Non-specific low back pain is a highly prevalent and debilitating condition. With no known organic cause, it often recurs and can become a persistent, chronic problem which remains recalcitrant to available treatments. This poses a conundrum for healthcare professionals and back pain patients alike and has led to calls for a biopsychosocial model of care. Improved management of this patient population is documented as a realistic and important quest. To achieve this, an increased understanding of the patient in pain is needed, with a focus on the individuals' beliefs and perceptions of their pain, as these factors play a major influential role on coping behaviour, adjustment and outcome. In light of this, the primary aim of this study is to contribute to the knowledge of disability by qualitatively investigating over a period of time, the beliefs and experiences of a purposively selected group of chronic non-specific low back pain patients consulting in primary care. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used for this purpose. A secondary aim is to ascertain the extent to which the Self-regulation Model of Illness (SRM) can account for the pain beliefs, perceptions and behaviour of this patient population. With respect to the primary aim of the study the themes, 'the nature of low back pain and impact on self, 'low back pain in a social context YYwI orry and fear of the future', "uncertainty', 'achieving acceptance', and 'the negative impact of pain catastrophising, emerged from in-depth analysis of the baseline and follow-up interviews from the five study participants. In terms of the secondary aim, the participants' pain perceptions could be mapped onto the SRM but a number of complexities emerged that are not explained by the SRM as it currently stands. The impact that 'uncertainty'. 'comorbidityl, 'significant othe. rs', and 'acceptance'had on pain beliefs and behaviour could also not be fully accounted for by the model, highlighting a need for further research in this area.

This thesis explores the relationship between environmental affect and mental health using restorative theory as an organising framework. Environmental affect can be described as how the physical environment (home, park etc) and social context (being with a friend) influence emotion and thereby various activities and outcomes. Three types of psychological experiences are explored, theoretically grouped under the rubric “restorative”: discrete (short-term) psychological restoration, instoration (longer term strengthening of internal resources) and person-environment fit conceptualised as niche environments supportive of 1) personal goals and 2) mood regulation. Mixed research methods (qualitative and quantitative) were used to elicit the affective dimensions of different settings (natural vs. built-external vs. built-internal) across several different groups within the population. A key aim was to explore whether restorative experiences would differ between settings in adults and young people with and without mental health problems. Five studies are presented, each exploring one or more aspect of the three part restorative framework outlined above, with one additional study focusing on social restoration. Two aspects of psychological restoration are examined: firstly, mood and secondly, cognitive reflection (defined as “changes in perspective” on life tasks over time1) using personal project analysis (Little 1983). Evidence of discrete restoration: the research supports existing empirical evidence linking activity in natural settings with mood restoration and adds to the evidence base by showing the benefits also extend to manageability of life tasks. New evidence is provided showing people with variable mental health differ in their potential for restoration, both in terms of the intensity of the experience and in response to the places in which the process occurs. People with poor mental health experienced more intensive restoration in a natural setting, but also responded more favourably to the urban setting than people without mental health problems. Natural settings promoted a mental equanimity2 across individuals with variable mental health as compared to the built setting where group outcomes diverged. 1For simplification this is referred to as “mindset” in the research 2 A levelling out of mood differences iii Evidence of instoration; the research supports the notion that activity in green settings can sustain longer term instorative benefits in adults and young people with mental health problems including increased capacity for trust and recollection, exploratory behaviour and social cohesion. Evidence of person-environment fit: a. niche environments supportive of mood regulation: the research extends existing evidence by showing natural and built settings support the continuum of good mood as well as the negation of bad mood in young people. b. niche environments supportive of personal goals: natural settings support age specific needs in young people for new experiences and community cohesion (in the form of societal projects), two dimensions supportive of well-being. Affect was found to be a significant discriminator between settings with positive affect aligned with the natural environment. Conclusions: results are consistent with a restorative effect of landscape and suggest differing states of mental health moderate in restorative processes. The research has also shown that the built environment is potentially restorative amongst certain health groups. The affective quality of environments varies and the ‘personal project’ research has shown the potential impact on well-being. Items flagged for further research include firstly, the need for further evidence on the relationship between the challenge of green activity and self-esteem in poor mental health groups; and secondly, the need to identify exactly what aspects of the built environment cause restorative differences to occur (i.e. the social context v. physical).

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This research set out to enhance our understanding of what it means to live with hair loss diagnosed as alopecia areata (AA), exploring how individuals adapted over time. This was achieved through depth interview with 33 persons (19 women; 14 men) living with various levels of hair loss severity and duration. There is a growing body of quantitative evidence indicating that the condition can be emotionally, psychologically and socially devastating. This investigation explored the issue qualitatively, directly from the perspectives of those affected, so as to gain a fuller perspective on negative outcomes for men and women. Results revealed how a great deal of uncertainty accompanied the early AA career and much effort was invested as individuals attempted to make sense of their experiences and exert control over the condition. As hair loss worsened and physical appearance became increasingly `different', questions of identity and self came to the fore, causing those affected to feel that the essence of their personhood was under threat. Over time some adapted more successfully than others, although those most zealous in their efforts to keep it hidden from others undoubtedly led the most restricted lives. Both men and women expressed negative feelings about their hair loss, particularly from the head and around the eyes. However, there were also clear gender differences in meanings according to hair loss in particular body areas. Moreover, women invested more in `normalising' their appearance. I have argued that simplistic assumptions regarding the heightened threat for women undermine the gravity for men and contribute towards the difficulty many men experience in seeking and gaining support. This research represents a preliminary step towards a fuller understanding of the experience of living with AA. It is anticipated that these findings will enable professionals to improve the planning and delivery of health care for A. A.

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This dissertation emphasises a developmental perspective on intelligence-personality associations, whereby personality traits are thought to affect when, where and how people apply and invest their intelligence and thus, to shape adult intellect. A first study addressed methodological issues in computing intelligence-personality associations and demonstrated that failure to separate variances of latent traits of ability into specific and common components affects the magnitude of correlation coefficients; these distortion effects, however, were overall small suggesting negligible consequences for the understanding of intelligence-personality associations. Secondly, existing investment trait constructs were identified from the psychological literature, and their associations with indicators of adult intellect were meta-analysed. The results suggested that investment was significantly (positively) associated with intellect, and consistently so across traits and indicators. A third study confirmed that the investmen-tintellect association was not confounded by general intelligence but remained significant after controlling for ability. Subsequently, investment traits were newly conceptualised in terms of a multifaceted curiosity construct, including epistemic, perceptual and social curiosity. These facets were examined in relation to a newly developed knowledge test, which spanned thirteen domains of knowledge to comprehensively assess adult intellect. The results showed that curiosity was related to knowledge, even though associations varied in their strength and direction across curiosity facets, and they also differed in their relationship to general intelligence. Specifically, diverse perceptual curiosity, which refers to exploratory behaviour in response to sensory (e. g. visual, auditory, and tactile) stimulation, had a positive effect on knowledge independently of general intelligence. In conclusion, the investment theory was supported as an underlying mechanism of intelligence-personality associations, even though the nature of investment was found to differ from traditional conceptions. Specifically, intellect may be significantly shaped by a healthy sense of exploration and a general hunger for experience, which are not necessarily ‘intellectual’ per se.

A wealth of research has been conducted with 'typical' bilingual populations which indicate advantages over monolinguals across a range of abilities including executive functioning and working memory. It remains to be seen, however, whether the bilingual advantage is also evident in low-achieving children. In an attempt to address' this issue, the current longitudinal study aimed to examine potential developmental differences in cognitive profiles of low- and typically-achieving monolingual and bilingual children. This study involved a total of 111 participants who were recruited from both Irish-immersion and English language schools in Northern Ireland. The sample consisted of 58 bilinguals and 53 monolinguals in two age groups. 20 bilinguals were identified as low-achievers and 38 as typical-achievers; 21 monolinguals were identified as low-achievers and 32 as typical-achievers. The performance of all participants was assessed on measures of short-term and working memory;' executive functioning, receptive vocabulary, literacy and non-verbal IQ. The study involved four testing phases, each separated by approximately six months. In relation to executive functioning, older bilingual children (including low-achievers) demonstrated an advantage in inhibition skills. This finding suggests that bilingualism may have the potential to mediate some of the disadvantages associated with low-achievement. The results also indicate that short-term and working memory and executive functioning follow similar developmental trajectories in monolingual and bilingual children. In particular, the results indicate that the developmental trajectories of low-achieving bilingual children were very similar to those of their monolingual counterparts. It is argued these findings have important theoretical and practical implications. In particular, it is argued that the results of the current research demonstrate that low-achieving children have the potential to succeed in immersion education, and that bilingualism does not have any detrimental effect on the cognitive development of these children.

The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is an attitude-behaviour model that has received considerable research attention for a plethora of health topics. However, it has received little attention in the alcohol use arena among young people, particularly adolescents. The main aim of the thesis is to test the 'augmented model of the TPB that encapsulates more theory driven conceptualisations of the social norm component. The behaviour of interest is alcohol consumption. The second aim of the thesis is to utilise and test the effectiveness of brief interventions. The population of interest is young people - namely university undergraduates and adolescents. The thesis is divided into two broad sections. First, two studies that provide data to support the usefulness of the TPB as a predictor of alcohol consumption intentions and behaviour are reported. Evidence is submitted supporting the inclusion of wider conceptualisations of the social norm component to aid in the prediction of this behaviour, as well as for the inclusion of past behaviour as an important determinant of future behaviour. The data support the distinction between behavioural intentions and behavioural willingness for younger and older adolescents. Second, the effectiveness of brief intervention studies is reported. The primary aim of the interventions was to reduce alcohol consumption in adolescents and undergraduates. A secondary aim of the research was to utilise the augmented TPB as an evaluation tool to establish how effective interventions work. The first intervention study examined the effect of personalised feedback in reducing the number of weekly units consumed among university undergraduates, whilst exploring the role of social cognition variables as moderators of efficacy. Although the feedback intervention was effective at reducing behaviour, contrary to predictions, social cognition variables did not moderate the intervention; however, past behaviour was shown to moderate the relationship between condition and behaviour scores. The second intervention study examined the effect of resistance skills training in reducing drinking behaviour among adolescents. It was shown that none of the augmented TPB variables were mediators. The conclusions that can be drawn from these studies and their implications for the existing research literature are discussed.

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