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Expressing gratitude is associated with increases in feelings of positive emotion. In a recent study, we found that writing a letter of gratitude, thanking a person for something they said or did in the past, was associated with an increase in positive affect. We also found that this effect was moderated by life satisfaction - the effect was only observed for participants with moderate and high levels of life satisfaction. This was an unregistered, exploratory study. It is now important that we replicate this finding, to show that it is a true effect and not something that we observed by chance. In the exploratory study, we also informed participants about the benefits of writing a gratitude letter - here, we aim to remove this information to investigate whether we can replicate the finding when these demand characteristics are removed.

There is a major workforce crisis in the health and social care sector. This is driven in part by low morale and poor staff wellbeing, in turn leading to high staff turnover and chronic absenteeism. Consequently, quality of care and the experience of service users suffer. While major reforms and adequate funding is required to fully address this problem, the UK government has recognised the need for this sector to prioritise workplace wellbeing. A variety of employer and peer-led initiatives, such as meditation, yoga, physical exercise and mindfulness are suggested. However, many of these initiatives have issues with feasibility and lack the evidence base to support their efficacy. Our ongoing research programme provides evidence for the feasibility and efficacy of an alternative activity – expressive writing. Formal testing of expressive writing in the health and social care sector is now needed to determine the effectiveness and support future implementation of the approach. Here, we are interested in understanding how expressive writing practice can best be embedded in the daily lives of busy health and social care workers. Thus, we are keen to explore the barriers to uptake of these activities in relation to the COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation - Behaviour) model. This will include 1:1 interviews with health and social care workers, to seek their views on different expressive writing intervention approaches.

Winner of the poster competition ran during Northumbria's Open Research and Reproducibility Conference 2023. Poster entries showcase open research practice in student work.

Preregistration of a study protocol assessing the effects of an online positive expressive writing intervention on mental wellbeing relative to a guided imagery intervention.

Entries to the poster competition ran during Northumbria's Open Research and Reproducibility Conference as part of Open Research Week 2023. Poster entries showcase open research practice in student and academic work. Titles WINNER Positive expressive writing interventions, subjective health and wellbeing: A systematic review, Lauren Hoult, Dr Michael Smith, Prof Mark Wetherell & Dr Trudi Edginton WINNER Micro-detectives: Forensic profiling with microbes, Nengi Ogbanga, Andrew Nelson, Darren Smith & Noemi Procopio WINNER Cementochronology: About the “tree rings” in our teeth, Valentina Perrone, Patrick Randolph-Quinney & Noemi Procopio Larger, more powerful studies: More work. But big rewards!, David Smailes Promote (or learn about) open research via a Reproducibilitea Journal Club, David Smailes To explore how a Breastfeeding Closed Facebook group administered by volunteers with additional breastfeeding training influences women’s experiences, particularly for those women for whom breastfeeding is not their cultural norm, Deborah Wade Impact of symptoms and disease severity on digital mobility outcomes in COPD, D. Megaritis, J. Buekers, T. Bonci, E. Hume, L. Alcock, A. Yarnall, E. M. Amigo, P. Brown, C. Buckley, S. Del Din, C. Echevarria, C. Mazzà, L. Rochester, J. Garcia Aymerich & I. Vogiatzis Growing my research village, Fiona Crouch Dying to Care. A constructivist grounded theory study identifying what factors prepare student nurses to care for dying patients, Helen Merlane Development of Innovative MODular Building System with Enhanced Fire, Environmental, Structural and Thermal Performance (MOD-FEST), Heshachanaa Rajanayagam How does garment cut influence the perception of attractiveness in the male somatotype? A comparative study of the focus of attraction on specific areas of the male body and its adaptation to inform garment cut in the UK, Jenni Moore The more-than-digital scrapmap: Exploring the generative possibilities of qualitative digital data, Joanna Hume Technological visuo-cognitive training in Parkinson’s disease: Preliminary findings from a pilot randomised controlled trial, Julia Das, Gill Barry, Rodrigo Vitorio, Richard Walker, Claire McDonald, Rosie Morris & Samuel Stuart Library support for open research: How the University Library can support you to make your work more open…, Leah Maughan & Rachel Branson A Phenomenological study into the experience of training to perform Intermittent Self Catheterisation (ISC) from the perspective of the Patient and the Nurse, Marion Haskin Be thankful to be joyful: Gratitude writing for wellbeing, Michael A. Smith & Yasmin Colborne Improving cultural understanding and 21st century skills with COIL, Ngoc D. Nguyen, Vilma B. Liwan & Thao T. P. Mai ‘It helps make the fuzzy go away’: Autistic adults’ reflections upon nature and wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic and across the life course, Dr Samantha Friedman Diagnosing relativistic electron distributions in the Van Allen radiation belts, S. Killey, I.J. Rae, S. Chakraborty, A.W. Smith, S.N. Bentley, M. R. Bakrania, R. Wainwright, C.E.J. Watt, & J. K. Sandhu

Protocol for project assessing a socially evaluated multitasking paradigm and effects on keystroke dynamics

Preregistration of a protocol for a systematic review that aims to synthesise the literature investigating the effects of positive expressive writing interventions on subjective physical and psychological wellbeing in the general population.

Exploratory study aiming to identify the issues older adults (aged 70+) report in everyday functioning.

Aiming to investigate whether a positive writing intervention can alleviate the subjective and cardiovascular effects of acute stress when completing a critical social evaluation task based on the trier social stress test (TSST). Additionally, we will investigate the extent to which the effect of this positive writing intervention on acute stress reactivity is moderated by individual differences, specifically: ratings of self-esteem, perseverative thinking, and personality type.

Preregistration of a protocol for a pilot study assessing the efficacy and feasibility of a brief online positive expressive writing intervention, relative to a mindfulness (guided imagery) intervention and neutral (control) writing activity, when delivered for 20 minutes on a single day with the main outcome being changes in state anxiety.

Preregistration of a protocol for a study that aims to investigate the immediate, mid-term (2 weeks) and long-term (3 months) effects of a three day online positive expressive writing intervention on self-reported perceived stress, anxiety and physical symptoms, relative to a neutral control writing activity and a guided imagery activity.

This project will examine psychobiological functioning in medics undertaking the pre-hospital emergency medicine training course run by the Great North Air Ambulance Service. The course is high-fidelity and comprises 2-weeks of scenario based training. During the course participants will provide daily psychological data through questionnaires assessing anticipated and experienced demands, and undergo biological assessment via smart watches (heart rate, activity, sleep) and saliva sampling.

Preregistration of a protocol for a study using a Delphi method to gain expert consensus and feedback on the neutral writing activity that is employed as a control condition within experimental expressive writing research.

Preregistration of a protocol for a study assessing the effects of two brief positive expressive writing interventions (intensely positive experiences, best possible self) on state mood, perceived workload and cardiovascaulr reactivity following an acute social stressor.

Greg J Elder,1 Mark A Wetherell,2 Thomas V Pollet,2 Nicola L Barclay,3 Jason G Ellis1 1Northumbria Sleep Research Laboratory, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK; 2Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK; 3Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UKCorrespondence: Greg J ElderNorthumbria Sleep Research Laboratory, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UKTel +44 191 227 3241Email g.elder@northumbria.ac.ukPurpose: Stress is associated with subjective and objective sleep disturbances; however, it is not known whether stress disrupts sleep and relevant physiological markers of stress immediately after it is experienced. The present study examined whether demand, in the form of cognitive tasks, disrupted sleep and the cortisol awakening response (CAR), depending on whether it was experienced or just anticipated.Participants and Methods: Subjective and objective sleep was measured in 22 healthy adults on three nights (Nights 0– 2) in a sleep laboratory using sleep diaries and polysomnography. Saliva samples were obtained at awakening, +15, +30, +45 and +60 minutes on each subsequent day (Day 1– 3) and CAR measurement indices were derived: awakening cortisol levels, the mean increase in cortisol levels (MnInc) and total cortisol secretion (AUCG). On Night 1, participants were informed that they were required to complete a series of demanding cognitive tasks within the sleep laboratory during the following day. Participants completed the tasks as expected or unexpectedly performed sedentary activities.Results: Compared to the no-demand group, the demand group displayed significantly higher levels of state anxiety immediately completing the first task. There were no subsequent differences between the demand and no-demand groups in Night 2 subjective sleep continuity, objective sleep continuity or architecture, or on any Day 3 CAR measure.Conclusion: These results indicate that sleep and the CAR are not differentially affected depending on whether or not an anticipated stressor is then experienced. This provides further evidence to indicate that the CAR is a marker of anticipation and not recovery. In order to disrupt sleep, a stressor may need to be personally relevant or of a prolonged duration or intensity.Keywords: stress, cortisol, polysomnography, sleep, anticipation