abstract: Research on self-regulatory variables like mindfulness and effortful control proposes strong links with physical and mental health outcomes across the lifespan, from childhood and adolescence to adulthood and old age. One pathway by which self-regulation may confer health benefits is through individual differences in reports of and emotional responses to daily negative and positive events. Mindfulness is broadly defined as non-reactivity to inner experiences, while effortful control is broadly defined as attentional and behavioral regulation. Mindfulness and effortful control have both been conceptualized to exert their beneficial effects on development through their influence on exposure/engagement and emotional reactivity/responsiveness to both negative and positive events, yet few empirical studies have tested this claim using daily-diary designs, a research methodology that permits for examining this process. With a sample of community-dwelling adults (n=191), this thesis examined whether dispositional mindfulness (i.e., non-reactivity of inner experience) and effortful control (i.e., attention and behavioral regulation) modulate reports of and affective reactivity/responsiveness to daily negative and positive events across 30 days. Results showed that mindfulness and effortful control were each associated with reduced exposure to daily stressors but not positive events. They also showed that mindfulness and effortful control, respectively, predicted smaller decreases in negative affect and smaller increases in positive affect on days that positive events occurred. Overall, these findings offer insight into how these self-regulatory factors operate in the context of middle-aged adults’ everyday life. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2018

Relationship satisfaction is a popular variable to consider when looking at long-term success for couples. Research indicates positive and negative events have an impact on relationship satisfaction. Considering the influence of the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation framework, the present study focuses on the daily impact of positive and negative events that happen outside of therapy on couple relationship satisfaction for couples seeking therapy. Daily diary methods were used to collect data, a first for using this method with clinical couples. Random effects and multilevel models of analysis controlled for days and couples. Results suggest that on any given day, positive events impact both male and female daily relationship satisfaction. Findings also propose that these events outside of therapy tend to occur more frequently in the evening on any given day, specifically for negative events. Understanding these findings, therapists have an opportunity to use therapy as a tool to enhance adaptive processes for couples in order for couples to continue experiencing higher levels of couple satisfaction.

In recent decades, extreme meteorological events have become more frequent and more severe. Flooding, heavy precipitation and droughts, in particular, are a few of these extreme events that can cause widespread property damage and loss of life. The climate is always changing and there is a general agreement that the changes will be more amplified and occur more rapidly due to anthropogenic influences. As a result, it is expected that the societal and economic impacts of heavy precipitation, floods, and droughts will increase as the climate continues to rapidly change. For these reasons, continued research to improve extreme precipitation predictions and long-term projections is vital. With improved projections, society will be able to improve their efforts to prepare for and implement better management practices to effectively adapt to the changing climate and help reduce the impacts of a changing climate. A great deal of progress has already been made in extreme precipitation research in relation to climate change. Overall, the tendency for dry areas to get drier and wet areas to get wetter has been identified. However, much of the work has focused on the daily timescale, and much less is known about sub-daily precipitation. It is becoming increasingly more important to consider this time scale because of evidence that climate change could have more of an impact on sub-daily (e.g., 3-hourly) rather than daily precipitation. To complicate the matter, there is still a need to evaluate the performance of global climate models in reproducing the precipitation statistics at the sub-daily time scales. The goal of this work is to evaluate the projected changes in precipitation at both the daily and sub-daily time scales and, more specifically, understand whether daily or sub-daily precipitation extremes will change more through the end of this century. However, to understand future projections it is first vital to analyze model accuracy and determine how well global climate models can reproduce the extreme precipitation statistics across the historical past. This is accomplished by comparing the historical runs for each model to observations during the same time period using several different methods, including a skill score analysis, using Taylor diagrams to visualize accuracy, and meridional plots that show intermodel variability. The results from this analysis show model performance for daily extreme precipitation is higher than that of the 3-hourly extreme precipitation. Although there are few models that do an adequate job of producing reliable results at the sub-daily time scale, there is an overall significant increase in skill as the temporal resolution becomes coarser. Variability also exists among models, with sub-daily precipitation having more widespread variability across every latitude, but daily precipitation has a wider range in potential extreme precipitation that is focused more in the tropics. Model performance also varies by season, resulting in higher performance and less variability among models for individual seasons. These results also point to several models that consistently perform well for both sub-daily and daily extreme precipitation, but it is still worth remembering that there is no guarantee that a good performance during the historical period ensures a good performance in the futures as well. The next part of the work focuses on the models with the highest performance in reproducing the observations. From there, it was possible to determine locations with the greatest changes in precipitation, the magnitude of changes, and whether sub-daily or daily extreme precipitation will be impacted more by climate change. Overall, extreme precipitation at both sub-daily and daily times scales is projected to increase globally. At the regional scale, precipitation is projected to primarily increase in the tropics, with smaller changes towards the poles. Areas of decreases in precipitation vary by model with the exception of a decrease in precipitation near the tropical Pacific Ocean that is seen in almost every model.

Despite the vast amount of work and the huge database for Roman Britain, the people of the province remain very difficult to discern. There are many reasons for this, but one is that we have not yet learned to look behind the disjecta membra of archaeology in order to understand the structure and nature of society, and how the Roman Conquest may have impacted upon it. The language of sociology offers scope for thought, especially when combined with examples drawn from historically documented societies in later periods. Whilst models drawn from the classical world are important, attention also needs to be focused on the local, and on the factors that determined the shape of people's lives and influenced their daily activities. Not all these are archaeologically detectable; nevertheless an appreciation of their existence is an important pre-requisite in attempting explanations of patterns in the data.

Zugl.: Hamburg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2006.

According to The Swedish act concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments (LSS), people with intellectual disability have certain rights. Even if the law does not specifically mention parents with intellectual disability or the right to start a family, it is clear that this law shall promote equality in living conditions and full participation in community life. The Swedish social board (Socialstyrelsen) describes daily life support as a help for people in their daily life. The support is often addressed to people with mental disability but in some Swedish municipalities people with an intellectual disability can receive this support as well. Daily supporters does not only help with practical needs but also with social and psychological needs. This qualitative study aims to capture the respondents perspectives and perceptions on support for parents with intellectual disabilities. Six respondents from three different municipalities in Skåne county has been interviewed. From these interviews four different themes has been selected. All of the respondents has in some way mentioned that alliance/trust/relationship is very important, and that it is necessary for their work to even be possible. They also talk about their work with practical support and their work with clients in supporting them in their self-esteem. Cooperation is according to the respondents necessary in their work with the clients but that cooperation with other professions does not work. When the respondents talk about their views on the target group they often mention that the parents can feel insufficient in their role as parents. They think it could be a result of how people with intellectual disability often is treated and viewed by society. The result of this study shows that daily life support, specifically for parents with intellectual disability, is inadequate. However, the result should be considered in relation to the extent of the study.

The LGBTI+ community in Turkey are regularly subjected to discrimination, threats andviolence. This study aims to analyze how two Turkish newspapers cover LGBTI+ in Turkey,with a time frame of the last ten years and a sub-focus on the ban of Istanbul pride in 2015. Ipresent a qualitative approach to the study based on framing analysis regarding mediacoverage. The analysis applies to articles and citations within these, using four different‘frames’ adapted from previous research; equality frame, victim frame, morality frame andpropaganda of homosexuality frame. The results show a decrease of LGBTI+ coveragewithin the examined time frame and a variation of frame usage. There are indications that thepride ban of 2015 may have been a shifting point for framing regarding both articles andcitations. The results also uncover a substantial decrease in the quantity of coverage on thetopic. The results of the two newspapers differ, indicating different media outlets portrayLGBTI+ people in diverse ways.

This study examined the relationship between five neurocognitive domains, including memory, visual-spatial skills, executive functioning, language, and attention, and three instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), (financial management, medication management, and driving), as well as three basic activities of daily living (ADLs), including dressing, feeding, and grooming. Subjects were community dwelling older adults diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) ranging in severity from mild to severe. Correlation and regression models were used to analyze the relationship between neurocognitive domains and self-care activities. All of the neurocognitive domains were significantly but mildly correlated with declines in IADLs, and all of the neurocognitive domains, except memory, were significantly but mildly correlated with ADL decline. None of the regression models, except driving, produced significant results. The hypotheses were based on the belief that overlap occurs between declines in cognitive domains and self-care skills. The results of this study support the assertion that global cognitive decline occurs followed by declines in IADLs and later declines in ADLs. Thus, instead of specific neurocognitive domains predicting decline in individual self-care skills, this research indicates that the degree of severity of cognitive decline is predictive of impairments in IADLs or ADLs with milder global impairment predicting IADLs and more pronounced decline predicting declines in ADLs. Degree of severity may have been more predictive because while individuals vary in cognitive symptom presentation, the course of AD always progresses from mild to more severe. The role of over-learning also potentially impacted the results of the study. Individuals learn and daily practice ADLs at a young age causing them to require less higher level cognitive skills (over-learned). Since over-learned IADLs require less higher level cognition, they were preserved longer in AD course, thus declining after global cognitive impairment. Clinicians need to thoroughly assess the degree to which an individual has over-learned a task in order to make the most accurate recommendations. If an individual has milder global decline, IADLs are likely to be impaired, and if an individual has moderate global decline with memory reaching a floor, ADLs are likely to be impaired.

No description available.

My goal was to examine how experiences and behaviors of individuals and their romantic partners impact relationships on a daily basis. I conducted three separate but empirically and conceptually related studies. For all three papers, the sample was both members of heterosexual romantic relationships (N = 164 couples, 328 individuals) who completed measures each day for seven days. The papers were informed by tenets from interdependence theory and the conservation of resources model. The main purpose of the first paper was to examine a set of relational constructs (i.e., satisfaction, commitment, closeness, conflict, ambivalence, maintenance, and love) to determine which constructs fluctuated daily. All seven relational constructs showed significant within-person variability and were thus appropriate for further daily investigation. With this information, the next step was to understand how to foster positive relationships by examining what daily experiences were associated with those fluctuations. In the second paper I examined whether daily hassles and uplifts were associated with same-day and next-day feelings about the relationship. For same-day effects, I found that hassles were associated with decreased positivity and increased negativity about relationships, whereas uplifts were largely associated with increased positivity. I also found interactions between hassles and uplifts, suggestive of "blunting" effects whereby the positive effects of uplifts were nullified by high levels of hassles. For the next-day effects, I unexpectedly found that uplifts were associated with <italic>decreased</italic> positive relational constructs on the next day, possibly indicating a return to homeostatic levels. In the third paper, I moved to a more explicit examination of dyadic processes by examining both actor and partner effects and focusing on the role of relational sacrifices, or the daily changes individuals make for the sake of their romantic parnters. I expected that sacrifices would be beneficial for positive relationship quality, particularly on days characterized by low (versus high) hassles. I found support for these expectations with regards to actor, but not partner effects. Overall implications are that the everyday things that individuals experience (e.g., hassles and uplifts) and enact (e.g., sacrifices) are important considerations in fostering less negative and more positive romantic relationships.