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There is a paucity of research that explores how people with Fibromyalgia (FMS) relate to themselves and others, with a particular focus on childhood experiences, mentalization and attachment theory. Ten people with FMS participated in semi-structured interviews, which explored the following areas: Important current relationships, experiences with others and childhood experiences of relationships. Stress and coping were also explored. Interview transcriptions were investigated using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith & Osborn, 2003). The following three superordinate themes were identified: “The power of painful childhood experiences”, “the connection between stress and relating to others” and “interpersonal stress is wedded to illness”. Among the participants, childhood was characterised by abuse, illness, bereavement or parental discord. These early events related to various adult consequences in terms of how others and the self were related to. Mirroring childhood experiences, adult relations were often described as destructive. Interpersonal stress was wedded to illness in that others were perceived as invalidating or as ignorant of the suffering experienced. Illness tended to be described as leading to isolation and increased vulnerability to abuse. Literature pertaining to FMS, attachment and mentalization theory was useful in informing the interpretation. Limitations, clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Social identity theory maintains that individuals define themselves according to their social groups, which in turn impacts self-esteem. Valued social roles are assumed to influence identity and self-concept. Being a trainer represents a valued social role for people with learning disabilities (PLD) and research suggests it impacts identity. However, there is a paucity of empirical literature explicitly exploring this relationship in learning disabled trainers. Using narrative analysis, this study explored how being a trainer impacted the lives and identities of nine PLD. Being a trainer contributed to progression and stability in participants’ lives and they positioned themselves as trainers in different positive roles (e.g. go-getter, helper). This study highlights the value of the trainer role for PLD, suggests a role for clinical psychologists in contributing to the sustainability of training organisations, and highlights a need for further research employing standardised measures, longitudinal and comparative designs.

Section A is a review of the literature pertaining to positive environmental influences on sexual identity development amongst sexual minority (SM) adolescents. Extant research suggests SM adolescents are at risk of adjustment difficulties; there is a dearth of research regarding positive influences on development. Positive influences include micro-­system factors, such as friend and family affirmation, with limited understanding of macro-­system factors. Section B reports the research study, which took an ecological approach to investigating protective factors in the lives of sexual minority adolescents. It aimed to investigate affirming experiences, exploring whether sexual minority ‘affirming messages’ (AM) are experienced, the process of experiencing AM and their perceived effects. A mixed-method cross sectional design with three phases of qualitative and quantitative data collection was implemented. Phases included a 12 participant focus group, an online survey completed by 107 participants and respondent validation with five participants. Participants reported AM were experienced, but were not accessible enough. AM were less accessible when first considering sexual identity, a time of negative feelings. Participants were actively engaged in seeking AM, most commonly on-line and from friends and least commonly from school. The importance of role models, similar others and self-acceptance was recognised. Results suggested that although AM are not considered accessible enough, they have a positive impact. This has implications for provision of AM within educational settings and the media.

Identity formation may be more complex for those who have been in foster care in the face of childhood abuse, difficult relationships, unstable environments and multiple care contexts but this does not imply there is anything pathological about it. Given the higher levels of mental health difficulties in looked after children and the known role identity has in mental health, whether as a risk or a protective factor, it seems clinically significant to investigate what factors help construct or hinder the formation of identity for those who have been in care. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse semi-structured interviews of eight female care-leavers about the understanding of their identity development. Three superordinate themes emerged which encapsulated participants’ identity development. These included Construction of identity – How I became me, Understanding of identity – Who am I and Experience of identity – How my identity plays out. Participants’ construction of identity can be understood in the context of early adverse environments and developmental trauma. This construction of self, in turn mediates how participants understand and experience their identity. Findings were discussed in relation to previous research and limitations were outlined. Implications for future research included giving fuller consideration to the role of developmental trauma in identity formation. Clinical implications encourage understanding of looked after children and care-leavers in the context of developmental trauma, rather than focusing on symptoms of various diagnoses.

Research suggests that interpersonal difficulties are reported by those who experience grandiose beliefs, however the processes and the relationship with the belief have seen limited exploration and are poorly understood. The present study aimed to explore the perceptions of interpersonal relationships and self-esteem of people who have grandiose beliefs and to explore if these accounts are consistent with existing theory. A qualitative design was employed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore participants' subjective understanding of experiences. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight individuals who were purposively sampled. Transcripts were analysed using IPA. Four superordinate themes emerged: ‘Others as disregarding’; ‘Fragile sense of self’; ‘Lost in a frightening world’ and ‘Surviving’. The study found that participants' accounts were characterised by difficult interpersonal relationships in both early and adult life. The participants' sense of self was complex and lacking in coherence, thus previously used measures of “self-esteem” may not adequately capture the subtleties of the experiences. The sense of self was set in a social context characterised by feelings of powerlessness isolation and lack of trust. In the context of limited resources the results suggest the beliefs function to make sense of experiences and to help the participants survive. These findings confirm that the belief may, in part, serve to protect participants from poor “social self-esteem”. These findings provide avenues to further exploration of processes and provide recommendations for clinicians and services.

The present study explored how authenticity is constructed by clinical psychologists and asked what might be the implications of these discourses. The study is concerned with offering a focus on the making of authenticity in discourse as well as providing an understanding of the complexity of authenticity within clinical psychology. The study used a discourse analytic approach known as critical discursive psychology to examine clinical psychologists’ talk of authenticity. Participants included twelve qualified clinical psychologists working in adult mental health services who took part in semi-structured interviews. Following a detailed critical discursive analysis of the texts, four discourses were identified with regard to the construction of authenticity. These discourses were commonly used to construct authenticity in extremely positive terms, however, some participants did draw attention to an ideological dilemma of authenticity versus professionalism. Participants used authenticity to establish their identity and manage their relationships with service users, colleagues and institutions. Drawing upon psychotherapeutic and professional discourses positioned participants as having power and being more authentic than others. Authenticity was problematised in relation to the participants need for professional boundaries. It is suggested that psychologists internalise dominant discourses of authenticity from the profession of clinical psychology, which is itself influenced by wider societal discourses around what it means to be authentic or inauthentic. Extra-discursive factors including institutions and embodiment were found to influence and constrain available discourses. The limitations of this study’s research findings are discussed as well as implications for future research and clinical psychology practice.

This study explored how gender expressions were portrayed in the narratives of gay men who view themselves as non-masculine. An adapted life story interview was conducted with seven participants between the ages of 20 and 47 years. Life stories were analysed using content analysis. The study found that non-masculinity was defined in different ways and that social context, including threat, impacted on gender expression. Non-masculinity was strongly associated with male homosexuality. Homophobic verbal and physical abuse was portrayed alongside negative appraisals of non-masculinity. This may be indicative of internalised anti-effeminacy values. Marginalisation in gay communities was also portrayed, including romantic rejection. Intersections of gender-expression and ethnicity or age were important in evaluations of sexual attractiveness. Conversely, masculinity was often eroticised or regarded as aspirational. Positive qualities associated with non-masculinity included expressiveness, humour and flexibility in working with power demonstrations of others. These reinforce the assertion that effeminate and androgynous men bypass facets of gender-role conflict.

Today's best intelligent, adaptive, multimedia trainers have shown excellent performance; however, their results still fall far-short of what good human tutors can achieve. The overarching thesis of this paper is that future intelligent, adaptive systems will be improved by taking into account relevant, consistent, and meaningful individual differences. Specifically, responding to individual differences among trainees will (a) form more accurate individual baselines within a training system, and (b) better inform system responses (so that they interpret and respond to observable data more appropriately). One variable to consider is trait arousability, which describes individual differences in sensitivity to stimuli. Individuals' arousability interacts with the arousal inherent to a task/environment to create a person's arousal state. An individual's arousal state affects his/her attentional capacity, working memory function, and depth of processing. In this paper, two studies are presented. The purpose of the first study was to evaluate existing subjective measures of trait arousability and then develop a new measure by factor analyzing existing apparatus. From this well-populated (N = 622) study, a new reliable ([alpha] = .91) 35-item scale was developed. This scale includes two factors, negative emotionality and orienting sensitivity, which have been previously theorized but not yet so reliably measured. The purposes of the second study were to (a) validate the measure developed in the first investigation and (b) demonstrate the applied value of the arousability construct in the context of training. Results from the second study (N=45) demonstrated significant main effects, but the interaction effects were inconclusive. They neither clearly confirm nor invalidate the hypotheses, but they do raise further questions.

Identity can be considered to be socially constructed and developed through narratives about ourselves and our experiences. Having socially valued roles may thus facilitate a positive identity. This study aimed to explore how the experiences of service user involvement (SUI) in health and social care services (specifically, being involved in staff recruitment) influenced the narrative identities of people with learning disabilities. Interviews were conducted with seven people with learning disabilities who had been service user representatives on NHS interview panels. These were analysed using thematic narrative analysis as a framework. All described positive narrative identities, but the degree to which SUI featured in the construction of narrative identities varied. Whilst some found the experience transformative, for others it was not an important part of their narratives. The findings suggest that such experiences formed just one of many narratives that participants drew from to construct their narrative identity.