Background: The present study aimed to examine the interconnections between chronotype, sleep quality, alcohol consumption and mental health, and the role of sex (male and female) on these...Show moreBackground: The present study aimed to examine the interconnections between chronotype, sleep quality, alcohol consumption and mental health, and the role of sex (male and female) on these connections. Previous studies have shown that evening chronotype is connected to poorer sleep quality, higher alcohol consumption and worse mental health. Yet, there is limited research on the interactions between all these variables and on the role of sex differences. The current study hypothesized the mediating role of alcohol between sleep and mental health, and the moderating role of sex and mental health. Methods: Quantitative data of a big participant sample (N=2165) from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) was used. Participants derived from various settings and represented both healthy and clinical groups. Self-report measures were used, and mediation and moderation analyses were performed to test the hypotheses. Results: Alcohol was not found to mediate the relationship between sleep and mental health. Sex differences were found in anxiety and alcohol consumption, with women scoring higher in both. Sex also acted as a moderator between sleep quality and depression, and sleep quality and anxiety. Mental health status was found to affect chronotype and sleep quality, with healthy individuals being morning chronotypes more frequently and reporting higher sleep quality. Conclusions: The results of the current study contribute to our understanding of the interactions between sleep, alcohol and mental health, underlining the role of sex and mental health. This knowledge can be used in designing more personalized and multidimensional treatments, improving the quality of psychological care.Show less
The birth-control pill is a widely used form of contraception among young women. However, using oral contraception (OC) comes with a number of reported side effects, one being significant mood...Show moreThe birth-control pill is a widely used form of contraception among young women. However, using oral contraception (OC) comes with a number of reported side effects, one being significant mood deterioration and depressive symptoms. Research is divided concerning the question of whether such a relationship between OC and depressive symptoms actually exists and points to contradictory research results when investigating said relationship. One explanation for these differing study results is the existence of a moderator. It has been suggested that personality might act as such a moderator. The present study aims to investigate further whether personality indeed moderates the relationship between OC and depressive symptoms. Personality was split into the Big-Five personality factors Neuroticism, Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness. Participants were 515 females aged 18-29 and were divided into two groups. One that stated to take OC and one that only uses physical contraception. They received the Big-Five Inventory-10 (BFI-10) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to assess their personality and their depressive symptomatology, respectively. Results showed no relation between OC and depressive symptoms and no moderation effect of any personality factor on said relationship. Therefore, the present study shows no signs of personality influencing the relationship between OC and depressive symptoms. However, it has been found that Neuroticism and Conscientiousness were both significantly related to depressive symptoms. Limitations, study implications, and directions for future research are discussed.Show less
This thesis aims to explore attitudes towards nudity and nakedness in medieval art and literature by discussing key historical, religious and socio-political contexts surrounding the body and...Show moreThis thesis aims to explore attitudes towards nudity and nakedness in medieval art and literature by discussing key historical, religious and socio-political contexts surrounding the body and embodiment. By undressing the medieval understanding and approaches to the exposed body, I will present how nudity was received both publicly and privately, and evaluate whether cultural attitudes towards nakedness reflect or challenge contemporary notions of nakedness. Therefore, this research should contribute to a wider historical narrative of the relationship between the naked body and its material environment in both the medieval and modern period.Show less
The results of this research show that female participants have more positive attitudes towards English loanwords than male participants. Female participants were consistently more positive...Show moreThe results of this research show that female participants have more positive attitudes towards English loanwords than male participants. Female participants were consistently more positive regarding statements 1, 2 and 3 or, respectively, this is an ordinary Dutch sentence, the use of [loanword] is appropriate in this sentence and I would also make use of this sentence as can be found in Figure 1. Furthermore, there is significant correlation at the 0.05 level between both statement 2 and statement 3 and gender, which means that female participants have scored significantly higher than male participants for these statements. The results of this research also suggest that the mean scores of the participants become consistently lower when age increases for each of the statements. Figure 2 shows that the mean scores for the statements mentioned above consistently decrease when ages of the participants increase. These data suggest that older participants have more negative attitudes towards loanwords than younger participants. In furthermore, there is significant negative correlation at the 0.05 level between the statement I would also make use of this sentence and age. This implies that the attitudes towards using these loanwords are significantly more negative when the ages of the participants increase. This research indicated that most participants do not prefer alternative words to the used loanwords. Table 11 (in section 4.3) indicates that crash is the loanword with the most preferred alternatives as it is preferably replaced by ongeluk and neerstorten, according to nine and ten participants, respectively. Table 11 also indicates that seven participants prefer vraaggesprek to interview, six participants prefer behaald or gepresteerd to gescoord and five participants prefer peiling(en) and voorlopige uitslagen to exit polls. Preferred alternatives to the other loanwords were only provided by four participants or less, and are therefore not widely supported among the participants. In addition, the majority of the loanwords (all except crash) are catachrestic. Furthermore, the results of this research suggest that the participants generally consider that the used loanwords are more precise than other Dutch words. The second favoured reason is that participants consider that the used loanwords sound better regarding pronunciation, which can be found in Table 12.Show less
