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The thesis is in two parts: the first is an empirical and philosophical investigation of children's drawing practices, with particular reference to an interpretation of the work of Georges-Henri Luquet 1876 – 1965. Luquet's work is interrogated first by additional empirical evidence, and second by drawing philosophical resources from both Bergson, and from the phenomenological tradition. The second part of this thesis is a body of work, which explores types of process (some of which are derived from observations of children's processes), through experimentation in my own Fine Art practice; and reflection upon its development and significance is found throughout the written thesis, but especially in Chapter 3. Additional empirical evidence, documentation, and papers on both parts, are found in the Appendix and in an exhibition timed to coincide with the doctoral examination. The first chapter both presents and critically examines the elements Luquet identified of 'intention', 'interpretation', 'the type', 'the internal model' and 'predilection' in relation to attention and intentionality. Luquet's analysis and observations will be used to construct an initial model of process, which is critically re-examined and expanded in Chapter 2 through a historical revision of process in Fine Art and analyses of material made by children spontaneously and without instruction using found materials. Chapter 3 is comprised of a series of reflections on series in my own practice, and experiments derived from the taxonomy of processes constructed from analysis of the material presented in Chapter 2. It raises questions about the nature of certain types of intuition and attention, which are then discussed in Chapter 4 through examining the relation between attention and intentionality, and 'categorical intuition' as defined by Husserl. Luquet's term Circumspection will be compared with Heidegger's use of the term (Umsicht),in Being and Time, and reference will be made to the later development of Heidegger's thought in 'The Origin of the Work of Art', in particular the concepts of Ereignis and Gelassenheit. A fully revised model of process is proposed at the end of Chapter 4. It will be argued that the questions raised can only be answered if at all, through our embodied relation with the world via late Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty's concepts of operative intentionality; the practical cogito; and the pre-cognitive realm. The Conclusion presents the findings of the enquiry, what Phenomenology has brought to it, and directions for future research.

The aim of the present research was to analyze parent-child emotion talk and parent-child physical touch and their relation with children's understanding of emotions. A total of sixty¬three children (30 girls and 33 boys), aged 4 (M= 53.35 months, SD = 3.86; range = 48 - 60 months) and ö-years-old (M= 76.62 months, SD = 3.91; range = 72- 84 months) participated with both of their parents. Parent-child interviews took place in the participants' own homes. On a first visit, the mother or the father and the child completed two storytelling tasks. One of these tasks involved a storytelling task and the other involved a four events reminiscence task. Within a minimum of one day and a maximum of seven days, the other parent and the child completed the same two tasks. Parent-child emotion talk and parent-child physical touch was analyzed throughout both tasks. The findings indicated that mothers and fathers did not differ in how they talk about emotions. Indeed, mothers' and fathers' talk correlated with each other and with their children's emotion talk. However, mothers and fathers talked more about emotions with their daughters than with their sons. Parents discussed more often happiness with their daughters than with their sons. No gender or age differences were found in children's emotion talk. The analysis of parent-child touch revealed that where age differences were found, findings indicated that parent-child touch decreased as children grow older. Where parent gender differences were found, results show that mothers were more physically affectionate than are fathers. In addition, children completed twice a standardised test of emotion understanding (Test of Emotion Comprehension, TEC). On the first occasion the TEC was administered before one of the two parent-child storytelling sessions. Six months later it was administered again. Findings indicated that emotion understanding is predicted by prior emotion understanding. Above and beyond prior emotion understanding, fathers' emotion explanations during the events task predicted children's emotion understanding and mothers' use of emotion labels during the storytelling task predicted children's emotion understanding. On the contrary, parents' physical touch was not related to children's emotion understanding. Finally, children completed a test (Test of Behavioural Consequences of Emotions, TBCE) analyzing the relation between emotions and their behavioural consequences. Six-year-old children had a greater understanding that emotions influence situations than did four-year-old children. Moreover, understanding that emotions influence situations was related to mentalistic aspects of emotion understanding. The implications of these findings for future research on children's socializations of emotions are discussed.

Rachman (1977) suggested that fears may be acquired via three distinct pathways: direct traumatic experience, verbal information received from others, and vicarious learning. In vicarious fear learning an individual learns from another individual by observing their response to a stimulus or situation. Mineka and Cook (1993) showed that in monkeys this observed fear response behaves as an unconditioned stimulus (US). Thus vicarious learning is likely to be similar, in a procedural sense, to classical conditioning and the success of learning is determined by the relative strength of these conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) associations. Recent studies suggest that vicarious learning plays a role in the development of childhood fears (Askew & Field, 2007; Gerull & Rapee, 2002). However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this type of learning and the factors that affect it. Associative learning research shows that the salience of the US (a measure of its effectiveness) is critical for learning, if the US is more salient, learning should be more effective. Therefore, the first group of experiments in this thesis manipulated factors expected to affect US salience and hence vicarious fear learning. Experiment 1 considered the importance of the relatedness of observers and models for US salience, specifically whether greater increases in children's fear-related responses are observed when fear responses are modelled by children's mothers compared to when they are modelled by strangers. It also looked at whether fear beliefs acquired vicariously can be unlearned via vicarious counterconditioning and whether the type of model influenced this. Results showed that children's fear responses for animals increased following fear-related vicarious learning and decreased following positive learning. Similarly, counterconditioning led to unlearning of these responses. Model type did not affect vicarious learning or subsequent vicarious counterconditioning. Experiment 2 looked at another factor expected to affect US salience: the age of the model relative to the observer. This experiment examined the relative effects of same-age peer modelling and adult modelling in changing children's fear-related responses. Results were nearly identical to the first experiment: learning and unlearning were similar irrespective of whether the model was a peer or an adult. Experiment 3 examined what effect the richness of the information source has on US salience using moving models (on film) compared to still (photographic) images. No significant effect of the threat-relevant vicarious film on children's fear beliefs and attentional bias was found. The second group of experiments concentrate on characteristics of the CS. Research with adults suggests that when fear-relevant stimuli are used, fear learning will generally be greater (produce a larger conditioned response), occur more rapidly (in fewer trials) and will be more robust (demonstrate superior resistance to extinction) than for fear-irrelevant stimuli (see e.g. Öhman & Mineka, 2001). However, Askew, Dunne, Özdil, Reynolds, and Field (2013) showed that vicariously acquired conditioned responses for fear-relevant stimuli were not significantly greater than those for fear-irrelevant stimuli in children (6 to 11 years). A further two experiments here examined the speed and robustness of vicariously learned responses for fear-relevant stimuli. Experiment 4 manipulated the number of CS-US pairings children saw and compared vicarious learning for two stimuli of differing fear-relevance. Results found increased fear-related responses for both types of stimuli: the effect was not affected by the fear-relevance of the stimuli, nor the number of CS- US pairings that children were exposed to. Fear beliefs were still found to be raised at follow-up one week later, and no . evidence was found for more robust learning for more fear-relevant stimuli. The final experiment, Experiment 5, looked at robustness in more detail. The resistance of learnt responses to extinction was compared in two stimuli of varying fear- -. relevance (animals and flowers). Significant increases in fear-related beliefs and avoidance for animals and flowers were found again, but there was no significant extinction effect observed for avoidance preferences for either CS type. Unexpectedly, significantly greater extinction was observed with fear beliefs for animals compared to flowers. In summary, the first set of experiments showed that in VL with children, the salience of the US is either not easy to manipulate or, more likely, US salience has little effect on fear learning. The second set of experiments demonstrated that the fear-relevance of the stimulus is also not important for children in VL. These findings may have an evolutionary explanation: for children of this age, acquiring knowledge of a potential threat and acting upon it may be more important in terms of survival than the salience/relevance of the US or CS that facilitates such acquisition.

Improving the outcomes of children exposed to criminogenic risks and displaying early delinquent behaviour is of paramount importance if England and Wales are to succeed in their fight to reduce criminality. This PhD explored factors affecting delinquency in early adolescence. It begins with an exploratory study using semi-structured interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Young people who had experienced criminality but who had largely desisted were interviewed individually. Participants’ responses led to questions which correspond well with those trending in adult corrections, regarding the efficacy of building offenders’ strengths as opposed to focusing on their deficiencies. Prominent themes emerging from interviews mapped well onto those raised by the Self Determination Theory of Need and the Good Lives Model of Offender Rehabilitation as being fundamental to psychological well-being and optimal functioning. Deficits (in the form of interpersonal problem solving [ICPS] skills) and strengths (in the form of hope and possible selves) were then explored with a sample of 126 boys aged 11-13 in London, to understand which were more useful when considering ‘what works’ in preventing child offending. A self reported measure of delinquency was completed by all participants as was a demographics form which collected information on six well-established criminogenic risk factors. The first quantitative study explored three ICPS skills empirically shown to be to be relevant to delinquency. The three skills were Means-End Problem Solving, Consequential Thinking and Alternative Thinking. Correlations existed between deficits in each of these ICPS skills and self reported delinquency, in line with previous research. Correlations also existed between deficits and criminogenic risks. However, it was evident that the acquisition and application of skills is both dependent on social environment and requires some personal relevance to be adopted. The second quantitative study considers the role of hope in protecting young people against criminality through the use of the Children’s Hope Scale (CHS). The CHS assesses two components of hope; Pathways thought (the ability to generate strategies to reach goals) and Agentic thinking (the perceived capacity to utilise strategies to reach individual goals). Results suggested that exposure to certain criminogenic risks affects the development of hope, and that low levels of hope affects participants’ propensity for delinquency. The impact of having high hope on delinquency was most significant for those with high criminogenic risks. Further analysis showed hope to be a more useful predictor variable for delinquency than ICPS skill. This has implications for interventions, especially so given the extent to which ICPS skills are targeted in preventative and corrective treatments across the world. Lastly, Study 4 explores the short-term hoped-for and feared ‘possible selves’ of the individuals within the sample. Results indicated few differences between the quantity and content of short-term possible selves articulated by high and low delinquency groups. However, the more delinquent participants were more likely to give longer-term aspirations associated with celebrity and wealth and could articulate fewer and less realistic strategies for reaching their goals. Towards the end of this PhD, it became apparent that although each quantitative chapter is largely independent, there is a unifying thread between them; the ability to plan. This planning is one of the ICPS skills (Means End Problem Solving), a component of hope (pathways thinking) and is a necessary skill in order to reach possible selves. It is proposed that instead of being embedded within broader psychological theories that planning should play a more central part in interventions, especially given the number of obstacles young people ‘at-risk’ of offending need to negotiate. This unites deficit and strengths based perspectives and would be personally applicable and therefore motivating for the young people involved.

Introduction Behavioural and externalising disorders are estimated to affect around seven per cent of those aged 9 to 15, and may account for one third to a half of all clinical referrals. Without intervention, the projected outcomes for these children are likely to be poor. This study aimed to explore whether there is a relationship between child and parent emotion regulation strategies. The study also investigated the relationship between children’s emotion regulation and conduct difficulties. Method A cross sectional design was used to determine the relationship between emotion regulation strategies used by children and their parents, in a non-clinical population. Children were recruited through primary schools and were between the ages of 9 to 11. Children completed two questionnaires: one measuring emotion regulation strategies (external-functional, external-dysfunctional, internal-functional, internaldysfunctional), and a second measuring their general well-being. Parents also completed two questionnaires: one measuring emotion regulation strategies and a second measuring their child's behaviour and emotional well-being. Results The analysis indicated that there were some correlations between parent-child emotion regulation strategies; children and mothers external-dysfunctional strategies were correlated, as were children and mothers internal-functional strategies. The analysis also indicated that there was a correlation between children's externaldysfunctional strategies and conduct difficulties.

Background - Research suggests that individuals with complex mental health problems may experience problems expressing compassion to themselves and others. Difficult life experiences can lead to fears of compassion, which block such feelings and their expression. Expression of compassion can arise from self to others, others to self and self to self. Compassion is usually measured using self-report questionnaires. It has been suggested that interview based methods may be helpful for individuals with complex mental health problems who are fearful of compassion. Aims - The current study aimed to further develop a narrative based measure of compassion by explicitly exploring memories of compassion. All interviews were transcribed, anonymised and coded. Scores derived from the ‘Narrative Compassion Scale ‘NCS’ were compared with self-report measures of compassion, childhood trauma as well as attachment anxiety and avoidance. Design - A cross-sectional mixed methods design was used with a within subjects condition and two between subjects groups. Methods – A total of 27 participants gave their voluntary and informed consent to enter the study: 13 were diagnosed with Schizophrenia and 14 with Complex Trauma. All participants participated in an interview exploring their understanding of compassion as well as their memories of compassion linked to expressing compassion to others, from others to self and from self to self. Self-report measures of compassion, childhood trauma and attachment anxiety and avoidance were also completed. Results – Participants scored highest on compassion flowing from the self to others and lowest on compassion flowing from self to self, with compassion flowing from others to self situated in-between. There were no associations between the NCS and self-ratings of compassion, as well as between the NCS and levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance. There were also no associations between the NCS and self-ratings regarding fears of compassion, except for greater fears of compassion from others being significantly correlated with lower levels of compassionate understanding. Greater trauma was linked to higher levels of narrative coded compassion and a general trend indicated greater trauma was associated with lower self-reported compassion. Implications - Findings will help provide further insights into psychological processes that can be addressed within psychotherapy and facilitate exploration of compassion in complex mental health problems.

The introductory chapter provides a brief exploration of the history of childhood, and childhood representations, in Western popular thinking over the last 500 years. It also provides a brief discussion of the implications of these representations on policy, the study of children, and adult social cognition. In Chapter 2, two experiments explore the potential effects of including children in representations of outgroups on attitudes towards the outgroup, with inconclusive findings. In Chapter 3, three experiments explore the effects of priming the category of children on impressions of a novel ambiguous target (the Donald paradigm). Methodological issues and inconsistent findings mar the interpretation of effects, but an improved set of category labels for future studies of child category priming are considered in the general discussion. In Chapter 4 I take a step back and systematically explore the ways in which different childhood age groups (babies, toddlers, children, and teenagers) are represented. The first stage of data collection determined the typical age boundaries identified for children and the labels by which we delineate these different age groups. The next stage identified the emotions, beliefs, and behaviours relevant to attitudes to these groups in an open-ended listing exercise. There were differences in the content and endorsement of attitude components towards the age groups, with broadly more negative components towards older child groups than younger ones. In addition, there were fewer nurturing related components but more reparative behaviours as the age of the child increased. Chapter 5 built on these findings by developing the Child Attitude Component Scale (CACS) and testing the convergent and discriminant validity of this scale. Scores on the CACS were related but distinct from scores on measures about beliefs about humanity in general, such as the Humanity Esteem Scale and Polarity Scale. The CACS was also distinct from individual differences in emotional regulation and appraisal, self-esteem, social desirability responding and beliefs about social hierarchy. Potential spheres for testing the CACS as a predictive tool in situations concerning children are discussed alongside limitations and future directions in Chapter 6.

In this thesis I investigated the relationship between fathers’ antisocial and physically aggressive behaviour and toddlers’ behaviour. Previous work has largely ignored fathers or seen fathers only as an influence on mothers and little is known about fathers’ aggressiveness. Families were recruited for the Cardiff Child Development Study (CCDS), which is a prospective longitudinal study of parents and their children. Parents were interviewed about their own behaviours during pregnancy and the children were assessed at intervals until 33 months of age (Chapter 2 describes the study design). Chapter 3 examined associations between the antisocial behaviour of the couple. Although men committed more antisocial behaviours than women, there were associations between partners’ rates of both violent and non-violent antisocial behaviours. The relationship between fathers’ antisocial behaviours and young children’s behaviour was explored in Chapter 4. Fathers’ non-violnt antisocial symptoms were associated with mothers’ reports of toddlers’ aggressiveness. Fathers’ physical aggressiveness was associated with infants’ contentious behaviours, toddlers’ aggressiveness and observations of toddlers’ use of force against a peer. When physical aggressiveness was considered more closely a component relating specifically to toddlers’ physical aggressiveness was identified. Fathers’ physical aggressiveness was associated with toddlers’ physical aggressiveness, which suggests a homotypic continuity in physical aggressiveness between fathers and toddlers. All of the associations between fathers’ and toddlers’ behaviours remained significant after controlling for the mothers’ behaviours. Thus, fathers’ behaviours provide unique contributions towards toddlers’ behaviours independently of the mothers’ behaviours. Since antisocial fathers are more likely to be absent fathers Chapter 5 examined the relationship between fathers’ physical aggressiveness and father absence. Although father absence was associated with fathers’ physical aggressiveness, it did not explain the association between fathers’ and toddlers’ physical aggressiveness. Together these findings show that fathers are important to study in their own right, rather than as an influence on mothers.

Background: Compared with the body of research exploring children's understanding of health and illness, children's understanding of psychological concepts has been less widely studied; although research does indicate that young children may have some understanding of psychological terms such as depression. There is also a paucity of research considering young children's perceptions of stress within their daily lives. This thesis explored children's knowledge, understanding, and experience of stress from 4- to 11-years of age. Method: The preliminary studies provided a methodological inquiry, using focus groups (N=31), semi-structured interviews (N=50), and forced choice (N=39) methods. A larger-scale study (N=353) using a draw-and-tell technique, followed by a semi-structured interview was then conducted. The findings from children were compared with adult online-survey data [N=91/73] and interviews [N=20]. Findings: The methodological inquiry demonstrated that the interview method was the most appropriate to use in this thesis, but that it was necessary to develop a rapport with the child prior to future interviews, in order to put him/her at ease with the researcher. Across the studies, many children reported seeing other people who had been stressed, as well as having personal experience of stress. The themes identified included biological, psychological (cognitive, emotional, and behavioural), and social factors. Some of the youngest children (aged 4-5) did have rudimentary knowledge of stress but this was generally limited to emotional and behavioural factors. Some children in middle childhood (aged 7-9) also talked about social and cognitive elements, and some of the oldest children (aged 9-11) additionally mentioned biological factors. Conclusion: Children’s understanding became more adult-like with increasing age, although children's conceptualisations were different to adults. The findings have theoretical implications for psychology, as well as practical implications for healthcare and educational professionals, for example, the findings may enable individuals to provide age-appropriate information to help children understand and manage stress, using a biopsychosocial framework.