Understanding the experiences of positive life changes during postgraduate study on a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology programme: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

There is a global increase in the teaching of positive psychology at postgraduate level. Anecdotally, it has been suggested that university-based positive psychology programmes can be “life changing”. This exploratory qualitative study aimed to enhance our understanding of the positive life experiences of students registered on a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) programme. The researcher interviewed five postgraduate students undertaking a MAPP at the University of East London. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify emerging themes before these were analysed and clustered into a number of overarching themes. Participants reported experiencing a number of positive life changes as a result of the MAPP programme. Key themes that emerged were the sense that there were “myriad different thoughts and potential opportunities”; that studying positive psychology was “like coming home”; that participants enjoyed having time for reflection; and the sense that “it’s all about the people”.  This study raised the question of whether the MAPP programme could, in itself, be considered a positive psychological intervention.

The development of peer coaching skills in primary school children in years 5 and 6

Can peer coaching skills be developed through ‘non academic’ tasks? The enquiry also aims to answer the following question: Can children give and receive feedback? The research methods reported are ethnographic combined with pre- and post- responses to the drawing task. The categorisation of the children’s drawings and their use of feedback were analysed and for the majority of children the quality of the feedback did not affect their choice of accepting the feedback or ignoring the suggestions made, which appeared counter to our initial hypothesis

Integrating coaching and positive psychology: Concepts and practice

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Coaching to enhance the mental toughness of people learning kickboxing

This pilot study investigated whether combining Positive Psychology Coaching (PPC) and kickboxing would progress the development of mental toughness compared to kickboxing alone. The data were derived from 28 participants who voluntarily took a four-week kickboxing course and completed the Mental Toughness Questionnaire (MTQ48) a week before the course commenced and after its completion. Using stratified randomisation for age and gender, 14 participants received a one-hour individual face-to-face coaching session while the other 14 only engaged in kickboxing. The results suggest that PPC may have a role in developing mental toughness when it is combined with vigorous physical exercise

Long non-coding RNAs as novel therapeutic targets in juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia

Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) treatment primarily relies on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and results in long-term overall survival of 50-60%, demonstrating a need to develop novel treatments. Dysregulation of the non-coding RNA transcriptome has been demonstrated before in this rare and unique disorder of early childhood. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic potential of targeting overexpressed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in JMML. Total RNA sequencing of bone marrow and peripheral blood mononuclear cell preparations from 19 untreated JMML patients and three healthy children revealed 185 differentially expressed lncRNA genes (131 up- and 54 downregulated). LNA GapmeRs were designed for 10 overexpressed and validated lncRNAs. Molecular knockdown (>= 70% compared to mock control) after 24 h of incubation was observed with two or more independent GapmeRs in 6 of them. For three lncRNAs (lnc-THADA-4, lnc-ACOT9-1 and NRIR) knockdown resulted in a significant decrease of cell viability after 72 h of incubation in primary cultures of JMML mononuclear cells, respectively. Importantly, the extent of cellular damage correlated with the expression level of the lncRNA of interest. In conclusion, we demonstrated in primary JMML cell cultures that knockdown of overexpressed lncRNAs such as lnc-THADA-4, lnc-ACOT9-1 and NRIR may be a feasible therapeutic strategy