Fathers in two-parent families are becoming increasingly involved in infant care, highlighting the need to understand the determinants and influence of father-infant interactions. Paternal responsiveness is a core component of positive father-infant interactions. This study investigated associations between paternal responsiveness and infant development; and paternal low mood and paternal responsiveness. Participants were a sub-sample of father-infant dyads (n=47) from a UK community cohort study: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. The Mellow Parenting Coding System was used to measure paternal responsiveness within a video-recorded father-infant interaction at 12 months. Infant development was assessed using the Griffiths scales at 18 months and paternal low mood was measured using the Edinburgh Post-Natal Depression Scale (EPDS) at 8 months. Linear regression analysis provided no evidence for an association between paternal responsiveness and infant development. Due to methodological limitations it is unclear whether this reflects a true null relationship. Unexpectedly, lower paternal mood (indicated by higher scores on the EPDS), was found to be associated with greater paternal responsiveness. For every standard deviation increase in EPDS score, fathers displayed approximately two additional responsiveness behaviours per minute in the observed interaction; this corresponds to a standardised effect size of 0.32 standard deviations. The mechanisms for this association are unclear, but possibilities are discussed. The finding requires replication within larger studies, but clinicians may wish to consider that fathers who achieve very low scores on measures of depressed mood may be at risk for low paternal responsiveness.

Introduction. Allopregnanolone and pregnanolone (neuroactive metabolites of progesterone) act as positive modulators of the GABAA receptor system which is the major inhibitory system in CNS. Contradictory results on the effect of GABAA receptor modulators are reported. Beneficial properties such as anaesthesia, sedation, and anxiolysis are reported as well as adverse, anxiogenic and aggressive effects. It has been suggested that GABAA receptor agonists have bimodal effects. Low concentrations increase an adverse, anxiogenic effect, whereas higher concentrations show beneficial, calming properties. Aims. To investigate if progesterone treatment induces adverse mood in postmenopausal women and if the severity in mood symptoms is related to progesterone, allopregnanolone or pregnanolone serum concentrations. To evaluate differences in steroid concentrations induced by different doses and routes of administration of progesterone. Methods. Two randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover studies of postmenopausal women were performed. Subjects were treated with estradiol continuously. Different doses of progesterone, given vaginally or orally, were added sequentially during the last 14 days of each treatment cycle. Daily symptom ratings were kept using a validated rating scale. Blood samples for progesterone, allopregnanolone and pregnanolone analyses were collected during each treatment cycle. A study regarding the pharmacokinetics after ingestion of low-dose oral progesterone was conducted with postmenopausal women. Blood samples for the analyses of progesterone, allopregnanolone and pregnanolone were collected and pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated. Results. Certain postmenopausal women on sequential HT with vaginal and oral progesterone experience mood deterioration during the progesterone phase while on a low dose of progesterone but not on higher doses or the placebo. Negative mood symptoms occurred when the serum concentration of allopregnanolone was similar to endogenous luteal phase levels, whereas lower and higher concentrations had no effect on mood. Pharmacokinetic analyses show that low-dose oral progesterone can be used as a prodrug to allopregnanolone when the aim is to achieve physiological concentrations of allopregnanolone. Conclusions. A bimodal association between allopregnanolone concentration and adverse mood is observed in postmenopausal women treated with progesterone. The addition of low-dose progesterone to estradiol induces adverse mood in postmenopausal women, whereas higher doses and placebo have no mood-deteriorating effect.

Dette studiet undersøkte om det finnes en positiv relasjon mellom korsang og det subjektive velbefinnendet. I undersøkelsen deltok 84 sangere fra 5 kor på både avansert og amatørnivå. Deltagerne fylte i et Mood Adjective Checklist-skjema (MACL: L. Sjöberg, E. Svensson & L.-O. Persson, 1979) før og etter korøvelsen på to forskjellige korøvelser. Resultatene indikerte at korsang påvirket deltagerne signifikant i form av økt velbefinnende, og at sangere mellom 32 og 51 år hadde den største økningen i grad av velbefinnende før og etter korøvelse. Det fantes derimot ingen signifikant forskjell i velbefinnende mellom amatørkor og avansert kor. Resultatene står som et bidrag til tidligere forskning innenfor området, men kan på grunn av det lave deltagerantallet ikke anses være generaliserbart.

Attention allows us to select important aspects of incoming sensory information while filtering out irrelevant information. It has crucial significance in understanding neurophysiological, emotional and behavioral outcomes. The research reported here focused on one central question: how do attentional manipulations influence various stages of cognition and emotion to result in goal-directed behavior? In six experiments, I used behavioral and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) measures to investigate the impact of attention on visual recognition, mood and self-regulation. The results showed that attention influences functional connectivity between body-selective visual processing areas in occipito-temporal cortex. Changes in the scope of attention were also found to influence mood and self-regulation. Broadening attentional focus improves mood and self-regulation. Narrowing attentional focus impairs mood and self-regulation. Self-regulation was also aided through the pre-engagement of attentional inhibition. This diverse set of methodologies and experimental paradigms provides converging evidence that attention influences goal-relevant functional connections to facilitate visual processing, promotes fluency of information to result in better mood and prioritizes goal-relevant representations to result in successful self-regulation. / NSERC

Dans ce memoire, une analyse sur la relation entre certaines desinences verbales du Mohawk est proposee a l'interieur du cadre d'analyse pour les langues "polysynthetiques" developpe dans Baker (1993). Il est montre que la desinence aspectuelle "statique", qui affecte les formes d'accord, peut etre traitee comme un predicat contenant un quasi-argument. Cette caracteristique rend compte du changement d'accord sur le verbe principal lorsque le morpheme statique s'allie avec celui-ci pour former un predicat complexe et ce, conformement aux principes qui regissent l'accord dans la langue. Nous defendons ensuite l'hypothese que la presence des prefixes modaux depend de la presence d'un role evenementiel $ langle$ e$ rangle$ dan un syntagme verbal. Enfin, il est montre que le morpheme e?, traditionellement analyse comme la forme du "ponctuel", apparai t en realite pour des raisons phonologiques. Nous montrons que les anomalies apparentes qui caracterisent le systeme flexionnel du Mohawk peuvent recevoir un traitement systematique a l'interieur du cadre qui est adopte.* ftn *Originally published in MAI Vol. 33, No. 4. Reprinted here with corrected author name.

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) and its treatment are generally considered to be highly stressful and the associated loss of control over important life dimensions is believed to induce widespread depression. This situation was employed as a "living stress laboratory" in which to test the reformulated learned helplessness theory of depression. Results indicated that reduced perceived control over a variety of life dimensions was importantly related to increased depression, although the attributional reformulation of helplessness theory was not supported. Moreover, reanalyses of these data from a social learning theory perspective indicated that perceived self-efficacy contributed uniquely to this negative correlation in addition to expectancies regarding response-outcome contingency (Rotter I-E scores). The hypothesis that the negative correlation between depression and perceived control might also be explained in terms of patients' psychological differentiation and the intrusiveness of ESRD was subsequently examined. Results revealed that perceived intrusiveness contributed uniquely to perceived control and to affect, indicating that perceived control and intrusiveness each contribute independently to mood. Surprisingly, a low prevalence of clinical depression was observed, contradicting the general consensus that helplessness and depression are unavoidable psychological sequelae to ESRD. These findings are equally applicable to several other chronic and life-threatened patient populations (e.g., cancer, cardiac, diabetic) and thus underline the need for a general theory of the emotional impact of illness.

The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2020 depression will be the second highest cause of death and disability in the world (World Health Organisation, 2010). Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been found to be the most suitable antidepressant for first-line treatment of a mood disorder (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2004), but less than half of all individuals achieve complete remission after therapy with a single antidepressant. Others display partial or intolerant responses to treatment (Nemeroff & Owens, 2002). This emphasises a need to develop alternative treatment options. There is evidence that micronutrients have fewer side effects than antidepressants (Dalmiya, Darnton-Hill, Schyltink & Shrimpton, 2009). Kaplan, Crawford, Field and Simpson (2007) suggest that errors in metabolism may result in unstable mood, leading to possible mood disorders. Mutation of metabolism is correctable by giving the malnourished individual additional vitamins thereby correcting metabolism and creating a more stable mood. An online survey completed by 661 participants (141 males, 520 females) assessed acceptance levels towards the use of micronutrients as an alternative treatment for mood disorders. As predicted, healthcare and medical professionals scored lower in acceptance (t(659)=3.12, p=0.002) and people who lead healthy lifestyles scored higher in acceptance (r=0.105, n=658, p <0.05). There were no significant effects of gender (t(659) =1.74, p=0.082), experience with mood disorders (F(3, 657)=0.86, p=0.46) or low household incomes (r=-0.066, n=661, p<0.05). Treatment users and providers alike seek more knowledge about the effectiveness of micronutrients and acceptance of micronutrients is largely granted on the basis of a combination treatment with conventional methods. The study is limited by an overrepresentation of females in the sample.

One of the most interesting aspects of human beings is their ability to choose a course of action and strive to achieve it. When participating in therapeutic interventions involving physical activities, people may allocate different amounts of effort, persistence and commitment to succeed in them. The reason for this difference lies in their motivation. The present thesis focuses on the energising of behaviour, that is, the differential effort and motivation that people put into therapeutic activities. Placebo responses are generally explained by the mechanisms of response expectancy, conditioning and motivational concordance. Findings presented in this thesis partially supported motivational concordance, testing for the first time that therapeutic outcome after engagement in intrinsically motivated tasks requiring physical activity was explained both by response expectancy and motivational concordance . The effects of response expectancy, perceptions of effort and intrinsic motivation on therapeutic benefit and mood change were investigated in both laboratory (Studies 1-4) and real-life therapeutic contexts (Study 5). Study 1 showed that effort mediated the effects of expectancy on perceived benefit, and effort predicted both positive and negative affect following the performance of a breathing exercise. Study 2 showed that differences in outcome between guided imagery and meditation were very small, but that non-specific factors play the major role in outcome. Study 3 showed that perceiving a task as difficult enhances effort perceptions, intrinsic motivation and therapeutic outcome. Motivated behaviour predicted therapeutic outcome but not expectancy. Study 4 showed that the provision of success feedback enhances outcome expectancies, motivated behaviour and mood change. Expectancies, motivation and effort predicted positive affect, whereas only effort predicted negative affect. Finally, results from Study 5 suggest that placebo responses may differ in real-life therapeutic interventions according to the strength motivational factors are elicited within the intervention. Both expectancy and motivated behaviour predicted change in positive affect, whereas motivated behaviour predicted change in negative affect and empowerment. Therapeutic outcome and its underlying mechanisms are likely to reflect a mixture of response expectancies and intervening motivational factors.

Livstillfredsställelse är vår kognitiva bedömning av vårt liv. Studier har visat att affekter påverkar vår kognition, samtidigt ses livstillfredsställelse som en stabil disposition. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om vår bedömning av vår livstillfredsställelse tillfälligt förändras efter att ha exponerats för negativ respektive positiv information. Hypotesen var att vi uppskattar vår livstillfredsställelse olika högt beroende på om vi exponeras för negativ eller positiv infomation. Satisfaction With Life Scale delades ut till 50 studenter på en högskola efter exponering av negativ respektive positiv information under en föreläsning. Resultatet visade att det inte fanns någon statistiskt signifikant skillnad mellan negativ och positiv information med avseende på livstillfredsställelse. Avsaknaden av skillnad skulle dock exempelvis kunna bero på en för svag exponering av negativ information. Keywords: life satisfaction, happiness, subjective well-being, current mood

The central theoretical argument of the study is that faith can heal or help counselees to cope with mood and anxiety disorders. In the meta-theoretical perspective a literature study of recent research on mood and anxiety disorders and the therapeutic approaches to each within the disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, and medicine was done. It was found that there are a number of different causes and treatments for depression and anxiety with different disciplines emphasising different perspectives. An empirical study consisting of qualitative structured interviews and observations of a selected group of counselees struggling with depression and anxiety was also carried out. It was established that faith had played a significant role in the healing of the counselee's depression and anxiety or in their ability to deal with their illnesses. The goal with the basis-theoretical perspectives was to explore what the Bible has to teach about 'depression", faith and healing and to research the revelation historical stance on this. Expositional studies of a selected core of biblical references pertaining to depression were undertaken and key biblical figures who suffered from “depression" were studied. It was concluded that although the Bible does not speak of depression and anxiety per se, it describes people who might have been suffering from it. Valuable insights that can be used in helping counselees to deal and/or cope with their depression and anxiety were gained by studying these biblical characters and passages (2 Corinthians 1:3-11, Philippians 4:4-13 and Lamentations). In the practice-theoretical perspective an integrative model which can be used by pastoral counsellors for dealing with depression in a faith-based context and for equipping depression sufferers to constructively deal with their depression and anxiety was developed. This was accomplished by utilising the basis- and meta-theoretical perspectives in a hermeneutical interaction to formulate a holistic faith-based model. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006