Research on the relationship between formal musical training and cognitive abilities has been burgeoning over the last decade, with a specific focus on the relationship between language and music skills. However, a significant gap exists when looking at the start of the developmental path of the relationship between these abilities: whereas something is known about infants and a significant amount has been learned about school-aged children, very little is known about preschool children. Aiming to fill this gap, this research has moved along two interlocking paths: first, studying the early relationship between cognitive processing of both music and language, and second, evaluating a dimension so far unexplored: the influence of informal musical interaction and exposure in the home on musical and linguistic development. Using a correlational design and a set of novel age-appropriate musical abilities tasks, Study 1 examined the relationship between a range of musical skills and linguistic development in 3- and 4-year-old children. The second study investigated the contribution of informal musical experience in the home in the development of these skills. Based on the findings from Study 2, which suggested a significant association between informal musical experience in the home and the development of key language areas, Study 3 sought to develop a validated instrument with good psychometric properties for the assessment of informal musical experience. To this end, two online surveys were conducted, and factor analytical and confirmatory methods were used to explore and consolidate the factor structure of the new instrument (Music@Home Questionnaire). Reliability and validity of the new instrument were also investigated. Study 4 focused on a specific aspect of music and language processing namely, the processing of structure, and examined the hypothesis that these skills are related in 4- and 6-year-old children. Study 4 also investigated the impact of home experience with music, as assessed with the newly developed instrument, on language and music structural processing. The combined findings of the present thesis contribute towards a comprehensive account of the relationship between language and music from a developmental perspective. They also provide researchers with new tools to assess musical abilities in young children and with a novel parent-report instrument for the assessment of a largely unexplored area of environmental experience: i.e. informal musical experience in the home.

This research explored the experiences of bilingual therapists, whose first language was not English, conducting psychotherapy/counselling in English. Eight bilingual therapists/ counsellors who were originally from six different countries were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. All of the bilingual therapists had the experience of working in the United Kingdom in English as well as working in their own mother tongue. The findings were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and five clusters of themes were identified. The first cluster of themes was related to the emotions experienced, like ‘anxiety’ and ‘frustration’. The second group of themes was those pertaining to the relationship of the participants with their clients, like ‘avoidance of clarification’, ‘shift of attention’ and ‘delay in the pace of therapy’. The third array of themes described the professional identity of the participants as therapists/ counsellors, like fear of ‘the client’s judgment’, or feeling of ‘not being self’, and also the possibility of a ‘hierarchy of acceptance of languages in the United Kingdom’. The fourth collection of themes represented the support systems that were available to the participants when they had difficulties working in English as a second language. The prime source of support for the research participants was their supervisors. They also referred to ‘review with their clients’ and ‘help of a colleague’. The fifth cluster of themes was related to any reference to culture in their interviews. All eight participants believed that culture and language overlap to some degree and are hard to separate. The dissemination of this dissertation was to promote the awareness of bilingual therapists regarding the hardships of working in a second language, and to increase the awareness of supervisors, academic staff and regulating authorities like UKCP and BPS of the problems bilingual therapists might face in working in English as a second language. This study recommends the integration of short-term workshops in the accreditation process or curriculum of studies of such bilingual therapists about the potential hurdles they might face in fulfilling their job as a therapist. As some of the findings—like avoiding clarifications or pretending to comprehend—could be potentially harmful to clients and their therapists, a systematic review of the work of international students or bilingual therapists who have language-related issues seems advisable. Based on the findings of this research, some ideas for further studies are suggested. As most of the fear of being judged and the anxiety experienced by the participants were subjective experiences, a dyad study of both client and therapist experiences could investigate the similarities and discrepancies between the therapists’ perceptions and their clients’ experiences of them. Research into the experiences of the supervisors of such therapists could lead to a richer understanding of this phenomenon from another angle.

Attachment theory provides a framework for categorising behaviours in close relationships by individuals during times of stress. Attachment behaviours are commonly thought to be determined in early childhood experiences and assumed to hold through to adulthood. Further, these behaviours become particularly salient across life events, such as the transition to parenthood. Attachment styles range from security-based, in which individuals seek to alleviate distress by seeking and receiving proximity to an attachment figure, to insecurity-based styles in which attachment figures are viewed as insufficiently available. These styles have been identified primarily through the use of quantitative methods. However, this risks reducing the intricacy of relational behaviours to discrete and exclusive styles. The use of qualitative methods offers one way to preserve the complexity of relational experiences but there are a limited amount of studies which use this approach. The use of pluralistic qualitative methods allows for more holistic insight by viewing the complexities of attachment from multi-dimensional perspectives and is the methodological focus of this study. The research presents a longitudinal single case study which explores the attachment behaviours of a couple during their transition to second-time parenthood. It uses multiple methods of data collection, including individual semi-structured interviews to gather accounts of experience, diaries to gather accounts of everyday practices and behaviours, and joint unstructured interviews to gather collaborative accounts of the couple relationship. Narrative analysis is used to understand how identities are formed and reformed over the longitudinal period, and gives insight to how the participants make sense of their feelings and emotions. A psycho-social reading of the data enables understanding of some of the internal and external conflicts that the participants negotiate during this period. The plurality of epistemological and ontological paradigms brought by the different methods highlights the complex variation and intricate manners in which the couple's emotion regulation strategies affect the dynamics of their relationship. Key findings of the research illustrate that individuals engage with a variety of attachment behaviours at any given point suggesting that attachment is not a fixed feature; attachment history becomes more salient after the transition to second-time parenthood; insecure attachment behaviours (mainly avoidant ones) tend to be more marked; relationship satisfaction decreases following the birth of the second child; and the parenting relationship becomes the couple relationship after the birth of the second child. The research shows how pluralistic methods challenge traditional views of attachment as fixed and brings new insight to relational experiences by considering them as fluid and dynamic processes, informed by context, subjective meaning-making and external events across the transition to second-time parenthood.

This study aimed to understand the client's experience of explicitly expressing anger towards their therapist. This research developed from there being little existing knowledge about these experiences from the client's perspective, even though they are seen to present some of the most challenging experiences in the therapeutic setting. The research was conducted through interviewing 9 female therapy clients using semi-structured interviews and carrying out the analysis using constructivist grounded theory. The research found there were different processes at play that were present within the therapeutic relationship leading up to the explicit expression. The anger was experienced in relation to other emotions and was expressed in several different ways, resulting in mixed outcomes to the expression of anger. Different responses from both the therapist and the client that were facilitative in enabling or disabling them to try to work through these anger events were identified. At moments of the explicit expression of anger, the therapist and client could get caught up in detrimental negative interactional cycles, which served to close down the therapeutic space or lead to a lack of connection through withdrawal. Consequentially there was little space for affective attunement and reflective dialogue, shaped by a rigid and detached stance, lack of humility, distancing interpretations and uncontained emotional or personal responses. However, in contrast, if the therapist and client were able to remain emotionally connected to one another during the explicit expression of anger and contain the process and engage in a reflective dialogue this could open up the therapeutic space to beneficial effect.

Objective: Control theory predicts that the detection of goal discrepancies results in ruminative self-focus (Martin & Tesser, 1996). Previous research has tested this, cueing unresolved vs resolved goals in participants (Roberts et al., 2013). This study aims to build upon research by Roberts et al. (2013) by considering the additional effects of goal type (approach vs avoidance) on state rumination. It was hypothesised that cueing an unresolved goal framed in an avoidance focus would result in increased rumination compared to framing in an approach focus. Methods: In the present study, student participants were randomly assigned to an unresolved approach goal framing (n = 38) or unresolved avoidance goal framing (n= 37) condition, prior to completing a rumination task, followed by the sustained attention to response task. Results: No difference was found on number of ruminative thoughts or task performance between conditions, following the manipulation of goal and state rumination. Both conditions demonstrated reductions in levels of sadness, from pre-to-post manipulation and both reported increased levels of tension from pre-to-post. Conclusion: The absence of a difference in self-reported rumination throughout the task suggests that framing unresolved goals as either approach or avoidance has no effect on rumination.

This thesis aims to draw a unified picture of the relationship between Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) (APA, DSM-5, 2013), the affected person's attachment pattern, and specific characteristics of their trauma history. In particular, the analysis of these three elements focuses on cases where a person is persistently involved in a life of ongoing abuse, despite years of DID-specific psychotherapy. Based on attachment, forensic and psychoanalytic perspectives and on my extensive clinical work, I propose several new classifications to help identify and explain such cases, and ultimately improve their treatment. The first is further classification of the Disorganized Attachment (DA) category of attachment theory, to include two new sub-types: Concrete Infanticidal Attachment (IAc), which develops when a child needs to engage an attachment figure who only responds while the child is being severely abused, and Symbolic Infanticidal Attachment (IAs), which develops in response to severe but not abusive relational trauma, such as neglect. The second proposes a differentiation between two presentations of DID, Active and Stable. The first describes people who continue to be involved in a life of abuse even in adulthood, and their DID is thus constantly reinforced and recreated. The second pertains to people who bear the scars of childhood relational trauma but are safe at present and can focus on recovery from their traumatic past. Finally, I propose the Cyclical Model, which describes the relationship between severe childhood abuse, IAc and active DID as a self-perpetuating cycle. The term cyclicity is used to describe a repetitive, change-resisting quality of people with active DID. Cyclicity is attributed to their extreme levels of anxiety and terror. I argue that this quality, while 'quiet' and hard to detect, forms a major obstacle to recovery. Following these ideas, additional theoretical and clinical considerations are suggested as expansion to the Phase-Oriented Approach for the treatment of DID (ISSTD 2011). Key words: active DID, stable DID, attachment theory, childhood abuse, cyclicity, infanticidal attachment, relational trauma, phase-oriented treatment approach.

Background: Based on the non-linear relationship between energy intake and physical activity level demonstrated by Mayer et al. (1956), it has been proposed that there is a dysregulation of appetite at lower levels of physical activity leading to overconsumption, whereas at higher levels of physical activity, appetite control is more sensitive. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are not well understood. Objective: This thesis aimed to shed light on the impact of habitual physical activity level in lean individuals and exercise training in individuals with overweight and obesity on homeostatic (physiological) and non-homeostatic (hedonic and eating behaviour traits) appetite processes, including those that initiate and terminate feeding (satiation) and suppress inter-meal hunger (satiety), as well as passive overconsumption (unintentional increase in energy intake with high-energy-density/high-fat foods). Methods: A systematic review was conducted, followed by four experimental studies. The studies employed a multi-level experimental platform that included biological, behavioural and psychological aspects of energy balance including free-living physical activity, food intake, diet composition, food reward (liking and wanting), body composition, energy expenditure and fasting appetite-related peptides. Results: The systematic review revealed a J-shaped relationship between physical activity level and energy intake, corroborating previous findings. Data from the experimental studies indicated that in lean individuals, physical activity did not influence satiation at meals varying in dietary fat content, but moderate to high active individuals showed enhanced satiety with better ability to adjust intake following preloads varying in energy content. Exercise training (12 weeks) in inactive individuals with overweight and obesity improved both homeostatic and non-homeostatic appetite control, which may be mediated by exercise-induced fat loss. Across all studies, physical activity was associated with lower body fat and greater daily energy expenditure, and energy density was positively associated with energy intake and passive overconsumption. Conclusions: This thesis provides confirmatory evidence that physical activity impacts appetite control through a dual-process action expressed through an increased drive to eat from greater energy expenditure, together with enhanced satiety response to food in both lean and overweight/obese individuals. These processes may allow for more accurate matching of energy intake to requirements and a reduction in the risk of overconsumption at higher levels of physical activity.

The Good Night Project is an evidence-based project aimed to design, implement and evaluate an RCT of behavioural interventions to improve sleep for children aged 5-12 years with ADHD and their primary caregivers in the Kingdom Saudi Arabia. The project was developed by systematically reviewing the literature. From the available, high quality literature using an RCT design (n=4), a group of behavioural interventions were identified using the behaviour change techniques taxonomy BCTs (Chapter two). Health professionals and caregivers were asked to rank these interventions from the most important interventions to the less important interventions using a Delphi method in two rounds (Chapter three). Their recommendations were considered when preparing the final version of the intervention. The 34-page Good Night Project was developed as a guide, translated from English to Arabic. Sleep habits cards and a video clip were also available to help children and their caregivers to promote sleep hygiene. The intervention, using these materials, was delivered by the psychologists to the caregivers in three sessions over three weeks, with each session lasting for three hours. The project was completed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using a randomised controlled trial (RCT) design (Chapter four). Due to the high attrition rate, the number of participants who dropped out (n=61) which is more than 80% of the eligible participants, the study aim has been changed to examine the feasibility of the project instead of the efficacy (Chapter four). The results indicated that the Good Night Project is not feasible at this stage due to high attrition rate, although there is some tentative evidence of positive outcomes for those who completed the intervention. Thus, a further study is required using focus groups or experience-based co-design in order to explore factors that affect parents’ ability to complete the intervention. Following this, a further feasibility study is recommended taking into account the changes indicated to improve acceptability. General discussion about the project including summary of the results, implication for practice and for future research and contribution to knowledge including behavioural change interventions, culturally adapting interventions and sleep in children with ADHD are considered (Chapter five).

No description available.

In my thesis I investigate minority group members’ experiences of discrimination, the impacts of discrimination on social identification and behaviour, and their understanding of and responses to such experiences. My research is based on the analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews with Hungarian Roma, members of a strongly stigmatized ethnic group in Hungary. The research questions pursed in this thesis can be organized around five broad themes. One of these themes concerns minority group members’ experiences of the subtle forms of discrimination. Prior research has shown that subtle racism can be just as devastating (or even more so) for both the physical and psychological well-being as the effects of the more traditional, overt forms of discrimination. One factor that has been suggested as relevant for such negative consequences concerns the uncertainties involved in attributing the experienced negative treatment to discrimination (i.e. attributional ambiguity). Although experimental research has investigated the cognitive and emotional load associated with uncertainties in interpreting subtle racism, less is known about people’s own understanding of how interactions in which subtle discrimination is perceived impact on them. Analysing interviewees’ accounts of their experience of subtle discrimination contributes to our understanding of the role of meta-perceptions (beliefs about other’s beliefs) in minority-majority interactions. The second theme addresses those experiences of subtle discrimination which entail a form of misrecognition. Research shows that there are several subtle forms of social identity misrecognition that can be painful. These rather subtle forms of misrecognition involve for example, the non-recognition of an important aspect of one’s social identification, or giving more emphasis to an identity in a given situation than one would like it to receive. My data contributes to documentation of these subtle (yet painful) forms of misrecognition by attending to participants own accounts of their perceptions of being miscategorised. The third theme of the analysis concerns one particular form of recognition: the positive recognition of Roma musicality. There are contradictory findings about the benefits of positive stereotypes. Although it has been shown to have the potential to counter-balance the negative effects of being negatively stereotyped, positive stereotypes can also be received negatively by those who ‘receive’ them. While experimental research is suitable for investigating the different conditions in which positive stereotypes are or are not received positively, the qualitative analysis of these interviews allows insight into the ambivalences and complexities in participants’ perceptions of such positive recognition. Besides investigating participants’ accounts of their experiences of discrimination, I also address questions related to their responses to those experiences. The fourth theme of the thesis concerns interviewees’ accounts of the use of humour in responding to perceived prejudice. Humour in intergroup relations has typically been viewed in two ways. On the one hand, it can be used to express discrimination. On the other, it can be used to decrease distance between social groups and thus enhance social cohesion. In this thesis I consider another use of humour: how humour is used from a powerless position to challenge and reverse unequal power relations in interactions with socially significant others (e.g., shop security guards, airport authorities, police officers). Finally, I address a more radical and consequential response to discrimination: the concealment of the devalued social identity, most often referred to as ‘passing’. Although often assumed to be a strategy adopted by those exhibiting a low group identification, these data show ‘concealing’ could also be adopted by high identifiers with this being context-dependent. Moreover, although ‘concealing’ is often assumed to be an individualistic strategy of social mobility, these data suggest that it can serve collective social identity concerns as well. For example, concealment of the stigmatized identity may allow individuals to access new experiences which can then be a basis for developing a Roma identity less constrained by outgroup stereotypes of the ingroup. These data entailing insight into participants’ various motivations and intentions involved in applying concealment of the devalued identity contribute to a more nuanced definition and classification of this identity management strategy.