of mental wellbeing and also for feedback being given about both sets of assessment, with positive impacts on reduced admission rates. The Threshold and Focus studies are also notable for teaching practitioners how to use standardised assessments longitudinally which is not normal practice in mental health research or necessarily in everyday clinical practice.

Sharon has been teaching at different levels and with different types of students for over seventeen years.

As Senior lecturer her main role has been to facilitate postgraduate students’ understanding of the complexities of qualitative inquiry. Her aim is to encourage, challenge and foster self-motivation in the student in order for them to develop the confidence to begin a qualitative piece of work. She has designed modules that offer the postgraduate student skills and experiences which launches them on their ‘adventure’ into qualitative research.

• School representative on University STEM Committee
• Research Leader for Professional Doctorate in Applied Educational and Child Psychology
• School representative on Joint Student, Staff Consultative Committee

• Qualitative research methods
• Emotion and gender
• Women and the body (specifically body art)
• Women and work
• Reflexivity

• Professional Doctorate in Child and Applied Educational Psychology
• Doctorate in Child and Educational Psychology
• Bsc Psychology
• Professional Doctorate in Clinical Psychology

• PYD105: Research: Design (Joint Module Leader)
• PYD108: Research: Data Analysis (Joint Module Leader)

Sharon’s research interests in the main involve exploring women’s experiences of life, emotions, work and the body using qualitative research methods.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Davis, B., & Cahill, S. (2006). Challenging expectations for every child through innovation, regeneration and reinvention. Educational and Child Psychology, 23(1), 80–89.
2. Slade, M., McCrone, P., Kuipers, E., Leese, M., Cahill, S., Parabiaghi, A., et al. (2006). Use of standardised outcome measures in adult mental health services: randomised controlled trial. British Journal of Psychiatry, 189(4), 330–336. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.105.015412
3. Riley, S., & Cahill, S. (2005). Managing meaning and belonging: negotiating authenticity with body art. Journal of Youth Studies, 8(3), 261–279. doi:10.1080/13676260500261843
4. Slade, M., Leese, M., Cahill, S., Thornicroft, G., & Kuipers, E. (2005). Patient-rated mental health needs and quality of life improvement. British Journal of Psychiatry, 187(3), 256–261. doi:10.1192/bjp.187.3.256
5. Riley, S., Schouton, W., & Cahill, S. (2003). Exploring the dynamics of subjectivity and power of the researcher and researched. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 4(2).
6. Slade, M., Cahill, S., Kelsey, W., Powell, R., & Strathdee, G. (2002). Threshold 2: the reliability, validity and sensitivity to change of the Threshold Assessment Grid (TAG). Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 106(6), 453–460. doi:10.1034/j.1600-0447.2002.02356.x
7. Slade, M., Cahill, S., Kelsey, W., Leese, M., Powell, R., & Strathdee, G. (2001). Threshold 3: the feasibility of the Threshold Assessment Grid (TAG) for routine assessment of the severity of mental health problems. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 36(10), 516–521. doi:10.1007/s001270170017
8. Mulvery, A., Terenzio, M., Bond, M. A., Huygens, I., Hamerton, H. R., & Cahill, S. (2000). Stories of relative privilege: power and social change in feminist community psychology. American Journal of Community Psychology, 28(6), 883–911. doi:10.1023/A:1005120001986

Non-peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Slade, M., Cahill, S., Kelsey, W., Leese, M., Powell, R., & Strathdee, G. (2003). Threshold 4: an evaluation of the Threshold Assessment Grid as an aid to mental health referrals. Primary Care Mental Health, 1, 45–54.
2. Slade, M., Cahill, S., Kelsey, W., Powell, R., & Strathdee, G. (2001). Threshold Assessment Grid: a new approach to identifying severity of mental health problems. Actas Españolas de Psiquitría, 29(11), 33.

Book Chapters

1. Cahill, S., & Riley, S. (2000). Resistances and reconcilliations: women and body art. In M. Banim & A. Guy (Eds.), Personal collections: women’s relationships with their clothes. London: Berg.
2. Banim, M., Guy, A., Cahill, S., & Bainbridge, A. (1997). “I don’t know what I need to know.” A peer sexual health project by young disabled people. In P. Aggleton, P. Davies & G. Hart (Eds.), AIDS: activism and alliances. London: Taylor Francis.

Conference Proceedings

1. Cahill, S., & Duncan, E. (1996). Women’s experience of anger: an exploration of personal and social perceptions. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Psychology of Women Section Conference.

Reports

1. Slade, M., Cahill, S., Knight, T., Powell, R., & Strathdee, G. (2002). Good practice guidelines for identifying the priority group for specialist mental health services. London: Threshold Program.

• Member of the School of Psychology Research Degree Subcommittee

Managing Meaning and Belonging: Young Women’s Negotiation of Authenticity in Body Art

Sarah C. E. Riley & Sharon Cahill

It is a common-sense ideology that appearance is vertically representative, in that the outer surface reflects the inner self. This paper explores the impact of this ideology on women’s understandings of their Body Art. Meaning and belonging were identified as central themes in accounts produced from two focus groups with young women in Glasgow, Scotland who had piercings and tattoos. Meaning was constructed through two alternative accounts. First, that Body Art is meaningful because it represents a particular and valued subjectivity (brave, independent, different). Second, that the current popularity in Body Art endangers the vertical representation of the first account, making Body Art meaningless. To claim a meaningful relationship with Body Art, our participants drew on discourses of subcultural knowledge, ‘Othering’, authenticity, and rights. These discourses show that authenticity continues to be an important account in youth cultures. Authenticity both worked to produce a meaningful personal identity, but also a ‘mythical mainstream’ that denied other young women discursive space from which to explore alternative subjectivities through Body Art.