This thesis is an exploration of the experiences of young people on the autism spectrum as they navigate their social world. There is a dearth of qualitative literature which gives voice to the unique challenges faced by this population within society. The experiences of both victimisation and romantic relationships are explored; phenomena which are well recognised as impacting on wellbeing and mental health. It is hoped that this thesis will contribute to understanding how young people make sense of and manage these experiences to inform future clinical support. Chapter one is a critical systematic review of the qualitative literature exploring how children and young people on the autism spectrum experience and cope with victimisation. A database search yielded ten studies which met the specified criteria for inclusion. Young people's experiences fell broadly into two themes: impact on wellbeing and self as at fault with methods of coping sought from both internal and external sources. The findings had important clinical and research implications and called for further exploration of the potential impact that the phenomenon may have on this vulnerable group. Chapter two is a qualitative empirical study which explored the lived experience of romantic relationships for young women on the autism spectrum. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed to analyse the data of five participants from which three superordinate themes emerged: 'Navigating Ambiguity', 'Identifying Vulnerability' and 'Constructing the Future Self'. The findings served to broaden our understanding of the needs of this group to guide future clinical support. Directions for further research and limitations are discussed. Chapter three is a reflective account of the researcher's experience of conducting qualitative research and working clinically with young people on the autism spectrum. Parallels are drawn between the experiences reported by participants and those experienced by the researcher as a Trainee Clinical Psychologist. The impact of these experiences is discussed in terms of construction of the future self.

This thesis explores the recent phenomenon of premarital stag party tours made to Eastern European cities by groups of British men. It is based on ethnographic field research in Krakow, Poland, conducted over the course of one year. The use of qualitative methods, primarily participant-observation, allows for the exploration of the in situ meanings and social interactions which define the stag weekend. The thesis argues that the behaviour of stag tour groups offers considerable insight into masculinity and that the meanings attributed to such behaviour reveal complex construction of contemporary British masculinities. It is argued that the Eastern European stag tour is both sold and consumed on the premise that it represents a distinct physical, social and symbolic space and time within which masculine behaviour can be enacted. This is seen as a liminal space within which an exaggerated hyper-masculinity based on a carnivalesque social transgression becomes possible and desired. It is argued that the stag tour is both performative and embodied. The male body plays a central role through the consumption of alcohol, its effects upon the body and the use of bodies by stag tourists to foster an ethos of playfulness and enact a transgressive release from social restraint. Intimacy, sociability and group cohesion play a significant role in shaping the meaning of the stag weekend for tour participants. The thesis concludes that the stag tour represents a meaningful and symbolic moment for its participants, which is mediated by notions of masculinity and homosociality. While the stag tour represents a manifestation of hegemonic masculinity in a narrow sense, it also highlights the adaptability, rather than „crisis‟, of masculinity for the men involved.

Much research investigating deception and its detection has focused upon face-to-face communication, but over recent years the variety and extent of new communication media has changed the contexts in which deception might take place. Although work has attempted to characterise communication media, a much smaller body of research exists which has investigated the frequency with which people lie with different media and the detection of deceit under different communication media conditions. Through questionnaires and experimental studies, this work investigated the perceptions that both deceivers (senders) and those attempting to identify lies (receivers) have about communication media and how this relates to their observed behaviour. Results from questionnaire studies suggested that both the characteristics of deception and media influence people's perceived discomfort and believability when lying and the media choices they might make if they are planning to deceive. Some important factors appeared to be the seriousness of the deception, who senders are lying to, and the general frequency with which they use particular means to communicate. Communication media were judged to be similar and dissimilar to each other on a range of characteristics which may impact their appropriateness for deception and lie detection. There was evidence that media used at low frequency in daily life may be more likely to be chosen for deception. In laboratory studies, senders were found to lie more frequently using audio-only media compared to audio-video. There was evidence from experimental studies that detection of deceit was more successful when communication was audio only compared to audio-video. There was little consistent evidence that judgement biases varied between media conditions, but a truth bias was identified in experimental studies. No evidence was identified that interactivity between senders and receivers significantly influenced response biases or lie detection accuracy. A small corpus of messages recorded under audio-video and audio-only conditions were selected for their detectability or believability from two senders, and presented in modified formats to receivers. Stimuli had video removed or introduced, and were presented as audio-only, audio-video, text-only and video-only. The results suggested that detectability of audio-video and audio-only stimuli was dependent upon the condition stimuli were recorded under rather than presented. When messages were only seen and not heard or read, accuracy of lie detection was compromised. There was evidence that judging transcriptions could allow successful detection, but the accuracy of lie detection was typically lower than demonstrated in richer media conditions. These findings may imply that a combination of information channels and/or paraverbal information is important for accurate classification of honesty and lies. Limitations of the studies and directions for further research were discussed.

Agency attribution is the ability to distinguish between events that occur as a result of our own actions and events that occur as a result of the actions of other people. Previous accounts of agency attribution have been mainly divided into two camps, either explaining agency in terms of high-level conscious processes (Stephens and Graham, 2000) or low-level Comparator Model (CM) processes (Frith et al. 2000). Recently, however, theorists have begun to incorporate these two approaches, but as the bulk of previous experiments fail to specify which aspects of agency are investigated, little empirical evidence exists to inform us about how these different mechanisms interact. The aim of the current thesis was to tease apart these processes by examining high-level self/other judgments and low-level motor responses to actual and perturbed visual feedback of self-generated actions. Results from Chapters 3, 4 and 5 suggest that low-level (CM) agency mechanisms are situated in right hemisphere regions, disruption of which can reduce high-level self-judgments (Chapter 5). Proprioception was also found to negatively inform high-level judgments, as reducing proprioceptive signals increased self-judgments and visual-proprioceptive incongruence increased other judgments (Chapters 6 and 7). In terms of low-level agency mechanisms, however, visual-proprioceptive congruence was found to enhance low-level correction of visual perturbations (Chapter 8). Results from Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 provide evidence for a lack of high-level conscious awareness of low-level motor responses, as participants failed to notice their own low-level corrections (Chapter 8) and as a result failed to recognise their own actions (Chapter 9). Therefore, the current body of research provides evidence for a visual-proprioceptive comparison as an integral component of low-level (CM) agency mechanisms, and that these CM processes do not produce feelings of agency per se, but identify mismatches that inform and are then interpreted by conscious awareness.

This thesis explores the subjective experience of ageing with a particular focus on midlife. I argue that midlife signifies an important phase of transition in the life course which is often characterised by essential changes in personal circumstances. Although many of these changes are anticipated their impact can still come as a surprise, reawakening old psychological threats and anxieties as well as creating new ones. The death of parents, children leaving home, changes at work and an awareness of an ageing body: these changes are usually anticipated at a practical level but can create a sense of emotional instability and insecurity. The three central themes of this thesis include the way the ageing process is experienced physically and how this in turn, effects the individual psychologically, the way personal and family relationships change during this period and the impact this has and finally how people evaluate their lives and compare this evaluation to their imagined sense of what they thought their lives would be like. I highlight how the social experiences and cultural expectations which influence attitudes and pragmatic reactions to ageing are necessarily intertwined with unconscious psychic processes, conflicts and ambivalence. My method involves interviewing twenty-two men and women aged between thirty-nine and fifty-eight years old using a psycho-social approach. This method focuses on how individuals emotionally and psychically deal with age-related changes. I conclude that midlife is a time of complex emotional and psychical conflict which is triggered and challenged through a culmination of natural and anticipated losses. In order for people to negotiate midlife and move forward in a positive and productive way they must first acknowledge and then accept the natural losses and disappointments that life inevitably brings.

This thesis examines images and dialogues of the male body in contemporary men’s lifestyle magazines. Taking the examples of two top-selling British men’s lifestyle magazines FHM and Men’s Health, and their respective websites, I unpack mediated constructions of white, heterosexual masculinities using the combined methods of semiology, discourse analysis and non-participant observation. The male body is central to this project, and the ways that it is represented as idealized and grotesque are analysed for the ways that they each impact upon perceptions of white heterosexual masculinities and conceptions of the ‘Other’. Reading the male body as idealised and grotesque also introduces wider feminist debates on the male gaze, representation, and whether the grotesque can be theorised from the perspective of masculinities. The construction of online communities and reader dialogues is also examined in relation to discourses of the body, identity and masculinity. The work in this thesis explores the basis for contemporary representations of white heterosexual masculinities and male bodies in men’s lifestyle magazines and their respective websites.

This thesis explores current assumptions surrounding why homeless people use outreach service programmes from a social psychological perspective. Specifically, within this, 2 main aims are tested: 1) The validity of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen 1988, 1991) and suggested additional avenues to this, in predicting homeless people’s use of outreach service programmes, and 2) To tackle methodological issues arising from prior social psychological research in this domain. There are 4 studies in this thesis. Study 1 (Chapter 4) addresses the issue of fine tuning research methods and applications that would be used later in this programme of research, and tests the relevance of social psychological theory to homeless people’s service use. The findings show interesting associations between perceived behavioural control (PBC)/ efficacy and homelessness issues. Study 2 (Chapter 5) examines the utility of single item questions of the direct measure of the TPB, as well as single items of additional avenues such as social identity/self-categorisation perspectives (SIT/SCT; Tajfel & Turner, 1979), self-esteem and affective functioning. PBC emerged as the only predictor of intentions to use services. Study 3 (Chapter 6) has two aims. First, to test a multi-domain measure based on the TPB, SIT/SCT framework, and second, to examine the predictive contribution of social cognitive influences and socio-demographic variables to intentions to use service programmes. The multi-domain measure did not show utility, yet attitude, ‘coping’ thinking style and ethnicity predicted intentions to use services. Lastly, the main aim of Study 4 (Chapter 7) was to test the utility of an efficacy based intervention on the empowerment of homeless people. The intervention showed to increase perceptions of control and decrease negative affect. I conclude that (a) the utility of the TPB framework can be strengthened with additional avenues, and (b) a PBC/efficacy intervention can empower homeless people into securing more permanent accommodation.

This project combines the insights of Spinoza and critical realism to develop a model of self which presents us with the opportunity to enhance our personal autonomy by learning how to replace what Spinoza calls inadequate ideas with more adequate ideas of ourselves. The first part of this project offers an analytic and conceptual framework for understanding the self in terms of emotional constitution, the distinctions between personal and impersonal value and how these are connected to the structure of will. The second part shows how we can make significant inroads towards personal emancipation by applying the critical realist method of explanatory critique to ourselves and using it to revise and transform our emotional responses - thus uniquely bringing the insights of critical realism into the personal domain where it has previously been centred on the public domain. It also answers the question of ‘How should we live?’ by developing an ethical standpoint predicated on an open system based theory of individuality combined with a hierarchy of being which exhorts us to act towards others not only on the basis of their real natures, but also according to the real situations we find ourselves in. Essentially, it argues there is a genuine need to be able to combine reason and emotion effectively in relation to moral matters and this entails it is the value of the person and our contextually based relation to them that should determine moral concern and obligation. Finally, it argues that by virtue of being a moral object that exists in Popper’s World 3, such a theory allows us to come closer to the truth of moral problems by being subject to standards of rational criticism in terms of how successfully it can be seen to solve its problems.

The aim of this thesis was to examine attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) food and how these translate into behaviour. Research conducted divided quite neatly into two distinct sections. The first section explored explicit attitudes and other socio-cognitive constructs relating to behaviour towards GM food within the framework of different theoretical models including, most notably, the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). The second section measured implicit attitudes held towards GM food and the malleability of these attitudes, using an array of different reaction time tasks, e. g. the implicit association task (Greenwald, McGhee and Schwartz, 1998). A final experiment then linked these two sections by examining both implicit and explicit attitudes alongside various measures of behaviour in order to examine the predictive validity of these attitude constructs and how these may vary depending on the situation. Results indicated that socio-cognitive concepts of subjective norms, perceived behavioural control (PBC), self-identity and emotional involvement were useful alongside the construct of explicit attitudes in predicting intentions and behaviour towards GM food. In addition, measures of implicit attitude were found to be useful predictors of behaviour towards GM food, over and above explicit attitudes. Interestingly, measurementso f implicit attitude were found to be positive when measured in a context free manner but were also found to be malleable and differed considerably depending on the situational context of measurement. Actual behaviour was measured in a variety of different ways and these converged in demonstrating that the majority of participants would try GM food. Overall, findings indicated that within Britain more people than previously thought are likely to try GM food if it becomes more widely available.

Six main empirical studies are reported. Study 1 employed the "thinkaloud" procedure in the minimal group paradigm (MGP) and concludes that social categorization is insufficient to cause social identity or intergroup discrimination, and that no theoretical explanation of minimal group behaviour is adequate to explain the variety of strategies employed within that paradigm. Study 2 employed both "Tajfel matrices" and new "allocation grids" in the MGP and concludes that two distinct forms of intergroup discrimination need to be distinguished: one which maximizes in-group profit consistent with positive in-group distinctiveness, and another which maximizes positive in-group distinctiveness by accompanying in-group profit with out-group derogation. In Study 3 subjects completed three sets of Tajfel matrices in the MGP: individually, in "sub-groups" , then again individually. Mean intergroup discriminatory behaviour polarized and mean intergroup equitable behaviour depolarized between the first and the latter two conditions. The best account of the results was concluded to be a normative one. Study 4 demonstrated that the self-esteem hypothesis within social identity theory (SIT) is best tested using a state measure of specific social identity contingent self-esteem and concludes that this hypothesis has to date been both inadequately formulated and inadequately tested. Study 5 compared predictions from SIT with those from Tesser's self-evaluation maintenance model concerning the consequences of social comparison outcomes and concludes that a modified version of the former theory is best able to account for the results obtained at both group and individual levels of comparison. Study 6 investigated a host of issues within SIT and concludes that the theory is too simplistic in respect of many of its key notions and propositions. A general discussion argues that a modified version of SIT can be developed which improves on Tajfel's "original" social identity theory by more adequately specifying the processes by which group phenomena are manifest.