Urban green spaces are integral components of urban landscapes and the cultural ecosystem services afforded to human populations by these green spaces are of particular relevance to human and societal well-being. Urban green spaces provide opportunities for human interaction, physical activity and recreation, stress alleviation and mental restoration, economic opportunity, cultural activities and interactions with nature. To understand how these benefits are received by human populations it is vital to understand when and how individuals interact with urban green spaces. The rapid development and uptake of technologies such as smart phones, social networks and apps provides new opportunity to investigate the human interactions occurring in urban green spaces. Using the city of Birmingham as a case study, this thesis aims (i) to \(demonstrate\) the utility of data obtained from smart device enabled platforms (social networks and apps) in understanding socio-ecological interactions in urban areas and (ii) to \(evaluate\) the utility of these data sources for researchers and policy makers. The successful identification of a range of socio-ecological interaction suggest these data sources provide a viable method if investigating such interactions; however, there remain a number of limitations to consider to ensure they are employed appropriately in research contexts.

The aim of this thesis was to examine the influence of training and competition on achievement motivation, specifically on: (a) achievement goals and perceived motivational climate; and (b) on the relationships between goals, perceived climate, and outcomes such as effort, enjoyment, tension, psychological skills and performance. Study one addressed these purposes in tennis and study two in football; study three extended the findings to a wide variety of sports, and study four to an experimental training and competition of a golf-putting task. In general, the findings indicate that ego orientation and perceived performance climate tend to be higher in competition than in training. Task orientation showed a propensity to be higher in training than in competition, whereas perceived mastery climate appeared to be more stable across the two contexts. A task goal emerged as the most adaptive goal in both contexts, whereas an ego goal was found to be associated with additional benefits in competition, such as higher effort. Sport type (i.e., individual vs. team sports) influenced these relationships, but only in competition. Overall, these findings suggest that the distinction between training and competition contexts is a valuable one and should be considered when examining achievement motivation in sport.

Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning (IZOF) model has garnered empirical support to explain states of human functioning and its subsequent impact on sport performance. Research suggests athletes’ who are able to regulate performance states, that allow for utilization of resources to complete the task in hand, are more likely to experience superior performance. Yet minimal research has examined how the IZOF model may inform intervention programs to ensure athletes’ skills in regulation are enhanced. The present thesis aimed to explore the usefulness of the IZOF model as a guiding framework in real-world applied settings for enhancing athlete regulation of performance states during competition. In study one a practitioner-focused action research study examined the “how” of working within an IZOF framework. In study two, a multiple case study examined the influence of an IZOF program on athletes’ pre- and post-intervention thoughts, feelings, regulatory actions, and subsequent performance. A qualitative examination of this program from the athletes’ perspective highlighted key program processes and outcomes (study three). An identified outcome of well-being was subsequently examined in relation to athlete use of regulation techniques and skills in study four. This thesis highlights several implications for practitioners when adopting the IZOF model in applied practice.

Cardiovascular control during exercise results from three main mechanisms, namely central command (descending neural input), skeletal muscle afferent feedback (metabo - and mechanoreflex) and the arterial baroreflex. The studies outlined in this thesis sought to examine the potential sex- and ovarian hormone influences in neural cardiovascular control during exercise. It was observed that the activation of metabolically sensitive skeletal muscle afferents (i.e. muscle metaboreflex) by partial restriction of blood flow to the exercising skeletal muscle contributes to the exercise tachycardia via a reduction in cardiac baroreflex sensitivity from rest during dynamic exercise. Importantly, the magnitude of this metaboreflex-mediated reduction in cardiac baroreflex responsiveness was not different between men and women during the early and late follicular phases of the ovarian cycle. Baroreflex perturbation during dynamic exercise, by means of hypotensive and hypertensive stimuli to the carotid baroreceptors, revealed that baroreflex control of blood pressure was similarly maintained during exercise in men and women. Finally it was demonstrated that the sympathetic vasoconstriction in the exercising limb is similarly blunted in men and women. Overall, the results of this thesis suggest that there are no differences between men and women in baroreflex function and sympathetic vascular responsiveness during dynamic exercise.

This thesis examines factors that influence the propensity to, and the utility of, conscious processing during a complex motor skill. Prevalent theories of skill acquisition and automaticity view expert performance as best executed in the absence of conscious control of the movement. There is substantial evidence to support this claim for simple tasks but a lack of research for complex skills is apparent. In this thesis the role of conscious processing (reinvestment) is examined in relation to the full golf swing in baseline and anxiety conditions. The early experiments in the thesis examined the effects of limiting conscious processing through a temporal restriction. This paved the way for the later experiments that looked deeper into individualistic elements of personality and cognitive 'make up,' that may affect the control structures of the golf swing. The results indicate that conscious processing during task performance affects individuals differently. A high 'verbaliser' group deteriorated while 'visualisers' showed improvement during restricted conscious input trials. Furthermore, both short­-term memory and working memory showed positive correlations with task performance. Overall, this study implies a positive role for conscious control in the golf swing and questions the efficacy of reinvestment theory in relation to complex skills.

Under the umbrella of positive youth development, life skills represent an important area of research for young people. The personal competencies a young person possesses determine his or her capacity to effectively navigate the turbulence of adolescence and grow into adulthood. An increased understanding of the role, function, and enhancement of life skills therefore serves a great purpose in the design and evaluation of youth development programs. This thesis aimed to extend the current knowledge and practices through targeting the gaps in the life skills literature. First, using a qualitative design, the specific needs of young elite athletes were investigated while outlining a proposed methodology for future needs analyses. The importance of developing life skills in young athletes was emphasised as it was found that young athletes required a range of both sport specific and life skills. Second, an investigation into the function of life skills found that reported possession of key life skills partially mediates the relationship between youth experiences and well-being, illustrating this role for the first time. However, within youth samples there was a broad range in the degree to which these skills are applied and transferred, reinforcing the call for deliberate developmental programming. The lack of adequate measures in life skills research was addressed through the validation of BRSQ with young sports participants. Support for the utility of this measure allows for the greater investigation into the mechanisms through which life skills function. Finally, a life skills program was designed following the recommendations of the predominant youth development frameworks and comprehensively evaluated. This thesis progresses existing literature regarding the role and function of life skills as well as providing insight into how to best promote and evaluate the teaching of life skills in applied research programs.

This study investigates how the diverse archaeology of Jordan can be presented to different segmentations of visitors. As a country with abundant archaeological resources and heritage potential for tourism industry, there should be serious consideration toward the management and development of such resources in order to preserve them for future generations on the one hand and to provide economic benefits both to the local community and the national economy. The diversification of heritage tourism packages, and proposals for different alternatives among the potential of variety of different heritage sources, is one of the more efficient ways of spreading the load across the major sites in the country. As a case study, the creation of a tourist trail among the Decapolis cities is outlined since these cities form an important component of the history of Jordan and exploring their variety and diversity may give them further meaning and significance. Some of the cities suffer from an overloading of visitors while others do not receive an adequate measurement of attention either by the authorities or by the visitors themselves; therefore, this study focuses on the site of Abila as an example of how a city with significant potential for tourism might be developed through presentation of the city using non-invasive techniques such as geophysics. The study explores these issues in the context of heritage management and related legislation in Jordan alongside consideration of the community’s role in tourism and how their aspirations are also met.

The effects of exercise on appetite and feeding responses can be influenced by several factors. Research has demonstrated that exercise-induced changes in appetite can be affected by ambient temperature. Furthermore, exercise intensity has also been shown to affect appetite and post-exercise caloric intake. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the impact of exercise at different ambient temperatures on appetite and energy intake (EI) in overweight and obese individuals. Furthermore, this thesis also aimed to examine the effects of high intensity exercise on both peripheral and central appetite regulation in lean healthy males. The findings from this thesis demonstrated that exercise in a cold environment (8°C) stimulated post-exercise EI in overweight and obese men and women compared with exercise in a neutral environment (20°C). Exercise in the heat (32°C) caused an increase in desire to eat 5 hours post-exercise compared with rest in the heat in overweight and obese individuals, however no further differences in appetite sensations were observed between trials. Findings from this thesis have also demonstrated that an acute bout of intense running suppressed neural activation within the orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampus in response to images of high-calorie foods compared with rest. Furthermore, pictures of low-calorie foods enhanced activation within the insula and putamen post-exercise compared with rest. These central regions are associated with regulating the rewarding properties of food, therefore these findings showed that high intensity exercise is capable of suppressing the rewarding properties of high-calorie foods whilst enhancing the rewarding properties of low-calorie foods immediately post-exercise. However, an acute bout of intense running enhanced central reward system activation in response to food cues compared with rest several hours after exercise. Therefore, the appetite suppressing effects of an acute bout of high intensity exercise could be short-lived.

Protein and amino acid ingestion has been investigated as an aid in recovery from eccentric exercise induced muscle damage. However, the results of the studies are conflicting. There are two studies in this thesis that examine the effect of ingesting branched chain amino acids (BCAA) and protein following eccentric exercise in untrained males. Ingestion of BCAA resulted in a decrease in muscle soreness. However ingestion of whey protein isolate resulted in reduced muscle soreness and a reduction in the decrement of muscle function. These results suggest that ingestion of all amino acids are required to reduce decrements of muscle function associated with intense eccentric exercise. Ingestion of essential amino acids or intact protein sources during exercise recovery further stimulates muscle protein synthesis. The effect on muscle protein synthesis of ingesting only BCAA has not been investigated. Ingestion of BCAA increases phosphorylation status of signalling proteins associated with translation. This thesis demonstrates that following an acute bout of resistance exercise, ingestion of BCAA resulted in a 22% increase in muscle protein synthesis and 12% higher phosphorylation of S6K1THR389. These results suggest that only the ingestion of BCAA are required to augment the response muscle protein synthesis to exercise.

Media, government and public discourse in the UK associate young drinkers as mindless, hedonistic consumers of alcohol, resulting in young people epitomising ‘Binge Britain’. This preoccupation with ‘binge’ drinking amplifies moral panics surrounding youth alcohol consumption whereby consideration of the social and cultural nuances of pleasure that give meaning to young people’s excessive drinking practices and values has been given little priority. This sociological study explores how young drinkers regulate their drinking practices through levels of agency which is informed by values linked to the pursuit of pleasurable intoxication alongside friendship groups in a variety of drinking settings. Data informing this study comes from contextualised ethnographic fieldwork alongside heterogeneous groups of young people and community members in an area of South West London. Whilst encountering hundreds of participants in fieldwork, data informing this research stems from ninety main protagonists. Following a qualitative grounded theoretical approach, the study prioritises the voice and everyday experience of young drinkers and local community members to present theoretical descriptions of youth drinking cultures embedded in a historical, social, cultural and spatial context. Through the ethnographic data, this thesis argues that young drinkers show levels of agency in their pursuit of pleasurable drinking experiences through conscious forms of self-governance and regulation which are informed by learned experiences and interactions such as gender. Moreover, youth drinking is both enabled and restricted by constraints and complexities such as space and place; which form central points of analysis in this thesis. It is concluded that accounts derived directly from young people are not only central to understanding how and why young people engage in forms of excessive drinking, but can better inform national and local alcohol-related policies and strategies, as opposed to discourse preoccupied with UK ‘binge’ drinking that young people rarely identify with.