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This study applies statistical models to mood in patients with bipolar disorder. Three analyses of telemonitored mood data are reported, each corresponding to a journal paper by the author. The first analysis reveals that patients whose sleep varies in quality tend to return mood ratings more sporadically than those with less variable sleep quality. The second analysis finds that forecasting depression with weekly data is not feasible using weekly mood ratings. A third analysis shows that depression time series cannot be distinguished from their linear surrogates, and that nonlinear forecasting methods are no more accurate than linear methods in forecasting mood. An additional contribution is the development of a new k-nearest neighbour forecasting algorithm which is evaluated on the mood data and other time series. Further work is proposed on more frequently sampled data and on system identification. Finally, it is suggested that observational data should be combined with models of brain function, and that more work is needed on theoretical explanations for mental illnesses.

Although the effects of both the menstrual and circadian cycles on mood have been well documented, the question of whether the two interact to influence mood has not yet been addressed, despite evidence for such an interaction on other variables. Blood sugar level is a major contributor to the mediation of mood and is easily regulated by dietary intervention; there is also evidence that it is influenced by both the menstrual and circadian cycles. The present research takes a positive psychological approach to managing mood; the aims were to identify where natural variations in mood occur in relation to its underlying physiology, taking an applied approach to suggest ways of effectively managing positive mood and maintaining psychological well-being. A series of studies was carried out to measure fluctuations in mood in relation to biological rhythms, and in response to cognitively demanding situations and simple interventions. Mood was measured throughout the research using the UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist. The most consistent results were in relation to the Energetic Arousal dimension. This was shown to be influenced by both the menstrual cycle and the time of day, as well as an interaction between these two factors, and was consistently related to changes in blood glucose levels. Energetic Arousal also appeared to be more sensitive to the effectsof the suggested interventions. Diurnal changes in mood throughout the course of a normal day were more evident among women in their premenstrual to menstrual phases, and also become more apparent in response to cognitive tasks. Trait Anxiety was a mediating factor in how individuals reacted to such tasks. Mood was closely related to blood glucose levels, and raising blood glucose to a robust but safe level effectivelyenhanced positive mood in cognitively demanding situations. Oral contraceptives generally tended to eliminate menstrual cycle-related effects on mood and responses to intervention. It was concluded that mood states among healthy women are influenced by a complex interplay between biological rhythms, physiological states, individual differences and the context in which these moods take place. Simple interventions that can easily be incorporated into one’s daily routine may be efficacious in maintaining a positive mood state, which has beneficial implications for psychological well-being.

Šiandieninėje visuomenėje yra publikuojama, kad reguliarus fizinis aktyvumas – vienas svarbiausių dalykų, stiprinančių sveikatą bei palaikančių fizinį pajėgumą, mažina stresą, gerina nuotaiką, bei savijautą tiek įgaliems žmonėms, tiek turintiems negalią. Vienas iš gerų fizinio aktyvumo aspektų yra šokio terapija. Tačiau tyrimai nagrinėjantys šokio terapijos poveikį sutrikusio intelekto asmenims egzistuoja tik užsienio šalyse. Todėl ieškant mokslinių darbų, neradau nieko kad Lietuvoje būtu atliekami panašus tyrimai apie šokio terapijos poveikį sutrikusio intelekto asmenims, jų nuotaikos kaitai. Tas ir paskatino imtis šios srities tyrimo. Hipotezė- Šokio terapija gali pagerinti paauglių su sutrikusiu intelektu nuotaiką Tikslas- nustatyti šokio terapijos poveikį sutrikusio intelekto paauglių nuotaikos kaitai. Uždaviniai: 1 Nustatyti sutrikusio intelekto paauglių nuotaiką prieš šokio terapiją. 2.Nustatyti sutrikusio intelekto paauglių nuotaiką po šokio terapijos. 3.Palyginti sutrikusio intelekto paauglių nuotaikos kaitą prieš ir po šokio terapijos. Tyrimo objektas- sutrikusio intelekto paauglių nuotaikos kaita. Išvados: Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad daugumai tiriamųjų paauglių prieš šokio terapiją nuotaika buvo bloga, jie jautėsi pikti, irzlūs, nepatenkinti. Po šokių terapijos užsiėmimo, daugumai tirtų paauglių, nuotaika buvo žymiai geresnė, jie jautėsi laimingesni, daugiau šypsojosi, draugiškai bendravo su kitais... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The importance is recognized in society. A lot of researchers concluded that regular physical activity is one of the most important things which is promoting health and supporting the physical capacity, reduces stress, improves mood, and well-being for people without disability and people with disability. One of the best examples of successful implementation of physical activity is a dance therapy. However a lot of researchers exploring the effects of dance therapy with intellectual disabilities exists only in foreign countries. Therefore, there is the lack number of investigations in this field in Lithuania. There is important to carry out research about an effect of dance therapy on mood changes of people with intellectual disabilities. Because of that the hypothesis was formulated. Hypothesis- Dance therapy can enhance teenagers’ with intellectual disabilities mood. The main aim - To evaluate an effect of dance therapy for teenagers with intellectual disability moods change. The goals of the research were: 1. To establish the teenagers with intellectual disability mood before of dance therapy 2. To establish the teenagers with intellectual disability mood after of dance therapy 3. Compare the teenagers with intellectual disability mood before and after dance therapy. Conclusions of the study: The results showed that most of the subjects were in a bad mood, they felt angry, irritable and unhappy before dance therapy. After dance therapy most of the subjects felt much... [to full text]

The health and mental health status of rural populations has often been neglected as a research priority; particularly in the case of rural youth. The purpose of this study is to examine the differences in depressed mood and suicide ideation of urban and rural youth and to determine what factors are associated with depressed mood and suicide ideation. More specifically, this study will examine depressed mood and suicide ideation of urban and rural youth (grades 5 to 8) in the Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) using data from the Student Health Survey. This project involved secondary data analysis of SHR’s Student Health Survey. There were 5,783 grade 5-8 students that participated in the survey. The final logistic regression models revealed similarities and differences between urban and rural youth in the risk factors that predicted the likelihood of students reporting symptoms of depressed mood and suicide ideation. For depressed mood, both urban and rural youth reported their relationship with their parents, their general mental health, low self-esteem, and suicide ideation as risk factors for depressed mood. Gender, age, having been drunk, and feeling like an outsider at school were risk factors for depressed mood in urban youth, while rural students reported that their living situation, their perception of their weight, being physically bullied, and being electronically bullied increased their likelihood of reporting symptoms of depressed mood. In terms of suicide ideation, both urban and rural youth were more likely to report depressed mood and a poor relationship with their parents as risk factors. Urban youth also reported being Aboriginal, that they had tried smoking, and being victims of physical bullying as risk factors. No additional risk factors were found for rural youth. This data will help to address local and national gaps in the literature about the mental health status of youth in rural populations. This research may inform policies and programming in both the health and education sectors.

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate how environmental preference for the built environment, either in-situ or based on visual representations (e.g. visualisations of final architectural design), may be affected by three distinct variables. One of them is emotion, operationalised as the mood people are in at the time of the evaluation and the way people feel with regards to the environment. A second variable considers the participants' attention and how they may be influenced by task instructions. The third variable, intrinsically related to the second one, is how environmental preference may be influenced depending on the perspective taken at the time of the evaluation. The main research questions in this thesis are: a) How does emotion influence environmental preference? b) What is the impact of perspective-taking on environmental preference? c) What are the benefits of using emotional reactions to the environment as predictors of preference? These main research questions are addressed using both quantitative and qualitative methods, mainly quantitative, underpinned by a pragmatic approach. The unit of analysis in this thesis is the person who evaluates or judges an environment or a representation of it. Five studies are presented in this thesis. Study 1 (n=10) reports the results from interviews with practising architects in the city of Aberdeen. These results show that when designing architects take two distinct perspectives: a prescriptive inferential perspective and a self, referential perspective. These interviews are used to set the context within which this thesis operates: the presentation of design to people with no expertise in architecture and built environment disciplines. The remaining four studies directly address this thesis' main research questions. In Study 2 (n=133), Study 3 (n=146) and Study 5 (n=64) the effects of perspective-taking on different dependent variables are experimentally tested. The dependent variables are: perceived restorativeness (Study 2), environmental preference as measured via informational variables (Study 3), and the emotional reactions people have to representations of the environment (Study 5). Results of these studies show that perspective-taking carries an interpersonal perception bias whereby taking a perspective other than the self results in different environmental evaluation outcomes, but that this process can also be affected by formal training. The influences of emotion on environmental preference are directly explored in Studies 4 (n=32) and 5 (n=64). The results show that mood can have an influence on environmental preference by influencing the emotional reactions people have to the environment, but that these influences vary over time. Overall the thesis shows that perspective-taking and emotion have a range of influences on environmental preference in a built environment context, that these are important at the point at which architecture and built environment professionals design environments, and that timing of environmental evaluations in longitudinal assessments can make the difference between positive and less positive evaluations. This thesis' results are discussed in light of existing knowledge and some recommendations are made for future research and practitioners in architecture and built environment disciplines.

Background: The present study considers some of the underlying mechanisms that may be acting in postnatal depression (PND). It has been suggested that rumination predicts problem solving ability and that child temperament and maternal attributions predict mother-infant bonding. This study aims to investigate the role that brooding and reflective rumination may play in predicting and mediating these relationships in postnatal women. Methods: Postnatal women were recruited to complete an online survey.190 women responded and completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Maternal Attribution Scale (MAS), Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ), Parental Problem Solving Task (PPST), Rumination Response Scale (RRS), Infant Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) and a confidence in problem solving using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Results: Analyses showed that reflective rumination mediated the relationship between low infant soothability and high negative attributions, on maternal problem solving. Reflective and Brooding Rumination also predicted confidence in problem solving and mother-infant bonding. Analyses showed that infant temperament (soothability and distress) and maternal attributions (positive and negative) predicted confidence in problem solving and mother-infant bonding Limitations: This study employed a correlational design and therefore all inferences regarding possible causal pathways are tentative. Limitations include the use of self report measures to assess mother-infant bonding and infant temperament. Additionally the PPST is a new measure which needs further validation. Conclusions: Reflective rumination may act as an adaptive strategy for women in the postnatal period when faced with difficult child temperaments, and for those employing negative attributions, when faced with parent specific problem solving tasks. In addition, Brooding and Reflective Rumination may be important in predicting difficulties in mother-infant bonding. Difficult Infant temperaments and less positive or more negative maternal attributions, may affect problem solving, confidence in problem solving and mother-infant bonding in the postnatal period. Future research should look to replicate these findings and explicate possible causal relationships within a postnatal population.

De flesta forskare inom området är överens om att det finns kopplingar mellan luktsinnet och känslor. Däremot finns det mindre forskning och bevis kring hur människors inre tillstånd påverkar olfaktorisk perception, dvs. uppfattningen av dofter. Föreliggande studie hade avsikt att studera sambandet mellan sinnesstämning och uppskattning av behagliga dofter. Den aktuella sinnesstämningen mättes med hjälp av Mood Adjective Checklist (Sjöberg et.al., 1979), ett tillförlitligt och känsligt instrument. För att mäta doftuppskattning användes fem olika dofter på doftstickor. Dofterna valdes ut systematiskt, testades i förväg och bekräftades som behagliga. Resultaten kunde inte visa något signifikant samband mellan sinnesstämning och doftuppskattning (p = .612). Ingen predicerande effekt i sinnesstämning och i de olika dimensionerna av sinnesstämningen på doftuppskattning kunde påvisas (p varierar mellan .293 och .862). Resultaten kan ha påverkats av metodologiska brister och utformningen av dofttestningsinstrumentet som diskuterats.

Cognitive therapy for the treatment of depression has generated substantial research indicating its effectiveness and it is currently considered among the most viable conceptualizations of depression. However, it has remained controversial because its methods do not directly address emotional symptoms in depressed persons. Treatment of depressed emotions is a primary focus of hypnotic mood elevating techniques. These techniques enable depressed persons to experience positive emotions during hypnosis sessions and to re-experience them daily concurrent with performance of certain specified behaviors. This study evaluated the efficacy of a multicomponent treatment which combines the techniques of cognitive therapy and hypnotic mood elevation in the treatment of depressed persons. The three treatment conditions constructed for this investigation were cognitive therapy plus hypnotic mood elevation, cognitive therapy plus pseudo-biofeedback, and no treatment waiting list.

The reasons why people may periodically resort to binge eating behavior have long been a focus of study, and the reasons are elusive and varied. For people troubled by poor sleep and living with chronic stress, binge eating may be an attempt by the brain's glucose-depleted executive processing center to both regulate (i.e., increase) glucose levels and induce restorative sleep. Recovery resulting from restorative sleep may lead to a reduction in perceived stress, improved mood, and increased willpower, reducing the likelihood of another binge episode in close temporal proximity to the sleep-induced recovery. A repetitive cycle may ensue when stress inevitably again disturbs sleep, lowering mood, reducing willpower, and heightening sensitivity to stigma and stress. The purpose of the research described here is to synthesize recent findings from three diverse fields of scientific inquiry to predict factors that influence episodes of binge eating. Combining studies of sleep and sleep disorders, stress and stigma research, and recent work on self-regulatory capacity, I attempt to show how poor sleep ultimately leads to binge eating. A seven-day study consisted of three parts: an initial set of baseline questionnaire and physiological measures; collection of objective sleep quality data using an electronic motion logger; and an online daily diary in which participants completed measures of self-regulatory capacity and reported details about their sleep, stress levels, experiences with stigma, mood, and eating events. The data partially supported a path model where sleep quality, stress, mood, and self-regulation affected binge eating behavior.