Research shows a predominantly female orientated approach to the study of fertility and childbearing. Prior to the 1990s men were missing from this research by design. Women were asked to report their partner’s childbearing preferences and behaviours and thus the true attitudes and opinions of men were largely unknown. Although men are no longer missing from this research, their participation rates are disproportionally low compared to women. The aims of the studies to be presented in this thesis were to better understand the childbearing preferences and behaviours of men, establish reasons for why men have disproportionately low participation rates in the research on childbearing, identify who and what could be a target of behaviour change interventions aimed to increase participation in childbearing research and identify whether the implementation of such interventions increase male participation. The work presented in this thesis demonstrates that, as with women, a number of factors influence whether and when men begin parenthood. However, there is diversity between men and women in terms of what factors they consider to be important and influential in the preconception decision-making process. Men overall wanted to be fathers but did not want to be involved beyond being the breadwinner of the family.Therefore results highlight the need to consider the childbearing preferences and behaviours of men in order to understand contemporary fertility trends and identify unmet needs in policy and research that concern men. Notwithstanding this, the disproportionally low participation rates of men in the research on childbearing ultimately means that the research base is not providing a good account of male attitudes towards whether and when to have children. When given the opportunity to participate in childbearing research men participate significantly less than women actively excluding themselves from the research as a result of less favourable attitudes towards the behaviour. The modification of attitudes is thus identified to be the mechanism that would most likely elicit intention (and potentially behaviour) change. The implementation of persuasive messages aimed to modify attitudes towards participation in childbearing research increased the perceived relevance of the behaviour but had little effect on attitude, intention and research behaviour. Overall, the work presented in this thesis demonstrates that raising public awareness that childbearing is an issue that affects men as well as women is likely to be key to integrating men into family life and increasing their participation in childbearing research.

Στόχος της εργασίας αυτής είναι η εξέταση της σχέσης του σκώμματος με την κωμωδία και η παρατήρηση της τεχνικής αυτής στον σημαντικότερο κωμικό ποιητή, τον Αριστοφάνη. Συγκεκριμένα, στις έντεκα σωζόμενες κωμωδίες του Αριστοφάνη τα πρόσωπα που γίνονται στόχος, τα χαρακτηριστικά και τους λόγους για τους οποίους σκώπτονται, αν τα σκώμματα είχαν έρεισμα στην πραγματικότητα και την επίδραση που είχαν στη ζωή των διακωμωδουμένων και των θεατών. / -

This qualitative study explores the meaning of interpersonal forgiveness, using a both/and or postmodern epistemology and a phenomenological methodology. Forgiveness is seen as a reframe that could transform a limiting, disempowering dominant narrative into a more empowering and useful story. The researcher interviews three participants to co-create stories of forgiveness. Themes of emotional discomfort; blame and responsibility; shift to empathy; forgiveness as process; and lasting change or forgiveness incorporated into way of life, are identified. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Les situations de contact interpersonnel participeraient à la construction d’un sens basique du soi durant l’enfance, et de nos représentations de soi tout au long de la vie. Bien que l’on retrouve cette hypothèse de manière répandue dans la littérature, elle n’a été que très peu investigué expérimentalement. Cette thèse teste cet effet potentiel chez l’adulte. Deux études combinant mesures électrophysiologiques et comportementales montrent une augmentation d’une forme minimale de conscience de soi –des informations afférentes provenant du corps– suite à un contact social. Cet effet est reproduit dans 3 modalités sensorielles (contact social visuel, auditif et tactile). Une 3ème étude en magnétoencéphalographie teste l’effet d’un contexte de contact interpersonnel multisensoriel accru (vs réduit), entre un expérimentateur et des participants, sur la connectivité fonctionnelle des réseaux cérébraux dits de repos, et sur le contenu des pensées des participants. Nos résultats mettent en évidence une augmentation des processus cérébraux et cognitifs orientés sur le soi sous une forme hautement intégrée, associée à une diminution des processus sensoriels orientés sur l’environnement extérieur, à la suite d’un contact social accru. Dans l’ensemble, nos résultats suggèrent que le contact social améliore plusieurs facettes de la représentation de soi, aussi bien des aspects corporels, que des aspects plus haut-niveau et intégrés du soi narratif. Nos interactions sociales tout au long de la vie pourraient ainsi induire un contexte cérébral et cognitif centré sur un soi multifacette qui favoriserait la conscience de soi, et la construction d’un sens de l’identité incarné et situé. / Situations of interpersonal contact could contribute to the construction of a basic sense of self during childhood and to self-representations through lifespan. Although this hypothesis is widespread in the literature, the effect of social contact on self-awareness has been rarely been investigated experimentally. The aim of this PhD thesis is to investigate such an effect in human adults. In two studies combining electrophysiological measurements and behavioural responses, we show an enhancement of a minimal form of self-awareness – i.e. of the afferent information arising from the body – following social contact. This is reproduced across three sensory modalities (visual, auditory and tactile social contact). In a third study, we use magnetoencephalography to test the effect of an increased (vs reduced) multisensory interpersonal contact context between an experimenter and participants, on the functional connectivity of resting-state networks and on the participants’ thought contents. Our results revealed an enhancement of self-oriented cognitive and brain processes in a highly integrated form, associated to a decrease in externally oriented sensory processes, as a result of the social context of increased interpersonal contact. Together, our results suggest that social contact enhances multiple facets of self-representation, including basic bodily aspects of a minimal self, as well as higher level and integrated aspects of a narrative self. Our social interactions throughout lifespan may thus induce a cerebral and cognitive context centred on a multifaceted self, which would foster self-awareness and the construction of an embodied and embedded sense of identity.

This qualitative study explores the meaning of interpersonal forgiveness, using a both/and or postmodern epistemology and a phenomenological methodology. Forgiveness is seen as a reframe that could transform a limiting, disempowering dominant narrative into a more empowering and useful story. The researcher interviews three participants to co-create stories of forgiveness. Themes of emotional discomfort; blame and responsibility; shift to empathy; forgiveness as process; and lasting change or forgiveness incorporated into way of life, are identified. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study investigated the differences between descriptions of the lived experiences of painful loneliness and comfortable aloneness. Loneliness, is documented as a modern-day social problem, associated with psychic pain and suffering and myriad mental and physical health problems. Uncomplicated, comfortable or neutral aloneness, is scarce in the literature, with allusions to the possibility that people may never feel lonely. The 'essences' of the experience ofpainfol loneliness have been gathered from the literature, while the 'essences' of the experience of comfortable aloneness have been gathered interviews with five people who are comfortable or ambivalent about their aloneness. The qualitative methods of heuristic and phenomenological research have been used to interpret and make sense of the raw data generated. It was found that the subjective experiences of aloneness and loneliness are fundamentally different, and that the thoughts, meanings and realities associated with either state are similarly disparate. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study investigated the differences between descriptions of the lived experiences of painful loneliness and comfortable aloneness. Loneliness, is documented as a modern-day social problem, associated with psychic pain and suffering and myriad mental and physical health problems. Uncomplicated, comfortable or neutral aloneness, is scarce in the literature, with allusions to the possibility that people may never feel lonely. The 'essences' of the experience ofpainfol loneliness have been gathered from the literature, while the 'essences' of the experience of comfortable aloneness have been gathered interviews with five people who are comfortable or ambivalent about their aloneness. The qualitative methods of heuristic and phenomenological research have been used to interpret and make sense of the raw data generated. It was found that the subjective experiences of aloneness and loneliness are fundamentally different, and that the thoughts, meanings and realities associated with either state are similarly disparate. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Les développements récents de la recherche en sciences cognitives ont établi que les individus détectent fréquemment qu'ils sont en train de commettre certaines erreurs de raisonnement, alors même qu'ils n'identifient pas, et peut-être ne peuvent pas identifier, la source de ces erreurs. Jusqu'à maintenant, ce programme de recherche a principalement visé à démontrer que même les individus aux raisonnements les plus biaisés faisaient preuve de tendances à la détection de conflits. Le présent travail s'appuie sur ces résultats et analyse trois domaines d'enquête connexes et encore inexplorés : (1) les sous-types de détection de conflits ; (2) les différences individuelles quant à la détection ; (3) le caractère de généralité ou de spécificité au domaine des sensibilités pour la détection de conflits. En identifiant des sous-types de détection de conflits de plus en plus spécifiques, ce projet a pour objectif d'examiner les corrélations entre, d'une part, certaines sensibilités pour la détection de conflits, et des prédicteurs cognitifs, d'autre part. Il s'agit, fondamentalement, d'un travail préparatoire en vue d'une analyse différentielle complète des sensibilités particulières de détection de conflits parmi les individus en train de raisonner. / Recent state of the art research into cognitive biases has revealed that individuals often detect that they are making certain reasoning errors even when they themselves do not, perhaps cannot, articulate the source of the error. Until now, this research has focused primarily on demonstrating the existence of conflict detection tendencies among even the most biased reasoners. This thesis builds on this research by analyzing three related and unexplored areas of inquiry: (1) subtypes of conflict detection; (2) individual-specific differences among detectors; and (3) the domain generality or specificity of conflict detection sensitivities. By identifying increasingly fine-tuned detection subtypes, the project aims to explore correlations between particular conflict detection sensitivities and other cognitive predictors. It is, essentially, preparatory work for a complete differential analysis of conflict detection sensitivities among reasoners.

Religious and cultural discourses shape relationships/marriages. The constructed nature of relationships/marriages opens the possibility for alternative relational realities. Positioning relationships/marriages in alternative discourses assisted the couples to construct a preferred relationship narrative. Three couples embarked on this feminist participatory action research journey - a couple from the Jehovah's Witnesses tradition,' a couple from the Dutch Reformed Church and a couple from a Gay Refonned Church. Conversations with the participating couples deconstructed their relationships. It also enabled the couples to co-author alternative, preferred realities of their relationships/marriages and to provide rich descriptions of these. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

This is a qualitative study that researches the definition and meaning of resilience in intimate relationships. A constructivist perspective guides the theoretical framework of this study and a systemic approach to intimate relationships provides a theoretical foundation. Apart from an extensive literature survey, three different sources of information were included in this study on relational resilience. Three family therapists were interviewed to gain some understanding of their experiences with couples in distress. Three participant couples examined visual stimuli (excerpts of couple interactions from five films) and discussed their responses and personal experiences in semi-structured interviews. The participants’ themes were analysed through thematic network analysis in order to explore their definitions of resilience in light of their own experiences. It was found that resilience in intimate relationships can be defined as the ability of the couple to endure adversity. It involves the relational capacity to adapt, grow, and recover from adversities and it includes relational processes that allow the couple as a system to rebound from shared difficulties and become more resourceful. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology))