When tribe-bubbles pop: on research, ADHD and loneliness
Researchers often work within their own tribe-bubbles, using familiar language and ideas without questioning them. We interviewed Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Co-Investigator at Project CREATE and Professor of Developmental Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience at King’s College London. In this piece, drawing on his personal experience with ADHD, he reflects on how stepping outside these bubbles can deepen our understanding of loneliness and youth mental health.
Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Project CREATE Co-Investigator
Can you briefly explain your research?
I work on all things ADHD – trying to understand its nature, origins and impact, long- and short-term, for individuals, families and communities. Using what I learn I try to find more effective ways to support people with ADHD.
What drew you to this area of research?
Although I didn’t realise it for a long time, my research career has probably been motivated and shaped by my own profound child and adolescent struggles with learning and behaviour.
Project CREATE brings people from radically different intellectual and methodological traditions together to shake up our ideas about how to study and understand loneliness
From your perspective, what is the most important aspect of the Project CREATE research?
As a scientist, I like the way Project CREATE brings people from radically different intellectual and methodological traditions together to shake up our ideas about how to study and understand loneliness.
What has surprised you most about the CREATE research?
Radical multidisciplinary really highlights how academics each live in linguistic tribe-bubbles - using familiar terms and concepts automatically to signal membership of our tribe-bubble without really thinking about what they mean and how they shape our work.
It’s good to be held to account by people outside our tribe-bubble and be asked to explain what we mean when we use a particular term/concept. Their use comes so automatically that are surprised that we sometimes can’t define them or recognise the impact they have on our work.
I would like arts-based researchers to recognise the value of the rigour that hypothesis-testing approaches, when implemented with integrity, can bring to our work
What would you like other researchers in this field and beyond to learn from this project?
I would like scientists to learn to be open-minded about the possibility that alternative types of evidence and information (e.g. arts based) can contribute to the generation and testing of hypotheses. I would like arts-based researchers to recognise the value of the rigour that hypothesis-testing approaches, when implemented with integrity, can bring to our work.
Why do you think arts-based approaches are valuable in youth mental health research?
I think there are a number of ways in which art-based approaches may be valuable to youth mental health research.
First, they can provide a space of comfort that makes it easier for participants to share their views and insights. Second, they can stimulate participants to deeper insight into their own ideas, motivations and values. Third, they can help participants de-centre and understand others' experiences and points of view. Fourth, in a multi-disciplinary context, they can stimulate creativity in science leading to new ideas and hypotheses that can be tested in more orthodox ways. Fifth, they can illustrate and communicate findings in an accessible and thought-provoking way.
Stepping outside our tribe-bubbles not only challenges the way we think and work, but also creates space for more inclusive approaches to understanding complex issues like loneliness.