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Sleep deprivation has been studied for over a century, providing knowledge about the benefits of sleep for many physiological, cognitive, and behavioural functions. However, there have only been anecdotal indications about what a tired or sleep-deprived person looks like, despite the fact that appearance influences not only how other people perceive a person but also how they evaluate them and behave towards them. How someone with sleep loss is perceived and evaluated by others is the focus of this thesis. Facial photographs of 48 participants were taken after normal sleep and after either one night of total sleep deprivation or two nights of partial sleep deprivation. The photographs were then evaluated in four different studies by a total of 288 raters recruited from universities and the general public in Stockholm, Sweden. The faces were rated on attractiveness, health, tiredness, sleepiness, sociability, trustworthiness, employability, and leadership ability. These factors were all adversely affected by sleep loss. Furthermore, looking tired was strongly related to being less attractive, looking less healthy and less trustworthy, and being perceived as a poorer employee and leader. One of the studies assessed facial features commonly associated with looking tired, showing that sleep deprivation results in eyes which appear more swollen and red, with dark circles and hanging eyelids, as well as paler skin with more fine lines and wrinkles. When sleep deprived, people were also perceived as more sad. In conclusion, the four studies show that sleep loss and a tired appearance affect how one is perceived by other people. These perceptions may lead to negative evaluations in interpersonal situations, both personal and professional. This thesis thus demonstrates social benefits of prioritizing sleep, adding to the physiological, cognitive, and behavioural research on sleep loss. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

Medical residency is characterized by sleep deprivation, stress, and heavy workload. The impact of these pressures on physician-patient communication has not been fully explored. The aim of the current study was to investigate how contextual demands, stress, and burnout impact empathy and provision of patient-centered communication among internal medicine residents in two hospitals. The long-call shift was studied, as it is known to be particularly taxing and is a primary feature of medical residency. Assessments were obtained both prior to and at the conclusion of residents' shifts. Cognitive complexity was examined as a potential mediator of the relationship between stress and burnout, and burnout and empathy. Results revealed that there was a significant decline in physician empathy from the beginning to the end of the long-call shift and that this decline in empathy predicted less patient-centered communication from physicians. Stress, burnout, and decline in empathy were all positively associated, indicating that resident physicians who were more stressed and burned out were at increased risk for declines in empathy over the course of their shift. Cognitive complexity was not found to be a significant mediator of any associations between study variables, though it was associated with several key variables in unexpected ways. These findings highlight the importance of identifying and addressing barriers to patient-centered communication, as a number of these barriers may be routinely present in the demanding environment of medical residency.

Organizations are increasingly devoting interest towards understanding the causes of workplace deviance behaviors, which include interpersonal aggression, theft, violence, vandalism and sabotage. These behaviors are particularly relevant to organizations, in that the yearly losses due to theft are estimated at over 40 billion dollars for U.S. businesses (Coffin, 2003), and acts of workplace deviance could cost as much as 200 billion dollars annually (Murphy, 1993).In this research, I integrated theoretical perspectives from psychology and organizational behavior with neurocognitive evidence in order to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on workplace deviance behavior. In particular, I argue that cognitive resource theories offer explanatory power for the proposed linkage between sleep loss and deviant behaviors. Specifically, sleep deprivation was expected to reduce cognitive capacity and self-regulatory ability, and as a result decrease individuals' self-control, increase hostility, and impair moral decisions, which would in turn increase workplace deviance. Finally, proposed methods are presented for two studies. The first study utilized a field sample of shiftworkers with irregular sleep schedules (i.e., nurses). The second study utilized a lab sample of university students who were subjected to sleep deprivation conditions in a controlled environment.Results largely supported the model in both samples, with the exception of moral reasoning, which was unrelated to sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation affected self-control and hostility, which were in turn related to deviance, with the exception of self-control and interpersonal deviance in Study 2.

A descriptive study was conducted to examine the relationship between social support and adaptation to sleep by Southern Taiwan hospitalized adults. The conceptual framework for this study was based on Roy's adaptation model and social support as a beneficial factor in health and well-being. Sixty-one hospitalized adults, ages 20 to 71 years, participated in this study. Sixteen subjects (26.2%) had a supportive person stay with them. Data analysis showed that only daytime sleep items of the supplementation factor were significantly different between the supported and unsupported groups. However, all the mean values of effectiveness items in the supported group were higher than those in the unsupported group. It is recommended that a larger sample size from diverse hospitals in Taiwan be used to repeat the study.

Researchers have failed to specify when crime and counter-normative actions, as opposed to other responses may occur as a consequence of relative deprivation. To clarify this issue, a mediational model was developed that specified the causal processes leading from the recognition of deprivation to crime and counter-normative actions. This model hypothesizes that the recognition of deprivation (cognitive relative deprivation) leads to feelings associated with this recognition (affective relative deprivation) which in turn leads to crime and counter-normative actions. This model applies to both personal and group deprivation. In both cases, the feelings associated with deprivation include anger, resentment, dissatisfaction, and discontent. Data from a sample of 950 males between the ages of 16 to 30 supported the mediational model. Moderator variables were hypothesized to influence the causal processes in the mediational model, and were thus employed to specify the conditions under which the recognition of deprivation became more likely to lead to intense emotional reactions, and the conditions under which these emotional reactions became more likely to lead to crime and counter-normative actions. Personal deprivation was found to lead to stronger emotional responses if persons were pessimistic about their deprivation being relieved in the future, while at the group level, higher levels of optimism were related to stronger emotional responses. Both types of deprivation also lead to stronger emotional responses when persons believe that financial success and wealth are important. The emotive responses for both personal and group deprivation, in turn, were more likely to lead to crime and counter-normative actions if deprived persons had criminal peers. It was also found that the recognition of personal deprivation was more likely to lead to depression and lower self-esteem if people blamed themselves for their deprivation than if they did not. Persons who were not optimistic that their deprivation would be relieved in the future were more depressed than persons who were optimistic. Persons whose in-group was deprived were more likely to have lower self-esteem if they blamed the in-group for its deprivation than if they did not.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This study compares the effects of a visual and a 3-dimensional auditory display on primary and secondary task performance, mood, and mental workload at incremental levels of sleep deprivation. It is based on a study conducted by the Army Research Laboratory, Cognitive Science Branch, Aberdeen, Maryland, from 12 Marines performing land navigational tasks in two helmet-mounted display (HMD) modes; visual and 3-dimensional auditory, for a 48 hour period. The results indicate that performance under sleep deprivation is significantly impacted in both modalities; however, performance in the primary task was more degraded in the 3-D auditory modality. Additionally, Marines were more likely to experience degraded performance in the secondary task with increased sleep deprivation. The recommendations address the need to design HMDs that will not overburden sensory channels and the concern for military leaders to understand the additional demands imposed on solders in a HMD environment. / Captain, Signal Corps, United States Army

The counseling experience has shown that a majority of problems that endanger marital and family functioning results from an absent father. The problem of an absent father and his important role in the upbringing of his children had already become well-known. The reason for this is that the welfare of children has declined dramatically compared to children of earlier generations. It is the negative effects and spiritual consequences of an uninvolved father, as well as the subsequent poor relations between fathers and their children that were cause for concern. The perplexing question is why the problem of the absent father is treated so indifferently, given the awareness of its scope and significance. The church, who are to be the light for the world and who are to make the family its core priority, is crucial in taking a leading role in addressing the key reasons for the crisis the family in Western society is facing. This study wants to address the problem of the absent father from a theological perspective. / Prof. W.J. Hattingh

A common reason why athletes retire from their sport is burnout. Athletic burnout often occurs when athletes are over-trained and do not get enough rest. The present study examines the question: why is it that some athletes are able to perform at a high level for many years while others fizzle out? The purpose of the proposed study is to investigate the effects of perfectionism and anxiety on sleep disturbances and athletic burnout in high school students. The proposed method will be a correlational within-participants design and participants will be high school-age female gymnasts. The gymnasts will complete measures of perfectionism surrounding academics and athletics, anxiety, and burnout. Additionally, the gymnasts’ parents will complete measures of perfectionism and their perceptions of their child’s burnout. Athletes will then be given a sleep tracker to wear each night for a week to measure the athlete’s sleep per night. It is predicted that academic perfectionism and amount of sleep will interact to result in higher burnout levels. Additionally, it is predicted that there will be an interaction between anxiety levels and amount of sleep resulting in higher levels of burnout. The proposed study could give more insight into the mental and physiological processes behind athletic burnout. The relationship between perfectionism, anxiety, sleep, and burnout is one that requires further research but may be useful information for coaches, parents, and athletes to prevent athletic burnout.

The main goal of this study was to investigate whether residents of rural areas especially in deprived communities in BC have reasonable geographic access to healthy and affordable food providers (e.g., supermarkets, grocery stores, and farmers’ markets), and if lack of access impacts their weight status. As well, I investigated the extent to which farmers’ markets improve food accessibility in BC’s rural food deserts. In order to identify food deserts, the methodology which has been developed by USDA was modified and adapted to BC’s rural situations. In the first step, using Principal Component Analysis, deprived rural regions were identified based on selected socioeconomic and demographic variables. Then, using ArcGIS Network Analyst extension, the distance based on driving time from the Population Weighted Centroid of each rural region to the closest supermarket or grocery store was calculated on BC road networks. A 15 minute driving time cut-off was set to identify low access areas. Deprived rural regions which were also classified as low access were identified as food deserts. The impact of food accessibility on the weight status of rural British Columbians was investigated using the 2013-14 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). A hierarchical regression model was constructed with weight status of residents as the dependent variable and distance to the closest supermarket or grocery store as the independent target variable. I found that food deserts are more concentrated in the Central Coast, Cariboo, and Peace River regions of the province. In addition, farmers’ markets play no role in providing healthy foods to the residents of food deserts. Lastly, distance from food stores is not significantly associated with the weight status of rural respondents in CCHS data. The findings of this study can be highly beneficial to government officials within different jurisdictions and health practitioners to develop or refine food policies toward providing healthy and affordable food to deprived residents and Aboriginal peoples in rural and remote communities. / Graduate