This thesis investigated whether an expressive writing intervention known as emotional disclosure improved health related variables at follow up. Emotional disclosure is a technique whereby participants write or talk in private about a traumatic, stressful or upsetting event, usually from their past, for a short time such as one hour in total. A systematic review of 61 emotional disclosure randomised controlled trials found no significant effects of the intervention on a wide variety of health related outcomes including objectively measured disease status and health seeking behaviour such as health centre or GP visits. It also had little effect on psychological outcomes such as anxiety, depression and the impact of events. Many outcomes were not fully reported and some showed conflicting results but no trials showed worse objectively measured health related variables following the intervention. A high quality randomised controlled trial was undertaken where one hundred healthy University of Birmingham students were randomised to standard emotional disclosure writing or neutral writing control and all followed up at 3 months for illnesses, health centre visits and questionnaire measures of general psychological health and self-esteem. There was no difference found in almost all health-related measures except that the control group had more health visits at baseline which was not mirrored at follow up, suggesting that either expressive writing may have resulted in more health visits for the intervention group following writing or that the baseline difference was a chance finding. Emotional disclosure had no effect on selfreported illnesses, general psychological health and self-esteem. There is no clear evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of emotional disclosure, but no clear evidence of harm either. The evidence suggests that this intervention has very little effect, contrary to the impression given in the academic literature.

The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review and evaluation of the psychological literature pertaining to mechanisms of mindfulness meditation. Mechanisms explored include meta-cognitive change, exposure, acceptance, relaxation, self management and changes in body-state feedback. A number of different methodological approaches have been used to explore these mechanisms. Examples of each approach are explored and limitations described. The vast majority of research into mindfulness has focused on treatment outcome studies which reveal little about what mechanisms are activated by mindfulness meditation. Other approaches have yielded some preliminary support for each of the proposed mechanisms although this support is methodologically weak. It is argued that there have been few direct tests of these mechanims and that this is a priority for future mindfulness research.

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"Aha" moments of insight are considered fundamental to personal transformational but the phenomenology of insight and intuition are poorly understood phenomena (Levitt et ai, 2004). Life coaching has little to say on the subject since the body of literature relating to coaching is still in its foetal stages (Griffiths, 2005). This research addresses both of these problems by exploring whether "Aha" moments are fundamental to the transformational change sought by the "Co-Active" model of life coaching (Whitworth et ai, 1998, 2007). A grounded theory methodology was employed to investigate the phenomenology of insight. Participants were selected for their use of the Co-Active coaching model and their willingness to render phenomenological accounts of "Aha" moments. Co-Active coaches and their clients recorded their experiences of insight during coaching sessions. Methods involved diary-keeping, questionnaires and interviews. Diaries captured the lived experience of the "Aha" moment while questionnaires and interviews revealed its lingering effects on beliefs and behaviours. Each phase of data collection informed the next. By comparing the findings of this research with other fields of inquiry into insight, an integral methodological element was added to the grounded approach. Findings reveal the "Aha" moment to induce 'alethia' the Greek term meaning to step out of lethargy and into truth. The moment can be experienced not only cognitively but somatically and emotionally, striking many chords across a spectrum of consciousness from body, to mind, to soul to spirit. The more chords the "Aha" moment strikes, the greater the resonance and potential for cognitive and behavioural change. Findings suggest that insight comes from intuition and can arise in cognition as a purely mental event or can be experienced in transpersonal ways, where such intuition is described as 'spiritual'. The study suggests that the ontology of a truly holistic coaching model would offer the possibility of transformational change at the levels of ego, mind, body, soul and spirit. Key words: Aha moment, insight, intuition, Co-Active coaching, spectrum of consciousness, transformational change. 2

The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the effectiveness of a 5-minute online mindfulness practice, and test its applications to social judgements including attribution and decision-making. The seven experiments (N = 959) presented in this thesis address an important gap in the current literature on mindfulness. Specifically: 1) the empirical test of the effectiveness of a 5-minute, single-session, online mindfulness manipulation and; 2) the impact of a brief mindfulness manipulation on social judgements. At present, the majority of mindfulness research has focused on multiple sessions of practice over a number of weeks as part of a course, usually aimed at clinical populations, and at enhancing trait mindfulness (Brown & Ryan, 2003). There is evidence that such courses can be effectively delivered online (Allexandre, Neuman, Hunter, Morledge, & Roizen, 2012; Krusche, Cyhlarova, King, & Williams, 2012; Krusche, Cyhlarova, & Williams, 2013; Morledge et al., 2013) and emerging evidence for the use of single-session mindfulness with non-clinical samples (Erisman & Roemer, 2010; Heppner et al., 2008; Hong, Lishner, & Han, 2014; Hooper, Erdogan, Keen, Lawton, & Mchugh, 2015a; Jordan, Wang, Donatoni, & Meier, 2014; Kiken & Shook, 2011; Papies, Barsalou, & Custers, 2012; Weger, Hooper, Meier, & Hopthrow, 2012) that aims to increase state mindfulness (Bishop et al., 2004; Lau et al., 2006). In addition, although mindfulness exercises are readily available online and via smartphone apps, there has yet to be an empirical investigation of the effectiveness of self-help online practices, and whether brief, single-session practices actually enhance levels of mindfulness. Based on evidence that some people prefer to complete such practices in their own surroundings (Beattie, Shaw, Kaur, & Kessler, 2009; Cavanagh et al., 2013), and that a smartphone app was preferred to an in-person and web-based mindfulness practice, it is expected that a short (5-minute) single-session, online mindfulness manipulation will effectively increase state mindfulness, measured by the Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS, Lau et al., 2006). Mindfulness is thought to be effective in slowing automatic responding (Jordan et al., 2014; Kiken & Shook, 2011; Papies et al., 2012) and may reduce reliance on previously learnt associations (Langer & Moldoveanu, 2000b), allowing attention to be refocused on aspects of the environment that usually go unnoticed. As such, it has the potential to reduce errors in attribution. Reliance on automatic processes in social judgements can be detrimental for social harmony. For example, the mindless use of heuristics and stereotypes in person judgement can lead to prejudice and discrimination (Abrams, 2010). Furthermore, dysfunctional group dynamics can lead to poorly made decisions (Berger & Zelditch, 1998; Larson, Foster-Fishman, & Franz, 1998; Stasser & Stewart, 1992; Stasser, Taylor, & Hanna, 1989). With this in mind, the beneficial effects that mindfulness can have on interpersonal relationships (e.g. increased empathy; Block-Lerner, Adair, Plumb, Rhatigan, & Orsillo, 2007) should also help to improve group decision-making. The core aim of this thesis is to test whether a 5-minute, single-session, online mindfulness manipulation effectively increases state mindfulness, and then apply this to social judgements. Specifically, whether the mindfulness manipulation is effective in reducing attribution errors, and improving group decision-making. It is expected that after the mindfulness manipulation, participants will be less likely to respond in an automatic way when asked to attribute another individual's behaviour, or the cause of a situation based on limited information. Moreover, this is expected to improve the social experience of individuals working in groups and therefore increase decision-making accuracy. This thesis presents seven experiments in which a 5-minute mindfulness manipulation is tested in different settings (Chapter 4), applied to two attribution errors (Chapters 5 and 6), and used before a group decision-making task (Chapter 7). A summary of the findings, and the theoretical and practical implications of the findings are presented alongside limitations and avenues for future research in the final chapter of this thesis (Chapter 8).

The first part of this thesis is a review of the literature comparing the constructs of self compassion and self-esteem, to address the question of whether self-compassion offers greater protection than self-esteem in challenging situations. This includes correlational studies, exploring associations between trait self-compassion, trait self-esteem and a range of outcomes in challenging situations, as well as experimental studies, investigating the impact of experimentally induced state self-compassion and state self-esteem in challenging situations. The overall pattern of results provides some support for the idea that self-compassion does offer greater protection than self-esteem and this review considers theoretical explanations as to why this might be the case. However, the discussion highlights a number of methodological limitations and suggests that there is a need for more experimental research on this topic. The second part of this thesis is an empirical paper investigating the impact of a self-compassion intervention for self-criticism. After completing a self-criticism induction task, participants received a self-compassion intervention, a thought challenging intervention, or no intervention (control group). The overall pattern of results shows that the self-compassion intervention had a beneficial impact on state self-esteem, affect, and effort ratings, in comparison with the other two conditions. The thought challenging intervention also offered some protection against the negative effects of selfcriticism on state self-esteem and affect. The measure employed to assess performance was problematic, preventing conclusions from being drawn. The discussion makes links to theory and previous research, as well as considering the limitations of this study and potential avenues for future research.

This thesis investigated the relationships between attachment styles, shame and compassion. Part 1 is a systematic literature review that sought to clarify which attachment styles were related to shame. The review suggested that fearful or preoccupied attachment styles were most closely related to shame. Both of these styles depend on negative working models of the self, so the review supported the conceptual model of shame as a model of oneself as inferior in relation to others. Part 2 describes an empirical study that investigated the effectiveness of a brief compassionate meditation for alleviating state shame. Fifty-seven students used a guided imagery-based meditation focussed on cultivating compassion to reconsider a shameful memory of their own choosing. Mixed quantitative and qualitative methods were used to examine their responses to doing so. The results showed that quantitative measures of shame and self-blame decreased reliably following the meditation, and were accompanied by shifts from negative to positive affect. Participants’ ability to problem-solve about the shaming event was enhanced by these changes. Participants’ ease of cultivating compassion was studied in relation to their memories of their parents as children and any current signs of depression. A qualitative analysis of participant feedback provided information on the qualities of helpful and unhelpful meditations. Recommendations are given for clinical practice and future research. Part 3 is a critical appraisal that gives reflections on the literature review and empirical paper, offering some guidance and recommendations to others considering similar projects. It discusses issues in study design and measurement, as well as the use of imagery or meditation as a therapeutic intervention.

Self-organisation and natural selection are fundamental in shaping the natural world. Substantial progress in understanding how these two forces interact as biological systems evolve has been made through the study of abstract models, for example by evolving boolean networks on computers. Further progress may be made by identifying a model system in which the interaction between self-organisation and selection can be investigated empirically. To this end, we investigate how the self-organising thermoregulatory huddling behaviours displayed by rodents might influence natural selection of the genetic components of metabolism. By applying a simple evolutionary algorithm to a simplistic description of self-organising thermoregulation huddling, we arrive at a clear albeit counterintuitive prediction: Animals able to huddle together in cold environments should evolve an increased thermal conductance at a faster rate than animals reared in isolation. According to the model, within-lifetime adaptation (self organising huddling) is able to guide the evolution of complementary between-lifetime adaptation (natural selection of thermoregulatory genes). Confirmation of these predictions in future experiments would constitute strong evidence of a mechanism by which self-organisation can guide natural selection.

The thesis develops Gendlin's concept of the felt sense in two directions, and introduces parallel concepts of self. It starts by examining western and eastern cultural contexts, neuroscientific conceptualisations and linguistic issues as they relate to self, using the lens of Gendlin's two ways of relating to the world ̶ interpreting according to the unit model and thinking beyond patterns, to point out conceptual confusions. Buddhist philosophy and practice are discussed as methods of undoing such conceptual confusions in order to relieve suffering, with self as an independent, stable, substantial entity being the primary example of such a confusion. Dualism is identified as the basic misconception from which suffering ensues. Non-duality is investigated as a spiritual endstate, an integral part of the goals of humanistic therapies and an intrinsic element in 'carrying forward', then compared with Gendlin's implicit intricacy, Sartre's Being-in-itself and intersubjective theories. A small qualitative study investigates what happens when felt senses of self are intentionally produced or accessed by focusing. A continuum of experiences is described, ranging from self to no-self, with trauma proving a major block to both self and no-self experiencings. The felt sense is re-defined in two ways, as an extending boundary and as a direct referent. A sense of self is also considered both as a boundary drawing exercise, and a direct referent. Self may function in either of these forms on a relative level, constructively or destructively, according to circumstances and conditions, while on an ontological level no such single entity may be proven to exist. The conclusion is drawn that self and no-self form a kind of twisting human thread, which shows, at any one moment, just one side of a duality. These sides are conceptually, rather than actually, distinct.