Negative mood, implicit alcohol-related memory, and alcohol use in young adults: The moderating effect of alcohol expectancy

Objective Alcohol-related implicit (preconscious) cognitive processes are established and unique predictors of alcohol use, but most research in this area has focused on alcohol-related implicit cognition and anxiety. This study extends this work into the area of depressed mood by testing a cognitive model that combines traditional explicit (conscious and considered) beliefs, implicit alcohol-related memory associations (AMAs), and self-reported drinking behavior. Method Using a sample of 106 university students, depressed mood was manipulated using a musical mood induction procedure immediately prior to completion of implicit then explicit alcohol-related cognition measures. A bootstrapped two-group (weak/strong expectancies of negative affect and tension reduction) structural equation model was used to examine how mood changes and alcohol-related memory associations varied across groups. Results Expectancies of negative affect moderated the association of depressed mood and AMAs, but there was no such association for tension reduction expectancy. Conclusion Subtle mood changes may unconsciously trigger alcohol-related memories in vulnerable individuals. Results have implications for addressing subtle fluctuations in depressed mood among young adults at risk of alcohol problems.

Narrative on a doctoral narrative : reflections on postgraduate study and pedagogy

This paper explores the stages of one student’s intellectual journey through a Doctor of Philosophy program of study in an Australian university. It outlines the theoretical and methodological insights made as she came to understand that data was discourse, entailing a politics and position of power that ran contrary to the aims of the study that the student was undertaking in and on her own community. The article is a reflective narrative produced from the experience of having to come to terms with some of the personal and professional tensions and contradictions that postgraduate study can, and maybe should, engender if it is to be any of real value.

Queer cops in Queensland : exploring LGBT narrative histories in the Queensland Police Service

This chapter reports on a narrative project recording the experiences of LGBT former and current police officers in the Queensland Police Service (QPS), Australia. It begins by examining the historical and research contexts of LGBT police officers, followed by a discussion of the methodology employed for the project. The chapter then examines and analyzes key themes emerging from the data about coming out, macho police culture, and the double life syndrome often experienced by LGBT police officers. Finally, it suggests that further research might uncover a more widespread application of these findings.

Technology, memory and experience : virtual reality, motion capture and early modern theatre

This paper investigates virtual reality representations of performance in London’s late sixteenth-century Rose Theatre, a venue that, by means of current technology, can once again challenge perceptions of space, performance, and memory. The VR model of The Rose becomes a Camillo device in that it represents a virtual recreation of this venue in as much detail as possible and attempts to recover graphic demonstrations of the trace memories of the performance modes of the day. The VR model is based on accurate archeological and theatre historical records and is easy to navigate. The introduction of human figures onto The Rose’s stage via motion capture allows us to explore the relationships between space, actor and environment. The combination of venue and actors facilitates a new way of thinking about how the work of early modern playwrights can be stored and recalled. This virtual theatre is thus activated to intersect productively with contemporary studies in performance; as such, our paper provides a perspective on and embodiment of the relation between technology, memory and experience. It is, at its simplest, a useful archiving project for theatrical history, but it is directly relevant to contemporary performance practice as well. Further, it reflects upon how technology and ‘re-enactments’ of sorts mediate the way in which knowledge and experience are transferred, and even what may be considered ‘knowledge.’ Our work provides opportunities to begin addressing what such intermedial confrontations might produce for ‘remembering, experiencing, thinking and imagining.’ We contend that these confrontations will enhance live theatre performance rather than impeding or disrupting contemporary performance practice. This paper intersects with the CFP’s ‘Performing Memory��� and ‘Memory Lab’ themes. Our presentation (which includes a demonstration of the VR model and the motion capture it requires) takes the form of two closely linked papers that share a single abstract. The two papers will be given by two people, one of whom will be physically present in Utrecht, the other participating via Skype.

Keeping House : a novel and novel companion

The creative work of this study is a novel-length work of literary fiction called Keeping House (published as Grace's Table, by University of Queensland Press, April 2014). Grace has not had twelve people at her table for a long time. Hers isn't the kind of family who share regular Sunday meals. As Grace prepares the feast, she reflects on her life, her marriage and her friendships. When the three generations of her family come together, simmering tensions from the past threaten to boil over. The one thing that no one can talk about is the one thing that no one can forget. Grace's Table is a moving and often funny novel using food as a language to explore the power of memory and the family rituals that define us. The exegetical component of this study does not adhere to traditional research pedagogies. Instead, it follows the model of what the literature describes as fictocriticism. It is the intention that the exegesis be read as a hybrid genre; one that combines creative practice and theory and blurs the boundaries between philosophy and fiction. In offering itself as an alternative to the exegetical canon it provides a model for the multiplicity of knowledge production suited to the discipline of practice-led research. The exegesis mirrors structural elements of the creative work by inviting twelve guests into the domestic space of the novel to share a meal. The guests, chosen for their diverse thinking, enable examination of the various agents of power involved in the delivery of food. Their ideas cross genders, ages and time periods; their motivations and opinions often collide. Some are more concerned with the spatial politics of where food is consumed, others with its actual preparation and consumption. Each, however, provides a series of creative reflective conversations throughout the meal which help to answer the research question: How can disempowered women take authority within their domestic space? Michel de Certeau must defend his "operational tactics" or "art of the weak" 1 as a means by which women can subvert the colonisation of their domestic space against Michel Foucault's ideas about the functions of a "disciplinary apparatus". 2 Erving Goffman argues that the success of de Certeau's "tactics" depends upon his theories of "performance" and "masquerade" 3; a claim de Certeau refutes. Doreen Massey and the author combine forces in arguing for space, time and politics to be seen as interconnected, non-static and often contested. The author calls for identity, or sense of self, to be considered a further dimension which impacts on the function of spatial models. Yu-Fi Tuan speaks of the intimacy of kitchens; Gaston Bachelard the power of daydreams; and Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin gives the reader a taste of the nourishing arts. Roland Barthes forces the author to reconsider her function as a writer and her understanding of the reader's relationship with a text. Fictional characters from two texts have a place at the table – Marian from The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood 4 and Lilian from Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville. 5 Each explores how they successfully subverted expectations of their gender. The author interprets and applies elements of the conversations to support Grace's tactics in the novel as well as those related to her own creative research practice. Grace serves her guests, reflecting on what is said and how it relates to her story. Over coffee, the two come together to examine what each has learned.

Narrative therapy for adults with major depressive disorder: Improved symptom and interpersonal outcomes

Abstract This study investigated depressive symptom and interpersonal relatedness outcomes from eight sessions of manualized narrative therapy for 47 adults with major depressive disorder. Post-therapy, depressive symptom improvement (d=1.36) and proportions of clients achieving reliable improvement (74%), movement to the functional population (61%), and clinically significant improvement (53%) were comparable to benchmark research outcomes. Post-therapy interpersonal relatedness improvement (d=.62) was less substantial than for symptoms. Three-month follow-up found maintenance of symptom, but not interpersonal gains. Benchmarking and clinical significance analyses mitigated repeated measure design limitations, providing empirical evidence to support narrative therapy for adults with major depressive disorder. RÉSUMÉ Cette étude a investigué les symptômes dépressifs et les relations interpersonnels d'une thérapie narrative en huit séances chez 47 adultes souffrant d'un trouble dépressif majeur. Après la thérapie, l'amélioration des symptômes dépressifs (d=1.36) et la proportion de clients atteignant un changement significatif (74%), le mouvement vers la population fonctionnelle (61%), enfin l'amélioration clinique significative (53%) étaient comparables aux performances des études de résultats. L'amélioration des relations interpersonnelles (d=0.62) était inférieure à l'amélioration symptomatique. Le suivi à trois mois montrait un maintien des gains symptomatiques mais pas pour les relations interpersonnelles. L’évaluation des performances et les analyses de significativité clinique modèrent les limitations du plan de recherche à mesures répétées et apportent une preuve empirique qui étaie l'efficacité des thérapies narratives pour des adultes avec un trouble dépressif majeur. Este estudo investigou sintomas depressivos e resultados interpessoais relacionados em oito sessões de terapia narrativa manualizada para 47 adultos com perturbação depressiva major. No pós terapia, melhoria de sintomas depressivos (d=1,36) e proporção de clientes que alcançam melhoria válida (74%), movimento para a população funcional (61%) e melhoria clinicamente significativa (53%) foram comparáveis com os resultados da investigação reportados. As melhorias pós terapia nos resultados interpessoais relacionados (d=.62) foi menos substancial do que para os sintomas. Aos três meses de seguimento houve a manutenção dos sintomas mas não dos ganhos interpessoais. As análises de benchemarking e de melhoria clinicamente significativas atenuam as limitações de um design de medidas repetidas, fornecendo evidência empírica para a terapia narrativa para adultos com perturbação depressiva major. Questo lavoro ha valutato i sintomi depressivi e gli outcome nella capacità di relazionarsi a livello interpersonale in 8 sedute di psicoterapia narrativa manualizzata in un gruppo di 47 adulti con depressione maggiore. I risultati ottenuti relativamente a: post terapy, miglioramento dei sintomi depressivi (d_1.36), proporzione di pazienti che hanno raggiunto un miglioramento affidabile e consistente (74%), movimento verso il funzionamento atteso nella popolazione (61%) e miglioramento clinicamente significativo (53%) sono paragonabili ai valori di riferimento della ricerca sull'outcome. I miglioramento della capacità di relazionarsi valutata alla fine del trattamento (d_.62) si è rivelata meno sostanziale rispetto ai sintomi. Un follow-up dopo 3 mesi ha dimostrato che il miglioramento sintomatologico è stato mantenuto, ma non quello degli obiettivi interpersonali. Valori di riferimento e analisi della significatività clinica hanno fatto fronte ai limiti del disegno a misure ripetute, offrendo prove empiriche sulla rilevanza della terapia narrativa in pazienti adulti con depressione maggiore

Adventure as the metaphoric basis for constructing a narrative to defuse a collective critical incident

This article describes an exercise in collective narrative practice, built around the metaphor of adventure. This metaphor helped to scaffold the development of stories of personal agency for a group of Australian primary school children whose teachers were afraid they might be traumatised by events which occurred during a school excursion. During the excursion, the group of 110 Year 5 and 6 school children had their accommodation broken into on two separate occasions and various belongings stolen. The very brief period made available for ‘debriefing’ was used to introduce the metaphor of adventure, and open up space for the children to begin constructing a story in which they were ‘powerful’, as an alternative to the story of powerlessness and victimhood in which they were initially caught up.

Sponsorship-linked marketing: The role of articulation in memory

Corporate sponsorship of events contributes significantly to marketing aims, including brand awareness as measured by recall and recognition of sponsor‐event pairings. Unfortunately, resultant advantages accrue disproportionately to brands having a natural or congruent fit with the available sponsorship properties. In three cued‐recall experiments, the effect of articulation of sponsorship fit on memory for sponsor‐event pairings is examined. While congruent sponsors have a natural memory advantage, results demonstrate that memory improvements via articulation are possible for incongruent sponsor‐event pairings. These improvements are, however, affected by the presence of competitor brands and the way in which memory is accessed.

Dietary modification for women after breast cancer treatment : a narrative review

Diet is thought to account for about 25% of cancers in developed countries. It is well documented that the risks associated with both the breast cancer itself and its treatments are important for women previously treated for breast cancer. Women are at risk of recurrence of the primary disease and prone to develop treatment-induced co-morbidities, some of which are thought to be modified by diet. With a view to making dietary recommendations for the breast cancer patients we encounter in our clinical nursing research, we mined the literature to scope the most current robust evidence concerning the role of the diet in protecting women against the recurrence of breast cancer and its potential to ameliorate some of the longer-term morbidities associated with the disease. We found that the evidence about the role of the diet in breast cancer recurrence is largely inconclusive. However, drawing on international guidelines enabled us to make three definitive recommendations. Women at risk of breast cancer recurrence, or who experience co-morbidities as a result of treatment, should limit their exposure to alcohol, moderate their nutritional intake so it does not contribute to postmenopausal weight gain, and should adhere to a balanced diet. Nursing education planned for breast cancer patients about dietary issues should ideally be individually tailored, based on a good understanding of the international recommendations and the evidence underpinning them

Modelling the activation of words in human memory : the spreading activation, spooky-activation-at-a-distance and the entanglement models compared

Modelling how a word is activated in human memory is an important requirement for determining the probability of recall of a word in an extra-list cueing experiment. The spreading activation, spooky-action-at-a-distance and entanglement models have all been used to model the activation of a word. Recently a hypothesis was put forward that the mean activation levels of the respective models are as follows: Spreading � Entanglment � Spooking-action-at-a-distance This article investigates this hypothesis by means of a substantial empirical analysis of each model using the University of South Florida word association, rhyme and word norms.

Emergence in games

The future direction of game development is towards more flexible, realistic, and interactive game worlds. However, current methods of game design do not allow for anything other than pre-scripted player exchanges and static objects and environments. An emergent approach to game development involves the creation of a globally designed game system that provides rules and boundaries for player interactions, rather than prescribed paths. Emergence in Games provides a detailed foundation for applying the theory and practice of emergence in games to game design. Emergent narrative, characters and agents, and game worlds are covered and a hands-on tutorial and case study allow the reader to the put the skills and ideas presented into practice.

State convergence and the effectiveness of time-memory-data tradeoffs

Various time-memory tradeoffs attacks for stream ciphers have been proposed over the years. However, the claimed success of these attacks assumes the initialisation process of the stream cipher is one-to-one. Some stream cipher proposals do not have a one-to-one initialisation process. In this paper, we examine the impact of this on the success of time-memory-data tradeoff attacks. Under the circumstances, some attacks are more successful than previously claimed while others are less. The conditions for both cases are established.

'In the hands of the Receivers': The Politics of Literacy in The Savage by David Almond and Dave McKean

David Almond and Dave McKean's The Savage is a hybrid prose and graphic novel which tells the story of one young man’s maturation through literacy. The protagonist learns to deal with the death of his father and his own 'savage' self by writing a graphic novel. This article reads The Savage in the context of earlier, 'Northern' literacy narrative - particularly Tony Harrison's poem "Them & [uz]" and Barry Hines' Kes — through the discourse of neoliberalism and the notion of the reluctant boy reader. It is suggested that Almond and McKean are influenced by currently dominant ideologies of gender and literacy.

Mind games : applying White’s principles of narrative therapy to the creation of a cabaret about depression and bipolar disorder

This PhD represents my attempt to make sense of my personal experiences of depression through the form of cabaret. I first experienced depression in 2006. Previously, I had considered myself to be a happy and optimistic person. I found the experience of depression to be a shock: both in the experience itself, and also in the way it effected my own self image. These personal experiences, together with my professional history as a songwriter and cabaret performer, have been the motivating force behind the research project. This study has explored the question: What are the implications of applying principles of Michael White’s narrative therapy to the creation of a cabaret performance about depression and bipolar disorder? There is a 50 percent weighting on the creative work, the cabaret performance Mind Games, and a 50 percent weighting on the written exegesis. This research has focussed on the illustration of therapeutic principles in order to play games of truth within a cabaret performance. The research project investigates ways of telling my own story in relation to others’ stories through three re-authoring principles articulated in Michael White’s narrative therapy: externalisation, an autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions. The personal stories presented in the cabaret were drawn from my own experiences and from interviews with individuals with depression or bipolar disorder. The cabaret focussed on the illustration of therapeutic principles, and was not focussed on therapeutic ends for myself or the interviewees. The research question has been approached through a methodology combining autoethnographic, practice-led and action research. Auto ethnographic research is characterised by close investigation of assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs. The combination of autoethnographic, practice-led, action research has allowed me to bring together personal experiences of mental illness, research into therapeutic techniques, social attitudes and public discourses about mental illness and forms of contemporary cabaret to facilitate the creation of a one-woman cabaret performance. The exegesis begins with a discussion of games of truth as informed by Michel Foucault and Michael White and self-stigma as informed by Michael White and Erving Goffman. These concepts form the basis for a discussion of my own personal experiences. White’s narrative therapy is focused on individuals re-authoring their stories, or telling their stories in different ways. White’s principles are influenced by Foucault’s notions of truth and power. Foucault’s term games of truth has been used to describe the effect of a ‘truth in flux’ that occurs through White’s re-authoring process. This study argues that cabaret is an appropriate form to represent this therapeutic process because it favours heightened performativity over realism, and showcases its ‘constructedness’ and artificiality. Thus cabaret is well suited to playing games of truth. A contextual review compares two major cabaret trends, personal cabaret and provocative cabaret, in reference to the performer’s relationship with the audience in terms of distance and intimacy. The study draws a parallel between principles of distance and intimacy in Michael White’s narrative therapy and relates these to performative terms of distance and intimacy. The creative component of this study, the cabaret Mind Games, used principles of narrative therapy to present the character ‘Jo’ playing games of truth through: externalising an aspect of her personality (externalisation); exploring different life values (an autonomous ethic of living); and enacting multiple versions of her identity (rich descriptions). This constant shifting between distance and intimacy within the cabaret created the effect of a truth in ‘constant flux’, to use one of White’s terms. There are three inter-related findings in the study. The first finding is that the application of principles of White’s narrative therapy was able to successfully combine provocative and empathetic elements within the cabaret. The second finding is that the personal agenda of addressing my own self-stigma within the project limited the effective portrayal of a ‘truth in flux’ within the cabaret. The third finding presents the view that the cabaret expressed ‘Jo’ playing games of truth in order to journey towards her own "preferred identity claim" (White 2004b) through an act of "self care" (Foucault 2005). The contribution to knowledge of this research project is the application of therapeutic principles to the creation of a cabaret performance. This process has focussed on creating a self-revelatory cabaret that questions notions of a ‘fixed truth’ through combining elements of existing cabaret forms in new ways. Two major forms in contemporary cabaret, the personal cabaret and the provocative cabaret use the performer-audience relationship in distinctive ways. Through combining elements of these two cabaret forms, I have explored ways to create a provocative cabaret focussed on the act of self-revelation.

Unravel and picking at scabs : the underside of grief (a novella and exegesis)

This thesis consists of a 46,000 word polyphonic novella, Unravel, and an exegesis, Picking at Scabs: the Underside of Grief. The works are companion pieces, sitting side-by-side, and together they plumb the complex depths of loss and its resultant disorder, painful longing, and sorrow. The novella, representing 75% of the work and creative practice, is a multilayered work, which scrapes at the potent unspeakability of the presence of absence in the lives of its chief protagonists, Hana and Guy. As the novella progresses, loss is unraveled to reveal the interplay of remembering and forgetting, past and present and the ways in which these knotty fibres are connected with the strands of memory, trauma, silence, and the uncanny. Each of these threads is woven into the novella and as they plait together, loosen and fray, they expose the mystery, lies and secrets at the core of the novella. The exegesis, which comprises 25% of the thesis, picks at loss to uncover and loosen a complex and worn tangle of knots and loops. In this way, the exegesis and creative work are constantly in dialogue and while neither provides all the answers, both stretch the yarn to reveal an enthusiasm of practice.