<p> Adolescence is marked by a period of stress with a portion of these individuals experiencing problems with anxiety. There are physical and psychological benefits of using animal-assisted therapy (AAT) for decreasing anxiety, however, the research on this is limited. The current study expands on the AAT literature by studying the additive effects of AAT along with the frontline treatment for anxiety, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT only and CBT + AAT treatment groups followed a structured protocol focused on psychoeducation and practicing coping skills for anxiety using groups of 2 to 4 participants in the school setting. Single subject design and nonparametric statistics were used to analyze treatment data on measures of anxiety and therapeutic alliance from ten students ages 10 to 15 across two school districts. Although the data on measures and therapeutic alliance did not approach significance, observable trends show CBT and AAT may be beneficial in decreasing anxiety symptoms for some students. The nature of self-report data and the small number of participants were limitations of the study. Overall this study used comparison groups to show that therapy dogs are not a hindrance to therapy and may be beneficial for some students.</p><p>

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The Visual Reproduction subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale – Revised has been widely used in neuropsychological assessment as a measure of visual memory since its publication in 1987 by Wechsler. Mindful of practice effects in serial assessment, a potential limiting factor in assessing recovery or decline with this subtest is the absence of an alternative form. This study aimed to develop an alternative form and a scoring system for this form. The scoring system was modelled on a revised scoring system for the original version developed by Clark (2000). Additional procedures, namely a cued recall and recognition format, were included in the administration to improve the diagnostic utility of the subtest. Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Alternative Form, based on the administration of both versions to an unselected adult non-clinical population (n = 44, aged 25-51) revealed high internal reliability, good convergent validity and satisfactory discriminant validity with other verbal and visual memory tests. Moreover, there was a good correlation between the Alternative Form and the Visual Reproduction subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale – Revised, taking into account the test-retest reliability of the original version. Hence, this Alternative Form has the potential to be a useful addition to clinical practice with further refinement of the scoring criteria and development of normative data via administration to a larger sample that has a wider age range and intelligence.

The Internet is now a significant medium for sport coverage, allowing fans to access the latest news about their favourite team, sport or event. To date, Internet sport journalists, the content creators of sporting news websites, have received little attention in academic research. Accordingly, the aim of this research project was to construct a profile of Australian Internet sport journalists within the context of recent developments in the field of sport and new media. In terms of print journalism, some researchers have previously examined the educational background, working practices and self-assessment of print sport journalists. Similar themes were explored in this thesis, using semi-structured interviews with thirteen Internet sport journalists. Key research questions that guided the study were: How did the subjects become Internet sport journalists? What are their work routines? What are their experiences of online sport journalism and what is their perception of the future of sport journalism? It was discovered that, with certain limitations, traditional journalism skills still apply to the Internet sport environment. In comparison to print media, Internet sport journalists tend to write shorter articles, have to respond to a continuous deadline and do not work within a traditional beat system. In addition, it can be noted that the interactivity of the Internet forces Internet sport journalists to continually re-evaluate their skills and the manner in which they respond to their audience. Overall, this thesis provides important insights into the working practices of Australian Internet sport journalists and the online environment, an occupational field that is currently in a considerable state of flux.

Psychogenic symptoms (trouble sleeping, lack of energy, difficulty in concentration, nervous tension, feelings of sadness/ downheartedness) are among the most frequently reported symptoms of menopausal transition, as are nocturnal hot flushes/sweats. Few studies have combined psychosocial and biomedical models to seek an explanation as to why menopausal symptoms such as these are problematic for some but not all women during menopausal transitional. In Study 1, 71 transitional women (mean age: 50.02 years, SD: 3.52 years) completed questionnaires examining the predictive value of a number of psychosocial factors in terms of the impact of menopausal symptoms on the ability to maintain a normal lifestyle during transition. Participants included women undergoing natural transition and those using hormone replacement therapy (HRT). A sub-set of participants (N=22) with the highest and lowest psychogenic symptom frequency scores took part in Study 2. Their evening on-set salivary melatonin secretion levels were compared, as was their exposure to natural light at 500, 3,000 and 10,000 lux levels, their subjective and objective (wrist actigraph) sleep quality and their nocturnal peripheral body temperatures (PBT). Results from Study 1 indicated that, while the quality and availability of health care was of most concern to all participants, domestic environment, including quality of relationships and communications, was the main predictor of successful transition when assessed as the ability to maintain a normal lifestyle during transition. No significant differences were found between natural or HRTassisted transition in terms of the impact of symptom severity, or the predictive value of psychosocial factors. Participants with low psychogenic frequency scores (less frequent symptoms) showed a trend towards higher evening on-set melatonin secretion levels, and had significantly greater exposure to natural light than their high psychogenic frequency counterparts. These results were consistent regardless of transitional status (natural or HRT-assisted). No significant differences between the high and low psychogenic symptom groups were found in either subjective or objective sleep quality. However, women with high psychogenic frequencies spent significantly more hours with higher peripheral body temperatures (35º - 36ºC) and reported significantly more nocturnal hot flush/sweat episodes than their low psychogenic frequency counterparts. These results show that, in terms of overall menopausal transition, domestic environment plays a major role in the way in which transitional women are able to deal with the impact of menopausal symptoms during transition. They also suggest a permissive link between melatonin evening on-set of rhythms and psychogenic symptoms that may be mediated by exposure to natural light. However, these results should not be viewed in isolation from each other, but in combination with each other. It could be argued that a healthy domestic environment may affect the perception of symptom severity. This could result in greater involvement in domestic and social activities outside the home, increasing exposure to natural light, and thus better entrained melatonin secretion on-set rhythms. However, any inference of causation (rather than association) requires experimental verification, preferably in research designs where key factors, such as exposure to natural light, can be experimentally manipulated.

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a complex disorder of neural respiratory control and upper airway dysfunction that results in repeated complete and partial occlusion of the upper airway during sleep. Obstructive sleep apnoea has been linked to fatigue, increased rates of road and work-related accidents and deficits across a range of neurocognitive domains. The most widely used treatment for OSA is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). This study aimed to compare neurocognitive functioning, simulated driving performance, vigilance, objective and subjective sleepiness in patients with moderate to severe OSA with control participants before and after treatment with CPAP. It was hypothesised that patients with OSA would report higher levels of subjective sleepiness, perform poorer on a simulated driving task and neurocognitive tests, demonstrate reduced vigilance and reaction times, and show increased objective sleepiness in comparison to control participants. It was also hypothesised that performance in these tasks would improve in OSA patients following CPAP treatment. Fifteen patients (12 males and 3 females) with moderate to severe OSA between the ages of 40 and 71 were recruited from the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre and 15 healthy controls (12 males and 3 females) aged between 37 and 70 matched for gender and closely matched for age and weight were recruited from the community. Participants were assessed on a driving simulator, psychomotor vigilance task and a battery of neurocognitive tests. The results showed that OSA patients displayed significant impairments related to daytime sleepiness and a novel finding of this study was that OSA patients demonstrated a lowered capacity for procedural learning. The current study also found that following CPAP treatment, OSA patients improved on measures of sustained attention, reaction time, simulated driving performance, memory and procedural learning. Findings of the present study indicate the importance of detecting impairments relating to performance in OSA patients in order to minimise the risk of accidental injury to themselves or others. Increased sleepiness and deficits in simulated driving and neurocognitive tasks may be alleviated with CPAP treatment. Continued research into this area is warranted so that significant consequences for the quality of life of patients and for other road users can be identified.

Most research on the mental life of medical patients has focused on personality characteristics said to influence the experience and reporting of physical symptoms. This is despite minimal support for personality as causally related to physical illness. The popularity of daydreaming (and dreaming) is widespread in the self-help market. Yet research definitions of mental life have seldom included imaginal activities. The aim of this research was to establish a health (and mental life) profile of patients in general practice to the west of Melbourne. The principal focus was to determine if the health of patients could be predicted by mental life. Two studies were conducted. The first study investigated mental life in the form of daydreaming. Patients, approached prior to their consultation with a general practitioner, completed the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), Severity of Physical Symptoms Checklist (SPSC), Daydream Frequency Scale (DFS), and Short Imaginal Processes Inventory (SIPI). The mental health of the sample was below the norm in the general population. The physical health of males, but not females, was also below the norm. Most patients reported less frequent daydreaming. They did, nevertheless, report more negative daydreams (than the norm). Patients unable to maintain sufficient mental control reported more negative daydreams, but not more (or fewer) positive daydreams. More negative daydreams predicted lower mental health. Patients reported fewer positive daydreams than the norm, and more positive daydreams did not improve their mental health. These findings were only partially consistent with the research literature. The second study sought to explore these findings further by determining if they were mediated by life orientation. Patients completed the Revised Life Orientation Scale (LOT-R), in addition to the SF-36 and SIPI. There were important sex differences in relationships between measures of mental life and mental health. For females, more pessimism was related to more negative daydreams and predicted lower mental health. For males, insufficient mental control predicted lower mental health. Consistent with the first study, positive daydreams (and optimism in the second study) was not related to male or female mental health. Results for females support recent research indicating that it is pessimism, and not optimism, that is the principal determinant of mental health. It is clear, however, that much more research on the correlates of male mental health, and how these differ from those of females, is warranted. The findings of the present research suggest that daydreaming is not a mundane activity: rather it is an important dimension of mental life requiring further consideration in mental health research.

Narcolepsy is a debilitating sleep disorder, characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, hypnogogic hallucinations, sleep paralysis and automatic behaviour. Automatic behaviour can be defined as 'stereotyped and repetitive sequences of actions that are performed without awareness', which usually occur during monotonous tasks (Zorick, Salis, Roth, & Kramer, 1979, p. 194). A classic example is reaching a destination without realizing how one got there. At present little is known about this complex phenomenon, and research in the area is minimal. The aim of the current study was to document the phenomenon of automatic behaviour in ten individuals with narcolepsy (selected on the basis of self-report of moderate to severe automatic behaviour), via phenomenological analysis and a series of case studies. Data was obtained through two structured interviews with each participant, an interview with a spouse or family member, a weekly journal and a daily journal (completed on minimal medication). Using qualitative methodology, a number of important features of automatic behaviour were identified. The current study provided an in depth analysis of the loss of recall associated with episodes of automatic behaviour and was able to define the types of errors associated with this state (sequencing errors, item/ environment intrusions, perseverative action leading to nonsense, context inappropriate behaviours). Different types of automatic behaviour were identified. Type 1 (sleepiness with low cognitive load) and Type 2 (sleepiness with high cognitive load) have been previously reported in the literature (but not so labeled). Type 3 (high cognitive load without sleepiness) however has not previously been identified. The vigilance levels associated with these types (from microsleeps to fluctuating vigilance levels) were discussed, making comparisons with previous research in the area (Guilleminault et al, 1975; Valley, & Broughton, 1981; 1983). Subsequently, a hypothesised formula for automatic behaviour was developed, including the various factors in its manifestation (that is, excessive daytime sleepiness, cognitive load, and individually determined threshold for automatic behaviour). A descriptive model of automatic behaviour was also developed and compared to previous research. An explanation from a cognitive perspective was considered, linking the automatic behaviour experienced in narcolepsy to automatic behaviour in normals. Finally, a questionnaire to measure automatic behaviour was developed, for further research to pilot.

Mental illness including depression has been estimated to account for 11% of the world's disease burden with the expectation that this figure will rise to in excess of 15% by the year 2020 (AIHM, 2002; Australian Health Ministers, 1998). Women have been reported to be twice as likely as men to experience depression, making depression a significant public health issue for women. How individuals perceive themself to be at risk has important implications for understanding help seeking behaviour and in turn, diagnosis and treatment outcomes. A number of factors have been identified in the physical health literature that account for the way perception of risk is conceptualised. The present study was designed to explore perception of risk of depression from the perspective of optimistic bias. The work of Weinstein (1980) and Moore and Rosenthal (1996) identify factors such as perceived seriousness, perceived control, stereotyping, perceived commonness, knowledge of a sufferer, perceived knowledge of the illness and attitude to the illness, as potentially influencing a person's perception of personal risk. Weinstein (1980) developed a model for integrating these factors, called optimistic bias. This model has been studied in relation to perception of risk for cancer, sexually transmitted diseases and other physical illnesses, but not in relation to mental illness. Two conceptualizations of optimistic bias were tested in this study, i) as a series of semi-independent illness specific constructs, and ii) as a global personality construct. The value of the Weinstein model for predicting perception of risk of depression was explored in relation to three physical illnesses (HIV/AIDS, Diabetes and Breast cancer). In addition women's conceptualizations of depression were explored in relation to depressive status and ability to recognize typical symptoms of depression. A non- clinical sample of one hundred and five women over the age of 18 were recruited with each participant required to complete a series of questionnaires that were quantitatively analysed. The model of optimistic bias as a series of semi-independent (state) constructs did significantly predict perception of risk for depression, accounting for 27.8% of the variance. The personality model of optimistic bias was also significant for predicting perception of risk of depression, but significantly less powerful accounting for only 8.2% of the variance. Part of the analysis for this study involved a replication of the work by Moore and Rosenthal (1996) utilising both descriptive and inferential data analyses to determine which variables predicted perception of risk of depression with two factors, perceived control and knowledge about the illness, revealed to be most significant. This study found that the illness specific model was more applicable to depression than to physical illness. Perception of risk was demonstrated by the comparative profiles to be different for each illness with the women in this study able to list a number of categories of stereotypical sufferers. A frequency analysis was also conducted to explore the similarities and differences in conceptualisation of the illnesses. Results indicated that 57% of women within the sample reported levels of clinical depression. Evidence emerged that among those who reported clinical levels of depression a subset were unable to recognise depression. A woman's depressive status and her ability to recognise depression from a scenario appeared to influence perception of risk. These results highlight important theoretical and applied implications for health promotion as well as the treatment and management of depression.