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Deficits in affective and cognitive empathy have been implicated in Conduct Disorder (CD), but empirical investigations are surrounded by inconsistencies. Three possible factors, and their interaction, may be implicated: i) distinct causal mechanisms underlying behaviour of CD subgroups (Cichetti & Moffitt, 1993); ii) distinct operation of affective and cognitive empathy; iii) overreliance on verbal measures of affective empathy whose validity has been questioned. To assess the validity of verbal measures of affective empathy, study 1 compared verbal measures with a direct index of arousal (Heart Rate-HR), in children (N=29, aged 8-10). It was hypothesised that verbal measures would not give analogous information to the direct index, and this hypothesis was supported. Therefore, the direct index of HR was employed in study 2 to compare affective empathy across three groups: i) CD elevated on Callous-Unemotional traits (CD/CU, n=31) ii) CD low on CU traits (CD/cu, n=29, aged 7.6-10. 8) iii) 'typically-developing' controls (n=33, aged 8-10). It was predicted that deficits in affective empathy would characterise only CD/CU children based on data showing emotional deficits and physiological hypoarousal in this group (Frick, et al., 1994b, Raine, et al., J990a). Results showed deficit in affective empathy to characterise only CD/CU children. CD/cu children did not show deficits in affective empathy, but they may show deficits in cognitive aspects of empathy. Study 3 compared affective and cognitive perspectivetaking across i) CD/CU (n=30, aged 7.6-10.8), ii) CD/cu (n=29, aged 7.6-10.8) and iii) 'typically-developing' controls (n=52, aged 8-10). It was predicted that CD/CU children would present deficits in affective but not cognitive perspective-taking. In contrast, CD/cu children did not show deficits in affective empathy in study 2, and other studies have shown cognitive deficits to be more specific to CD/cu children (Loney, et al. 1998). It was predicted that CD/cu children would show cognitive- but no affective perspective-taking deficits. Results showed cognitive perspective-taking deficits to be specific to CD/cu children. In contrast affective perspective-taking deficits characterised both CD groups. These preliminary findings provide evidence of a dissociation between affective and cognitive empathy in CD/CU children. These findings further indicate that neither cognitive nor affective empathy are sufficient for the inhibition of antisocial conduct.

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The most common reason for referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is often cited as being so-called 'disruptive behaviour disorders' (Puckering, 2009). Current treatment guidelines focus on family interventions, especially parent training programmes (NICE, 2006) and these have recently been included in the implementation of 'Children and Young People's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies' project (CYP IAPT, 2012). There have been significant difficulties reported in engaging families, with parental attributions and attitudes towards help-seeking being proposed as factors influencing engagement (Morrissey-Kane & Prinz, 1999; Kane et al., 2007). However, much of the previous research has tended to privilege pre-existing frameworks of understanding. The current study utilised qualitative methods in order to add to the current understanding of parents' experiences. Specifically, the ways in which parents attempt to make sense of their children's behaviour. Participants were recruited through CAMHS and semi-structured interviews were carried out with six mothers. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) revealed four master themes: 'Looking for an answer', 'The emotional experience of being a parent', 'Trying to get help' and '...a long, long road ...' Participants used a variety of frameworks in order to try and make sense of their children's behaviour, including emphasising difficulties in processing complex emotions and the impact of loss and trauma. Participants appeared to struggle to integrate opposing views of their children and the emotional impact of parenting and the wider family context was found to be vital in understanding mothers' experiences.

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There are significant variations in the effectiveness of psychological interventions for children with emotional problems and little is known about what makes them work. Nonspecific therapy factors are thought to be important to therapeutic outcome in psychological interventions for adults. However, literature in the area of child therapy is much more limited. The first paper critically reviews 14 empirical studies focusing on nonspecific factors in relation to therapeutic outcome of psychological interventions for children with emotional disorders. The nonspecific factors in question include therapeutic alliance factors, parent involvement, therapist factors and child involvement. The methodological strengths and weaknesses of these studies are considered in depth. Conclusions in this body of literature are tentative and there is limited evidence for a significant predictive relationship between nonspecific therapy factors and treatment outcome for children with emotional disorders. The purpose of paper B was to measure the relative impact of both specific and nonspecific therapy factors in relation to treatment outcome for 75 children (aged 7- 12) receiving cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders. The specific therapy factors included changes in the children's interpretations and plans in relation to hypothetically ambiguous scenarios. The nonspecific therapy factors included the therapeutic alliance, who the therapist was and adherence to a therapeutic manual. The results indicated that change in anticipated distress in response to hypothetically ambiguous scenarios (one of the specific therapy factors) was significantly associated with treatment outcome from the child's perspective. None of the nonspecific factors and none of the other specific factors were significantly associated with outcome. Perceived coping may be an important focus in psychological interventions for children with anxiety disorders. Clinical implications and considerations for future research are discussed in both papers.

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Background: This thesis represents the application of cognitive psychology, specifically phenomena reported in the concepts and categorisation literature, to autism research. The studies reported here tested the claim that prototype formation and therefore prototype effects are impaired in autism (Klinger & Dawson, 2001). The claim is supported by other theories: weak central coherence (Frith, 1989; Frith & Happe, 1994) and a reduced perception of similarity (Plaisted, 2001). Additionally, supporting evidence suggests that individuals with autism do not show prototype effects (Klinger & Dawson, 2001; Plaisted, O'Riordan, Aitken, & Killcross, Submitted). Method: There were three studies each with two participant groups: high-functioning children with autism and a matched control group of typically developing children. The first study used stimulus cards to test whether prototype effects were shown in recognition memory (Experiments 3.1 - 3.3). The second used dot pattern stimuli presented on computer to compare the influences of recognition and categorisation on prototype effects (Experiment 4.1). The final study used stimulus cards to investigate the influence of ambiguity on children's categorisation responses (Experiments 5.1 - 5.3). Results: The majority of participants with autism demonstrated prototype effects similar to those of controls in all three studies. Other findings reported for the autism groups were reduced visual recognition memory for old, meaningless stimuli (Experiment 4.1) and reduced category membership decisions (Experiment 5.3). Conclusion: The convergence of experimental findings showed that most children with autism do show intact prototype effects. These findings limit the theoretical claims presented earlier. The discussion (Chapter 6) also summarises suggestions for future research into visual recognition memory and category membership decisions. Finally it is argued that a major implication of the research presented in this thesis together with other relevant findings is that considerable instability exists (on whether or not participant group differences are shown) both with the demonstration of prototype effects and in the perception of similarity. It is argued that elucidating the causes of instability in the latter is a priority for future research.