The Reasoned Action model was applied in Portugal to study the factors which determine vote choice among Portuguese voters. Covering three elections (the 1980 Presidential election, the 1982 Local elections and the 1983 General election) the study was started six years after the Revolution of 25 April 1974 which restored Democracy after 48 years of the Salazar-Caetano Dictatorship. The Reasoned Action model, successfully tested in one American Presidential election and in one British General election, assumes that voting intentions are directly related to a) attitudes towards voting for each candidate or party based on knowledge voters possess about important issues and about the candidates or parties stands on them, and b) social influence factors based on voters' beliefs on the opinions of trusted referents as to whom they should be voting for. The results obtained in the three Portuguese electoral studies give strong support to the thesis that in spite of their undemocratic background Portuguese voters like their American and British counterparts make reasoned choices based on their knowledge of important issues and of the differences between the candidates' or parties' stands on such issues. As in the American and British studies the weight of the attitudinal component of the Reasoned Action model was found to be a much more significant determinant of voting intentions than its social influence component.

When subjects learn to match a sample stimulus to a non-identical comparison stimulus, the stimuli may become equivalent, or substitutable for each other. Matching-to-sample procedures have generated stimulus equivalence with humans aged 3 years and upwards. Animals, however, have thus far failed tests of symmetry, one of the defining properties of equivalence. This human-animal difference suggests that language may be related to equivalence formation. In developmental studies by Beasty (1987), young children who failed equivalence tests later passed when taught to name the sample comparison pairings during baseline matching trials. Naming, then, appears to be necessary for stimulus equivalence. Experiments in the present thesis further investigated equivalence formation in children and animals. The first two experiments yielded further evidence against equivalence in animals. Experiment 1 found no evidence of equivalence in the arbitrary matching performances of two chimpanzees involved in an ape-language training programme. In Experiment 2, pigeons failed symmetry tests despite receiving extensive symmetry exemplar training. The final series of studies examined naming and equivalence in 30 normal 4-5 year old children. In Experiment 3, children often gave the same name spontaneously to non-identical stimuli before matching them in equivalence tests. Experiments 4(a)-6 systematically investigated common naming and showed it to be an extremely simple but effective way for naming to mediate equivalence. As well as suggesting a functional definition of naming, the results indicated that the subjects' pre-existing stimulus names may selectively interfere with equivalence formation by affecting the common naming relations introduced during the experiment. These results support the view that language is a major determinant of human behaviour (Lowe, 1979; 1983) and they also emphasise the need for a functional analysis of language development.

This research examined the role of motivational cognitions and belief systems in the process of exercise adoption and maintenance. Deci and Ryan (1985,1990) outline a continuum of behavioural regulation that ranges from non-self-determined regulation (external regulation) to completely self-determined regulation (intrinsic regulation). Prochaska and DiClemente (1984) describe five stages of behaviour change that range from no thoughts of changing (precontemplation) to maintenance of change (maintenance). They also outline ten strategies and techniques for encouraging and maintaining change which are known as the processes of change. Kelly (1955, 1963) presents a personal construct theory which maintains that each of us has theories or constructs about people and events which guide beliefs and behaviour. Research, which integrated these concepts, was conducted in three phases. A Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire was developed in the first phase of research. Results from the second phase of research revealed that regulation of exercise behaviour was more self-determined in the later than in the earlier stages of change. This highlights the importance of motivational considerations in understanding the change process. Only five of the ten processes of change made a meaningful contribution to differentiation among the stagesi n femalesw hile only three of the processesm ade a meaningfulc ontribution to differentiation among the stages in males. These processes showed moderate to strong correlations with those forms of behavioural regulation that are at least somewhat selfdetermined. In addition, those successfully changing their stage of exercise behaviour over a three month period increased their use of the counter-conditioning process. However, confirmatory factor analysis of the Processes of Change for Exercise Questionnaire brought into question the factorial validity of the measure. The final phase of research examined personal construction of exercise as a function of stage of changea nd self determination for exercise. Those in the maintenance stage of change had strong opinions about and strong preferences for certain modes of exercise, while references to being too serious about exercise were strongest in the preparation and precontemplation stages. The preparation stage was marked by desire for more motivation and push to take more exercise. As self-determination decreased references to lack of time for exercise and a desire to have more motivation or put in more effort increased. This research suggests that conflict between desired self (more active and healthy) and actual self (not the fit and active type) may be greatest in the preparation and action stages of change where the act of exercising is still low in self-determination and not yet reconciled with one's sense of self.

Generalised imitation has often been cited in the behaviour analytic literature as a paradigm case of a higher-order response class. However, its determinants have not been established, When, as is the case in published experimental studies of children's imitative performances to date, the to-be-matched behaviours are actions on objects, many nonimitative processes can result in apparently emergent matching. Such confounding sources of control are minimised when the target behaviours are arbitrary gestures. The present experiments explored the matching of (i) arbitrary actions on novel objects with minimal affordances in 3 infants (9 - 15 months), and (ii) gestures alone in 13 infants (15 - 25 months), and in 20 young children (24 - 42 months). In Experiment 1, the infants' performance of the target actions was measured firstly in response to each of four novel objects (Baseline) and next to the target action (Modelling) on each of these objects. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants' unreinforced responses to target behaviours, and their intermittently-reinforced responses to four behaviours that featured in their trained baseline matching relations, were measured. No evidence of higber-order matching was found; rather, the performances of the infants in Experiments 1 and 2, and of the young children in Experiment 3, could be explained in terms of generalisation of extra-experimentally trained matching repertoires. Infants' bigher-order matching abilities were directly tested in Experiments 4 and 5- Following training of four baseline matching relations, and identification of four target behaviours that the infants failed to match, they were trained to produce the target behaviours in the absence of the corresponding modelled behaviour. Infants' unreinforced responses to the modelled target behaviours, interspersed with modelling of the intermittently reinforced baseline behaviours, were then re-tested. The data showed no evidence of higher-order matching and suggest that infants' higher-order matching abilities, not previously directly tested, have been overestimated in the behaviour analytic literature.

Prior research addressing children's antisocial and prosocial behaviours have predominantly used a predetermined set of criteria which have been devised by adults. This psychological approach has lead to the perception of children as an individual phenomenon, using a dichotomy of behaviours consistently regardless of their immediate social environment. Therefore an argument is made for the use of an inductive, sociological approach in order to gain understanding of the everyday social interactions which children engage in. Conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis (Sacks, 1992a, 1992b) were employed to transcribe audio and video footage taken of thirteen, four-year-old children in their primary school playground in mid-Wales. The detailed and iterative analysis found that children employ specific resources to organise the social order of their playground. These resources include the use of name calling; access tools; possessive pronouns and collective proterms; reference to gender; physical gestures and the use of playground huts. The resources were used in the interaction of excluding or affiliating with peers, and also in the disaffiliation of peers where no further interaction was produced. These actions worked to produce different outcomes but were often used simultaneously in the co-construction of context. The wider findings which emanated from the detailed analysis identified the issues of sequences in children's establishment of social order; the context free and context sensitive nature of affiliation, disaffiliation and exclusion; issues of power; verbal actions supported by physical gestures; children's use of their environment; exclusive dyads; and children's social competence. The thesis holds implications for practice where practitioners can acknowledge the complex, multidimensional aspects of children's social organisation processes in order to avoid stereotyping. This study extends research which uses conversation and membership categorization analysis in the area of childhood studies which is important as this methodology affords unique access into children's worlds.

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This study reports the systematic collection of accounts from 204 transsexual subjects, most of whom attended the Gender Identity Clinic at Charing Cross Hospital (Fulham). A review of the literature covers cross gender behaviour in other societies, recent biological, social and psychological studies on gendered and cross gendered behaviour, a medical history of transsexualism and 'sex reassignment surgery'. Psychological 'frames' for the study of cross gendered careers are derived from attributional theories, and symbolic interactionist approaches to the construction of sexual categories of behaviour and experience. The collection of accounts follows a methodology derived from Harr & and his associates' ethogenic approach to the study of social behaviour, and the principles of generating 'grounded (sociological) theory' propounded by Glaser and Strauss. There is a short statistical section on the population of research subjects as a whole. Transexuals' accounts, some 500 exerpts, are marshalled under nearly 200 headings and subheadings. These cover almost all areas of relevant life experience. The conclusions argue that there is a fundamental weakness in the imposition of psychiatric 'syndromes' on gender dysphoric phenomena. Rather, 'gender dysphoric careers' are proposed as fluctuating enterprises in the construction of meanings, some meanings being more fateful and workable than others. An attributional -'imaginative involvement' model to account for transsexualism is explicated. The implications which can be drawn from this, for the way the management of these unfortunate people could be improved, completes the text.

Two populations of rabbits (Oryctolaqus cuniculus) were investigated to see whether polygynous, multi-male groups formed in the absence of large multi-entranced warrens. They did not. Rabbits neither gathered in space nor time. The small warrens were spread out evenly across homogeneous patches and the females were well spaced out. Monogamy, distinguished by a battery of tests, was prevalent, with the more dominant males as 'mate' rabbits. That the polygyny frequently mentioned in the literature was a result of male dominance and female defense was considered. The genetic structure of each population was investigated by taking blood from rabbits and having it analysed electrophoretically and for immunoglobulins. A method for assessing relatedness between groups of pairs of animals was implemented, then validated and developed with Monte Carlo simulations. With the seven polymorphic allele obtained, no non-zero relatedness was found but it was sometimes possible to exclude high relatedness. The bearing of sociality on vigilance during feeding was investigated. Although a rabbit's vigilance decreased as its 'mate' approached, the presence of other rabbits was correlated with increased vigilance. It was concluded that the need for social vigilance outweighed the benefit of 'many eyes' watching for predators. This conclusion was tested by experiment, using stuffed animals as stimuli. Rabbits increased their vigilance during grazing bouts both by increasing the length and frequency of scans. Scans could be short or long: the probability of ending a scan decreased sharply at a certain point; a form of positive feedback. The durations of short 'maintenance' scans were dependent on chewlength (the amount of food in the mouth). This fitted a timesharing definition as supported by experiment. Long scans in response to a visible threat did not involve chewing.

Hoogloand, Morris and Tinbergen (1957) demonstrated that the spines of two species of sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus and Pygosteus pungitius, are an effective defence against the pike (Esox lucius) and perch (Percha fluviatilis) as predators, and the present study was undertaken to compare the fright behaviour (i.e. responses to a predator) of the same two species.