The Occupational preferences of a sample of undergraduate science students from two Colleges in London were explored by means of an Occupational Preferences Questionnaire. The study was intended to explore the relation of the preference for Research or Non-Research Occupations to other dimensions of Psychological relevance: Intelligence, Personality Factors, Values,Orientations to work satisfaction and Conformity. A classification of occupations in Science, according to the Research - Non-Research criterion was obtained by means of a Principal Components Analysis. Persons who preferred the Research Occupations tended to be more reserved, detached, critical and cool, rather than easy-going persons; to like things or words rather than dealing with people, to enjoy working alone but at the same time liking intellectual companionship and to be self-sufficient rather than group-dependent and accustomed to making their own decisions. The mean personality profile (l6 P.F.) for those who preferred the Research Occupations was found to be very similar to the "Typical Profile" of the research scientists. However, no very strong differences in personality factors were found between those who preferred research occupations and those who preferred other occupations. The main difference between these groups was on their conformity scores as measured by a conformity test developed by the researcher. Thus, those who preferred research occupations scored significantly lower inconformity than those who liked teaching, administration, sales, etc. Refinement of the Conformity Test is suggested as it may be a useful instrument in selection procedures. The general pattern of occupational values expressed by this sample was found to be similar to those reported for College Students in previous literature. Persons who preferred Research Occupations valued the interest of the work most highly while those who had other occupational preferences placed a higher value on meeting or working with people.

The primary object of the present investigation was to test the inverted 'U' model developed by investigators of 'arousal' in the west and of the 'strength of the excitatory process' in the Soviet Union to explain the relationship between a variety of factors and measures of behavioural, subjective and physiological response. In the present project adult human subjects took part in four experiments. The following factors were investigated in one or more of them: introversion, neuroticism, 'strength of the excitatory process', stimulus intensity, stimulus duration, signal frequency, signal probability, accessory stimulation, time on task, task repetition and time of cay. Measures of psychoticism were also taken. The response indices included: gustatory measures, reaction time, signal detection theory measures, vigilance scores, autonomic indices and measures of subjective state. Support for the model emerged most strongly in the form of certain lower order interactions between the factors, for example between introversion and neuroticism for simple auditory reaction time, and between neuroticism and time of day for the speed of response to signals in a vigilance task. Support from higher order interactions was less forthcoming. Compared to low N subjects, high N subjects scored relatively low on the 'strength of the excitatory process' as measured by Nebylitsyn's index of the slope of the simple visual reaction time / stimulus intensity function. It was suggested, furthermore, that previously discrepant findings with respect-to introversion using this measure nay have been due to response bias effects, though experimental test of this idea yielded non-significant results. Though only partial support for the model was obtained it was considered to remain a useful conceptual tool, and possible practical implications were discussed.

Objective This research explored the experience of self-compassion in women with eating difficulties who completed an eight-week compassionate mind training group. Background Research that examines self-compassion has mainly focused on the general population and the methods utilised mainly involve quantitative methodologies, such as questionnaires or surveys. Therefore, it appeared important to conduct this research by exploring participants’ lived experiences. Methods To collect data, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven women between the ages of 25 and 51 years old. All participants were fluent in English and they had participated in the therapy group one to three years prior to taking part in this research. Results During the analysis stage four superordinate themes were developed: “A Whole New World – Journey towards discovering and describing self-compassion”, “It’s a Long Way To The Top – Journey towards finding self compassion”, “Journey For Life – Journey towards integrating self-compassion in life” and “A Trouble Shared Is a Trouble Halved – The experience of being in therapy group”. Each of these themes encompasses three sub-themes. The analysis of the data represents my understanding and interpretation of the participants’ lived experiences. Conclusion These themes were further discussed in relation to the literature and attempts were made to explore how compassionate mind therapy could be introduced in the treatment of eating disorders. The findings of this study provide some insight for Counselling Psychologists and other mental health practitioners that work with individuals suffering with eating disorders.

The main objective of this thesis is to demonstrate that individuals strategically change their facial expressions and other emotional behaviour in order to enhance their image in the eyes of a potential romantic partner. In three empirical chapters I report eight studies examining four different effects. The first two of these effects concern female self-presentational behaviour (Chapters 2 and 3), while the second two concern male self-presentational behaviour (Chapter 4). More specifically, in Chapter 2 I provide evidence for the hypothesis that when in a romantic mindset, females show less negative emotion to infants. In Chapter 3, I demonstrate that females motivated to attract a long-term partner present themselves in ways that suggest that they are likely to be faithful. Finally, in Chapter 4, I show that in the presence of an attractive female, males present themselves as fearless in reaction to a horror film and as affectionate towards children. I argue that positive reactions to infants, propensity to be faithful and fearlessness are advertised because they are desired by the opposite sex for various evolutionary reasons. The data I present also show that – with one exception – the presence of a potential romantic partner does not affect participants’ emotional experiences despite affecting their emotional expressions. Thus, for example, when males augment their expression of affection towards infants, their feelings towards the infants do not change. Overall, the work described in this thesis adds to the growing body of research showing that individuals engage in self-presentation in romantic contexts using various social and non-social behaviours (Mori, Chaiken, & Pliner, 1987; Griskevicius, Cialdini, & Kenrick, 2006), by showing that they engage in self-presentation using nonverbal behaviour associated with emotional states.

In organisation studies there has been an increasing interest in ‘identity work' – that is, the processes through which people's identities become constructed. The role that others play, along with the self, in identity work has, with varying degrees of emphasis, been a recurrent theme both in the contemporary literature and in its classical antecedents. Extant research leaves scope for further investigation of how others are present within identity working processes and this thesis is primarily concerned with the elaboration and understanding of the centrality of others to the working of identities. An interest in this area stemmed from my professional occupation and its context in a performing arts organisation. My observation of the constructions of the identities of my colleagues and myself was forming prior to my engagement in a formal research role. I adopted an interpretivist perspective, an ethnographic and autoethnographic method and an abductive analytical approach. The data collection was achieved through: field note collection; autoethnographic reflection; semi structured and interactive interviewing; and a reflexive diary. The thesis seeks to augment the identity work literature by applying and elaborating previously under-used theories, in particular, reflexive imagination in Cooley's ‘Looking Glass Self' (1902/1983) and ‘social ghosts' (Gergen, 2001). These ideas are synthesised to produce an understanding of the significance of others to identity working and the processes through which they impact on identity construction. A detailed explication of the qualities of social ghosts and the ways in which actors use them in interaction (identity work moves) leads to more profound understandings of how people work identities in relation to others. This reveals that identity emerges in an interactive process that is other-multiple, tentative and reactive, and which is underpinned by imagining the self in relation to others.

In the field of social science, it is commonly acknowledged that we are what we do. 'Learning to be you' is a qualitative, longitudinal study, which examines career transitions from the British Army to civilian life. This study is not about the success or failure of any particular feature of the administrative process. It is concerned with people's identity, and by focussing on identity, certain successes and failures of the journey become visible. This study is multifaceted, just as identity is complicated and heterogeneous. Consequently, I have sought to develop a collaborative academic framework, combining the psychoanalytical theories of Freud, the discourse paradigms of Foucault, the structuralist perspectives of Bourdieu and the performed identities of Goffman. I envisage gliding surfaces of identity and I use the four theorists to account for these interrelating planes. Two main questions are addressed. How do transitions from the British Army to civilian life impact on identity? How does an institutionalised identity, positioned by rank and structure have to adapt to civilian career transitions? The findings illustrate a learning to cope via adaptation that is simultaneously frightening yet also emancipating. Even in successful transitions, there is disturbance and largely these prominent upheavals at the point of service departure have become normalised' within the military community. The key conclusions made by my study are: • Ex- service personnel have to adjust and modify their identity to fit to the new civilian environment. The adjustment can be painful, emancipating and it can be sudden to the individual. • Stress and risk at the point of service departure has been normalised. • Greater visibility of the civilian world is essential in order to make the best career choices. • Some military jobs have greater transferability than others do. • A predictability matrix may provide practitioners and service leavers with a helpful assessment of the resettlement spectrum. • Indications point toward an increasing need to consider wider post-discharge resettlement provision. • Further longitudinal resettlement research is required with the findings made available to key practitioners. 1 I use the term normalised to refer to the perceived natural concept of service departure. At some point, an individual must leave the military; however, those in transition report that it is far from natural.

Hierarchy is a defining feature of groups (Berger et al., 1972; Fiske, 2010; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). In this thesis I examined what it takes to climb up this hierarchy in face-to-face groups. I did so from three angles: what people need to do in order to attain status, what kind of person people need to be in order to attain status, and what people may need to sacrifice in order to attain status. Moreover, I assessed the moderating effect on these relations of two fundamental processes underlying group hierarchies: dominance (i.e., assertively claiming status) and prestige (i.e., willingly being granted status). Before addressing the main questions of this thesis, I examined the impact of dominance and prestige processes on perceptions of group hierarchy types (Chapter 2). A vignette study found that assertively claiming status for oneself and willingly being granted status both emerged as viable ways of enhancing perceived status, above and beyond formal status. It also found that, at the group level, each type of process worked against the other: perceptions of each were undermined by mixing it with the other. This finding implies that groups can be classed along a hierarchy type continuum, ranging from highly dominance-based to highly prestige-based. Having empirically established how dominance and prestige processes jointly shape the types of hierarchies that exist in groups, I addressed the main questions of this thesis in a series of experimental and naturalistic studies. In Chapter 3, I examined the interpersonal behaviours that promote status in different types of group hierarchies. I found that agentic behaviour promoted status both in dominance-based and in prestige-based hierarchies. In contrast, communal behaviour augmented status in prestige-based hierarchies, but diminished status in dominance-based hierarchies. Thus, I found that status attainment is associated with diametrically different interpersonal behaviours in different hierarchy types. In Chapter 4, I assessed how the self-appraisals of people who engage in different status-promoting behaviours differ. I found that self-esteem was associated with behaviour that was high in agency and high in communion, whereas narcissism was associated with behaviour that was high in agency and low in communion. Thus, self-esteem related to behaviours that promote status in prestige-based groups, whereas narcissism related to behaviours that promote status in dominance-based groups. In Chapter 5, an experimental study found that the interpersonal warmth towards individuals increased with status in relatively prestige-based hierarchies and decreased with status in relatively dominance-based hierarchies. In other words, in prestige-based groups, being liked and being included were liable to go hand-in-hand, whereas in dominance-based groups, there was a trade-off between them: to attain status one might need to sacrifice inclusion. However, this finding needs to be interpreted with caution as I failed to replicate it in a subsequent naturalistic study. Together, these findings presented in this thesis convincingly demonstrate that hierarchy type is a diversifying feature of groups. As such, they powerfully illustrate the importance of distinguishing between dominance-based and prestige-based groups.

The academic study of how people respond to adverse life experiences has been dominated by Western conceptualisations of distress, resilience and growth. The current literature base regarding responses to adversity has been criticised for focusing on one response trajectory (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; PTSD). This criticism stems from the privileging of Western understandings of the self and for negating to consider sufficiently the role of context (the available social, cultural and political discourses). The significance of this void in the literature is that it has led to the development of models and theories which could be considered culturally insensitive, if applied outside of the context from which they have derived. This research addresses the highlighted gap in the literature by exploring how the context of Sierra Leone influences how people respond to the experience of Civil War and continuing adversity. Nine in-depth interviews were carried out within two ‘mental health’ organisations in Sierra Leone. The participants were nine individuals and one group, consisting of both ‘patients’ and staff members. The qualitative methodology of Narrative Analysis was used to analyse both the stories people told and the stories which may have remained unexpressed. A focus was placed during analysis on the role of context and the dialogic process. The main findings of the research indicated that the cultural resources within Sierra Leone both influenced and constrained the narratives which individuals were able to tell. ‘Stories of Survival’ seemed to be told through two dominant social narratives of ‘Bear it, and Forget’ and ‘Because of Almighty God, we Forgive’. ‘Stories of Resistance’ however, demonstrate what was implied but often left unsaid, this is characterised by two main unexpressed stories; ‘We Cannot Forget’ and ‘Why God?’. Furthermore, findings suggest that it is the relationship between the dominant social narratives and individual meaning-making which influences the trajectory of stories told. The implications of this research request a commitment to valuing the role of social context in conceptualisations of distress, resilience and growth following adversity. Finally, the need to establish ways of offering support to individuals and communities, which fully considers the role of social context, is emphasised. This paper concludes by exploring the relevance of social content for the planning of services, training programmes and continuing clinical practice.

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The majority of research on academic procrastination has been conducted among undergraduate students, and there is relatively little research investigating procrastination among doctoral students. PhD students are different from undergraduates: they might need a higher level of self-regulatory ability to conduct research. The aim of this thesis was to fill the research gap in the investigation of academic procrastination among PhD students in the UK. More specifically, the current investigation combined different perspectives to examine the extent to which PhD students procrastinate, explores the relationships between a variety of psychological variables, doctoral satisfaction and academic procrastination, and identifies the antecedents and influence of procrastination in relation to PhD students’ own experience. This thesis comprises three studies. Firstly, a cross-sectional study (N=285) was conducted in order to assess the relationship between doctoral satisfaction, Big Five personality traits, self-efficacy, self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and academic procrastination. In Study 2, a longitudinal research design was employed to examine the stability of the identified relationships over a 12-month period (N=79). The results indicated that doctoral satisfaction and depression had long-term influence on PhD students’ procrastinatory behaviour. In addition, conscientiousness was found to have an effect on academic procrastination only in the cross-sectional study, while openness was found to predict procrastination longitudinally. Moreover, doctoral satisfaction also had meditional effect on the relationship between personality traits, self-efficacy, anxiety, and procrastination. In Study 3, the antecedents and consequences of academic procrastination in terms of UK PhD students’ own perspectives were explored in twenty-one in-depth interviews. Data were thematically analysed and a description of the themes concerning antecedents, positive and negative consequences of procrastination, and coping strategies used to help reduce procrastination, is provided. The findings indicates that PhD students’ procrastination is a multifaceted phenomenon with cognitive, affective, and behavioul factors influencing its likelihood. Causes and effects of academic procrastination among PhD students are discussed on the basis of findings from the quantitative and qualitative studies, by considering individual differences, psychological state, and contextual factors in a new conceptual model of academic procrastination. The findings point to a range of possible procrastination-reduction interventions focused on doctoral satisfaction and psychological wellbeing. The strengths and limitations of this work are discussed.