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The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility of promoting (COVID-19) vaccination by combining a values clarification exercise, adapted from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, with gain versus loss-framed versions of existing COVID-19 public health messages. At the time of project design, concern over the low vaccination rate among young people reached headlines, with only 27.3% of people aged 18-19 having received at least the first dose of the vaccine, while between the ages of 20-29 the vaccination coverage reached 35.1%. In response, recruited participants were university undergraduate students in Cyprus (aged 18-35 years). We measured three main types of dependent variables at both baseline and at two weeks follow-up: COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy/curiosity; intentions to get COVID-19 vaccinated; and whether or not participants received COVID-19 vaccination. Immediately following initial baseline measurements participants received either a values clarification exercise or a control task combined with either the gain- or the loss-framed version of our chosen COVID-19 public health message. We formulated this message solely in terms of content already being used by public health authorities across the European Union, and in Cyprus more specifically. We have yet to view the resulting data but plan to use logistic regression to test whether values clarification exercises delivered immediately prior to the above messaging (a.) reduced COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, while increasing COVID-19 intentions and behaviour; (b.) and did so, particularly for loss-framed messages relative to their gain-framed equivalents. We also tentatively predicted that this latter pattern would be particularly pronounced at follow-up. More specifically, we predict that gain-framed messages may outperform loss-framed messages with respect to persuading immediate increases in intentions to get vaccinated in the future; but that conversely, loss-framed messages may outperform gain-framed messages with respect to pro-vaccination intentions and behaviour at follow-up. Data will be analysed following a logistic regression model for 4 separate key outcomes using the same format for each with the experimental manipulations at the core. The criterion variables are dichotomous. Yes/No in response to a vignette at two-week follow-up, and Yes/No to receiving a vaccine by two-week follow-up. There are two predictor variables with two levels each resulting in four conditions. Values intervention: Values intervention or no values intervention control Framed message: Gain or Loss The four conditions are: Gain-Framed Message with Values Intervention Gain-Framed Message with Control - No Values Intervention Loss-Framed Message with Intervention Loss-Framed Message with Control - No Values Intervention There will be two covariates that will be measured using standardised measures of psychological flexibility (i.e., Psych Flex) and willingness to get vaccinated (i.e., COM-B).

Communication experts continue to debate what messaging strategies are best for motivating prosocial behaviour for the public health and safety of Irish society. This is especially important presently as we battle the prevalence of Covid-19. Reluctance to get vaccinated is currently reported highest among those aged 25-34, with one in 10 young adults in Ireland saying they will refuse the Covid-19 jab. Vaccine hesitancy is a perennial issue and in 2019, vaccine hesitancy was listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the top 10 global health threats. Vaccine hesitancy is currently considered one of the greatest threats to public health in Ireland. Reasons for vaccine hesitancy vary but are distinguishable from those who take an anti-vaxx stance and take part in the anti-vaxx movement. Anti-vaxxers oppose vaccines due to their belief that vaccines are an infringement on human rights. Vaccine hesitancy arises from differing philosophical viewpoints, the influence of conflicting news sources, poor education, religious beliefs, and legions of varying contextual influences. We aim to explore the various motives of young adults in Ireland (aged 18-35) surrounding current and past Covid-19 guideline adherence, vaccine hesitancy, and responses to the Irish government’s public health messaging. A series of semi-structured interviews will aim to explore participants’ personal values and social identities in relation to vaccination and adherence to public health guidelines more broadly. Particular emphasis will be placed upon articulating participants’ perceptions of gains versus losses, social inclusion versus exclusion, and fairness versus unfairness; and how these perceptions may vary by context. Along those lines, we will discuss a vignette with the participants that characterize common pro- and hesitant/anti-vaccine scenarios already identified in the literature. We will also encourage participants to generate additional scenarios that are particularly emblematic of their experiences. We will perform thematic analyses throughout data collection and it will be informed by behavioural economic theory and evidence-based psychotherapeutic techniques relevant to ambivalence (e.g. Motivational Interviewing; Acceptance & Commitment Therapy). These analyses will characterize the most important motivational factors encouraging and discouraging young adults with respect to COVID-19 vaccination, and adhering to Irish COVID-19 guidelines more broadly. These findings will inform the design of an intervention study to be conducted at a later date with a different set of participants.

The present research aimed to develop the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) as a means of quantifying tobacco addiction in terms of implicit (i.e. automatic) evaluative processes. Chapter 1 begins by highlighting the fundamental importance of such processes to the losses of personal autonomy which characterise tobacco addiction. Accordingly, thereafter, Chapters 1-3 involve critically reviewing all major measures of addiction-related implicit processes in terms of their respective abilities to distinguish between implicit evaluating of one topic as distinct from another. The review culminates by recommending the IRAP, and its behaviour analytic rationale, as a tool for both functional and cognitive theorizing about tobacco addiction. Chapter 4 reports a study showing that the IRAP compares favourably with the most popular implicit measurement tool, the implicit association test (IAT), in terms of its ability to validate against multiple defining features of tobacco addiction. Indeed, this was despite the fact that both implicit measures were focused on evaluative topics specifically designed to favour the IAT rather than the IRAP; and also despite the fact that as a result the relevant IAT convincingly outperformed all of its predecessors in the literature. In response, Chapter 5 describes research that explored the potential of the IRAP to target complex, mood-conditional aspects of smokers’ implicit reasons for smoking that were unavailable to the IAT, or any other implicit measure. Crucially, by revealing motivational distinctions that were simply not available using other existing measures of implicit cognition, the IRAP’s experimental precision allowed us to identify aspects of implicit evaluating with unprecedented levels of criterion validity in relation to tobacco addiction. For example, these findings suggested a preliminary functional model wherein tobacco addiction is motivated by complex, coordinated and mood-dependent networks of implicit evaluative processes which collectively insist that one should regulate one’s ongoing emotional experiences – particularly negative craving-related affect – by smoking. Extending this model, the three experimental studies reported in Chapters 6 and 7 confirmed that smokers’ most popular, and also least successful, method of managing their (implicit) tobacco cravings is ultimately selfdefeating insofar as it involves experientially avoidant tactics like thought suppression. Accordingly, Chapter 8 concludes by recommending the IRAP, with certain important qualifications, as a useful means of quantifying tobacco addiction in such a way as to begin clarifying the motivational problem(s) that smoking-cessation treatments must ultimately tackle.

The NCSE is pleased to publish this research report on the experiences of young students with special educational needs (SEN), and their parents, of the move from primary to post primary school. This is an important transition for all students. Post primary schools tend to be bigger than primary schools, and students face more teachers, more formal and subject focused learning and a more regulated environment. The changes encountered are common to all students. However there are also specific implications for students with SEN, including changes in the organisation of SEN resources and supports, and the need for coordination across schools and other services to ensure a continuum of support to address individual special needs. This report is particularly welcome as it provides important insights into how students, and their parents, experience this transition, and lessons from their experiences highlight what works well and what might be improved. The NCSE believes that transition planning is particularly important for pupils with SEN moving from one level of education to the next, whether from early education to primary, primary to post primary or post school to training, work or college. The need for such planning is supported by the stories of parents and students in this research. Drawing on this research and other work on the topic, the NCSE intends to develop evidence based guidance on transition planning in relation to children and young people with special educational needs over the next year. In addition, this research report will be of great interest to teachers, parents, students and policy makers.

The study examined the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure’s (IRAP) validity as a computerized response-latency-based measure of implicit self- esteem. University undergraduates and 2 sets of convicted prisoners partici - pated. One set of prisoners resided in the main block, and the other in a privi - leged lower security “open area” of a medium-security Irish prison. The IRAP required participants to maintain relational responses that were self-positive on half of the IRAP trials (“Consistent”), and self-negative on the other half (“Inconsistent”). As predicted, the students and the prisoners in the open area showed stronger IRAP effects (shorter latencies during consistent vs. inconsis - tent trials) than the main block prisoners. Additionally, the IRAP’s convergent validity was supported by its moderate positive correlation with an explicit self-esteem measure. The findings provide preliminary support for the ana - lytic utility of the IRAP and suggest future avenues of investigation afforded by the IRAP’s design.